Stardate: [20JAN3312]

Commander: [Dustin Echoes.]

Ship: [ES-001 Flowers for Algernon]

System: [Colonia]

I suppose before anything a brief explanation is warranted. The Outlander Challenge, as it has been so named, has a long and storied history dating back to the founding of Colonia circa 3302. It involved taking a Sidewinder, the ship all independent Commanders start with, all the way from the bubble of civilization to Colonia, a pocket of human life some twenty thousand light years from Sol. Once there, the commander was to earn 1,000,000 credits in the Colonia region to earn their title. In its current iteration, folded into the 3rd Distant Worlds Expedition, it's closer to an endurance race. One week. No shortcuts except the ones you make yourself.

This is the version of the challenge that I have undertaken in my Sidewinder, Flowers for Algernon. She boasts an impressive-for-her-class 47ly of jump range fully laden, with an auxiliary 2t fuel tank for a total of 4t. This was achieved via the traditional downsizing and D-rating of all non-essential components, an FSD Booster, and one of the newer SCO-capable frame shift drives pulled from AX work during the Cocijo campaign. Nothing exotic beyond that.

Now that I've completed the journey from the launch site in NGC 1981 Sector ZU-Y d27 to Colonia, I finally have the space of mind to write about it. (I've found that vocal transcription leads to emergency dropping inside a star's exclusion zone).

I will be first to admit that when I set off 2 days ago that I had begun to believe such an attempt was folly, and doubted I would have the wherewithal to make such a trip in a week, let alone in a ship that couldn't even crest a 50ly jump range. Unusual for me, to be sure. Launching from the Distant Worlds Headquarters, I deliberately missed any of the organized mass jumps to get a head start on my journey. I had made sure beforehand that any replacement modules or ships were loaded on board the DSEV Distant Suns and DSEV Odysseus, so I had no reason to linger. It was a bit of a shaky start; I hadn't taken the damn thing for a test run in the months I had to prepare for the trip. She got awful hot awfully fast, and with a scoop rate of only 75kg/s for a 4t tank, she overheated nearly ever star I scooped early on, burning through heatsinks faster than planned. Figures I would've forgotten to bring my power plant to an engineer.

Sooner or later it became clear I would run out of heatsinks before I ran out of space, so I switched strategies. I dusted off some grey-market route plotting software I had injected into my ships' computer and routed myself to the nearest neutron star. Most explorers know the trick: ride the jet cone, fling yourself across the void. Tosses you around like a bat out of hell, and stay in there too long and your ship will rattle to pieces, though not before you're cooked alive. After a few seconds, the software notified me via COVAS that I had succeeded.

Now to repeat this process over again. Manually target the next neutron in the Galmap, jump, repeat. You'd think that after going to the trouble of writing invasive software to allow you to route yourself between neutron stars, you would be able to take the next step to make the ship bring you there, not just leave it a glorified spreadsheet. After a few thousand light years, I went to repair my FSD module with a spare AFMU I had installed. Lo and behold, I find to my horror a 1C Bi-Weave shield in its place. My FSD was down to 83% integrity. That's above the point of random failure, but any further travel along the neutron highway would damage it beyond that. So, back to the sane way. Slow, but safe. At least I was only ~4,000 ly away from Rohini, my decided-upon halfway point.

Upon reaching Rohini, I took the time to refit my ship properly. With an AFMU in place of my shield, I covered another ~8,000 ly via neutron. Eventually I realized that I had no way to refill its repair capacity once it was spent. After the last full repair cycle, I resigned myself to make the remaining jumps the old-fashioned way. about 200 of them, give or take. A multi-hour slog took up almost the entire day, after which I gave up. Colonia was within reach, and the 97% integrity of my FSD meant finishing the remainder via neutron-jumping would not pose any risk. I arrived in-system to little fanfare docking at Jaques, which suited me fine. I saw few other Commanders around, though many were Outlanders like myself. My lone encounter en route had been in a neutron system, a wayfarer in an antique Cobra, though they did not respond to hails, jumping out before I could catch their name. Typical behavior from those of our kind, though their choice of ship was unusual.

Since I've arrived well within the one-week schedule, I'll have to find something to do in this backwater. Thanks to my uh, prior experiences, it shouldn't be much trouble. I'm used to living in places like this, outside the watchful eyes and ears of those with more power than they need. Perhaps I'll try to curry favor with the engineers out here.

End log.

Stardate: [30MAR3311]

Commander: Dustin Echoes.

Ship: [HC-293 Free Market]

System: [Ngobe]

Affiliation: [Foxtrot Crew]

06:50 UTC-6: Early Wakeup. Fell asleep in the captain's chair last night. Everything hurts. Quick stop through the galley for coffee and whatever fancy new kelp protein cubes are all the rage these days, before heading to the observation deck aboard the DW Foxtrot (RZY-N8L), where I docked the night before in anticipation of the day ahead of me.

0800: Our activation window has been pushed back, Stage 1 is progressing slower than expected.

0815: Breakfast served aboard FC Foxtrot. More kelp, great. Is it really this hard to get a proper meal only a few hundred LY from Sol?

0820: CMDR Pseudo6066, Captain of DW Foxtrot, suggested a race to Ngobe B10 and back while waiting from news from Command. I figured I'd have a better chance with a faster ship than the old Type 9, reliable as she is. Broke out the Cobra MkV speedboat I had transferred to Foxtrot on a whim last evening. She's a beaut—full chrome paintjob with custom cesium-burning thrusters for purple afterburners.

0824: Race is a go. Good lord I love whatever Achilles Aerospace did to optimize these newer ships in SCO.

0826: Made it around Ngobe B10. Somehow I think I wasn't the first one there.

0828: Accidentally engaged an emergency SC drop in my hurry to get back to Foxtrot. Great, there goes any chance of first.

0830: Flew too close to Ngobe A1 and dropped. Again. Wonderful.

0831: Figured I might as well buzz the observation deck considering there wasn't a chance of winning anymore. Think I saw someone spill their coffee. CMDR Zulu Romeo got this one.

0832: Command gave us our destination, FC Foxtrot spooling for Synuefe JH-U C19-6 in T-16 minutes

0854: Arrival in-system. Orders are to load up on cargo at the Stutz Bearcat 1914. We're moving as part of Stage 2 of the operation, starting on system #7

0900: Good ol' hurry up and wait. FCs Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie still haven't finished Stage 1. Lots of us just floating around a few km off of Bearcat's deck. They've been keeping us in the dark for "Operational Security" so I still don't think anyone really knows what's going on.

1001: Logistical miscommunication! Pseudo thought we were going on #7, turns out we were supposed to have gone on #6. Well, better strap in for an immediate jump to witchspace.

1008: Took two jumps to get to #6, Synuefe NN-S c10-11. By the time I got there the outpost had been completed. More waiting until system 7 is revealed.

1012: #7 HIP 26436 Beacon Deployed. Jumping. Got there in time to see the SCS arrive in-system. Gave it several hundred tons of steel and left for resupply.

1025: Volunteer Supply Carrier Gunboat Diplomat out of mats. MFOB Raijingudon next. #7 Outpost complete.

1027: System #8 revealed, Synuefe UZ-M b40-3. Loaded up with the last of Bearcat's titanium stores.

1032: COVAS warning: there's a pirate in system. Great. Aaand he interdicts me. Luckily I know a thing or two about a hasty exit.

1035: Arrive at SCS and deliver goods. No more titanium needed and I'm still half full. This is moving quicker than I think anyone expected.

1045: System 9 revealed: Synuefe RT-O b39-3

1051: Beacon deployed, SCS inbound 3 minutes

1053: Command has authorized a VC for Foxtrot Crew if we can complete System 12 by 1720 UTC (in 45 minutes)

1057: Outpost finished, in ONE MINUTE. Hot damn. That's how we do things around here.

1101: #10 Synuefe PY-O b39-1

1115: #10 Complete

1120: Looks like we won't be getting a comms channel. Claim bottlenecking pushed our speed below optimal times. #11 revealed.

1124: SCS drops in orbit of a ringed gas giant, of course. And a thousand light-seconds away. Huge system though—45 bodies. At least the views are nice.

1132: Didn't get there in time, so my hold is still full to the brim with steel. Outpost has been sitting at 94% for a few minutes now.

1134: We were promised a break after this, but we have to pick up Alpha crew's slack after a delay in resupply. Now I have to jump to Synuefe GR-S b37-4. Lucky me I have enough fuel to make it in 3 jumps.

1136: CMDR Earthserpent blew up. Seems like an FC got him for pad loitering.

11:51: We got placed on standby here while we assist with outpost #12. Assisting Alpha Crew has led to a slight delay in our resupply.

1159: Watched some errant CMDR get rammed by a SCS as it jumped into #12. Looks like their shields held.

1202: Headed back to Foxtrot, the SCS got filled too fast for me to deliver my cargo.

1208: Docked at Foxtrot, time to stretch my legs and grab some lunch. Protein bars still taste better than kelp protein mush.

1212: Foxtrot jump scheduled back to resupply system, 22 min till lockdown.

1220: Command authorized Foxtrot Crew to communicate in voice channels because we're clearly better than the other crews.

1307: Command orders immediate return to FC Foxtrot from depot resupply missions.

1401: Stage 4 underway, waiting for claim #18 to start hauling again.

1430: WE RIDE! #18 underway

1500: Outpost 18 complete, 19 at Synuefe YE-Y c17-12

1501: SCS arrived 142,000 ls away from main star, clearly this is a conspiracy to slow Foxtrot down.

1504: On 10% fuel reserves. Important Lesson: Type Nines are NOT SCO optimized, you WILL run out of fuel if you're not careful. At least it got me to 4 minutes away.

1508: Might be wise to call the Fuel Rats in advance, as our whole crew is draining our fuel reserves rapidly.

1520: CMDR Zorya Hopper blacked out on the way to the SCS, and woke up landed on a planet in another system. Raxxla, perhaps?

1542: Skipped a few updates, but system #21 just had a beacon dropped. Synuefe MC-A b34-4.

1545: Time for me to quit for the day. Seven hours of cargo hauling is my limit. The rest of Foxtrot Crew made it to system #23 two hours later, before calling it a day. I left the Free Market on board the Foxtrot and took a trip back to Bletii for the evening. Good day altogether, certainly made by the people rather than my cargo. Steel isn't a very interesting conversationalist.

CMDR Dustin Echoes, signing off.