Diary Entry 1 - Cycle 274, Day 1

Another cycle down, another cycle barely scraping by. The Phoenix is humming along nicely, old girl, but the trade routes are drying up. Everyone’s either got what they need or they’re too broke to buy. Even old man Hektor’s precious spice is gathering dust in the hold of the Mule. The Hangar bay conversion I did last year still feels indulgent, all that space for the mining drones, but they're the only thing pulling in a steady income these days. I watched them swarm around a chunk of nickel-rich asteroid earlier, tiny glints against the black. Hydra sits patiently in orbit, loaded with the usual, and the Tanker’s ready for a long jump, but to where? I’m getting restless. Tonight, I’m going through the comm channels again. I need a proper job, not just this pittance. Something to put a bit of fire back in the forge.

Diary Entry 2 - Cycle 274, Day 3

Found something. A survey commission. Not glamorous, no great fortunes, but it’s a paycheck and a few lightyears away from this rut. The Galactic Survey Corps is looking for someone to map out a couple of uninhabited planets out near the Kaelan Drift. They’re fairly close, which helps with the fuel, and the payment’s decent enough. Not exactly a gold mine, but better than watching the credits bleed away. The Tanker’s fuelled up and they've loaded the survey probes onto the Hydra. The Phoenix, Mule, and Hydra are all ready to go, and I’m feeling a bit of a buzz. It's good to feel the engines hum with purpose again. We jump tomorrow at dawn. Been running diagnostics on the mining drones, making sure they're ready to rock. Always feel good having them do their thing. It's like a little swarm of my own.

Diary Entry 3 - Cycle 274, Day 8

Made the jump to the Kaelan Drift. The first planet is… unimpressive. Barren rocks, some icy regions. The survey probes are doing their thing, gathering data about the atmospheric composition, mineral deposits, radiation levels… the boring stuff. The mining drones picked up a trace of some rare earth minerals, so that’s a tiny bonus at least. I've been keeping the Phoenix in geosynchronous orbit, overseeing everything and running scans myself. Hydra is just sitting like a big, silent sentinel. Mule has been doing a bit of mining on one of the asteroids. Boring, but it builds my reserves. The second planet’s where my sensors are getting a little ping. Something's off about it. Not just natural geological activity.

Diary Entry 4 - Cycle 274, Day 10

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The second planet is… a mess. Cratered, scarred, but also… ancient. My scans are showing buildings buried under layers of dust and rock. I put the Phoenix into a lower orbit, deploying the scout drones. They confirmed it – a derelict outpost, or maybe a small research station. I couldn't believe it. It looks like it was hit hard and fast, buried almost instantly. I've been running damage assessments and my gut is telling me the main habitation area is still sealed. I had the mining drones clear a path, and then I set about getting the Phoenix into position. It was a tight fit getting it into a safe orbit within the atmosphere, but it was necessary to allow my frigates to be closer to the surface. We’re going down for a closer look in the morning.

Diary Entry 5 - Cycle 274, Day 11

We breached the outpost today. It was a bit of a gamble. The main access was practically fused shut, but a mining drone managed to cut through it. The interior was… remarkable. It's clearly very old, but a lot of the tech inside is still semi-functional. The power grid is down, but it looks like the main control room, and a few storage rooms are still relatively sealed from the elements. But the surprise came later. While my frigates were scouting the perimeter, they ran into hostiles. Not organic, but old drones. Combat drones. They had no shields, basic projectile weaponry. My frigates’ swarmer missiles made short work of them, thankfully. No real threat. It was almost too easy. Just some outdated AI running on autopilot. We’ve salvaged some of the drones and, more interestingly, some old AI cores. I'm going to take some time to figure these things out, but they seem very alien.

Diary Entry 6 - Cycle 274, Day 13

We’ve salvaged everything that’s salvageable. The AI cores are… odd. They're encrypted with layers upon layers of code, and some of it is incredibly ancient; nothing like anything I’ve ever seen. I spent hours trying to decipher the simplest data logs, and it's just gibberish or static, but they have a power. Sometimes, something will leak through the encrypted data and I get flashes of things... places... a civilization lost to time. The outpost is a marvel of engineering, and there are so many mysteries here. At least three of the AI drones are functional and I am keeping them for research. After my own research, with the help of my own AI that I have installed on the Phoenix, it is clear these cores hold a lot of information. I’ve gathered the data from all the survey probes and from the drones, cataloged everything, and prepared it for transmission. I’ve also loaded the salvaged tech onto the Hydra. Time to go back.

Diary Entry 7 - Cycle 274, Day 18

Back at the comm relay. Uploaded the survey data to the Survey Corps. They seem pretty pleased. I even got a bonus for the unexpected findings! I haven't told them about the AI cores or the ancient tech. That's my little secret for now. The profit has gone a long way into repairs and upgrades to all of my ships. I’m going to take some time to analyze these things before I hand them over to anyone.