The voyage of The Caldera

[Weepig]

Log of The Caldera - Corvo class research ship.
Mission - To explore and document natural and man-made phenomenon in Sirius.
Captain - Phinious Weepig
XO - Wilhelm Von Stolberg II
Chief Engineer - Daigo Kaigo Raigo (DKR)
Scientists - Andy, Bob, Carl and Dave Webb, Sarah Moore

Captains Log - Cast and Crew

Saw my son, Spartacus, for the first time in far too long today. Years maybe. We keep in touch but after he signed on with OSI, way out in the Omicrons, it became harder and harder to see each other. He looks good. Not quite as handsome as his Old Man but what can you do.
He was waiting at the dock on Gran Canaria in front of one of the biggest ships I'd seen that wasnt flying past me in space.
"Like her? Shes yours! You did say i owed you a ship Dad."
Not a bad investment, buy the boy a Raven's Talon to protect his Old Man's Firelfy and he buys me a Corvo. HA!! Interest. Got to love it.

He gave me a quick tour of the place. He'd even bought everything I'd need to set off right then and there. I almost felt guilty accepting a gift like this but then he pointed out how much he'd made re-investing into my old trader. Made me wish I'D re-invested rather than spending it on wine and Kusari women.

We had lunch in the mess hall on the ship and were interupted by the arrival of the BIGGEST Rheinlander I'd ever seen. He must have been atleast 6'6 and atleast 18 stone of muscle. He is MASSIVE. He shook my hand and nearly broke every bone in it as he introduced himself.
"Guten tag, Herr Capitan. My name iz Wilhelm Von Stolberg ze Second. I vill be the XO for zis ship. Your son haz contracted my services for 6 months and not a day more. It vas my pleasure to meet you but I have duties to attend to."
With that he snapped his heels and marched out.
Spartacus laughed at my expression. "Don't worry dad. Willy is a good man. He and his crew will run this ship like a 'Sviss Vatch' until you get the hang of it." Apparently he used to work on The Ring outside New Berlin where he operated a Heavy Lifter crew. Not sure why he left to join my motley crew but Spart swears by him and is team. Hmm, Ill have to take his word for it.

After lunch we headed up to the bridge. Good god its nice. There are dials and buttons everywhere. I hope 'Willy' is as good as Spart makes out as i have no idea what any of them do. While i was playing with the adjustable Captain's Chair, Spart saw my new Chief Engineer and crew and welcomed them aboard.

"Daigo Kaigo Raigo" said the small but stocky Kusari man as he bowed before me. Those were the only words i understood of the entire 5 minute conversation between Spart and 'DKR', as i was told to call him and my son. I have no idea what language he was speaking. I spent some time in Kusari space, quite a lot really, probably too much, and i learnt a few works of Kusari. Yet i understood nothing more than this mans name. After he left, Spart explained that noone understands anything he says, though apparently he understands what you say and he assured me that hes an engineer of the highest calibre and the best course of action is just to tell him what you want, then smile and nod. Must work on that.

The scientists arrived yesterday. All Zoners. All speak with a fading Bretonian accent. The four men look exactly the same. Same hairstyles, same glasses, same flitting eyes, examining everything. Turns out they are actually four brothers called Andy, Bob, Carl and Dave Webb. A,B,C and D. Handy. The fifth, Sarah Moore, is actually not bad looking for an astro-geologist though she is very shy and quiet. Ill have to get her drunk and see if she loosens up a bit.

The whole crew met for dinner in the Mess Hall and seemed to get along. I think everyone was scared of 'Willy' initially but he has the loudest laugh of anyone Ive ever heard which seemed to put the rest of the crew at ease. I wasnt alone in not understanding DKR.
We decided on a course of action for coming days. Must remember to enquire about permission to head into the Texas system. C and D wouldnt shut up about the Dark Matter Cloud there.
I decided to call the ship - The Caldera.

So, our epic journey around Sirius begins, to document the wonders of our universe.

The first leg - Explore Omega 41 and the Neutron Star.

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Omega 41 and the Neutron Star

We've just finished a reasonably successful research mission in Omega 41 and are docked at Atka Research station in Sigma 17 to sift through the data we gathered.

The system is dominated by the Neutron Star and its effects. The levels of radiation are through the roof. The radiation alarm went off as soon as we entered the system. We decided to dock at Freeport 5 and see what we could find out from the locals before we set out and ran into trouble.

We went to the bar first as its generally the best place to find anyone or anything and I got chatting to the bar tender, Jack Phillips. He gave us some of the general facts and figures about the star. Carl was fascinated by these and proceeded to bury himself in the books he brought with him. Bob, who has by far the best social skills of the brothers, said Carl has been fascinated by stars since they were children and the fact that I was planning on looking at various star systems was one of the reasons he and his brothers signed on.
We came up with a plan of action over lunch. We would get as close as we could and try to fill in some of the blanks about the emissions coming from the star.
We said goodbye to Jack and set out that afternoon and promised to bring more pharmaceuticals next time we come through.
The radiation was just to strong for us to get an good readings. DKR was going wild, screaming and gesticulating everytime he came to the bridge to, what i eventually figured out was, try and adjust the shield settings to try and negate some of the effects of the radiation. Im not sure abou his mental stability but the man knows his ships. I feel much more confident in him having seen him in action.

From the readings we took, we believe the strongest levels of radiation are found in a radius of 7.5K around the star. The pulses of radiation seem to disapate at around that distance. We also tried to investigate the 'pillars of light' that project above and below the star but to no avail. Carl is still looking over the data we collected on them but all we could determine was that they project around 3.5-4K from the north and south 'poles' if you can call such places poles.

Also of note in Omega 41 are two distant nebuli. One looks almost like a gyroscope that the brothers all agree is a newly forming nebula, Sarah tells me that theyre completely wrong. Im inclinded to believe her. The other, Sarah says, looks like binary system consisting of a black hole and a main sequence star but from this distance its purely specultion. I dont really understand but again, im inclinded to believe her.

Our next mission is to try and find the 'Twin Planets' rumoured to be somewhere in the Sigmas.

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The Twin Planets

The Twin Planers have been reasonably well documented by other scientific missions but i had trouble finding any decent pictures of them. So that was our goal for this mission. Find the planets. Take photos.

The first part turned out to be the hardest. We knew that they were somewhere in the Sigmas but other than that we had little to go on. We asked around on Atka and were pointed towards the Luxury Liner Hawaii in Sigma 19, apprently someone there had seen them as a child. Luxury Liner Hawaii, if youve never been there, is an apt name. It is certainly luxurious. Orbital Spa and Cruise have done well.

In the bar i ran into an old friend. I hadnt seen Catherine for ages and it was good to see her again. She looks better than i remember. She told us that it was the bar tender on Gas Miner Ogashawa, a man called Dosan Hama, who we were looking for. Dosan Hama was a very plesant guy and told us all he could remember. It was years ago since he'd last seen the Twins but he told us all he could remember.
"I was with my dad when some Outcasts ambushed his ship and he sped into a giant green cloud. The cloud opened up into a giant space and i saw them. We only skirted the edge of the space so i only saw caught a glimpse of them. Sorry i cant offer you more."

Turns out it was the Donryu Cloud, located behind the two suns in Sigma 19. The cloud is full of radiation, though not as severe as the Neutron Star so DKR remained calm which was a nice change as he's usually pretty manic.

As we broke through the cloud we saw them, the Twin Panets Cerberus and Hades. Dosan wasnt lying when he told us the space in the cloud, it was huge. It held the two planets easily and still had plenty of space left. Despite being two barren lumps of rock, its actually quite a sight. Especially as noone knows how they got there nor how long it will be before they crash into each other, we sat for a moment and

We took a photo for the wall then headed back to Ogashawa to prepare for our next trip:

Looking at planetary rings that will hopefully take us through Kusari, Liberty and hopefully into Gallia.

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Planetary Rings - Part 1 - Shikoku

We were moored at Gas Miner Ogashawa for a few days while our research request was processed by the Kusari Navy. Despite being a short stay it was an interesting stay nonetheless. DKR and Sarah have been getting on like a house on fire, which is a shame for me as i thought i might be in but a massive bonus for the crew as somehow she can understand him somehow.

Sarah has been working overtime corrollating the data we got from our previous adventures and helping translate DKR's ravings into instructions for the rest of the engineering team. I think there is a romance blossoming there, ill have to do my best to sabotage it.

After we got clearance to move into Honshu, we restocked the Caldera and set out for Shikoku. The voyage was nice and smooth and was quieter than i expected and we reached the rings in good time.

The rings were huge. Our best estimates put the diameter of the rings at between 17.5-18K. The size of the planet that must have been at the centre of the rings we can only guess at, hopefully if we get permission to study other rings we can make a more educated guess.

We took some samples of the rocks in the rings and Andy and Bob are currently working on determining the chemical make up of the rings. So far it appears to be mainly ice but we're still running tests. Maybe they'll reveal something about what happened to the planet or whatever body was in the centre of these impressive rings.

We're currently moored at Ames Research Station in Kepler and have been for a day or two, we just missed Spart by hours. He knew we would be docking here and left a message at the bar for me that he'd be back in a few days, depending on his shifts, so it was nice to hear hes still alive. He also said he'd been promoted to Senior Escort. HA. My boy, Mister Senior Escort man. Good for him.
We'll be stuck here until the Liberty forces decide to grant or deny us access to the thing i've been most looking forward to studying myself.
I remember being in awe of them as a child and im excited to go back with the crew to study them properly.

Next stop - the rings of Sayre...hopefully.

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Planetary Rings - Part 2 - Sayre

Its been a while since my last update to the logs. The crew and i have been on Planet Erie resting and preparing for the next leg of our journey as well as reviewing the data from Sayre.

It was nice to go back to the Planet i was born and see the people i grew up with and laud my ship over James McKinnok, the boy who tormeted me in my youth and who still works at the same H-Fuel station he did when we were 16. Good times. Visited Mum and Dad's graves too, laid some flowers. The crew came along to pay their respects too which was nice of them.

The view of Sayre as you undock from Erie is one few notice and fewer appreciate. Sayre is so far away yet its rings are so large and clear, even from the distance, that i still remember the first time i saw them through the cockpit window of my dads old Flea. This was the first time id gotten close to them and as we approached i was astonished by how big they were. Carl set a probe to stay in position at the edge of the rings and i flew to the other side to get some measurements. We estimate the rings to be between 39K and 40K across. Atleast twice the size of the Shikoku rings. To get a clear picture of them and to appreciate the scale, we headed above the planet. From around 38K you can see the full glory of the rings and how they dwarf Sayre's moon of Bradford, making it look small.

Were still examining the chemical make up of the rings, though from the amount of times ive heard "fascinating!" and "interesting!" coming from the 'Brothers Lair' im expecting something good. The chemical tests came back on the Shikoku rings and as we initially suspected theyre composed mainly of ice with trace amounts of metals and carbon. Maybe there was a planet or some kind there before. Ill have to ask for access to the Kusari records when we are next there.

Our next goal is Planet Tonnerre in Gallia. With the secretive nature of Gallia and the difficulty in reaching there, Willy has been worried about the trip for days. His knowledge has helped us avoid many pitfalls so far, so the more he talks nervously about it the more the whole crew worries. Except Sarah who, after much persuading, revealed that she has already been to Gallia. She wouldnt say how she got there only that she knew a man there who called himself the 'Porcelet Sauvage'. A small time crook and pirate and large scale mentalist from the sounds of things but still, maybe he can get us in un-noticed. We will set course for the Taus and Orkney and see.

Next stop, Tonnerre. Or a Gallic prison.