Commander William Obtuse's Exploration Log

[Obtuse]

April 23, 3301
1st log
Commander William Obtuse


After weeks of contracting to keeping miners safe from pirates in various systems, I can finally afford the ASP Exploration Edition to fulfill my life long dream of exploring the galaxy at my leisure. It was not easy and often tedious work but in the end it was worth it. I could not resist spending the extra on a nice coat of paint (heres a sneak peak, I do say shes mighty sexy!)
I've decided to name her Dorothy. As soon as the paint dried I starting getting her set up for some heavy exploration. Here is the set up I went with
in addition to 2 heat sinks. The total cost was only 14.15mil Cr which for her 34+LY jump range is not half bad (37.00 exact on an empty tank!)

I will shortly be launching from Gabri and first head towards the Cats Paw Nebula and then go where ever my fancy takes me from there. I will update as regularly as possible on new discoveries commanders and hope to amaze you with the sights. Wish me luck!


~Commander William Obtuse signing off..........[end transmission]

 

[Haral]

God speed and safe travels, Commander.

 

[Grendahl]

Not sure why you've included cargo racks- I'd ditch those in favour of a second AFMU and/or heatsinks (not that I use them myself)

 

[Obtuse]

Not sure why you've included cargo racks- I'd ditch those in favour of a second AFMU and/or heatsinks (not that I use them myself)

I decided to just use 1 AFMU to keep the power management 0 so I could keep the current reactor to keep the mass down overall. Also heatsinks only fit utility slots

 

[Fen Harel]

You might want to consider an A-rated Power plant. It may have more mass, but it will be significantly more heat efficient.

 

[Thanatos]

Yeah I'd swap out the cargo rack for a class 6 fuel scoop. I'm out past cat's paw now and regret leaving with a 6B, should have got the 6A.
Less time scooping, or scooping without getting as close is better IMO.

Fly safe and good luck.

 

[Obtuse]

You might want to consider an A-rated Power plant. It may have more mass, but it will be significantly more heat efficient.

you know, I didn't think about that, but with 2 heat sinks I hope I'll be ok, be a shame to cut the trip early.

Yeah I'd swap out the cargo rack for a class 6 fuel scoop. I'm out past cat's paw now and regret leaving with a 6B, should have got the 6A.
Less time scooping, or scooping without getting as close is better IMO.

Fly safe and good luck.

I'm only 100+lys out so far, but even on my 30+ly jumps i scoop enough to refill with the 5c before I even get aligned on the next star, so I think I'll be ok with that, and thank you!

 

[Fen Harel]

you know, I didn't think about that, but with 2 heat sinks I hope I'll be ok, be a shame to cut the trip early.

I'm only 100+lys out so far, but even on my 30+ly jumps i scoop enough to refill with the 5c before I even get aligned on the next star, so I think I'll be ok with that, and thank you!

I would worry more about the heat buildup when you scoop and then fire the FSD. But, if it is working for you, go for it. Good luck and fly safe Commander!

 

[Obtuse]

I would worry more about the heat buildup when you scoop and then fire the FSD. But, if it is working for you, go for it. Good luck and fly safe Commander!

Ah, having flown the Vulture exclusively for quite a while, and being a wandering mercenary for the Federation , I got very good at knowing where my scooping "elevation" is for the different scoopable stars. I just have to worry about going too long one day and making a mistake from exhaustion .

 

[Obtuse]

Alright Commanders I need some advice. I'm going to start buying the audio books on the official fiction from the store, if I have to listen to my computer tell me one more time "Fuel scoop Engaged, ect." I'll bust the damn computer, Don't test me Dorothy, I'll do it!, (thats rp guys I know I can mute certain messages) I want to know which is the one I should start with?

 

[Obtuse]

April 25, 3301
2nd Log
Commander William Obtuse


Oh boy, what a trip so far, I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll start with my 1st Undiscovered System (UDS). A little over 390ly from Gabri I ran into my first UDS, I got so excited I ugh, got a little to eager to start exploring and damn near crashed into the sun! Thank god for heat sinks, I managed to boost away only taking minor hull and system damage (the cargo hatch took the brunt of it, glad I don't really need it! Or...will I?) and immediately started scoping the 3 bodies in system. A class M and T dwarf stars and a Class 1 Jovian Gas Giant with a whopping 499.396 Earth masses.



I found a few more UDS and ran into

in [redacted] I went in (heart hammering! I am shieldless and weaponless) in case it was a fellow commander in need of rescue. I was too late. All that was left was some debris and a few canisters of Bauxite
.
I decided to scoop them and see if I could make a collection of salvage from deep space miners and/or explorer wrecks. This was a bad idea, but before I get to that I ran into another WSS in the same system, of course I had to investigate and much to my surprise it was another explorer!


I hailed Niclas over the comms and had a good chat about the discoveries we both had made so far. It was nice to find someone as passionate as I was about exploring this far out, only problem, he was more passionate and started to try to threaten and blackmail me when we found out we both had laid claim to a few of the same systems (with high metal content planets so this was a big deal). After he mentioned using his Imperial connections to make sure I didn't take claim on "his" claims I screeched through the empty void "For the Federation!" and boosted max speed into his hauler blowing him up. Dorothy held up well she only lost a few % pts of hull integrity.


This Chief Petty Officer will not be blackmailed, threatened, nor most certainly talked down to by Imperial scum, I must make sure I am not being tailed by any more Imperial spies before leaving the system. And as it happens, Niclas was not the only one present in the system, on the very last planet I was scanning, Dorothy made me aware of this

So, in order to make sure I was safe from further Imperial interference I checked it out, (remember that Bauxite?) and found myself dropping into the midst of a 5 man pirate wing!

Dorothy immediately informed me that multiple scanners were on me, and a voice comm opened up informing me that they wanted my cargo! "NEVER!" was my reply and I immediately dumped all power to engines and got the hell out. And of course this Commander left in style


Finally left that insane system and took stock of my modules, quite a few were down in the 70-90% range but everything was holding up fine so far. As I started to calm down I noticed this system has some nice sites and I couldn't resist launching a scout drone to snap a few vanity shots.



And then, I made my big score,

yep thats right Commanders, A Rocky Ice Planet, not just an Icy Planet, nor just a Rocky Planet, but the mother of all! satire of course, but its lonely out here and I have to cope by using my terrible sense of humour.

So all in all a very exciting, gut wrenching time that leaves me eager for more! Updates whenever possible.
Distance Traveled from Gabri: 570.76LY
Systems Visited: 380
Worlds Discovered : [redacted]


~Commander William Obtuse signing off..........[end transmission]

 

[Obtuse]

April 30, 3301
3rd Log
Commander William Obtuse

Quite an exciting outing this has been so far and it gets even better! I continue to run into odd signal sources hundreds of light years from civilized space, and as always I cannot go by without checking to make sure it isn't some poor stranded commander in need of a helping hand. Unfortunately, I continue to be too late to help these poor people, may they rest in peace among the stars.




(I did find a lot of canisters of clothing around the Vulture wreck, what the hell was a combat vessel doing tugging clothes? This commander is guessing that there is a unsanctioned station out here somewhere acting as a base for criminals.)

Suddenly I come across a signal so strong it almost takes my systems offline!



This will be no shipwreck..... priming my engines to be ready for a quick getaway, I move in to see some extremely capable ships duking it out (Vultures, Pythons, and the enviable Fer-De-Lance!)



Curious, I shutdown all non essential systems and drift in closer for a look (these guys were way to busy with each other to notice a dark and powered down ship) lo and behold who is in that ultimately sexy Fer-De-Lance? The Legend Himself! Yes, Peter Brooks!



I couldn't believe it, the universe's ultimate commander right in front of me taking on several ships by himself and not even trying by the looks of it!
I quickly ran into the galley and made popcorn to watch it unfold. What seemed like hours later the debris cleared and Peter sat there victorious! His shields were long gone and he had several deep scorch marks along his fuselage but damn there he was! I couldn't help myself and went to open a comm link, before I could Federation Navy HQ's ELF (extremely low frequency) emergency band lit up with an incoming message! It had to be serious, they only use the long range comms when SHTF, regretfully I watched Peter jump away without hailing him as duty to the Federation comes first. I downloaded the message and learned to my horror that the Empire (foolish buggers) was making an attempt on the Federal system Volungu.
I could not continue my journey and quickly calculated the quickest route back to Federation space making massive 34 LY leaps that strained my FSD drive to its limits. Within some hours I was back in my Vulture headed to the conflict zones erupting all over Volungu.



The war was short but intense (here is a declassified photo I am allowed to release of the fighting)



But in the end the Federation was victorious (how could we not be?) and we squashed the Empire faction that dared to disturb the Federal peace. I found out later that this was not an attack by the Empire directly but an unsanctioned attack by a bunch of rich kids within the Empire who thought they could make a name for themselves (fools.) With it all calming down I was able to go and hand in the data I had amassed at that point from my exploration. Heres a quick overview: (it did not start well..)



Then my big score came through! (just kidding) but I did get credited with a few nice finds.



And my final tally for my 1st trip out:



(I went from Mostly Aimless to Surveyor off this)

As you can see I did make a nice little profit which is personally a bonus as I was doing something I loved. Which incidentally gave me the credits to upgrade Dorothy's power plant to an A class and give her a brand new paint job! I will be heading out soon on another trip, will keep you posted Commanders! Thank you for your interest in my travels, may it inspire you to do that same!



~Commander William Obtuse signing off.....[end transmission]

 

[Obtuse]

Could a mod please move this to the new Exploration subforum? I created this before it went up and I dont want to double post this. Thanks!

 

[Obtuse]

May 1, 3301
1st and last Log
2nd Trip Out
Commander William Obtuse

So after repainting and doing some upgrading to Dorothy (see last transmission) I decided to head out from Kareldt the "Southern" most Federation outpost and headed for Dabih Minor/Major.
Found a few nice things along the way, some nice high metal content planets, and a few gas giants with ammonia based life. Then I found the biggest planet (personally) a class lll gas giant that was 2,223 Earth masses! Whats even crazier, it had a ring system even bigger than the planet by far, I noticed to that the reserves were pristine and it was only a few hundred LYs away (might have to do some mining here later on!)



I kept going my planned route and again ran into a Unidentifiable Signal Source, unable to help myself I jumped in.........

BEHOLD THE MIGHTY COLOSSUS!!



He sent me a very unsettling comm when he started to attack me. (as seen above) I ran for it, went from 100% hull to 22% with 2 missiles on me before I managed to jump away. So I had to head back, thankful to still have my life. When I got back to Kareldt station I had a large brandy and had a T-shirt made " I survived Colossus!" All jokes aside, I will be heading back out soon, but I am eagerly awaiting Lakon's new ship, The Diamondback, from what there adverts are saying it can explore and will have combat capabilities, so I have this to say.

"Prepare yourself Colossus, I shall be your end!"

Till then fly safe commanders, and don't fall for traps like I seem to do constantly!

~Commander William Obtuse signing off.....[end transmission]

 

[Obtuse]

May 2, 3301
1st Log 3rd Trip
Commander William Obtuse


I will not be scared off my dream by the likes of scum such as Colossus! I am going back out again Commanders, and I will continue to explore the depths of space and uphold my duty as a Federation pilot to help those in need if signalled.

Now after using the last of my funds from my last trip repairing Dorothy (turns out her thrusters were also heavily damaged and they cost a pretty penny let me tell you), I set off again from Kareldt again going for the galactic floor. This time my destination was open to whim and I haphazardly plotted a 777 LY course to a B Type star that caught my eye on the Galactic Map. Unfortunately, I forgot to screen grab my starting stats until I was in the first system outside of Kareldt (which happened to be unexplored! heres a snapshot when I entered the system)



and was halfway to a celestial body on my scanner when I remembered to do so.



So I will be counting from 492 onwards.

While leaping from system to system on my trek "down" I encountered my first undiscovered water worlds! There was 2 in the same system and they both were pristine!



I simply couldn't believe my luck, they were beautiful. Now I didn't find anything quite as exciting as the water worlds further on, but thats not to say I didn't have some other amazing and hair raising finds! Some of my personal favorite discoveries so far on this trip have to be these ring systems.



That last one was 2,459 Earth masses! Beating the previous one of 2,223! I'm really hoping to find one over 3k soon.

Now for the hair raising part. I didn't want to spoil the awesomeness of the dual water worlds discovery with this till now. I picked up another signal source! This was particularly odd as this system was over 709 LYs from any known civilized space, I mean, not even Colossus bothers to come out this far, so I figured it had to be a fellow explorer in need of assistance! And.... I was wrong. I picked up 4 small vessels immediately in range as I dropped out of super cruise and was bombarded with comm messages.



Thankfully, as you can see I was able to convince them I had nothing of value at the time and they allowed me to go. I can't tell you how nerve wracking that was! (must buy the Diamondback with discovery funds when its released! I don't know why, but I run into a lot of trouble out here where I shouldn't)

After calming down to get my bearings I continued on and finally reached my current goal. It was breathtaking.



Sadly (for me!), another explorer had discovered the system as my scanners fed the data into the Galactic Map, it was still an awesome sight to behold and worth every bit of trouble to get here. I really do love this. If you find yourself with extra credits commanders, do yourself the favor of fitting out a ship to explore, you won't regret it (unless your even unluckier than me and actually meet an untimely end!) (sorry there goes my awful sense of humor again).

A quick shot of my NAV screen of the trip so far.



Alright commanders, I've cruised out 192,000 ls from any bodies in the system and am going to turn in for now before continuing on.



Damn, what a view.

~Commander William Obtuse signing off.....[end transmission]

 

[Jason Pegasi]

This belongs in the Lore and Roleplay section.

Good job by the way, these are cool.

 

[Obtuse]

This belongs in the Lore and Roleplay section.

Good job by the way, these are cool.

I had asked in a previous post for this to be moved, though it was to the exploration section, RP might be better.

And thank you! This is my first time doing something like this and I have to say I'm learning a lot and enjoying myself immensely.

 

[Obtuse]

May 4, 3301
2nd Log 3rd Trip
Commander William Obtuse

Remember those pirates from a few days ago? Well it seems while I was sleeping they jumped ahead of me and I ran into them again!



They immediately surrounded me again and started demanding my cargo, and then they realized it was me.....again. I talked to them for awhile this time, turns out there not real pirates, just treasure hunters looking for alien wrecks and artifacts, their supplies were starting to get low and they didn't want to head back home yet so they took to plundering explorers to keep them going. I shared some of my food and water with them (I always way overstock just in case, so it was not a problem really) and they left me happy. It feels good to help.

After leaving them, I kept jumping system to system, this time keeping an eye out for artifacts, from what they told me they had a very good tip that there was something in the surrounding systems. A couple of system jumps later BAM!



This is over 1200ly out of civilized space and I was thinking UNKNOWN ARTIFACTS! Well I got too excited and blew past it while dropping out of super cruise, needless to say I couldn't pick up the signal again. Though I did spend 2 entire hours cruising around trying to find it again. Incredibly disgruntled, I carried on.

(out of character: guys I am really with myself for missing it, I truly believe it might have been an unknown artifact spawn.)

I did get cheered up though! Next 2 systems had 4!, yes 4! water worlds in them.



I got really excited on the third one, it looked like an Earthlike! Too bad it wasn't. But I continue to find some really nice things that helped with the current disappointments.



A few gas giants with water and ammonia life, a Water Giant, which was really cool. A super bright Type A star that I swear ruined my perfect vision from staring at it (I'm gonna have to get some retinal repair work done after I get back). And probably the most metal world I've ever seen, haha (bad humor strikes again!)

I'm starting to learn that the system map is not a good scale, I keep running it tri and binary star systems where they look so close to each other!



Then when I scan for their coordinates I find out, not so close....



Oh and I ran into my first Giant K Type star! It was huge! I had to take a trick shot of it so my ship seemed bigger ( I swear I'm not trying to compensate for anything!)



As I continue on I notice my reachable systems are dropping, and fast, I might have to go a little "North" before going further.



But, I was able to keep going and decided to call it a day here at the most crowded system I've run into yet, 71 celestial bodies!



I'm going back to sleep first before going around scanning here though. Before I went I checked the distance from Kareldt, I'm now 1,300+ Ly out the furthest I've ever been from home, and I can't wait to make it further! Heres my system visited update as well.



And last bit, another awesome view to fall asleep to!



Till next time commanders.


~Commander William Obtuse signing off.....[end transmission]

 

[Obtuse]

May 5, 3301
3rd Log 3rd Trip
Commander William Obtuse

You know I've gotten so used to waking up, making coffee, and setting the coordinates for the next star that I totally jumped out of the 71 body system I meant to scan and didn't realize it till now as I'm updating the log book! I'll have to make sure to swing back by on the return trip and I really need to start paying more attention, it was a harmless mistake this time, but the next one could be deadly. Lesson learned commanders, always be vigilant, you stay alive longer that way.

I didn't get too far today as compared to the last few, I really took my time scanning the systems for everything I could find. And I did find! More water worlds! 3 more in fact, 2 in the same system again! Though one of them is nearly covered in ice caps, I wouldn't fancy living on there if we ever colonize it, this commander likes the warmth thank you very much. I have decided to call this section of the sector "The Water Belt" I think 7 water worlds in sequence counts, I personally don't know of any back home to be sure.





I really do love the ringed planets (and occasional ringed star!), today I found the coolest looking one I've ever seen, I don't think any future ones will trump this.





Though there were a few runner ups. The retro colored rings were awesome to behold, some of the gas giants themselves were of a particularly stormy nature, oh and one I affectionately named Mud Ball, it has to be the most boring looking planet I've seen yet.





Ah I did find my first Ammonia world as well, it had ammonia and carbon based life, I wonder what they would look like if they evolved past the single cellular phase? (hopefully not like Thargoids!)



This has to be the best system I've come across yet, I made sure to scan every single body in the system after careful searching. An amazing Type B star surrounded by four T Tauri stars with 12 HMC worlds, 2 gas giants, and two rocky planets. The amount of metal in the system will bring contractors and minors from every extraction system back home! I think I'll be getting a nice little credit bonus for this bit of data!




I decided to turn in here about 200,000 Ls out, even then the view was truly awe inspiring as the entire system went about its orbits.




And a quick final update on the progression so far, the systems visited is slowing rising, the next one will make it 560 systems. And my light year count from Kareldt is now 1515Ly. It gets lonely out here sometimes, and I think of home and my Vulture (shes just so fun to fly!) perhaps too much, but for now I will continue on, its not like she wont be there when I get back! (I paid good credits to make sure she was safely berthed for long term ) And besides, I can always receive messages from back home in case of an emergency to where the Federation needs her pilots (gotta love those quantum entangled communicators!).





Least this time when I wake up I don't have to change my routine or risk forgetting a 71 body system!



~Commander William Obtuse signing off.....[end transmission]

 

[Obtuse]

Ok fixed, sorry about that guys, no idea why it deleted my entire post except for the date, took me awhile to retype it all lol.