Red Planet
| There they found a planet all shining and red. "It weren't anything natural. It was all... shapes, angles, glowing like plasma. That's truth," he/she says quietly, "I've seen Gates, sure, and orbital works big as you like. Ain't never seen anything Domain-made glow like that across a whole planet's face. Not anything that weren't a weapon, I mean." | ||
–The spacer recalling their encounter. | ||
Red Planet is a campaign mission in Starsector. You investigate a curious red glowing planets that a scavenging group found years ago.
Walkthrough
Sometimes, at a bar (but not on Luddic Church or Luddic Path markets), you may encounter a "rough-looking veteran spacer with cybernetic eyes". Talk to them to hear about a deadly encounter by a salvage fleet in the far reaches of the Sector, of whom only the spacer and a pilot survived.
The spacer tells the player character to find the pilot on another market to get more details. Said pilot can be contacted on the comm board, where they will demand 10,000c-20,000c to reveal the location of the Red Planet.
You can then travel to the location of the planet, readily identifiable by its red tint. Approaching the planet results in an encounter with high-level Remnant ships, including a Radiant.
After the defending fleet is defeated, examining the planet reveals that it was the site of a Tri-Tachyon research facility which the automated defenses placed on lockdown after they "over-weighed certain executive security contingency orders in the wake of one of the AI Wars". A shuttle from the player fleet is able to find a gap in the shield and deactivate it, after which you can salvage high-value equipment from the facility, including the Planetary Shield blueprint.
A Red Planet
The planet returns to normal after shield deactivation
Notes
- It is also possible to find the planet directly during exploration, skipping the normal mission acquisition.
- This quest is possibly a reference to the 1992 game Star Control II, AKA The Ur-Quan Masters. In which the titular alien race has conquered Earth and encased it in a bright red, impenetrable, world-spanning shield.
- Quests