noctis log

Entries:

I. Star: Phie II. Planet: Lachrymose III. Planet: Cressa

previous log

After visiting Seraphim, I made the jump to another star, also undiscovered. It was one of the brightest stars I could see from my Stardrifter, so I named it in honor of the light of my life, Sophie.

The Vimana flights are very disorienting. This is only my third flight, so I hope it becomes more bearable with time.

The way Vimana flights bend light around the ship makes me nauseous, honestly.

Upon arriving ~60 light-years later, I was able to see just how bright yellow the star was. I spent some of the drive there reading over technical manuals for the ship, and I discovered something great – how to disable the radiation shield!

My suit has built in radiation protection, so I theorized that overriding the Stardrifter’s radiation protection would allow me to get even closer to Phie and observe it better. Turns out I was right!

I wasn’t able to see any discernible activity or texture to the surface of Phie, but I suspect for less luminous stars I will. I also suspect, based on some of the information in the manual, that doing this to other stars runs the risk of damaging my Stardrifter’s systems.

Regardless, I was able to gather more information on this star than I was able to for New Horizons. Phie is a class S00 star, which are a group of typically bright yellow stars that are usually able to support life. Its mass is 1.629115 BM, and its radius is 5.9080 centidyams. Its surface is about 7530K.

I went up to the roof of the Stardrifter to take a cursory glance for any nearby planets, and I was only able to spot two. One was a craggy, small rock not too far from my ship. I disregarded it for now, as it wasn’t likely it could host life or an atmosphere due to its proximity to the star. Further out was a larger planet, so I aimed my ship towards it and set off.

The thought of finally finding life was exhilarating. Space is lonely. Supposedly us Stardrifters are solitary people, but I don’t feel solitary; I feel alone. Cut off, if you will.

Back to the task at hand – after arriving at the large, cloudy planet, my first task was to name it. Lachrymose felt fitting for my mood as I orbited. Here are some quick facts:

Rotation period – 000:234:360 triads // Revolution period – 027:039:194 triads // Radius – 0.0304 centidyams

Just from observing it, you could see a very thick atmosphere, fully covered by clouds. Clouds! Every planet has been such an absolute DRAG, so seeing something reminiscent of home for once has definitely put me in a better mood.

I spent some time casting notes into the GOES.net terminal – hopefully one day it’s back online so all my notes can be uploaded there. By the time I finished my notes, though, we had passed around to the dark side of Lachrymose. Without the star’s light, the planet had a dark green hue. I hoped this meant that there was organic matter on the surface, like forests or plains.

I positioned the Stardrifter back to the starlit side of the planet and prepared to descend (my second ever planet expedition). The nerves still ate me up, but I hoped that the promise of life below would calm me down.

Slowly, my surface capsule closed and I began my descent. It felt like I was passing through the cloud layer for an eternity. Slowly drifting… until all at once, I was on the surface. And man, was I disappointed.

The planet was mostly hills of snow and rock, in shades of dark blue and grey. While I was bummed about the lack of a lush forest, I was able to appreciate the view of Phie planetside (I hadn’t been able to on my previous expedition on Seraphim).

I also found sharp, angular deposits of a shiny, reflective material. It seems to be solid ice. It’s possible there is life on this planet, due to the present atmosphere and clear abundance of water.

For a long while, I just sat in the snow and viewed the sun peeking through the clouds. I traveled pretty far from my surface capsule, too; you can see its light beam in the panorama below.

Eventually, though, I knew I needed to return to the Stardrifter. I still had that other planet in the area to log, and I was getting the suspicion that fuel was starting to run low. So I boarded my capsule and slowly ascended back up.