The Explore the Core Expedition

[Sashyoro]

"At this rate we'll end up establishing a new wild frontier."

No one knows how It came to be, the carrier "D SCAN WILL SOON BE OVER" set off on Its expedition to explore the core of our galaxy and while at first seemed to be off to a promising start, cataloging various new species of exobiology and previously uncharted systems, the logs posted by FC's Captain Infernal Mousse slowly began leaning towards the paranoid. With multiple reports of suspected mutiny, riots, Mahon conspiracies and undercover spies attempting to discredit any mentions of such. Shortly after a pattern emerged,wherever that carrier went, the system soon became the most dangerous place in the galaxy for a while.
Rumors that a suicidal cult had been established aboard began to spread, others believed a long known airlock malfunction was to blame by this "unknown space madness", however no theory would ever come close to the grim reality.
By the time they reached the system Choomee HR-N e6-8992 , an unknown event sparked the slaughter of hundreds of commanders and.. Anything that was barely alive really.
To this day the system lives in anarchy and sparked a debate across the bubble : with barely half the journey done, will this be the beginning of a murderous crusade across the yet undiscovered space? "

 

[epiloso]

- - - EMERGENCY TRANSMISSION - - -

Disaster has struck the crew of the Explore the Core Infernal Expedition! The alleged Mahon spy was found stealing valuable expedition tritium from the carrier's holds at the Storms of Fenrisulfur, and escaped in his battle hardened Federal Corvette armed to the teeth and supported by SLFs. Many valiant attempts were made by the expedition crew to bring the spy to justice, although the crew was seriously outmatched and outgunned. The battle raged first near D SCAN WLL SOON B OVER, the expedition carrier, and then was brought to inside the lightning storm NSP in the system. Over 200 ships were lost in this epic battle, and the system became the highest threat system in the galaxy!

View attachment 301977

Source: https://youtu.be/rkxuKmFTelQ


View attachment 301978

Source: https://youtu.be/53xxwdHBH6Q


View attachment 301979

Was a fun time watching all the vipers get spaced

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npEuX8fBXxY

Source: https://youtu.be/fQozQ33y9Bk

 

[InfernalMousse]

Expedition Logs: Week 3

We've had another action packed week on the Explore the Core Infernal expedition, with another 13,000 LYs and numerous spectacular destinations behind us. We've made many significant discoveries and have now started cataloging our shepard moon discoveries thanks to the efforts of CMDR Chewcat1. We have even discovered rings with hotspots which do not seem to contain any rocks!

At the Blue Rhapsody Nebula, we held a Stock Viper PvP event INSIDE the supercruise exclusion zone of the Neutron Star at the center of the nebula, followed by an SLF race through the foggy and narrow canyons of an icy moon in this system, which somehow turned into another PvP event. Once again, this system briefly became the most dangerous system in the galaxy. A couple of days later at the Purple Rings nebula CMDR Robert Clark organized a SRV bumper car event followed by a team SRV surface battle at one of the geological sites with the extraordinary backdrop of the nebula. We have also discovered that it is possible to track the progress of the expedition by just looking at the INARA security reports!

Our stop for the next couple of days was Rati´s Egg, which at 138km is only very slightly larger than the smallest body ever discovered. Our expedition has found some very small landable bodies as well, with Chewcat1 holding the lead with a 149km discovery! While at Rat's Egg, we lifted some SRVs to space from the egg, and confirmed that commanders can indeed disembark an SRV which is parked on a ship high above the surface of a planet. The crew also conducted some EVA exercises to practice on foot ship repairs, as many ships seem to be getting destroyed on the expedition.

Cpt Mark Harlock also organized an ELW hunt at Rati’s Egg similar to the one he organized on the Great Galactic Circumnavigation Infernal Expedition. The major difference was stellar density, as the last one was held at Erikson's Star, where navigation was extremely tricky due to the high jump ranges needed between stars, and the challenge ELW was 200LYs distant from Erikson's Star. At Rati’s egg, the ELW to find was only about 5LYs distant. During the hunt, CMDR Stahl Dorn managed to discover another ELW about 6 LYs distant from our stop! He then went on to also find the challenge ELW.

We are now at the Storms of Fenrisulfur, where an epic battle has taken place between a capital ship and a swarm of vipers inside the lightning storm Notable Stellar Phenomenon. The visuals were once again amazing with commanders dying not only to the combat violence but also to the storm lightning! Over 200 Murder attempts were recorded by INARA, earning this system an extreme threat designation!

The expedition is nearing the end of leg 1, which will conclude only 750LYs from here at SagA. CMDR Erbus5's carrier and crew will split from the expedition at this time unfortunately, as they have provided countless rescues on this leg for commanders who were left behind or even stranded in a system they could not jump from. Also, once again CMDR Solandri's carrier is providing the crew with fresh stocks of modules and ships here. Thanks again to both CMDR Solandri and CMDR Erbus5! There are still commanders joining the expedition for leg 2, however. CMDR Crimson Bear of the Azura initiative is providing a shuttle service from the bubble departing on April 19th, and the expedition will meet at Azura space on the 22nd. Finally, the expedition crew has overwhelmingly voted to extend the expedition by a week to allow for more discoveries and fun!

Screenshot from Chewcat1, the winner of #stellar-screenshots and the cover of the recent Twitch Stream!​

Expedition Leaderboards: Week 3 status

Note these are only from systems discovered on this expedition by the Expedition crew:

	Most bodies in one system
	Commander	#bodies	System
1	Chewcat1	75	Shrogaae XP-X E1-107
2	Jo Bangles	73	Dryau Briae JJ-G d11-7564
2	Chewcat1	73	Plimbeau CL-X e1-373 - 73
	Highest Value UC system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	Stahl Dorn	18,561,556	Eembaisk FR-C d13-5046
2	Kami	16,445,713	PHIPOE DS-H D11-1643
3	Epiloso	15,117,696	Systeia Chruia EW-W D1-1
	Highest value Exobiology system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	Tredwell	7,006,900	Eorl Auwsy SY-Z D-13-4863
2	Agga Salk	6,150,000	PLIMBEAU KH-D D12-1055
3	Tredwell	3,788,900	Lasoae JZ-Y C1-877
	Highest Landable Gravity body
	Commander	G	System / Body
1	Noatun (Mikklen)	4.25	EEMBAISK YP-O E6-558 2
2	Agga Salk	3.95	DRYOEA PRAU MD-A D1-449 1
3	Xfinitius (Tyler Leopold Stark)	3.92	Eorm Phyloi YE-A g33 A 3
	Smallest (lowest radius) body
	Commander	Radius (km)	System / Body
1	Chewcat1	149	Plimbeau DG-F d11-1448 2 A
2	Chewcat1	156	Braisio UE-R e4-908 A 4 B
3	SPN IQSTN (RO726)	160	Lyrongou HM-V e2-229 A 1 A
3	Noob 1957	160	Noijo UO-A e738 1 b

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

I hope you will post some videos of all those epic adventures! Especially the battle between the capitol ship and swarm of vipers... Good luck and looking forward to hopefully being able to join next time!

EDIT:

I somehow overlooked the vids in previous posts... EPIC, absolutely EPIC!
This is easily one of the coolest expeditions I've seen so far. I wonder why it doesn't get the attention it deserves?

 

[InfernalMousse]

The Expedition has now arrived at Sagittarius A*, the end of Leg 1 of our excellent journey! After we arrived, some of the crew decided to play a game of thread the needle, with two T10s facing each other at a narrow distance serving as the needle and any fast ship attempting to thread the gap between them at high speeds. There were some impressive passes as well as some impressive explosions!

Source: https://vimeo.com/700176700


There were also some more fun PvP shenanigans both at the tourist beacon and near the carrier. There was also some whale watching (and hunting) with some unfortunate results for some tourists. The expedition once again proved to be trackable via the INARA security reports.

 

[InfernalMousse]

Leg 1 Expedition Statistics:

These are the current expedition statistics from INARA (unfortunately not all commander logs have been uploaded to EDSM yet):

EDSM - Elite Dangerous Star Map

The Galactic Positioning System of Elite: Dangerous at your service.

www.edsm.net

Exobiology First Discovery Bonus contribution to Rank Progression:

The expedition has also been studying the impact of the exobiology first discovery bonus on elite rank progression in this discipline. The first discovery bonus is well known at 100%, so there is a high probability that this bonus is also applied to the rank progression. The commanders on this expedition have been tracking their progress with both the payouts and their rank progression throughout leg 1 of the expedition. Since we only have access to whole numbers on the % rank, the most valuable data is at low rank with high payouts, as these will show the highest rank increase. The uncertainty bars in the chart below are due to the uncertainty in the whole number value. It was additionally found that a relog is necessary to show the correct value of the Exobiology rank, and INARA may need a manual import after this as well. In general the data show that the bonus is carried through at 100% to rank progression. There are some outliers, but it is possible that these can be attributed to incorrect data import. Thanks again to all the commanders contributing to this!

Leg 1 Expedition Final Leaderboards

Congratulations to all the commanders on the Leg 1 leaderboards. The leaderboards are now reset for Leg 2!

	Leg 1 Leaderboards
	Most bodies in one system
	Commander	#bodies	System
1	Chewcat1	75	Shrogaae XP-X E1-107
2	Jo Bangles	73	Dryau Briae JJ-G d11-7564
2	Chewcat1	73	Plimbeau CL-X e1-373 - 73
	Highest Value UC system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	Stahl Dorn	18,561,556	Eembaisk FR-C d13-5046
2	Kami	16,445,713	PHIPOE DS-H D11-1643
3	Stahl Dorn	15,932,557	Byoomao FO-B c29-1526
	Highest value Exobiology system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	Tredwell	7,006,900	Eorl Auwsy SY-Z D-13-4863
2	Agga Salk	6,150,000	PLIMBEAU KH-D D12-1055
3	Tredwell	3,788,900	Lasoae JZ-Y C1-877
	Highest Landable Gravity body
	Commander	G	System / Body
1	Noatun (Mikklen)	4.25	EEMBAISK YP-O E6-558 2
2	Agga Salk	3.95	DRYOEA PRAU MD-A D1-449 1
3	Xfinitius (Tyler Leopold Stark)	3.92	Eorm Phyloi YE-A g33 A 3
	Smallest (lowest radius) body
	Commander	Radius (km)	System / Body
1	Chewcat1	149	Plimbeau DG-F d11-1448 2 A
2	Chewcat1	156	Braisio UE-R e4-908 A 4 B
3	SPN IQSTN (RO726)	160	Lyrongou HM-V e2-229 A 1 A
3	Noob 1957	160	Noijo UO-A e738 1 b

Opportunity to Join the Expedition at the Azura Initiative

The expedition will depart for leg 2 at 23:00 UTC on Sunday. For those who would still like to join us, there is a shuttle organized by CMDR Crimson Bear from the Bubble to Azura space. The expedition will arrive there on April 22, and we will organize events together with the Azura Initiative there. Thanks again to CMDR Crimson Bear!

AZSF - Ace of Spades" will depart Osismii on April 19th at approx (but no earlier than) 1900 UTC bound for ATHAIP WR-H D11-8524 (The AI capital)

Please join the discord in the main post for more information.

 

[Athum]

Bloody beauty of the Ammonia world from the "Down Below" (Hyphudgue JR-T d4-3):

 

[Athum]

 

[Athum]

[Synthwave music playing ]: Hypoe Flyi HX-T e3-295 system, planetary nebula Caeruleum Luna. AT-12K "Viator" is going back on board "D Scan" carrier to continue the expedition.

 

[InfernalMousse]

Expedition Logs: Week 4

During the last week we finished Leg 1 of the Explore the Core Infernal expedition at Sag A, which provided 3 days of R&R to the expedition crew while we prepared for Leg 2. Leg 1 total distance traveled by all commanders was almost 2.7M LYs, which was almost as much as the entire Galactic Circumnavigation Infernal Expedition.

We've also wrapped up the expedition leaderboards for Leg 1, with some extraordinary discoveries: a 149km radius body by CMDR Chewcat1, a 4.25g landable body by CMDR Mikklen, and an 18.5M UC (sold to the carrier) system found by CMDR Stahl Dorn. The leaderboards have been reset for Leg 2 and in some cases have already exceeded the Leg 1 values after less than a week!

While we were at Sag A, some commanders created a game of thread the needle with 2 T10s facing each other forming the needle and commanders attempting to fly as quickly as possible through the gap. There were impressive passes as well as spectacular explosions! Afterwards there were more PvP battles both at the tourist beacon as well as near the carrier. At the tourist beacon, there was also some whale watching (and hunting) with some unfortunate results for some tourists.

After leaving Sag A, we made our way to Down Under, a spectacular location 2800 LYs below the galactic plane. Down there almost every system was a D mass or heavier system with numerous Neutron Stars, Black Holes, and White Dwarves. We even found systems with 10 and more stars in them. The main disk of the galaxy provided an amazing backdrop to these discoveries.

Our next stop was Caeruleum Luna, a bright bluish purple planetary nebula with a Neutron Star core. While we were there we held a booze running event which involved sidewinders attempting to deliver Jaques Quinentian still from the carrier to a secret location on A1A where a T9 was waiting, while a team of law enforcing sidewinders equipped with 1E FSD interdictors attempted to catch them. The booze runners won the first round while the interdictors clinched the second one, thanks to the interdiction skills of CMDR Robert Clark!

The expedition will meet up with the Azura Initiative at the Great Annihilator on Friday, where we will hold a joint event. More commanders will join us there as well for the final 2 weeks of the expedition.

Expedition Leaderboards: Week 4 status

Leaderboards have been reset for Leg 2. Note these are only from systems discovered on this expedition by the Expedition crew:

	Leg 2 Leaderboards
	Most bodies in one system
	Commander	#bodies	System
1	Bender Rodriguez	65	Shrogea DG-N D7-2380
2	Chewcat1	60	Hypio Proo MI-S e4-2968
3	Infernal Mousse	54	Schao Pri ZP-X e1-13
	Highest Value UC system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	Knighthelm306	18,903,475	SCHAO PRUAE BV-X E1-33
2	Joe Ironborne	15,433,982	SCHAO PRI CD-Q D6-9
3	Xfinitius (Tyler Leopold Stark)	13,158,702	Hypoe Pra CR-N d6-54
	Highest value Exobiology system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	SingleMaltOnRocks (Dimmler)	2,627,300	Hypoe Flyi TA-M d8-7733
2	Tredwell	527,500	HYPOE FLYI NB-Y c16-1468
3	Tredwell	407,300	HYPOE FLYI NQ-Z c15-890
	Highest Landable Gravity body
	Commander	G	System / Body
1	Noob 1957	4,66	Hypoe Pra YE-A f12 ABC 2
2	Chewcat1	4.53	Hypio Proo AA-A g2 AB 11
3	Annoura	4.09	Hypoe Flyi TA-M d8-3276 2
	Smallest (lowest radius) body
	Commander	Radius (km)	System / Body
1	Bender Rodriguez	155	SHROGEA DG-N D7-2543 2 A
2	Annoura	199	Hypoe Flyi LG-Y c16-3571 C 1 a
3	SingleMaltOnRocks (Dimmler)	209	Hypio Proo KG-Y e83 A 1 a

 

[InfernalMousse]

Black in Green (Tourist Installation) is a really amazing place to visit. We've been there a number of times before and we changed our itinerary slightly to make a stop there on Thursday. It's a green planetary nebula with a singular black hole at the center and also has a tourist installation and beacon. There is a lot of traffic and action around this installation, even though there is no dockable station there (would be really cool if there was).

The installation made the perfect location for a ship racing event reminiscent of the flying tutorial everyone goes through to get their Pilot's Federation Credentials, and was a lot of fun. We held both stock viper and unlimited races on a course which threaded through the spinning sections of the installation. The stock races were actually more fun, as the unlimited races were somewhat overpowered with lots of crashes and explosions as the speeds were simply too high to make the turns. Lots of fun for everyone!

Waiting at the start line​

Race course layout​

Stock Viper Race:

Source: https://youtu.be/BOH-bPnOXPQ



Unlimited Racing is too dangerous here

Source: https://youtu.be/A9N14FMPFU8


3rd person view of the unlimited race:

Source: https://youtu.be/oR-ooxBrtN4

Source: https://youtu.be/UIVOJJYyw2M

 

[InfernalMousse]

The expedition arrived at the Great Annihilator yesterday and met up with the friendly commanders at the Azura Initiative. This is a player made mini-bubble with carriers serving as stations, buying minerals and selling goods. There are even ships and modules available here, which really excited some of our commanders!

We also held the first of 2 join events with Azura on Friday, organized by CMDR Richard Fluiraniz. The event was held at The Ammonia Lyceum's |(ATHAIP WR-H D11-7577 3) moon, and involved 2 teams of SRVs corralling 50 guardian orbs into their respective team ships. There were many crashes and much mayhem! After a short pause to take pictures, the second part of the event involved getting the guardian artefacts back into CMDR Richard Fluiraniz's ship. A great time was had by all at a spectacular location!

Source: https://youtu.be/3XGPtfwvXOU

Source: https://youtu.be/aB8nMd4RnHc

Source: https://youtu.be/o_rTi60DbkU

https://imgur.com/vnl7j1R

Source: https://i.imgur.com/vnl7j1R.gifv

https://imgur.com/SHSIuQw

Source: https://i.imgur.com/SHSIuQw.gifv

 

[InfernalMousse]

We held our second event with the Azura Initiative yesterday at Athaip VU-N c23-677 B 6. This one involved fooling around with more Guardian Orbs, but this time also on foot. Prior to the event CMDR Crotchroach set the mood by delivering some Onionhead for the gathering which got the festivities started nicely. Once again some 50 or so Guardian Orbs were dropped which we attempted to corral. Due to the extreme number of objects in the instance, most of them would just be phased through, although we did find that rolling canisters/ orbs next to SRVs would cause the SRVs to be jacked up over the objects! After about 5-10 minutes of no interaction, all of the objects started to explode, causing additional mayhem. The second part of the event involved CMDR Richard Fluiraniz attempting to collect the remaining objects with collector limpets while the on foot commanders shot them down! CMDR Crochroach finally dropped his remaining stock of about 200 canisters of Onionhead to keep the party going!

A great time was had by all once again. We really appreciate the hospitality of the great commanders at the Azura Initiative. If you make it to the core, be sure to stop by and see them!

Onionhead had nothing to do with the image quality, nope

Source: https://youtu.be/g3GF6BwD5UQ

Source: https://youtu.be/8hPeSFMiYgI

 

[InfernalMousse]

Yesterday we departed Azura space and headed for one of my favorite destinations, The Dryau Awesomes. This truly is an Awesome system, with a Black Hole and White Dwarf in a tight orbit (3ls) at the center. The White Dwarf in turn is orbited by a gas giant inside its exclusion zone orbiting every 14 minutes. Less than 15ls from this madness is a very tight binary of a ringed gas giant and a water world. The gas giant has 2 moons orbiting every 0.2 days which crash into each other about every 2-3 days. These moons also have water geysers on them creating even more fun. Just a spectacular system full of death and destruction.

Naturally, the expedition crew chose to add to this by holding an on foot king or the mountain PvP event! After having fun with 3 or 4 rounds of this, we decided to try out the water geysers on foot! With an Artemis suit we found that it is possible to jump to about 4km height by using the geysers. At this altitude it was possible to gradually climb even higher using the jetpack. Eventually though, CMDR Infernal Mousse landed on CMDR Robert Clark's Krait and walked around doing some tightrope walking on the antenna of the ship before falling to a tragic death.

Source: https://youtu.be/VZjg4rbgXKE

Source: https://youtu.be/oDgSVVXTvBI

Source: https://youtu.be/LNGZsbEJKCY

The visit was timed to experience one of the planetary collisions, thanks to CMDR Solandri's careful calculations. Updates will be posted tomorrow of this spectacular event!

 

[epiloso]

REPORT -- Commander Epiloso-- Dryau Ausms KG-Y e3390 AB 2 A/B -- 04/26/3308

A rare phenomenon has occurred, predicted by Infernal's own resident astrophysicist, CMDR Solandri. The expected collision of the two moons of the AB planet in the Dryau Ausms KG-Y e3390 system initiated around 20:45 UTC and roughly concluded at 23:30 UTC. Although the two moons did not cross orbits, their paths became so close that at least a quarter of their bodies were entangled. No evidence suggests the planets' surfaces and mass have changed which adds more questions than anything. Is this universe a simulation as many conspiracy theorists stated? Do these moons ignore the known rules of physics of our universe? Commanders who bore witness to this stellar abnormality were baffled by the constant shift of gravity as flight navigation became unreliable and landing operations were impossible to conduct due to the sheer speed of the surface below. The Infernal Expedition's carrier, D-Scan, while observing in orbit, was severely damaged as the two moons grazed the carried, as documented by CMDR Chewcat- no hands were lost. Unfortunately, some who stayed on the surface were lost as rock and ice shattered their ships and srvs. As for this commander, prior to the incident, a haunting feeling overcame me. Either the space-madness or a premonition...by Raxxla's hand I swear I briefly saw a face on the incoming moon, hurtling towards myself and fellow commanders. I immediately jumped back into my DBX and proceeded to document the event from orbit- helpless in hearing the screams of my fellow explorers and comrades in science as two masses crashed into each other. Their sacrifice will not be in vain. We will return back to the bubble with our findings in hopes to better understand this galaxy.

-o7 Epiloso

Source: https://youtu.be/l_iMaRWiEgk

 

[InfernalMousse]

As CMDR Epiloso has eloquently chronicled, the crew of the Explore the Core Expedition witnessed a truly astounding event yesterday! Although our expedition astrophysicist, CMDR Solandri had predicted the event to an extraordinary degree of precision, witnessing the event was another matter altogether.

Approximately an hour before the collision was predicted to start, the expedition carrier (D SCAN WLL SOON B OVER) jumped from orbiting the central Black Hole in the system to the second moon of the near gas giant (AB 2 B). CMDR Infernal Mousse was just returning from exploration approximately 1200 LYs distant and just missed the lockdown. As he was near the carrier already, he decided to try to fly through the wormhole in close pursuit of D SCAN once the jump had been initiated. To everyone's amazement, the following still unexplained phenomenon happened:

Source: https://youtu.be/VB8YaUwVRbI


Upon attempting to dock at D SCAN, the carrier flew away at rapid speed proved to be impossible to catch. We were now orbiting one of the moons scheduled to collide the other. Commanders who were on the carrier and undocked were flung away and others attempting to dock experienced the same strange effect:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5wBr8z4E8A


Commanders still on board D SCAN in their ships who attempted to disembark experienced an even stranger effect, which some still have nightmares about:

Source: https://youtu.be/jyhRnemcU8g


Some commanders who made it off the carrier gathered on the surface of one of the moons watching the other one get closer and closer. Meanwhile, on D SCAN, commanders still on their ships started to notice that the surface of the other moon was staring to get closer and closer!

pictures from CMDR Airial​

Even more troubling was that the carrier seemed to be coming apart!

As the surface of the planet approached , CMDR Chercat1 documented the final moments before the collision with the surface and the aftermath of the crash:

Source: https://youtu.be/VEg0b2Wfkx0


Meanwhile, back on the surface commanders watched in horror as the surface of another planet approached and tried to take as many measures to save themselves as they could.

Source: https://youtu.be/MS5PsToO1wU

Source: https://youtu.be/R8327SEOdEM

Moments before disaster

Source: https://youtu.be/T_dtdjrCcKU


The Aftermath of the event left many commanders both relieved and confused, with more questions than answers. How were we able to survive this disaster? Why is the expedition carrier seemingly all repaired now? Is it safe to travel further on it? We will have another almost 2 weeks to ponder these questions before we arrive back in the bubble. Will we find answers or more questions in our remaining journey?

 

[Athum]

From the madness of dying stars and colliding planets space winds brought us to another gem of the Galaxy: Throerdy AA-A h88 aka Choream Gigantum, where the eight class V hydrogen-helium giants spinning an endless cosmic waltz with their high-metal content partners over the stage of galactic disc.

 

[InfernalMousse]

Expedition Logs: Week 5

It’s been an absolutely amazing week on the Explore the Core Infernal Expedition. Although we have only traveled about 10,000 LYs since last week, we’ve had plenty of action and adventure.

Our first stop this week was at the Black in Green Tourist installation, a black hole surrounded by a green planetary nebula, where we held both stock Viper and unlimited class ship races through the spinning rings of the installation, reminiscent of the training we all receive prior to getting our Pilots Federation credentials. The unlimited class races proved to be quite dangerous, with multiple commanders ending their runs in fiery crashes.

The expedition next moved to the Great Annihilator system, where we met up with the excellent commanders at the Azura Initiative. The Azura Initiative is a mini–bubble in the blackness of space, with fleet carriers acting as stations as terraforming operations proceed to create habitable spaces for future outposts. We held our first event with them at the Ammonia Lyceum's moon, organized by CMDR Richard Fluiraniz of Azura. The event involved 2 teams of SRVs corralling 50 guardian orbs into their respective team ships under the green glow of the Ammonia planet above us. Our next event was held the following day at the Deranjat Crater on Pamantesc, which also involved guardian orbs but this time on foot. Also, unbeknownst to the organizers, CMDR CrotchRoach brought Onionhead to get the party started, some of which ended up on a bonfire, and ended the event by dumping 200 tons of it on the party grounds, only to have it explode shortly thereafter. A great time was had by all and we appreciated the warm hospitality of the Azura Initiative

Next on our agenda was a visit to the Dryau Awesomes, a simply amazing system which is highly recommended for all explorers to visit. Our expedition astrophysicist, CMDR Solandri, had calculated that two moons in this system would collide during our visit and we were all excited to see this in person. Before this, however, we decided to hold a king of the mountain event PvP event on one of the moons, followed by a geyser jump which propelled us to a height of about 4kms. CMDR Infernal Mousse was able to land on CMDR Robert Clark’s Krait at this altitude and take in the views before plummeting to the surface.

The main event during our visit was the planetary collision, which involved all sorts of craziness. About an hour before the collision, the expedition carrier was moved into position around one of the moons. During this in-system jump, one of our commanders was able to follow the carrier through the jump wormhole! Once on the other side, it was impossible to dock on the carrier as it moved away at high speed, hurling commanders undocking at the carrier away as well. Commanders attempting to disembark on the carrier fell through the deck of the carrier and watched it float away in an endless loop. Commanders in ships on the deck noticed that their altitude above the surface of the moon was dropping further and further, and that parts of the carrier seemed to be disintegrating! Eventually the carrier crashed to the surface of the planet. Meanwhile on the surface of the planet, a team of commanders watched while one moon seemed to swallow the other and was coming rapidly in their direction!

Most commanders have no memories of what happened next but woke up later to a mostly undamaged carrier and commanders both relieved and confused, with more questions than answers. How were we able to survive this disaster? Why is the expedition carrier seemingly all repaired now? Is it safe to travel further on it? We will have another almost 10 days to ponder these questions before we arrive back in the bubble. Will we find answers or more questions in our remaining journey?

Expedition Leaderboards: Week 5 status

Note these are only from systems discovered on Leg 2 of this expedition by the Expedition crew:

	Leg 2 Leaderboards
	Most bodies in one system
	Commander	#bodies	System
1	ATF Griff	87	DRYAU AUSMS HA-A E205
2	Agga Salk	66	DRYAO SCRAA EG-Y G204
3	Bender Rodriguez	65	Shrogea DG-N D7-2380
	Highest Value UC system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	Knighthelm306	18,903,475	SCHAO PRUAE BV-X E1-33
2	Joe Ironborne	15,433,982	SCHAO PRI CD-Q D6-9
3	Xfinitius (Tyler Leopold Stark)	13,158,702	Hypoe Pra CR-N d6-54
	Highest value Exobiology system
	Commander	Value (cr)	System
1	SingleMaltOnRocks (Dimmler)	2,627,300	Hypoe Flyi TA-M d8-7733
2	Kami	2,226,400	OUSCS AOSCS LM-W E1-31
3	Agga Salk	1,755,700	DRYAO SCRAA WL-B D14-146
	Highest Landable Gravity body
	Commander	G	System / Body
1	Chewcat1	4.93	Shrogea JR-V e2-673 2
2	Noob 1957	4,66	Hypoe Pra YE-A f12 ABC 2
3	Chewcat1	4.53	Hypio Proo AA-A g2 AB 11
	Smallest (lowest radius) body
	Commander	Radius (km)	System / Body
1	Infernal Mousse	142	Dryau Scraa JM-W f1-135 C 3 b
2	Infernal Mousse	154	Dryau Scraa JM-W f1-135 C 3 a
3	Bender Rodriguez	155	SHROGEA DG-N D7-2543 2 A

 

[InfernalMousse]

The Expedition just departed The Shiner , which has the largest rings discovered so far, according to our records. The system also includes a Black Hole in its center as well as landable shepherd moons inside the rings. The size of these rings is quite incredible and hard to comprehend without a reference for scale. The system is also over 2500 above the galactic plane, making for some stunning views of the galaxy laid out below us.

While we were there, CMDR Kami discovered a Water Atmosphere planet only 183LYs distant from our position. These planets are rare, and usually contain the highest value biological samples for our Vista Genomics team onboard the carrier to analyze. They are also usually small bodies with excellent canyons for ship racing! So the next day, we held our first atmospheric planet ship races! We started most of the races on foot with a race to our ships before starting the ship racing action. The initial races were stock Vipers, which were quite fun and warmed us up nicely. Next came the unlimited class races, which were quite deadly due to the high speeds and tight corners of some of the curves.

Stock Viper Race:

Source: https://youtu.be/nyrpqmQRVOY


Unlimited Class Race starting with on foot race:

Source: https://youtu.be/Oe2o2l5s7y0



Many commanders took the the opportunity to scan the interesting biologicals near the race site during our visit before we departed back to the Shiner.

 

[InfernalMousse]

On Saturday, we departed from the Shiner about 2500 LYs above the galactic plane and dove down over 6300LYs down through the galactic plane to Tria Flyi AA-A h1, a system almost 3800LYs below the galactic plane. This system, similar to Rackham's Peak is only accessible with a Fleet Carrier, and the route there passes through AA-A h2 and h0 systems. In addition to the amazing views from this place, the system itself is quite remarkable.

Most of the 7 stars orbit a pair of black holes at the center; the remaining one is a Neutron Star. Since the nearest system from here is over 400LYs away, there is not much point in using its cones to FSD boost however. There are also a number of landable atmospheric planets with stunning views of the galaxy as well as the black holes from the surface.

Double black hole image from CMDR Robert Clark​

Although the system was quite interesting and the views amazing, there was no way to leave and explore without the carrier, so after only about 6 hours or so here, we departed again, passing through the same 2 H mass systems we took to get here before stopping at Granou HA-A d16 for the remainder of our time at this stop to allow for more exploration.

The galaxy laid out under (over?) D SCAN WLL SOON B OVER: Image from CPT Mark Harlock​