August 7th 3419 | Lance Flanagan | USS For Pete's Sake
Today’s events started with a distress signal from Capt Stevensen. Apparently he had fallen into a sticky situation with a sentinel walker, but by the time I got the old ship online, he managed to escape home. I was in need of Paraffinium in order to plant Star Bulb, so I teleported to Stevensen’s HQ, because I knew his moon was rich with it. We set out together in our Roamers, and it turns out I had already mined most of the Paraffinium in the area, so our journey took some time. We also were able to use the advanced scanner on the Roamer to locate a drop pod! Capt Jones warped into the area and we determined it best to board Capt Stevensen’s freighter and explore a new system. Shortly before departing, I was minding my own business aboard the freighter when Capt Jones saw fit to somehow toss me out the airlock where I nearly died. I’m still not sure exactly what happened, but he claims it was an accident. I’ll have to keep my eye on him.
Upon reaching the new system, Sionek, we discovered three planets, so the three of us split off. I’m not sure what was available on Stevensen’s planet New Leyto, but it was one of the largest planets I’ve ever seen. The ring system seemed to go on forever. I explored a small toxic planet, Lepusch, where I found an ancient ruin that was mostly buried. I was able to dig up three keys that opened the ancient chest, which contained a rare hoop over 1,000 years old. It seemed pretty worthless to me, but it scored over 600,000 units on the trade network. The most curious thing about that ruin was that there were no toxins present despite being out in the open. Before leaving the planet I discovered multiple instances of “metal fingers,” and I left with over 1000 uranium! Capt Jones’s planet, Sabn Omega, was lush, and of course high security. I decided to visit when he reported little sentinel activity, and it was quite a beautiful planet, though I’m not sure if there’s any significant resource value.
I teleported back to my base. My base computer had uncovered the archived blueprints for a launch pad, which I quickly installed on the side of my headquarters. This will save me a lot of launch fuel! Such good news until my fleet commanders comm’d in and shared with me that all three of my frigates were damaged on their last voyage...utterly worthless. I repaired them and thought I had seen enough for one day. Before going to sleep I was determined to look at the nearest red system, since my new hyperdrive is capable of reaching them. While scanning the system, I unintentionally engaged the warp drive...so much for going to sleep. Upon reaching the destination, Luyski X, I encountered a monstrous freighter—far bigger than any I had seen by a factor of 3—and it was under pirate attack. I defended the freighter and its captain invited me aboard. He was extremely grateful for my assistance, and he seemed like he wanted to give me the freighter, but it was for a price of 90 mil units. I quickly left the area and teleported home. I’ll have to return to scout the planets another day.