Lost Souls 3 Expedition Log - 33080710
16 Jul 2022XpressioN
The Livingstone Point
While taking a look at the galaxy map, I noticed as previously mentioned, we're heading back home. I really missed all my friends in the Bubble. I needed a long break from all the usual errands and combat missions. Moreover the Exobiologist rank was still an unknown factor for me, so I really wanted to dig into it and get it done just like the other ranks. WP14 was set, together with two interesting POIs. The journey wasn't that long and I was capable to get this done in just a couple of days. During the briefing at the beginning of this expedition, the organisers had mentioned that we would head far West till there's no stars but the Andromeda galaxy visible, and then head back home via the southern part of the galaxy rim. I had envisioned to reach one of the systems at the southernmost of Sol. The nickname for this system was The Livingstone Point and I took it as a challenge to reach that system.
I cranked up the hyperdrive and started my journey to get to WP14. I scanned a system that had a particular gas giant, so I targeted to check it out.
From there I headed to the first POI of that week. Smaidou ZE-A g0 ('Opposites') - One of the very few systems in the far outer rim of the New Outer Arm that hosts a black hole as its primary hyperspace arrival point. This system also contains two freshly born T-Tauri-Stars. Life and death are close together here. An opportunity to refuel is provided by a nearby A-type-sequence star.
Found a planet with Methane atmosphere that had a couple of Biologicals to scan, so I landed and hovered around to search for them. After some time scouting around I found Osseus Pumice in an area of the planet. This osseus species grows a single thick stalk from which emerges a wide, broadly circular, pitted endoskeleton. This structure is designed to dramatically increase the surface area to volume of the organism, facilitating chemical capture and chemosynthesis on its catalytically active surface. There was also the Tussock Capillum - This tussock species is a squat cluster of leaves resembling thick matted hair. From the top of these sprout thick pods that carry a number of round beans.
Then I plotted course to the next POI, Syreadiae JX-F c0 (Zurara) - This megaship from the mysterius Dynasty Expedition was found deep within the Formidine Rift on April 17th 3303. Audio logs on the site tell the story of the unfortunate crew. It is a haunted place.
Being a couple of light years away, I managed to arrive to WP14 in a day from the previous POI. This was an interesting system. Hypo Aeb WK-H b51-0 (Sochi) - When setting down on orbital body B 1 you will notice that your fuelscoop is busy... as this scorched planet is only 1.5 ls from the star it orbits. Scans indicate that geysers can be found there, but so far no one has stayed long enough to locate any. That's what they said as obviously I managed to locate some and took a couple of photos there.
Many of my friends were not yet arrived to this waypoint. I had anticipated this as I was quite ahead of them. My objective, however was not WP14 but further southeast. The distance that I had to cover to get to my destination was 13kLy, and this would have to be done using the Neutron Star Highway, otherwise it would have taken me months to arrive.
First stop, however was BD+50 886 (NGC 1491) - NGC 1491 (also designated SH2-206 and LBN 704) is a bright pinkish emission nebula and HII region, located on the edge of a vast cloud region of neutral gas, about 10,700 light-years away in the Formidine Rift. The blue 11.22 magnitude star, BD +50 ° 886, is illuminating the nebula while its strong stellar wind is “blowing” a bubble in the gas that immediately surrounds it. The intense radiation from the star is also eroding the gas clouds surrounding it.
The entire nebula is quite irregular with a subtle bite cut out of the nebulosity from the east side that creates a darker hollow, and a high surface brightness region preceding the star. A faint, elongated haze extends from this patch to the northeast past the star giving an elongated appearance.
Back in the Bubble, before I started my journey, I had engineered this Krait Phantom for deep exploration. All the modules and components were carefully selected and modified by professional engineers. One of the main key modules of this ship was the Frameshift Drive. This Krait Phantom had a double engineered 5A FSD module with the Mass Manager experimental. Combined with all the other engineered modules to make this ship lighter I had achieved to get 70.71Ly jump range. The engineers had also set it up to withstand Neutron star boosting. On the other hand, using this method will cripple the FSD module, and one have to be careful and keep an eye on the degradation of the module with every boosted jump. For this reason I had installed not one, but two AFMUs to make sure that I could repairs and overhaul the FSD anytime. The next destination was far away, at the edge of the galaxy's outer rim, so had some time to plot the route using NSH and also determine which systems to stop for fuelling and repairs.
After five days of continuous jumping from system to system, from Neutron star to the other I finally made it to Hypuae Euq CC-D d12-0 From now onwards I would have to determine my own route. With lack of stars, those that were available were beyond my jump range so I had to use jumponium materials to increase it. I had farmed a lot of materials before I left the Bubble and I had no difficulties at all to make it to my destination. The following is the trail I used:
Livingstone's Trail:
Hypuae Euq CC-D d12-0
Hypuae Euq ZK-P e5-0
Hypuae Euq TP-G d10-1
Hypuae Euq UP-G d10-1
Hypuae Euq UP-G d10-0
Hypuae Euq QJ-I d9-0
Hypuae Euq MD-K d8-0
Hypuae Euq GC-M d7-0
Hypuae Euq HX-L d7-0
Hypuae Euq LD-K d8-0
Isheau DT-O d7-0
Isheau CT-O d7-0
Hypuae Euq DR-N d6-0
Hypuae Euq ZK-P d5-0
Hypuae Euq AL-P d5-0
Hypuae Euq WE-R d4-0
Hypuae Euq SY-S d3-0
One of the systems in this trail was Hypuae Euq ZK-P d5-0 (Notus - The 'Southern' Meridian) - Located 15,940 LYs 'south' of Sol, along the southern meridian, this system acts as a navigational distance and directional marker. It is located at a distance of 81,340 LYs from the corresponding northern marker, thus measuring the north-south diameter of the Milky Way via Sol
Next was Hypuae Euq WE-R d4-0 (Star's End Depot) A system containing all jumponium materials (a "green" system):
1 (Metal Rich) (26.68ls) (1.68g) - Vanadium (8.1%), Niobium (2.3%), Polonium (0.9%)
2a (Rocky) (1164.27ls) (0.12g) - Vanadium (4.6%), Niobium (1.3%)
2b (Rocky) (1162.62ls) (0.10g) - Cadmium (1.4%), Yttrium (1.1%)
2c (Rocky) (1156.12ls) (0.13g) - Germanium (5.3%)
2d (Rocky) (1143.63ls) (0.18g) - Germanium (5.9%), Arsenic (2.6%), Niobium (1.4%)
3a (Icy) (1710.78ls) (0.06g) - Cadmium (0.9%)
3b (Icy) (1710.76ls) (0.05g) - Germanium (3.5%), Vanadium (3%), Yttrium (0.7%)
3d (Icy) (1705.28ls) (0.06g) - Germanium (3.6%), Arsenic (1.6%), Yttrium (0.7%)
3e (Icy) (1712.11ls) (0.05g) - Vanadium (3%), Yttrium (0.7%)
3f (Icy) (1702.17ls) (0.05g) - Arsenic (1.6%), Niobium (0.8%)
3g (Icy) (1724.61ls) (0.06g) - Germanium (3.4%), Cadmium (0.9%)
Considered the most southern green system discovered, its existence is of tremendous help to those willing to reach Livingstone Point. For the first pilot to reach Livingstone Point this system became a lifesaver, as he had gambled upon the fact that Polonium would be available en-route to Livingstone Point. The discovery of Star's End Depot saved him from being definitely locked in that region.
There it was, the last jump to Hypuae Euq SY-S d3-0 (Livingstone Point). This system was 81.85Ly from my current system. I synthesised the FSD and jumped straight away. This is the most distant system ever reached, and reachable, southward along the meridian line, located only 101 LY from the zero line.
Home was far away, approximately 16kLy so I took a couple of days exploring around. I sat down to start the daunting task to plot the route back. This time there were a couple of POIs I wanted to try and visit on my way back to WP14 where my friends would have arrived by now.