Space, the final frontier...

[pippo]

After a few failed exploration attempts (and although I did pop my cherry on a 3 to 4 months Sagittarius A* return trip once, granting me the rank of Pioneer) I'm finally off again. I toyed with the idea off joining the Distant World expedition but it feels too much like a race to me and I'm not sure I can commit to a set dozen of thousand light years every week to keep up with you guys, so I decided to head off in the opposite direction, and opposite to my last meaningful destination, for that matter.
So what better place than this one to record my progress…

I had to travel a fair few light years before committing to this thread, and make sure I was off for the long run this time. So let me take you back a few weeks, first.

______________________________________


Back to Meucci Horizons, in the Imani System.
Where Pan Galactic Mining Corp. exploration and survey department took up residence few months ago…

Meucci Horizons, where we're finally meeting with Sirius Corporation and Universal Cartographic representatives in order to obtain a 52,349,526Cr grant to fund Voyager III.
Needless to say that I would not be here typing these lines if the meeting had not been a complete success… So I present to you the ride to be, Voyager III, docked on Wrangell City's pad number 3 in the Snoquot System:

I don't know about you guys, but I could never consider the middle of our populated "bubble" to make for a decent starting line. I still remember my first expedition and leaving from the Pand System. A little over a year ago, there was a player community there trying to develop the system and expand, long before player minor factions were even a thing, in the shadow of the Mercs of Mikunn… I wonder if they're still a thing…

So this time, I headed north, to the Gabri System, far from all political turmoil.

And here I am, ready to launch… Voyager III, on pad number 3 again:

One last look at the man-made bolts and steel-work… Time for lift off…

"to boldly go where no man has gone before"

 

[pippo]

Beagle Point? Out of question… too far, too quick… can't, won't do it.
Sagittarius A*? Got the Tee-shirt already.

So to leave the Orion spur this time, I headed toward the Rosette Nebula in the Perseus Arm.

It's probably only funny to me and to my fellow french compatriots, but a nebula named after the nation's pride, a giant dry pork sausage, had to be the first stage of this expedition.

The old times where reaching new systems already discovered only by our most famous explorers like Zulu Romeo is a long way away. Whether I pick the fast or economical route, I always feel like I'm on a traffic jammed highway.
So I set the radio player onto a chillful channel to make the good old 'honk and scoop' routine a little more bearable.

 

[SpaceMonkeyz]

You take great pics Commander. I for one shall be following this journal with great interest.

Also I would like to add you to my friends list. Do you explore in open, or a private group, or solo?

In any case, Fly Safe!

o7

 

[pippo]

Also I would like to add you to my friends list. Do you explore in open, or a private group, or solo?

Open 'till I die… and Open again…
CMDR Vauban, at your service!
o7

 

[pippo]

After a few bunch of days rushing past the many already discovered systems, and almost as many different Cmdrs name tags, I finally reached stage one of this expedition and the Rosette Nebula Region. But most systems in and around the area, as expected, had already been scanned and returned to Universal Cartographic, just like the many systems I went across along the way… Oh yes, some would have lazily scanned the main star and jumped away, but I don't like picking up the crumbs.

So I diverted slightly and ended up in the neighbor region: COL 107 SECTOR. Only a few hundreds light years away from the Rosette Nebula and completely virgin this time.
After all, I had seen many nebulae before and this would set me up nicely for my next destination, the WHOOKUA Region in the outer end of the Perseus Arm:

Col 107 is packed with Blue/White stars like this one, so bright in fact that its light refracted through this huge ClassV Gas Giant…

I've only been here a few hours and the next jump allowed me to bag this one up…

Pressure is off now and I can carry on this journey in a more relaxed fashion.
There are myriads of these bright A's, O's or B's around here… all of these with their fair share of terraformable candidates, being water worlds or else orbiting around.

I switched the radio to a more suited frequency.
I might be staying in the COL 107 SECTOR for a while…

 

[pippo]

For nearly two weeks now, I have spent my time in the COL 107 SECTOR, never plotting a single course, just picking and choosing the next bright star to jump to and bagging countless valuable bodies. Really, I could turn back now and dock a rich man. But instead, I started looking at moving forward and slowly heading further up the Perseus Arm.

If I am to find truly unique places once I get there, I'd better start looking for the missing ingredient of my Jumponium soup:

So many stars, so many planets… so just like with everything else, I decided to pick and choose my first landing spot and quickly found this rather large ringed High Metal Content World…

Time for some faffing around in the SRV to break up the day,
See if I can come across the material that I need…

 

[pippo]

No luck. No Polonium.
But I did stock up on Arsenic and Niobium, and that will surely come in handy when the time comes…

So carrying on my merry way, I didn't even notice I had stepped out of the COL 107 SECTOR to reach a SCHEE PHIO Region.
Little did I know, making it one jump at a time and scanning absolutely everything, I'm already 1200Ly away from the Rosette Nebula.

SCHEE PHIO is not quite as dense in goodies as COL 107 was, but I can still follow the same routine and jump from blue/white to blue/white.
This jump for example, landed me in another massive and super bright star with a Ringed Herbig for closest 'buddy'…

I was so eager to line myself up for a nice screenshot that I crashed into that ring system, leaving Voyager III with 98% hull for the rest of the journey.
At this rate, I will reach 0% hull and call it a day in about 300.000Ly so nothing to worry about, really. That said, I need to be a little more cautious.

While I was waiting for my FSD to recharge and for the AFMU to do its magic, I took a closer look at my System Map…
… and oh boy, there was another surprise here:

Nearly 50.000Ls to travel before reaching those two blue balls, looking an awful lot like Earth Like Worlds.
I was hoping for these to be close enough to each overs to make up for a nice vista but…

6Ls appart and although they're both twice as big as the motherland in Sol, you really have to squint the eyes to see them both!

 

[Klab]

Great thread with some very nice pics, have some rep!

 

[pippo]

Great thread with some very nice pics, have some rep!

Cheers Klab!

 

[Jermus]

… and oh boy, there was another surprise here:

That's a nice surprise indeed! Both a good / Lucky find and it makes for nice search picture. I can't say I did locate the other world, though.

Thanks for sharing these nice finds and wonderful pictures.

Fly safe,
CMDR Jermus

 

[pippo]

That's a nice surprise indeed! Both a good / Lucky find and it makes for nice search picture. I can't say I did locate the other world, though.

Thanks for sharing these nice finds and wonderful pictures.

Fly safe,
CMDR Jermus

Thanks Jermus,
Here's a little hint…

Spoiler

 

[ClayMatthews52]

Great thread, good writing, nice pictures! Some reps to You!

 

[Jermus]

Here's a little hint…

Whoa! thanks. Well, at least you can say that you have them both in one picture...