Ikarus log 001
09 Jan 2020CMDR Mattius101
I can't believe I got this opportunity to serve on this expedition, a once in a lifetime chance to explore the stars so far out, beyond the bubble of known space.Felicity told me to be careful with this ship, its not what i'm used to in terms of size and bulkiness. My asp will be missed indeed but onwards and upwards. I raise from the station bay in complete darkness. somewhat wary, having read reports of pirate activity in the deceit system i am somewhat wary of taking my ship out of the bay and into the black, knowing that some of these pirates have been reported to have military grade weaponry and ships and all ive got is a 30 year old burst laser that would take a year to pull the shields of a sidewinder!
I raise the ship into the black of space and slowly get into geo-stationary orbit whilst I check the ships systems.
"all good"
As i sit here, looking over controls i am so familiar with, i am struck by the power of the ship i am in control of. The mediocre number of systems i have visited in this galaxy of ours have not prepared me for the incredible journey i am about to embark on, and for a moment, i feel such a surge of emotion, i cant decide if it's excitement or anticipation that creates the turbulent fluttering of my stomach. Delicately i raise my ships nose above the line of the horizon and load my galaxy map. The number of systems, the planets, the expanse fills my eyes as i try to decide which direction to head in. Which way do you go when there is up and down, not just left and right to choose from. I flip a coin.
"Heads for left tails for right."
Chucking the coin into the air it falls clumsily into a vent on the floor. Typical.
"right it is......"
Looking for stellar landmarks i notice the Coalsack and suddenly my curiosity is sparked by a dark region i have never noticed before. I set coordinates and look up to navigate to the first stellar body on my journey, with a wave of trepidation i engage the FSD. As the ship is starting to gain speed, it unshackles itself from the gravity of the planet, positioning itself towards the first destination. A red dwarf. Pressing the FTL spool the drive hums behind me as it charges to propel me into the black
" 4...3...2...1......JUMP"
As i pass through the unfathomable void of witchspace, it both surrounds me and moves beyond me. The array of colours light up my eyes, as thousands of stars create a spectrum of reality i am only blessed with in these fleeting moments travelling between systems. A reality that is superimposed and blended with the canvas of the universe, like an extra dimensional tunnel cutting its way through space and time. Empyrean in its majesty, yet terrifying in scale and mystery, all encompassing yet momentarily untouchable.
I wonder what i will find in the darkness beyond the bubble of known space. The stellar body comes into reality in front of my ship with a loud low pitched boom.
Having warmed up the FSS scanner, i established orbit around the local stellar body. My vision flooded by the blue hue of the holo projector, i listen for the familiar sound of the FSS scanner as it resonates throughout the ship, eager to discover the layout of this undiscovered morsel within the enormity of space.
<1 CONTACT FOUND>
<CLASS 0... DEGRADED EMISSIONS DETECTED>
Locking onto the contact I think to myself why bother, it's probably some relic probe or dead commercial ship, laden full of worn shield emitters, i might as well move on. I lock onto the next star and charge up
"4...3...2...1..... JUMP"
NOTHING
"4...3...2...1.... JUMP"
4 BODIES FOUND
"ICY'S"
Noting that absolutely nothing of any significance is on any of the bodies I move on.
Hurtling to my next location I notice a green flicker in witchspace. Having never seen a green light in FTL before, I drop into reality and load up the galnet subspace intranet to search for entry's on this anomaly.
"ONE ENTRY FOUND, CMDR BLINDPEW, CLEARANCE INSUFFICIENT"
The name sparks a memory of a CMDR who went missing on the second distant worlds expedition a year or so back.
Wating for me was the next star system to be scanned. I find six planets and an asteroid field under the binary heat of both a red and a brown dwarf. Fine tuning the FSS I detected a high metal content world, at last, my first pay check higher than the price of a beer! Locking on to the gravity of the planet, i move my ship through super-cruise towards the dim glow from its surface. The engine of the Ikarus sounds different to my old asp, more... powerful. It somewhat unnerves me knowing that I literally have enough stellar hydrogen behind me to burn a hole through a small moon like a cigarette through a piece of paper. As i near the planet, I warm up the probes hoping to find anything of significance, an ancient colony lost through time, just something to justify my excitement, the reason why i do this work.
<LIFEFORMS : NEGATIVE>
<STRUCTURES : 0>
<GEOLOGICAL SITES : NEGATIVE>
<MINERAL COMPOSITION : HIGH CONCENTRATES>
>>FE<<
>>AR<<
>>Al2BeO4<<
Alexandrite!
"Well its not much but its a start"
As I start to think about moving the ship onto the next system I notice one of the probes pick up a small power source on the planets surface. The probe was having latency issues and did not report back until the last minute. Locking onto the source I move the ship into geosync orbit and push the nose of the ship into the face of the planet. Orbiting a half rotation whilst I drop altitude into what little atmosphere this place has. The ship glows, at first silent with just hues of blue and red heat as I descend. I finally drop into glide as my ships weight succumbs to the planets gravity.
<GLIDE COMPLETE>
.................................................................................................................................................................
From the perspective of the surface the last probe blinks in the dark as my ship falls from the sky, with only fleeting light from the barely existent atmosphere as it reacts to my shields in vain. The planet is dark and barren, blue earthen layers on top of red undertones, with distant cold stars in the sky.
Another object moves in this sky, blotting out the sun for a brief second, unnoticed and inhuman, it's shape, crescent moon and unknowable.