The first few days of the Distant Worlds 2 expedition were a flurry of sightseeing visits as the thousands strong caravan departed the Bubble on its way to Beagle Point on the far side of the galaxy. Commander Altsain was in her element, discovering new worlds, visiting those other commanders had already visited and flying alongside other ships as everyone made their way to the the waypoint for the week’s travel, the Omega Mining Operation asteroid base in Omega Sector VE-Q b5-15.

The next stop was a world in the Traikaae CH-Y c10 system, known to commanders as Labirinto. Approaching the planet in the Queen of the Stars, Commander Altsain’s attention was immediately piqued by the large number of canyons that look like they had been ripped across its surface. Getting closer, her eyes widened in surprise.

These were very thin and very deep canyons, of a type she had never seen before. Naturally, she glided her Beluga out of orbital cruise and proceeded to rush down the 8km deep canyons at full boost.

The commander decided she would describe this place as ‘atmospheric’.

Unfortunately, she had arrived at a time when most other commanders were tucked up in their bunks – probably a good thing, as canyon races in a Beluga that drifts as much as the Queen of the Stars in a hard turn would likely end in disaster.

Mollified somewhat, the commander boosted into orbit and commenced the next series of jumps.

Thor’s Eye was next, a system with a Class O primary, that the Queen of the Stars quickly flew past to see the main attraction here.

Thor’s Eye was also home to a black hole, perfectly placed against the galactic core to produce some truly psychedelic results from its gravitational lensing.

Not wanting to push her luck by getting to close to a black hole, Commander Altsain programmed the next jumps into the navigation computer, to take in the sights of two nebulae.

First was the Lagoon Nebula, a swirling multi-coloured cloud of gas, though lacking any distinct form the commander could see. The next, the Cinnabar Moth Nebula, had a much tighter form in space.

Commander Altsain does not know what a Cinnabar Moth is, but imagines it to be a huge fiery creature that ravages the land whenever it drops out of the sky.

The final sightseeing stop on this leg of the voyage was the Supercluster PW2010. This turned out to be a bunch of really bright stars the commander had seen before during her trips to the galactic core, but never travelled close enough to visit.

From there, it was just a few short jumps to the base of the Omega Mining Operation, and the commander was pleased to her the comms were alive in the system with many other ships from the Distant Worlds 2 expedition that had arrived before her.

After landing at the asteroid base, a fraught activity in a Beluga without a docking computer, the commander decided she would stretch her legs and have a coffee in the spaceport bar. She was also pleased to see her exploration efforts had already run up data worth nearly MCr13. However, she was eager to begin her first deep space mining operation, and had already spotted a hit spot in the same pristine ring the asteroid base was sited within…