Starlog #2 - Sol
27 Apr 2024Alyce2021
Starlog Data Entry #2Well, I've done it. After a long series of contracts for the Federation, I've finally been promoted to Petty Officer, and thus gained access to the Sol star system. Along the way, I've purchased and fully kitted out a Diamondback Explorer, and travelled to many different star systems, but nothing compares to the beauty of our home star.
Yes, objectively I've seen sights more breathtaking than the planet Earth, and been to places more exotic than terraformed Mars. But each place in this system stands as a monumental step for our species, a showcase of all the progress we've made. The humble beginnings, the first steps, all of it leading to what we have today.
In a way, I believe I've been changed by all this beauty and hindsight. If I could choose, I would have my life filled with and defined by moments like this. And I think I can choose. On my journey to reach this system, I've learned that the Federation only truly cares about one thing: combat. And I don't want to fight unless it supports the kinds of wonder I felt upon reaching Sol.
So, I'll choose a different superpower. Of the three, only one shares my passion for all things pretty and symbolic: the Empire. And, importantly, I believe it to be the least flawed, or at least the most easily fixed, of the superpowers. The Federation drowns itself in endless war. The Alliance is too tied up in thousands of treaties and contracts for anything meaningful to happen without threat of the whole thing falling apart. And independents spend one minute declaring their separation from the powers and the rest of their lives defending themselves from them.
Meanwhile, the Empire simply has poor wealth distribution. Well, that can be easily fixed. I've already well seen the money that can be printed from contracts out in the stars. I can give what I don't need to the people who do. Perhaps that is naivete at work, but we shall see. This is my new mission. This is my new goal.
To these ends, I've created a Squadron dubbed Hestia's Hearthflames, named so due to my somewhat childlike interest in the old Greek myths. It seems fitting in a galaxy with so many stars named after their gods. And I believe this one in particular holds values I can agree with and promote.
My final act before setting off into the stars on this new journey is to use the reputation I've gained with the Federation to buy one of their dropships, and hire my first secondary crew member. I've yet to actually send up the beacon for this, but I've already got a candidate in mind. A man I met in the Bestia system by the name of Jude Rhodes. He's a veteran of the Federal Navy, an old jaded sort, but he's a great flyer and an even greater shooter. If anyone could defend my ship, I know it'd be him.
Now it's time to make my way into the Empire, and see what this journey will hold.
That's all for now. Commander Alyce, signing off.