Mercury's Wings Expedition Log - Day 1
23 Nov 2020Andy Arkwright
I rarely keep digital logs, as I still used good old fashion paper and pen, but due to the circumstances, I thought it was appropriate to keep a public record of my experience on this expedition.Yesterday was the official beginning of the Mercury's Wings Expedition, whose primary objective is to explore 60,000 ly of space while positioning the DSSA's newest fleet carrier, Shepard's Dream, to its resting place in the Outer Scutum-Centurus Arm of the galaxy. This is my very first expedition, so I do not really have any idea what to expect. Commander Yanick, the organizer of this expedition, seemed to be a nice guy who wanted to enjoy the journey like the rest of us. I was unfortunately having lunch when the festivities began with a variety of activities at the rally point on Pomeche 2c. However, I was able to participate in my very first SRV canyon jumping contest, which I failed miserably as I never done anything quite like this before.
When the festivities were over, it was time to begin our long journey into the darkness of space. The ships comprising the initial fleet surprised me in a good way. There were the usual Diamondback Explorers and Anacondas that have been stated to be one of the best exploration ships, a number of Kraits, and a unique red Beluga Liner. I never thought I would see that class of ship on an expedition, but I guess with enough time, money, and engineering, one could make any ship an exploration ship. Unfortunately, due to various technical issues with our ships, not everyone was able to form up for the first mass jump of our journey, myself included. Despite our efforts to get everyone into the formation, we were behind schedule, and jumped.
Raw Footage of Expedition Mass Jump:
After the initial mass jump into the Ch'anjie System, it became a free for all as each commander had their own goals that they wanted to accomplish on this expedition. Naturally, I presume others raced ahead with their impressive jump ranges, with one reaching the second waypoint only a few hours ago as of this entry. Others stayed on the carrier as it made its long journey to its final destination. Not entirely sure why commanders would want to stay on the carrier for an exploration expedition but I can't explain.
However, I decided to take a rather slow approach, making small jumps roughly 10 ly to see the universe as it is. I doubt that it is the most efficient way to do such a journey, especially with my Exploration Anaconda that is currently fitted to jump 69.18 ly. I will probably have to plot a direct route to the waypoint later this week as I do want to be there for the Sunday meet up with the other expedition members. So far, I have only been through systems previously discovered and mapped by other commanders. As a very green exploration pilot, I though I could both scan and map these systems, but after doing so for a few systems and talking to other commanders, mapping is far to tedious and time consuming to do on this expedition. I have mapped a few moons and planets that have been missed by other commanders, although it won't be inputted into Universal Cartographics for some time. I did make a few rookie mistakes that has caused some minor damage to my ship, but so far so good.
Even though I am currently traveling through space that has previously been explored by other commanders, it is still amazingly empty and untouched by any civilization. There are no independent settlements or stations in these systems, no flags of the superpowers flying over them, just nothing. I doubt that anyone has landed on the landable planets, as none of the scans so far show anything interesting planetside. But there is also a certain beauty that comes with nature, especially in comparison to the past few months of turmoil in the Bubble: President Hudson indirectly linked to the attempted assassination of President Halsey, the rise of the NMLA's terrorist campaign, the potential threat of all out war between the Feds and Imps. On top of that, there was a Thargoid incursion as well as the mysterious megaship that showed up just a few weeks ago. The Expedition's timing may be fortuitous, as things could easily escalate if someone makes a simple mistake.
Regardless of what happens, I will continue to fly into the known and unknown. Perhaps I could stumble on to Raxxla or some other legendary location, although only time will tell.