Logbook: 29 Feb 3302
29 Feb 2016Extremofire
Commander's Log. Vocal transcript. Galactic date: 29 Feb 3302 00:07 [soft breathing]
Okay. Here goes. [clears throat] Sorry, I'm new at this sort of thing.
Alright, hello, everyone. I'm not gonna put up -- s-say... -- you know, my real name. But around these parts and beyond my name is Commander Extremofire. Commander Extreme, if you will; I'm a Quaestor for the honorable Lavigny's Legion, the 528th Legion, pledged in defense of our great Emperor Arissa Lavigny-Duval. Imperial history buff, devoted to the cause...
[yawns]
It's been a long evening. Sorry. I've, uh... I've been cataloguing my ship components for recordkeeping and doing some research of my own. Uhh... Just sort of been sittin' here in my hangar at Shajn Market. Sitting in my old Vulture from days past. I've been flying a pretty sweet Python for the past few weeks, and that cockpit is huge. Man. Sometimes the environmental controls don't -- you know, -- fully and adequately heat a cockpit of that size. The Vulture is super cozy. Solid, small ship. Easy to maneuver. [pause] Okay, I'm getting off track.
I want to start writing an official log of my exploits, in case some random commander decides to go out and find, like, my black box or something -- not saying I plan to be blasted into pieces any time soon! That's not gonna happen. [sighs] I guess I'm just tired, hehe. I'm not usually so down. Again, it's been a long night. Okay... Lemme revise what I just said. I want to record a log, to look back, and see how far I've gone. [Whispered:] I like to think I've gotten far already... [normal voice:] but its time to get more involved and... you know, get back on track. Not -- not get back on track, just be more organized. Aggh, it's been too long a night.
[soft breathing]
I also want to start this log because I'm starting an expedition. No one really cares for a daily log based on all that... killing. I do that very day. It haunts me, sure. Yeah, I pull the trigger on a couple hundred Federals a week, yeah, it haunts me. I probably seem so, like, nonchalant about it because I know I get that fat paycheck and I know these federalshave to die. I love my Empire. The federals threaten us with the downfall of our prosperous society. Why would any amazing nation want to do that? I just... I wish things were different. [clicks tongue] Damn, getting off track again.
[sucking air in through closed teeth, clicks tongue]
Okay, yeah. Expedition. I definitely want to get away from it all... Ever since I got my pilots license a mere half a year ago, it's all I've ever wanted to do. I started off doing simple trades in the ever-wonderful LHS 3447 area, found an imperial sympathizer, made my way here, and now I'm fighting for the cause. I love my Empire. I'll die for my Empire. But I always... I always wanted to explore.
Our world is so small. Just looking out into the black, and staring at the galactic map in stellar cartography... We're so small. So small! So ridiculously small. Theres NO way we're the only ones out there. I know everyone's talking about Thargoids and such but even they can't be just it. I did one expedition just a few months ago just 1000 LY into the black, and I found a water world, totally wrecked from seismic activity, with the water temperature exceeding the boiling point, yet my scanners picked up millions upon millions of life signs. Crazy. Ridiculous. In what we consider to be the most inhospitable climate, live survives, endures. There has to be sentient life living just next door. Thousands of years behind us, likely. Futuristically inclined races could be around, maybe they're just isolationists. Misanthropes. Heh, yeah. But anyway, jeez! To -- to find one of these races, to make first contact... That would be thrilling. [pause] And to have the Empire be the first to conduct such a relation... That would make our great nation prosper. A ton.
[excited chuckling, frantic breathing]
I always have had my head in the stars, I guess. I like the thrill of battle and all that, it gets me going. But deep down, I feel like cruising in the black... without that thrill... is itself, thrilling. [laughs] Okay, getting corny here.
[sighs] I have to get it together first. This week, Hudson marches on our borders, threatening our lands. I'm here cataloguing my ships while our people in systems right near our front door fall victim to feds, with their stupid superiority complex and expansionist ideology. I'm taking a break from the vicious fighting I endured the past couple days and collecting some data for some loony in Groombridge 34. [laughs] It sounds so stupid. This man, this mad scientist, has made an appeal for cartographic data on the basis that February 29th shouldn't exist, and its existence can result in the halting of all life. I know my science, and i've seen some crazy stuff, but that is beyond ridiculous. Absurd. But hey, it gives me a reason to take a break from the fighting and, hey, this loony is paying twice as much as the market price for my data. If he has a personal reason for this data he isn't telling the galaxy, fine, lets hope it's for a good cause. The data is going to go into circulation galactically anyway, so it's not like it's for nothing.
All I know is that I'll be venturing out to the black today. I have a lot of cataloguing and recordkeeping to update, all whilst enjoying the thrill of the lack of thrill of exploration. It's been a while since I've seen the inside of my Asp Explorer, Yogaze's Legacy.
[sips a drink]
Alright, enough talking. Time to get down to it. If anyone else actually reads this, know that the ancient tradition of french pressing coffee is the best way to make coffee. [pause] Here we go, galaxy. Here I come.