Balance of Power Plot Walkthrough (Page 3 of 4)

Written by Spike

Collector's Items

You've got another break before starting this mission. If you want to make use of it, do so. When you're ready to continue, return to the Installation and call up your friendly operative.

We need to do some scans of Terran ships to obtain their blueprints, but Dark Space has been unable to ship the requisite special sensor system out from wherever they've currently got it so you'll have to bring them enough resources to construct a replacement at the Installation.

We are assured that transponder acrobatics will ensure that we do not lose Terran rep and end up with our business empires being chased down by angry Terran warships.

To begin, we need 75 Quantum Tubes, 50 Microchips and 100 Computer Components. Time to break out your freighter again. Send it doing the rounds in Commonwealth space to pick up the resources and deliver to the Installation. You need to be flying the ship that carries the components. That's it on the delivery boy mission; there's now a wait until Evans completes the device during which you can take another break. You can use this time to go do your own thing, it'll be a few minutes until Evans calls you to return to the station for the next mission. You'll need to be flying a fast ship, ideally an M5, as you'll be chasing a fast ship.

With the scanner fitted, we are to proceed to Oort Cloud and scan an ATF Valkyrie. This Valkyrie is heading for the outer Solar System so you can be at the North gate of the sector you are in to cut it off and scan it. I hope that you're a good pilot, because what happens next will need l33t piloting skillz. The scan initiates automatically when you are within about 120m of the target. That's close. You need to stay there whilst the scan completes. I told you you needed an M5!

Don't try to cap this Valkyrie. Just don't.

After this fancy feat of flying is completed, you talk to Evans, who sets you up with the next target; a Mjollnir M4. Problem is, this one will need some support. You need to talk to Torres to find it; you can do this right away or take a break first.

Torres suggests you talk to a group of miscreants known as the Bloodhounds. Their leader, Sheela, is on the Orbital Patrol Base in Oort Cloud. Go there and chat to her; at 1.5 million Credits her support isn't too expensive given how late in the game you are.

The next bit isn't so much difficult as annoying. You're going to need to fly to Kuiper Belt and when you approach the target Mjollnir it'll turn red and the Bloodhounds will start scrapping with the ATF escorts. Save now. You need to cap the fighter; those of you who have capped fighters before know what you're up against; those of you who havn't, I'll give a brief guide to capping here. It is said that slowly whittling away the hull with a light weapon like an IRE or PBE is a good strategy; I find that at lower fight ranks it doesn't work so well, and a better strategy is to dive in, guns blazing and cease fire at the point where you've stripped away the shields. Then give a few more periodic short - SHORT - bursts every couple of seconds to deal further damage. Seems to work a lot more often for me. If you destroy the Mjollnir before it bails, then reload your save and try again; keep trying until you get it. The ATF escorts will remain neutral to you and won't attack you even when you're capping their charge. I believe thet the correct term for this behaviour is 'Idiocy' but I'm not going to complain if you won't!

With the Mjollnir capped, you need to return it to the base. When it docks, you're given the option of turning it over.

The next mission takes some preparation. You will need a Scabbard filled with Marines; they don't need to be enormously high level but you'll have less fighting to do if they are. You're going to storm an ATF research facility and nick some blueprints directly out of the computer system. Ouch. Get your Scabbard to dock with the Installation. Then the mission will begin in earnest.

The research facility is also in the outer Solar System, for me it was two sectors beyond the current one (i.e. third Unknown Sector) but this might change from game to game. Simply dock your Scabbard at it. I As soon as it docks, the operation begins and the station turns red. Ships start flooding out of a gate aiming for you. I got a temporary reprieve when the first Rapier smeared himself over an asteroid, which was amusing to watch, but you've quickly got a full-blown fight on your hands as the boarding operation takes a very long time. Even on my relatively mild fight rank, I had a serious fleet to deal with that was too much for my Hyperion. I had to call in a Colossus full of Nova Raiders to help me. On higher fight ranks, this is almost certainly going to be a very colourful fight.

When the facility is captured, the Scabbard will automatically fly back to the Installation to deliver the data. All your Marines should be intact and on board; you won't lose them. I found that it simply flew right through the middle of the warzone without incident. Once it gets to the next Sector, it's essentially safe, though you have to finish off the Terran forces that are attacking you.

Once the Scabbard is docked, you get the mission complete message, and it turns out that the Thor blueprints are amongst the data. Just the Fenrir to go now.

Which is next. There's one guarding one of the facilities in the outer Solar System, but Evans wants to capture it with some style. He wants you to go to Neptune and chat to a station hacker named Sebastien Claussen in Neptune. When you get there, you find that he has a penchant for alcoholic beverages.

Claussen wants paying in booze, not bucks. Specifically, a brand of Argon Whiskey that is only available in Herron's Nebula. Wonderful, that's about as physically far away from you as it is possible to get; unless you can expend a few Energy Cells to get there, in which case given it's actually on the jumpgate network, it is actually the shortest trip of the plotline. We've got to talk to the Teladi wholesaler who has the whiskey we need. She'll give us what we want for a modest fee of 25,000Cr and returning it to Neptune is a simple matter.

It is now time to dock at the ATF installation we're targeting. It's in the second Unknown Sector; in my game its registration is EDOOM-08; I hope that this is not an omen. Suggest that you leave a satellite near the gate of the preceding Unknown Sector to the one that the target ATF Installation is in.

Turns out, DOOM doesn't seem to be an omen. After a short time spent docked the Fenrir gets hacked, undocks and starts making its way back to the Dark Space installation. You make a break for it with your latest acquisition in tow and there's not a red blip to be seen. It's quiet. In an X3-Reunion sort of way, it turns out. Check that satellite.

Unfortunately for this latest Terran battlefleet, I got wise last time round and brought both my Carriers and my own Boreas for good measure. Let'em rip, tiger! Once the Fenrir is docked safe and sound at the Dark Space Installation, the mission is complete. You can take a break again.