Part 11: Battlestation

In which we mind-read random strangers (and the raiders, too), almost get lost inside the Battlestation, get the Book of Spells, and loot Malcolm's treasure room.



Alright, so now that we possess the mind-probing ability, why not test it on everyone we've met so far and see into the deepest recesses of their minds? Should be fun.



Grayper, the farmers' leader, comes first.



Looks like the rumours about Grayper being a weak leader were well-founded, after all.



Next come random farmers.







Those are all the emotions we can get out of the farmers. Hey, what about them ranchers?



Let's see.



Fear and contempt, that's it. The farmers' emotions are surely more diverse. All negative either way.





Isn't it ironic, then, that the ranchers' leader, Robert Kann, has emotions quite opposite to those of his subjects. Although you could say that Grayper's leadership, being weak, breeds a higher number of negative emotions than Kann's, I guess.





Star pilots are angry and arrogant. The bastards.





The star pilot who wants to settle on Norjaenn is weary of her job, yet hopeful for the future.





The Warhaka leader probably fears both the Federation and the Koshol alike.









The Caldorrians are... empty. I wonder why.





Ruawl is, unsurprisingly, greedy and self-important.





And Kedro is, expectedly, immune to mind-reading.





The Koshol are full of devotion and awe.





And enthusiasm is, it seems, the Kanns' family trait.

But enough of dilly dallying. Let's board a raider vessel and find out the location of the raiders' base.



We do our best to avoid killing the raider, and probe his mind instead.



Mission accomplished! We now know the way of entering the Battlestation.



Hmm, x2220 y1321, a hyperspace jump to x3884 y3305.



And...



...here we are, yay! So this is where the raids originate.



Raider Officers mean trouble. Beth is killed.



We try again, but this time it's Aleph who goes down.

Oh well. I guess it's-- training time! We have some money, some items to sell, and we can pick up science delivery mission if we want to, so let's improve our attributes, like Strength, Stamina, and Dexterity, at the Caldorre Tower facilities. Let's also grind a bit to go up one level.

...



Zain is 1st Lieutenant now with 15 Dexterity.



Beth's Dexterity now equals 20.



Gimmel, being our back row leader, needs high Strength and Dexterity.



Same goes for Aleph, our front man.



Hiroko doesn't need anything but Dexterity, so we just leave her the way she is.



And back to the Battlestation we fly.

Nothing compares to the tedium that is the battlestation. The idea -- to make it as large and impressive as possible in order to make manifest the sheer amount of power Malcolm Trandle has -- is neat, but the execution is, well, a bit repetitive. Each floor of the station consists of a certain number of 20x20 areas that come in four basic types. I've managed to dig up a schematic map of Battlestation floor 1:



Each square is a 20x20 area and has its own unique set of coordinates. We start exploring the Battlestation in the south of the x1792 y955 segment.



Depicted above are the four basic segments. The x1790 y958 kind of segment has an armoury where we can grab a Thermocaster and a suit of Combat Armour. It's not like we can't survive without those, but they are extremely useful and make the exploration significantly more comfortable. Level 1 enemies -- Raiders and Raider Officers -- are relatively tough, and highly dangerous when in great numbers.



We come across a Plasma Gun right in the starting area, which is convenient, and equip Zain with it.









The Battlestation has it all: briefing rooms, storage rooms, living areas for the officers... just the way a battlestation should.



The raiders are aware of our presence, and indeed, they just keep on attacking and ambushing us.



Common raider barracks. Spartan living conditions here.



Neuron flail is the most powerful Contact weapon in the game. Ideal for Beth.





And here is one of the armouries. As mentioned, they always contain one Thermocaster and one Combat Armor.



Even more Thermocasters are scattered around the place, rewarding patient exploration.





The Battlestation is really huge, and there is no hope of just stumbling on the Book of Spells. In order to get to know the direction we should take in our search for it, we must use the Look for energy users ability. The "-1\+0\+1" message that appears means that the Book is located one segment to the east, zero segments to the north and one floor down from here. (You won't find that in the manual though, which has no mention of the psi abilities either.) Consequently, the area we seek has the coordinates x1786 y958.

One of the things that make navigating the Battlestation frustrating is, it takes a while to get accustomed to which segment exits are dead ends and which are not. And dead ends abound.



Each area of this type has an elevator in the centre; only one of the elevators, however, that at x1786 y958, can get us to the Book of Spells.





And this is it.



The Book of Spells is in the northwestern cell.



Let's just go down this corri---



Oops! That was quick. I wonder who...



Taylor? Talk about a surprise. So that's why she refused to talk to us after we'd resolved the farmer-rancher conflict.



Taylor is extremely strong, and this is definitely the most (or more correctly, only) difficult fight in the entire game, an unexpected and momentary surge in difficulty. Equipped with a Thermocaster, Taylor usually two-shot kills Aleph, or anyone else for that matter. That's why everyone in the party should be wearing either Combat Armor or Kevlar Suits -- the kind of armour that offers the best protection against Projectile weapons. Taylor is wearing Combat Armor herself, meaning she's equally resistant to Projectile and Blaster damage. She's just standing in one place without moving, though, and the Thermocaster range is only 4 squares, that's why the only viable approach here, apart from grinding 'til you drop before you take on Taylor (never tried that, though), is the following "snake tactics": equip everyone with a Plasma Gun or a Thermocaster, make Aleph enter the weapon range and target Taylor, then quickly turn around and go one square back, switching places with the next party member, etc., so that every party member only takes one hit (hopefully) and shoots at Taylor once. Reload if failed. What makes that kind of tactics possible is that the combat is real-time, not round-based, and there's a cooldown period between the shots that depends on your Dexterity (and the same holds true for your enemies, including Taylor). Another thing of note which may be important is, I always attempted using the Erase attacker skill ability, but I only had the opportunity to use it outside the attack range ('cause otherwise Taylor would've killed me fast) and truth be told I have no idea if it had any effect whatsoever...
But anyway. Repeat the described tactics ad nauseam, and your nth attempt will probably succeed.

Funnily enough, that is probably the only instance of any kind of combat tactics in this game.



After lots of frustration, Taylor is finally dead! Phew.









The second level of the Battlestation features tougher enemies, Sentries and Sentry Officers.



No wonder the station's on alert -- we're about to snatch the Book of Spells.





Almost there! The blue dot must be the Book.



In the description, it's called "Book of Powers" for some reason, not "of Spells". But whatever.



Let's, uhm, talk to book?



We must hurry. Troops are near.

I can provide some protection.

How do I carry you?

(Read Paragraph 56.)


A spell book indeed! :P Too bad the Book of Spells isn't as talkative as the Key of Thor was.

We could now go straight back to the Sentinels to activate the new psi powers, but let's take a (not so) short detour first. Let's pay a visit to Malcolm Trandle's chambers and say hello or something.



In order to reach Malcolm's room, we must take an elevator at x1788 y954, and then another one to the third floor.



Level 2 hosts an elite guard sleeping area. The enemies seem to be getting stronger the closer to Malcolm's room we get.



And so we arrive to the third floor. Have a map:



The Battlestation's level 3 is similar to level 1 in the way it is designed.



The four basic areas are, however, different, making the exploration a bit more varied. Which also means we must be prepared to face the dead end frustration anew.





The two new enemy types we encounter here are Guards and Guard Officers. They're pretty powerful, and Zain even died on me a couple of times.





Clearing a barracks area of the guards inhabiting it does indeed imply an intense battle.





Malcolm's room is on level 2, and to access it we must take an elevator up a level at x1785 y952.



Here we are -- the villain's lair!







We cross a narrow bridge...



...and enter the throne room. But Malcolm Trandle is nowhere to be found. Oh well, this isn't the endgame, after all. So yeah, we'll need to return here later for the final confrontation, but for now, let's just look around.



Malcolm's treasury is the only thing of interest to us at the moment. In his absence we can freely loot it. Thankfully.



The treasure chest contains a Neutron Gun, the single most powerful weapon in the game. Now Zain is really, really deadly.



We grab everything we can, crawl back to the ship bay, and leave the Battlestation. For now.



New powers await us in the next update!