Captain Jack, of the Eternal.Journey. Strange occurrences have been happening… ever since that fateful trip towards the omicrons… since i saw… that… thing. Theres no words that really describe the experience. Nor do i want to.
Delta has become a common stop off point, a place to rest my head. What with my smugglers life retirement and my… loss… Delta feels like the closest thing to a home ive had in years. Zoners are kind enough to allow me a reserved hangar. Theyre good people, just stuck between a conflict one hop over in Theta… Poor souls..
With the change in job, came the change in ship vessel and armament. Rheinland Rebels, they showed me one of their newer models, and even let me test fly her. Best financial decision i ever made. Home away from home.
Met some people at freeport over the last days, not much to say about any of them. A couple seem friendly enough. Old habits of little trust are taking their time to shake off, but thats pretty much what i have an abundance of now… time. Funny how right my mother was… “Do what you love, and you’ll never feel like you’re working a day of your life.” You were right, mum. Wish you were still here to hear that… Heh..
Did something i should have remembered to do when i bought my mobile home today: Disconnect my Tracking Transponder. No reason for anyone to need to know where i am at all times. Also de-coupled this Log storage from the mainframe. Wouldnt serve to have private details broadcasted across the houses.
This... also resulted in the break of my coffee maker. Guess theres one thing i did keep from my Pa; Clumsiness. Thats now on Freeport 11, receiving some tinkering TLC. Shall have to remember to pick it up later. And reimburse them for their time.
Met a Freelancer, they seem nice enough. Miss White, i think they said their name was. Kind enough to provide some warmer company than the seeming on-edge lot around here. Especially than The Order. That lot are uptight and cagey at the best of times...
Pulled out one of my old habits again... my notepad writing and drawing. A token to the memory of my mother. Wonderful woman. All her phrases seem to be so accurate now. I shall return to visit her grave sometime soon... and truly reflect…
The first "Delta Experience"? I don’t know how to put this...
Right after the closing of the days entry.... something happened... and i cannot even begin to understand. It starts with one word. Alien.
Just before i turned in for the night... one of them... visited? the Freeport. Miss White and i were alone. Nobody else around... just us and this alien. It didn’t show up in the sensors as anything less than "unknown" either... useful. We... approached slowly... She seemed to show some sort of fascination and eagerness to meet our visitor... i must admit my curiosity rose. An alien! In Delta! This close to Freeport no less! Turns out... it let us follow. And... the experience was... more than a headache to understand even part.... of what happened..
It was in my head, right from reaching the Iridum Field. Strange melodies, images and the feeling of a hidden anger… Initially… I wanted to flee. To curl up and hide, somewhere deep where it couldn’t reach me. Instead, i listened, and thought myself… Maybe… maybe this was my purpose.. to understand the aliens. After.. learning of the conflicts, i was given a name by Miss White: “Trust in Daros. And no one else with what happened here.” In a sense… I’m breaking that. But… this log is for my ears only. So technically i am only trusting in myself.
Woke up, powered up my ship, then picked up the coffee machine. Started better than usual. Spare mug even still had its handle, a bonus! Launched, coffee in hand and began my drawing. An outline of the Freeport and the two nebulae meeting beneath a blue star. Beautiful.
Then, the residual feeling of being watched from afar. Shortly after… an alien. Same one or different… i don’t think ill ever know. Whether it was or not.. it showed up. Little blue vessel. Freeport began to get busy, and my curiosity was getting too hard to hide. Told em i needed to run an errand through Theta and excused myself… for another confusing experience.
After looping around, attempting to spy on the alien behind a planet… it was already waiting for me. Like it knew of my curiosity. More visions, some accompanied with feeling and emotion, of alien origins… and I’m left alone with my thoughts. It spoke of… Guest. Offer. Failure or Success, and of a Cycle. It sill doesn’t make sense. What… what does any of this mean? I feel like the more i try to sate my curiosity, another hundred questions spring up from the shadows…
Going to see if i can look for this… Daros. See if he cannot make sense of what I’ve seen…
Who would have thought that an ex smuggler would have met an ex Corsair cruiser captain? Certainly not me, and not under the circumstances. That being said, his communication capacity… was far greater than that of most of his former brothers and sisters.
He told me a story, of before, when he was in the hispania group. It was a… love story i think. Romance and danger, what changed him. It was a story… i understood better than i thought. I know who the story was about too…
We went to Theta shortly after, and watched a corsair cruiser. They were pressed on by two outcast cruisers, battling around the heavily damaged Freeport 9. A reminder of humanity. How infantile we are. How… selfish and greedy we are. I couldn’t… humanity had enough chances… i knew i must provide some form of help to the aliens… but the biggest question: How? And maintain the secret from the Order, Core and others besides? Maybe some of my old habits didn’t need to die just yet…
A quiet day, took some time out of Delta, and sent a private urgent message to the sensor contact logged as “Miss White”. Coords, need to talk.
She came, seemed concerned. Until i explained… then she seemed to just, relax and show outward happiness. Explained that i was on a path that would open my mind to the many mysteries i was previously unaware of. I… didn't quite not understand. I needed some time away from omicrons… a trip to New London maybe… back… Home… well. Whats left of “Home”…
On the way, took a detour through to pay my respects to the Leeds Monument… some of the few friends i had, had family there when… when… *a muffled sniff* another Peak of humanity… another reason.. why maybe this new path… is the answer I’ve needed… wonder if She ever made it off before…
I need to stop. That life of mine wasn’t good for her then… and it still isn’t now. Maybe less so. Less swooning for lost love… she wouldn’t have been on the planet by then anyway… knowing her shes probably in Liberty, or Rheinland.
Bretonia didn’t feel like home anymore… too much loss, misery and pain lingers here.
Its time to get away from it all. From now on, Omicrons will be my home…
Today… i do not want to describe after log 4… but… i must…
Returned from my trip, the routes were quiet, relaxing. Paying respects was always useful in clearing my head a bit. Returned to Delta, to witness a freeport party making its way towards two alien vessels. It was.. maybe five against two of the aliens… and.. i waited back as “last line of defence”. Yeah… i know. Several minutes later….numerous explosions. No humans returned from the battle… only the two aliens showed briefly. Miss White had docked, presumably to get some kind of supplies, then bolted towards the hidden Minor jumphole…
I followed. Out of curiosity, a need to talk. I don’t know rightly why i tried. Lost her in the nebula. I went through anyway. Halfway round the dead rock of toledo… Order contact. This was bad. I wasn’t allowed clearance here.. and order weren’t known for hospitality without good reason. Time to make up one.
The order believed me, but by the time they had escorted me to Mu for reprieve from the “alien threat”, i hadn’t the time to even attempt contact with Miss Whites distorted signal. I headed back to Delta, and arrived back… to the feeling of a presence in my mind…
It, spoke of urgency, and the “graves of darklings”… that… could only mean one place. What i saw next… i choked. Miss White… wounded bad, her pod damaged… in Alaska… Why Alaska? And what happened…?
The alien that issued my urgency, watched as i first checked her vitals, then dropped my shields, scooped her into my cargo bay. I set the ship up to autopilot to Freeport, attempting to strap her somewhere she wouldn’t be in so much danger. I never paid too close attention to the alien, nor the damage to the wrecked ships…
Freeport granted my emergency land request, and in minutes she was swarmed by the med team. Barely enough time to slip a hastily scrawled note into her mangled flightsuit pocket. But i managed it. If she survived…. She would know where to find me…. If she were to be well enough to try….
Nothing from Miss White, or Freeport for that matter….
I did however converse with Daros… it was not a good talk, by any means. He wanted answers i didnt have, and to make matters worse… The Order activity made him even more agitated. After the events of yesterday, i invested most of my savings into getting a cloak outfitted on my vessel. It set me back more than id like… but it may become useful in future. Next on the list is my sensors.
We brainstormed a bit, once over the initial pain of Miss White being hospitalised… we thought to split up for the time being. Comms line would be cut, he would remain in Delta watching over her, i would go explore kusari, see if they knew anything about The Order. The comms cut was imperative to our secrecy, and we were to maintain radio silence until there was a major development in my search. With that… we went our separate ways.
Kusari space… never seems to change no matter how long i keep between visits. Planets Honshu, Kyushu and New Tokyo were my primary goals. No disruptions along the way, not even a pirate. The bar on Honshu had the familiar smell of liquor to it. And a news article on a battleship. And two places id not got logged in my star charts. Curiosity rose, but nobody had any info there. Kyushu was pretty much the same, except there was someone who reacted positively to my credits. Another system, unrecognised in my star charts. The list grew of new places to check. New Tokyo… went the same as Kyushu, same three names mentioned.no new insights.
Before leaving New Tokyo… i checked my nav map data with a few people around, and learnt Hokkaido, the first system, was connected. There was a station the other side. Good place to start as anywhere. Bartender on the station didn’t have anything, but he told me he knew a guy who did have some info, pointing discreetly to the guy in the corner, dressed in what looked to be a Samuran outfit. A few thousand credits later, and he sung me a song of at least two jumpholes around. I thanked him, heading down the trade lane.
Steange. A trade lane to a locked gate, and a damaged trade lane. Wonder which hides a secret. My smuggler itch seemed to know… of course. At the end of the broken trade lane, there was an abandoned station. It had some small data info beacon there. And once scanned, another mention of the other systems i still hadn’t been to. I felt closer. But still didn’t know where. A wing of blood dragons popped on sensors, i cloaked and followed them. Two anomalies, two different directions. Jackpot. Both the unknown systems had entry points here, but one seemed more guarded than the other. The one reading “Tohoku” was my next stop.
There were many expected things i thought id see…. But not Heaven’s Gate. The formerly named “Tekagi’s Arch”. Astonishing. No jumpholes to be seen though… but two asteroid belts were visible. One contained an anomaly unusable. And at first… nothing from the other. I nearly turned back to look through the other jump hole, when the spike showed. Anomalous. Unstable. At last. A backdoor.
Once data was logged, my trip back was swift. Quick hops to New Tokyo, then our agreed method of breaking the silence: small burst of forced static. No words. He was waiting for me before i got there, and seemed eager to hear. New plans formed, and we gathered supplies ready for the next stage…
Following the discovery and the second meet with Daros… action was needed. But first he had news of his own: “Miss White. They say she left Freeport before i got there”. So much for her reaching out to us. Spose i did cut my comms off, so i wouldn’t even have known if she tried. Lesson learnt. Nobody knew where she was either, so we couldn’t go and find her. The longer we delayed though… the riskier our mission was.
Plan was ironed out. I would nav us there via jumpholes, maximum secrecy. Id also take a detour through Alpha. That was to ensure secrecy. Couldn’t risk taking the same route twice in a row. I navigated us one stop at a time. Theta, to Alpha, to Tau 37. Tau 23. Kyushu. Hokkaido. Tohoku. Knowing the jumphole route saved us being detected, but it gave us plenty of time to talk. So we talked about our pasts.
Ex Smuggler, and ex Corsair cruiser Captain, sharing stories over cold coffee through masses of space. Quite the chat. He talked about how he usually was ordered stealth mission targets, exterminations and the like. I talked about my one past love, and some of my trade. Recounting the past… was quite relaxing. Like sharing a fond memory. Even if they were less than fond experiences. In any case, it eased the burden of travel.
Upon arrival in Tohoku… our story sharing was interrupted, by several hispanic slurs. Daros hadnt seen the Heavens Gate either before. Neither had we truly thought of everything. Closing on the unstable anomaly…. The most important problem arose. Daros couldn't go through on his vessel. His warship was too large to pass safely. An improvisation was hastily made. Daros would board my ship, bring his cargo and plot a delayed autopilot of his ship into the nearby star. Then, we would go through aboard my ship and see what was the other side.
With a fond farewell, we stood to attention and saluted as the brave gunboat burnt up in the ferocity of Tohoku’s star, then pressed on. Time was very much against us now.. another vessel had been seen piloted by a freelancer, sneaking out of Orders backdoor. Not a good omen, and too long to fly all the way back. So i plot an aggressive burn around the main star and erratic minefield navigation to see us out of Mu faster than when we went in. Risky, yes. But also gave us valuable sensor information. The trip from there back to Delta… was mildly uneventful. Not even aliens seemed to care.
Daros was dropped at freeport, with his cargo, and i set myself outside. No sooner than a nice hot mug of coffee was in my hands, did the strangeness start. A contact, unrecognised. He spoke first in greeting, shared his name and purpose. Spoke of a time years ago where his friends used to spend time together. A Nomad structure, he said. My curiosity arose once more. Offered him my company. We left for the nebula. As we got halfway… unknown contact. Alien in origin. And Core. Looked to be facing off. We dipped towards the iridium field.
Moments later…. Large quantities of alien contacts seemed to swarm us. They sent the ships sensors into overdrive. Not wise to stay. He left Delta shortly after. Crowley. The man i met when things were getting outta hand. Little aliens were being more aggressive, maybe to do with the core cruiser fighting the alien. I was no use to the core… the alien woulda swatted me away… it gave chase to me. I ran until it lost interest. Delta felt like a hornet’s nest had been kicked… the voices were everywhere. Something i hope will calm overnight….
Relatively quiet day, still nothing from Miss White. Maybe she hadn’t found the note yet…
Daros had seen her though. Maybe she didn’t trust me anymore? Or my message was unclear. She will be round freeport some time or other though.. so soon I’ll be able to find her. I hope… Maybe she doesn’t trust me anymore? maybe she doesnt remember what happened or any of us.. neither option was attractive. but it is what it is.... hopefully shes just not sure about the notes origin. that would make more sense.. logic, Jack. use logic.
A trip to Freeport. Parked up, coffee time. Most boring start to the day. Till the rheinlander. Rheinland. Out here? Bit far outta their juristiction, no? Showing up on sensors as Hostile, no less. More likely a freighter smuggler of some kind though... being in a Humpback. I think they were anyway.. They seemed friendly enough. Comms Officer April, said they were looking for some sort of extraterrestrial material. Doubt they’d go see the aliens in that bus. Freighters weren’t exactly made for battling aliens. They barely survived against pirates. They went on their way.
Not long after that... another strange sensor anomaly. This time.. a Zoner. why would Zoners be showing as Hostile? and not all Zoners. Just one. This one. These sensors need checking. and Freeport in Delta already checked them. So.... what is going on? Daros showed up soon after. And then Order. Had to bite my tongue from saying stuff then. would not have been smart.
Miss White then showed up. Why. Why when the Order are here. After the two sensor anomalies... my mind went from wondering if i should send a private message... to thinking that my ship was compromised. Pygar engineers would know. Besides.. Miss White... was kinda sending mixed signals. getting closer to the Order. "Empress".... putting that sensor contact on the watchlist. Theyll go right next to the others ive written down.
Halfway to Theta hole, comms cut out. It sent an unwarranted system crackle burst, then died on me. Boring day in Delta? Nah. 'Course not. Especially mid jump. Engine system crapped out too. After recent refurb and complete check over. In any case... maybe the comms fail would attract someone who could help. Now i was adrift. No way to communicate, no way to actually get to Pygar. At least my coffee machine was working. Then, there was a Sonar ping. System wide. They would surely find me. Smart. Sensors still worked, so minutes after the ping, a familiar reading… Daros. Shoulda known it’d be him ahaha.
After some ship nudging and a violent kick of my console, i got comms back. Checked my ship status, now i had access to my comms array. Ship had logged a power core overload. How? This thing had plenty of juice to run everything at maximum output! Now i could talk, Daros and i shared the past events and i expressed my concern about Miss Whites communications with The Order. Even after the incident in Alaska? Something didn’t feel right…. This.. this wasn’t good…. Daros shared my concern.
After several minutes of debate, my ship engines returned to my control. Did a quick test of every system. Great. Now i could actually go to Pygar. Went our separate ways… Pygar checked my ship and all systems… Nothing. No detected issues. Just a system glitch they said. A glitch that could have cost my life. The origin of the glitch though… thats a different story. Might need to do some digging and turn a few smuggling favours in..
