Bay 12 Games Forum

Yuri eagerly accepts the Orfey blueprints

: Fine, then. May they help you on your journey.

: I have one more thing I want to ask you. I've been on a quest to unravel the mysteries of the Epitaphs. I was wondering if your forces have found out anything about them that you might be able to share with me.

: Well, well. You're interested in Epitaphs, are you? That's certainly an unusual interest for a boy like yourself. I'll check our database and see what we have. If there's anything useful in there about Epitaphs, you're welcome to the information.

See why I like this guy? Not only does he have the OBJECTION! pose, he's helpful too!

: Now, then. Once you get a hold of the data chip, please return here at once. I wish you success in your mission!

I take this opportunity to assign all of the new crew members. Gadina becomes the fighter Commander (to start improving her skills for when we actually have fighters), Karlo became Chief Mechanic, Poplo became Chief Navigator, while Tatiana (with her terrible, TERRIBLE stats) became the ship's Server. Waitressing is what she's good at, I suppose.



Now, you can see here that the Orfey is just barely out of our price range, and we'll want to upgrade it as much as possible. It's worth it however, as it has better stats than the LOTUS in just about every category other than anti-fighter capability. Mobility in particular gets quite a boost, from a base score of 7 to 20.

Grind time!

While blowing up some pirates, Kira and Nia level up! Kira is now level 2, while Nia is level 5.

More good news!

the ship class your flagship is a member of. Would you like to improve your flagship's design?"

This exciting event is semi-random. I don't know the exact triggers (other than arriving at a planet), but having crew members assigned to R&D increase the frequency of it occurring. If you choose to upgrade, you're given three stats that you can choose to improve; in this case, Anti-Ship, Anti-Air, or Attack Range.
The best part about this? It's abusable. If you know that you'll be replacing your flagship soon, you can hold off on upgrading until you purchase the new ship. Free upgrade for that class! Knowing this, do you think I upgraded the LOTUS? Hell no.



Say hello to our new flagship, the PANSY! This baby has three weapons, two of them powerful (but built-in) missile launchers. As previously mentioned, it's stats far exceed the LOTUS's as well. The only real downside is that it doesn't have much room for mods, and purchasing this emptied most our bank account.



I still had enough left over for a few additions, though. More will be added as we go. I also take the upgrade opportunity to further improve the PANSY's anti-ship power. This should be able to take on all comers for a while.



On the PANSY's shakedown cruise, the party comes under attack by a new random encounter, and boy is this one a doozy. A Rurik-class cruiser backed up by a destroyer and an other-ship. A Rurik, if you'll remember, is a similar model to the one used by Galkin in our last encounter with him. This time however, Galkin's bullcrap defense boost wasn't around, and of course we're in a much better flagship with the LOTUS providing backup. All three ships are destroyed with only minimal damage sustained to our own fleet. Torlo levels up to 3 afterwards!

Alright, enough grinding for now. We've got a double-agent to meet!




Accepting our mission opened up a few new locations. Let's check out Ruza first, since that's where Tatiana's brother is supposed to be.

The bartender on Ruza has only one suggestion for work: join the Novgorod Pirates. Nuts to that!

More important than useless bartenders is a man in military uniform hanging around...

: Zakhar!





: ...

*Tatiana runs up to the man in the military uniform. Apparently, this man is Zahkar Agarkov, Tatiana's older brother*

: We'll buy you a few drinks.

: You're who they sent me, huh? Unbelievable.

*As Zahkar says this, he covertly slips Yuri the data chip*

: Thanks for the drinks. Now leave me alone.

: Zahkar...

: ...

*Tatiana tries to talk to Zakhar, but he turns his head away from her. It doesn't look like the party is going to get anything else out of him*



: I went through all this trouble to find Zakhar, and now he's acting like he doesn't even know me!

: Buck up, Tats. I know exactly how you feel, girl. I mean, what the Grus is wrong with that guy?! Here his own blood come all this way to see him, and he just sits there like that?! That's stone cold, sister!

: You jerk! Don't talk that way about Zakhar!

: Huh? Oh, sorry.



: Well you know, he is right in the middle of a dangerous mission. Maybe he doesn't want to blow his cover. Did you ever think of that? I mean, this place is just crawling with pirates and pirate sympathizers.

: ...

Tatiana and Torlo don't strike me as the brightest knives in the tool shed. I think they're perfect for each other.

Well, since we're out this way (and Ruza has nothing else going for it), let's check out Berezyi!

: Yuri. There's a ship approaching. Searching ship code...It's--

: Hey, that's Dedon Galkin, of the Novgorod Pirates! Here he comes!

Welp.

: Ha ha ha! I believe we've met before! Who gave you permission to go traipsing around our territory?

Well, fine! Let's do this! It's just Galkin in his Rurik DG, how hard can he be?



Not very . He landed like one good hit that didn't even take down the LOTUS. Galkin turns to flee, but not before getting in the last word:

: Huh, not bad. I've got to give you credit. But you haven't seen the last of me!

: There he goes.

: Huh. For a pirate, he sure threw in the towel pretty fast.

: Excuse me, but can I talk to you for a minute, Nia?

: Sure. What's up, Kira?

: When we were fighting that pirate, a communication came in. It was just noise, but it contained an odd signal pattern.

: Huh. Okay, could you copy it for me? I'll check into it.

At the Berezyi tavern, Karlo pipes up with information about Vladykin, saying that he's one of the most capable leaders in the Reform Faction of the Central Elgavan Forces. See, the Reform Faction wants to improve life in the outlying sectors; redistribution of wealth and all that. Apparently he's quite familiar with using information as a weapon to get what he wants, and is not above using spies.

Sadly, the rest of the planet is BLOODY USELESS! The only worthwhile thing in this area of space is the ?? sector near Berezyi. Going there nets you 600G worth of valuable metals an minerals!

Back at Lutsk Base, I take the opportunity to throw a Shield Frame and an Anti-Ship Control Room on the PANSY. Our flagship is pretty much as powerful as it is possible to get in this stage of the game! Whoo!

Taking the elevator down, we head to Vladykin's lodgings...

: Commander Vladykin, we got the data chip from Lieutenant Agarkov!

: Oh! You did a fine job, Yuri! Now we should be able to pinpoint the location of Balik's base. We'll analyze the contents of this chip right away. Once we're able to locate the pirate base, I have another favor to ask. Will you lend us your strength once again and help us capture it?

: I know we're just passing through and all, but we can't just let people like that get away with murder, can we? What do the rest of you think?

: If that's what you want to do, I'll do it. I'm behind you, no matter what.

: We take care of 'em, and Tats' brother will be free to go, 'zat right? I say we do it! Right, Tats?

: Yes. Let's do it, please.

: What do you think, Nia?

: Whoo boy! This thing just keeps getting heavier and heavier, doesn't it? But oh well. You can make it all worth my while when we get to Central Elgava.

: All right then. Thank you, Nia.

Yuri's growing up. He's becoming a captain that people will risk their life to follow

: Good. So it's settled. You're free to do as you like until we've finished analysing the data chip.

Hmm. Sometimes, we get turned loose for a while and told to return later. Sometimes there's an event to trigger, sometimes we just have to stop at a few planets. And of course, other times you leave and come right back. Usually, the best solution is to revist a few planets before checking back.

Turns out to be the right solution this time! Ketryzin's bartender has a new job for us! The mission: Find some customers with delinquint tabs, and convince them to pay up. 1,000G are ours once the job is finished!
This will require some travel though. The customers are an adventurer on Popash, an adventurer on Lutsk, and a tough-looking guy on Ruza.

On the way to Popash, Nia interrupts us.

: Got a sec, kiddo?

: Stop calling me "kiddo", would you?

: Get over yourself, kid! This is important stuff.

: What is it?

: When we were fighting Galkin, we got a transmission. There was a QC pulse mixed in. A quantum cipher pulse. It's a kind of encrypted code. Very hard to break. Anyway, we broke it, and we found something interesting inside.

: Let me see..."Tatiana in danger. Let her off ship." What's this all about?

: I don't know. But they say there's people all over the place here that are in cahoots with the Novgorod Pirates. We can't be too careful.

: All right. Let's just keep this between you and me, though.

You tired of these interruptions yet? I hope not, because otherwise this is gonna be a looooooooooooooong LP. Longcat long

Anyway, we "convince" the dude on Popash to pay up. He isn't happy about it, but I can live with that. The guy on Lutsk is a bit more dignified about it.

On the way to Ruza, Tatiana becomes a little less useless and hits level 2!

The tough guy on Ruza attacks Yuri and co when they demand the money. It ends badly for him.

We return to Ketrzyn in order to finish the assignment. 1000G for a job well done!

After finishing our little stint as bill collectors, it's time to check on how the Elgavans are doing.

: Ah, Yuri! I've been waiting for you!

: Did you find the pirate base?

: Yes, indeed. Take a look at this.



: Their base is apparently deep within this asteroid sector. With the reduced effectiveness of radar in that area, it looks like the perfect hiding spot. And according to Lieutenant Agarkov's reports, this indirect route is only lightly guarded, and a small fleet should be able to get through without any problem.

: So that's the route we'll be using for the invasion, huh?

: Yes, well, that's the route the better part of our fleet will use, anyway. But we're also planning to send a diversionary detail along this route, directly through the asteroids.You can choose which operation you'd like to take part in. It's your call.

: Hm...Not an easy decision, is it?

: Well, there's no need to decide right here on the spot. I'm sure you have other preparations to make as well. Just come back and let me know once you've made up your mind.