22/01/3304 - Mission evaluations and operational updates
22 Jan 2018Zoowitchproject
Log 22/01/3304I've been back in the bubble for nearly 3 weeks now, following the 99 day mission that was "Project Orpheus". At times it seemed a wild goose chase, federal encrypted messages from Rhea with new way points every 4-5 days. Detailed searches of rocky moons and planets with nothing to find... like I said, a wild goose chase, although the exploration data was racking up.
Then, success! Another unexplored system and another deep space location. Coordinates led to wreckage of a ship, type unknown due to the degradation of the debris but amongst the twisted metal was a faint beacon signal. Federation bandwidth and with encrypted federation markers. Cargo scoops opened and within the hour I had a data cube in my possession. Burst flash message from Rhea instructed me to head to the asteroid base at Sadr in order to hand it over to a federation agent, but not before I had copied the data cube for personal decryption at a later date. My old skills from before setting up IPX always come in useful in situations like this. The agent turns out to be a nefarious type, the hand over takes place in a corner of the drinking hole on the station and he leaves without a word. Sadr gave me opportunity for some needed R&R but not for long. Another flash message, another location deep in unexplored space.
Several more locations, several uneventful searches. But then, on an unsurveyed moon and another encrypted federation beacon signal pings. A low-grav landing and it's time for the SRV for some "moon time", tracking the signal into a deep impact crater formed several million years ago. And there it was... a crashed fighter. Amongst the wreckage was yet another data cube which was easily salvaged. Flash message to transfer the encrypted data on a secure federation channel back to Rhea which was duly done, but again not after a copy was made for decryption later.
The search locations were coming thick and fast now - 2, sometimes 3 a day. More fruitless searching before another faint Federation signal was discovered on a desolate, dead, unsurveyed planet bathed in the baleful light of a red super giant. Back in the SRV for more "moon time" resulted in the discovery of a crashed buggy with several life pods littered around. Occupants all long dead, but one final data cube to recover. This place was an unmarked graveyard, no hints as to what had happened and how these lifeless pods had ended up there. Again, flash encrypted message from Rhea to perform a data transfer and to destroy the data cube which I obeyed... after making yet another copy.
At this point, "Project Orpheus" was over and it was time to return back to the bubble, via the 2MASS cluster in order to survey the masses of Type O stars and black holes in that area. Exploration data equals credits... and this trip was going to be a big payday.
On the long trip back to the bubble, all 3 copied data packages were cracked wide open. In each one, a differing set of coordinates and two words... "Vynášanie Moreny"
What the hell have I been mixed up in?
Will have to check those coordinates when I get chance...