CMDR H of the Woods’ logbook, June 3309
Do you know what’s even more exhilarating than canyon running?
Canyon running in my exploration ship full of exobiological data worth dozens of millions. I obviously didn’t go as fast as I would with the Eagle, but I found some nice canyons to play in for a bit.
4th June 3309
SUMMANUS A3
Watched a total eclipse that happened to be occurring just as I approached body A3.
Overheated and passed out, but must have managed to get myself back to the safety of my ship before getting toasted to a crisp.
Landed on A2, climbed a mountain to go look at A3, then raced 1.30km back to the ship before the star rose, because I didn’t feel like trying my luck again and didn’t want to risk overheating again so soon. Will have to take it easy for the next couple of days, getting almost cooked in my suit was rather unpleasant.
[There is also a timelapse video of the eclipse on my YT channel here]
Ran some quick delivery missions and visited the Daunting Hammer, a megaship located in a system also featuring a ringed ammonia world. This might be the first time one of these.
9th June 3309
GAT 1373 A1A
This system has a white dwarf that is visible from the moon I landed on to pick up some plant samples. I can’t quite see the jet cones from here, which is probably a good thing. I am not sure just how much radiation my suit can handle but I doubt it was designed to withstand that kind of thing.
Found a ship crash site. Seemed recent, there was still smoke coming from what seems to have once been a Viper. The worst part in this was finding the pilot’s body, someone called Conrad Lynn. No idea where to even start looking to identify and notify his next of kin.
21st June 3309
PLEIADES SECTOR OI-T C3-7
The Pleiades nebula has been calling my name for a while and it’s now getting bigger and bigger in the sky. I made a halt in 48 Epsilon Arietis, where I landed on a moon (4B) with a lovely view of a gas giant and the blue supergiant. The past 10 days or so have been mostly uneventful and I found myself more tired than usual, so I’ve spent a good part of my time just resting in my ship and preparing for the next jump.
This system I am in has Thargoid-related signals. I hesitated for a while before getting any closer, but curiosity got the upper hand. I found something like... big barnacles, surrounded by a green cloud. And it made... sounds. I am unsure what it is, but it is unlike any other organic life form I’ve seen before.
Also. There’s a listening post in this system. So my short-term objective is to visit the other two systems it references, triangulate them, and get to the bottom of this.
Been exploring around this system, where I found one other listening post related to the one I visited the other day. And a port called The Oracle, as a reference to some ancient Earth myth. Found a lot of crashed Thargoid ships here with apparently active (and toxic) sensors. I’ve seen these before, but it was only just one. These wrecks had so many! It’s also interesting seeing a Thargoid ship like this from up close. Those things are large.
Speaking of seeing them up close... I met a Basilisk. A living one. It didn’t even attack me, but scanned me and I managed to get close enough to scan it too. Then it seemed to shift its attention to the debris field around us. I can’t quite tell if it was analysing it or picking up parts. And then, just like that, it left. I wonder if that human ship got blown up by Thargoids? Maybe this one was just a scavenger? Who knows.
25th June 3309
One of the many Pleiades Sector systems I’ve been visiting
Still hunting for whatever location those listening posts were referring to. Triangulating the data is difficult and time-consuming, I’m finding myself jumping and hoping for the best, knowing that I must be roughly in the right area. But I will get there.
HIP 17000
This system didn’t have the signal I was looking for, but do you know what I found? A black hole. Lined up with the nebula, it made for a pretty unique spectacle.
Finally found it. Approached the coordinates I had gathered from the listening posts. I almost turned around and left when I saw a shipwreck shrouded in a green cloud, but I didn’t go through all of this jumping around for nothing. Found out from the log uplink what happened to this young, overly confident pilot who thought it would be a good idea to try and shoot down a Thargoid vessel. It didn’t end well for him.
It didn’t end well for me, either.
First, I almost boosted into the planet upon approach, because my hand twitched when I wanted to switch fire groups and scan the wreck.
And then... a Thargoid showed up. I wanted to get closer and scan it, but I must have got too close. Suddenly, my shields were down. Less than 5 seconds later, before I even had time to try to boost away, my poor Elmwing’s hull cracked and the automated safety protocols were triggered. I woke up aboard a fleet carrier I had docked at earlier today. Good thing I had at least sold my biological samples!
[Once I had respawned, I flew back to the site and waited for the Thargoid to come back and just waved at it. We had a much friendlier, or at least, less hostile, interaction.]
There wasn’t much left for me to do there, and the escape pod I had picked up was lost with my ship... I can only hope it survived the explosion. Made my way to Taygeta. Picked up the signal of another black box. Dropped in and found myself face to face (sort of) with another Thargoid. A Cyclops, this time. Everything was going well, and then it felt like it was looking at me wrong, and those little drones around it started to gnaw on my hull. I hadn’t even turned my shields on! Thankfully, I was able to turn around, boost, pop a heat sink, boost away again, engage my FSD and escape with 62% hull. Phew!
There is another listening post here, with new coordinates. Along with some high gravity bodies that I want to try to land on, just for the experience...
Travelled 20LY so I could be sure to sell my exploration data before attempting a high-G landing. Not that I had much to sell, after the incident with the Thargoid, but just to be safe. That's all I wanted to do here for now. Turns out, this system has two listening posts, unrelated to the one in Taygeta. So that's now 3 stories for me to follow, 3 mysteries to investigate... And who knows what else I'm going to find!
