Log# 15 : musing on 3303
29 Dec 2017(Wettoast) Wanda Fersegi
3303 : Grueling exploration trips, allegiances, colonia, the thargoids 
3303... Well.. Time flies...So much has happened that I feel I need to recap on the past year to give myself direction for the coming one.
Allegiances
I was born on a federation world and even while tempted to live my life as an independent, I was overcome with the feeling that I was uprooting my lifestyle just to closer adhere to what I believed, but not close enough to where it would seem significant. I thought 3303 would be more of the same. Figureheads and high up govt pricks shaking their fists at the empire, Zachary flapping his c*** about how everyone is lazy except him, trying everything in their power to provoke anyone or anything. Well... They sure a f*** provoked something! Of all the wrong nests to poke, of all times to rub someone or something the wrong way, they did it with the thargoids...
So while not abandoning the federation, I decided I would jump on with a cause that would aim for a federation that is less.... uh... overall s***.
The thargoids
While sitting here at the core of the galaxy, I thought gleefully about the time when the only things we worried about in space were pirates , neutron stars, shortage of mashed potatoes, and space sickness. Now we stare down the barrel of a species that not only vastly superior in terms of propulsion and weaponry, but probably also numbers and overall resources. On top of that, they may have it in for all of us after the deployment of Inra's mycoid virus. If someone tried to poison my entire species, I would be pissed off too . The attacks of recent may be nothing more or less than justified retaliation to them, the motives of those who deployed the virus applied to all human life they come across. Initially their actions of pulling human vessels out of witchspace was frightening enough, but now we know them as the monsters impervious to our capital ships, more violent variants coming out of the blue.
It seems that to this day, the effects of Inra's mycoid can be seen affecting the thargoids' technology and structures, one of the bases photographed here having what appears to be drones tending to the area affected by the mycoid. Which brings up the question : if still being affected by the mycoid virus, could they be holding a grudge against us to this day?
The attacks on vessels and starports in the Pleiades region was less than a wake up call and more of a kick in humanity's teeth. Federal fleets, Imperial fleets, tourist ships, cargo ships, megaships, starports of all kinds were all becoming victims to these things with no way of fighting them off without aegis developed weaponry. I was able to take part in rescue operations and some combat with the thargoids, but only in a wing of a few other pilots as these things were outclassing us in nearly every aspect of flight and propulsion and weapons. It was in one of these wings that I met Capricos, the one pilot that would keep saving my ass in a fight with the flower monsters.
And for much too long now I've known what it's like to be on the other side of " At least you're my idiot".
But whatever the thargoids want with us, I don't know if humanity has what it takes to come out on top this time around ...
Colonia
Having come to the Colonia area of space back in 3302 when the area was just getting to its feet, I can say it's absolutely thrilling to see the amount of progress the colonists have made since then ! Robo-Hobo himself was probably sh***ing his mecha-trousers with joy seeing the galactic community run to his aid to repair his hard worked for starport.
A truly massive amount of colonists have gone out there to this day, and it seems newer and better planetary installations, mining ops, and agricultural ops keep popping up left, right, and center with the arrival of more colonists.
Faction after faction came marching in all looking for a place of influence in the new area of human space. One man's harmless expansion is another's power grab right ? Well, to be fair a pirate faction by the name of "The nameless" did decide to rile s*** up in the Colonia area of space in the past few months, their provocation doing no one any favors.
However, in the times colonia is outside of conflict, it is a great region for those looking to make profitable trade runs or take part in the area's mining operations. One memorable route was flying biowaste to an agricultural operation by the name " Hamlet's Harmony " . I was quite literally making money from s***.
With the convenience of Colonia, I was able to fly 2 expiditions to the far side of the milky way, Colonia served as the return and launching point.
Deep space exploration trips: 3303
Thanks to these trips I now have 1.5 million light years logged, I'm sure there's some larger record out there but that's still alot ! In my life I had never spent so much time at the controls, staring off into space and going mad. Yet the drive to have universal cartographics credit me with an amazing find kept pushing me on no matter how drained I became.
In 3303 I made 4 long range expeditions, 2 flying a diamondback explorer, and 2 flying a delacy anaconda. Each time around I would only decide which quarter of the galaxy I wanted to visit, no specific region or nebula to drop in on. Valuable discoveries outside of nebula, smaller planetary nebula, luck dictating my chances of dropping in on a valuable system. It was possible to go hours before the discovery scanner picked up a celestial body of value worth a detailed scan. One of my goals at the time was finding an elusive ringed earthlike to be credited by universal cartograhpics.
With the "help" of the engineer Felicity Farseer I was able to make a serious upgrade to my vessel's frame shift capabilities . However, the amount of busywork to find your way to their favor warrant they give you an arm, leg, and a lifetimes worth of ships WITH human lifespan extending technology in return for the s*** you have to find for them. Once the wanting to smash Felicity's face in phase is over, you come to the realization that you have your hands on a ship that will cut your travel time in half !
So with this upgrade to the FSD I was able to set out for and arrive in the region of the galaxy I wanted to faster than I could think it.
The first jaunt in the diamondback was heading over the core, to have uni cart credit me with some discoveries over one of the most stunning areas in the galaxy.
This jaunt was prolonged by the urge to visit the eock prau nebula, which was a Sagittarius-Carina Mission waypoint some time ago. This may have been a bit of a mistake as I food supplies were close to dwindling when I was finally arriving home. However, having a few discoveries close to the nebula and visiting the waypoint itself seemed worth the trouble.
During the second diamondback trip into the deep black I had the pleasure of meeting another explorer on the outer rim. Mistrust and fear was present at first, but we finally decided to set down on a a planetary body with a view of the black hole nebula "Distant view in blue" .
So long I've been used to exploration as a solitary affair and I would never ever meet someone else in the deep black. Being thrown out of the cold lonely sameness was one of the best things to happen to me on an exploration trip.
Since I had taken two trips to the far side of the milky way, I had spent alot of time on the far rim and was able to bring home alot of discoveries as well ! However I was really caught off guard with the sheer amount of already discovered systems on the tip of the Sagittarius-Carina arm near beagle point, I was going in with the impression that the area would be absolutely ripe for first discovery, being the remote location it was.
Even though the trip in the anaconda to the far end may have ended up largely a dud, the coreward nebula trip sure didn't ! I had set out with a goal to chart systems within nebula that had remained undiscovered by previous explorers, hoping to scoop up a hefty payday's worth of cartographic data.
I had made a log covering some of my activities while scanning systems within nebula, what wasn't worth alot to universal cartographics was at least photo worthy.
While the far rim trip was overall lacking in discovery, a pressing situation did occur in the form of someone stranding themselves. In what seemed like too much of a cowinki-dink to be true, or a coincidence to be true was the stranding of cmdr Persera the same week I had reached beagle point via anaconda. They were stranded in a system not too far from my location, the same system with the moon named Salome's reach after the imperial senator Kahina Loren. By what had circulated on galnet, they were stranded 11ly out from the system star after a supercruise trip into the void between galaxies, without enough fuel to return.
All I could do was watch the rescue from afar because I had no materials to synthesize a return trip from the system they were in, and I had no fuel transfer limpet controller on top of that. Eventually the fuel rats were able to pull of their most daring rescue, I was a few systems away feeling like a chump for not being able to help. I'm glad that there were rescuers able to pull them back from the brink, but I feel that I've failed in a way by not being prepared to help someone stranded.
By the looks of it I'll only be home past the new year, even if I do rush I probably wont make it back in time. I guess my 3304 will start near Sagittarius A , floating around and staring out the canopy window.
Starting to get homesick out here . Wanda N. Fersegi, out .