When the first rumors about the new Type-8 from Lakon Spaceways began to solidify, and the company publicly confirmed they were working on the construction of a new medium-class ship, it was probably clear to everyone that a Lakon transporter suitable for M-pads would finally be available. This would take trade, tourism, and even rescue services at outposts to a new level.
But the question remained: would this new ship, which was to be available in a test version starting August 7, 3310, also be suitable for exploration? This question preoccupied Commander TIMMES of SNP. His thoughts became more concrete, and a plan emerged to put the Type-8 through a real trial by fire: an expedition to Beagle Point. And not just at some point in the future, but very soon. The expedition was to begin one day after the release of the new Type-8 and be combined with the goal of being the first squadron to send a group of Type-8 ships to the edge of the galaxy.
The idea was quickly presented to SNP management. Commander TIMMES was unsure whether he would be labeled as completely crazy. Here's the request made from original sources:
Translation: "Hey everyone, I had the crazy idea to do a rush over the Neutron Highway to Beagle Point with a few wild Commanders using the new Type-8 in explorer version. SNP would be the first squadron to arrive there with multiple T8s and could "brag" about it; the return trip could be a bit more relaxed. What do you think?"
CEO Sciencekeeper didn’t need much time to think and made a very spontaneous decision:
Translation: "Oh, I’ve got an opinion on that: Awesome! The problem is, of course, that we had announced something else before the break."
Here's a short Youtube-video of the journey created by Sciencekeeper: SNP Beagle-8-Tour
Planning a Crazy Journey
After getting the green light from squadron leadership, the planning of the tour began. It was necessary to find a few volunteer Commanders, which surprisingly went very well. However, a few needed a bit more convincing. For example, Commander Papadragon_I didn’t realize for quite some time that he actually wanted to join the journey…
As motivation for the brave Commanders, SNP management under Commander Razor2 offered a badge, which likely convinced the last few holdouts.
More challenging than finding a crew was planning the ship and the route. Since no valid data from the galactic ship configurator EDSY was available, the Type-8’s equipment was planned based on the sister ship, the Type-7. Only rudimentary data like the Type-8's mass and range were known, thanks to CEO Sciencekeeper’s good connections with well-informed circles at Lakon Spaceways. With this information, the data provided by EDSY could be adjusted and then transmitted to the route planning service "Spansh." The result, after some back and forth, was a route consisting of 554 jumps from HIP 117029 (SNP’s HQ) to Beagle Point.
It’s noteworthy that shortly after this result, Spansh probably made some temporary changes to its calculation routines. Despite multiple attempts by different Commanders with various ship builds, it was no longer possible to calculate a valid route with such a "small" number of jumps. All results ranged between 650 and 1000 jumps.
Start of the SNP Beagle-8 Tour
The expedition began just one day after the Type-8 became available. The starting signal for the "SNP Beagle-8 Tour" was given at Armstrong Orbital station on August 8, 3310, at 20:00. The brave SNP Commanders fired up the engines of their Type-8s, and after a final farewell photo and a mass jump, they set off on the long journey to Beagle Point.
There were no planned stopovers on the 65,000-light-year journey; the meeting point was scheduled to be at the Beagle Point system by August 15, 3310, at the latest.
On the Way - Special Experiences and Events
On the first day of the journey, some Commanders managed to travel about 20,000 light-years toward Sagittarius A*; in the following days, the "Beagle-8" expedition spread out widely as Commanders found varying amounts of time to navigate their ships due to the still not fully understood phenomenon of "Real Life."
Some highlights from the journey are mentioned below:
First Type-8 Reaches Beagle Point
On August 9, 3310, just two days after the new Type-8 was released, Commander TIMMES reached Beagle Point with his "Beagle-8 ONE," becoming the first participant in the expedition to do so. The galactic mapping service "EDSM" promptly confirmed the first Type-8 in the system:
Late that evening, two more Commanders arrived. The last of the 14 expedition participants reached the Beagle Point system on Monday, August 12, 3310, at 20:48.
With pride, it can be said that the Stellanebula Project squadron reached Beagle Point with 14 Type-8 ships just five days after their release. SNP is almost certainly the first group to arrive at Beagle Point uniformly with the new ship type.
Participants of the Expedition
Beagle-8 Memorial System
As a lasting monument to the expedition, a system was to be found where all Commanders could immortalize themselves by scanning planets or being the first to land. The system Iorant IR-M c7-0, about 800 light-years from Beagle Point, met all the criteria. The system had 9 planets, 5 of which were landable. This provided each expedition participant with an object for naming.
Activities at Beagle Point
SNP wouldn’t be SNP if no strange ideas were born on-site when boredom set in ("Hold my beer…").
The Tower of Beagle
The Tower of Beagle was built twice. After the first attempt, the second one with all 14 Commanders was much more successful. Commander Papadragon_I is the first Commander in the world to have climbed the Beagle-8 Tower, which stood 276 meters tall.
At some point, someone gave the command to shut down the thrusters of all 14 Type-8s. Thus, shortly after the first Type-8 tower was built, the first Type-8 graveyard was born.
A little Elephant race
You can definitely race with the Type-8. The canyons on Ceeckia GZ-D d13-0 A 2 A served as the track. The following insights were gained:
1. The Type-8 is very suitable as a racing ship.
2. The Type-8 is very vulnerable with 4D shields.
Unfortunately, this last point led to some unintended ship paint renewals...
The picture speaks for itself... SNP immortalized itself before the Milky Way's band with the Beagle-8 fleet.
A Circle of Chairs Before Heading Home...
Every event comes to an end, and so did the somewhat crazy, legendary, or however you prefer to describe it, Beagle-8 Tour. The Commanders said their goodbyes with a small circle of chairs on BP 2. The return journey was made either with a Sidewinder or escape pod from the DSSA Carrier "Distant Worlds X2J-19Z"... Titan Thor is already waiting!
But the question remained: would this new ship, which was to be available in a test version starting August 7, 3310, also be suitable for exploration? This question preoccupied Commander TIMMES of SNP. His thoughts became more concrete, and a plan emerged to put the Type-8 through a real trial by fire: an expedition to Beagle Point. And not just at some point in the future, but very soon. The expedition was to begin one day after the release of the new Type-8 and be combined with the goal of being the first squadron to send a group of Type-8 ships to the edge of the galaxy.
The idea was quickly presented to SNP management. Commander TIMMES was unsure whether he would be labeled as completely crazy. Here's the request made from original sources:
Translation: "Hey everyone, I had the crazy idea to do a rush over the Neutron Highway to Beagle Point with a few wild Commanders using the new Type-8 in explorer version. SNP would be the first squadron to arrive there with multiple T8s and could "brag" about it; the return trip could be a bit more relaxed. What do you think?"
CEO Sciencekeeper didn’t need much time to think and made a very spontaneous decision:
Translation: "Oh, I’ve got an opinion on that: Awesome! The problem is, of course, that we had announced something else before the break."
Here's a short Youtube-video of the journey created by Sciencekeeper: SNP Beagle-8-Tour
Planning a Crazy Journey
After getting the green light from squadron leadership, the planning of the tour began. It was necessary to find a few volunteer Commanders, which surprisingly went very well. However, a few needed a bit more convincing. For example, Commander Papadragon_I didn’t realize for quite some time that he actually wanted to join the journey…
As motivation for the brave Commanders, SNP management under Commander Razor2 offered a badge, which likely convinced the last few holdouts.
More challenging than finding a crew was planning the ship and the route. Since no valid data from the galactic ship configurator EDSY was available, the Type-8’s equipment was planned based on the sister ship, the Type-7. Only rudimentary data like the Type-8's mass and range were known, thanks to CEO Sciencekeeper’s good connections with well-informed circles at Lakon Spaceways. With this information, the data provided by EDSY could be adjusted and then transmitted to the route planning service "Spansh." The result, after some back and forth, was a route consisting of 554 jumps from HIP 117029 (SNP’s HQ) to Beagle Point.
It’s noteworthy that shortly after this result, Spansh probably made some temporary changes to its calculation routines. Despite multiple attempts by different Commanders with various ship builds, it was no longer possible to calculate a valid route with such a "small" number of jumps. All results ranged between 650 and 1000 jumps.
Start of the SNP Beagle-8 Tour
The expedition began just one day after the Type-8 became available. The starting signal for the "SNP Beagle-8 Tour" was given at Armstrong Orbital station on August 8, 3310, at 20:00. The brave SNP Commanders fired up the engines of their Type-8s, and after a final farewell photo and a mass jump, they set off on the long journey to Beagle Point.
There were no planned stopovers on the 65,000-light-year journey; the meeting point was scheduled to be at the Beagle Point system by August 15, 3310, at the latest.
On the Way - Special Experiences and Events
On the first day of the journey, some Commanders managed to travel about 20,000 light-years toward Sagittarius A*; in the following days, the "Beagle-8" expedition spread out widely as Commanders found varying amounts of time to navigate their ships due to the still not fully understood phenomenon of "Real Life."
Some highlights from the journey are mentioned below:
- Commander M24C4 decided very spontaneously on the evening of the Beagle-8 pilots’ departure to join the expedition. A Type-8 was quickly purchased and outfitted, and as soon as it was ready, the jump sequence towards Beagle Point began.
- Commander Raphael C. had just obtained his pilot's license from the Pilots’ Federation a few days before and had no experience as an explorer nor had he ever used a neutron star for charging. Nevertheless, he decided to join the tour and plunge into the unknown!
- Commander Morton the 3rd was very skeptical about the route planning service Spansh’s results and initially decided to avoid using the neutron highway. Additionally, he was apparently misled about the performance of neutron boosts, so a "normal" route seemed almost as fast. However, somewhere beyond—far beyond—Sagittarius A*, hyper-space communication from participants ahead on the Beagle-8 tour helped clarify these misunderstandings and put Commander Morton on the "right path" of neutron stars.
- Commander Rotto Granitface took his first break after covering over 20,000 light-years on a lonely moon and decided to spend the night there, parking his ship on the planet's surface. The next day, fate struck mercilessly: During takeoff with a cup of coffee in hand and perhaps a bit distracted by the aroma of roasted beans, Rotto unfortunately noticed too late that the ship's controls were malfunctioning, causing the "Beagle-8 FOUR" to steer back towards the planet’s surface. The ship was destroyed upon impact, and Commander Rotto found himself back at Armstrong Orbital in HIP 117029, thanks to the galactic rescue service. What would have caused most pilots to give up only caused a brief hesitation in Rotto. He immediately resumed his journey in the "Beagle-8 FOUR," replaced by the Pilots' Federation insurance, because giving up was not an option. Rotto started again and began an extraordinary catch-up race to rejoin the expedition group.
- Commanders Papadragon_I and micl took a break from the hectic journey along the neutron highway at the galactic center and visited Explorer’s Anchorage near Sagittarius A*. Additionally, some exploration was conducted before getting back on route.
- Commander Razor2, a member of SNP’s management, accompanied the expedition. The fun (and sometimes stress) of being in management meant there were no shortages in funds for the purchase and outfitting of the Beagle-8 EIGHT. However, as is often the case in management, time for other things was lacking, or perhaps those other things simply weren’t on the radar. It wasn’t until Razor2 had completely exhausted his AFM capacity that he realized the ability to synthesize a new supply was only theoretical because important raw materials like nickel or sulfur were missing. Fortunately, he had a brand new top-class multi-rescue drone control on board—but synthesizing the necessary drones during the journey also failed due to—yes—missing essential raw materials.
First Type-8 Reaches Beagle Point
On August 9, 3310, just two days after the new Type-8 was released, Commander TIMMES reached Beagle Point with his "Beagle-8 ONE," becoming the first participant in the expedition to do so. The galactic mapping service "EDSM" promptly confirmed the first Type-8 in the system:
Late that evening, two more Commanders arrived. The last of the 14 expedition participants reached the Beagle Point system on Monday, August 12, 3310, at 20:48.
With pride, it can be said that the Stellanebula Project squadron reached Beagle Point with 14 Type-8 ships just five days after their release. SNP is almost certainly the first group to arrive at Beagle Point uniformly with the new ship type.
Participants of the Expedition
| COMMANDER | SHIP NAME |
| TIMMES | SNP BEAGLE-8 ONE |
| Sanyarin | SNP BEAGLE-8 TWO |
| PapaDragon_I | SNP BEAGLE-8 THREE |
| Rotto Granitface | SNP BEAGLE-8 FOUR |
| Freakezoid-GER | SNP BEAGLE-8 FIVE |
| Baddy-Nomad | SNP BEAGLE-8 SIX |
| Morton der dritte | SNP BEAGLE-8 SEVEN |
| Razor2 | SNP BEAGLE-8 EIGHT |
| wurstdog | SNP BEAGLE-8 NINE |
| Dezett von Ka | SNP BEAGLE-8 TEN |
| McFlausch | SNP BEAGLE-8 ELEVEN |
| micl | SNP BEAGLE-8 TWELVE |
| Raphael Conolly | SNP BEAGLE-8 THIRTEEN |
| M24C4 | SNP BEAGLE-8 FOURTEEN |
Beagle-8 Memorial System
As a lasting monument to the expedition, a system was to be found where all Commanders could immortalize themselves by scanning planets or being the first to land. The system Iorant IR-M c7-0, about 800 light-years from Beagle Point, met all the criteria. The system had 9 planets, 5 of which were landable. This provided each expedition participant with an object for naming.
Activities at Beagle Point
SNP wouldn’t be SNP if no strange ideas were born on-site when boredom set in ("Hold my beer…").
The Tower of Beagle
The Tower of Beagle was built twice. After the first attempt, the second one with all 14 Commanders was much more successful. Commander Papadragon_I is the first Commander in the world to have climbed the Beagle-8 Tower, which stood 276 meters tall.
At some point, someone gave the command to shut down the thrusters of all 14 Type-8s. Thus, shortly after the first Type-8 tower was built, the first Type-8 graveyard was born.
A little Elephant race
You can definitely race with the Type-8. The canyons on Ceeckia GZ-D d13-0 A 2 A served as the track. The following insights were gained:
1. The Type-8 is very suitable as a racing ship.
2. The Type-8 is very vulnerable with 4D shields.
Unfortunately, this last point led to some unintended ship paint renewals...
The picture speaks for itself... SNP immortalized itself before the Milky Way's band with the Beagle-8 fleet.
A Circle of Chairs Before Heading Home...
Every event comes to an end, and so did the somewhat crazy, legendary, or however you prefer to describe it, Beagle-8 Tour. The Commanders said their goodbyes with a small circle of chairs on BP 2. The return journey was made either with a Sidewinder or escape pod from the DSSA Carrier "Distant Worlds X2J-19Z"... Titan Thor is already waiting!
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