The story is the captain's log of spaceship Nyema. The game is FTL: Faster Than Light. One of my favorite timekillers of all time. I only checked for most typos and edited the text to fit better on the page, so I don't know anything about the specifics of what happened gamewise. The story will progress sector by sector whenever I get updates.
Without further ado. Let's see what happened:
Captain Aiden, spaceship Nyema
Earlier we succesfully gathered intel which will greatly aid the Federation against the rebels, but the mission is not yet over. The spying mission was not a great challenge, but we still need to get the information back to base of operations and I'm afraid the trip will not be a walk in the park once the rebels find out what we have been doing. It has been over a week already since we departed and it will take at least another before we can rest back home depending on what happens on the way.
Our ship is a factory model Kestrel. It doesn't have much firepower by default and it can't take a lot of beating either, but what could you expect for a cheap piece of junk like this. I'm accompanied by shield operator Howard and weapons specialist Borman. We are fully stocked. Our hyperdrive is charged, and we are ready to go. Captain Aiden out.
DAY ONE of the return trip
Right after the first jump we encounter some slavers who demand us to surrender one crewman or they'll attack us. We don't have enough men yet to operate all the systems anyway, so no way we can afford to give in to their demands. I think we may even be able to free their slaves and recruit them for the good cause if we give the scumbags a little teaching. I tell Borman to warm up the lasers and get ready to engage the enemy.It appears on our sensors that the tiny ship is pretty damn well armed for its size, so I ordered Borman to cripple their weapons system first.
All it took was just one hit to scare them for good. They exchanged one Engi slave for their lives and we let them go home to tell their slaver asshole friends that we are not to be fucked with. As I watch them speed up to the distance I prepare tea for our new friend. I can't be sceptic enough, though, we rescued him but there's no reason to trust him yet.
His name is Markus. He tells me he's experienced in system repairs. After a little chat I think he could prove himself at the engine room. If he has the skill to help me control the ship better we have much greater chance of survival. Hyperdrive is charged and there's no more time to stand around and talk about cosmic weather so we need to get going.
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We received a distress call nearby. It's not the straightest route but I can not watch others suffer so I decide to take a detour to help them. As we close in, I see a miner ship stuck in an asteroid field. They ask us to destroy some of the asteroids so that they can get away alive, but I think they might be up to no good because when I asked them who they work for it appears they have no miners' licence at all. It's a tough decision and even though they are in trouble I am not going to be friendly to pirates. Borman "accidentally" missed the asteroids and the pirate ship is shattered into pieces, from which we can gather some metal but nothing else. It might have been a better idea after all to help them because they could have rewarded us with better things but it's already late. Onwards.
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I have never been in a nebula but I have heard stories of how dangerous they can be so I steer off the course for another couple of fuel units worth just to be safe. We pass a planet that is apparently under quarantine because of some disease none of us had heard before. Maybe it's just to keep outsiders away but I think it's better to heed the warning and continue.
Markus somehow managed to tinker with the engines in the idle time to drive more power to them. It's easier do dodge attacks now that the ship is faster.
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The "safe" choice of route was a bad decision. My navigation calculations tell me that we might not even be able to reach the exit beacon from where we are going. As I examine the galaxy map I suddenly notice some warning lights on the dashboard blinking. SHIT! WE ARE TOO CLOSE TO A STAR! I should try to be more careful. Even better is that some unlucky rebel had wandered into the same area as us. We need to get away as fast as we can. Markus is surprisingly calm under stress, I bet he hasn't been sleeping in the mechanics class at school.
A rockman teleported into our ship. None of us has been in a fistfight yet. They didn't even have any training program in the space academy. I command my men to confront him in the life support room where they might have a better chance of survival. That means, of course, that our systems will be operated by the computer which can never perform as good as a skilled (hu)man.
A solar flare set fire in our portside airlock. It can be easily extinguished by draining the oxygen and causes us no trouble whatsoever, yet. The rockman was no more experienced in close combat than Borman so, being constantly healed by the med-system, he easily beat the intruder to death.
The battle continues in my advantage. Enemy ship is on fire too and we temporarily disabled it's weapons. They offer surrender and would give us some missiles and trivial amount of scrap metal but Borman has returned to his post and continues a laser barrage on them.
Engine overheated in the vicinity of the star and Markus needs to take his hands off the controls for a while. The shield system can't stand the heat either. Our engines should be ready to fire (hehe) as soon as they are put off fire (hehe) and we are able to continue. The enemy was obliterated and whatever whas left of it will burn in the fires of the star. We didn't even take any hull damage.
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There's a store one jump away but it's in the wrong direction and we don't have enough currency anyway. Money is worthless in this intergalactic crisis, and most accepted commodity is scrap metal. Fortunately our ship is almost fully intact and we should have no trouble at least until the next galaxy.
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The Mantis ambushed us demanding a ridiculous amount of the aforementioned scrap. I think their ship is slightly damaged and that's what they need it for. It'll be easy pickings for us to get what THEY still have.
Howard had suffered some minor burn damage before and has to rest in the medical bay for this combat. Markus will take his place in the shields once he has repaired them. We didn't have time to take care of it when they were damaged in the last combat.
Enemy realizes they have no chance of getting away alive if they don't retreat and sensors indicate they are charging their hyperdrive. A quick burst of laser into their engines or cockpit should delay them a while. No one's surprised when the trick worked and we salvaged some of the remains of their ship. We could even afford some upgrades to our ship now.
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At the next beacon we encounter a stranded trader ship who need to sell their equipment to afford repairs. They had an ion bomb which I'd really like to equip on our ship but it's a tad expensive. In these parts of the deep space you can really ask for anything. Some stupid people even pay. I buy all of the fuel and missiles they have to spare and hope they manage to get home but quickly forget them because there are more important things to pay attention to.
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There's a blip on the radar. Could be another ship. I carefully advance closer and I hear a non-hostile greeting that sounds like a Slug. I could hire them to delay the rebels in this galaxy but I'm so close to the exit beacon that I can easily lose them myself. Borman suggests we destroy the Slug ship for loot. I wouldn't kill friendlies but Borman convinces me that no one will ever know, as there's no other soul in lightyears. I try to reason with him but before I can prevent it he launches a missile...
Another direct hit to the enemy weaponry. It seems that this is the best strategy. Their low level ion cannon still works and keeps our shields disabled, but as it does not do any other than electrical damage itself, and the enemy is hopelessly busy trying to get their lasers to work, we don't take even a scratch to the hull.
My conscience blames me for unnecessary killing, but since we got so much loot that the purchases and repairs at the previous station were practically free, I don't mind losing honour much. Just one more jump to the intergalactic beacon. I hope there's no ambush.
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No ships, but there's a seemingly abandoned almost destroyed station. There could still be survivors, as part of the station is still intact despite the attack which seems to have been very brutal. Markus insisted that we try and rescue whoever are still alive. Maybe it's because his own life was saved just a while earlier.
Pulled straws and Howard has to go investigate. He describes terrible mayhem and death on the station, and says there are mangled corpses all over the hallways. The radio transmission begins to fade. There must be some ambient radiation from the destroyed reactors on the station.
We wait.
Two hours have passed. No word of Howard. I'm really worried about him. Markus says that there's no chance he's coming back anymore. It's been too long. Markus is sad because he should have volunteered for the investigation himself instead of sending someone else. We wait for another half an hour. It feels like ages as we sit gathered in the recreation room, not amused. "Fuck this shit, let's just save ourselves" says Borman and rushes to the engine room, and presses the button that starts the hyperdrive charge. Markus sighs in frustration and shoves Borman into his own post muttering that incompetent people should stay away from the controls. Markus decides that he'd better take the shield operator's place and let computer handle the engines.
It was a dark moment. Now I start to realize that we are really on a dangerous military operation and death will surely follow. We just have to make sure it's not us who die. I hope the remaining crew doesn't get too depressed, as focus is needed.
I look at the intergalactic map. There are two possible choices which galaxy should we head to.
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