OPERATION EHAM 3309/3310 (Trip #11)
28 Mar 2024XhaleR
It's been 9 months since my last deep space expedition trip to "Star One" and now its time to head back out again. The announcement for "Operation EHAM" organized by the "Stellar Cartographers Guild" was just the perfect opportunity so I decided to join. The main mission for the expedition will be to explore the Arcadian Stream region as this is a rather undiscovered area.
DAY 1 (30.06.3309) - STARTING AHEAD OF THE REST
The EHAM expedition launches officially on 07.07.3309 but as I prefer to use my ship and don't need the carrier transport, I have depared a little earlier ahead. The first destination and waypoint will be "Great Annie", but as I've got plenty of time I will look for some biology sites on the way.
DAY 6 (07.07.3309) - BACK IN THE BLACK
Well on my way to Great Annie at 9500LY from home and have reached out to the more undiscovered areas. My last system for the day was quite a gem containing three waterworlds and definetely my best discovery so far on the expedition. Landed to scan some biology samples. I had almost forgot how great it is to be back out here exploring!
DAY 8(10.07.3309) - MORE DISCOVERIES
12500LY from home and I have just crossed into the Norma Expanse region. Most of the systems out here are undiscovered and I jumped into a fascinating B-star system orbited by 8 T-Tauri's, a Class IV & V gas giant and an enormous 16.8EM terraformable Metal Rich body. I'm currently in an area with a high density of neutron stars with lots of boost jumping.
DAY 9 (11.07.3309) - A NONHUMAN SIGNATURE - OUT HERE!?
Covered almost 8000LY today to cross into the Empyrean Straits region and will soon arrive at "Great Annie", our second expedition waypoint. It has been a really great day for exploring with lots of new discoveries. I found my first expedition Neutron star followed by six other ones. Also found a total of 9 water worlds and some new types of biology.
But the most exciting discovery that made my heart beat a little faster was while approaching a small atmospheric planet (7A) for some biology sampling. I suddenly noticed a contact signal appearing on the display saying "Non-human signature". What the hell is this?? I got a warning to approach it cautiously but as it wasn't a regular NHSS that could spawn an angry Thargoid or something like that I wasn't too nervous. Anyway, you don't take any kind of risk losing your ship out here so I landed the Prometheus in a safe distance from the signal and deployed the SRV (I've got four of those...). Drove a few kilometers in the dark towards the signal and there it was; this glowing little alien thing. A Thargoid sensor? Out here almost 14000LY from the bubble?? Now, that's weird. I wasn't able to either scan or collect it, but I picked up two rare class 5 Sensor fragments laying beside it. However; a totally new experience and a very cool discovery this far from home.
"Think I found Tatooine..."
Non-human signature discovery ("poor little thing...")
DAY 10 (12.07.3309) - "GREAT ANNIE" (WP2)
Reached my first expedition milestone today when arriving at waypoint #2; the (always) Great Annihilator black hole. Docked with the fleet carrier "Intrepid" that was currently stationed in the system and had all the required services for restock and selling data. Received a nice 244 million in explorer data but that was nothing compared to the reward for my biology samples which was sold for a staggering 1,1 BILLION! Not bad after just 10 days of exploring and was also enough to receive a new promotion as an "Ecologist".
The Great Annihilator
From here the expedition will start for real as I'm now heading straight east for 11000LY to WP3 where we will start exploring. The expedition fleet carriers are currently on their way to the area with a bunch of other commanders and ships so I'm really looking forward to meet up with the rest.
DAY 11 (13.07.3309) - ANOTHER WORLD!
Left Great Annie early this morning and have now crossed into the "Arcadian Stream" which is the exploration region for the expedition. It's been a long day in the cockpit and I'm well over half the distance to WP3. It's been another great day for exploring as I found my very first expedition ELW. Ended the day landing on a HMCW with 6 biology sites which I will collect tomorrow.
New discoveries:
- ELW
- 10 neutron systems (one containing a Water Giant)
- 1 WW moon
- 8 WW's
One of the neutron systems had an Icy world with some great mountain topography just perfect for SRV exploring.
DAY 12 (14.07.3309) - NEUTRONIZED WATER!
Only did three jumps today as I spent some time in the srv searching for some hard to find "Osseus Fractus Turquoise" samples. But three jumps with three new Neutron system discoveries is not bad at all.
New discoveries:
- NS system with 2 WW's and 5 HMCW's (all terraformable)
DAY 13 (15.07.3309) - "FLY ME TO THE MOONS!"
Made two very nice discoveries today finding a beautiful ringed AMW moon and new WW moon. I also found the first Helium Rich gas giant of the expedition and one of the Rocky worlds in the WW moon system reported a stunning 8(!) types of biology. I have never before found that many types on the same planet before so of course I landed to claim first footfall and collect all the samples before moving on.
The Prometheus has recently been equipped with a new exploration tool called "Elite Observatory" which has turnd out to be a great addition to my other exploring tools. It specifically scans the systems for POI's to explore and one of the first messages that came up when entering a system was "Close orbit moons". I had to check it out and it certainly was correct. Two very close Rocy bodies orbiting close to a Class 3 gas giant. A great view from the surface of one of them.
New discoveries:
- Ringed AMW moon (planet 4B has 8(!) types of biology)
- 1 WW moon
- Helium Rich gas giant
- 2 Water giants (in the same system)
DAY 14 (16.07.3309) - MORE LIFE!
After two weeks I reached WP3 today. I was expecting maybe a carrier or a few commanders that might have arrived already, but it's nice and quiet and no one's here yet.
It's been another fantastic day of exploring with great new discoveries. I'm more or less getting used to finding new water worlds and neutron stars, but jumping into a NS system and finding an ELW signal is not what you see every day. Eureka! In my 31 000 jumps I can't recall finding a NS/ELW system before. Scanned every body and claimed first footfall on the two terraformable HCM worlds just to state that "THIS PLACE IS MINE!"
And what a beautiful view it was to see the earth lightened by a NS (I don't think I've seen this before).
In one of the other NS systems I suddenly received a message from Elite Observatory that announced "small body present". I went to check and the message certainly was correct as It was a tiny, tiny Metal Rich "potato" with a radius of only 153km(!). According to the EDSM records database the smallest MR ever reported is 137km, so it's not far from the record.
New discoveries:
- Neutron star with an ELW
- 3 WW's
- 1 class V giant
- 8 NS (one containing the ELW and another with a WW)
- Tiny Metal Rich "potato" of only 154km (1 b)
DAY 15 (17.07.3309) - DID I JUST FIND "EARTH 2"?!
Relaxing in WP3 and while waiting for the fleet to arrive I wanted to see if there was a carrier not too far away from here where I could sell my precious data. Checking the expeditions carrier postings on our Discord channel quickly stated that the FC "Ascending Helix" was currently stationed at WP8 just 2600LY from here so I decided to go.
About 800LY from the destination I discovered a very rare system that I've been searching for since I started my exploring; an Earthlike world with a close orbiting and landable moon that even looks like our own!! It has normal gravity so I landed to take some pictures and just to enjoy the stunning view of my new "Earth 2". This gem is definetely one of my top 5 of personal system discoveries in Elite so far and as a bonus it even has a water world too!
Awesome view from "the moon"!
...looking almost like our own back home
About an hour later I arrived at WP8 and as promised I was welcomed onboard the "Ascending Helix", superhappy that both Universal Cartographics and Vista Genomics was open for service so I could secure and sell my data. And as always, the best thing is that I can now reveal these great discoveries for the rest of the community to explore.
A big thank you for the hospitality onboard the "Ascending Helix", giving me a landing pad almost 25 000LY from home.
After a nice celebrating evening in the bar of the Helix, I'll get a good nights sleep and will return back to WP3 tomorrow to start doing some expedition work.
New discoveries:
- ELW with its own close and landable moon
- 1 AMW (21 earthmasses)
- 2 WW's
- 5 NS
DAY 27 (06.08.3309) - IN "THE PIT"
It's time for another logbook update after a few weeks of exploring in "the Pit", mainly in the Athaiwyg sector. Almost every system out here is undiscovered so every jump is equally exciting. Since the last update I've found two other ELW systems and finally my first black hole of the expedition which is located just 43LY from WP7. Have also collected quite a few biology samples and gained a few credits.
New discoveries:
- 2 ELW's (Athaiwyg JY-Y d1-243 / Athaiwyg FM-V d2-75)
- 8 AMW's
- 37 WW's
- 4 Water giants
- 2 Helium rich Gas giants
- Class M Red Giant
- 3 White Dwarfs
- 40 NS
- 2 Black holes (Myumbie UO-A f0 / Myumbie UU-X e1-0)
DAY 33 (22.08.3309) - A SHORT TRIP TO A NEW REGION
As we are staying here at EHAM for a while I decided to take a little detour to the "Trojan Belt" region as it is not too far away and the last remaining region that I haven't visited yet. Will do some biology search out here before returning back to the expedition as the Trojan Belt has a lot of undiscovered areas.
New discoveries:
- ELW (Athaiwyg RD-S d4-8)
- 10 WW's
- 1 Water Giant
- 1 HRGG
- 10 NS
- 1 White dwarf
DAY 41 (24.09.3309) - MOVIN' ON
After almost three months exploring with Operation EHAM I have decided to call it a day and continue my journey as the expedition officially ends on october 2nd. I've had a great time out here discovering so many new systems and great places, but now I'm eager to move on. I've plotted a route to SagA for another visit to "Explorer's Anchorage" and from there I will set the course to Colonia to visit my old friend Jaques before heading back home.
Found a beautiful ringed ELW on my way.
DAY 49 (20.10.3309) - A REVISIT TO THE CORE
The last week I've been crossing the Arcadian Stream and Empyrian Straits regions and arrived here at the very center of the galaxy today. I logged my arrival at the SagA visitor center and according to the captain's log this is my fifth time visiting the supermassive black hole. Coming back here always bring back some really good memories and the epic Distant Worlds 2 expedition to Beagle Point back in 3305 is without a doubt the best one. Our greatest achievement here during the expedition was mining materials to help building the "Explorer's Anchorage" research station and of course the obvious place to dock for the night.
DAY 50 (22.10.3309) - “ONE OF EACH KIND”
Before leaving the core heading for Colonia I wanted to revisit a few of my previously discovered systems very close to SagA. Almost every system within a jump from the centre has already been discovered and mapped, but during DW2 I was lucky enough to find two undiscovered systems just a few LY away and went in to claim a few footfalls just to really make it "MINE".
But there was more to come! Just a few hundred LY ahead I entered a F-star system and immediately noticed the unusual scanner signature. For a dedicated explorer it is always an undescribeable feeling that only a true explorer knows when sensing that you have discovered something very rare. Taking a closer look my intuition was right and I just hit the jackpot. I've found many other great ELW systems during all my expeditions, but this was something else. I just discovered a system with all three types of atmospheric worlds, containing a beautiful Earthlike world with a close Ammonia- and waterworld. You don't see this every day!
DAY 51 (30.10.3309) - “ATMOSPHERIC TWINS”
Just a day has passed since my awesome ELW/WW/AMW system discovery and today I found an even better one; a system with binary ELW's only 1LS apart! In my Elite career I think this is my third binary ELW system discovery, but these ones are by far the closest I've ever found.
DAY 59 (25.11.3309) - “COLONIA”
After a few weeks since leaving SagA it was nice to be back in Colonia to find some civilized life again. Docked with Jaques Station and went straight to the bar for a few beers before heading off to sell my data. Vista Genomics rewarded me with a staggering 2.4 billion credits for all my precious biology samples. This should keep my carrier upkeep covered for a few years.
New discoveries:
- ELW with WW & AMW
- Binary ELW's only 1LS apart
DAY 70 (11.01.3310) - “DEEP BELOW THE PLANE”
Time again for another logbook update. After leaving Colonia I decided to dive deeper below the galactic plane to look for some undiscovered areas and to focus my search on black holes.
DAY 72 (18.01.3310) - “ANOTHER AMMONIA BEHEMOTH”
Beat my personal record today when discovering an even larger AMW world than the 203 earthmasses "Behemoth of Phroi" that I found during Distant Worlds 2. This monster is a staggering 263.8 earthmasses and a real beauty!
DAY 79 (22.03.3310) - “OMEGA MINING SECTOR”
Took a short detour to visit Omega Mining sector. This place was quite busy and crowded during Distant Worlds 2 and played a crucial role while we were mining materials for the building of the Explorer's Anchorage.
Docked on the Omega Mining services asteroid base for the night and contributed by selling 1.7 billion in biology samples and cartographic data. Headed down to the hangar to wipe some dust off my local stored mining ASP "Manic Miner II" from DW2. Ended the evening with a couple of Lavian brandy's in the bar to bring back some good old memories.
DAY 81 (24.03.3310) - “FULL CIRCLE!”
After 9 months out in the black I finally arrived back in Shapsugabus today to do the full circle and complete the expedition. Operation EHAM was officially over many months ago, but I decided to continue the expedition on my own with a visit to the core and then take it from there. Always good to be back after another fantastic journey with tons of new discoveries (not to mention credits). But looking forward to my next one when the time comes.
RARE EXPEDITION DISCOVERIES:
- 263.8 earthmasses AMW
- B-star with a Herbig Ae/Be, Class V gas giant and a water world
EXPEDITION SUMMARY:
Fly safe, cmdrs!
o7