I think it was out of gas after all that and I didn’t realise it … >.>
I have a crashed ship I’m planning on using for the actual jump, and iirc, your cargo in your suit Cargo slots don’t get trashed either. EDIT: I also have a cheap MT to equip for the jump.
I thought that the Log was fairly detailed on how to complete that mission and it seemed to me that it lead to a non-standard access to the center. When I got to the center, I did have to research the final step on how to leave the galaxy.
I think this ‘pirated’ portal does what the shortcut method does. Outside of the expedition, you simply put in all sunset glyphs amd it sends you near the center. The pirated portal does the same. The fact that HG has made this the focus of this expedition has some speculating that HG may have found a way for us to travel between galaxies more easily.
It’s been a while since I completed the expedition but I think that you just need to be in the system containing Rendezvous 5. Fully fuel your starships drive and bring up the galactic map. Pick the Galactic Core as your destination and go. I don’t remember if there were multiple jumps or not - just that the trip to the center seemed very short but by that time I was also using warp hypercores .
@sheralmyst way using the Portal may work just a well or better.
My explanation goes beyond the expedition. I believe the expedition actually uses the shortcut method of jump thru a portal which puts you near the center and then go to the galactic map and aim for the center.
I just want to thank you all for all the help with this! Finally done, thanks to you. 
My new Cerulean Paradise Home:
Finally Finished!
The only thing I’m going to miss about that save is my lovely old-school Sci-fi ship.
You can now be attacked and killed by pirates while you’re on the surface of a planet, in your exocraft.
If you’re not near your ship, or your ship isn’t fuelled for launch, there’s not a great deal you can do. Dig a hole?
On the positive side, if you die when you’re in your exocraft, you don’t lose your personal inventory - but your exocraft gets busted up, and has to be repaired.
If you manage to hide, o they have some kind of timeout when they give up, like the sentinels?
Some of the time they do, certainly. They can get involved fighting system authority ships, forget about me, and fly away to fight somewhere else.
I’ve also had attackers who wouldn’t give up, but just kept on coming. I’m not sure whether they were pirates, though, or the system authority themselves. If you shoot the wrong ship, everyone can become your enemy.
On a couple of occasions the attackers might have given up if I’d waited long enough, but I died instead - so I’ll never know.
I dug a hole and they still were able to bomb me like I was on the surface. The count of them pursuing did go to 1 but I was never able to lose them. I started to run out of food to replenish the shields so I ended up calling my ship to finish them off. I need to do some more experimenting, but so far it seems like you can’t hide.
I dug a hole but really deep and away from them. Then I dropped a save point and re-logged to last hard save. Pirates were gone.
I did the same thing when attacked in space: pulse to station, jump out of ship, re-log to soft save --pirates are (usually) gone. At least that gives us the time to leave the station, open the map, and warp out of there.
