These logs are seperate from the other logs below, as the entries are from different points in the main story. The Arrow logs do end at about the time the Planets update came out.

Starship Log
-----------------

In the sector I live in, it's getting crowded. I can't go 10 km without getting either raided by pirates or getting drafted by the local military fleet into performing some "duty" for them to counter the pirates.

I just want to find a nice rock, plant down a base and settle down. Not go after pirates who evade the military at every turn.

So I'm just going to leave the populated space and go somewhere far out. WAY far out.
How far? I have no idea.

I have built an Arrow class ship, and hired a military ship to escort me to the edge of the densely packed space.
Resources are almost never a problem as most hired ships here share resources and are stocked to the brim with them.

I'll keep this log to maintain my progress in this sector.

---

My hired ship has departed back to populated space, and I am finally on my own. Before he left, he told me about the "Diary of a Space Drifter" and how he traveled for months on end until he reached a habitable planet. He kept a log of also how far he traveled. I think I will as well, it will help me also in determining how far I need to go before getting comfortable on some asteroid.

The planetoid in this system is already full of people and is almost impossible to land on unless you have military clearance or you manage to sneak in very VERY carefully. So, I'm definitely NOT going there. I'm going as far as I can go. Or more.

A couple people in this sector have already gone out into deep space, the farthest I know of went about 700km out before he was satisfied with an asteroid he could land on and not be found. Far as I know, he's still there.

---

151,223m

Although I am out of the most densely populated region of space, there are still ships flying around here. I've seen at least a dozen in the past 15 minutes.

Think of where I am as a city. I'm way out from the downtown area, but I'm only in the suburbs and can still see the downtown traffic zooming by.

---

198,985m

I think someone is following me.
I hope it's not pirates chasing me down for my resources.

-

Someone was following me. Thankfully it was one of my friends who knew this sector well (we usually travel together in this server. Strength in numbers I guess). He has his own modified military ship.

So now I won't be alone in my journey, and nor will he.

---

384,576m

Today my friend lost his mind and thought he could do a power-slide around an asteroid with his bulky ship. (-_-)

After he lost control of his ship and crashed into the asteroid, I (eventually) let him aboard my ship.
I've made some modifications onboard my own ship to accommodate him, not sure how long the oxygen will last with 2 people aboard, but I'll find out.

Uranium is never a problem aboard. I've got over 20 days worth if I keep refinery use to a minimum. I've got enough components to last me a long time in case I need to make repairs. God knows I'll make a few.

---

705,430m

I'm writing this as my buddy sleeps in the Cyropod. I had to put a piece of metal on the corner of the pod so I don't bump the control for it. He's installed some nice curtains in front of our bunk since the light from the nearby star always seems to refract throughout the ship. I think it makes the ship glow inside and I find it pretty. He doesn't.
Oh well.

---

730,650m

We've removed the large storage container in the rear of our ship and turned it into a utility area where we can clean up the dust and debris that gets caught on our suit. I'd never have to worry about it before, I always woke up to a fresh suit while I was part of the fleet.
We put some smaller storage containers down so that we can still store my components so we can repair the ship, although it has less storage space than before. I'll have to be more careful. I don't want to have to run into a issue and not be able to repair because I've run out of parts.

We haven't run into a single derelict yet. Nearly a thousand kilometers and nothing. I half expected to run into the Military fleet as I am still quite inside their space. Their ships run around their space like ants in a colony.
It's too quiet.

---

783,810m

Today a comet passed through the system, it shined so beautifully, I wish I had woken my friend to see it, but I was too awestruck by it.

When on a planet, the atmosphere tends to dim any light coming from space. Including comets. However, here in space, I could see the comet shining brightly from quite a distance away. Leaving me with nearly an hour of beauty passing by. I wish I woke up my friend for this...

And now it's time to pay the piper...
The passing comet caused a problem for me in this system, the debris off the comet flew everywhere in the tails' path, leaving me with a hail storm of dust. Thankfully, I managed to hole up in a nearby asteroid. Although I could still hear the dust raining on the asteroid, sounding almost just like hail. I haven't heard the sound of rain for years.

---

804,450m

I just passed a long range marker buoy. It had a message aboard: "You have reached the end of [Redacted]'s Space.
Any hope you have you better have brought it with you. For nothing lies beyond here but space."

Well. that explains a lot. No derelicts because most were salvaged while inside that guy's space, I think this is the same person who went the farthest out into deep space.

Well sir, I just broke your record.

---

816,229m

Came across my first derelict today. Not a bad ship. It's a small fighter, but it had a good amount of resources aboard. I salvaged it's uranium and the components it had stowed on it. Then, I proceeded to grind half of it to bits.

I asked myself why I did it later.
Why? Because WHY NOT?

At least it was a good haul.

---

868, 246m

Today, I scanned and almost knew that I would not find any derelicts in range. But low and behold: one stationary large. To my big surprise it's a great relic from the old NASA days. which is an incredible find. Especially in this system. There is a name plate on board it: "Horizon". I look back into the history logs. Apparently, the Horizon ship set out toward a nearby star, Gleise 489. However, it was lost. Either due to power failure, or malfunction.
No one bothered looking for it because everyone thought it had been lost for good and would be too difficult to find,

Well, it was a failure alright, a failure to predict getting slammed on by a small meteor. The meteor teared off the command module, which included the only antenna facing home. Other than that, the ship was perfectly intact, minus some damage due to the comet debris from earlier. I've constructed a navigation beacon with the parts I grabbed from the derelict fighter so that at least someone will find it again, and tell a museum about this. Heck knows I can't use it's parts, they are nearly a hundred years outdated, and the hull is saturated with radiation from
the galactic wind, but it would be a great attraction at some museum once the parts are cleaned of radiation.
I don't have the equipment onboard for building a radiation scrubber, and I doubt I would get every nook and cranny of that ship. Too bad my friend was asleep for this. He would have been so excited. Thankfully, I took a picture of it and hung the image on the wall near my control station.

Now I can always see the Horizon. (God that was an awful pun)

---

1,000,000m ~ 1,000km (Changing to kilometers from now on)

A thousand kilometers. That's a new one for me. I have gone way beyond any person in the sector to date, most try to say within 10 km area around the main planetoid, but I have traveled further. So much further. No turning back anytime soon. Hmmm, I think I should write a speech.


This is the voyage of the Arrow.
It's endless mission, to explore strange new asteroids.
To seek out new derelicts and new shiny planets.
I am going where no one has gone before.

===

1,523 km

Came across a pair of derelicts, the first one was an outdated little repair ship. No oxygen aboard. The second was a larger ship. A Light Destroyer. It had more than 12 missile turrets, "Light destroyer" my a$$. No ship I ever built could withstand it. Both had pretty good hauls aboard them, nothing I need for the moment, so I'm disassembling them so I can at least re-purpose their materials later.

(These are probably the first KEEN derelicts I've come across, all the others were built by other people in the server._

---

1,942km

Came across another pair of derelicts. The first was a heavy fighter. It looked mean bristling with all the heavy weaponry. The second was a mining ship, good resources aboard. Lots of ingots, and curiously the largest stash of gold ore ingots I have ever seen.

Either must have been a millionaire, or loved making computer parts and ran out of silicon. I'm thinking millionaire.

---

2,026km

2 thousand kilometers. Quite the distance for me. Still not as far as that Space Drifter went, but I feel a sense of accomplishment from this. My friend has decided to disembark on the next derelict we pass, as he feels he has gone far enough.

I for one am not stopping anytime soon.

---

2,470km

I've decided to add a Hydroponics cage onto my ship. Managed to get some seeds from a nearby derelict. It was a colony ship, probably had over 50 aboard. However, a problem with the life support left harmful radiation from the engine core build up. They went to sleep one night, and never woke up again. Thankfully, most of the storage bays were unaffected, and I got some good resources. There were a lot of medical supplies, but in bay 2, the entire room was filled top to bottom with seeds. So many kinds of plants. I got some green onions, some beans, there were even flowering plants there. Got some pretty rhododendrons as well. And then there was a tiny box, had this little inscription on it: "For Sarah, who always loved the warm sands". A tiny cactus plant. I'm putting right next to my control station so it gets all the light from the stars I pass.

I'm sorry you never got to see your world, Sarah, but at least your little cactus will.

---

2,672km

I can't sleep. I don't know why. It's getting more difficult as my journey continues.

---

2,903km

Woke up today bewildered as I went to my control station to find I was not moving. I look around and see a docking clamp has latched onto my ship. I look out the window to see a massive ship. More massive than I have ever seen. I quickly get on the radio and ask who is there and why they have attached me to their ship. I get no answer. A data packet comes in a few minutes later though. I've been picked up by a massive salvaging ship. It sends its apologies and asks that I keep my comm open from now on.

Seconds later, the ship detaches me and flies off. I would have wanted to see who was aboard the ship. At least ask if I could stay a few days.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

---

3,000km

3 thousand kilometers. Damn. How far will I go? How far can I go? Will I stop soon? Will I ever stop?
These questions are aching in my head as I try to sleep.

---

3,051km

Today I woke up to see a gas giant out of the cockpit window. I change to course to avoid getting caught in it's gravity field, and try to swing around it. After slingshotting around the planet an hour or so later, I see the binary stars lighting up a small moon. It doesn't look like it has any atmosphere, thousands of craters cover it's surface. Likely from asteroids caught in the gas giant's gravity. It's quite the sight to see.

---

3,346km

I spent over a day asleep in my cyropod. Apparently a solar flare had interrupted my 8 hour beauty rest in my pod and reset the clock on it. Now I'm more hungry then ever. Thankfully that colony ship I had passed had plenty of food onboard, and I stocked up. Never thought I'd be so happy to eat freeze-dried green beans.

I'll have to attach a magnetic shield film to the cockpit window to keep this from happening again. The hull can take it, but solar flare electrons can get through my cockpit window more easily than I had thought. Perhaps it's because this ship isn't designed for long term voyages and is expected to be housed in a hanger every so often.

---

3,387km

While I was asleep yesterday, apperantly my ship did a slingshot around a rather large moon. I can see it behind my ship, it covers half the sky in my rear, and the endless stars to my front. I'm glad the Arrow knows how to pilot the ship without me.

Thanks buddy.

---

3,556km

Found a military derilect today with quite a boon. It had an advanced radar system onboard. My scanner is nice and all, but this radar could help me find derilects so much more easily. I've removed it as carefully as I could and installed it where my beacon was. It's working so far, but I'll have to be careful not to have it on all the time as it takes a lot of power to run. Takes a quarter out of my uranium to keep it running all the time. I'll have to use it sparingly.

---

Ship Log

This is the voyage of the Arrow.
Her endless mission,
to explore strange new asteroids.
To seek out new planets and new shiny derelicts.
I will boldly go where no one has gone before.
-------

0 km
I have rebuilt the Arrow after a tragic accident following her previous model. She was found by a group of military ships and scuttled for the parts, taking me aboard, while still asleep in my cyropod and all the way back to populated space.

I traveled all that distance for nothing. A f*cking waste.

So I will try again. A second chance. A second voyage.

Should be fun.

---

44km

I'm going to have to resupply soon. Something is eating up all my power. Not surprising for a new ship, but what the hey, I guess I'm used to having plenty of resources.
I'll try and stay in contact with the local network and send them my logs as one of the stations out there is recording the logs of ships. I'll send them a package of my log every so often until I get out of range.

So hello to whoever the h*ll is reading this. Expect more to come.

---

68 km

First derilect of my journey. The ID registers as the RAVEN. It has retractable landing gear controls, but the mechanisms are shot. No way they'll ever work again. She looks like she's designed for speed. Lots of large rear thrusters. Would be pretty darn fast. But with those landing gear controls all shot to hell, it would be a very shaky and very risky ride.

---

143 km

I think someone is following me. Again. And this time, I don't think it's a friendly ship. From what the camera shows, it's a mean looking ship bristling with weaponary. Sh*t. I hope I don't get raided.

---

208 km

I've had to divert my course to avoid the chaiser. I've found a almost stripped down asteroid and am now hiding inside it. I'll wait a an hour till he passes by. Then I'll continue my original course.

---

370 km

Something is causing the ship to vibrate. I found my welder had fallen off the shelf I installed earlier. I put it back, then when I came back later I found it had fallen again. I placed it back and watched it. It had slowly slid off the shelf due to the vibration. I better break out the duct tape.
(In reality, I think it is something to due to the DX11. I think it just can't register players journeying out so far like me)

---

422 km

Found a blown apart derelict today. I really want to go outside to get to it, but I mistakely lost my air bottle. F***. Now I can't go outside at all to get anything. This really pisses me off. I need silver. Just a little, then I can build a O2 bottle and get at that wreck. I'll find something.

I have sacrificed one of the lockers for the silver and have built an O2 bottle. And then I found an asteroid with a large patch of silver. God do I feel lucky for that. Now I can store my gear in the lockers again.

---

458 km

Sending another packet of data. Hope it reaches the relay.

---

791 km

I've upgraded the rear main thruster to a newer model. It has better thruster power without sacrificing reactor time. I hope it's worth it, it was a pain in the neck to install.

---

874 km

I'm almost out of range of the local communication array. I may put down a comm array for me to connect to so I can send these logs back to the main array.

I think I will. I'm going to find the nearest asteroid and start building. Shouldn't take too long.

I now realize I'm going to have to keep building comm arrays along my course. Hmm. I'll have to calculate the distance of where I need to put the arrays. Each array has a 500km range... so the next point I'll have to stop at is at a range of 1000 km. Then I can place them at 500 km ranges exactly.

---

1,000 km

Time to build my second array. Connecting the previous one to this one is going to be tricky though. It shouldn't be too hard though. All I have to do is make the previous array's reciever antenna to accept the new coordinates and HOPE is connects.

Here's hoping.

-

It works! Solid connection. It may be slow, but the data will reach it's destination at a reasonable time.

---

1,173 km

"I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas.", Carl Sagan

I've been listening to some of his audio books. Even though they are almost three quarters of a century old, they are still relevent even today.

---

1,316 km

I realized something today. If I ever find a planet I can land on, how will I land? The Arrow isn't a ship designed for atmospheric entry, nor does she have the proper gear to land.

Hmmm. I'll have to upgrade her eventually. If I can at least install enough armor on one side of the ship, I can at least survive re-entry, then I'll be able to "crash-land" safely enough. It'll be a one way flight though. So I'll have to make sure the planet I land on is viable for life. At least Earthly life.


Well, I certainly won't start working on the re-entry shield until I'm I know I'll have to build one. When I find a planet, I'll start working on an Azimuth type re-entry shield.

For now though, I have installed a landing foot. At least I'll be able to land on asteroids.

One step at a time, my friend.

---

1,545 km

I was building my third comm station when I encountered the Xenos Omphidium Frigate today. Damn, what a beast. So many missle launchers. I was running low on uranium today so I grabbed some from her, and she had plenty. This will keep me running for weeks. Hopefully, at least. If I don't smash into something or overload the reactors we should be fine.

I've also used this opportunity to build a re-entry pod. I have it attached to the bottom of my ship, so that when I find a suitable planet, I'll be able to deploy safely and possibly colonize it. Hopefully. It's only a quarter done so far, and the Frigate didn't have all the parts I needed.

It's been a good day.

---

1,728 km

Came across a Computer part factory today. I got a lot of work done on the Re-entry pod. Although, I am wary of the place. When I docked with it, the door was welded shut. I had to use my grinder on full power just to open it. I wondered why a factory would be so sealed up like that? Then when I went to a control station, everything suddenly came to life before my very eyes. The lights, the factory, the whole shebang.

It startled me greatly, but not as much as that I didn't even touch anything. No mechanism, no switches, not even a pressure plate and I even checked for one! Nothing.

Spooky, I thought. Then as I was was entering part requests into the assembler, I sometimes didn't get everything. A missing computer chip, or a missing display component. Then the assemblers refused to build anything at all.

I checked if the power systems had somethign to do with it, Nope. Has weeks of fuel.

Then I checked inventory. That wasn't it either.

What could cause the assemblers to suddenly refuse all input? Of course! There must be someone else here!

I looked all over the factory for someone else. There was no one. Then the bulkheads started shutting, one by one.

I barely made it to the docking arm. When I made it back outside, I re-welded the door shut. Then the factory shut down as quickly as it had turned on.

I am getting the f*** away from this haunted factory.

---

3,000 km

It's been a while since I wrote in my log. I guess I just haven't been feeling up to it. I've installed a shower onboard, even though it uses up a lot of my ice, it feels really good being under it.

I've built my 5th comm array, I've got connecting them down to a science by now, and I've got a storage container labeled just for storing the parts for building them. I just hope I didn't miscalculate the distance on one of them though. If I did, I won't be able to stay in contact with the relay station all that distance away.
I still don't even know if my logs are getting through.

Today I did find an interesting derilect though. It has a jump drive system, it's pretty neat. It's not quite the same as the standard FTL drive cage that I'm familiar with, so this one must be a newer model. Even though it is smaller than the FTL drive, there is no way I'd be able to attach it to my ship. God knows the power requirements alone would cripple my reactors.

So, I guess I'm stuck at sublight speeds. At least I'm in no hurry.

---

3,038 km

Found a couple of drone ships today. Although, they are almost completely innoperational. They were probably dumped off from a ship that had them but didn't have the time or resources to repair them. Personally, if I was them, I would have kept them with me until I could repair them. Although, I'm not them. I don't know their exact reasons for dumping these two drones.

---

3,428 km

I fell asleep at the helm last night and didn't realize we were coming up an a rogue planetoid until I was right on top of it. However, it's gravity pulled the Arrow down and I could not keep up with the pull with the main thruster.

Thankfully, I've managed to land the Arrow... mostly. We're sitting lopsided on a rocky hill with the airlock facing the ground. I lost the landing pod in the confusion though. It's debris is scattered around where I landed.

I'm going to have to build an escape thruster on the Arrow if I want to get out of this. However, being lopsided is going to make it difficult. I'll have to take it slowly.

All bad news aside, I have passed into a beautiful gas cloud. It's so pretty with shines of blue and white.

---

3,488 km

I've managed to scavenge what I could from the pieces of my re-entry pod.

Getting the Arrow off the planetoid was not easy though. I had to turn her onto her rear; which was extremly difficult with the gravity, so I could get the main thruster facing downward without causing too much damage in the process.

We got away with nothing more than a lost pod and a few dents and scratches, I think this has taught me more about how I am going to land on my chosen planet.

---

3,590 km

Woke up to a strange sight today. There was largo cargo container floating just outside my cockpit window. It had a sign on it:

FOR YOU, TRAVELER.
USE IT WELL.

Did someone send me a care package? Was this meant for someone else? I have no idea.

It's filled with all kinds of components and ores. The container was filled to the brim.
Whoever this was meant for, I'm glad it's here. I'm going to take as much as my cargo can hold.

Thank you, to whoever left this behind.

---

3,675 km

Encountered a Volunder Class cruiser today. Wonderfully equipped ship, I could take it for a good spin... but shes meant for a crew of 5, and I don't want to leave my Arrow.

Famous ship though. Went over 2000 kilometers on only 1 ingot on uranium. That crew knew how to use battery power and a few makeshift solar sails quite beautifully.

---

3,820 km

I'm passing close to a white neutron star. It's not very bright, but its wreaking havok on my comm array. It's spinning hundred times a second which creates a fast pulsing of static on the comms. Only the periodic noises of my ship seem to break it.

I'm going to watch more of the tapes I recovered from that Raefferd class derilect I found a while back.

---

3,974 km

About to cross 4,000 kilometers. To travel the stars, to voyage into the unknown, could one ask for anything more?

---

4018 km

This is probably the tenth time I've encountered the GLU class fighter. It's a pretty light security ship, nothign surprising. But this time was different. Next to it was a Kiev Class Repair ship. Inside the cockpits were 2 torn halfs of a photo. One of a man, the other a woman. They obviously went out into space together and left a memento for each other. Finding them here together almost makes me happy.

That two people were able to find each other and love each other across the vastness and vacuum of space nearly bring me to tears.

I've taped the two halfs together and placed them on my wall of photos and trinkets. Now, they are together forever.

---

4,260 km

There was a bright flash in the distance. It was very small, but very bright. It only lasted for about half a second before it was gone. I turned the camera to full pwer and zoomed in as far as I could go on it.

There was a ship there. A huge one, by the looks of it. I can't get a very good look from here, it's very small at this distance. Even on the high powered camera. From what I can see, it has a very long and thin frontal section, which comes together at a pair of wings that curve back around the rear. I suspect those are engines of some sort. I'm diverting my course as best as I can to get closer to it.

---

5,090 km

After a few hours, there was another bright flash right where the ship was. It almost overloaded the camera. It doesn't have good recording software, and idiot me forgot to take a picture while I was traveling at it. Something tells me that ship, whatever it was, just went to FTL. I would have loved to get a closer look. Even at this distance, it looked beautiful.

Well, may as well place my next comm array now.

---

5,123 km

Found a supply ship filled with all sort of kitchen equipment, a decent kitchen oven, just waiting to be plugged in, a nice cabinet with a sink attachment, and a nice fridge. This is great. I'll be able to store any food I find in derilects for later if I ever need to. Now I just need to find a ship with a hydroponic and I'll be set.

In the meantime, I'll be listening to that ACDC album I found on that Volunder class ship a while back. Nice band, great music.

---

5,173 km

Found a base that looks oddly familiar to my launching station. Mine was a little taller and wider to accomadate the Arrow, but I swear this place looks almost identical. Same turret postions, same blast window arrangement, just about the same with everything. Yet not quite the same.
Creeping me out a bit...

---

5,528 km

I've come out of cryosleep in orbit around what looks like an either young or very dead planet. The surface appears brown and desert like, with patches of molten lakes. There is an atmosphere, but I bet it is extremly toxic and far outside the range of any kind of life. Getting out of it's gravity will be easy enough with my current speed. I'll have to adjust my course later on when I'm out of it's gravity field.

The Arrow is a wonderful ship. She's probably the prettiest little corvette I've flown. But she needs an overhaul. The left turret is for some reason disconnected from the inventory, which means if I ever get into trouble I'm toast if the right gun is hit. I'll have to fix that. The airlock is also in need of improvement. My fern that I grew has died as well though. I'll have to find something to replace that. Maybe I'll install a small hydroponic. The shower is also out, the pipe that leads to it leaks way too much and I don't have the resources to fabricate a new one for a while I'm around this planet. So, it's time for an upgrade and overhaul. Time to get to work.

-

I have replaced the shower with a workdesk, though the suit locker has now been outfitted with a cleaner, so that now I won't drag dusty and terrible crap onto my couch. I'll have to clean myself the old fasioned way. By hand. Ugh. Although, I did also upgrade the antenna array and made room for an accumulator module. Any extra energy that gets outputed by anything on board gets stored in it, then discharged later when I need it. I've also built a little hydroponic from the extra space. It's in a protective window where a steel block used to be. It will get any light that shines into it, while still providing me with the freshest air in the universe. I'll have to find some plant seeds though. I don't have any onboard. Time to hit the derilects.

---

5,590 km

I'm sending out a message on the comms. "Is anyone out there?". That is probably the most universal question in the universe to any who look at the vastness of space. Are we truly alone? There are two possiblities. Either that we aren't and that there are civilizations far out there that we cannot see, or that we are truly alone in the galaxy. Both are equally frightening. I haven't gotten a chance to fix the gun turret yet, maybe I'll get a chance later. It's going to take a lot of my time reconfiguring the conveyors to hook it up. I don't even know if there is one connected or if there is a malfunction. Both will take a lot of my time to fix. I'll get to it later. Another lonely procrastinator with all the time in the universe.

---

5,597 km

Encountered a derilect. No hydroponic onboard. Dang it. I really would like to grow something. Just something. Maybe something with fruit, or maybe something very leafy. I don't know. It's really a first-come-first-planted deal here. Unless I run into a derilect with some nice green healthy plants... It's going to be a bit dreary on this cold hunk of steel I call my friend.

---

5,927 km

It's been so long since I've encountered a derilect. It must be the dead planet I'm passing. No one is realyl interested in anything around here. I keep a keen watch on the scanner though, hoping for something. A derilect, a planetoid, or even a planet for that matter. It would be nice to settle on one. Just come out the door and listen to the wind, feel the grass under my feet, and have a home. Its been too long since I've been to a place where I could call home. Then again, I could call the Arrow my home, but she has her limits. I need a place I can settle down on. Somewhere I could lie back with my helmet off and fall asleep gazing at the stars. Somewhere I don't have to worry about having enough rations or enough oxygen to keep me alive.
Somewhere I can be alive.

---


5,994 km

I parked the Arrow on an asteroid and got to work. I fixed the airlock with a modded airvent, along with a button panel so I can access it easily. I found the problem with my gun turret, apparently, I put on of my air tanks one block back and that took the place of the conveyor that should have been there. Getting the equipment installed was easy enough. Refilling the tank though, that was a pain in the butt. Thankfully, the asteroid I was on had plenty of Ice and I took what I needed until the tanks were full. Not a bad day. Now, I just need some flowers...

---

6,077 km

Passed a debris field around a large derilect cargoship. The debris is being caluculated by the computer now, but I'm guessing something exploded, or tore itself apart. Just as I was leaving the ship, I noticed another thing in the distance. It looks like a station on the camera. I;m heading there now.

-

The station appears to be some kind of rest stop. Lots of docking ports for large and small craft, a large crew area, and very little in hte way of industrial equipment. Perhaps that cargoship I passed eariler was from here and got ambushed from whatever was in that debris field.

-

The computer has analysed the debris data, two fighter craft. Perhaps some kind of raiders? Whoever they were, they are long dead, the timestamps on the ship and station are decades old.

---

6,231 km

I've entered space where I think I should never have come. For the first time ever, I cannot go forward. There is a heavily armed station on the scanner. Full functional and active. And my camera shows it's pointing it's guns at me. I don't know whether to go around, stay put, or go back. No way my little Arrow could stand going toe to toe with it, so going straight is out. Going round is probably the best option for now. But if I run into more of these bases, I am so screwed.

If I don't make it through this area, ... oh what the hell am I saying? Of course I'll make it. It's probably only one lonely station.

Hopefully.

---


6,476 km

It's been pretty clear so far of those automated weapon stations. Perhaps I've exited their space. Hopefully. Back to business as usual. Drifting, thinking about what's ahead... what's behind. I tend to not think of the past too much, it takes me away from the here and now too much. And thinking ahead, well, I'm hoping it looks bright. And blue. And green. A field of grass and trees. Of the endless asteroids ending. Of life, and new beginnings.

---

6,756 km

I remember their faces, my friends and fellow crewmen I served with all that time ago and all that distance ago. The chief running the hanger, making sure every ship is shipshape and flight ready, the pilots eager to get out there and fly, the crewmen walking around performing their duties, I miss it. But what I miss most of all, was the community we had. The friendships we made, the lives we lost, the loves we loved, and the fights we fought.
Why did I have to leave?

The Arrow and I are passing through a stellar cloud. We're only skimming the rim of it, but it's still enough to make us have almost zero visiblity. The thicker material rains on my hull, coating it in a fine dust that clouds my cockpit even more. There were radiation warnings, but if we only stay here for a short period of time, we should be OK. I hope. I just hope my radiation badge doesn't go into the red. If it does... I'm toast. We're toast.

-

I look back at how myself and the Arrow began...
Me and the arrow, launched free from the bow wence we came.
I remember it. A little ball of an asteroid, my base built within it to shelter it from meteor strikes. It was a meager living, food, water, and some books... but that was about it. I called the place the Broken Bow. I was stuck there until my next job, if I ever got one. Working day after day after day just to keep some other person's crap running. Until one day I decided enough is enough. I would leave. Find a new home. I scavenged what I could, and built the Arrow. There, in the hulking piece of junk of a base, we fired the arrow into the deep black darkness. To leap into the darkness, out of the hole I lived in, into a greater emptiness I have only recently known.

Perhaps it's my destiny to be alone. Flying forever into the darkness, like all these derilects I pass. Did they have a similar dream that I had? To explore the unknown? To find a home? To survive? And what did that get them? Death. Some by accident, some by chance, some by fate, and some by slow torture of time.

They say death has a way of reshuffling ones priorities. Well I will say this, they aren't wrong. The fear of death is our strongest will of all. Whether by death of body, or mind. We push, even at the end, to hang on. To survive. To live.

My life is now a wall of photographs and pictures, a drive of music and sounds, of jagged rocks that pass me, of an endless flight into the darkness. There is nothing left of me that I can see. I am part of this ship now, and it is part of me.
I am alone. We are alone. So very alone in this universe of ours.

My mind drifts to the possiblility of seeing another welcoming face. To see them smile, laugh, cry, hell I'll settle for the debates too. But now, the Arrow is my only companion on this flight, and she speaks only in ones and zeros. A bitter speech that haunts my dreams at night. Only the sounds and pictures I have collected help drown it out. But it still remains, still a constant reminder that I am truly alone on this crazy flight.

I can't believe I'm talking like this... perhaps it's stars silently cursing me, depressing my thoughts, turning me into one of them. Turning into nothing more than a ghost of a once shining and beautiful thing.

Perhaps I'll see other life on my journey. The chances are close to one in a billion, but there's a chance in hoping. Alien life, the answer to the one true universal question if we are truly alone in the universe. If we are... then it's a god awful waste of space. Maybe I'll see something. Maybe just a glimpse, a peek at what is out there. To know that humanity is not alone in our exploration of the stars. To know that there is someone out there going through the same troubles we have and are going through. Maybe they are watching us, patiently, as we evolve from the cave dwelling apes, to the destroyers of our planet, and finally to explorers of the stars. Perhaps one day, one shining day, we will finally meet our neighbors in the galaxy.

Or maybe not. Maybe it's all empty. Maybe it's all a big f***ing waste...

-

Oh man, did I rant. Forgive me to whoever is still recieving my logs.

---

7,505 km

I really don't have anything to say today. I guess, I just drift today. Look out at the stars, try to figure out which one could be home. Something like that. Perhaps I'll pass a good derelict today, I don't know. I guess I could just go back to bed. I'll set Arrow to wake me up if a derelict comes into scanner range.

---

7,569 km

It's been a while. Again. It's getting darker out, so I've taken the liberty of adding a bunch of exterior lights to the Arrow's hull. My suit light works fine, but I'd rather not drain the suit battery when I'm outside. The light takes a good percentage out of it if I keep it on all the time.

Derelicts are now more scarce then before. I'm sure to run into one or two eventually, but I'm a little worried for today. Here's hoping.

There's a large field of anomalies ahead. I don't think it should affect us too much, but I'm going to go into cryo-sleep while we pass through this.

---

????? km

I feel as if I had either fallen into some wonderful dream, or that I have actually found what I am looking for. A world I can call my own.

I have been traveling from star system to star system hoping to find some place that I can settle down on, and have a home, and now... finally, I have achieved that goal.

I awoke from cryosleep to the world in front of me, a beautiful blue and green. A lot like Earth, but there are no large oceans that I can see. The spectroscope shows a breathable atmosphere and signs of flourishing life. That's no surprise there, I can just look out the window at all the green.

Now, the hard part starts. Getting down to the surface will be all but impossible with standard Ion thrusters. I will have to modify the Arrow so that we can descend safely, and carefully.
The first thing I'm going to do is expel any excess weight to the Arrow. I'll have to throw out some of those resources I gained from that care package a while back. Using an equation from my database, I can calculate how much weight I need to expel to make sure I have enough thrust. Until the weight is expelled, I will build as many atmospheric thrusters on the Arrow as she can carry.

For now, I will settle into a stable point at the Planet-Moon Lagrange point and prepare for a final adventure to my epic journey. I am in tears. I am beyond overjoyed at my epic luck to find a world like this. No more barren asteroids, no more empty haunted derelicts, no more endless flying into the darkness... Finally, ... I am home.

---

My landing site was a desert canyon, a perfect location if anything goes bad. Sand typically is better at absorbing impacts if you mess up. The sun is setting, so I'm calling that direction West.

The Arrow mostly survived reentry. Mostly. it was a rought ride all the way down. I had to replace the cokcpit glass with heavy armor to survive the heat, and the camera up front melted from it, leaving me with just an altimeter to know when to pull up. I had to sacrifice the turrets for heavy atmo thrusters to counteract the gravity.
I lost the O2 generator though. The heat and atmospheric friction tore off it's protective panel and sucked out all the components, not to mention my ice. The tanks have plenty of stores though, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

By the time I made it down to the surface, it was nighttime, so I'm going to hop into bed until the sun rises ... whenever that happens.

I've got a big day tomorrow. A new adventure on a new world.

I'm excited.

---

Daytime approached faster than I thought. I did get a modest 5 hours of rest though, which is nice, and to my joy, the world was still there. If I ever found out this is all some sick nightmare, I would be so angry.

Stepping out the exterior hatch has come down to a science for me, helmet, depressurize, secure equipment, and step out. This time, I opened the hatch with a gust of cool air in my face. It smelled of ragweed, and I instantly sneezed at the new smells.

The temperature is suprisingly cool for a desert canyon. There are signs that this once was a large river, maybe millions of years ago. The air has a higher concentration of oxygen than Earth.

Out of my leftover parts, I fashioned myself a little buggy so that I can explore the surroundings.
Beyond the desert canyon landing site is a large savanna with a few scarce trees. Reminds me a little of the tapes of the African Savanna before it burned from the intense summer heat. The temperature here out of the desert is much higher, a modest 76 degrees F, and I'm sweating in my suit. I'm tempted to take it off or leave it behind, but the canyon temperature is much cooler. It drops to around 55 degrees in the shade, and barely 60 in the sun.

Beyond that, it's a dreamland of forests, mountains and rivers. I've found a secluded valley a few dozen kilometers from the landing site and it's practically paradise.

I'm not tempted to eat any of the local flora yet until the medical scanner can analyze them for any toxins and their nutritional values. Until then, I'm stuck with my freeze dried food for now. Oh well.

The Arrow is finished though. She'll never make orbit. The Arrow flew, from the broken bow wence she came, and she hit her target. Here, on this wonderful world, her journey ends. But I don't intend on leaving her behind, she will be my home. I will take her to my paradise and I'll convert her into a home. But she won't change too much. No, she is the one who brought me here after all, to this beautiful place, where I will live out the rest of my days.

The trail of communication satalites I've placed should lead at least someone else here. I'll transmit my final coordinates, and shut down the array.

I can finally open that bottle of liquor I saved.
Here's to you, Arrow.

---

This is my final entry before I shut down the array.

Thank the heavens of the galaxy
to the vessel carried me,
and for all the luck in the universe,
for this achievement and reward.
For I have placed my name,
into the stars forever.

May the Arrow always fly straight and true.

Reclaimer Log
_____________

Day 64
Today's haul was good enough for this week. Got 10 derilects, although most were small fighters left behind from a inter-clan fight a few days ago. Almost went unnoticed until some mining crew set up on a nearby asteroid and watched the fireworks. Good thing they were safe.
I've been itching for a big ship to be found by one of the scouts. Just one. Hell, I'll settle for a KEEN derilect. Those things are usually empty on components and stuff, but they are ripe for spare parts. I could grind them down to bits all day long.

I'm glad the chop shop I work for isn't as bad as the military ones. Those idiots either want a whole ship or nothing at all. I mean, I can understand they need all the ships they can get against the independent pirating faction. But they give crap return. I almost hate it when we get hired by them to clean up THEIR messes. Get your own damn ship next time.

I heard from one of the players out there that there is a station collecting ship logs, well, they certainly won't get my log entries. I mean, I don't write anything nasty in them, but there really isn't much too see. I usually just keep records in them and these little personal notes. Not worth seeing.



Day 65
We got ourselves a big one. One huge stationary. Here's hoping they have a good haul.

Scouting Run Notes
-----------------

Light Destroyer

ID: Military
H/F: Hostile
Defense: Med
Survival Chance of Engagement: Slim but possible.

---

Gamora Clan Ship

ID: Rival Clan Baseship
H/F: Hostile
Defense: High
Survival Chance of Engagement: You done F***ed up now.

---

Olympus Station

ID: Trade/Living Station
H/F: Friendly
Defense: Low to None
Survival Chance of Engagement: Excellent.

Notes: Boss might think it'd be great for a trading station. Although if <Expunged Faction> trades there, he'll blow it to smithereens.

---

Nuts & Volts Repair Station

ID: Repair/Salvage Station
H/F: Very Friendly
Defense: Med
Survival Chance of Engagement: Good.

Notes: I might have to check this place out myself. Seems nice enough, although I'll have to go there when activity is low. Don't want the Military to find out I go here.

Captains Log

April 27

Our home Carrier is desprately in need for an upgrade. The Admiral doesn't want a thing changed though. I keep pushing him to do at least something. At least he accecpts having lots of spare parts.


May 16

Commander <Redacted> was nice enough to keep my ship all safe while I was gone. Thank goodness. He keeps up this trend and he'll make Captain.


June 9

Found a cozy little Repair station. Catchy name too, Nuts and Volts. I've let the Admiral know about this place and that we might want to put up some surveilance here. He said no and that the owner might object.

They have quite the Welder arm. I've never seen someone use a combination of rotors and pistons so well. They got every nook and crany. Worth every Gold ingot.

ID: <Redacted>, ISG Imporium

---

Mining Haul #54

Haul:
1,457kg Stone
456kg Silicon
2,583kg Gold
8,921kg Iron

Haul Quality: Good Enough

Notes: <Expunged> is getting annoying cutting into my mining tunnels, If he keeps this up, he's goign to run straight into me while mining. And hte Captain will surely kick him off the ship on the next drop-off.

Part of me hopes he does.

---

Mining Haul #57

Haul:
81,444kg Iron
29,251kg Stone

Haul Quality: Excellent

Notes: He's doing it again. Almost got me with his drills this time. I've reported him to the Captain. If he does this $hit again, it's going to be hell to pay.

---

Mining Haul #59

Haul:
22,456kg Gold

Haul Quality: Great

Notes: He's did it. Godamnit he did it. Lost my Left drill and almost clipped my cockpit. Now I have to go to the Repair station to get this $hit fixed.

One of these days, I'm just gonig to tell the Captain to leave his ass at the next Asteroid and don't come back for him.

---

Andromeda Skyfarers
_____________________________
Pilot Report
THIS LOG IS FOR PILOT ONLY. PASSENGERS MAY NOT EDIT THIS LOG.
LOG MUST BE SAVED AT SKYFARER STATION BY END OF SHIFT OR LOG WILL BE LOST.
_____________________________

It's always the same. Everyone wants to go see the military Planetoid. "We don't have the clearance", I often say. "But we wanna see it anyway! Can you make an exeption?" I DON'T HAVE CLEARANCE. If I try to enter that area, my ship could be either shot by pirates or arrested by the military!

Sometimes I hate these people, but at least I earn my ingot's worth so I can keep my own little asteroid running. Sometimes it's nice and quiet, and sometimes it gets a little loud onboard. At least some people are nice enough to shut up the newcomers about the Planetoid.

I enjoy this job though, I get to see the sights more than a lot of people do. Although sometimes it's gets damn boring seeing the same old thing over and over again. Thankfully I'm not the one who shuttles the newcomers from the Spawning Station. Those people could drive someone insane. Although, some know their stuff and are willing to help out sometimes. We get a lot of potential hiring from there, but most of the time, its just crazy newcomers who think they know everything about how to run things. You guys don't know jacks*** about this.

Forgive me fellow pilots for my rant.

Virgil Log
___________________
PILOT LOG OF VIRGIL-CLASS TUNNELER
___________________

We're supposed to do log entries for all large ships and Stations. Heh, I think someone could write a book from all the stuff people are writing. I think this will be fun.
----------

Virgil is ready to go.
She's a beast of heavy armor, a f***ing massive Earthbreaker drill that can tunnel through just about anything, a tiny cramped cockpit with no windows with all but a camera to see where you're going, but she's worth it.
I think her class of ship was named after some ancient historic figure that decended to the depths of hell. Well, I certainly don't do that, but it gets pretty damn close down in the black rocky blender less than 20 feet from my cockpit.

--

I'm glad I get hired to mine the big rocks.

No, not the 200m across ones that have holes half as big as them, I'm talking the BIG rocks. The +700m rocks. The ones bigger than a fleet of ships. Those ones are damn huge. Good thing the Virgil can take them. They may be big jobs, but damn are they fun.

Sure, I'll mine down a smaller rock for you if you got the ingots to pay, but if you ask me to dig a tunnel down into a planetoid, which there are several in this system....
How deep do you want your hole?

--

Virgil is a great big hulky and slow ship, but I love her. As that old TV show once said; "Love keeps a ship in the air. If you don't love it, she'll tear you apart and tear you asunder faster than you can blink.". Well, I paraphrased most of it but what the hell, still a good quote.

--

For anyone who mines for a living, here's a tip.
Don't ever expect a quick job. Best speed you can go without causing too many problems is just under 6 meters per second. I like to go a steady 4 because of my big drill out front, but 6 pushing it a little for me. I will never go more than 6 unless I'm backing up. Parts are expensive when you're on the hire for jobs. You're almost on your own. All they expect is for you to dig a hole and they'll handle the rocks you mine and they'll pay you in ingots for them.
It's your job to keep your spinning parts all shiny.

--

Treat your miners well, Captains.
I've seen too many people lose good hires because they wanted it too fast, or too little. Sure we'll fly a constructor and help you keep your ship shipshape but dont' expect us to be fighter pilots. Not every astronaut's a pilot. Hell, I was raised to be a digger back on New Charon, used a 8 ton jackhammer to dig a hole down to where the pretty stuff was. When I got shipped out to do this, I never knew I'd be flying. Getting used to Virgil was tough enough, but I did. I eventually knew how to handle all 3 axises, but I never knew how to fire a gun, or pull 10 g's or even how to handle all the fancy bimblebombles on how a fleet of ships keeps together in the big empty.

All I knew is how to run a tool, and keep it running. Nothing fancy there.

--

I sure do love it when people are nice to each other. Hell, you might even get a tip for all you hard work if you're lucky. And I get to meet all sorts of people. Heck, I dont' give a damn if you're a military sharp dresser or a loose pirate looking for a quick score. I'm just looking for work, I don't care who you are or who you work for. Someone's gonna need to dig a hole to get to the good stuff. And that falls on people like me.

--

Met a nice little bunch of crew running what I call a Rib Cage station. When you look at it from afar, you could swear it looked like some sort of rib cage from some giant space creature. I love it when people build something like that. It's almost art . And then you see the clever name on the antenna. From what I've seen on a lot of them, some are sharp and official, some thoughtful and loving names like mine, and some are ordinary. Then there are the just plain stupid ones. Some people are just damn unimaginative.
I mean, what kind of a name is Station? Are you kidding me? You're going with what the blueprint calls your piece of steel? I mean, sure it's better than "Antenna" or nothing at all, but gimme a break! Put some thought into it! Give it heart!
Like I said before, you gotta love a ship or she'll tear you apart. I expect there will be a lot of torn apart ships for that rib cage station to take apart because someone thought kicking the console would fix something.

--

Bomber Log

-

This has to be my fifth mission to counter attack the <Expunged faction>. First, they hijack one our transport convoys, then next, they decide to plant a minefield in a local trade line.

A**holes.

-

Mission 6.
Found the a**holes. Holed up in a big asteroid, hopefully, the admiral will send the scouts first to make sure this isn't another trap. Too godamn many nowadays.

-

Why wont these civies get out of the dang way?!
I don't want you to get in the damn crossfire! Turrets don't distinguish neutral IF YOU'RE IN THE F***ING WAY. I know you have to do your job, but so do I and that means I don't want you guys getting shot!

-

I've transferred this log over 6 ships already. I swear, one more ship, then I'm out of this s***. I've almost had it with the constant fighting over the f***ing asteroids. There are billions of asteroids and you want to fight over one that is barely worth it's weight in iron? Jeez.

(Also, we're kinda stuck in an endless cycle in this RP. Hopefully something can change the tune for a while.)

-

Hopefully the mediator we sent over will help calm things for a while. If they don't steal the FTL drive first. Our fleets are hundreds of kilometers apart, and taking the trip normally gets you killed. Hopefully our leaders can at least talk about maybe a temporary ceasefire until things have tuned down a bit.

-

The Captain is getting jittery, and so is half the crew. We haven't received any orders for days. Something is up. All we have been getting from command is "Standby". Standby for what? Surrender? Peace? ... At least a cease fire?

-

The fleet is on high alert. Something big has happened. Nobody is telling me anything, but to get ready to scramble.

Arbiter Log
///

Aboard Neutral Ship
/

Hopefully myself and the representatives that have joined me can help end this constant brawl between the <Military Faction> and the Independent factions. I know they are gonna go through with this as well, as we can see their representative's ship on the telescopic sensor.

We've agreed to rendezvous on a neutral Station about halfway between the faction bases is what has been apply named "The Land of 10,000 mines". It's not really land, but it was suggested by a local civilian, and the name stuck. As we get closer to it, we can begin to tell the endless mines from the asteroids. It's at least a thousand times thicker than the minefield that was between North and South Korea back on Earth. And this one has more firepower. Could take out more than 10 of the Callisto carriers and still have plenty left for more.

Anyway, all we know is to jump to a specific set of coordinates, dock simultaneously with the station using merge ports, and find some sort of deal to settle things down. Hopefully we can work something out with the clan representatives to work a deal out.
/

There's less than 2 minutes left till we jump to the neutral rendezvous station, so I'll have to make this quick. They have 3 more representatives from clans we had previously not known of. I guess we'll have our hands full. Hopefully there is enough room at the table.

If there even is a table.
/

That went smoother than I would have expected. We've agreed to at least a cease fire to end hostilities. With certain conditions. (I'm writing this down so I can remember this and copy it down so the Admiral in the military can read this.)

1.) No ship may cross the new border between what is now called the "Independent Territories" unless either authorized by both factions, has trade relations with a specific sub-faction from either side, or has mining contract agreed to by both sides.

2.) The minefield is to be partially dismantled to allow ships authorized by condition #1 of the agreement, although primary minefield will remain to keep border security maintained.

3.) Border between main factions is subject to modification, however modifications must be agreed upon by representatives from neighboring modified border lines and representatives from primary factions.

4.) Hostilities will cease between <Military faction> and the Independent Territories unless hostile sub-factions impose infraction upon the laws from opposite main factions.

5.) If hostilities cease to a certain point, minefield will be completely dismantled, however border will remain to maintain security.

I'm impressed with myself. I've never written a peace agreement before.
//

[Log transferred to private Shuttle from this point forward.]
/

Something has happened to Andromeda Base. I'm not getting any more of the daily broadcasts that I usually get from them. It's so strange. Usually they are quite loud with the news, but now it's all silent.

I'll stop off at the local Repair station, then I'm going to hire one of the local military ships to take me to Andromeda Base to see what's up.
/

Viper Log

\\

Might as well start keeping this log as most of my current assignments are less dangerous than usual.

\\

Assignment: Cargo transport escort

Things went as smooth as ever. At least this time. It's been rather quite now since the ceasefire between the <Military Faction> and the new Independents. There has been a lot less pirating since then. However, I'm hearing rumors of another big faction growing somewhere farther off.
I don't know how they are growing so quick, with FTL drives so expensive and all. Maybe they're picking people up straight from the Spawning station or something, I don't know.

Whoever they are, it's clearly very hush hush. No comms out, No comms in. The freighter captain I talked to said they don't even have a navigation beacon trail. Just a set of coordinates. It's a good idea. Keeps people unaware of a hidden base as well.

I might want to let the military guys know about this though.

\\\

Assignment: Scouting Run

Although I feel like an a**hole, I'm using my onboard ore detector to help my other friends to find good asteroids on my scouting run. Although I'm tasked to run a scouting run for planetoids, and I've found a couple so far, I am passing several good rocks on the way.


I'm running low on uranium after that last run. I'm going to ration my power. That means I can't use my primary thrusters. S***.

\\\

10 minutes left on power and I'm still quite a distance from the nearest station. S*** S*** S*** S*** S*** S*** S*** S***.

I'll have to shut down my log computer to save power.

\\\


\\\

ATLAS FRIEGHTERS
PILOT LOG
LOG MUST BE RESET AT BEGINNING OF SHIFT. IF YOU WISH TO KEEP YOUR LOG, MAKE NECESSERY ARRAGEMENTS AT END OF SHIFT.
/\/\/\/\/

This war is starting to get hellish.

Military is holding back against the ... whoever they are called. They fly in awful sickly red ships. I almsot was a victim of one of their bombardments, but managed to ship out in time. One of those warheads nearly hit my frieghter. Managed to swing away in time. Then they go in with a wave of mines, keeping people from being rescued.

What sort of sick f***ers do such a thing? Even pirates let the military recover survivors if they manage to take out a ship.

After the bombardment of New Andromedia, and Orion's Rock, everyone wants to leave the downtown space. I might leave this job and hook up with the Renadiin Frieghters. They're doing work away from the main planetoids. Good work if you like being long flights and a bit of loneliness. I wouldn't mind, I like to read my books anyway on my flights anyway. I've started "Stranger in a Strange Land". It's a good read so far, I think I'll enjoy it.

-

Everyone is starting to pack up. They've found a planet. A real, live, breathing planet. Trees and everything. It's a few weeks journey at normal speeds, but only a few hours by FTL. There is a huge convoy of about 20 ships going out to the set of coordinates where the planet is.
I might join them.

-

F*** it. I'm going with them. Soon as I drop off my load, I'm joining them. I'll haul their cargo if they need it stored. God knows they'll need it for when they settle on it.

Fighter Log

Command is calling the f***ers Reavers, or was it Reapers? I can't remember, I only caught a glimpse of the comm message. They siad they acted a lot like some villian from a old Earth sci-fi fiction.

Whoever these a**holes are, they are some motherf***ing evil guys.

Who blows up a civilian planetoid? Seriously, all those people did was go about their lives inside the domes and those a**holes destroyed it without a second thought. There had to be at least a hundred people in there. F***!

They will pay. If I have to fly to wherever their godamn base is and crash right into it I will.
Course I can't, I would never get permission to take my fighter out on that sort of excursion. Let alone get any sort of permission to leave the hanger without some sort of official mission in mind. Sure, it's nice to keep the planetoids we have safe, but I want to go and fight the basstards.
At least I get to fly on the biggest baddest motherf***ing carrier in the skies. This heavily modifed Callisto would bring so much shame to the original design, it's a f***ing battleship now, bristling with so much weaponary. AND with over 20 fighters inside ready to fly CAP for it, along with several cruisers and destroyers flying alongside. They certainly won't attack us, but I'm sure they'll go for one of the smaller fleets though. Everyone usually does.

Chief's daily log.

The crew is getting antsy over the latest bombardment from the Reavers as some have called them. That's 4 planetoids pounded to dust. It's really a sad thing to see.

I know brutal, I can bring a military commander to his knees, but these guys... what f***ing hellhole did they crawl out of? And who the heck goes and bombards a civi living station? Even my guys don't do that s***. We're quite the marauders, yes, we'll pick clean a captured ship, or steal an asteroid from the Boots (military), but we don't go assualting a near defenseless civi station for no apparent reason. No f***ing way.

(Seriously what hole did these guys crawl from? Even the admin is scratching his head on how these guys got so powerful so quick. He thinks some griefing group has hacked past the password protection. People are watching for any sign of them so they can be banned.)

At least they don't attack us, they know better. We'll kick every one of their sorry asses to kingdom come, and then some. Sure, we're not as fancy and formal as the boots, but we have our ways.


IN other topics, I'm glad the minefield has been partially dismantled, it's allowing more of my mosquito scouts to get through.

Lots of neutral asteroids are on the horizon for us to mine, I'm quite happy about that. We need all the ore we can get.

One of my veteren scouts has been going through the field to see a cage-repair station called Nuts & Volts. Couple others have visited it as well. Its thankfully in well protected neutral space. Hmmm, I might bring the clan there, we'll see if we can buy them into our faction. I just hope they aren't allied to the military. The scouts say it's the most friendly repair station around. I hope so.

However, getting past the minefield is going to be tricky.


I'm impressed that repair shop has lasted as long as it did. Most either are raided by the indpendant pirates, have shady or even illigal practices, or just f***ing hide the fact they steal every ship that flies in. Got to hand it to them, they know how to talk to people if they've lasted so long being nice people. There arent' many nice people left these days.

-

A Gammorah is a slow and fat ship, but I'm glad she fit in the cage, at least partially. I haven't gotten this much work done on the baseship for months. Their crew knows how to get this stuff fixed.
Now we got all out fighters all nice and shiny, no more missing parts on our ships. A fine station, even though we got quite the reprehensive welcome when we approached. They almost threw one of the junk ships at us with a towship.

I can understand. When a big a** ship like a Gammorah with her escorts approach, people know something is going down. Well, thankfully not today. I've never seen the crew so happy for a break, even if it was short lived.

-

We've got to head out soon. Military destroyer 20k out. Hope the repair crews are done. Come on, Gammorah, move your big a** for me!

<Expunged>, Shipmaster
Daily Shipyard logs
<><><><><>

We've never gotten so many orders of military ships in a long time. I guess these reavers (reapers?) are as bad as they say. I wouldn't know though, our shipyard is in well protected space. The Manufactorum space is probably more guarded than the minefield. Although I'm glad about that, it's still tough.

Three Atlas class cruisers ordered today, along with a Kronos. It's good pay, but I personally want to make more small ships. Sure, I get plenty of orders for standard fighters and mining ships, but I've only rarely gotten a good looking ship fabbed (fabricated). I've fabbed probably over a thousand IMDC fighters, but I've only done like 4 or 6 really good looking ships.

-

S*** S*** S*** S***. Gammorah clanship on visual. S*** S*** S*** S***. I really hope they don't take over this place. Those guys are usually armed to the teeth. Please don't raid us. Please please please please. I LIKE MY STATION. I DON'T WANT IT RUINED!!

-

Oh thank the universe they aren't going for us. WHEW. That was a close call for us. But they still went into the Manufactorum space, going for the really nice repair station guys.

I hope the guys at Nuts & Volts are OK, the Gammorah stopped there. I called the military, and they should send a destroyer to check it out soon, probably within the hour. I don't trust those Independants. How did they even get the Gammorah around the Minefield?!? It takes hours just to get around it, with turrets armed to the teeth blocking the way if you try.

Clever a**holes.

-

Come on military, hurry your ship up. I want these guys out of our space. Even if they pay for repairs or ships, they'll probably establish a raiding party from one of the shipyards.

-

I'll try contacting the Shipyard over comms soon, I hope they're OK.

I'm glad I managed to grab an atlas class. They say they are experimental ships with an advanced hull. Well, there is no doubt about that.

The automatic decoy launcher is very nice though, should be useful if I ever get into trouble and need to get out of harms way, decoys can make nasty debris if you're being chased.


Trouble is, this ship is designed for a crew of 4. I'm all alone here, and it's getting rather difficult to maintain the ship.


I've installed a refinery onboard, along with an assembler, at least I'll be able to make some spare parts and do some personal mining. No need to put into port unless I really need to.


" 'You're not actually going into an asteroid field are you?', 'They'd be crazy to follow us, wouldn't they?' ". Well, in this case, these guys are crazy enough to follow me into the belt.

No one really talks about the belt of small asteroids bordering the manufactorum. People always seem to consider it as the city limits of a sort. In reality, it's hundreds of small asteroids picked clean by the manufactorum making an almost impenitreble minefield of rocks. Small ships don't need to worry about it, but large ships like mine have trouble just manuvering.

(In REAL reality, it was placed there long ago by the admin as a sort of resource hub for everyone to mine. He never knew how quick it would be cleaned out, and it kept getting refilled, mined down, respawned, mined again and so on, until it became a 50km long area known as The Belt.)


Come on! Go away! This is my ship and you aren't taking it!
Please let there be enough rockets left in the storage... I may have to fight these bastards.


Barely made it. Lost most of my aft section, but I made it. Thankfully I have the blueprint, so I can repair it... if my refinery AND assembler weren't caught in the firefight.
I'll have to put into the nearest repair station if I want this fixed.

Name: <Expunged>

Ship: ISG Taonas
-

Daily log


Things have been getting brutal lately with the war with the Reavers, but on the other hand, it has been excellent for Business. As that old Sci-fi show once said, Rule 34; (no not THAT rule 34 you perverts) War is good for business.

It really is. We've never had such a demand for military parts and materials. Sure, it's a hasstle keeping up, but we've never made as many ingots as we have now. We've used them to upgrade our ships so we can refine and produce more materials than ever.


Although, it creates much more bounty for pirates. We've been chased several times for our hauls. Thank god for private escorts. They are really good at keeping us safe.


Looks like we're getting chased today. I hope the stone we ejected out the rear hit those a**holes. It can be really effective at lower speeds. One moment a pirate is cruising along at 104, then suddenly, WAM! Whole front of your ship perforated by chunks of stone.


Hopefulyl I'll make it to my destination in one piece.

Marauder Weekly Log

-Monday-
Getting past the minefield is tough. We've managed to bribe a couple of security checkpoints to let some of our ships past, but the <Military> is starting to crack down on some of them, leaving us with very few places to go through.

However, we have been hearing rumors of a place in the minefield called "The Corridor", where any ship could pass through undetected. We hear it's very safe, but is hard to get to.

I'm thinking it's that planetoid on the minfield near the Manufactorum border. They might have carved a hole big enough for some ships to go through. I don't know though. It's currently guarded by another clan, and I don't dare try and go there.


-Wednesday-
I'm glad I've managed to stay hidden so long. Thankfully the asteroid I hole up in has been picked clean by mining and left lots of holes for me to squeeze into. Those miners are really good at their jobs, although I personally hate the ships with the giant drills on them. They just drill the whole asteroid and leave nothing behind. I know it makes good pay, but for us marauders, it leave very few places to hide.

The Clan leader is planning something big. I don't know what, though. But we;ve been asked to place our most valued stuff into one of our storage centers. They also say to have plenty of parts to make lots of decoys. Why?!

OK, the Clan leader is crazy. Why in the world would we try to make a hole through the minefield!? It's suicide! Sure I can understand using a lot of decoys can get the attention of the mines and force them to detonate would carve a small path, but it would also attract the attention of the security forces along the minefield, and they love a good opportunity to try and stop us.

I really don't want to do this, but I'll get shot if I don't go with them. Ergh. This is suicide.

Outpost 6 Manager Log


-Tuesday-

Nice and quiet today, I can catch up on my book. Got enough air and rations onboard today that I can just sit back and chill for the next 3 hours till my shift is over.

-Thursday-

Seeing a lot more military ships going by today. Counted at least a dozen so far. Haven't seen the Calypso yet. Must be a minor engagement if their not bringing the main carrier.

-Saturday-

Something is up. More and more military ships are passing by. I've never seen this many ships fly into the civilian (manufactorum) zone. Something must have spooked them bigtime.


Caught a new kind of ship pass by today. Near as I can tell from the camera sight, it appears to be a kind of death lotus of some kind. I don't see the need for it unless you're going to...

Oh s***.


-Monday-

It's bad. It's real bad. New Andromedia has been pounded to bits. I should have called that lotus in sooner. F***!

I had a station on New Andromedia too! Nice and cozy one. Nice little spot for my shuttle, cozy little room with all my books... and now it's scattered across a quarter of the Manufactorum. F***! F***! F***!!!

-Wednesday-

Orion's Rock is gone now. GODAMNIT! That's two of the most populated planetoids in the sector pounded to oblivion. Ooh, soon as I can, I'm enlisting into the Independants. I want to teach those f***ers a f***ing lesson.

Aegis Patrol Cruiser Log

Log must be reset at beginning of shift. No excuses.

:::::


It's been too quiet these past few days. With the new war and everything, it's less gunning and more like hunting. These guys are more diffiult to find than a needle in a haystack. They must be completely mobile or they are using a mobile homebase. Wherever they are, they've done well to keep things quiet.

Far as we know, it's a group of 20-30 rogues who have managed to aquire the blueprint for a death lotus machine and have now p*ssed off nearly the entire sector.

They could not have traveled by FTL. No way. FTL's are way too expensive for that. Even a bunch of rogues wouldn't risk it.


Caught a group of unauthorized miners today, glad they weren't too rowdy. Most either take the money and run, or fight back. Glad these guys weren't that way.


We're going to cross the minefield today. I almsot hate going through it. It's a f***ing deathtrap to most. Thank god for the security canals. Otherwise we'd have to go around it, and that would take days.


We need to pull into port soon. A loose gyroscopic stabilizer has screwed up an entire necelle of the engineering section. We nearly lost one of the necelles. Hope we can get this fixed pronto.

Raven Class Cruiser

Chief Engineer Log

-------

First day aboard the Raven has been a smooth one. The previous chief was reassigned to another ship. I have no idea which one though.


We've fully pressurized the landing strut systems. Now we don't have to depressurize the entire ship just to land. It was a pain in the neck for the previous crew, and we never had time before to fix it.


We're getting ready to land on a new planetoid pretty soon here. They say it's rich in Iron and Ice which makes it an excellent choice for base construction. However, we have to determine it's viability first. Travel time, distance to trade routes, danger from marauders... that sort of thing.


The planetoid is mostly suitable for construction. It's a bit of a distance to the local trade route, but it's managable. Now we have to get the rovers ready to launch.


The rovers are away now. They will determine the perfect spot to begin contruction. Then the people like me get involved. We have to build a GPS Beacon so that construction crews from other ships can start building.


Pirates are on the way, they're probably investigating the planetoid. We'll have to recall the rovers quick, but the GMU Type rovers aren't known for speed. They better hurry their butts up or they'll get left behind.


We had to leave a rover behind, but we managed to get the pilot aboard. Now we have to find a safe harbor until the pirates pass. I just hope they don't find the GPS Beacon. If they find that, they'll find us.


That was a close one. They just passed right by the planetoid. I wonder why? Perhaps they were on their way to another base? Or another planetoid? I have no idea.


We can resume our job now. The second rover was recovered and the GPS beacon is almost complete. Then it's off to the next planetoid.

Assembly Cruiser - Victoria

Manufactorum Manufacturers


Captains daily log


It's been a busy day. We've outfited 15 ships in the last hour and a half with the new Jump drive systems. We've gotten two kinds; the new standard nicknamed "Box-drive", and the much larger hyperdrive core.

We've still got over 50 ships in line ready and waiting for outfiting. Not all will get them though, sadly. We have to make sure their ships can handle having them aboard. Sad really. My own personal shuttle can't be fitted with it. I was really hoping.


In my opinion, this is going to expand the Triad Sector exponentially. It also means people will easily be able to cross the minefield though... which is going to be an issue.

We've been getting some new requests for an unusual design, a Jump Drive Carrier. It's supposedly designed for ships to latch onto, and transport them to any location. Which is good and all, but it's going to put a lot of the transportation factions out of business.


Looks like we're going to be sent into the military space to outfit the <Military>. They have a lot of ships. I do mean A LOT. Last count we had was over 60 large ships and god knows how many small ones. We're gonna get out ingots worth today!

Shuttle Log

I'll write this then reset it so often to whoever the hell is reading this.

It's been nearly 3 hours since I got seperated from the fleet. I mean, I can survive easily in my cozy little ship, but I have no idea where they went. Leave it to the hanger control officer to not tell me when we're jumping. I know I'm in the Manufactorum, so there is probably a navigation beacon nearby. If not, I'll head straight to the spawning station. It's situated right smack dab in the center of the world to make sure people spawn into the correct spot.

Hour 4. I'm getting tired of trying to track down my fleet. I know they went across into independant space, so there will be no point in trying to fly there on my own. When my drive spools up, I'll fire it up and try to catch up... if I can. With all the FTL and Jump Drive inhibitors across the Independant space, I'll never know if I'll be able to make it in. Maybe I can seek refuge at one of the stations in this sector.

Hour 5. This is getting ridiculous. I haven't encountered a single station. Not one! And the Manufactorum is chucked full of them.

Finally a navigation beacon. Aparently I'm in Military space. o.O What?!? Who the hell let the commander fly into military space!?

If I can at least cross teh border into the manufactorum I'll be alright. I've got to hurry though.

Personal Log

Gotten 6 passengers willing to ride today! Which is pretty good for a starter shuttle. She's a bit wobbly on the acceleration, but she makes up for it with durability.

I admit, it's not as glamorous as the Solar Sailor class shuttle, but I like this. It's shape kinda reminds me of a Type 2 shuttle from an old Sci-fi fiction.


Getting lonely out here. News says that a lovely blue ion storm will pass close to the sector. Comms will be limited but it's going to be a heck of a sight.

WOW. It sure is pretty alright, but its turning my comms into complete static.

Come on Jump drive! Hurry up and finish charging! I swear it's going to drain every last drop of uranium I have just to charge the damn thing.


Yes! I can make it! I just hope I have enough power left to make it to the rendevous.

Personal Log

Got news of something big going on in the Manufacturm. I can't go to it though. Can't leave my asteroid.

I can see passing ships on the telescope, but none within comm range. I just want to talk to someone for once.

I wish I could see a planet. Just once. Maybe even walk around on it for a while. Might even make a home there. Plenty of room.

Mining is a pain sometimes, but it keeps my alive. But I'm going to run out of ice on this rock evenually though.

I'm getting tired of beign here so long. I'm going to move out and find me a new asteroid. Maybe even a planetoid.

Later, Rock.

Cargo Log

I love long flights, I can just sit at my console and watch the vids. Sometimes I can even read a book or two. I love being out here, it's nice and quiet. No military cargo checks, no raids, no annoying people. People are a just of b*stards.

I love how easy my cargo pods are made. Just merge, lock, and go. Makes it easy to make a quick escape too if I ever need to dump my cargo in case of raids.

Back and forth I go, although swinging around the new Aurora Star planetoid with it's natural gravity is always fun, even if it is tricky to fly around. There's soemthing to be said for flying in an orbit every once in a while.

I love my ship, even if it is a very old model. She's got newer parts and an O2 system, but she's an old tiger and I love her just the same.

My Log

Finally got a programmable block built, and now I can start recording.

The hanger is already completed. Not pressurizable yet, but I don't plan to anyway. I focused on building industrial stuff first, so that I can drop off the ore I mine quickly and build parts quickly.
The access hallway to the living area is about half done. The living area itself however...

I'm still scratching my head on how I am going to arrange it. I've got the medbay all set up so I can recharge via there and now have to worry about going into the Leonard for energy and O2. I still need a lot of ice to fill up the two tanks though.

I thought of going to a supply station, but I'm too happy here on my rock. Besides, I don't have any ingots really worth trading at the moment. And most I still need for construction.
Ya know what? I'm just going to build a cryo chamber and just call it a day. I'll work on the base later. As long as the base doesn't run out of power I should be good.

~

Finally got the living area completed. A nice big set of windows on one side, with a nice view of the galaxy. built my own little personal cabin alongside it. Nice cabin sized room, with a roof of windows so I can fall asleep looking at the stars.


I built a message on the side of my hanger, it says:
HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.

I may be far far away from my home planet, but I'm quite happy here. Here in my comfortable little base.

~

Built myself a little scouting drone. I'm calling it Louis. When I finished, the front almost looks like a one eyed dog. Or two eyed, depending on how you look at it.

It's a little wobbly on the controls, but I think I can handle it.

~

Crap. Accidently smacked Louis into a rock and now I gotta go get it.

DAY 1

I have awoken in a strange place. I seem to have knowledge of engineering and physics, yet no knowledge of who I am or where I came from. I woke up on a ship, one with plenty supplies. The ship looked like it by several meteors, or scarred by battle. I have decided to keep a log of what has happened to me. I've started coming up close to the larger astroid I woke up by, it has plenty of uranium and iron. I also collected some cobalt. at first I tried turning my gravity generators range to max, in hopes that my ship would catch the ores when I mined them. It worked, I guess... but I decided that manualy catching the rocks would be better. Though it is hard at times when your firing your thrusters trying to catch a rock going at maybe ten meters per second. And when you finally catch it, you realise that the cargo compartment in your jetpack is full. On the note of the cargo compartment, multiple times while trying to hit the button to open it on my wrist pannel, I hit the RELEASE HELMET button. I don't freeze, die, and explode instantly though it hurts plenty. Gosh that thing needs a safety button...

I am dissasembeling my ship to build a base on the side of an astroid. It is hard work, but something about that ship gives me the creeps so I'm doing it.

My base is almost operational! I've got the generaly shape, now I just need to weld all those steel plates together. The hardest thing was probably dissasembeling the refinery. That thing has a LOT of steel plates. Once I almost lost the motors, large steel tubes, and computers, because I grinded down the framework before realising I hadn't put the every thing in the cargo containers. So I spent ten minutes flying around looking for those parts. I got the motors and steel tubes, but when I spotted the computer ships I flew face first into them, literaly! They're probably halfway to the sun by now. I have been fairly fortunate when it comes to meteor storms. The ship has been hit twice my base has been hit twice, but no serious damage done. What consists of the ship is now armor, thrusters and a gyroscope. I'll finish disassembling it tomorrow. For now, I need to sleep.

DAY 2

I had a very strange dream last night, there were, faces but just brief flashes of them. They were looking at me and smiling, like I knew them. It looked like we were in some ship. But then I woke up. I have no idea what this means, but I hope the dreams come back tomorrow.

The base if finally complete! I grinded down all the parts of the ship! No more creepy feeling for me! I couldn't fit all the suplies in my cargo container, so I had to stuff some in the conector. I know it's kind of a sloppy storage method but who knows! I could have done it all the time before I got here. All I need now is to complete the window, though it's not a neccesity. Gosh silicon is hard to find. I'll look for it on some of the smaller astroids orbitting the astroid I settled on.

Something terrible has happened. A stray meteor has hit my reactor. Without it, I doubt I will survive another hour. Hopefully there's a ship or derelect nearby that can refabricate bodies using it's medical bay. Until then I await death.

I was lucky. There was a ship drifing with it's intertial dampeners off. It's allways strange feeling you body being put back together, cell by cell. I took the ship back to my astroid for it's reactor and other parts. But I'll do that later. For now it's just junk sitting outside my base.

I've seen some other astroids around and I realised that I don't need some mining ship to get to them. So I fired up my thrusters and drifted toward. them. It's about a two minute journey. I called the first astroid well, I wasn't feeling that creative, so I called it "Astroid 1". I'm thinking about installing a gatling gun on my base to defend against astroids. I pretty sure I can make the actual gun, but I need to find magnesium for the bullets. Sadly there's none on the astroid I settled on. I'll go check "Astroid 1".

Yes! Magnesium! Take that you meteor scum! I drifted toward home with a smile on my face.

Just as I was instaliing my pipes for the gatling gun, it's just my luck for a meteor storm to hit. And of all places to hit, It hit's my refinery! I'm tired of these meteor storms! I'm going to bed.

Oh wait just one moment, I finally came up with a name for my little station. "Daedalus Station" Ok, now I'm going to bed in cold, cold space.

DAY 3

The dreams didn't come back today. They were probably just some one time oddity. I've found some new astroids, and numbered them. So far, I've found five, though I see another one in the distance that I will mark. I found some more magnesium, since the magnesium I found on "Astroid 1" was destroyed when a meteor crashed into my refinery. Speaking of my refinery, I've started construction on a new refinery. I've been using an arc furnace to refine my iron, though it takes many trips back and forth from astroids. I think I'm going to make a mining ship once this refinery issue is solved.

I just realised that I didn't need to mine! I've got a perfectly good steel stash right outside my door! (The derelict I refabricated my body in) I'll go do that now!

A meteor just hit the derelict. It's started drifting downwards, so I am just going to scrap the armor and leave the rest to drift away, because I don't want to have to fly to far to grind up the rest. It hasn't been a very eventful day, though hours of flying, grinding, welding, and mining can sure wear someone out.

DAY 4

I dreampt of them again. I could see the faces again. They were happy. But, then I realised that we weren't on some planet. Everything was metal, like a ship. I wish I could have seen more, but I had jolted awake. Am I going mad? Are all these days in space affecting me more than I thought? I can't think about that now, I need to finish the refinery.

I finally grinded off all the armor of the derelict, and I am leaving the rest to drift away. Maybe it will be found by some other person like me! I doubt it though. I finally finished the refinery and it's good to hear the humming of it as it does it's work. I think I am going to keep my arc furnace around. It could be usefull. I also made my gatling gun, though it's not connected to the rest of my station. I could only make 1 ammo container, and it worked very effectively with meteor storms, though the amount of shots you can fit in an ammo container is limited. So until I get some more magnesium. I'm just using it to see where the meteors are coming from.

I've started making a mining ship I like to call "The Gopher". It has a lot of storage space, and a backing cam for the connector. I plan to use it as soon as it's operational.

DAY 5

There were no dreams tonight, and I'm happy about it. I don't need any of them distracting me from finishing "The Gopher."

A meteor storm just hit the gatling gun on my base. It's anoying that it got hit, but it's not something I can't handle. I've been working hard on "The Gopher," and it's got the mainshape so far. I just need to attatch the drills, ore detector and a reactor, so then I can make my mining way more fruitful. It's finished! Sure the power overloads if I try and use the large thrusters, but I can turn those off and just use my two small thrusters instead! It's not the most beautiful ship, but it works, and I am proud of it. Finally, I don't have to fly with my jetpack from astroid to astroid. I just got to "Astroid 1," and I've started mining some of the iron.
Gosh I hate it when I hate the character limit for my log week. I'm just typing my log in the seat of the Gopher and BOOM. You can't type anymore. Anyway, back to buisiness. It's good to feel the buzzing of the motors in the drills turning.

Admiral Zuko's Personal Log

<>

Calypso is chugging along through our sector very nicely. As long as we stay to the GPS markers, the fleet can maintain perfect formation, and keep things organized. Our supply ships come regularly as always, and new recruits are always listed on the boards. We can't have them all though, only a select few get into our fleet. Too bad though, from what I've seen passing from the civilian sector into Independent Space, we could definately use them.
But we must maintain order. We can't have every ship and design in our fleet, otherwise we would become disorganized and greedy. Better to share the resources with everyone.
<>


It has come to my attention that one of the Civilians has taken it upon himself to go out into deep space. From what I've heard, he's past the 3,000 km limit. Impressive. I imagine he is quite lonely out there. One of our relays continuously recieves his log entries, and they are fed to the "Great Wall of Logs" at one of the shipyards. If I were out there, by now I would be going insane, perhaps a message from the civilized world will bring his spirits up, and maybe send some resources his way, he could be stranded and without fuel for all we know. Finding him though is going to be tricky. Reaching him is no problem with the Jump Drives, but he could be anywhere. We know he is out somewhere beyond the manufactorum, because of the deep space reciever pointed in that direction.
I will ask a volunteer to load up a cargo container with as much supplies as they can fit, and send it on a ship. Perhaps he can find him and deliver my message. This is for you, traveler.
<>

I found them. By golly I found them. The main Lotus fabricating base. Good thing too, I've let the fleet know and they are sending the Calypso as I write this. If I don't make it, I'll write this here so that at least someone will find my black box.

The base is at <coordinates expunged> inside a Iron-Silver asteroid. It will be marked by the large amount of solar panels along the axis in a ring around the asteroid. Probably a bunkered large reactor further in.The base itself is guarded by heavy amounts of gatling and missle turrets on one side. Surgical strikes are recommended. Behind those is several large pistoned blast doors with airtight hanger behind them. Inside the hanger is the fabricator of the infamous Lotus. Probably impossible to breach normally, best wait until they are about to deploy a Lotus. Once deployed, the Lotus is very dangerous if you are in front of it, but is easily destroyable with rocket launchers, and the hanger will be vunerable to fire. Turrets will be ineffective once it launches it's decoys and explosives. Stay to it's flanks. The base itself is guarded by 3 Large defense stations positioned in a ring around the asteroid. They are heavily armed but can be distracted with enough decoys.
Good luck!

It's payback time. Finally. I'm rounding up my guys to go finally attack these... these monsters. Whoever managed to get close enough to the basstards is damn lucky, and we are damn thankful for it too. Soon as we can, we'll stop at that friendly Shipyard that helped us a few weeks ago and roll out. I just hope the <Military> will turn a blind eye to us trying to kick their a**es too. I hear they are prepping the mighty Calypso for combat. That beast of a carrier could tear my ragtag fleet apart. Let's hope they don't take that chance. I'll let my guys know that the military is hands-off for now until the Reavers are dealt with. As that old saying goes, The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
And on the off-chance we and the Gammorah don't make it, well then... Geronimo!

14 Large ships in all. Dozens of small ships poured from them. People from all factions and all trades came to fight the great battle.

The battle came with two parts. The first was the diversion; the Crimea class cruiser Lockheed and her escorts would engage their deployed lotus's at The Belt, drawing out the Reaver forces.
Second, the Admiral with the Calypso and her fleet would destroy the Lotus base for good.

The battle proceeded as planned, at least at first. A sight to behold the great Calypso raining hell and destruction on the monsters that attacked Andromedia, Orion's Rock, and Eden Fields.

But, the Reaver forces did not take the bait, and instead jumped in and defended their base. The Military took heavy damage from the bombardment of the Lotus's.

Then, the giant Gammorah joined the fight. Launching dozens of fighters and bombers to fight the enemy. Pirate factions from all over joined in with the mighty Gammorah, raining their own fire on the Reavers. What little fire was exchanged between them was quickly refocused toward the common enemy.

Fighters buzzed around like hornets. Suicide ships and Lotus explosives flew all around killing anything in their path, missle turret fire lit up the skies like fireworks. Tracer fire flew like thin spears. Cruisers drawing what fire they could, while carriers poured out fighters and sheltered the wounded ones, quicky repairing and rejoining the battle. Debris flung like branches in a storm. Rockets exploded everywhere, creating a black haze around the asteroid.
The great battle itself created the largest dilation of time ever seen. Time almost stood still at some places, and others seemed too fast too dangerous.

And in what almost seemed like an eternity, it was over. The battle was won. All that remained of the Reavers was a hulking shadow of an asteroid and charred pieces of debris. People went home, to their brothers and sisters in arms.

Finally, we have Peace.

Daily log

With the newly fought-for peace, things have begun to swing back to normal.
The minefield is now in the process of being partially dismantled; even though they planned on doing that months ago with the cease-fire just before the Reavers. Also, the military fleet is beginning to dismantle some of their ships, as most are not needed anymore now that the Reavers are gone. Even piracy has dropped significantly, although I expect it will go back up again. Someone will fill the power vacuum left behind. All in all, things are getting back to normal around here, and as long as there are plenty of asteroids to mine, and plenty of refineries to use, I will keep plenty busy.

I love our ship. She's not as flashy as the IMDC ships, but she's got it where it counts. She even has her own fighter class and mining ships. They come in handy all the time.

End of line.

-Horizon Spacecraft
-Computer Log-

-Crew log entries-

I can see the Earth behind us. It's so beautiful at this distance, and so small. It's about the size of a beachball now. We'll be going into cryosleep for the duration of our long journey, and it will be a solitary one across the endless expanse of interplanetary, then finally... Interstellar space.
Dr. Katmier and Dr. Rush will be woken up for our gravity slingshot near Neptune. We'll be able to launch the Ariel into it's orbit, and can finally get the clearest quality data of the Neptunian system before we exit out into interstellar space.
I wish I could be up with them. . .

It's going to be a long flight.


. . . . . . . . .


I'm finally up.
We're entering the outer edge of the Alpha Centauri system to meet up with the Project Warp module, which will speed up our flight by decades, but will be a one way shot. No coming back. Dr. Rush could explain it with greater detail than I. He is going to manage the installation of the module. He says it bends space to allow faster-than-light travel for a short period of time. And thankfully, relitivity will not be put into play thanks to us not technically going faster than the speed of light at all. We will just warp instantaniously to our destination, and then the drive will be burnt out and will be impossible to recalculate the exact perameters for another try.
So, all in all, we'll be be at Gliese 489 within the next year and a half if all things go smoothly.


. . . . . . . . . .


The crew is all strapped in and ready for the drive to fire up. It's a humongous ring around our craft, and as it spins, Rush says it creates a gravity well for us to enter and then we'll be there faster than we can imagine.


. . . . . . . . . .


This system is beautful. We're all gawking at the windows to see if we can spot the planets. We're going to try and get the spectrometer up and running so we can detect what the planet's atmospheres contain. Hopefully 489d will be in the Goldilocks zone. That was the most promising one that was seen from Earth.
For now, we have to manage getting through this system's Oort cloud. It shouldn't be too difficult, and then we'll be able to fly into the inner planet system.
Wish us luck.


. . . . . . . . . .


-Computer failure-
-Switching to backup-

...
...
...
...
...

-Crew lifesigns failure-
-Switching to emergency systems-
-Scanning . . . -
-Damage detected on command module-

. . .

-Protocol failed-
-Switching to Sleep mode-

----------------------------

-Unknown craft detected-
-Unauthorized entry in Airlock C-
-Emergency beacon engaged-

Memos and logs and whatnot

Oct 9

Been nice and quiet as of late, things have been smoothed down back to the way thigns were almost. The occasional raid, the deconstruction of the minefield, mining crews drilling asteroids not having to worry about the Reavers. Yeah things are getting back into the swing of things. Me, I'm set on helping out decontruct the minefield on my next shift. I'm kind of excited almost and a bit nervous. The mines are on their own network and will try and close in on ANY ship in their sensor range, which means you gotta be quick to get at them, or KABOOM bye bye astronaut. That design is really dang effective. I hate it, but also love it. It keeps the manufacturm all nice and safe.

Oct 12

Oh boy, today is the day! I'm excited to go out there! 100k uranium ingots here I come!
YES! My first mine! Easy peasy. Lets go for a second!

(<IVAN'S STATION LOG>)

Finally can use this programmable block for my own log instead of system scrips. I need them, but I want to write my log as well you damn computer!

Work at Nuts & Volts is a bit menial at times, grinding down or welding ships isn't the most glamorous job in the Triad sector, but collecting the logs is what put our station on the map. Sharing the travels of the Arrow really got the sector's attention. I knew I had to get more, so I grabbed logs that I deamed "OK enough" to share; work logs, notes, and whatnot. It didn't look very good on the Wall, so I scrutinized more, went for the more personal ones, kinda like the one I'm writing now. Ones that really could show what is really going on in the sector. I would share the broadcasts from the Zuko Radio station but I'm not always in range of it which is a pain in the butt sometimes. Zuko radio is the only real way everyone in the sector knows what the heck is going on. True, unbiased, NEWS. Speaking of, I heard the Skyfarer station was raided a while ago. Pirates wanted to grab as many jump drive ships as they could and then get the heck out of there before Zuko and his guys showed up. Too bad Skyfarer took such a pounding. I really liked them. Nice guys, not so willing to share logs, but still nice. And on that note, not everyone is willing to share their logs. I sometimes get requests to pull logs I find from derilects from the Wall because they have important, classified, or personal information on them that some people don't want others to see. Understandable, I mean, not everyone is good at writing these and also some people aren't willing to share.

Welp, one more log to the Wall. My own. Back to work...

Olympus Station
Station Manager Log

OI! No editing this log!
That means you Jeffrey!

-------------------------------------------

October 28

Most of the celebrations for the death of the reavers has ended. I'm happy about that, means things will quiet down around here and people won't start doing stupid things! In the last party, and idiot broke the glass on one of the domes. Thankfully no one was hurt, but repairing that glass, then refilling the rooms is a pain in the a**.

I can finally kick back and sip my tea.

October 30

More parties. At least this time, everyone is indoors for this one. The Americans call it Halloween, even though my country doesn't celebrate that holiday. Although, the clever and sometimes hilarious costumes are nice though. One robotic engineer built himself a spider-like body and piloted it around the dome. A not too shabby design.

Thankfully, that means no one is in the observation deck. I can sit alone at the telescope and look out at the stars.

BLACK BOX
PANTHER

----

The latest test of the decoy launchers are a success. Getting them the proper parts was the tricky part though, and I'd rather not get into that. I'm trying to keep the warheads onboard as complete as they can be without being armed in the process. Soon I'll be able to launch this into the minefield and create a chain reaction. When that happens, traffic through it will be smooth and clear again... maybe.

Getting past the newly built Callisto (Calypso) will be an issue though. It's a huge ship. The military is doing a show of force along the minefield, almost like a parade to show off the mighty ship. Ugh.
Finally got enough parts to launch the decoy spread.

I will finally reopen our space!

Log Entry


11/15

The newly discovered star system has everyone abuzz. Stations that once were fixed have become mobile to secure their new positions around the new worlds.

They have discovered 3 so far, with 6 moons.

It's almost perfect. One for each sector.

The Military fleet went in first, securing the most habitible world, preventing everyone from fighting over it.... hopefully.

The Manufactorum is taking control of the smaller, barren planet in favor of the abundance of resources without the risk of colonization. The 3rd planet, a strange one that everyone seems to be avoiding is a bright green world with red plants. The Independant sector has claimed it, but are hesitant to doing so.

The sector's favorite station, nuts and volts, has become mobile and has positioned themselves near the barren planet, but close enough to the habitible planet that people can still come and repair.

For me, I'm just excited everyone is moving. It will provide an excellent change of pace to everything. No more fighting over useless asteroids.

(On a personal note, gameplay lag has increased significantly for a while due to everyone making new things for planets. The admin is going to take tomorrow to clean house so that we can start mostly fresh. For any members that are reading this, be sure to power down any ships/stations you want to leave behind and remove all solar panels from them. Everything within this catagory will be deleted!)

------------

>>Pullox Orbital Station

>>Manager Log


>> Today's activity was low, as most of the colonists have landed on what we have christened Andromedia, named after the planetoid that was destroyed by the Reavers not 2 months ago. The biomes are as varied as they are beautiful. Most of the local mining operations are kept to the poles as the visibility helps miners spot likely locations. It also gives us easy access to the ice stored there, so that many can resupply their hydrogen storage for out-of-atmosphere excursions. From what I've heard, the other two planets are doing just as well, but the green-world many are calling Pandora is a difficult and hostile place to work. I have not heard why yet.

>> We still get occasional visitors to our station. Orbital miners, shuttles refueling, that sort of thing. Orbital time is a nice solid 6 hours. We're happy as clams here...

Tarantula Strike Bomber log

Our newly chistened defense ships are proving to be exceptionally useful here on the planet. My own bomber has it's own torpedo launchers. I've heard they are especially effective, but I have not had the opportunity to test them in combat.

From what I've heard, the torpedoes function much the same way the older wire-guided missles worked. Point at the target and hold until hit. Easier said than done though... Although, it provides an excellent way to abort the strike if needed, or to adjust target.

Getting the torpedo to function and fire is the easy part. Reloading them, that's the tricky part. If I roll the bomber, the torpedoes load lopsided. If I move too fast, they load in the incorrect position. And therein lies the issue. I cannot move while reloading or it screws up the build sequence. Which means I an open to any fire that comes my way. So, I've devised a quick strategy... It takes 2 and half seconds for the torpedoes to build, a couple more to arm, and then less than a second to fire. If I can get a fair enough distance away for me to be able to load and fire a volley of these at a target, I could provide massive fire if I ever need to go into combat. I fire these first, then let the rest of the gunships handle the target.

I'm going to buy some steal plates and try this out on some dummy targets. Lets see how well we do.

Orca Scoutcraft

Dec 3
The planet Pandora. I don't know why the Independent sector was given his hellhole. The air is toxic with sulfides and methane. The water is almost insoluble with contaminants, its hell. Not to mention the hostile fauna. The eggheads are calling them Pandoric Sabaroids, we just call em spiders. God, nasty buggers. Teeth, claws, stingers, and burrowing... Oh my! F***ing hell.

The days are 34 hours of 20 degrees F in the sun, the nights 34 damn far colder hours. I don't even know how life developed on this hell hole. Pandora indeed. More like Pandora's box!

At least I can stay in the air away from the hostile air and life. And the entire Independent sector is expected to move here? What idiots decided this bulls#it?!
If the spiders don't get you on the ground they will tear down the structure you are in to get at you, so why even bother living here? It's obviously already occupied!

I really don't know anymore. It feels as if we were just sent here to die. The lucky military and the manufactorum get the good worlds. How come we got the hellhole?

God this sucks. Next chance I get, I am off this rock!

>

Come on, when is the next god d@mn transport?! I just want to get off this rock and leave!

Maybe I can bribe someone to help me get down to Andromedia. From the telescope on Pandora, it looks beautiful.
Like Earth, but greener. Hell I'd settle for the barren world. I don't even know what that is called.
Anything to get off this rock.

>

One last flight around Pandora... then I'm out of here. I don't know where, but once I'm free of this world, I'm a free bird. Hmm. If I can get a hold of the Vector Ind. shuttle, I may be able to planet hop from the barren world to Andromedia. It would be a long flight though.

>> Vector Industries - C.O. Log<<

<> The first tests of the shuttle are all looking extremely promising. Even though we don't have any major products out in the community yet, our first product will most definately bring the attention we need to get the business going.

<> The product testing in the Triad sector proved very successful. Although there were some issues with hydrogen fuel time, it can be worked out later. This is excellent news. If this small shuttle can bring this much attention, it's time to go public.

<> Our second product is in the works now. An atmospheric transport with heavy VTOL capabilities. From what the design plans show, it looks promising on paper. But, will it be worth it?

<> The transport is finished now, the engineers are calling it the Valkryie. It's a modest VTOL shuttle. With hydrogen afterburners and side turrets... It might be our best success yet.... hopefully.

[VI] Vector Class Shuttle
Owner log


Finally got my hands on the new shuttle, she looks absolutely beautiful. The shape, the colors, ... everything!
Her fuel time is a bit iffy, but as long as I have inertial dampen off, she handles like a dream.

Almost to Arcadia for the official landing! It's going to be exciting! The first landing on the barren planet, not really history book worthy, but it's still exciting nonetheless.

-

no no no no no no no no no no! bad time to fun out of fuel now!
nonononononononooooo!

Valkyrie VTOL
Co-Pilot Audio Log


This world is a hostile place... God it feels like a nightmare sometimes... *sigh* ... Two hours till sunrise. At least on the bright side, the spiders have stopped attacking. Once they knew they couldn't get past the automatic defenses, they just ... stopped coming.

Oh sure, we can hear them in the distance, just outside of weapons range. ... Smart buggers. Well, I should at least try to get some sleep... ... ... Hell, I might not even wake up at all...

=-=-=-=-=

Daytime. Finally. At least now we can fix the problem with the hydrogen fuel line. Once it's operational, we can take off again... hopefully at least. At least there is enough battery power to last us a while.

Hopefully one of us won't get eaten by those.... those .... ... ... those things!

-- Entry stopped --

Day 1
After detaching from the lander carrier, I entered the atmosphere and began my long descent. After about 15 min I finally found a suitable valley to land in. Although it is a desert, it is not far from the savanna and a ice source.

The first task was setting up the solar arrays on the lander. Eesh what a pain in the neck.
After that, a decent staging area for resource drop-off and retrieving. Once I got everything situated, I deployed my own little special rover named FRED (Field Recon & Exploration Device). I like acronyms, as long as I can shorten it into a nice name. I thought it was so good, I took a picture of it (with me photobombing).


The next task was resources. Plenty of ore veins around here. FRED makes the trip a lot easier. Sure he only has 1 medium container, but it's plenty.

$hit! One of FRED's suspensions collapsed, I was thrown out the windshield, and FRED did a bit of a tumble and broke into several pieces. The mined ore went everywhere.
Geez, FRED is toast. I'll have to build a new rover.

Day 2
I'm about halfway done with a new rover. I've figured out what went wrong with FRED. FRED's wheel base wasn't wide enough to handle tighter turns and bumps. And if FRED ever would have flipped over, I would have never gotten it back over again.

I've christened the new rover M.A.V. Mobile Articulated Vehicle.

Hmm, that doesn't sound very good as a name... Ah! I know how about M.A.E.V? Mobile Articulated Exploration Vehicle.

Hm, not bad! MAEV had a nice wide wheel base with 8 wheels. 4 for turning, and 4 for propulsion. She's larger, stronger, and faster than FRED was. And plus, she's solor powered! So I can both operate her and recharge her at the same time during the day.

Day 3
MAEV is proving to be quite helpful in getting ore. She has twice the storage space than FRED. Now, the only issue is getting to that ice source to get hydrogen fuel. ... I guess it's time for an air vehicle. I'm no good with VTOLs so it's going to have to be a plane. Which also means a runway. UGH.

Whoo! Two hours later and I make another vehicle, I named it A.R.V; Aerial Recon Vehicle. It can help me find ore and transport ice.

WELP, I crashed ARV on the first shakedown flight. Too damn heavy. *sigh*

Back to the drawing board....

Day 4
Another air vehicle. This one, a quad rotor lifter. Sort of looks like a large version of small air drones we used to have back on Earth. I named it G.A.V; Grabbing Assistance Vehicle.
She has a ton of lifting power, and lots of stabilizing gyros to boot. I made a few pods to attach to GAV for lifting across the area. All of which I named as well. But I'm not going to name them all here, it would take too much space.

Now that I have the resources, I can construct larger objects... Hmmm... Since there is a lot of wind that goes through this valley, I could build my self a large windmill for power. I need to get a lot higher up though, so I'll have to build a staircase just to get the resources up there. Ugh. Curse you jetpack fuel!

I am really enjoying GAV. It's a bit noisy, but it gets the work done. Although lifting a heavy cargo pod around is not the most glamourous job at times. In fact, it's pretty damn scary sometimes!

Now that I have the time, I should take a picture of this place. It's practically home now.

BLACK BOX
Terminal Log

Once we load up these supplies and munitions for New Andromedia it's going to be a long flight to the system.

I gotta hand it to the Triad sector, they've taken in colonization rather well. Most space farers have a hard time readjusting to planetary life.

We should be arrive within 68 hours.

--------

TERMINAL IDLE

--------


WARNING
:HYDROGEN LEAK DETECTED IN:

FORWARD STORAGE COMPARTMENT
FORWARD HANGER


--------

:HANGER DECK 2:
AUDIO RECORDING 27

"Hey man, check out these sweet guns!"
*whistle* "Lucky Andromedians. MA5 rifles are hard to come by."
"Hey, do you think they will mind if we fire a few rounds off in here?"
"As long as you save a few shots for me!"

*shots fired*

*EXPLOSION*

--------

EMERGENCY!
DECOMMPRESSION DETECTED ON ALL DECKS

LOSS OF SIGNAL WITH FORWARD SECTION


INITIATING AUTOMATIC DISTRESS BEACON
. . . .

-Pilot log-

Finally got my hands on the new heli from New Andromedia. Oh man, she's a beauty. Almost reminds me of the old Huey's the US Army used to have before they switched to jet VTOLs.

She's been really coming in handy for transporting cargo and civilians to and from the colony sites. The fuel time may be a bit iffy, but it's managable. After all, they had to figure out something to replace the old turbine engines that the old heli's used to have. Lucky they had plenty of Azimuth engines lying around that fit the bill perfectly.

Welp, off to my next job, grinding down old Landers! Greaaaat...

-Pilot Log-

(Please don't delete this log if you find it! Send it to "Wall of Logs" instead!)

#######

March 27

Traveling from the northern pole of New Andromedia to the shipyard further south is fun. I get to fly through this enormous mountain chain each time, and each time I fly as close as I can get to the cliffs. (Not too close of course!) Not to mention flying down through the snow covered valleys, oh man that's just dreamy. I could glide all day across it.

But I have to transport these supplies.

Not sure why they needed the shipyard to be so much further south, it would have been easier to have it at the pole with the rest of the industrial facilities. Oh well.

However, flying at night is scary as heck. Almost zero natural light, and these spotlights don't reach the ground. All I got is my altimeter and the stars. At least the mountains have a slight outline to them at night, which makes it a little easier to handle.
But don't get me started with landing at night. It's a pure, unadulterated, nightmare.

At least most of the runways are long enough so that I have enough room to slow down or brake if I touch down too quick.
It also provides me with a nice amount of time to write my daily log after I unload. Can't fit a long story-like log like the Arrow logs though, because of the computer script I have below this.

Oh well. Another day, another haul!

I got to say something for all you people looking at the "Wall of Logs", and I know some of you don't want to hear it.

Keeping the peace is a pain in the @ss.

I'm saying it, despite what everyone else thinks. It's an unequivocal absolute pain in the @ss.

Sure, we got to keep everything and everyone safe from people who want to just be total douchb@gs, but when you end up getting into armed conflict, things just get too messy.

Either you lose a valued aircraft or vehicle, feel like a monster when you destroy their stuff, or you end up dragging them by their bootstraps to whatever verdict they get.
Each one of those options is almost never a happy ending.

It's probably because of the new influx of people coming from Pandora; the hellhole world. Even though it's about damn time that our IMDC military let them land on New Andromedia, dealing with a huge bucket-load of people all trying to find the perfect place to settle down on means things get fought over.

We got a whole damn planet to use, and some of you guys fight over a small ice lake? Really?!

At least I'm in a bad-@ss helicopter. People don't usually mess with someone who's in a heli that can fire hundreds of Hellfire rockets a minute AND riddle them with 25 cal. bullets designed to punch through even the toughest of EVA suits.
Just try it. I dare you.

Although, when people are friendly and cooperative, it makes my job so much easier. No need to waste ammo or words on something that probably doesn't matter anyway. I like those kind of people. Wish there were more like you.

TERMINAL LOG

:CREW ENTRY 429:

Things have been so smooth as of late. All of the colonists are either being settled or have been settled on New Andromedia for however long they plan to be here.

Already a city is starting to form in the temperate zone near the equator, they're calling it New Valeron, no idea why but the name has pretty much stuck. But, I'm not going to spending my days in the city, I'll be here. On my lonely little Network outpost because I have the clearest view of the DSN Hub we established on Arcadia and near Pandora. By the way, we've pretty much just given up settling on Pandora. It's already occupied, and it's been designated for science and mining missions only.

Anyway, things are going to be quite nice. We're happy as clams.

:END ENTRY:

...

:RECORDING TRANSCRIPT:
:DATE 5/28:

ANDR: DSN to planetary defence station, relay orbital data to Outpost 26... Also, how's things in space doing?

PDS: Copy DSN, routing data to Outpost 26. Space is quite fine here. We've got a meteor shower on a heading of 170, 26, 2 if you guys want to watch down there.

ANDR: Copy that PDS, we'll send you some pictures. I might even... Hang on... PDS check Sector 16 posible large contacts on long range telemetry.

PDS: Very funny DSN. That's a big negative, over.

ANDR: Copy PDS, will check with other stations to verify. DSN to Arcadia Monitoring Station, possible large contacts in Sector 16, can you verify?

ARC: Negative, DSN. Scope is clear. Don't know what to tell you, there is heavy solar activity today. Maybe check with Pandora, they're in that region.

ANDR: DSN to Pandora Outpost 6, we may have a telemetry malfunction on Andromedia, can you verify anything on your end?

PAND: THERE'S SO MANY OF THEM!!

ANDR: Outpost 6, please repeat!

PAND: I'm reading dozens on Lotus ships over Pandora, how the hell did the Reavers come back!?! We're being overwhelmed by warheads! Send-- *static*

ANDR: All stations on this net, we have large enemy contacts bearing 126, 16, 0 send immediate response! Contacts reported to be Reavers. Repeat, contacts reported to be Reavers. Use extreme caution!

H-MERV TACTICAL DRONE DEFENSE STATION 0297

---

:SECTOR REPORT:

...

:MULTIPLE CONTACTS:

:BEARING 170 : 16 : 0 :
...

:DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS ACTIVE:
---

:ALERT!
FIREWALL BREACH DETECTED
COMPENSATING...

UNABLE TO COMPLY
---

:UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO MISSLE CONTROL DETECTED:
:UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO BROADCAST CONTROL DETECTED:
:UNAUTHORIZED VIDEO BROADCAST ACTIVE:

"We fight, and fight, and fight, and then... we die. Nothing you can do will change that story. For 6 years we spoke with God, and He told us to take us all to heaven. To return to the dust whence we came. And this promise... WE SHALL KEEP!"

:UNAUTHORIZED DRONE LAUNCH:
:UNABLE TO ABORT L63-H:MERV DRONES:
UNAUTHORIZED SHut down....

CALYPSO LOG

<=>


:BRIDGE TRANSCRIPT:

ADM: Are the anti-lotus stations standing by?

COMM: They're reporting all green.

ADM: Distance to target.

COMPUTER: :15 decimal 26 kilometers:

ADM: Stand by all long-range batteries on my mark, I want to be firing the moment they are within range.

COMM: Sir, our defence stations are going dark, we're losing signal from them!

ADM: What?!

COMPUTER: :Virus detected. Firewall intact:

ADM: They must have shut down our defense stations...*sigh* I guess we'll have to do this the hard way. Scramble all interceptors and have Cmd. Crete have his units deploy as well.

COMM: Understood.

ADM: *pulls out speakerphone* Put me on with the fleet.

COMM: Connecting you, sir.

ADM: This is the Admiral. The Reavers have returned. They wish to ravage our colonies, destroy all that we hold dear... But they underestimate how much we have prepared. Let's whipe them off the face of the Sector so that NONE return to harm us again!

*slams down speakerphone*

:OFFICER: Incoming Lotus warheads! ... SIR! I'm detected guided drones! They're all on collision courses with our ships!

ADM: All anti-fighter turrets stand ready for contacts. Prioritize the warheads, but keep those drones off us as best they can!

:TRANSCIPT ERROR:
:PROCEEDING TO NEXT INTACT FILE:

COMM: There's too many drones! We can't keep all the warheads from reaching the surface!

ADM: Then target the warheads only! Stop them at all costs!

*Explosion*

OFFICER: Warhead detonation near the main thrusters! We're losing altitude control!

ADM: Keep firing! Don't stop!

OFFICER: ... Oh s***, INCOMING!!!

*Explosion*

*Static*
:END OF INTACT FILES:

DESTROYER LOG

AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
TIME: 18:47 hours

Watch that crossfire from the cruiser!

*proximity warning goes off*

Watch it! Don't let the warheads hit us! One good hit and *imitates explosion* bye bye us!

Calypso is taking heavy fire!

Take us to them! Let's give them a hand before-...

Oh my god...

The admiral...

Get me on comms. NOW!

*speaker feedback*

This is the destroyer Hammerhead, Calypso is falling, repeat, Calypso is falling! The Admiral was most definately onboard!

*through comms* All ships, this is Cmd. Crete! Fall back to Luno! Repeat, fall back to Luno! New Andromedia is lost!

F*** THAT! I'm staying right here!

You heard him! We have to go now!

That's my f***ing home down there! I'm not about to let some reaver scum tear it down!

Jump to Luno NOW!

NO!

*sounds of a scuffle*

I am not going to let some coward like you stop me!

*sounds of ships jumping away*

There they go...

Gatling turrets just ran out of ammunition!

F***! ... Aw hell.. RAMMING SPEED!

*LOSS OF SIGNAL WITH COMMAND SECTION*
*LAUNCHING BLACKBOX BUOY*

(6 days after the Reaver attack)

I know it's been extremely quiet as of late with the new attack with the Reavers, but here's at least one new log to the wall.

Here's what has happened (as far as I know) in the sector:
New Andromedia; along with stations on Pandora and Arcadia, were attacked by Reaver Mk IV Lotus ships (btw, thanks a lot for that design, w4stedspace. You really know how to make it go boom.) The IMDC fleet managed to hold off most of the attack force, but took extreme casualties. They, along with any that managed to escape Andromedia in time, evacuated to Luno, Andromedia's second and farthest moon. Beyond that, I have no idea what has happened to them.

Most of the people I know have basically either bunkered themselves up for the long run, or have left the system. Our shipyard itself has detached from the Asteroid we locked onto, and have moved to a more secure location. In short, we're holed up here for a while.

Until we get proper word that it is safe to resume activities, we've assumed outward radio silence. All we do is listen from now on.

SO, yeah. Pretty boring.
Want to know just how boring? I started building my own ship. A little Dauntless class shuttle I've been meaning to get to. Could take me anywhere in the system and planetside if I wanted to, but it's way to dangerous to leave. I'd rather not endanger the station.

Yeah.
So until we get word of anything good, here we sit.

Pilot Log

~~~~~~~~~~~~


106,460 km

Been a while since I've actually done something like this. OK...

So, HI, to whoever is reading this!

I'm going to go planet hopping around the nearby systems. I won't settle on the planets unless I absolutely have to. You know, when you run out of power or something.

Yeah, I got a bit of a head start, had to get a good distance away from the New Andromedia system to get started, you know.

Anywho, my ship is an extremely modified military heavy escort. And no, it's not IMDC. Independants. They still make pretty good ships, sure they aren't as formal, but most are unique and lovely to look at. Such as mine.

Sure this bucket is pretty slow and has barely any industrial facilities (my fault), but she's my home now. Got all the essentials. Kitchen, living room, and bedroom... ish. Still working on that. Need to scoure a few asteroids first.

So, yeah. Enjoy the journey! I sure will!

~

200,666 km

Found myself an old mining ship derilect floating here. I hate hand mining, so this is excellent for me! Probably out of power, so I'll bring a few rods of uranium for reactors. Also, I hope it even fits in the hanger!

.

It fits! And she has plenty of juice! YAHOO! Little bit of a squeeze, but no worries. Still awesome. HAPPY DANCE!

~

350,732 km

Coming up on an iceball planetoid. No atmosphere to speak of, and I have no need for it. I don't have hydrogen systems onboard, and my O2 generator is plenty full. So, I'm just going to use it's gravity as a slingshot further into this system.

I can see another world further on, so that's going to be my next stop!

See you there!

~

400,032 km

I've arrived in the optimal point to begin my first planet-going. I do want to point out I am not actually going down to the planet surface itself, I am sending a rover down instead. Much easier to handle, and significantly less risk.

The rover itself is a Curiousity class probe with some parachutes on it. The camera moves thanks to it's many rotors, eesh... Thankfully it has lots of planetary equipment, so, it will take readings while it's down there.

It's away! I can't even see it anymore. I keep it connected via the laser comm array just in case, hopefully we won't lose connection through the atmosphere. It looks pretty thick.

I'll check back once I get data.

~

400,032 km

Its looking good down there. Well, the probe at least is. The planet itself is an inhospitible wasteland. The whole place seems to be covered in crevices and rocks. It's like a giant sandpaper planet. I was lucky that I found a small area to land the rover in safely.

I'll stay for a little while to collect the full planetary data, then I will head out once again.
Goodbye little rover, see you later.

~

880,199 km

Arrived in the Jynu system this morning. Jumped to the planet with it's unique moon and sent out my rover probes.

Jynu itself is a frozen snowball. Literally. It's a snowboarder/skiier's dream. The other planet in binary orbit of it; is a little more unique. From what the spectrometer shows it's mostly a thick limestone on the surface, which means that where I landed must have been a vast ocean.
Well, it sure isn't now. It's a barren planet barely capable of supporting life now.

This is all facinating! I might stay here for a few more days, look into the data more thoroughly, maybe drive the rovers around some more to find more mysteries to uncover! I might even find fossils!

However, I would have prefered just some Viking Lander styled probes instead. They are a lot easier that figuring out wheeled systems.

Hmmm. I guess I could start on one, see where it goes!

~

Well, it works.

It's not quite as useful as the rover, but it's definately more robust. A perfect landing, the thrusters fired just in time to slow it down, and we touched down like a leaf kissing the surface of a pond. Ish. Good thing about this design is that I can pack a lot more scanning and monitoring equipment onboard it. With the rovers, all they had was the basic package, not much room for other amenities.

The Viking probe is now going to be situated there, with it's solar cells forever keeping it alive. And thankfully, it (probably) won't have the same fate as the original Viking probe. There's a lot more sun, a decent magnetic field, and the weather as far as I know doesn't look too bad!

I think this will be my official way of probing all the planets I come across. It's simple, sturdy, and packs enough to live forever if it ever wanted to.

Off to the next adventure!

~

1,040,446 km

I've been thinking of doing an overhaul of the mining ship today. Hell, maybe even rebuild the dang thing. It was built without an onboard O2 system, it has very pidly thrust, and is extremely slow with a full load. SO... yeah.
Lot of work ahead of me if I want to get this done.

May as well get started...

~

Well, it's done. I completely scrapped the old mining ship in favor of a better design. I used a blueprint of a well used miner and did some slight modifications to make sure the thrust wasn't as pidly as the last one. All in all, I think I did rather nicely.

Oh, and before I forget, I know that there are long range telescopes on Andromedia that could see my ship if I gave them the correct coordinates. Well here they are: [COORDINATES REDACTED]. Feel free to take a look at how far I have come. I'll be here for the next couple hours doing some minor work on the ship. Once you get this log, you better start looking.

~

I think my next project will be my weapon systems. Sure, the standard gatling guns work fine against meteoroids, but magnesium is getting really hard to come by.
SO, I've decided to try out the prototype of an energy gatling gun I have in my databank. Needs no ammunition, takes up significantly less space, and deals a bit more damage. Only thing I'll need to worry about is power. They do take up more than usual, but with a little tweaking of my own power systems I think I should be able to handle them nicely. Off to work!

~

Yay! I got laser weapons now! Pew pew pew!
Hopefully they do their job well.

Off to the next system!

~

1,970,505 km

Arriving in the next system now and ... Whoa... I'm inside what appears to be a micronebula. It didn't register on the system map, so this must be new. Ish. Maybe it's a stellar cloud? Baby star forming? Gas giant ripped apart? Hell if I know. All I know is that the sight to see is beautiful. The next jump should put me in range of the next planets.

Off we go!

~

2,390,007 km

Almost within range of the Elipida system. Looks like a binary star system; a blue giant star with a cozy orange dwarf orbiting away from it about a fifteen thousand light seconds from it. It'll still take me at least half a jump to get within proper range to launch the Viking probes, but this pair looks almost promising.

Through the spectroscopic telescope, Elipida looks an awful lot like the New Andromedia system. The companion star looks very very weird though. I don't believe I've ever seen that color in a star before. However, I'm going to bed for now and I'm going to set the jump drives on standby until the morning.

If anything goes bump in the night, I hope my turrets do their job!

~

2,898,650 km

Now in range to get a view of Elipida system as a whole.
Looks like 5 main planetary bodies. 3 gas giants, a barren world orbiting the blue giant, and.... Oh wow. Earth-like signal coming from one of the planets orbiting the orange dwarf.
Well, looks like I'm going to be staying here for a while. I'm going to scan every inch of that planet. people will be coming by the thousands to see this beautiful little jewel.

It's been a couple of hours since I left the safety of the shipyard with my personal shuttle to New Andromedia.

My, oh my, what a MESS.



When I arrived in orbit the first thing I found was the extensive debris field from the Lotus engagement, Only a couple ships were partially intact. Next thing was the extensive bombardment field on the surface of the planet. New Valeron was at the center of it all, the most hit. Miraculously, the polar shipyards are still intact. The main communication center is trashed however. Only short range ship-to-ship or city-to-city communication is online. Thank god for good old fasioned radio.

Since I was the only intact ship with longe range jump capabilities it has fallen to ME to take a message to the main comm station positioned at the Triad point. (the center of the distances between all 3 planets.)

So... off I go! In my personal little Space RV.

On my way back, a rogue high energy ion storm had rolled into the sector. Thank god for reinforced radiation plating and EM shielding. Unfortunately, that means the jump drives do diddly squat until it passes.


->-<-


HOLY F***.

A fully deployed lotus just went by. It just barely missed me.

Holy s*** do I feel lucky. Unfortunately, it's headed right for the polar shipyards.

...

F***.
I hope they get out in time.

Research Vessel Attronox


Alexi Bordinov
Crewman Log:

July 29

Research into the Reavers has yielded very little, as we know very little about them at all. All we do know is that they can construct destructive ships that aparently have the ability for mass construction of explosive devices. We've recorded 4 different "Lotus" devices so far.

The MK I's attacked Andromedia and Orion's Rock a little over 7 years ago. The MK II and III's were what we faced in the 4 year long struggle against them. Finally, the MK IV is what we face now. Adapted for planetary attack, obviously.

Frankly, we don't even know what the Reavers look like!

All the battles against them were ship-to-ship, no boarding parties that ever tried to attack ever returned. However, the distorted message we got at the beginning of the attack on the colonies does give me some clue as to their form. It showed at least some sort of humanoid form, although frankly we only see part of his/her/its face most of the time, and the video is heavily distorted and corrupted.


I shall continue to theorize as to what the true nature of these creatures are. Given time, of course, I may just find out.

My message to the Triad point laser comm dish network was to gather as many ships from ... ANYWHERE to a set of coordinates where what remains of the IMDC fleet is gathered. The comm array has a pseudo-infinite broadcasting system, which allows for anyone in planetary range to recieve it.

Got a break in the Ion storm today, so jump capabilities are restored for now. FINALLY. It took me forever to get from the surface of Andromedia to one of the orbital arrays that connects to the Triad Point.
>-<

Jumping to the coordinates now!
Hope this isn't a trap!
>-<

- Landed onto Attronox class Science Vessel: Thesia

Wowee so many ships. At least a dozen or more total. The IMDC has asked the civilian ships to congregate away from their ships, being that different faction weapon systems and all.

Most of the ships here are salvaged from derilect ships. There are a couple like mine that are built from scratch.

Ya know, this almost reminds me of that old sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica. Refugees escape an encroached world to go somewhere else. Maybe not quite the same, as we still have a functioning military, but it's close enough! If only we had a garden ship! Then it would be perfect!
>-<

Our "flotilla" of a fleet has begun to move away from the Andromedia system. We've picked up a few straglers on the way, including the shipyard where I was working. Yes, the entire shipyard is now mobile. We're a flying repair station now, although we do have a utility drone carrier ship.

(Also, the lag is tremendous while within the fleet. DANG IT KEEN, FIX YOUR NETCODE.)

Not all of us have jump capability unfortunately, so we're stuck at sub-light until we've upgraded most, if not all of the ships.

Unfortunately, as far as we know, no one survived the bombardments on New Andromedia. Some watching from orbit even saw nuclear detonations. Jesus F***ing Christ.

I'm still stuck to the side of this Attronox ship, although they do let me onboard from time to time to refill on my life support systems. The shuttle is designed for trans-atmospheric flight, not permanent deep space travel. All I did was slap a jump drive into the mix so I could go planet to planet.

The Attronox is actually working on something big inside it's science labs down in the core of the ship. Like h*** I'd ever get access to see it, but I'm hoping it's something good. And I hope it's useful.

Researcher voice log entries:
Date: 8-22

Work into the new system has proven to be troublesome. If it weren't for the aparent lack of good resources to construct the device, I'd be on schedule. But, since we were cut short with the attack on the colony and that we don't have any industrial facilities to construct resources, much of my work has been extremely slow, if not at a standstill.

I wish there were a way to properly introduce the new devices into a system without them trying to consume everything else around it to build it's intended product, but the only way so far is by maintaining a magnetic field to keep their self-recharging power system inert.

The [REDACTED] are aggresive little things, I'll give them that, but until I can properly mass produce them, all we have are a few hundred of the little things in small test tubes.

Wait a minute... If the magnetic field was geometric, I could create a conduit device that could route my devices to their intended target! It wouldn't be as fast as a mass production facility but it would certainly be more effective... ooh, this could even reach accross ship-to-ship if the host ship had the power supply requirements!

I must get to work immediately on the conduit. Wait till the fleet comander hears of this! Finally something worthy of our labs!

------------------------------------------------

Date: 8-24

The conduit device is as ready as it's going to be. Hopefully the [REDACTED] will be able to construct their intended blueprint and not eat everything else around it.

Short range lab tests are one thing, but sending these through dense steel hull plating is another. I guess we could test it on the refugee ship docked on our maintenance pad.
I'll get his permission to see if it works. If it doesn't... well... I'll owe him a ship.

Shipyard: Is this thing on?... Awesome, got the radio working.
This is VCI Shipyard to... uh... fleet. We're ready to begin servicing ships for jump drive installation.

Cerberus: Roger shipyard. First on your ducket is Trade 2 on it's aft section. Please note Trade 2 has hydrogen systems.

Shipyard: Roger that.

:FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY:

Shipyard: Thesia you are clear to disembark bay. VCI to Ubumboo, please prepare for servicing.

*unintelligable Afrikaans language*

Shipyard: Uhhh, .... I'll take that as an affirmative, Ubumboo. ... Hold on, Ubumboo, lower your lateral speed!

*panicked Afrikaans language*

Shipyard: Ubumboo! Throttle zero! You're going to collide!- $hit! Crew, get away from the command module!

WARNING: COLLISION DETECTED
WARNING: REACTOR BREACH - ABANDON SHIP

WARNING: ABANDON SHIP

WARNING: ALL SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN

CMD LOG
-

SEPTEMBER 3

Our ragtag fleet is on the brink everyday. Already we've lost our repair shipyard due to the collision from the Ubumboo. Damn lack of communication and different language sets like this cause catastrophe. We're lucky we didn't lose the science ship in the process.

I've assigned the Vector shuttle pilots for scouting any and all derilects we can find, the bigger the better. God knows we need the supplies.

There was a near mutiny on the Avenger, the lead Atlas frigate. Luckily nothing serious occured, but the stress of everything is pushing everyone to the brink.

Unless we find some good news soon, we're going to tear each other apart.
-

DRONE CARRIER TYPHUS
Crewman log: SET 1

Why why why why why doesn't everyone speak english!?

Damn ubumboo ship tried to dock with the shipyard way too fast, and now we have to clean up the mess.

I get that everyone has their own language base, but at least speak english too! Losing the shipyard is going to put a big strain on everyone! Including us! We were scheduled to get a jump drive tomorrow but nooooooo the ubumboo wanted to rush things.
Now we have to pull double duty as both repair, salvage, AND construction.
Just when things couldn't get worse...

DRONE CARRIER TYPHUS
Crewman log: SET 2

Finally a little bit of good news. The fleet's first derilect we've come across. Explorer class transport. Looks like it was just abandoned and left without power.

We've got our heavy cargo hauler latched onto it now, to keep it from floating away, while our drones take this thing apart.

The storage was empty; unfortunately, but the raw components that can be salvaged could at least buy us a little more time. The reactor systems alone can be reused to repair some of more critical systems. The command area has enough computer components to be used for improving interior circuitry, even fix some of our drones that have systems that are starting to degrade.

The most we can get is the raw steel we can salvage from the hull. Most will be stored in the business ships, but we at least get to keep some for our work.

Our only problem is that we only have 1 salvage drone. This is going to take quite some time. We're sitting ducks if something comes our way...

Finally today most of our ships are outfitted with jump drives. It's about damn time. The ones who aren't will just attach with maglocks to the ones that can jump.

The Arrow corvette has become our resident scout ship. Taking the lead on looking for minable asteroids and derilects.

When we jump tommorow, we'll be one step closer to leaving the Andromedia system.

The drone ship says they can construct a mining vessel once we have enough resources from what little hand mining we can do. After that, we'd have to construct a refinery ship, and that isn't easy. Most are outfitted with 6+ refineries and many assemblers. Wish the Leonydus had survived the Exodus. She had 8 refineries and 12 upgraded assembing units. Back when we arrived at New Andromedia, she provided the mass contruction of our landing craft, stations, and the city of New Valeron. She may have been a flying brick, but she was the best ship we had.

Damn Reavers.

- RECORDING TRANSCRIPT -

- IMDC MILITARY : SHIP COMMAND CHANNEL -
- CURRENT DATE: SEP 10 -

COMMAND, CERBERUS CLASS: Fleet status report. Standard pattern.

PROTEUS CLASS: Proteus here; hydrogen reserves at bingo fuel, but standing ready.

ATLAS CLASS: Avenger standing by. Negative forward sensor contacts. Anti-lotus systems funtional.

HYPERION CLASS: Elkos here, no contacts on rear sensors. All ships accounted for.

HYDRA CLASS: Ceres standing by. Civilian fleet is shaky, but all report green status.

CMD: Stand by all ships for FTL jump to Point [REDACTED].

(background) OFFICER: Civilian corvette Arrow now docking to outer hull. Keen class escorts docking onto the Attronox.

CMD: All ships execute jump.

- TRANSCRIPT BREAK -
- CANNOT RECORD DURING FTL JUMP -

...
...

- TRANSCRIPT RESUMED -

CMD: Elkos, fleet status.

HYPERION: I'm not detecting the Dauntless shuttle... wait.... scratch that last. All ships comfirmed.

CMD: Set course to the new coordinates, best speed.

(background) OFFICER: Aye, sir.

- FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT TRANSCRIPT ENTRY -

ATLAS:Cerberus actual, we're detecting a planetary body 0.2 au distant at bearing 075, 004.

CMD: Why didn't we detect it eariler?

ATLAS: We didn't detect it because the local star was blocking it's view. It's transit is now detectable by our instruments.

CMD: Any atmospheric readings?

ATLAS: Stand by ... ... Kaveir class planet. No lifeform readings, but there is an anomolous electrical reading on the surface.

CMD: How big?

ATLAS: Almost neglible. It's... tiny. About the size of a sensor probe. Maybe a crashed satalite of some kind?

CMD: Probably an initial survey probe that crashed. Pay it no mind.

(background) COMM OFFICER: Sir, I'm getting a message from the Dauntless shuttle.

CMD: What is it? What does he want?

(background) COMM OFFICER: He's requesting to speak to you, sir.

CMD: ... Patch him through.

- BEGINNING CROSS-SHIP TRANSCRIPT -

CMD: This is Cerberus actual.

DAUNTLESS: The planetary body that's here, is it Kaveir class with a small probe on the surface? If it is, I suggest we alter course to bearing 275, 008.

CMD: You'd better have a good reason for the sudden course correction, pilot. We can't move an entire fleet based on one person's small opinion. Contact fleet control if you want to suggest something like this- *interupted*

DAUNTLESS: Commander! With all due respect, if that planet is Kaveir class, then that planet was charted by a modified Heavy Escort class ship almost a month ago. I recorded a distant log entry from that ship onto the Wall of Logs and archived it to this ship. The escort is on a course similar to our own.

CMD: Get to the point.

DAUNTLESS: The heavy escort discovered an habitable system on that course. If we can follow it, we can find a system that could support life and ideally, stop the reavers from trying to kill us; and I can bet you, that planet is Kaveir class and there is a small probe down on the surface.

CMD: .... How do did you know this was a Kaveir class planet?

DAUNTLESS: I, uh.... listen in on the fleet. It's sort of my job as the log collector. Transcripts are logs too, sir...

CMD: *sigh* So how far do we have to travel?

DAUNTLESS: One second.... .... uhhhh, it's here somewhere.... Ah! Here we go. The log indicates that the ship traveled for 4 jumps at full power. For us, that would be... ... about 7 jumps total if we jumped at full power. Given our lack of resources I'd say it would take us, say... 15 or so?

CMD: Thank you for this... information. I'll take it under advisement. For now, stay off the military frequencies. Actual, out.

DAUNTLESS: Understood, sir!

- TRANSCRIPT RECORDING STOPPED -
- USER ENDED CHANNEL CONNECTION -

Keen Class Escort - Personal Log:

25 - SEPTEMBER - 2272(?)

Well, we're in the Jynu system today. Following some hunch from the log keeper with information from a month old entry.

Two of the IMDC ships have descended toward the planet, both in hope of refilling our ice storage, and finding the supposed probe that was launched there.

Me, I just want to get out of here. The white star is lighting up the snowball below like a giant mirror. Right into my airlock, which then shines in my face. I'm suprised I'm not blind yet at this rate.

At least I can rotate the ship so I'm not blinded by the planet. I almost feel bad for the IMDC ships going down there. They better hope the probe is on the night side of the planet right now. Or they had better pack some industrial grade sunglasses.

- TRANSCRIPT LOG -

- IMDC PROTOS CLASS FRIGATE -

- EXPEDITION RADIO CHANNEL -

COMPUTER: :Opening outer door:

CREWMAN 1: Make sure your snowshoes are strapped tight! I don't want to see anyone fall into a crevasse!

CREWMAN 2: Jesus! That's f***ing bright! That's a lot of reflectivity!

CREWMAN 3: Yeah! And nearly 250 degrees below zero!

CREWMAN 1: Shut your traps and get in the rovers! Rover 1 will scout out any and all good quality ice sources. Rover 2, your job is to find that probe. We know it's in this general region, so keep a sharp eye!

- FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY -

ROVER 1: Rover 1 here, Negative quality on the ice source in the local area. Too many mineral contaminants.

ROVER 2: This Rover 2, I've got something on the long range scanner, but it's having a tough time with the high reflectivity of the surface. Its messing with my instruments! I'll try and home in on the signal.

ROVER 1: Copy that, lemme know what mishapen piece of junk you manage to find on this snowball!

ROVER 2: Besides us?

*Both laugh*

- FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY -

ROVER 2: This is Rover 2! I found, it! Repeat, I found the probe! Relaying coordinates now!

COMMAND OFFICER

CERBERUS

-

Commander Crete's Personal log


Oct 20th

The fleet is holding on by it's heartstrings on the hope of the log entry that was shared not a week ago.

The promise of a safe system that we can settle down in brings hope to many.


Oct 21st
Jump 18. Farther than we expected. We're still limping along with the lack of resources. Our estimate puts us at least a week or more from the Elipida system.


Oct 22nd
The Arrow scout ship ran out of fuel today, that's the third ship this week that has ran out. Unless we find a large source of uranium soon all our ships will soon just fall behind. We don't have the ship power to tow each and every ship if they fall behind.

Even our IMDC ships will fall to this.

Lucky business ships and the science ship run on renewable energy.


We're even running out of coffee here. Jeez...

Finally. We made it. After an extreme amount of jumps, we made it.

According to Cerberus, this is the Elipida system. We've traveled over 15 light years from the New Andromedia system.

Not that it didn't cost us. The business ships had to charge every ship for jumping. And that takes a while. Luckily for them they have the solar panel power to do it.
Log keeper says we should try to find the modified heavy escort that traveled to this system about a month ago, I say we should begin immediate landing procedures. The escort can go frak itself for all I care.

The Independant cargo ship managed to find a small piano yesterday in his cargo hold. Some small assembly was required, but he's now got it playing occasionally over the open radio frequency. It kept a few of us going, most of us had no choice. It was either limp along with the fleet or fall behind and run out of fuel.
Our escort pair will never seperate though, we're what remains of the damn Independant Territories damn it, and we're going to keep going to keep that idea alive!

And there goes the cargo ship playing the piano again.

It's been about a month since the first landings.
The heavy escort Maverick is leading the effort with detailed mappings of rich fertile lands that would be perfect for agroculture. Mining efforts are kept to the northern mountains due to the atmosphere dynamics, keeping the potential polutants stuck in one place. It's mainly because we don't want to ruin this planet with heavy industry like we did Earth generations ago.

But we've actually got a city going now. It's not much, mostly residential and the nearby spaceport with all our landed ships. Well, most.

The military fleet along with 2 other civilian ships are remaining in orbit for the time being. They'll hopefully watch our backs in case any rogue asteroids come our way or something.

-----------

No.
no no no no no no.
They found us.

Why haven't they bombarded us yet? We're right here.
Where is Cerberus?! Where is our fleet?!

Day 12 of Reaver occupation.

They keep us working, day in, day out, building their fleet. Either you're shipped to the orbital shipyard in their heavy frigate, or you're down on the ground mining. At night, you're locked in your residence and kept their till dawn.

I wonder if they can't see in the dark?

I've barely managed to cram together spare parts for a small ship computer terminal and hiding it in my residence. They've left our own ships alone though, which is strange. I assume they've changed the control authorization in the computer systems by now, but they haven't destroyed them or scrapped them down for parts. It's very strange.

Sun will be up soon, and work will resume.

Well this has been an interesting few hours.

A fast rebellion, a descisive rescue, and quite the rush on my part.

Being as I cannot explain everything that has happened, as much of it was just me riding along, trying to stay alive, here is how I imagine our exodus from this planet happened.

We did a big f*** up today. Major major f*** up.

And no, I'm not talking about settling on Elipida. That was a good idea, but the Reavers didn't agree with that sentiment.

After we left the planet, we started heading back to interstellar space.

Our ships were prepping for jump when suddenly Reavers from the planet started jumping in on us. We had to bugger out quick.

We jumped to the prearranged coordinates only to find...
THE MILITARY USED DIFFERENT COORDINATES.

So now, the only thing that is protecting us is a 30 year old Elkos class frigate that barely has modern combat capabilities. It's cap says there is used to be a military zone in this sector but was abandoned decades ago due to lack of good resources. There should be an old waystation for when the old Colonial Military Alliance was still around before the IMDC took over.

It should be in high orbit around one of Elipada's more distant moons. Thank god we still have the Maverick with it's mappings of the sector.

Heavy solar activity this week. The giant star is spewing coronal mass ejections everywhere. Our EM shielding that we installed into the fleet when we went jumping around interstellar space should be able to take most of the impact. We'll still have to go on anti-radiation medication for a while, and jump drives won't function properly till the stellar stuff rolls over.

SO.... YEAH. Time to play that piano again. I'm getting bored using this console anyway!

This old station is giving me the creeps.

Nearly 150 years old... but still the same old ammunition and supplies. You can thank the good old vacuum of space to preserve them.
An asteroid breached the primary fuel center, which is probably why the lights aren't wroking. We hooked up one of the business ships to the station to give it power. Their giant solar arrays are working overtime soaking in all that CME (Solar Flare) energy.

Still, this is better than nothing. Most of the equipment here we can use for the long run. Interstellar radiation shielding, extended battery capacitors, plenty of ammunition for the Elkos, and most importantly; food and ice. Ice works double providing drinking water and oxygen, splitting the hydrogen for fuel.

Hope the Cerberus and the rest of the military is alright. This Elkos could barely hold its own in a firefight, not to mention try and protect civilian ships.

USER ENTERED EXODUS CHANNEL

HYPERION CLASS FRIGATE, ELKOS: Dauntless, any good asteroids in the region?

DAUNTLESS SHUTTLE (ME): I did pass an asteroid that had a significant Iron deposit. It had a tiny amount of cobalt mixed in, not quite enough for any good use though. Other than that, nothing really out here. It's not like the old Triad Sector where we had trillions of asteroids to pick through.

ELKOS: Fair enough. Trade 1, how goes the component transfer from the Anchorage?

HEAVY BUSINESS SHIP, TRADE 1: We're about 90% done.

ELKOS: Good. Typhus, can you meet up with them later and restock your supplies?

DRONE CARRIER: No problem.

ELKOS: Alright, if there is anything else we need to do, someone please say something...

(silence)

ELKOS: Alright then. Once Trade 1 is finished, we will plot a course out of this system. Someone check if EM radiation levels are safe enough to- (interupted).

ARROW CLASS CORVETTE: Elkos! There's something out there!

ELKOS: What do you mean?

ARROW: 180° from the stellar field!

MODIFIED HEAVY ESCORT, MAVERICK: I see them! At least 3... no 4 contacts!

ELKOS: All ships prep for immediate departure! Trade 1, get as many components on board as you can, then get moving!

TRADE 1: Yes, sir!

*6 USERS ENTERED EXODUS CHANNEL*

UNKNOWN: You can belay that order Hyperion. We're friendly.

ELKOS: Unknown contacts! Identify yourselves!

UNKNOWN: This is the IMDC Cerberus. Authorization code (information redacted).

DAUNTLESS: You made it! You guys f***ing made it!

PROTOS CLASS FRIGATE: This is Protos, of course we made it. Did you guys really think we're going to let you leave without us?

TRADE 1: Where have you been?

ATLASS CLASS FRIGATE: Once we figured out we had the wrong coordinates we tried to find you, but Cerberus decided we should do advanced recon of the enemy fleet. And ohhhh man, did we hit the jackpot.

MAVERICK: In what way?

CERBERUS: We've acquired one of their heavy interceptors. We can use it to do infiltration behind their lines once we get it operational.

TYPHUS: We can help with that. It's based on the stealth Mosquito, right?

CERBERUS: We'll worry about that later. Trade 1, you finish on gathering those supplies. Although, we could definately use a refill on ammunition.

DAUNTLESS: It's good to have you guys back.

ATLAS: No argument here.

OFFICER: What do you mean "It won't work"?

HANGAR TECHNICIAN: It can't fit all the equipment you are asking for! That's what I mean!

OFF: Fine. No deep scanning equipment. What else do you want?

TECH: You can not fit a military cockpit in that kind of craft! This is- well, WAS a drone! It had computer systems not fly-by-wire avionics!

OFF: Fine... fine Fine FINE!... *sigh* ... Can we fit any kind of cockpit in this design?

TECH: No..... Well ... ehh, possibly. If we remove the aft cargo section we could replace it with an Azimuth control seat, but the user would have some serious problems.

OFF: We can use the drone's camera systems to guide it.

TECH: Ok, fine. But that's not the big issue here. There's no room for an oxygen generator.

OFF: So the pilot straps a few extra tanks. It's got the space right? We can ditch the rocket launchers for oxygen tanks.

TECH: Eh, I guess.

OFF: You have to remember, this thing isn't going into direct combat. We're using it to do recon. We'll take some readings, snap a few pictures, and jump back with the fleet. No problem!

TECH: Well when you put it that way- HEYHEYHEYHEY! Watch where you're piloting that bomber!---

NO VIDEO INPUT SIGNAL

TECH: Pilot! You're going to owe me a new wing once you land! Someone get up on the gantry and patch that hole!

:BEGINNING AUDIO RECORDING:

*sounds of user entering cockpit*

PILOT: Jeez, it's a bit cramped in here isn't it?

TECHNICIAN: Best we can do. It's mostly your air supply that's in there, and we can't get rid of that.

P: Fair enough. ... You know, it's actually kind of cozy.

T: Ha. That's now. Just wait till we close up the hatch.

*hatch thuds shut and locks*

P: Great...

:FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY:

P: Systems checklist complete. Ready for jump.

CERBERUS: Cerberus actual here. Good luck on your flight, pilot. Snap us a few good pictures will ya?

P: Aye aye, sir. Jump in 3... 2... 1... *winces to brace*

:CANNOT RECORD WHILE IN FTL:

...

:RESUMING RECORDING:

.... Whew. Made it past the first hurdle. Now on to the next.

:FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY:

Okay... There's their picket line. Let's see if this transponder makes it past unnoticed...
... Come on.... Come on.... ... ... ... And... Made it! Yes! Heh heh, we're all one big hapy family aren't we? ... Crazy, aggressive, insane and not to mention downright evil family...

­­:FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY:

... Where are you going? ... What would a construction drone be doing out here? ... Let's take a peek shall we? ... ... ... ... ... What is... that? ... OH JEEZ --- THAT'S A BIG CRUISER! ... Damn! Big guy aren't ya? Where are guys goin? ... ... ... Come on, get out of the way, let me see where we're goin- ... What in the name of Christ is that thing?!

Is that a gravity gate?... It's the wierdest gravity gate I've ever seen... It's too thin... Not unless
it's a... oh. Ohhhhhh, s#it.

I've got to get this info back to the fleet. Now! ... Come on, come on! Spool faster! 3... 2... 1... Here we go!

:RECORDING MALFUNCTION: FTL HAS DISABLED AUDIO RECORDING SUITE:

USER ENTERED COMMAND CHANNEL

KEEN CLASS MILITARY ESCORT: It has to be a weapon of some kind. They are planning to whipe us out and any colony they can come across!

TRADE 2: Oh come on... It's not a weapon. It's a gravity gate. They are planning on leaving this system. Isn't it obvious? We're just too much of a hassle to deal with so they are going to pack up and leave.

ESCORT: If that was their plan they would have just jumped out already.

ATTRONOX: They can't with the stellar interference. If you tried anything but jumping a few hundred kilometers, your atoms would be scattered all over.

ESCORT: So it's a weapon, then.

*groan*

DAUNTLESS: That's all well and good but... Has anyone checked the stellar output recently? It's looking kind of ... wonky with my instruments.

ATTRONOX: What? Let me see that... What the?... You're right. Stellar output is decreasing. It's almost as if- Oh, I see. It's a Wolf-Rayet star.

CERBERUS: It's a what now?!

DAUNTLESS: When a gigantic star reaches it's older years it begins rapidly shedding off it's outer layers, which is kind of what we are experiencing now and its core collapses. We're safe where we are from the stellar expansion, but once it starts going critical... Kaboom.

TRADE 2: A Supernova..

ATTRONOX: Exactly.

CERBERUS: So... They're running away.

ATTRONOX: Obviously. And we should too or we are going to be incinerated with them!

CERBERUS: So what do we do?.... .... .... Anyone?

MAVERICK, MODIFIED HEAVY ESCORT: ....We steal the gate.

ESCORT: We what?!

MAVERICK:: You heard me.

ESCORT: Let me get this straight, we're going to steal their most defended structure in what is the most heavily fortified space we've seen since the Triad Sector, and use it to leave the system? Sounds more like suicide to me!

DAUNTLESS: What other choice do we have?

RECON PILOT: I would like to point out that it was not a gravity gate as you people have thought it was. I think it's a wormhole gate.

TRADE 1: Hang on a minute... You mean the same kind of wormhole gate we used to get to Colonia from Earth?

RECON PILOT: The same. Only the Reavers are more desperate. We had the luxury of time back then, they don't.

ESCORT: So we let them finish it, steal it from them, hopefully figure it out, travel through and pray that we don't end up in oblivion, and keep the Reavers from coming through. Is that what we are all saying here?

DAUNTLESS: Pretty much, yeah.

ESCORT: Oh for crying out loud... We'll be slaughtered before we even get close!

CERBERUS: One problem at a time Captain, at least now we have a plan.

ELKOS: It's not going to be that easy.

CERBERUS: Of course it's not. We're facing most of the might of the Reaver fleet.

MAVERICK: If only there were a way to get them away from the gate somehow...

ELKOS: You mean a distraction?

MAVERICK: Yeah, something to REALLY get their attention.

ESCORT: A big attacking fleet usually does.

PROTOS: Or... a heavily armed combat station barreling through their territory.

ESCORT: Wait a minute.... you're not saying...

PROTOS: Yes.

CERBERUS: Seriously? We use the Anchorage?

PROTOS: Yes. It is a military station, and it has kinetic shielding.

ESCORT: We could use that shielding to upgrade the fleet!

ATTRONOX: That would take weeks if not months of work to modify our ships to be compatible. We don't have that kind of time.

ESCORT: Surely you can't be serious.

PROTOS: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

Maverick - Modifed heavy Escort: Alright, this is it.

IMDC Cerberus Cruiser: All ships, status report.

IMDC Torpedo Corvettes: Protos and Proteus standing ready with torpedoes armed and loaded.

IMDC Hydra Class Attack Boat: Ceres ready for anti-fighter support.

IMDC Hyperion Class Frigate: Elkos standing by on fleet escort.

IMDC Atlas Class Frigate: Atlas ready for anti-Lotus decoy spread.

Heavy Civilian Ships: Trade 1 and 2 standing by for jump coordinates.

Light Civilian Ships: Arrow and Company standing by for coordinates.

Dauntless Exploration Shuttle: Dauntless standing by for station crew recovery.

Keen Class Escorts: Escorts standing by for fleet support.

Maverick: Heavy escort ready for Jump.

Attronox Class Science Vessel: Attronox standing by for jump coordinates.

Anchorage Station: Station crew standing by for full thruster burn for assault.

Cerberus crewman: Cerberus standing ready, sir.

Cerberus: All ships, execute.




Anchorage: Anchorage here, we are approaching their main battle line.

Cerberus: Copy that.

Anchorage: ... ooh, here they go! They're breaking from their line to engage us! Firing heavy guns! ... Missles in range! Light em up baby, light em up! Yeeahawww!


Cerberus: Cerberus fleet, execute Stiletto manuever. Full speed.




Atlas: Gate in visual range, 7km! Recieving telemetry!

Cerberus: We're close enough! Send the coordinates!

Hyperion: Sending jump coordinates to the fleet now!

Attronox: This is Attronox, we are recieving. Fleet now beginning sequenced jump.

Cerberus: We'll hold the door open as long as we can, but you've got to get it open, Attronox!




Attronox: Attronox now on station. We're recieving telemetry from the gate.

Cerberus: Can you open it?

Attronox: ... We think so, yes ... The lead scientist says it already has preset wormhole coordinates, all we need to do is route it to the supercunductors to activate the dark matter pulse.

Cerberus: Just get it done, don't explain it!

Attronox: Signal sent! It should open any minute no-

*Gate Kawooshes open* (Sorry, we're using Stargate mod, thought it appropriate)

Escort: Wow!

Cerberus: All civilian ships proceed through the gate! Cerberus fleet, hold the area against Reaver attack!

Protos: This is Protos! We have a Lotus on a heading for the gate!

Cerberus: Engage!

...

Atlas: Attronox! divert your course! You're right in it's way!

Attronox: We're too heavy! .... F***! Incoming warheads!

Atlas: Attronox! ... Attronox, respond!

Attronox: *cough cough* We're here, but we're not going anywhere! We're on emergency battery power only. We don't have enough for engines!

Trade Ships: This is Trade 2, we're nearby. We'll get the crew off and head for the gate!

Cerberus: Copy that! Anchorage, status report!

Anchorage: We're holding them off! Shields are at 50%. We can last a little while longer!

Cerberus: Dauntless, are you safe?

Dauntless: Yes sir. Standing by just out of range in an asteroid. My shields are up, just in case.




Proteus: All civilian ships are through the gate!

Cerberus: Cerberus fleet, start heading through! Hyperion, Proteus, you're first! Then Atlas and Protos! Ceres, you'll cover us!

Hyperion: Anchorage! Start your evacuation! Dauntless, get them out of there!

Dauntless: Aye sir! Heading into the hornet's nest!




Hyperion: Sir! We've got Reaver frigates on course for the gate!

Cerberus: Dauntless, get over here now! We're out of time!

Dauntless: 7 km and closing! ... 6 km!

Hydra: This is Ceres, warheads on the gate are armed and ready for detonation!

Cerberus: Set the timer for 10 seconds on my mark! I want it to start as soon as we go through!

Hydra: Yes sir!

Dauntless: Uh, Cerberus... You might want to take a look at the star!

Cerberus: Holy Jesus Christ... The star is exploding! Dauntless you better get your @ss over here now or you better have the mother of all sunscreens!

...

Dauntless: We going into the gate now!

Cerberus: All ships! Evacuate through the gate! Ceres, start the countdown!

10...

9...

8...

7...

They try so hard to stay alive....

6...

5...

Should we intervene?

4...

3...

Not yet.

2...

The loss of the Servants is unfortunate, but nessacery.

1...

We will have our revenge.

*EXPLOSIONS*
*TELEMETRY SIGNAL LOST*

DAUNTLESS: We're through! Anyone else here? ... .... .... ... ... ... Nothing?

HYPERION: *intermident static* We're here, Dauntless. But that wormhole did a number on a lot of our systems. We've lost sensors and main engine power. We're just starting to recover. Can you see what is out there?

DAUNTLESS: I don't see- Oh, there they are! Yeah, Elkos, the fleet is intact. I think. If they've got similar problems to you, I'm sure they're all in the same state. Do you need assistance?

HYPERION: We'll see. Have you seen Cerberus or Ceres come through yet?

DAUNTLESS: Not yet... ... Wait.... Something is happening.

*wormhole distortion opens and 2 ships barrel out*

DAUNTLESS: Dauntless to Cerberus! Is the gate destroyed on the other side?

*systems on both Cerberus and Ceres begin powering down*

UBUMBOO CLASS TRANSPORT: *in thick afrikaans accent* Is anybody out there? We're drifting and on emergency power! Somebody help!

DAUNTLESS: Ubumboo, you're in the same state as the rest of the fleet. Probably from the trip through the wormhole. Give your systems a minute to recover.

HYPERION: Why weren't you affected by the wormhole?

DAUNTLESS: We've got the energy shields that the Attronox installed sometime after we left the Triad System. It must have dampened the wormhole effect somehow, I don't know!

CERBERUS: *Heavy static* Cerberus actual to fleet; We have escaped the Reavers. The gate is destroyed. Celebrate while we can.

*cheers across multiple ships*

TYPHUS DRONE CARRIER: This is Typhus! We're having trouble with our drones! Their systems are starting to overload! ... Oh s#it! They're going to explode! Abandon ship! Crew abandon ship!

*several crewmembers exit Typhus's airlock and several seconds later, the drones docked to the hull detonate, destroying the ship*

ARROW CLASS TRANSPORT: All ships, watch out for debris!

*proximity alarms blare aboard the Dauntless as a large chunck of an engine flies past the cockpit*

PROTOS: All ships, go to minimum power settings. Essentials only. Wormhole might be causing glitches in our power systems.

UBUMBOO: Well, at least we are still alive. Pick up the pieces guys, and lets get moving.

TRADE 1: I'm not sure if I'm seeing this right, but I think there is a planet out there!

UNKNOWN: Unknown fleet, I don't know where the hell you came from, but you look in pretty bad shape. Do you require assistance?

REPORTER: --and the prices for hydrogen fuel should be back to the usual level by the end of next week pending the new legislation. Cost reports skyrocket on Platinum ore as reports beginning to dwindle as the Tarchess asteroid cluster nears being completely mined out.

In other news, a reconnaissance of the Triad System has finally reached it's destination. However, the reports are grim.

The main planet, named New Andromedia by the local residents has been bombarded by nuclear weapons from an unknown hostile, rendering the planet uninhabitable to humans. Reports on the neighboring planets Arcadia and Pandora are just as devastating.

REPORTER 2: I haven't heard of the Triad System before, was it a recently colonized system?

REPORTER 3: It was, about 4 months ago. Citizens from the famed Triad Sector claimed the system. They kept the Triad name due to the fact there was 3 potentially habitable planets.

REPORTER 2: Well, they sure aren't now. I wonder who would have attacked them?

REPORTER 1: Originally, the Triad Sector was at war with a rogue faction that they called the "Reavers". They specialized in in deployment of Lotus class weapons.

REPORTER 3: Weren't those banned with the Sol Accords?

REPORTER 1: They were, which is why the group was rogue. But I'm sure that wherever the survivors of this attack are now, they are hopefully safe.

CERBERUS: *intermitent static* Unknown contact, identify yourself.

UNKNOWN: I was just about to ask you the same thing. This is the Hyperion corvette Jaanus. Now, your turn.

CERBERUS: This is the IMDC Cerberus. Our fleet is what remains of the Triad System.

JAANUS: Triad System? That's a long ways away. How did you get here so quick?

DAUNTLESS: We came through a wormhole gate... Don't ask. Long story.

CERBERUS: We could use a place to stay for a while. We've been running for quite some time.

JAANUS: Well, I would suggest running some more, you've dropped into the middle of a war.

HYPERION: War? What war?

JAANUS: The war with the Cephalin. Or at least, that's what we call them. Unknown technology, but extremely powerful. The drones are particularly nasty.

CERES: Cerberus, we've got incoming contacts!

CERBERUS: All ships prep for emergency jump! Jaanus, you better have a good route for us!

JAANUS: Sending safe coordinates now! Get going before they launch their drones!

*the civilian fleet begins jumping out, then the IMDC ships along with Jaanus*

REPORTER: *static* ---We now continue with our extended story on the massacre of the Triad Sector. We go now to a recording from our representative planetside on New Andromedia.

REPORTER 2: As you can see, the devastation is total. Although it may not seem it, I am standing in the center of the downtown capital city. Nothing has been left standing in the wake of this disaster.
Whatever hit this planet, it has rendered the environment with extreme radiation fallout. It has left the planet completely uninhabitable to human life, or any kind of life we are familiar with. It will take many tens of thousands of years before this system can be colonized again.

A moment of silence... for the casualties of this disaster.

...

This has been Robigo Stayes of Colonia News Network.

*channel switches to advertisements*

Are you tired of old rusted IMDC hardware?
Are you plagued with the absolute unreliabilty of their technology?

WELL NOT ANYMORE!

Settle in with Hyperion Systems!
Our advanced technologies rival all the competitors! In speed, firepower, and reliability.

Fly safe, fly smart...

Fly Hyperion.

CERBERUS: Alright Captain. Talk. We need to know what is going on.

JAANUS: Alright, alright... About 4 years ago, the Cephalin ships started coming through our intersystem gates. We had no warning and they just started shooting! We were nearly- *Interupted*

HYPERION: Whoa whoa whoa. Back it up. Intersystem gates? You mean wormhole gates?

JAANUS: Yeah. Didn't you guys have them in the Triad System?

CERES: No. We relied on Jump Drives for travel.

JAANUS: Wow! You guys are still using those? They are outdated as heck! How did you guys get here then?

CERBERUS: Continue on the Cephalin, Captain. Please.

JAANUS: Sorry. Anyway, we were overwhelmed by them in the first few months. Only until we got a foothold in the Dionysus system did we start winning. It's been a back and forth fight for a while now.

DAUNTLESS: Have you tried shutting down the gates the Cephalin are using?

JAANUS: We can't. It's alien tech. We only adapted it to our needs.

UBUMBOO: Wormhole gates? Alien tech? How come we are only hearing about this now? I thought we had not found alien life yet.

JAANUS: We hadn't until the Cephalin. Colonia kept the gate system a closely guarded secret only known to a few systems that have the gates.

CERBERUS: So, how do we fight the Cephalin?

JAANUS: For right now, the best way to take them out is by disrupting their relay system they use to control their ships. All of the ships we have encountered are drone ships. Even the ships that carry the attack drones are unmanned. However, they just keep replacing them as fast as we take them down. We don't know where they are coming from.

ATLAS: A mothership?

JAANUS: We thought that too. But we can't locate it.

Crew log

Today we're being brought to Colonia, one jump at a time. We were a little out in the woods when we first came into the system. Kind of hostile territory. We had to bug out quick. We headed back into safe space as quick as we could and are now on hte road to Colonia.
It looks absolutely beautiful on the long range telescopes. Has a little bit more ocean than on new Andromedia, but I don't mind. I like beachfront property.

-

3 jumps to go. Why do we have to go so gosh darn slowly? Can't we just jump right in? It's RIGHT THERE!
But nooooo.... According to our escort we have to "follow procedure".
Otherwise known as: beauricratic bulls***.

-

March 4th

We're finally at Colonia. After so many checkpoints and authorizations we're finally here.
The civilians will be offloaded to the refugee centers planetside tomorrow, hopefully they can find a home for them.

Our long journey is finally over. I can finally relax for once without worrying if today was the day the fleet would be torn apart.

I hear the IMDC replaced the old Atlas class with a newer version. Not that that's a bad thing, but I like the old girl I've flown. It won't really feel quite right settling into a new version.

~

March 5th

This is my final entry aboard the Atlas.

Goodbye old girl, you fought well and you flew far.

Adios.

TERMINAL OFFLINE

ARCHIVED AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

-EUROPA INCIDENT-

BEGINNING PLAYBACK FROM TIME INDEX 14:52:22


HYDRA CLASS CORVETTE: Hermes standing by, ready for jump.

CALIBAN CLASS HEAVY CORVETTE: Spooling up jump drives now, Admiral. Sorry for the delay, we should be ready for jump.

EUROPA CLASS CARRIER: This is Europa, all ships jump on my command.

---

COMMAND SECTION - EUROPA:

-Officer: Sir, I'm seeing strange energy readings from the Caliban's jump drives.

-Admiral: Explain.

-Officer: Oh... s#it. Sir, we need the Caliban to shut down their jump drives immediately! They're on course for an overload!

-Admiral: Europa to Caliban! Shut down your jump drives now! We're reading an overlo-

*interupted*

*The jump drives of the Caliban go critical, then detonate*

-Helm Officer: Debris! Debris! Brace for impact!

*crashing noises and sounds of huge debris hitting the hull*

-Officer: Gravity wake inbound!

*the wave rips through the hull*

ENGINEERING SECTION:

-Chief Engineer: Everone alright?

-Engineer: All good here!

*other voices in agreement heard*

-Chief Engineer: ... Oh jeez... must have been that gravity shockwave. Riley to bridge, we've got a problem down here. Our fusion containment has been damaged. I need-

*part sparks and ruptures*

-Chief Engineer: Drive leak! We have a fusion drive leak! Everyone out! Go go go!

-Engineer: There's no time! It's going to-

*explosion*

COMMAND SECTION:

*alarms blaring*

Admiral: Report!

Officer: We've got a large explosion in main engineering! Most of the main power is out!

Helm Officer: Helm control isn't responding! We're headed straight for the planet!


-Helm Officer: Sir, I'm going to try angling the ship in an attempt to level our decsent! I'll see what we can do with our ion thrusters!

-Admiral: Do it!

-Officer: We're at 10,000 meters and falling!

-Admiral: All hands, brace for impact!

*long crash sequence*

-EMERGENCY SYSTEMS ONLINE
-DETECTING SAFE ATMOSPHERE
-OPENING ALL COMPARTMENTS
-HULL DAMAGE CRITICAL - 45%

-CREW LIFESIGNS DETECTED - ACTIVATING DISTRESS BEACON

INTERCEPTED UNKNOWN RADIO FREQUENCY'
RECORDING TO FILE...

Have you heard of the tale of world ender; the bringer of death to all things... the great and powerful vessel known only as Destiny?

If you haven't, listen well...

Long, long ago... before we had even sharpened stones in our ancestors caves; there was a great vessel, known only as Destiny.

The ancients race who built our ring system, to travel from place to place with almost no effort had a creation of size and scope only matched by the planets themselves...

To the ancients, she was the bringer of life to lifeless worlds. Transforming them to suit their needs... She also brought death to those that would appose them.

Her massive scale brought entire systems to their knees with only her presence... For she was so massive, she affected the orbits of the planets themselves... Nothing known could stop her.

Until, one day; an alliance brought down the destroyers of worlds; the builders of the gates, and although she; the great and powerful Destiny, was not destroyed, as no weapon could really match her scale; her reign was brought to an end, and she was thrown out into the vastness of space. Never to be seen again.

Be warned of power. Even the mightiest, with the power of all of creation can fall to those underneath.


Thank you for listening.

FREQUENCY LOST
SEARCHING FOR SOURCE....
NONE FOUND

COLONIA DEEP-SPACE-NETWORK
MONITORING STATION 2
TECHNICIAN LOG

Transcript Begin: 0703 HOURS

Alright, lets see what's on the list today... increased anomolies detected in Pegasi Sector... fleet movements toward the combat zone... Hm, *reads out loud* New Andromedia exodus fleet arrives at Colonia... Interesting... Let's see, what else? ... Ah! President Audar's coronation ceremony on Pegasi this week. I better tune into that soon. ... Alright, lets get to work.

*FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY*

*sounds of monitor beeping* That's odd. The anomolies shouldn't be that bad... Better notify the transportation sector on Pegasi.

*FAST FORWARDING TO NEXT ENTRY*

*blip on monitor* What in the world? Why did that station go dark? *another blip* What?... Better run diagnostics... *several more blips* Ohhh, crap. Management is going to have my head if I don't get these working! Come on Pegasi! Don't let me down now!

UNKNOWN DISRUPTION DETECTED
SIGNAL LOST

News Report: Crowds in the thousands are here at the Capitol today to witness the inaguration of Thomas Audar, Pegasi's 6th president.


It is a momentus day, and as usual, we are broadcasting to all of inhabited space.


The signing is complete! This marks a new day for the Pegasi system, and dare I say, for all of humanity! --- *static*

Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen; the President of the Colonia Sector.

My fellow citizens, as you have probably already heard by now, the Pegasi system has been oblterated by an unknown force.

We have detected that the forces of the Cephalin have engaged this unknown hostile. As the old saying goes, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". I have ordered our forces to cease engagement with the Cephalin at this time to combat this unknown enemy.

However, I would recommend that if you can, you evacuate from the colonies at best speed.
Our forces have so far, been unable to stop this force, and... We may be unable to prevent it from destroying our beloved colonies.

Therefor, I am ordering an immediate draft of any and all space-combat capable ships, and I have sent a delegation to the Cephalin border for talks of a potential alliance against this foe.

But make no mistake, this is not our final hour. We will survive, as humanity has always survived.
Thank you.

I've never seen such courage in the face of what's coming.
When the Colonia President called for rallying our people to defend this world, I expected there would be a large fleet of various military combat vessels. But I didn't expect regular civilians would take up the fight too. I'm seeing so many kinds of ships on the sensors, ranging from lightly armed mining transports to mercenary fighters and pirate raiders. It seems everyone has a stake in defending this world.

Me and my newly weaponized shuttle have been assigned to one of the various fleets staged around the planet; Battle Group 16. It includes several IMDC ships, a few mercenary ships, and a very strange rail-gun ship. I haven't seen how it works, and personally I don't think I want to know.

And me? I'm in a jerryrigged exploration shuttle with advanced shields, a Mexpex flak turret, 2 fixed fighter cannons, and 2 basic point defense turrets. However, this ship isn't designed for combat. If the shields go down, this ship's hull with have the consistency of a wet paper bag. Not to mention the extensive hydrogen systems. One good hit and it'll be a heck of an explosion.
At least Cerberus is here. Yes, that Cerberus, from the Exodus. Commander- err, Captain Crete is leading the battle group. He's a good man, and he knows how to handle civilians like us. Hopefully it will be enough. From what I've heard on the comms, it's not good. An ancient terraformer turned planet killer. Hopefully we'll be enough to break this cycle of death.

It all started in the Triad Sector, and now it's going to end here. The line must be drawn here! This far, no f***ing further!

~