Departing Pallaeni

Departure from the Pallaeni system was initiated with a maximum range jump to avoid the opportunistic pilots whose greedy eye’s were firmly placed on the Hutton Orbital rare goods in the cargo bay. Having successfully completed the first jump, after a prolonged exit from hyperspace, the navigation systems were reset to use economical jump range route plotting mechanism to scan the systems which other explorers would miss with their longer range capable ships and navigation. The increased jump range technologies and modifications available in 3305 offer explorers significant freedoms in how they can explore the galaxy. Essentially I have the best of both worlds, as it were. I can choose to catalog those systems other commanders pass by and make those first discoveries, or cross wide expanses which were previously unattainable.

The ship systems settle into the rhythm that comes with jump, pulse, scoop and scan with the occasional staccato interjected when mapping a planet of great interest. This routine continues until arrival at HR6164, at which time it’s time to start traversing the path less traveled. Adjusting the navigation system of the Anaconda to plot course straight below it’s current location, the FSD spools up to make a series of maximum (un-boosted) range jumps, arriving between 500 and 1,000 light years below the galactic plane. Once again reverting to economical jump ranges, a course is laid in which follows a consistent level beneath the galactic plane until such a time as the next expedition point of interest is overhead; at which point another series of long range jumps are made to return the plane of the main expedition. This pattern repeats itself until waypoint two is upon us.

Each system the ‘Inquisitive Surveyor’ passes through is handled with equal merit, and every astronomical body is scanned including the overlooked elements such as asteroid belts. For the purpose of mapping planets, priority is given to earth-like worlds, water worlds, ammonia worlds, and rocky or high metal content worlds that are rich in geological or biological resources to restock expedition supplies.

On January 15th 3305 we arrive at HR6164 and the navcom bleeps to notify the flight deck of an official tourist beacon in the system. Some of the crew have heard tale of ‘The View’ and express a desire to go see it; but after doing some back of the napkin calculations factoring in the 3.3G high gravity surface, we abandon the idea due to concerns that even the engineered 5D thrusters on the Anaconda will not prevent significant hull and module damage and lead to the early termination of the expedition for this particular crew. However all is not lost as planet ‘ABC 2 a’ proves to have an abundance of biological and geographical surface sources which are home to many rarer grade materials. Before we know it, a full day has past scavenging the various locations and the crew decides to press ahead with the expedition, but not before making a carefully controlled fly by of the private tourist installation adjacent to the third star in the system – a neutron star. While the location and view are spectacular, no-one aboard this exploration vessel is naive enough to think that the tourist installation wasn’t towed in place or built at this location with a notable loss of life resulting for maneuvering in close proximity to the gravitational forces or the neutron star.

As we progress along the route of notable points of interest the decision is made to drop to sub-light speeds to fully appreciate the beauty of the double ringed earth-like world in the Blu Thua GI-B b55-2 system. What a rare marvel it is to behold. However no sooner had we arrived it was time to press on to ensure a timely arrival at he second official waypoint.

The remaining points of interest are visited in quick succession, with appropriate time for awe and reverence of the nature’s destructive forces circling the event horizon of the Black Hole at Thor’s Eye. We arrive at Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15 on January 20th 3305, some two days after the start of a Pilots Federation event to collect materials to build an outpost near the galactic core. The mining outpost is bustling with activity and we dock long enough to sell any exploration data which has been acquired along the route. Departing quickly in order to not impede the mining prowess of many members of the expedition, the crew commit proposals to paper and place them into a remlock helmet to determine the course of action for the remainder of fleet mining endeavor and a short list of exploration goals is devised for the week ahead.