In Elite Dangerous, I’m currently going the same path the Crab Nebula Expedition went earlier this year (and had completed it). Currently at WP3(Bernard’s Loop), I’ll soon be leaving for WP5, as WP4 was called off due to the ‘Unknown Permit’ BS due to the Frontier Devs.
I’ve also signed up (and staying signed up) to the Galactic Nebula Expedition. I personally would call it the Galactic Core Expedition, as we’re heading to the core of the Milky Way; the super-sized black hole of Sagittarius A. The fleet launches at 10pm on September 3rd, giving me plenty of time to complete my solo expedition.
The reason why I say ‘solo’, is.. well, I was going to have a co-op expedition. And it almost was. But sadly RL is a bitch, and also…he really wants to help his friends than play ED with me. And that’s fine. Though to get this far from how it started, was quite…messy. Almost to the point I felt that “friends are pointless”. I don’t really wish to talk about it.
Anyway, about the ‘Unknown Permit’ barrier. I was linked to a Reddit page on how they were able to get past it and continue with the expedition. The barrier is around Bernard’s Loop (which blocks access to the Horsehead Nebula, sadly). I’m about ready to go through the next bypass to WP5. This will take me within jump distance to VY Canis Majoris (the biggest known star (a Hypergiant) discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope).
I’ve been to Betelguise (while the Beetlejuice theme song was looping in the background), which is also a Hypergiant. It actually has a landable planet. And I was fuel scooping.. while landing on the surface. That just shows how fucking BIG this behemoth of a star is.
Sadly due to said barrier, I can’t even get to that star. So I have to go to WP5 instead. Seriously wish they would DROP this fucking thing and allow access! Whatever.
Getting on the last few legs of the bypass to WP5 was tricky — lots of brown dwarfs in the way. I had to re-route around the brown dwarf fields.
Later, I had to land on a planet to replace a drive cylinder that went bad during the last jump. Thankfully I had a spare. I then got a long range transmission, as if my beacon was active.
The guy calls himself CMDR M (all it showed). He approached me a few days ago, saying instead of looking for an exploration group, to make my own. Now he’s asking me what I’ve been exploring. Told him I found an Earth-like and a few Water Worlds(sadly they were all claimed). Suddenly it turns to him recruiting me for some top secret mission of finding anything out of the ordinary — saying he has a fleet able to go to any system in the galaxy and rendezvous with me if I find something.
Basically, if it’s something like more Barnacles, or even the Thargoids, he wants me to notify him and only him.
He reminds me of of that “CMDR X” I’ve heard on Radio Sidewinder who works for ‘The Children of Rexxah’ or something like that. He won’t tell me who he works for, or why he even needs this info. All he says is I will be “greatly compensated” for my efforts. Very odd.
I think I’m going to keep this a secret from the EDEX Discord server. Though I hope no one that plays Elite Dangerous reads this and tells anyone.
I feel like I’m writing history here. Anyway, I will continue on my current course to WP5 and land at the LZs available. But if I find anything that doesn’t seem to fit, I will definitely inform this ‘CMDR M’ guy.
Honestly, though. I’m not going out of my way on a wild goose chase to find this unknown BS. I don’t have the patience to do so. So I doubt I’ll find anything that the CNE hasn’t already discovered.
And also, I doubt I’m the only one he picked.