:thumbs_up:In post 302, Varsoon wrote:So how do you guys want to handle this?
I've got 48 scrap right now.
Should I buy all the fuel I can get (25 scrap worth) and then just bust the rest on repairs?
We walk around the tavern station here, looking for any interesting news. The increase in piracy here is on many peoples' minds, as is the potential for Rebel invasion. You get the sense that this is something of a black-market trade hub – there are people who you suspect are looking to hire mercenaries – but none of them seem interested in contracting a Federation ship. To the people here, the Federation are the police, and you don't hire the police to do a criminal's job.Tavern station (n).A station set up for ships' crews to socialise with those of other ships. Space travel can get very monotonous, and staying with the same few people for months on end would test the sanity of most members of most intelligent species, so taverns serve as a method to relax and help keep people grounded.
The route to the Long-Range Beacon and the next sector goes through a nebula. It looks like the Rebels decided to keep watch here, and the Auto-Scout they deployed for the purpose is still working; it isn't looking for us specifically, but we still don't want it to report our position. It tries to hide, no doubt to relay the information it's gathered at some later date, but also pops out to shoot at us from time to time; it thinks it needs to defend itself. It's right in that, but there's not much it can do; although it manages to disrupt our shields, and would have got through given enough time, we take out its weapons before it can do so, and it never manages to fully repair them; our beam and lasers blew it up before it had the chance.Auto-Scout (n).A very commonly seen class of ship, stationed permanently by the Rebels in areas they want to investigate. Automated ships don't need food and can run more or less indefinitely off their reactor power, with FTL fuel only being needed when the ship has something to report.
It seems that the enemy scoutAuto-Assault (n).An automated Rebel combat ship. Auto-Assaults tend to have weak defensive systems, but carry drone fabricators, enabling them to quickly spawn extra offence or defence as needed.
We encounter another Federation warship here. Both of us are in a hurry, but it's not like we can go anywhere until the next jumpcycle, so we stop to chat about our missions and our status. We let them know the information we have on the Rebels, but their ship isn't fitted for long journeys; it's had extra weapons added, and is busy trying to deal with the rise in piracy in the sector. They'll pass on the info to the next scout ship they meet, but we can't guarantee it'll get anywhere – or even that the friendly ship will survive the war – so we're still committed to delivering the information ourself.Barterstock (n).A process via which Federation ships level out their supplies. It's common for different ships to use various supplies at different rates; perhaps one ship will be on a long-distance journey and spend lots of fuel, another ship will be actively fighting and require ammunition.
We finally reach the Long-Range Beacon. It's been built into a busy station, named the Oasis; there are large hangars, leisure facilities, restaurants, and the like. Apparently it's being run by a family of Slugs. When we tell them which sector we're planning to go through next, they warn us about how dangerous it is, but as it's the only sector that lies on our path, we tell them that we're going to have to risk it. They seem delighted to hear it, and try to persuade us to buy some of the weapons they have in stock, or at least some fuel or repairs. That said, you sense they'd be happy to sell us anything they have available; they know that military contracts are a good source of scrap.Armoury (n). Anywhere which stocks a large amount of weapons. Many armouries are operated by militaries, in order to enable their ships to be refitted to handle any dangers that might come up. However, civilian armouries are becoming increasingly common; even the law-abiding want a way to protect themselves, and criminals often want weapons for obvious reasons.