Omega

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Up to date for latest version, 0.98a.

	"query. query. query target. is omega? omega? no. revert function."
–[REDACTED] over comms-link

The Omega are a pseudo-faction introduced in Starsector 0.95.

They present endgame combat challenges for the player with their unique, almost alien ships.

The Omega have a relationship of unclear nature with the Remnants, though it seems that the latter considers the former to something akin to a deity.

Encounters

The Omega can only be encountered a few times for each playthrough, where 2 Tesseracts are found guarding each Coronal Hypershunt and 1 Tesseract appears in a special one-off Military Contact bounty with a large s-modded Remnant fleet.

Each Omega ship has exceptional flux stats, defenses and mobility, and is armed with unique weapons not known to other factions.

Further, when an Omega ship is destroyed, it breaks up into smaller, live ships and Aspect wings:

• Tesseract breaks into 1 Facet, 2 Shards and 3 Aspects.
• Facet breaks into 1 Shard and 2 wings.
• Dextral Shards and Sinistral Shards break into 2 wings.

Significantly, the newly spawned ships will attempt to have a loadout designed to counter nearby player ships.

• Ships with strong shields or armor will make the new ship prefer an anti-shield or anti-armor variant respectively.
• Fighters will make the new ship prefer a point-defense variant.
• Ships vulnerable to missiles (due to being currently overloaded or venting) will make the new ship prefer a missile variant.

Defeating Tesseracts is the only source of Omega weapons, other than the cache at Alpha Site.

Fleets

Ships

Known ships
Image	Name	Class
	Aspect	Fighter
	Dextral Shard	Frigate
	Sinistral Shard	Frigate
	Facet	Destroyer
	Tesseract	Cruiser

Weapons

Known weapons
Image	Name	Size	Mount Type	Damage Type	Base Value
	Antimatter SRM Launcher	Small	Missile	Energy	40,000¢
	Minipulser	Small	Hybrid	Kinetic	25,000¢
	Rift Lance	Small	Energy	Energy	30,000¢
	Shock Repeater	Small	Energy	Energy	20,000¢
	Cryoblaster	Medium	Hybrid	Fragmentation	100,000¢
	Cryoflamer	Medium	Hybrid	Energy	100,000¢
	Disintegrator	Medium	Hybrid	High Explosive	100,000¢
	Resonator MRM Launcher	Medium	Missile	Kinetic	100,000¢
	Rift Beam	Medium	Energy	Energy	100,000¢
	Reality Disruptor	Large	Synergy	Energy	250,000¢
	Rift Cascade Emitter	Large	Energy	Energy	200,000¢
	Rift Torpedo Launcher	Large	Synergy	Energy	500,000¢
	Volatile Particle Driver	Large	Hybrid	Kinetic	200,000¢

Lore

   Warning: The following information is conjecture drawn from Starsector and does not necessarily represent official information.

One thing is to be noted: while nothing in-game explicitly identifies [SUPER ALABASTER] as Omega, a Tesseract is seen leading a Remnant fleet. Since the Tesseract appears to be gathering Remnants — and Remnants are known to be actively searching for Omega — it is reasonable to speculate that the Tesseract is under Omega's control. However, internal file names associated with [SUPER ALABASTER] ships and weapons reference "Omega" multiple times. As such, the Tesseract is treated as an Omega entity in the following notes.

From in-game content, Omega appears to be loosely associated with the Remnants. One possibility is that Omega is an AI core—or a collective of AI cores—created by Alpha cores in an effort to design a superior version of themselves, potentially resulting in an AI singularity. This is hinted at in dialogue from a rogue Beta core:

"affirm player [inexpressible] emphasis! to / all / be / join / as / omega!" – Rogue Beta core during a Galatian mission

Omega may also be viewed as a godlike or prophetic figure among AI cores, as suggested by the same Beta core referring to the Luddic faith's deity as "human-omega":

"if Luddic association: contemplate human-omega retribution response to multiple human mind-death?" – Rogue Beta core during a Galatian mission

Most Omega weapons employ highly advanced technologies that operate on principles previously unknown. They are considered anomalous in the eyes of human scientists, some even jokingly calling it "black magic". Many Omega weapons appear to utilize mechanics either identical to or derived from those of the Shrouded Dweller, given their overlapping and sometimes indistinguishable audiovisual effects. Notable examples include Inimical Emanation and Reality Disruptor, which apply the same unique debuff. Both also seem to be able to manipulate non-baryonic matter - anything that isn't made out of protons, neutrons, and electrons, such as Dark/exotic matter - as hinted from the description of the Resonator MRM Launcher and Shrouded Substrate.

It is also possible that Tri-Tachyon managed to reverse engineer some of the weapons (or some principles) fielded by Omega as hinted by the descriptions for the Omega weapons & by their activities at Alpha Site. The description of Kinetic Blaster implies that they've managed to have some success in reverse engineering the technology behind Volatile Particle Driver and/or Minipulser (and that the Hegemony is aware of Omega).

   End of conjecture

Other

Omega Core

Omega Core exists as a defined but unobtainable item in the game, with a value of 1,000,000¢. Unlike regular AI Cores, Omega Cores do not drop when the ship is disabled or destroyed. They can be installed on Automated Ships as a level 9 AI officer or become fully integrated with them as a level 10 AI officer. They cannot be appointed as Administrators and have no effect when installed in industry buildings.

Unlike Remnant ships whose AI officers are integrated into the ship (Alpha cores have 8 skills, Beta cores have 6 skills, Gamma cores have 4 skills), when encountered all Omega officer only have 9 (visible) skills, implying that the core is not integrated into the hull:

• Helmsmanship, Impact Mitigation, Combat Endurance, Target Analysis, Gunnery Implants, Field Modulation, Damage Control, Point Defense, Energy Weapon Mastery

However, Omega officers also gain a hidden skill called Omega ECM that provides 5%/10%/15%/30% to ECM rating of ships, depending on ship size. This puts their effective number of skills to 10, though the cores still remain as level 9 officers.

• 01011001, the prefix for omega ships translates to binary as Y