Entry 0009 - Dirty Work for the Mob

CMDRs Log
15 Jan 3303

So, according to some sources, the best pack of engineers out there are attached to some, uh, less than savory folk, and they won't even let you talk to their low-grade wrench bender unless you're in their good graces, so it looks like I'll be doing some dirty work. Time to break out the business.

Sex on...wings?

Pulse lasers like a disco, and a shiny new Class-4 (HUGE) Multi-Cannon. The CHUKKA-CHUKKA-CHUKKA on this thing is real satisfying. Also, nothing that big should track on a gimbal that fast. So good.

So yeah, the unsavory folk have me knocking out power stations across about a 20 lightyear bubble. If you're planetside within a few hops of...Let's say Scylla, well, you should probably take a vacation off-world.

Speaking of Scylla. Y'all need a better system with some closer planets. For Serious.

I ain't gettin' paid enough for this.

CMDR Aubrey Herreshoff,
Signing off.

 == EOT ==

Entry 0008 - Back in the Bubble

CMDR's Log
 15 Jan 3303

Well, that didn't go as planned. There I was, all camped out on some unnamed rock, and I get a long-distance communication from a voice from my past. One of my old hunting buddies tells me he's getting the wing back together. Big, easy money he tells me. Come on back to Imperial space (Hail the Empress, long may she reign), and we'll blast some 'criminals' to dust and reap some mad bounties.

 So, around I turn, and head back for the tiny bubble of civilization. I dump the Diamondback in the garage, and ask "What are folks hunting in these days?"

"You better start off in a Vulture or something, buddy. The criminals have upped their game, and I'd hate to see you drop 5 Mil on an insurance claim on your first day back."

So, that would have been some useful information before I hauled my backside through 3000 light years of nothingness.

No sooner than we got out to our old hunting grounds around HIP 20277 and blasted a couple marks, we have to split and dock up for some rack time.

Hoo. He wasn't kidding. Even the cobras and iEagles were tougher than I remember. Maybe I'm rusty. Maybe I'm old. Maybe Trayce is right, and the arms race has taken a jump. Either way, I think I'm going to have to get out to some of these engineers I've been hearing about, and trick out the old FDL.

Keep yer nose clean.

CMDR Aubrey Herreshoff,
Signing off.

 == EOT ==

Entry 0007 - What is COL 70?

CMDR's Log
13 Sep 3302

So here I am, enjoying the view, getting ready to blast past Barnard's Loop, and finally set my sights on the outer rim.

I am going to miss views like this.

When my nav computer starts puking on every route I try to plot toward the rim. Every plot, "Plot failed." After some poking around, slowly backing my route length up by hundreds of light years at a time, I found out that the sector directly between Nehet and the outer rim, by way of the far side of Barnard's Loop is called COL 70. Every system I checked in COL 70 is restricted. You need a permit. A permit that's not recorded in my nav computer. The nav won't even think about setting a route to or through anything in that sector.

Usually, you'll see a message saying "Sol permit required" or "Acheron permit required". Those, I get. This is "Unknown permit required." That is some shady, hinky stuff right there.

Conspiracy theories aside, it looks like I'm going to have to backtrack a bit. I've made that turn to starboard a little earlier than I expected, along with a pull up toward what we usually call the North of the disc, to try and miss COL 70 by way of COL 69.

The shape of frustration.

On the upside, COL 69 showed me my first white star in a while. Yellow was getting pretty boring.

It's the little things.

Anyway, I've set down on a little rock to stretch out, get some shuteye, and try and sleep off the frustration of this minor setback. Hopefully, the next transmission will be from a good chunk more rimward than I am now.

Nighty night.

CMDR Aubrey Herreshoff,
Signing off.

== EOT ==

Entry 0006 - Can't see the nebula for the trees

CMDR's Log
12 Sep 3302

Waving goodbye to the Witch Head, I plotted the next leg of my journey. 20 hops and about 460 lightyears V417 Orionis, deep in the guts of the Orion Nebula.

Busy Neighborhood

The flight out there was fairly monotonous. Yellow star after Yellow star, but the view kept getting better.

Yes.

And better.

Oh yes.

But then, I got to my next destination, and it was...underwhelming.

Wait, what?

It turns out that the insides of nebulae tend to be full of very (relatively) thick, opaque dust, and it tends to obscure pretty much everything further away than your windscreen. Lesson learned. Nebulae are prettiest at about 100 lightyears.

Or a few hundreds

CMDR Aubrey Herreshoff,

Signing off.

== EOT ==

Entry 0005a - Supplemental

CMDR's Log - Supplemental
11 Sep 3302

In reviewing my notes and camera footage from the day, I remembered a sobering discovery from the Asterope system. My navigation computer pinged to notify me of the presence of a degraded signal source, deep in the system.

What's this?

 I went to investigate. The computer calculated a low chance of threat (don't ask me how it does that. Probably some kind of algorithm or methodology or something), so I decided to drop out of supercruise. What I found was not especially fun.

Wreckage

What you're seeing there is most likely the wreckage of a deep-space explorer. They might have been on their way out, but considering they had a big stack of survey data, ready for delivery, they were probably on their way back in. This just makes my stupid oversight in Stuve's Lost Sector hit even harder. 

If I want to make it back to Nehet, I'd better stay frosty.

CMDR Aubrey Herreshoff,

Signing off.

== EOT ==

Entry 0005 - Witch Head Nebula

CMDR's Log
11 Sep 3302

It's been a relatively exciting few hours. I bounced briefly through the Taurus Dark Sector, a many-lightyears-wide region of thick, opaque dust. From Kamadhenu or Achenar, it just looks like a starless blotch, but from inside, well, it looks like a blotch with no stars outside.

Not the greatest postcard

Even the brilliant Pleiades nebula, with all its blue stars and gold and green gases looks muted from only a couple dozen lightyears away. I don't know what I was expecting when I went somewhere called a "Dark Region", but now I know. 

From the Taurus Dark Region, I plotted the next stop in my sightseeing adventure, I mean contracted surveying mission.

Headed for the Witch Head

The Witch Head Nebula is the first stop in a very gassy, star-rich neighborhood, sharing space with the Orion Nebula, Barnard's Loop, and the horsehead nebula. About 20 hops and 520 lightyears should find me some lovely views.

Hopefully not of fiery doom

But not before a fuel scooping run goes wrong. This is what happens when you have a lapse in concentration and your Frame Shift Drive thinks maybe you shouldn't be going close to light speed near a star. It smashes the brakes and you go from a fraction of C to a couple hundred meters a second in the blink of an eye. Beside the gut-wrenching deceleration (thank goodness for inertial dampers), you often end up in a hell of a spin, which takes a few long seconds for your thrusters to overcome. It's jarring for the pilot, and what's worse, for the ship. The computer tells me I took a hit to my hull integrity. I do some more of these, and my trip is cut short, possibly very, explodingly short.

Anyway, the trip to the Witch Head has been pretty beautiful. Some good scans, some beautiful white stars, and some motivation to give the camera drones a whirl. Check out this view:

Oh, that's lovely, that is.

Watching that gorgeous stack of nebulae getting closer with every hop was a very nice diversion from a long string of yellow stars in my face. Every time I wrapped a fuel run, I'd point the nose into the black, and, once my solar filters cleared up, I'd have a view like this waiting for me. Fantastic.

Finally, I found myself in the Witch Head Nebula proper, and decided to give the landing gear a stretch. I set down on a little moon, close to its arctic daylight terminator. You really can't ask for a better bedroom wall than this:

Nighty night

Next stop: Orion, Barnard, and Horsehead.

Entry 0004 - Goodbye Pleiades

CMDR's Log
09 Sep 3302

I wrapped up my little pilgrimage to the Pleaides. Saw six of the seven sisters, and even visited Titan and Pleione. Merope was interesting. Partly for the star, and her several concurrent flares:

Good show

But mostly for who was in the neighborhood. While scanning Merope 1B for useful minerals, I found something interesting in my nav computer:

Hello, who's this?

I decided, probably foolishly, to take a closer look. I dropped out of supercruise to find this:

Pictured: One nope.

That is a Farragut-Class capital ship. One of the Federation's finest. I, being an Imperial-registered CMDR and sworn to the service to the Empress, Arissa Levigny Duval, long may she reign, I pulled the hardest 180 my little DBX could manage, and got right out of town. I relayed the ship's position to all the proper channels, and beat a quick FSD hop to Titan, hoping to put enough lightyears between me and the cruiser's support ships to be worth a chase.

I'm plotting a course for a quick bounce off the Taurus Dark Region before my next real stop: The Witch Head Nebula. Another Entry when I get there.

CMDR Aubrey Herreshoff,

Signing off.

== EOT ==