4620-03-0915 - En route to the system at 98, 97. There was nothing here. I double checked our logs. Turns out we were looking for the Cross Nexus and a specific flux which would get us to the location we needed to be. Oh boy.
4620-03-0921 - We ran into a Gazurtoid ship. We hailed it, but they opened fire. Our shields and weapons were active - which explains why. There was a flux at 98, 79 - which may have been the actual location we needed. I may have entered it into the log wrong. At any rate, there is a star system at the end of the flux gate at 69, 66. It is also in a nebula. We will be proceeding with caution. Sadly, shields will not work here.
4620-03-1000 - We entered orbit around the planet closest to us. We, however, were intercepted in orbit by three Gazurtoid ships. They opened fire on us and we suffered damage. Our weapons don't affect them due to them being missile-like in nature. We have no choice but to flee.
4620-03-1001 - We managed to outrun them. More importantly, I completed sensor repairs. Some diagnostic information of the ship reveals the hull need some major repairs. Our engines have some technicalities, but they still work. The comm is inoperable and our shields need repairs. Our shields won't work in a nebula, so I went about repairs on the engines.
[Updates] Need molybdenum to repair the engines - I'm moving onto the comm system next.
[Update] The planet we're in orbit around, does not have anything significant about it. Sensors reveal nothing of interest on this world and the Cylindrical Red Device did not activate. I'm assuming the Gazurtoid were not protecting this planet and it was infact a chance encounter. We're off to the next few planets to see what comes up.
4620-03-1005 - I think we hit pay dirt. The second planet of this system is an rock planet with an oxygen atmosphere and water hydrosphere. More importantly it is plentiful with life and is otherwise full of minerals. The minerals, are sadly mostly zinc, platinum and nickel based on scans and we already have a full hold (thankfully). We'll gather some life for study on Arth.
(Update) The landing computer triggered some coordinates near 28E x 15N - it is in a shallow region within water - or so we gather. Glad we have pontoon on the ATV! Landing now!
4620-03-1010 - T'Larra saw some ruins in the distance before I had a chance to write the newest log. We went to investigate. Nothing out of the ordinary here. However, in the distance from this ruin was a pyramid like structure. We went to investigate; nothing spectacular - it resembles other ruins of the Ancients. We're going to do some investigating in the area to see if we can't find any other ruins and anything of interest.
Also - I at first thought this planet only had insect based life. I was wrong. As the second set of ruins presented themselves in the distance, we found a reptile to our rear. We've gathered it and a few others as specimens.
(Update) We used the ATV a short time, then returned to the ship and got some air time to get a bird's eye view below us. The ruins we stumbled upon were the only ones. We're reporting back to Arth for repairs and scans of the newest artifacts we've found. First, we will log this planet, and scan for any other useful planets to colonize and log. The Uhlek mind world is our next target. The whole crew has decided on some much needed payback for what they did to us earlier.
4620-03-1103 - The planet we were on has violent weather making it a no go for logging. We did encounter a thunderstorm shortly before we hit orbit, so I assume the calm we saw was the best of it.
4620-03-1109 - My first priority was repairs - they were under 50k MU - I can live with this. While repairs were under way, I stopped by the lab to drop off the Shimmering Ball and Tesseract to have them perform an analysis of them. I've bought had had the ship equipped with a twin beam style weapon - it is supposed to create a laser point from the left and right wings of the ship and focuses it at a distance in front of the ship. Should any enemy ships or debris get to close, we can effectively bore into them at a high rate for some damage. Of note, is a conversation with one of the installation crew members turned up something interesting. When discussing Gazurtoid ships and lasers (the primary reason I've chosen the Twin Beam) being effective against their shielding - one of the installation technicians indicated that we already had a laser onboard. He pointed to a small duct on the ship which was in fact a Lance that we had installed at an earlier date. I had him double check it while I inspected the interior of the ship. As it turns out, the ship was equipped with it, but it was never installed to the weapon controls. This has been rectified. I'm stocking the ship up on Endurium and we are heading for the Uhlek mind world. I just need to check my logs to find out where it was. It has been awhile.
[Update] T'Larra has also indicated the Arth Lab has gotten back to us about the Shimmering Ball and the Tesseract. The Shimmering Ball auto detects and scans any alien ships at a distance and provides information about them (neat!). The Tesseract is supposed to increase ship efficiency; this might have something to do with the field it emits. I'll have Max perform some diagnostics of the ship's internals to see what is affected.
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[Update] There is a secret jump into Uhlek space that the Spemin use. It is 106, 139; 65, 186, and then 35, 186. Our goal is to hit the life bearing planet in system 55, 32.
4620-03-1114 - The jump coordinates are unrelated to the mind world of the Uhlek. It took us to the edge of the galaxy - the opposite side of where we first encountered them. This is supposed to be a 'secret jump' into Uhlek space or so the Spemin have stated. There is a nearby star system, but we are returning in the direction that we came, ASAP. Their mind world first - no sense in taking them on if we can avoid it, right
4620-03-1123 - We are at the appropriate star system. Our intent to scan the planets to finds the life bearing one has been put on standby due to the fact the first ice world we encountered is full of plutonium - a very precious mineral. We will be mining our cargo hold to the gills with it - then proceeding as normal. Is there a concern of the Uhlek in this area Despite the mind world being in this system, there is no alien activity here - or so our sensors say. This is too good an opportunity to pass up.
[Update] Useless minerals - tin, tungsten, and a lot of gold. We found one plutonium cache and that was it. Blasting off to the next world.
4620-03-1212 - Found the life bearing planet - it is, surprisingly an ice world. It has a low bio reading, but a high mineral content. It is also an oxygen world, primarily composed of a nitrogen atmosphere with a water hydrosphere. I have a few thoughts on this ice world being a mind world, but supposedly the Uhlek mind exists as as a multi-celled organism beneath the planet's surface. T'Larra and I both agreed it would be better and too time consuming, to dig for it. Instead we'll do some investigating, set the Black Egg device for a delayed countdown, and see first hand how destructive these Black Egg devices from the First Wave truly are. It is interesting to note, that a device used to cause destruction against the Old Empire is now being use dto help its descendants.
4620-03-1214 - We found ruins at 38N x 6E. Continuuing to investigate. If we are going to blow up a planet, we might as well extract as much as we can from it.
[Update] Ruins at the following coordinates 41N x 36E, 44N x 35E, 48N x 33E, 53N x 30E, 63N x 24E, 77N x 18E, 49N x 32W, 48N x 63W, 55N x 69W, 57N x 68W, 63N x 71W, 65N x 72W, 66N x 73W, 75N x 78W, 65N x 103W, 57N x 99W, 56N x 100W, 48N x 32W, 27N x 10E, 33N x 25W, 34N x 40E, 38N x 6E, 63N x 25E, 54N x 30E, 41N x 37E, 44N x 34E, 48N x 33E, 53N, 30E, , 54N x 56E, 58N x 61E, 69N x 56W, 85N x 45E, 94N x 45E, 83N x46E; [51N x 1W, 50N x 0W, 49N x 0W, 47N x 1E, 46N x 3E] -- bracketed locations were a high concentration of ruins located in a flat area some distance from mountains on the west and hilled regions on the east; [51N x 96W, 49N x 97W, 49N x 95W, 48N x 95W, 47N x 95W, 46N x 94W] -- bracketed locations were a concentrated pairing of ruins in the mountains very close together.
[Update] T'Larra wanted to give up on catalogging the ruins; I felt they were of some significance and Max was interested in who they belonged to. I'm glad we kept going, we found some alien books with writings of the Old Empire. They spoke of a constellation at 216, 87 by the name of Pythagoras. I remember this because it has been on my mind for awhile. Pythagoras is where Old Earth is located. There are some important events that Earth ties together. It was seat of the Old Empire and center of culture and government of many of the races we've encountered; it was also enemies with the Gazurtoid and the Uhlek. According to reports given to Interstell, there is a region far east that is devoid of any life. Old Earth might be before that region - at least I'm hoping. It would be a pity to find out everything in my species 'home system' was killed off. What I have, noted, however, is that the systems we have been exploring - mostly west of Arth - have a higher countdown until their stars flare and kill off life in the system. Considering that Old Earth is east of Arth and within that region further out, then it is .
Special Notes 34N x 8E had ruins that were mostly intact. Amidst some debris we found many piles of books of alien origin.
58N x 61E We found a newspaper clipping in ruins at 58N x 61E.
Amidst piles of alien books, some writing from 'The Old Empire' - ...The Pythagoras Constellation at 216, 87....
Newspaper - Feb. 8, 3465 - ...The Death of Johnny Beaver marked the extinction of the last animal species other than man on Earth. The environmental protection agency was forced to close down due to the lack of any environment to protect.
4620-03-1421 - We didn't find any more ruins beyond those listed. We traveled quite abit around the planet trying to locate them. We were going to destroy this world afterall. When asked about the ethics of killing animal life on a planet, along with an entire space faring species - I ask you this - this species destroyed an empire, has probably slaughtered millions before, and will continue to do so since. My crew has no objections, neither do I. It is for the good of all; I do not agree, however, to the deaths of millions of animals. But it is a necessary evil.
[Update] We've set the device and are returning to our ship. After entering orbit and about an hour on cruise, we noted that the planet was changing to a dull red; our instruments detected an explosion and our scanners indicated there was only debris in that area where it once was. We're leaving it in the dust as we head towards Arth. We'll be venturing the Pythagoras system to find Old Earth, as well as Mars, the latter of which has a Ring Device in the northern hemisphere, or so the Thrynn say. We'll also be looking for Mardan 4. Mardan 4 was supposedly a military outpost of the Old Empire, as well as a planet used for mining due to its high deposits of minerals.
4520-03-1502 - We ran into a Gazurtoid ship as soon as we left the system. Their sensors might have picked up on the planetary explosion. We raised shields just to be safe. They spewed some religions rhetoric about being vile air breathers and left us alone. We continued to Arth.
[Update] Bought Endurium; it is being loaded as I write this.