Duskers: Spacing Aliens on Day 20

Scott Tortorice

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Day 20

At the end of the last salvage operation, I got a warning that my scanner was breaking and needed a hefty investment of 11 scrap to shore it up. My initial reaction was to let it break. However, I have since decided to fix it because I also decided to rejigger the modules on all of my drones. I have been content to stick with how I found them, but I now realize that that isn't an optimum use of their gear. With that in mind....


As you can see here, most of the changes were applied to my point drone, John. Having the scanner mounted on Jeff didn't make much sense as Jeff, being my goto generator drone, was largely tied down to a single room per mission. So, I decided to fix the scanner and move it over to John where it will get much more use. The only downside of this is that John has to give up his shield to make room for the scanner. Oh well. We've been careful enough that the shield has never needed to be used yet, so I am hopeful this doesn't put John in any additional danger. I instead mounted the shielf on Sarah with the teleporter. Seeing the teleportation accident on the last mission, having a shield on her could come in handy. Lastly, I made Mouse our tower-interfacer-prober jack of all trades.

I like this mix. Time to go to work. Next target: the barge, Kirov:


Two types of infestation on a volatile wreck. This should be fun. Let the boarding begin!

We enter the wreck into a nice-sized room that has a bit of scrap and a power generator. Time to use my new toy: my ship's recently installed remote power hookup. I actually forgot about this upgrade during the last mission. Now I use it, something that also keeps Jeff available for other power hookups further in the hold.

All indicators are green. It works!


Coincidentally, it is shortly after I remotely power the generator that Jeff cuts his video signal!


Somebody angry at being left out? :D Fortunately, the signal is soon restored. I am glad the outage occurred while he was still safely in our airlock otherwise I might have suspected the worst.

John presses on to the adjoining room and gets some more scrap. The I have have him do a motion analysis:


Okay, the next room to starboard is clear, but we have a hostile in adjoining Room 4. I send John into safe Room 5 where he discovers a working interface. Time for newly reconfigured Mouse to go to work.


He interfaces and surveys the ship to reveal the rest of the wreck, which now includes two additional rooms up north.

Okay, time to penetrate deeper in Kirov. First order of business is to clear the alien out of Room 4. The solution is easier: open hatch D10 and once the alien migrates to Room 5, open the airlock and blast him out into space.

I get John and Mouse out of Room 5 and implement my plan.


It worked, as expected. Stupid alien. Eat vacuum!!!1!!!


Right. Let's check out Room 4 now.


John does a scan and uncovers some fuel and scrap. Decent.

Time for another motion analysis:


Room 6 is clear, but Room 7 is inconclusive. Let's clear out safe Room 6.


A power inlet, some scrap, and a spooky-looking broken air vent. I...do not like the look of that at all. Well, nothing I can do about it now. Time to think up a plan to clear out the last room. I decide to have my ship dock at newly acquired Airlock A3, and have Mouse deposit a probe in Room 4, open hatch D8 and let the probe explore Room 7. If there is a hostile in there, I will open hatch D14 and then blast it into space via airlock A1.

Here goes:


The probe comes under attack in Room 7! Something hostile in there (along with two scrap). Fortunately, it managed to escape into Room 4 without being destroyed. I seal the hatch shut behind it. Okay, time to flush the alien (in more ways than one).

I open hatch D14 to see if the xenomorph will leave politely. Unfortunately, I discover that John's motion scanner still cannot get a good read on Room 7, so I am going to have to just guess-timate when the alien has had enough time to vacate its premises. To be sure, I will send the probe back in.

After waiting a few seconds with hatch D14 open, I seal it again and allow the probe to enter via D8. I hold my breath....


Clear! John goes in to collect the scrap while I attempt to blast the xenomorph out the airlock. Regrettably, I forget that I cannot operate that airlock with first powering it. If I didn't have the remote power upgrade, this plan would have been kaput as the power inlet is now in the same room as the alien. But I do have one....:p


See ya!

It is at this point that I realize we cleared the whole wreck! Huzzah! :jig: This means I can commandeer the ship if I want to. Let's see how it compares to my current vessel:


Scrap-hauling capacity is better, but the ship has no upgrade slots, which means I would lose my remote power generator. No thanks.

With that, I call all my drones home and call it a day.


That was a good mission. Even the volatility of Kirov didn't provide any headaches. The only bad news is that my motion sensor and probe launcher is getting shaky, and I don't have enough scrap to repair both. The invaluable motion sensor will take priority here. Hope the probe launcher can hold out for a few more missions as it definitely has come in handy. In retrospect, repairing the scanner was a waste of scrap as it netted very little extra on this mission.

Live and learn.
 
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