Arcanepath.net

I have stopped here for repairs. The old DBS leaks like a sieve from multi-cannon hits across the starboard hull.
I'd been in Federation space tracking down some nasty criminals from Erevate.

It turned out they hadn't gone far - LTT 15574.

The place was a hot-bed for piracy and with my Federation Security Contract I made a good profit turning over criminals and unwanted sorts. Well, most I turned over, some never got that far, if you know what I mean?

the inevitable happened and I got sloppy. End result was a dead ship.

I had to restart - New ship "Thank you very much Tauran Insurance Incorporated."

So now I'm being careful.

Eventually I pocketed 1.5 million and had a lot of heat on me. It was time to make myself scarce.

I figured LHS 3388 at 60 LY away was a good choice.

The first jump brought me here; BD+04 3919. Where I have no choice but to let them fix my boat before I head out again

It turned out the LHS 3388 was a nothing system.
Returned to Igalilinima.
I was in a bar in Mondeh Gateway and overheard a conversation about the tense political situation around Arque, on the borders of Federal and Alliance space, and spitting distance of the Empire.
On the Galactic map, in my trusty old Diamondback that was 27 jumps away.

I stopped here to look around. I thought a system named after Thor's hammer might be interesting. A couple of Federation aligned stations was all it had to offer. Disappointed, I moved on.

Noticed an odd burning smell coming from the engine bay.
Stopped at Kondratyev Orbital and got the engineers there to have a look.

After 4 weeks and a Power Plant and Distribution Upgrade I continued on my way.

This is where someone should have reminded me about the old saying about not believing everything you hear.
This place was dead - maybe I had missed the fun?
two stations offered outfitting and shipyards but were poorly stocked.

CD-35 9019 had four well stocked stations, so I returned there.

I discovered this system had good hunting and put the old Diamondback through her paces, earning just shy of 2 million in a week!

But this was a means to an end.
I heard from a friend - Scrinsons McGee - how he'd made over 15 million off of navigation and geological survey data he sold after a few weeks out exploring in the 'black'.

Exploring? Not exactly the seat-of-your-pants stuff I'd been trained for, but less likely to get me killed either.
Not that exploring would be that different in terms of level of risk. Ok, there was very little chance of people trying to shoot me, but at anywhere from 1000 to 5000 light years from civilisation, if something were to go wrong then there was no one coming to help.

Back at Brahe Gateway in CD-35 9019 I traded in my beat-up DBS for a shiny new Hauler.
I had them strip way the shields and the weapons. I'm hoping not to need them where I am going and the extra weight will reduce my jump range.

I also got them to upgrade the power plant, FSD, distribution and the life support.
I then added a top end discovery scanner and a detailed surface scanner.
The old girl barely had room for a galley and sleeping quarters (which turned out to be a man-sized space above the distribution panel!).

I spent a few days in ANTLIAE SECTOR PI-T B3-1 practicing planetary approach and long range scanning. I also wanted to delve into the workings of this ship, get familiar with them before I go too far for help to come.

Things went well, I think.

I moved on to PENS on the edge of inhabited space to re-supply. Docked at Haberlandt Orbital.

It is here that I bought this log book/journal to record my experiences....