Faster than Light: The Starship Simulator
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier, Sector 1
By Alec Meer on September 19th, 2012 at 4:00 pm.
FTL: Faster Than Light is the spaceship management/roguelike hybrid that everyone in the world is playing right now, living and reliving endless numbers of doomed space crusades, disastrous journeys and euphoric tales. There are eight million stories in the naked universe. This will be just one of them.
These are the voyages of the starship Moggy, crewed by a
brave band of humans and aliens named after cats that I have known. This
was an egregious mistake, as seeing my childhood pets burned,
asphyxiated and lasered to death almost immediately proved traumatic.
Still, we exist not merely within a universe, but a multiverse. One crew
of feline-named space travellers might meet their tragic doom, but
perhaps, in a parallel existence, another band of desperate starfarers
might just have succeeded… (Of course they didn’t. This is FTL. But the
multiverse does at least allow for the story to be told anew).
Jump 1
Ripley, to the cockpit! Tacky*, to the engineroom! Bonz, you’re on shields!
We’re in an Engi ship, a squareish hulk that lacks any raw firepower but does carry a shield-bypassing Ion Blast that causes no damage but can temporarily deactivate an enemy system, (hopefully) leaving my expendable attack auto-drone to dish out the real damage. It’s a complicated and risky system, sacrificing fine control but it does leave me able to disable enemy shields and a little more freed up to manage my crew and any emergencies on my ship.
OK team, you ready for this? It’s a long haul across unfriendly space to the welcoming territories of the Federation, to which we must deliver vital information, and we’ll be harassed by murderous rebels, sinister aliens, solar flares and meteor storms all the way. But we can do it, right? Right? Don’t answer that. Just… Jump.
Jump 2
Jump straight into the waiting lasers of a Rebel Auto-Assault ship. Typical. Still, it was always going to happen, there was no point in building up a false sense of confidence. Let slip the dogs of poorly-armed war.
Oh.
Oh no.
Immediate, devastating disaster. Something in this system we’ve jumped to has deactivated half of our engine power. I can’t turn on the Ion Blast or release a drone. I’m dead in the water. Unless… grimly, I turn off all power to engines and the medbay. It leaves us unable to evade enemy attack and unable to heal injured crew, but it frees up just enough in the tank to power a drone. I pray to all the gods I don’t believe in. Jesus, Allah, Odin, Ganesh, help me.
It’s no good. The drone can take down the enemy’s shield with a single shot, but by the time my little auto-bot’s reloaded it’s weapon, the shield’s back up. I can cause any hull damage. I need my Ion Blast in the fight too. There’s no way. Well, there’s one way. But it’s suicide.
Shields off. Air supply off. Ion Blast on. Enemy shield generator disable, but only for a couple of seconds. A couple of seconds in which our fate hangs in desperate balance. I can’t tell the drone which enemy system to target, even though I desperately need it to let loose a few rounds at the shield so it stays down for longer, so I can turn off my Ion Blast and turn life support back on while the drone then whittles away at the enemy hull. Little drone, hear my call. Hear my fear.
Do you know what that bright red ‘S’ means?
It means a miracle.
Another miracle follows, as the drone’s next shot takes out the enemy’s weapons. I’m actually coming back from this – I’d honestly believed that by now I’d be a smouldering wreck, humiliatingly disintegrating a pitiful single jump from where I began. So long as the enemy doesn’t manage to repair its shields in a hurry, my drone should destroy the rest of its hulls within three more shots. This will take around 15 seconds. This will take a lifetime. I closed my eyes, and in a state of tension so high I felt physical pain, I waited.
When I opened my eyes again, it was all over.
Jump 3
It’s hard enough to believe we’re alive, let alone that we’re alive with no hull damage and no crew lost. Oxygen levels are down at 20% but recharging fast, and I’m carry a little extra fuel and scrap from the downed Rebel. There’s not enough to upgrade my ship, but hell, we’re alive. That’s the greatest post-battle loot of all. Now, let’s get out of this energy-sapping hellhole.
We leap to the next system, where we find… Oh God, what will we find? We found nothing. I breathe heavily, in heartfelt relief. Then I grunt in annoyance. No enemies means no danger, but it also means no loot – no fuel, no scrap, no drone parts. Coming here, at the expense of precious fuel, means I have less, not more, and that could prove deadly. Nothing to be done though. Hit the button, navigator Ripley.
Jump 4
A Rebel Cruiser is waiting for us. Seemed to know we were coming, even, as our engine is 50% disabled upon arrival. That I can deal with, though – it hampers evasive manoeuvres, but at least both Ion Blast and drone are in the game, and without having to turn off the stuff that keeps us alive to do it. This time, the universe is on my side.
Oh no it bloody isn’t. The enemy beams one of its crew aboard my ship, where it immediately starts trashing our oxygen supply. Oi, you sods, we need that stuff to breathe.
Engineer Tacky, you’re up: you might be happiest with a spanner, but unlike the rest of my crew you’re a human, which means you hit harder than the Engi raider they’ve sent over.
The oxygen’s out before Tacky’s even reached the invader, but maybe, just maybe there’s enough time for me to employ my traditional combat tactic – Ion Blast the enemy shield, let the drone do the rest – before my catfolk asphyxiate. Nervously, I send Bonz to the oxygen supply room too, as being an Engi herself she can fix the damage faster than Tacky can once the fight’s over. This means there’s no one to fix my shields or engine if they take a hit, though. I toy with sending RIpley over to shields, but decide it’s better to keep her at the helm, so at least I can jump out of here if things get really desperate.
The crew excel themselves. Tacky emerges victorious from the fight just as Bonz arrives to start fixing the air supply, while my drone makes short work of the enemy shield, guns and engine respectively. The onboard air’s gone down to dangerous levels but Bonz is on the case. We’ve taken some minor hull damage, but otherwise all is well. I send Tacky to get healed up in sickbay while I pick through the Rebel debris. I’ve got just enough scrap for one upgrade. Shields? Scanners that will let me observe the movements of enemy crew? Nah: remembering our near-disastrous first fight, I add a little capacity to the reactor, creating a little more spare juice in the tank.
Jump 5
Which was probably a mistake, given I’m one jump from a Store, which might have sold me all manner of vital goodies. So instead, I gamble on investigating a nearby distress beacon. In the best of all possible worlds, it’ll be lost souls who shower us with fuel, scrap, parts and crew members. This is not the best of all possible worlds. Far, far, far from it. So I brace my self for
Oh. No it isn’t. Maybe I should stop being such a pessimist. We’re hailed by friendly a space station in the middle of an asteroid field, suffering from a broken targeting system so they can’t laser away any hurtling spacerocks that get too close. Bless ‘em, they’re even in even more dire straits than I am. It’d be rude not to lend a hand.
I send in my Engi crew to fix their systems, and they reward me with a frankly pitiful amount of resources. Ah well, every little helps. Let’s get out of here.
Jump 6
Oh Christ, not another Rebel ship. Wait, this one’s friendly. Ish. It’s a black market trader, offering us weapons we can’t afford. We could flee, or… Well, it is technically our enemy. I hate to be all pre-revision Han vs Greedo here, but I really, really need some scrap to spend on upgrades. Crew, it’s battle stations again. This’ll be a cakewalk.
Oof. No it won’t I should have been even more like Han:
I got cocky. Now we’ve taken 50% hull damage, and engines, shields and door control all need emergency fixing. Plus the black market ship dropped peanuts. This was a huge mistake on my part. If this crew had any sense in their heads, they’d mutiny. Instead, they just mutely get on with repairing the damage. The Hull can’t be fixed unless I find a store, but the only store I know of is now surrounded by the vast Rebel fleet that forever pursue me.
Onwards, then. It’s the only way.
Jump 7
Exhausted and bruised, still repairing damage, we find ourselves at the exit point from this system. Strange new worlds await. I’m no galactic explorer, mind – there’s a more pressing reason to forge ahead into the unknown. The indefatigable Rebel fleet is only three jumps behind us at this point, so I should press on, to whatever lies on the other side of this jump. Grimly, I look back, back to where I can no longer go, because it’s swathed in the blood red that means the Rebels have occupied it, or will do within moments. So many unexplored jumps, so many possible sources of supplies and even new crew members. I’ve made it this far, but I have nothing to show for it other than gaping holes in my hull and a minute upgrade to my reactor. Fuel is waning. The enemies ahead will be tougher. This is a fool’s crusade.
Then again, everyone’s still alive. That, really, was always the best case scenario. Two, three lucky jumps could change everything. Make it so.
To be continued!
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier, Sector 2
By Alec Meer on September 21st, 2012 at 9:00 pm.
Continuing my imperilled escapades in spaceship sim/roguelike FTL: Faster Than Light.
With a crew named after cats I have know, I’ve survived the first
sector but at the expense of 50% of my starship’s hull and I have no
meaningful upgrades. No-one is dead, though. Repeat: no-one is dead. I’m
going to keep on saying that, because it’s the only thing I’ve possibly
got to brag about here.
Jump 1
We limp into the next sector, with half our hull in tatters and an air-sucking breach in an empty room that I’d only just noticed. Whoops. First priority is to find repairs, but there’s no sign of a store out there. So this is what they mean when they say online is killing retail. All we can do is jump into the unknown, again. Maybe this time there’ll be jelly and donuts instead of a heavily armed and murderous spaceship.
Jump 2
Oh look, it’s a heavily armed and murderous spaceship. Though, for a change, it’s taking a pop at someone other than me. There’s a civilian outpost being harrassed by a rebel ship, and they’re dead spacemeat unless some manner of intergalactic good samaritan intervenes.
Godammit, being a nice guy sucks. OK, OK! What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, right? Actually, in FTL that’s not at all true – what doesn’t kill me leaves me crippled, wounded, terrified and easy prey for the next passing bastard to pick off without raising a sweat. Fortunately, this turns out to be an easy fight, and one which results in two lots of scrap and fuel – one from the down rebel, one from the grateful outpost. My hull’s still got more holes in it than Alex Murphy but, as is now my mantra, at least everyone’s still alive.
Jump 3
Oh look, it’s another heavily armed and murderous spaceship. And this one also has the temerity to beam an invader straight into my medbay. A double-whammy from Tacky and Bonz sorts that out quickly enough, and once again the fight proves surprisingly easy – even though I still don’t have a proper gun. Its engine flashing blood-red, its shield generator near-permanently deactivated by my Ion Blast, the rebel ship begs for mercy, offering a few goodies if I’ll let it live.
I’m not always a nice guy, it transpires.
Jump 4
Asteroids! And that’s it. Waste of fuel, still not found a store to fix my hull. I am one grumpy starship captain right now.
Jump 5
A distress beacon? A trap? No, not a trap, just some poor lost schmoes who want protection as they head to their nearby destination. Where I come from, we call that a quest. So questin’ it is. Maybe we’ll find a shop on the way. My need to shop burns hotter than a thousand suns right now.
Jump 6
OH MY GOD IT’S A BLOODY SHOP AN ACTUAL BLOODY SHOP.
I should fix our hull – after all, it’s all I’ve been banging on about for the last seven jumps. But look at those goodies! Extra crew, new weapons, a teleporter… We will be crowned this galaxy’s kings. Or better than kings – gods.
Sigh. No, we’d better fix the hull. Boring. But we do have enough left over to buy a Shield Recharge augmentation. No, you don’t get a prize for working out what that does.
I need a gun. I really, really need a gun.
Jump 7
OK, let’s get these schmoes we’re escorting to their destination. There will almost certainly be a glorious reward for doing so. Maybe a gun!
Goddammit.
That shield recharger comes good – our newly-restored hull only takes a couple of hits before the rebels pathetically offer surrender. Word to the wise: if you are inclined to surrender, you probably shouldn’t randomly attack whatever spacecraft you encounter, should you?
I kill them to teach them a lesson. Don’t look at me like that: It’s a moral statement, not cold-blooded execution. That, and I hope there’s a gun in the wreckage.
There is not a gun in the wreckage. Of course there isn’t. I might sound like I’m doing well here, but all the fights I’ve had in this sector are against weeny ships with only one level of shielding. If I encounter anything with less pitiful defences, I’m going to have an exceptionally hard time taking them down, as a lone attack drone is my only damage-dealing armament. PROPHETIC.
Jump 8
Another distress beacon. Well, even a grump like me doesn’t expect two traps in a row, so let’s give it a shot.
Ew, plague. I’m keeping the hell clear of that mess. Oh, wait, my Engi crew are apparently disease-immune. Off you go to this sick colony then, Bonz and Ripley. Bring back a gun or two, won’t you?
No gun. But they do bring back an auto-repair drone. Hooray! This is why you should always be kind to sick people. Go visit your local hospital right now and see if anyone needs a hand – you never know, they might reward you with some advance starship technology.
Jump 9
I’ve ended up out on a dead-end, so I jump back to the store. Our purse remains near-empty, so after staring longingly at the array of expensive weapons and crew, I buy a couple of fuel units for luck and move on. My expression looks a lot like this right now:
Only while wearing a spacesuit, probably.
Jump 10
Heavily armed, murderous spaceship, redux. This one’s weirdly apologetic about attacking me, however. Like us, it’s dependent on a drone for its attacks, so I target my Ion Blast at its drone control center. It doesn’t last long. Feel a bit sorry for it, to be honest. Then I feel grumpy again, because it doesn’t drop anything useful.
Jump 11
Rebels are pursuing a fleeing civilian ship. Once again, my moral compass gets the better of me, so I decide to intervene. What’s the worst that could happen, eh?
Pretty much what happened, that’s what.
This was a gruelling, near-fatal fight. As prophesied, we encounter a foe with two tiers of shield, which consistently manages to regenerate one level before my attack drone can let off the second shot necessary to damage its hull.
It’s a long, punishing war of attrition, the enemy’s Hull Beam meaning it’s able to dish out small amounts of ongoing damage while I pray for my drone to consistently target my rival’s shield generator rather than whatever part of the ship it bloody well feels like. It’s not long before I have to Christen my new repair drone, as I’ve got fires all over my ship, Bonz is halfway dead and my weapon room’s out of action. As I’m frantically fixing holes and putting out fires, my attack drone is nobbled. Once again I reach into our diminishing supply of drone parts to launch another, but my hull’s now taking a load of hits and, for the first time, we need to consider abject cowardice.
Thank grud, the second drone proves to have a few more smarts than its predecessor, and manages a direct hit on the enemy shield generator while its forcefield is down. This one lucky shot was all I needed, and from thereon in this fight becomes as perfunctory as the last three. But, once again, we’ve reached the exit point of a sector with half our hull shredded like so much Peking duck. We can’t go backwards without encountering the rebel fleet, we still don’t have a better gun, and steeper challenges lie ahead.
Fortunately, the civilians we rescue hail us with thanks – an offer to repair some hull damage. Phew! It’s not much, but it helps. My determination to be the saviour of universe remains intact.
Jump 12
This is it, then. Hauntingly familiar. On to the next sector. 75% hull, could be outgunned by a stoned moth, barely any ship upgrades, still only three crew.
But no-one’s dead. That’s what it’s about. I haven’t yet had to face the trauma of seeing a crew member named after one of my past or present pets die horribly. Whatever happens next, I’m calling this sector a win. Now, on to Zoltan space. I really, really hope they have guns there. Really, really cheap guns.
To be continued.
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier, Sector 3
By Alec Meer on September 24th, 2012 at 8:00 pm.
With two sectors survived, things don’t look to good for the good ship
Moggy, crewed by two Engis and a human named after cats I have known.
The hull’s taken a beating, we’ve almost no cash and we don’t yet have
any upgrades to speak of. Meantime, our enemies forever snap at our
heels, and the challenges we’ll face in this next, Zoltan-ruled sector
will likely be stiffer than that we’ve yet faced. Anything could happen,
though. After all, space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly,
hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. It might even be big enough that
I’ll find a gun in it somewhere. Oh, please dear lord let me find a gun.
Jump 1
Well, it’s not an entirely bleak start. Just one short hop away is a store. Imagine what goodies it might have for me!
No, no, once again I can only afford to fix my hull. We’ve been here before, haven’t we?
Jump 2
We’re invited to participate in a Zoltan research study. All they want to do is stick things in our bottoms, and no doubt bounteous rewards await. It’s a deal!
OH FOR FU…
The pirates that disrupt our little medical conference immediately beam four intruders onto my ship, while simultanteously pummeling me with rockets and lasers. My ability to fight back is severely hampered by the fact they immediately trash my weapons system, so our trusty Ion Blast is temporarily out of action.
So, another war of attrition it is, but fortunatley they don’t have all that much in the way of armaments, so by the time I’ve taken out their mini-horde we’ve not taken too many hard knocks. The tried and tested Ion-to-shield + attack drone strategy wins out fairly quickly.
And ooh, a reward! A proper reward! It’s a second attack drone, this time a Beam one. Our damageability has just increased by 100% – although having two drones active at any one time is going to eat into our Drone Ports hoard frighteningly quickly.
Jump 3
We run into a stranded Zoltan ship, begging for fuel. We’ve got 14 barrels left, which is neither good or bad. I’ll risk it. We really could do with chums out here, after all. They take 4 barrels and repay me with – drumroll please – 91 scrap. Hey, that’s not at all bad. And there’s another shop right nearby…
Jump 4
With no weapons in stock. Not a sausage. Nnnnnng. So, once again, I
stock up on fuel and drone parts, but I’ve got enough left over to
upgrade my shield generator twice – which gets me a second layer of
shielding. Ooh, I feel all rugged.
Jump 5
Oh look, some lovely, shiny, no doubt resource-packed asteroids that I can’t mine BECAUSE I HAVE NO GUN. Onwards! Again.
Jump 6
Nothing. What a waste of fuel. Again.
Jump 7
Ah, this is more like it. Thank you, space-Jesus. We find an abandoned
Zoltan freighter, from which we scavenge useful amounts of scrap, fuel
and drone parts. With no sign of another store in this sector I’m not
expecting to find any guns on offer, so I spend my spacebucks on two
reactor upgrades – so, if needed, I can have both shield tiers and two
drones active simultaneously. I’m a real boy now!
Jump 7
We run straight into a Rebel Rigger. I can’t help but indulge myself
in my new toy, even though it’s probably not necessary and thus a wanton
waste of drone parts. But let me have this, let me have a show of force
just this once.
The buggers dream a drone on board, which takes out oxygen and both my
drones. Still, by the time the dust settles on the onboard fight and
everything’s repaired, we’re standing with only minor hull damage.
Jump 8
We’re right near the exit, but there’s a bit of time to play with before
the rebel fleet catches up with us, so let’s forge on into the unknown.
At the next stop, a bunch of religious zealots on a Zoltan cruiser want me to come look at a magic rock. I stare at it. It, presumably, stares back at me. But it doesn’t say anything. That’s all the proof these idiots needs to decide I’m a heretic who must be destroyed. A fight it is then, but how hard can a bunch of rock-worshipping goons be?
What they might have been lacking in common sense they more than made up for in devastating missiles. And that’s why we only have 25% of our hull left intact.
So here’s a familiar story. I’m right by the sector exit, I have no money, no weapons and my hull is screwed. Maybe I’d be better off if I workshipped a magic rock too. I mean, it couldn’t hurt, right?
Jump 9
just retracing my steps back to the exit. Nothing to see here. Maybe one
of the crew had a cup of tea in the meantime. I don’t know, I’m the
manager, I don’t deal with the day-to-day stuff.
Jump 10
And we’re at the exit. Before we head through to the next sector, we
pick up a signal from a planet surface. Shall I go and look? Guns guns
guns guns guns maybe there’ll be guns please let there be guns please
please.
No guns, but we do manage to rescue someone from whatever disaster is going on down there.
Welcome aboard, Steven. ‘Steven’. Funny, I never owned a cat called Steven. Oh well- Stevie, you’re on guns. At least something positive came out of this mess.
Jump 11
And we’re out of here. The hull is in a terrible state, but I have a
second drone, a second tier of shield, no-one is dead and we have a new
friend. Actually, that’s not bad. Hope! So long as I don’t look at the
hull. Then I don’t have any hope.
At least I have a Steven though.
To be continued… Honestly.
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier, Sector 4
By Alec Meer on September 26th, 2012 at 8:00 pm.
Continuing my FTL journey into the heart of doomed space-darkness. Read the earlier installments here.
Jump 1
A new sector! We’re down to 25% hull, still don’t have a proper gun and have spent all our money on repairs that didn’t last long. Damn, we’re in a tight spot. So do we exercise extreme caution or take big gambles in the hope of big pay-offs?
Here’s the first dilemma. We run into some rebels, who miraculously
don’t attack us on sight. Wusses. Shall I demand surrender of their
goods? You never know, maybe they’ll be afraid of men called Steven and
just cough up without a fight.
They don’t cough up without a fight. And as well as fighting they prime themselves to escape, so I end up targeting their engine with my Ion Blast, rather than my usual tactic of hounding their shield. This means they get a few good hits in, and my hull’s in even worse state. I win the fight, but for inconsequential gain.
Jump 2
I aim for a nearby distress beacon, hoping it will mean violence-free adventure. We encounter a small Federation ship being battered by asteroids. I don’t much fancy wading into that, but fortunately we have a bonus option – send in our repair drone to fix up their shields, while we hang back in safety.
Except we don’t. For my trouble, my hull gets messed up by asteroids anyway. This is desperate now.
On the plus side, the ship has a reward for me. A gun! An actual gun! It’s a…. It’s a healing beam. It uses missiles, but it uses them to heal my own crew. It’s not a gun, it’s an anti-gun. It’s a smack in the face, a punch in the nuts, the final insult. I shake with pathetic fury, then punch the lightspeed button again. Please, a store, a store.
Jump 3
Another jump in which we’re not immediately set upon. This is because the Rebel scout here is busy chasing after a Federation ship. We have the option to aid our erstwhile comrades or flee. My heart says get involved, be a hero, earn a reward. My brain says “two more knocks to the hull and we’re dead.”
For what might just be the first time in my life, my brain wins. I feel incredibly guilty as we disappear into the darkness. Then I pray for a store again.
Jump 4
I’m immediately offered an opportunity to make up for my cowardice.
This time, it’s a civilian ship that’s being harassed by rebels. I
dither again – this rebel’s only one of those lightly-armed, crewless
autoscout. It’ll be easy. Easy!
Why do I never learn?
It was a shielded autoscout, rather than one of the easy-prey unprotected ones, and that meant it stayed alive for long enough oto launch a couple of missiles at us. Now we have one pip of hull left. One pip! Should even one shot gets through my shields, that is it. All over. Didn’t even make it through four sectors. The shame of it all. Now my only hope is trying to reach a store without encountering any enemies. There’s no store visible on the sector map yet, but there sure are a lot of unvisited jumps. Each one a deadly gamble.
There’s one good thing to come out of this disastrous encounter. Another new chum beams aboard. Say hello to Ohm, the fifth crew member and third Engi. I send him/it to Weapons as he/it will be able to repair damage faster than puny Human Steven can. Academic, of course, as if we take any more damage it’s all over. At least I can say I died an efficient man.
OK. Enough shilly-shallying. What’s out there?
Jump 5
We run into a mercenary ship. There are our options:
2, I choose you. Because it means I’ll find out where the store is, if indeed there is one.
There is! But it’s three jumps away. Three terrifying jumps into the unknown.
Jump 6
I start heading towards it, but it’s rapidly clear that the pursuing
rebel fleet will have reached and subsumed it before I can get there.
This means 1) the shop will be shut down and 2) I’ll have an enormous
fight on my hands. I scream an endless cream, and not for the last time.
I am, however, given a Hull beam by some friendly Engis en route.
OhmigodomigodomigodIhaveagun.
Jump 7
As there are no other stores here and the fleet is two jumps behind me now, my only option is to head for the exit. With just one pip of hull left. This is so unbelievably, incredibly, horrifyingly, awfully, miserably bad.
But! I have a gun now. I also have an Ohm to go with my Steven. No-one is dead.. Well, we’re all practically dead, but let’s try and enjoy these last few precious moments.
I’ve got a reasonable amount of scrap by now, so I spend it on upgrading to an extra tier of shield. That’s my only hope of surviving the fights en route to wherever the hell the next store is. It might be enough.
Wait.
Wait.
Oh no.
Oh sweet baby Jesus no.
Oh God. Oh God no.
I’ve just spent all my scrap on upgrades.
So even if I do find a store, I can’t afford to repair the hull.
We’re doomed.
Unless…
To be continued…
Armand
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier, Sector 5
By Alec Meer on September 27th, 2012 at 12:00 pm.
Previously. Now:
Crew: 5
Shields: 3
Guns: 2 (only one of which can be used at once)
Fuel: 5
Hull: 1%
Scrap: 2
Location: Parked outside the exit from Sector 4
Situation: desperate
Mood: Funereal. A little like this, in fact:
We’re alone, we’re very nearly helpless, we’re very nearly dead and we need to continue on into an even deadlier unknown than that which we’ve already faced. Unless…
Jump 8
I changed my mind. Rather than leaving the sector, I made one more jump. This sector was most likely less challenging than the one that lay ahead, so if I was going to recklessly search for cash to spend on repairs (when and if we found a frigging store), better here than there. Once again, we had the choice of aiding a civilian ship or fleeing. Grimly, knowing this was very likely it, I took on the pursuing pirate. Two drones deployed, two crew manning shields just in case. One hit to the hull and it’s all over. Shields don’t fail me now.
And we won. Without taking any damage. Amazing.
We now have 42 scrap to spend on repairs. If we can find repairs. It’s one source of stress dealt with, at least. But now we absolutely, definitely have to go to the next sector. Cross your fingers, and whatever Engi have instead of fingers, crew. This is it.
Sector 5
Jump 1
Here’s the map that greeted me upon arrival:
Look what’s just one jump away.
HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH HALLELUJAH
Hallelujah.
I have precious little cash, only enough to repair half the damage. I elect to sell my Heal Beam – this Engi ship has a craft-wide healing effect anyway, and the 20 scrap I can get for flogging the beam is far more useful to me right now. I only notice that I’m down to only 3 fuel just in time. Grimly, I cease to repair further damage and spend my remaining pennies on four new barrels. Back in the game. Barely, but at least I have to squint to see death’s door now.
Jump 2
Nothing. Typical. More fuel wasted.
Jump 3
A distress signal. For the second time we encounter a space station whose defence satellite has gone haywire. I can choose to fix it with my Ion Blast or my Engi crew. But which?
Engi crew. I’m rewarded with some drone parts and 48 scrap, which is King’s ransom to me right now. So, a dilemma – do I head back to the store for more repairs, thus essentially wasting two more fuel units (I only have 6), or do I forge on? VOTE.
No, too late, I’m writing this hours before you’ll read it and I can’t be bothered to wait. I opted for a compromise approach – retreating one jump, but not heading all the way back to the store. This is because I want to avoid a nebula cloud which will scramble my sensors and potentially contain nasty things that limit my reactor power. So I’m trekking around its periphery instead.
Jump 4
Like I said, going backwards. Nothing to see here. Though there are rumours that Bonz and Tacky were spotted in a clinch during the jump.
Jump 5
Ooh, a second store. Fuel and hull repair it is.
Wait a minute. What’s that?
DRONE RECOVERY ARM AUGMENT. Once a fight’s over, it’ll collect any drones I deployed rather than leaving them floating in space, wasted. That would mean I never needed to worry about drone parts again, and could comfortably deploy my two attack drones each and every fight. It costs 50 scrap.
I have exactly 50 scrap.
I only have 3 fuel.
No.
Another compromise. I sell my system repair drone for 15. This will doubtless come back to haunt me, but my relatively high crew count means I’ve not had any call for it yet. This way, I can get the drone recovery arm and a few units of fuel.
I feel sick with anxiety.
Jump 6
Some passing Engi (man, I love the Engi. I practically am an Engi by now) have a gift for me: an auto-repair augment, which will fix up my hull every time I collect scrap. Problems a) I’ll get 15% less scrap. b) I already have three augments, which means I need to ditch one. My ship-wide auto-heal? No, that’s a lifesaver if ever invaders beam aboard. My drone recovery arm? I only just bought it, so no way. The 15% shield recharge time booster it is then. I spent 45 scrap on that a few sectors back: what a waste. If only I could put augments into storage rather than have to just abandon them in space.
Jump 7
A pirate ship pursues an unknown target. It offers us a missile-centric bribe to leave it alone. Pah, I have no use for missiles. Attack!
My 75% hull is very quickly a 50% hull, but I’m very much the dominant force here. Poor Steven has to peg it all over the place putting out fires and fixing breaches – he’s not the best man for the job, but everyone else is manning battlestations. The pirate, spooked, offers a second bribe – some fuel, plenty of scrap.
It makes me a coward, or a sap, or lazy, or all three, but I’ll take it. Maybe I’d have gotten something even better if I took ‘em out, but my fuel remains in frighteningly short supply and I don’t feel like gambling any more.
Jump 8
My travel options are either into the nebula or into the waiting lasers of the rebel fleet, which is hot on my heels again. I choose a third route, and return to the store for fuel and more repairs. Boring, I know. Boring is safe though.
Jump 9
A fight against a Rebel, in the middle of an asteroid field. I decide to experiment with a different tack, as I’m bored of my hull getting shredded. I target my Ion Blast at the enemy’s weapons rather than shield generator. It’ll take longer to take it down – with those blasted asteroids pummelling us all the while – but hopefully, hopefully our foe won’t be able to duff us up in the meantime.
It works! We’re out of here with no damage, and a spot of bonus fuel and scrap for our troubles.
Jump 10
I could squeeze in one more jump before leaving the sector, but at the speed the rebel fleet is advancing, it would mean one definite fight with their advance guard before I could leave. Once again, my boring side gets the better of me. Let’s make like a tree and go through this wormhole to a different galaxy. For once, we leave not in bad shape. Hull’s at about 80%, there’s a decent amount of fuel in the tank, I have some new upgrades and NO-ONE IS DEAD. Five sectors down and no casualties! It can’t possibly last. Especially as the last, deadly stand against those damnable rebels is now just two sectors away.
To be continued
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier, Sector 6
By Alec Meer on September 28th, 2012 at 12:00 pm.
I’m feeling pretty good, which is exactly the sort of thing one
should never say in FTL. Doom, disaster and dismay inevitably looms, but
having pulled my ship and my crew back from the brink of disaster
at least I’ve got a war story out of it. Now, let’s see what’s out
there in Sector 6 – this needs to go well, as I’m now just two sectors
away from the final f(l)ight – presuming I survive that long.
Jump 1
Offered the choice between a Zoltan or Rebel-held sector, I opt for the latter. I don’t want to be a coward anymore.
We find an Autoscout with stealth on our first jump, lurking in an asteroid field. It keeps hiding, which is infuriating as it means we just sit there watching and waiting for it to decloak, while asteroids bully our shields all the while. Once the damn thing finally does emerge it doesn’t take much to biff it to oblivion. /Me flexes.
Jump 2
We’re given a quest, which involves making a few jumps to the North (is there a North in space?), and some scrap for our troubles. I’ve got that itch again now. The retail itch.
Jump 3
Another stealth scout. Sigh. Same process, same slightly annoying tedium, same suprising lack of challenge once the bugger stops hiding.
However, its demise and the subsequent looting of its carcass finally gives me enough scrap to do something I’ve been waiting a long, long time for. We finally picked up a proper gun a couple of sectors back, but we weren’t able to upgrade weapons and reactor enough to use it. Now we can. Now we are a fully armed and operational but frighteningly fragile battlestation. Say hello to my little Hull Beam. Game over man, game over. You’re too old for this shit. I am Spaceacus. Stop throwing those bloody spacelasers at me.
Jump 4
Another stealth drone, but my brand new gun – I HAVE A GUN NOW I
CAN’T BELIEVE IT – in combination with the trust Ion Blast messes it up
pretty quick. I’ve got a bit of a power trip going on now, I don’t mind
telling you.
Fuel’s on the wane again, mind, and I’ve just spent all my scrap. Shop!
Jump 5
Another rebel scout. No cloak this time, but it’s threatening to jump away and tell on me – which would mean the Rebel fleet would catch up to me fast.
It’s a weirdly tough fight, as this idiot’s shields do not want to go down. It gets a few good hits on our hull, then dies without the good grace to leave us a decent reward.
Jump 6
Yet another Rebel autodrone – this is the space rebellion equivalent of a supermarket where all the checkouts have been replaced by those self-scanners that scream all your purchases are the wrong weight.
This autodrone has lots of missiles, it transpires. We are now down to 50% hull again. Nng.
Jump 7
A store! That is exciting, though I don’t experience the same rapture as in Sector 5 as, for a change, we are not 99% dead.
We’ve picked up a reasonable amount of scrap by now, so I decide it’s time for a new friend. Welcome to the crew Steven Dengler, who is a Mantis.
This means he’s rubbish at repairing stuff, but good at biffing stuff. Thus, we have some onboard muscle in the case of an enemy boarding party. As we already have a Steven onboard I’d like to call him Security Officer Dengler, but he frightens me a little so I just order him to hang around in the air supply room as it’s a short walk to most other areas of the ship should invaders arrive.
The rest of our cash I spend on hull and fuel. Again. C’est la vie.
Jump 8
It’s a rebel ship, a proper one this time, and it has ALL THE MISSILES IN THE WORLD. Boom, boom, boom, boom. There goes my shiny new hull. What a money pit this ship is. The Rebels also have a crew transporter, which means Security Officer Dengler gets to rend flesh with his mighty talons immediately. He’s really very good at it.
Jump 9
Whee, another store. Hey, guess what we’re going to do here? I’m Sisyphus in space.
Jump 10
Another drone fight, another immediate loss of 25% of newly-restored hull. This is getting ridiculous. I need to raise enough cash to ramp up either shields or evasion, and stop wasting every penny on repairs. Long-term survival, not short-term limping along.
Jump 11
We reach the destination for that quest from earlier, which turns out to
involve the four hundred and eighty thousandth auto-drone we’ve fought
in this sector.
We win with not too much harm done for a change and we’re rewarded with a new gun. Ooh! Except it’s worse than the one I already have. Oh.
I could spend what’s become a decent amount of scrap again on more weapon capacity so it could work in tandem with my existing gun, but… No, I’ll save it for something else.
Jump 12
You have three guesses as to what kind of enemy I encountered here, and the first two don’t count.
In this case, the autodrone is harassing a civilian ship. We take some more hull damage, but as the civilians are grateful they give us a reward in addition to the scrap we looted from Autodrone #56546543654375423232233246667009099. There’s quite a lot of scrap in the bank now, so let’s talk defence. I opt for wwo lots of engine (i.e. evade) upgrades and the reactor upgrades necessary to power them, and an upgrade to our blast doors to stop intruders roaming or fire spreading like… well, wildfire. Fire like wildfire. Great simile Captain Meer, great simile.
Jump 13
Whoopsie, I’ve delayed too long and now the rebels are waiting at the
sector exit. There’ll be a big fight on our hands just to get out of
here.
As I’m warming up the guns, I notice something’s amiss. It takes a while to work out just what it is.
What the hell? We have a new crew member, who I hadn’t even noticed had come aboard. He’s lurking in the cockpit with Tacky, doing sod all. This doesn’t make a lick of sense. Is he a spy? A hitcher? Is an alternate dimension leaking into this one? After toying with whether I should chuck him out of the airlock just to be on a safe side, eventually I decide he must have been part of my gift package for the quest I resolved a few jumps back, but I was so wrapped up in shopping that I didn’t notice him arriving. What a terrible host I am. So, a belated hello to Weston, who’s another Engi. Keep an eye on Droid Control please Weston, we need those little guys in the fight at all times.
Speaking of the fight, there’s one against a Rebel cruiser that I should start paying attention to right now. With two enemy crew immediately beaming aboard and missiles flying everywhere, Ensign Weston immediately makes himself useful by pegging it over to the immediately bombed O2 supply while Dengler and Tacky deal with an invasion in the cockpit.
This rebel ship is weirdly resistant to taking damage, but fortunately our FTL drive is now charged. There’d be little to gain from winning this fight, but everything to gain from escaping from it before anything went south. Some might call it cowardly. I call it a dramatic exit. We’re out of here. WAZZZZZZZUMP-blink.
(That’s my faster than light jump impression. Did you like it?)
To be continued
Alatar
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier, Sector 7
By Alec Meer on October 2nd, 2012 at 5:00 pm.
And so my FTL campaign, the flight of the starship Moggy, limps to the game’s penultimate sector. It seems impossible that we’re still alive at this point – let alone that we now have seven crew, three guns and NO-ONE IS DEAD. The looming question is whether or not we’re anything like equipped for the final showdown in Sector 8 – but then again it’s foolish to go asking that before we’ve survived Sector 7.
Ah, we’re in the Engi sector. Home, in a sense. I have four Engi on
my crew, we’re in an Engi ship and we’re attacked by roaming Engi a
whole lot less than by any other species. Home. But better not get too
comfortable.
Jump 1
A distress call beckons. I could not forsake my Engi chums, so I head straight over.
We find a floating wreck, devoid of life Engi or otherwise. We can loot but one thing from it before having to depart – with a choice of damaged stasis pod with mystery contents, or a mystery weapon and some scrap.
CHEAT ALERT CHEAT ALERT CHEAT ALERT CHEAT ALERT
Allow me to lower this fourth wall for a second. I – that is to say Alec Meer, player of games, rather than the unseen and increasingly terrified captain of The Moggy – know from past experience in FTL that damaged stasis pod is equipped as an augment. All three of my augment slots are already occupied, and I’m not willing to part with any of my augments for the uncertain benefit of the stasis pod. I won’t do spoilers and say what the stasis pod results in (I have experienced that in a previous campaign) but I do know that the situation I am currently in means I will not be able to usefully avail myself of the pod’s contents. Thus, I choose the weapon. Fourth wall rebuilt.
CHEAT ALERT ENDS
For some strange reason, I have an overwhelming urge to take the weapon and scrap. It’s a fire beam, which does no hull or shield damage but does start fires in any enemy rooms it scores a hit on. That sounds marvellously brutal – though actually I’m more interested in the scrap that comes with it.
Jump 2
We jump into a zone occupied by a Mantis ship. Nasty Mantisses. If only they were friendly Engis. Fortunately, the insect people haven’t spotted us yet. We could just piss of out of here in complete safety…
Nah.
Man, I wish we’d pissed off out of here in complete safety. The hull’s down to 45% again, and poor old Security Chief Dengler was moments from death. We may have that handy ship-wide healing effect, but it can’t keep up with the sheer damage output of two invading Mantis. Judicious use of reinforcements (Weston didn’t have a whole lot else to do) saved Dengler’s green carapace. We’re hurt, but we’re not crippled. WAZZZZZUMP-blink
Jump 3
It’s a Rebel ship, already powering up its engine to flee and tell on me to the rest of its fleet. Well, we’ll just see about that. ATTACK DRONE II! BEAM DRONE I! ION BLAST II! HULL BEAM! We are INVINCIBLE!
We most certainly are not invincible. The rebel ship seems to be, though. Whatever I try, we just can’t get through its shield, and manage to score precisely zero damage before it leaps away. It scored precisely shitloads of damage to us, however. And now the rebel fleet is right on my ass, hounding me across the sector, affording me precious little time and space to find repairs, find loot, find breathing space.
This is a disaster.
I spend the scrap we’ve accrued in this sector on another engine upgrade, boosting our evasion incrementally. You can’t hurt what you can’t catch, or at least that’s the plan. ‘Plan’ is very much overselling my thought processes here.
Jump 4
Nothing. There’s a mention of merchants having passed through this part of space, but the bastards have long gone, just when I urgently need to buy repairs for the four billionth time. I hope their businesses fail and their children starve.
Jump 5
A distress call. Engi in need! It is my duty to help them.
These particular Engi are being harrassed by some giant spiders. I eat giant spiders for breakfast, or at least I would if they weren’t so terrifying. I’m pretty sure my crew are made of sterner stuff though, so I send an away team to help out.
Not everyone comes back alive.
Not everyone comes back at all, in fact.
Someone got left behind.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Who is it? WHO IS IT? I can’t abide the thought of losing Tacky, or Ripley, or Bonz, or Steven, or Dengler, or Ohm, or Weston…
Oh, Weston. Weston! We barely knew ye. We barely even noticed you coming aboard, in fact. And now you are gone, and a spider’s lunch. I’m so, so sorry Weston. You did an amazing job of hanging around the middle of the ship not really doing anything. I… I loved you. Sleep the eternal sleep, sweet, silent prince. We shall from this day forward fight in your name.
Now we are six. Sniff.
Jump 6
Hey, forget about the West-whatever guy, we’ve found ourselves a mother-lovin’ store. Let’s go shopping!
I’m about to spunk everything in the bank on repairs when I spot something very shiny in the shop window. It’s a Defence Drone. A Defence Drone II, no less. That stout laddie could fend off any number of incoming lasers and missiles. I want it I want it I want it I want it.
It’s 75 scrap. I have 30 scrap. And I need to repair everything.
Fortunately, I have two weapons I’m not using in storage, and it’s unlikely I’ll earn enough scrap in my remaining time on this voyage to upgrade my weapons system and reactor to the point that I coudl actually use them. So farewell then, firebeam and hull laser. In another life you’d have been of use to me, but for now it’s all about Defensor here.
Now I have 30 scrap left to divide between crucial repairs and crucial fuel. It doesn’t get me far.
Also, a shortage of drone chamber and reactor upgrades means I could only run the Defense Drone instead of, rather than as well as, my existing attack drones. Not ideal. Not ideal at all.
Jump 7
More Engi in trouble. I’m starting to get sick of these weak-ass idiots, forever needing to be bailed out. No offence to your memory, Weston. These ones are being harrassed by Mantis – I’m happy to help, but impressed that the Engi take advantage of our arrive on the scene to flee rather than pitch in. Gee, thanks guys!
Two enemy Mantis beam aboard, and once again they quickly overwhelm to the Dengler/Steven combo. We manage to kite them to the nearby Weapons room, where Ohm joins the fight. Back in control, but the cheeky Mantis sods beam away just before they die. Well, they’re only delaying the inevitable. Gogogogadget Hull Beam.
We take a few semi-serious hits, but nothing to cry over this time. However, it does necessitate being a little boring.
Jump 8
So, back to the store for more hull repairs and fuel. What an epic saga of slow-motion shopping this is.
Jump 9
We find some friendly Engi wondering what to do with a cache of assorted loot they’ve found. Allow me to help. We’ve the choice of raiding it for goodies ourselves, or booby-trapping it to distract the Rebels, who are now just one jump behind me. I do like loot, but I also like not being shot at. It’ll cost me missiles to booby trap the cache, but I have no guns that use missiles, nor am I likely to any time soon. This should buy us a little time – a little time that will most likely be spent shopping. You never saw Captain bloody Kirk in Walmart, did you?
Jump 10
More Mantis, chasing more Engi. They have a transporter. They beam two invaders aboard. We’d done tihs dance before, guys.
Mercifully, the idiot Mantis elect to assault our medbay first. There, Dengler and Steven are basically gods, healing far faster than the boarders can damage them. You go, guys.
This was an easy fight. I’m feeling on top of the world again, in control of my destiny, relatively well-armed and still with 6/7ths of my crew left. Everything’s going to be just fine.
Jump 11
OH NO
Oh no.
What have I done?
The next jump, or what I had intended to be the next jump, is too far away to, er, jump to from this point. To reach it, we have to go backwards, and loop back around to it. In fact, there is only one direction we can go from here, and that is backwards.
Back to where the Rebels now are. And by the time we’ve jumped there, the rebels will have move forwards again. I do a quick calculation. I don’t like maths at the best of time, but this is as terrifying as maths gets.
It will take me a minimum of four jumps to get the exit and leave the sector. The route I have to take and the speed the rebels are advancing at means I will encounter them on each and every one of those jumps. I will not be able to avail myself of whatever goodies those jumps once held – all I can do is either destroy the Rebel ships I encounter or hold out until our FTL drive recharges. We will gain no loot, but we will fight a heavily-armed foe four times, burning fuel and most likely losing hull all the way.
This was a critical error on my part. I mean, the least a captain can do is check the map properly before he tells his crew to sail ahead.
So, grimly, we return to the previous jump. Call me Captain Stupid.
Jump 12
The first of our pointless, fruitless Rebel engagements. I elect to go all out defence, hoping to minimise damage until the engine comes online, so I put out that shiny new Defence Drone II instead of my usual two attack drones. Meanwhile, the Ion Blast and Hull beam are primarily pointed at the enemy’s weapons. I don’t need to kill them, I just need to restrict their damage output as much as I can. Go full turtle, team.
It works! We take a couple of hull hits while we’re busy fending off a boarding party, but the Defence Drone knows what it’s doing. WAZZUMP-blink, so long suckers.
Jump 13
See above, basically. This jump was a distress beacon before the Rebels reached it, but I’ll never know what it held.
WAZZUMP-blink. Buying that defence drone might just have been the smartest thing I ever did. Mostly because everything else I ever did was incredibly dumb.
Jump 14
I’m not feeling good about this cowardly tactic and… well, it’s risky, but it does seem as though the Defence Drone, coupled with my tier 3 shield, is pretty much holding the damage these ships can dish out at bay. I’m burning fuel with every jump, so I elect to stick out this fight, knowing that while there won’t be any meanginful loot I will at least salvage some fuel should I down this enemy.
And, whaddayknow, it works. Engi smash puny rebel.
Jump 15
And, at last, we’re at the sector exit. Though we have to fight one more Rebel before we can leave. There’s only 4 fuel left in our tank, so I repeat Jump 14′s formula.
Again, we pretty much hold our own, though the hull takes a hit I could do without. I get my precious fuel unit and we get out of there. Out of here to Sector 8. To the last stand. Oh Lord.
OK, team, gather around. I have some words for you.
Let’s do this.
(You’re all going to die).
TO BE CONCLUDED
Belated editor’s note – people keep asking, because I should have said this from the off, but I am playing this campaign on Normal rather than Easy difficulty. It is the furthest I have got on Normal to date (by contrast, I’ve completed it a couple of times on Easy).
Alatar
FTL: The Fatal Frontier – The Last Stand
By Alec Meer on October 5th, 2012 at 8:00 pm.
These were the voyages of the Starship Moggy. Its eight-sector mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new weapons and new system upgrades, to boldly go somewhere no-one has come back alive from before (apart from save-scummers).
Sector 8. The end of the line.
Jump 1
OK, let’s appraise the situation. Full hull, plenty of fuel, two guns, three drones (can’t use ‘em all at once, mind), six crew, final sector, the enemy flagship is five jumps away. ARE WE READY FOR THIS?
The immediate question is whether to make a beeline straight for the flagship, lest it get to close to Federation HQ while I’m noodling away on the other side of the sector, or jump around the immediate area trying to raise a few more supplies?
I rather think I’d like to avoid the inevitable for now, if it’s all the same to you.
We jump straight to a rebel ship, of course. No more running away this time. We fight or we die, as someone with a buzzcut once said.
I like this enemy ship’s compact layout, because I can target 5 rooms at once with my hull beam. Zapzapzapzapzap.
We take some hits, we win some scrap. Not enough of it to be useful – yet.
Jump 2
Straight to a repair yard, seeing as it’s so local. Free hull repairs! I would have killed for this in the last seven sectors.
Of course, the rebels will have taken this repair yard for their own nefarious, barely-explained purposes soon enough. Thanks for the assist, guys.
Jump 3
Another rebel, which is no surprise. They beam two invaders straight to our cockpit, but as they’re mere human fleshbags they’re no match for the mighty Security Officer Dengler. Sic ‘em, boy.
These blighters have tier 3 shields again, which makes the fight more drawn-out than I’d like. Soon enough though, the babies are pleading for mercy.
They’re in my people’s home sector, slaughtering them, seeking to eradicate all they hold dear, and they ask for mercy? I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR.
We survive with no hits. Yay! Still not quite enough scrap for what I want, though. Not quite…
Jump 4
Another rebel, and this one’s got all the tricks. A level 4 shield, a couple of drones, a pair of invaders and it’s relentlessly and successfully trying to knock my weapons offline.
We’re locked in an awful stalemate, neither of us doing any damage. I could end this by fleeing, but I’m living on borrowed time as it is – I don’t want to heap any more shame upon myself than I need to.
I switch out my Defence Drone II (which uses 4 power) for my two attack drones (2 power each). It’s putting ourselves at risk, but effectively doubling our damage. Can we hit, and hard, before they take down our shields?
We can. I feel good. No running today.
The Rebel offers surrender. I grudgingly accept, cursing myself all the while, as it’s offering a generous amount of scrap in exchange for its life.
It’s enough: with it, I can buy two drone room upgrades and one reactor, meaning I can now push out one of my attack drones in addition to the defence one. I’m 10 scrap short of getting a second reactor upgrade, which means I’ll have to turn something off to power both drones. I think we can stand to lose 5% of evasion capability from the engine, can’t we? Er.
Jump 5
Nothing. Not a sausage. We’re in the middle of a galactic war and there’s nothing here. Bit creepy, really.
I could do with a bit more scrap, but the rebel flagship is now but two jumps from our homebase. We can delay no longer. We have to go and save the universe now. Uh. Have I got time for a coffee first? Or a holiday? A holiday would be lovely. No? OK.
Jump 6
We emerge into the shadow of a ship far, far larger than anything we’ve seen before. It has more rooms than Hugh Hefner, four of which are dedicated to weapons. It has a level 4 shield. It has All The Drones. It’s a behemoth. And I am terrified.
Attack drone + defence drone, go!
Ion blast vs shield, go!
Hull beam vs drone control, 1x weapon room, the camera room and an empty room, go!
It immediately goes into stealth, the fuck.
Still cloaked, with me unable to fire a shot, it lands a direct hit to my engines, followed by an ion blast to my shields. Hey, that’s my trick!
Time… slows. Becomes a sequence of still images. I blink and I’m in a different crisis. Blink again and the scene has changed, now with more fire, more breaches.
Blink. Engine and oxygen supply, hit and on fire. Steven and Dengler rush to the latter with fire extinguishers.
Blink. A breach in an empty room. Ohm heads over, arc welder in hand.
Blink. Drone room and weapon room partially damaged, yellow art. Hull beam is offline. Defence drone is offline. Steven and Dengler are on route, having dealt with the oxygen room fire.
Blink. There’s not been even a single a hit on the enemy yet. But our weapons are back online…
Blink. They’re down to one shield! We can do this!
Blink. A breach in our medbay. Air rushes out, the lights turn red.
Blink. A breach in our door control room.
Blink. A missile takes out our cameras. I can’t even see where the fires are now.
Blink. We’re down to 50% hull. We score a third hit on theirs. We can do this!
Blink. Dengler and Steven are burned alive while trying to extinguish a fire in the medbay. We don’t have time to grieve.
Blink. Our dones are all offline.
Blink. Our weapons are all offline.
Blink. The cockpit is on fire.
Blink. We get one attack drone back out there.
Blink. Our hull is at 5%. Our oxygen is at 20%.
Blink. Missiles incoming. Lasers incoming. Drones incoming. Everything is offline.
Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea!
Roll credits.