Episode 1: The Crash

Clang
Mag-boots connected to the cold metal floor. Papers, scrap metal, and pieces of broken furniture floated past the reflective glass panel in the helmet, nearly obscuring his vision. He had seen a few figures rushing out of the room as the window had broken, so there was life on this side of the station still. The attack had gone more or less as planned, now all that was left was to get inside and get to the Corporate vaults...

Andrew Pynes pressed hard on the controls, sending the frail little sidewinder into a tailspin out of the way of a flock of missiles heading in his direction. He felt the impact on the rear shields of the small ship and cursed under his breath. Not that there was much he could do about it now. The shield level indicator on the right side of the console started blinking as more enemy fire came in his direction.
"Dammit, these things weren't built for combat..."
For the first time since launching, Andrew thought maybe he had made a mistake in taking this rustbucket out to defend the Point. Looping around sharply, nearly missing a radar array on the side of the station, he returned fire and was rewarded with the sight of two attack drones losing control and crashing into the shields on the station itself. Diverting as much power as possible to his propulsion systems, Andrew spiraled down and away from the remaining Eagles, and tried to gain some cover on the opposite side of the station. He almost pulled up on instinct into the station as another enemy fighter appeared around the corner, and narrowly avoided the resulting debris of the dogfight he had stumbled into. Shaking his head he increased his thruster speed and tried to avoid what fighting he could.

*****

The wail of the sirens wasn't quite drowned out by the sounds of panic from the crew and residents on Bakewell Point. Blast shields lowered over the windows, guards started appearing almost out of nowhere, directing civilians and pilots alike to 'remain calm' and 'return to your quarters'. Ilona was having none of it. She marched through the crowds of screaming civilians in the hub, heading for the security office. A few guards tried to stop her, but she put on her best 'don't even try' face, and pushed past, luckily getting lost in the growing crowds before anyone could stop her. Arriving at the door to the central security office, she knocked hard, huffing impatiently as she waited for the door to be opened. After an annoyingly-long wait, the door creaked open, and she barged in, pushing an unfortunate new recruit aside. "I demand to speak with the Head of Security immediately. We are under attack if you weren't aware." The young man, steadying himself from Ilona's attack, muttered some apologetic reply and scurried off into the offices. Moments later an older man, well-dressed but less-well-kept, appeared, breathing laboriously and stopping to lean on the front desk. 

"Can I help you, Miss....?"
"Downing. Ilona Downing. You may remember me, Officer... Owens, was it?" 
Ownes sighed heavily. "Yes, Ms. Downing, we all remember you. That is to say, what can I do for you this time?"
Ilona sat down in front of the desk as if the station wasn't under immediate threat. "I've come to negotiate the terms of our grounding, specifically the recent development of a rogue squad-mate that has --" 
"--that has stolen your ship, broken the terms of your contract with Pallaeni General, and exited the hangar without the go-ahead from ground control and is currently zipping through the black around this station like a crazed gadfly? Yes, I think I'm aware of Mr. Pynes' infractions."
Ilona was taken aback for a moment, before regaining her composure. "I'm sure, then, that you are aware that we wanted no part of this... let's call it unorthodox strategy." 
"I had assumed as much, Ms. Downing, you and your team's status here in the station will not be harmed because of this man's actions."
"Thank y--"
"However, he will be taken into custody upon returning to the station, and I will require your full cooperation in regards to any investigations regard this behavior."
Ilona stopped and thought for a moment. This was certainly a snag. She shook her head. 
"Very well, if that's what it takes." 

*****

Oz screeched to a halt, hold up a hand and ducking back around the corner from which they had just come. Laurence and Carmella back-peddled desperately to keep up with the man's breakneck speed. Oz nodded towards the passage ahead of them, indicating three armored figures, all carrying heavy kinetic weapons and sporting red-and-black pirate colors. Carmella nodded in response and waited for them to pass the end of the hall before running silently after them. Oz and Laurence followed more slowly, coming around the corner just in time to see Carmella strike the last pirate across the front of his helmet, rendering him unconscious on the ground. The young woman shrugged. 

"See? Quick, quiet, effective." 

"Impressive, but not the time to show off." Laurence was already going through pockets, looking for tablets, communicators, anything that might lend a clue to the reason for the attack. 

"Hurry up, there's probably more coming. Breach behind us isn't the only one, clearly." Oz holstered his pistol and started dragging one of the incapacitated figures back around the corner in the hopes of hiding them. 

There was an explosion somewhere distantly on the opposite side of the bulkhead beside them, and an impact of some kind that shook the floor. Struggling to regain their balance, the crew gave up and started back off down the hall. Doubtless, that was another breach from outside, and they didn't want to be caught if the hall depressurized. 

Ducking into a room and shutting a blast door behind them, they stopped to catch their breath in what looked like a small sitting room. Collapsing at a table, Laurence slapped down a folded piece of paper. 

"Found this...on one of the guys...back there." He panted "Map of the station."

He unfolded it, showing the others a crudely drawn map of the interior of the main floor of Bakewell Point, with a route planned out in red. 

"Leads right to the main corporate vault. Apparently, there's something inside they want." He flipped the paper over. On the back was a more-detailed drawing, a sketch of an intricate box circled again in the red with a series of symbols scrawled beneath it. The crew looked at each other briefly and nodded. Oz ran over to the blast door to input the code to open it, only to have a red light flash in response and a computerized voice say 'access denied: containment compromised. Remain calm, help will arrive shortly."

*****

Andrew cut power to the Dauntless's engines and veered right, narrowly avoiding the laser-fire from one of the few remaining Eagles that were still buzzing around the port. He shook his head in frustration and fumbled to shut off the COVAS alert tell him that his shield systems were compromised. "I know. I know already!" he slammed his hand down on the button and took a moment to collect himself, powering the thrusters back up to skirt along the surface of the station. 

Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He barely had time to react before a limpet from one of the pirate ships attached itself to the hull of the ship and he could hear the telltale screaming of metal on metal. "Damn it..." he tried to shake the thing off, but to no avail. "Fine, if that's the way you want it..." he started heading back to the spaceport of the station, keeping an eye on the hull integrity. 

*****

As Ilona stepped out of the security office, the communicator on her wrist beeped insistently. Rolling her eyes she switched it on. "Yes? This had better be worth my time." 

"Ilona! Thank god, okay we found a map. They're here for something in the vault, this isn't just-"

Static cut the line and Ilona shook the device angrily. "What?"

"The vault! There's some sort of box in the vault!" Oz's voice could be heard more clearly now. "This isn't an attack, it's a heist! Get someone to the vault!"

"There is a limit to my influence Oz-"

"I know, I know, just-" the static cut in again. 

Ilona shut off the comm and turned back towards the security office, only to find the blast shield over the door and no lights to be seen on the other side. She sighed heavily. "Fine, fine, don't mind the pirates, just hide until it's all over. Typical."

Checking the map of the floor at a nearby terminal, she quickly plotted a course in her head to the vault and took off down the halls. 

*****

The young man shouldered his weapon and pressed the button to retract the visor on his helmet. He looked back to the two others securing the hall behind him as he lifted his comm to his mouth. "We're in, boss. Vault's just down this hallway. What's the thing look like again?"

"You'll know it when you see it. Big box, bunch of glowy bits, hard to miss it."
"Right. Goin' in." 

The pirate made his way down the hall, the others following him. They stopped at a corner and he motioned the other two around. He waited a moment and when there was no gunfire he followed, only to stop in his tracks. Standing in front of the vault door was a woman in a formal uniform, black hair blown back by some unseen gust to frame thin features and pale skin dramatically, her eyes flashing angrily in his direction. The two other members of his squad were frozen in place, and at first, he thought they were as surprised as he was. But as he took a careful step forward, and then another, he could see that their faces were twisted in pain and their bodies shaking, trying to escape some unseen force holding them in place. 

"Get... back..." the woman growled through gritted teeth. "I'm not...letting you into...this vault." 

The initial shock wearing off, he leveled his weapon at her. "Right. An Aug. Nice trick ya got there, missie, but I've seen this a hundred times. Nothing a bullet can't fix." He fired, just as she dove aside, the bullet ricocheting off the vault door and his companions were suddenly released from the woman's concentration. 

"You two, get the box. I'll take care of her." His companions rushed forward to the security terminal as he whirled around to find where the woman had gone. Looking back and forth, he saw nothing, and slowly started backing into the now-open vault door. "Get that thing ready for transport. And be more careful with the detonator this time!" 

The woman appeared from around the corner at the end of the hall and started running to the security terminal. The young man laughed and turned away as the vault door closed behind him. 

"Proud of yourself? Real quick thinking on your part there!" he jabbed as the vault locked audibly. 

He nodded to the pirate placing explosives on the vault wall.

*****

Ilona heard an explosion from within the vault, and the sound of air rushing out of it into the vacuum beyond. The security feed on the terminal beside her showed the three pirates being sucked out into space with the intricately decorated box. Just before the feed crackled out, she could see the figures activating their own personal propulsion systems and maneuvering their way out into the void beyond. 

Entry 010: [Lost in Space]

LOCATION: Unknown space, somewhere between The View and Cycladia
REPORT TYPE: Expeditionary Update

Captain's Log.

So. We're lost.
FSD is damaged, navicomputer not tracking our position. We've had no word from Pallaeni in....days? Weeks? How long have we been out here? Without functioning electronics it's hard to tell. We're currently only able to travel in normal space, which feels unimaginably slow compared to our previous rate of travel. Keve is busy trying to figure out where we are using only a telescope, star charts, and what records he was able to salvage from the broken computer. Adam's doing his best to repair the FSD without much of a team, with only Katha to help him. He mentioned something earlier about the repair really needing a full crew, and even then it would take several days. With only the two of them, there's no telling how long it will take. Luckily, we received the map to waypoint 7 before the computers died, so if we ever get underway again we'll be able to continue the journey.

We're still not entirely sure what happened. Whether we'd been followed from Pallaeni, or whether it was a more recent development we don't know, though Murph had reported that she had picked up a few weird blips on the maps in the days before the attack.

Well, 'attack' might not be the right word. There was no weapon fire. And we never saw another pilot.

We had been traveling a few days out from the last waypoint, that being The View, when we registered a distress signal not far from the location of our last jump. Heading towards the signal, we got a few more readings regarding it via Murph's computer. The signal was also equipped with a voice recording stating that the source of the signal was a cargo ship that had been attacked by pirates. They reported multiple hull breaches and several crew members dead or injured, including the captain.

Upon dropping into normal space at the distress beacon location, we saw the wreckage of a ship and began scanning for lifeforms and a black box. For a few minutes, everything seemed in order, but then there was a clunk on the hull and a few minutes after our COVAS alerted us that our FSD was charging, and moments later we were rocketing off into the Void, faster than I think any of us have seen the FSD work before. As the Frameshift began, the hull began to shake and all the lights on the console began to blink and flash, screens flickering, and controls began switching themselves on and off, and then on again. We could do nothing but sit back and watch as whatever-it-was took control of our ship and sent us hurtling into unknown space.

We dropped violently into normal space, and I was sure I heard glass crack somewhere. We sprang into action, checking all systems, and Adam rushed into the rear of the ship to check on the engine systems. We quickly found that none of the computer systems were functional, and only very basic flight controls were still online. We had also lost contact with GalNet, all communication systems, and our COVAS was in dire need of repairs.

That has been the situation for....and eternity it feels like. We've made some progress, and Murph says we should be reconnected to GalNet. So I'm writing up a report in the hopes that this will at least help pilots in future who encounter this problem. Adam tells me that the FSD systems aren't beyond repair, so we should be underway soon, with any kind of luck at all.

[LOG END]

Entry 009: [The Road Continues]

LOCATION:  Blue Thua DP-A C3 System, Anarchic Space, Inner Orion Spur
REPORT TYPE: Expeditionary Update

Captain's Log.
The expedition has been going well. We are currently orbiting the main star of the Blue Thua DP-A C3 system to refuel. We've gotten quite good at fuel scooping, learning to manage the length of the process, though it still takes about 20 minutes to fill our reserves. The ahead team has fully established the base in the Orion Nebula, which so we will hopefully be able to rest upon arriving, at least for a time. 

We've been staving off boredom by alternating between listening to the Distant Radio frequency, and by going through a log audiobooks. We've made it through almost a decade of literature in the last week, and have settled into an anthology of rather unsettling fiction by someone by the name of H. P. Lovecraft. It's enjoyable, but it does tend to make you paranoid to hear about ancient aliens when flying through the vast expanse of space. 

Murph received a transmission from Pallaeni a day ago, presumably from the team back at the station. They've been working to uncover more information about the pirate attacks, but they don't seem optimistic. We've wished them luck, and requested that they keep us up to date with the goings-on back in the system. 

Our next destination is Blue Thua KK-Z B2, and from there on to the Omega Nebula. With any luck, the journey shouldn't take long, though it seems to be stretching out forever at this rate. 


SUPPLEMENTAL: We have just received word from the team in Pallaeni again, saying that the station was attacked by pirates. It's surprising that the pirates would actually be bold enough to attack a station, so there must be something more going on. We briefly debated turning back, but we're so far out that there's no way we would arrive in time to be any help. We're sending word to any allies in the area that could possibly lend any aid. 

[LOG END] 

Episode 0: Home Behind

          The glass separating the interior of Bakewell Point from the cold vacuum of space seemed thinner than it had when Osmond had first arrived. That was before the pirate attacks; before the Expedition launched; before those pilots had died out in that same dark vacuum in unknown space far from home.  Oz put his hand against the glass, imagining that the cold he could feel was anywhere close to the actual temperature out there. Asphyxiation or hypothermia, which would have killed them first? Or did they die in the explosion? Boarded and shot? 

         Staring out into the black, Oz felt like he could almost make out the launch point of the expedition, the last place everything in Pallaeni had been normal. Sure there had been some attacks here and there, but nothing hugely abnormal for a system where something big was happening. And who knows what they might be finding out there beyond civilized space? Thargoids, pirates, rogue CMDRs, betrayal from within...

         Being in charge was no fun. Adam left Oz in command of the crew left at the station, but it wasn't like Oz was qualified. Of anyone, he would have chosen Ilona. But she was too busy trying to settle things with Bakewell higher-ups, smooth over relations after that argument, and go about getting help with the pirate investigation. They had managed to add someone to the team since the Expedition launch: Andrew Pynes, a human man not much older than Oz himself, some sort of ex-intelligence-operative from the Federation. With Laurence serving as a medic and Carmela helping Ilona with the task of jumping through all the political and legal hoops, they made a pretty good team. Not that there had been much chance to test that theory. 

         They had been loaned a ship, as sort of payment for helping out Bakewell Point with a few things, called the Dauntless, but hadn't had much chance to test her out for more than supply and data transport. She had been sold as a combat ship, but a Sidewinder can only do so much. And she could barely hold two people. They would have to get something bigger eventually. 

         Hearing footsteps, Oz turned away from the window. Coming down the corridor towards him was Ilona, flawless Imperial features contrasted by the somewhat battered dress uniform she was wearing. And she did not look happy. 

         "Bad news?" Oz asked, leaning against the window. Ilona always made him sort of uncomfortable.
         "Oh, of course, it's bad news, Oz," he had been right, she wasn't happy. "'The leadership of Bakewell Point and representatives of Pallaeni General Co. are too preoccupied with internal affairs at the moment to receive visitors, please try again later.' I would have torn that thing out of the wall if I could have gotten away with it..." So she hadn't even gotten to talk to anyone. Great.
         "Well, we can always try again tomorrow?" Oz said, hoping to calm her down. 
          "Oh suuure, don't mind us, just trying to save your asses! Don't you think you can use all the help you can get? It's not like this system is practically under siege or anything!"
         Oz shrugged "I guess they don't think outside help is necessary. Which, yes--" He added, after a cutting look from Ilona "-- is a dumb idea, and they should definitely try to get what help they can in case there are more attacks..." he trailed off, looking back out into the black expanse surrounding the station. Her gaze followed his. 
          "They'll be fine, Oz. He'll be fine..." 
          "Right, yeah, I know..." Oz shook himself slightly and turned away from the window. "But you never know, I mean pirates are acting up like crazy recently, some actually followed the expedition, and then apparently some Commanders have gone rogue, I mean...what is happening out there?"
         Ilona was about to answer, when an alarm above them suddenly whirred to live, accompanied by flashing red lights, and a voice over the PA system telling everyone to 'remain calm' and 'return to their quarters'. Ilona shot Oz a meaningful we'll-finish-this-later look and ran off in the opposite direction of their quarters. Oz shook his head and started off towards the crew's quarters. 

         "Hey, Oz? Think we've got a situation," Laurence was standing at the window in the common room, his eyes darting back and forth between several small fighters circling the station. "I'm pretty sure those aren't good news..." A small wing of Eagles was circling the station, hardpoints deployed, clearly looking for a fight. Oz screeched to a halt beside the medic, placing a hand heavily on his shoulder to support himself. 
         "Where...where's Andrew?" he panted, taking several deep breaths in an attempt to stand on his own after running across the station. 
         "He's already in the fighter bay, starting up the Dauntless. I told him not to go, but--" Oz was gone. If Andrew launched that ship he, and the crew, were going to be in deep trouble. After their trouble with the General Co. earlier, they had effectively been grounded on-station, any ship leaving the port under their callsigns would be either shot down or impounded. Not to mention severe legal action would be taken...

         Oz rounded the corner to the fighter bay, almost careening into a group of other CMDRs in his hurry to get to the Dauntless. Stopping for a second, he spotted the beaten Sidewinder and ran over to the control station next to it, ripping the comms out of the hands of some unfortunate dock-worker.
         "Andrew? Hey, Andrew, dammit, come in!"
         Andrew's voice could be heard loud and clear over the comms. He was already in the cockpit, probably about to perform his preflight checks. "I don't take orders from you kid. I'm goin' out there to stop those bastards from putting holes in our house, you can thank me later. Preparing for launch." 
         The countdown began blinking on the monitor to Oz's right, and the launch pad began to rise to the surface. Oz took a step back, grasping at straws "Andrew, as your acting commander, I forbid you to--"
         "Sorry, what was that, Commander? You're cutting out." Andrew switched off his comms, and Oz could hear landing gear retract above him and the Dauntless's signature on the monitor blinked off the edge of the screen and into the space around Bakewell. Oz collapsed into a chair, breathless, furious, and near panic. "Does he have any idea...." He muttered angrily to himself. "Fine. No, it's fine, I'll just tell him that it was his fault, he defied orders..." he stormed out of the control station, almost shoving the poor dock-worker off his feet as he went. "Just wait until the Captain hears about this, then you'll have to follow orders, you space-headed, half-witted..."

         It continued like this almost the entire way back to the quarters, just up until he slammed the door to the common room and sat heavily down in a chair. He didn't notice the rest of the crew in the room until Laurence spoke. 
         "So, uh... I take it he launched?" 
         "Oh, yeah, he launched. And if he doesn't die out there by some miracle, I'm going to kill him when he comes back. That is if the Corporate police don't get to him first." He looked up and around the room. "Where's Ilona by the way?" 
         "Still banging on doors trying to get people to listen to her, I expect." Laurence pushed himself up off the chair, walking over to the window before pacing back again. "Look, all we can do is deny any support of his actions at this point. It's not as if we-"
         Ilona burst into the room. "He did WHAT?!" the team sat still, stunned. Oz opened his mouth to answer but was cut off. "WHO gave him clearance to do this? Oz, I swear to god if it was you..."
         "No, I tried to stop him!"
         "Well I was actually making progress in getting us clearance to fly again, but I guess that's not happening now, huh? He better not die out there, I am so killing him when he gets back."
         "Get in line," Carmela quipped from behind her datapad where she was watching the battles unfold from a security feed. 

         Ilona took a moment to calm herself. "I did manage to get us in with the Station Coordinators, so while station authorities will still take issue with us, we'll still be fine here. How much we can do stuck in this rustbucket I don't know, but-" there was a muffled explosion from outside, and Laurence dove away from the window. "Get down!"
         The window managed to hold, but the fuselage from one of the pirate ships slammed into the reinforced glass hard enough to crack. A slight hissing sound filled the room, and the crew stood stunned for a moment before scrambling to the door. They barely managed to close the blast door before the window gave out and the room depressurized, sending most of the furniture hurtling into the abyss. The crew took a moment to breathe, and Laurence looked through the blast door viewer to assess the damage. 
         "Uh..guys..." rushing to the viewer, the crew could see a figure in a full space suit, helmet reflecting what little light was left in the room, floating towards the hole in the station. As it got closer they could see whoever it was had a personal propulsion system in their suit, as it began to actually control its descent rather than float like debris as it had first appeared. Landing in the room, they could hear the loud thunk of mag-boots activating, as the figure started to survey the room, looking for an exit before pulling out some sort of cutter.
         "We need to go. Split up: Ilona, go yell at your police friends, tell them we're being boarded. Laurence, Carmela, with me, we're going to comb this floor and make sure everyone's alright. And if anyone hears from Andrew, tell him....just tell him to turn himself in or something, we don't need any more trouble." Oz ran off down the hall, Laurence and Carmela following. Ilona sighed "I'm really going to kill him..." and took off for security. 
         The figure looked around the room for a moment, before taking a step towards the door, slowly making his way across the room. Finally a score that mattered. No more looting random ships for material and credits that didn't matter. A chance to actually make a difference...
         He started cutting through the door. No need to rush, he had all the time in the world...

Entry 008: [Shapely and Beyond]

LOCATION: Orbiting Shapley 1 B, Shapley 1, Anarchic Space, Inner Orion Spur
REPORT TYPE: Expeditionary Update

Captain's Log.
The Avenger has arrived in the Shapley 1 system, our first stop on the way to Waypoint 1. Two days of travel through the black can be rather boring, but we're lucky for the journey to be uneventful, based on recent reports. The portion of the Expedition that is ahead of us have apparently already completed the construction of the outpost that was planned, supplying it with material and workers in record time. From what we've heard over comms, the station already is providing outfitting services for ships and that a detention center has been constructed nearby as well, providing security for the area. A memorial service is also being planned to honor those who fell early due to pirate or rogue CMDR attacks. We're counting ourselves very lucky that we're not on that list.

The crew's morale is surprisingly high, despite the seemingly-endless space travel, stars and planets whizzing by, but not much else happening. At least we have each other to talk to. This long without civilization is likely to drive lone CMDRs mad with boredom. Keve is even in good spirits, taking notes on all the planets we pass, and spearheading our use of the fuel scoop since it falls within his purvue as planetary science.

Fuel scooping is perhaps the most boring thing we've encountered, despite being massively helpful for exploration. We were only able to attach a very basic scoop onto the Avenger at Pallaeni, and thus filling our reserve takes a long time. It provides a good opportunity to talk though and take in the sights of a new system.

Shapely 1 is remarkable. There's not much in the system outside of its two stars, but the main one, Shapley 1 A, is a massive Wolf-Rayet star, blue-white and ominous in size. Keve tells me it is nearly 7200 years old, and many many times the size of Sol. We had initially thought about trying to scoop some fuel from it, but the radiation and temperature were too great, so we have moved to Shapley 1 B instead. I write this as we slowly orbit the star, waiting for our fuel cells to be refilled. The operation is a slightly dangerous one as we need to constantly keep an eye on the hull temperature, but otherwise, it is simple enough. Close to our next stop we know of a station called Hillary Depot and plan to stop there in the hopes of upgrading our fuel scoop to speed up our expedition. I expect the next update to be from that station.

[LOG END]

Entry 007: [Underway Again]

LOCATION: Bakewell Point, Pallaeni System, Independent Territory, Inner Orion Spur
REPORT TYPE: Expeditionary Update

Captain's Log.
The Avenger is now space-worthy again! Outfitted with a new-and-improved FSD drive and a fuel scoop to match, the Avenger's range is now functionally infinite. It's nice to know that we don't have to rely on stations and ports to refuel and can just skim over a star or two on the way to recharge our engines. Fuel scooping can be dangerous, but only if you're not paying attention. Or if you get to close to the star. With all of our new modules, repairs, and updates, we're finally ready to head to the first stop on our way to The Omega Nebula: Shapely 1. 

None of the crew really know much about Shapely, other than that it has been marked as a point of interest in many manuals, and nearly every exploratory flight that passes nearby has made a stop there for scientific reasons or simply to take a look around. Hopefully, we'll find some of what makes this system interesting too. 

With the Avenger being repaired, the crew (Keve specifically) are turning their mind back to scientific discovery as part of the Geology and Organics Department. Dropping into systems and mapping planets is what Keve's good at, and we're all excited to see what discoveries we can make in the future. 

In other news, the crew we left in Pallaeni have joined the Pallaeni General Co. militia, and have been hunting down pirates in the system and a few neighboring systems and trying to figure out why the attacks have been happening. Adam's team is apparently spending their time examining ships that come in for repairs from pirate attacks, analyzing the types of weapons that these fighters have, and scanning the space around known attacks in the hopes of finding wreckage from their ships. So far their efforts have turned up nothing usable, but there's always hope. 

Though shaken from our own encounter with pirates, the crew of the Avenger and I are optimistic about our future exploits as part of the Distant Worlds expedition and are excited to see more of the galaxy we call home. 

[LOG END]

Entry 006: [Slight Setback]

LOCATION: Bakewell Point, Pallaeni System, Independent Territory, Inner Orion Spur
REPORT TYPE: Expeditionary Update

Captain's Log. 
There's been a bit of a setback in the expedition on the part of the Avenger. While traversing independent space on the way to the first waypoint for the Distant Worlds expedition, we were attacked by a crew of pirates. 

We detected a distress signal on our way through Col 285 Sector BX-F B26-1. Upon dropping into normalspace at the signal source, we found a passenger ship running on emergency fuel. We launched fuel limpits to give the ship enough fuel to make the flight to the nearest station, and the minute the stranded ship got underway, panels on the front opened to reveal hardpoints that were previously undetected by our scanners, and banked to attack. 

The skeleton crew of the Avenger scrambled to battle stations, and with the information that Keve was able to get from a ship scan before the scanners were jammed, we could tell immediately that we were outgunned. We elected instead for a retreat, hoping to lose them in hyperspace. Engaging the FSD, we left normalspace and started making our way back across the system, hoping to make the jump before the pirates caught up to us. No such luck. 

Upon entering hyperspace, our scanners picked up 3 more ships: fighters all of them. We maxed out our speed and put nearly full-power to engine modules. We had almost made it within range of a jump point when we were hit with an interdictor blast. I took over the helm from Adam, while he ran back to the rear of the ship with Katha to make emergency repairs to the propulsion systems and to lash everything in the hold down safely. 

The ship dropped forcibly into normalspace, knocking everyone in the cockpit around rather severely, the emergency dropout function engaging, slowing the ship to a fraction of its normal running speed. As I battled desperately with the controls to regain full speed, Murph started plotting a route back to the nearest station: Bakewell Point, several systems back in Pallaeni. She reluctantly put in the coordinates, cursing the fact that there weren't any closer stations, and the computer began its calculations. Just as we regained full flight control, we heard the blast of a ship dropping out of supercruise just behind us. Pushing the throttle to full forward power, we zipped away just in time to avoid an EMP blast, no doubt targeted at taking out our shields. 

Adam and Katha returned topside, Adam despondent about the state of the FSD. It appeared that even if the navicomputer completed its calculations before we were shot out of the black, the FSD would still need several minutes of cooldown before we could hope to go anywhere. We all settled in with a grim determination. 

Everyone was sent to perform a different task in the hopes of delaying our attackers. Keve began releasing emergency broadcasts to any Federal Security agents in the system or nearby; Katha took position on the rear turret and began making precision shots to take out enemy modules; Murph took the forward gun, while Adam went to coax the FSD back to health and I maneuvered to dodge laser fire and hopefully get a few shots back with the primary weapons. A few minutes of stressful dogfighting passed, and we managed to destroy our first pursuer. However, the explosion of the enemy fuel reserve was followed almost immediately by the blast of 3 other FSD wakes, and the other 3 members of the pirate crew arrived, hot on our tail. Their combined fire kept us in retreat, unable to return much fire of our own. For a moment, I almost lost hope, and then the navicomputer beeped. The FSD was charged. There was a collective sigh as I initiated the jump. Already at full speed, the charge-up didn't take long and we blinked away from the pirates.

Upon dropping into normalspace at Pallaeni however, we found that our FSD had been damaged irreparably, and there didn't seem to be a single part of it salvageable. Adam and the remaining team, who were rather surprised to see us back so soon, certainly have their work cut out for them. 

SUPPLEMENTAL: The Avenger has been outfitted with a new FSD, this one more powerful and longer-lasting than the last. Adam has recommended the purchase of a fuel scoop as well, to prevent our needing to slow down in potentially-dangerous systems in the future. The scoop is a more sophisticated piece of technology, however, and is taking significantly longer to fit on the ship. The rest of us have the next day or so to relax from our ordeal, and make a few calls to different parties who would be interested in this newest addition to the pirate activity surrounding the expedition. We also received news that a rather infamous CMDR had apparently sided with the pirates and has taken to attacking Expedition ships. The Expedition being so big (10,000 CMDRs was the last count I saw!), it was bound to draw some more-sinister attention. 
[LOG END]