We return to the Sardis Belt to return Nikitas to his Captain.
Yuri: Celina, do you read me? It’s Yuri.
Celina: Yuri, you made it back. Good job. Do you have Nikitas with you?
Nikitas: It’s me, Celina! Nikitas! I’m back and as good as new! Celina! Can you hear me?! Celina?!
He’s certainly excited, at least.Celina: Hmph, I just remembered how nice and quiet our ship was without him around.
The scene fades to black briefly.
Dietrich: Okay, Captain, Nikitas is over on the
Lykourgos now.
Yuri: Good. Go ahead and retract the gangway. So, was Celina happy to see him?
Dietrich: I’m not sure that “happy” is the right word. She gave him a good slap across his face as soon as she saw him. Is that some sort of pirate’s greeting? I’m afraid their culture seems so foreign to me.
Yuri: Ha ha… I think she’s happy in her own twisted, pirate sort of way. Now, time to get back to our main mission. Franny, patch me through to the
Lykourgos.
Franny: You got it!
She does so, and Yuri calls Celina.
Celina: Yuri.
Yuri: Celina, it’s time for us to get back to our primary mission.
Celina: Okay. We’ll be taking off soon too, right after we finish our ship repairs. Listen, Yuri, I plan on paying you back someday for bringing back Nikitas. You can count on it.
Yuri: Don’t worry about it. Besides, I was the one paying you back this time. Well, Celina, may we meet again someday out in the vast sea of stars.
Celina: Yes, I look forward to it.
With that, we part ways, and we head to Coventina to get our ships repaired. It’s not pointed out, but the Void Gate in Area 1 is now accessible. Along the way to the Void Gate, we get into it with a Lugovalian fleet of three
Belisana-class Other. They’re decently survivable and have group attack weapons, but they go down to a volley or two each, along with our fighter cover. After a few more fights, we manage to reach the Void Gate, and jump to the Kalymnos Junction.
Yuri: The Kalymnos Junction… It doesn’t look like it’s changed at all.
Semias: At first glance, yes, but according to our charts, the number of habitable planets has decreased considerably.
Dietrich: Do you think they were annihilated by Lugovalos?
Yuri: Maybe. At the very least, their spaceports would’ve been destroyed.
Dietrich: I see.
The scene fades and changes.
Coyle: Prince Cicolluis?! I didn’t expect you so soon.
Cico: Big fleets are worthless when it comes to speed, so I went ahead on my own.
Coyle: Yes, I see. Well, please forgive me for not greeting you upon your arrival. Had I known, I would have--
Cico: How about we cut the formalities, okay? Grus, I can’t stand that stuff. Now, did you get that data together? The stuff I asked you for before?
Coyle: yes, Your Highness. In preparation for our invasion of the LMC, I’ve prepared a list of all our current military assets here in the Viceroyalty.
Cico: Okay, I’ll give it a look. Now, what about securing our invasion route?
Coyle: Along with our search for the Epitaphs, we’re also making every effort to find functioning gates to the LMC. At present, however, I’m afraid there are no promising developments to report.
*cough* We can fix that!Cico: Okay, so worst case scenario, it’s gonna be one Grus of a long trip. But, whatever. My father ordered me to take the LMC and that’s just what I plan on doing. It’s just a matter of time. Coyle, I’m counting on you for supplies and support.
Coyle: Yes, Your Highness. That has been my intention all along.
With that, the focus returns to us.
I compared the map I’ll show you next to the ones from the last time we were here. Lugovalos has not been a kind overlord to the Kalymnos people. The planets Thira, Volos, Dodecanese, Zante, Zakynthos and Mytilene are all destroyed or currently cut off.
We finally make it Chios after battling our way through a wall of Nova Nacion patrols and take the elevator to the surface.
>>Chios
Visiting the Ship Design company nets us a
Thalia A-Battleship and
Daphne 2-Carrier class designs.
>>Tavern
>>Talk to the bartender.
Bartender: Kalymnos was a complete mess when the Lugovalians first arrived. But life is pretty much back to normal now that we’re under their control. Now that I’m used to it, I’d say life under Lugovalian rule isn’t half bad.
>>Talk to the local man.
Local man: My dad was a major in the Sector Security Agency. He fought against Lugovalos to the bitter end. Things were pretty tough after he died. I eventually got into the scrap business, but I'’ just barely scarping by. Even so, it’s still better than living the good life by bowing down to those Lugovalian scum bags.
>>Veroia
Wonder of wonders, Veroia finally gives us access to shipyard and refit yards, so it’s time to see if our fleet can do with some updating.
>>Battleships
With the
Erebos-class, we finally (by price), have access to the
Kreusser-class fame reward as well.
The
Erebos-class is an odd ship. It’s a battleship that’s also trying to be a carrier. It does have a good amount of module space, and its fixed weapons are pretty decent, but it’s brought down by its weak hull, with only 4800 durability.
The
Kreusser-class has solid fixed weapons, as well as an open extra-large mount and two small mounts available. It’s overall a solid upgrade over our current
Pelayo-class, so I pick one up for our new flagship.
Ladies and gentlemen, the
Okubi.
In total, the
Okubi sets us back 102,220 G, minus 61568 from the sale of the
Ushi-Oni for a total of 40,652 G.
>>Carrier
The
Daphne 2 is a bit of a joke. It’s simply worse than the
Eberlin-class Carrier in every way.
There are no new cruisers or destroyer models, and no new weapons, so that covers the fleet upgrades. We take the elevator to the surface, where I see a Module company I should have visited first. (Un)luckily, they don’t have any new modules for sale, so at least I don’t have to go redesign the
Okubi straight away.
>>Tavern
>>Talk to the bartender.
Bartender: This sector is swarming with resistance fighters that attack transport ships. Lugovalian forces are doing there best to track down their base of operations, but they’re having a hard time of it. They’re essentially guerillas, after all.
>>Talk to the soldier.
Kalymnos Soldier: Life was so much easier when we were just hunting down pirates. But now it’s almost like a civil war, and we have to kill fellow countrymen just because they’re resisting Lugovalos. Oh, sorry, don’t mind me. I just can’t see m to get this off my mind. It’s some pretty depressing stuff.
We try to sneak by the Security Agency to see if we can find out anything useful.
>>Security Agency
This building once belonged to Kalymnos’ Sector Security Agency. But now it is teeming with Lugovalian soldiers, who seem to come and go in a never-ending stream.
Yuri: (We’d be better off avoiding this place for now.)
If we go back to the tavern, the soldier has something new to say.
Kalymnos Soldier: Ever heard of the Sector Security Agency? Well, lots of their members have quit because they hate working under the Lugovalian regime. Me, I got a family to feed, so I’m still sticking with it. See that guy over there? He used to be a high-ranking official in the Elgavan military. Now he looks like some cast-off wanderer or something.
I wonder…>>Talk to the wanderer.
Yuri approaches the man who looks like a wanderer. As the man meets Yuri’s gaze, surprise and we register on his face.
Fomich: Well now, you have the proud look of someone that has not yet submitted to the will of the Lugovalian Empire. May I have your name?
We can choose to lie and call ourselves Valantin, but Yuri is proud of being the top-ranked zero-G dog himself!
>>The name is Yuri.
Fomich: I believe I’ve heard that name before. I don’t know what you’re up to here, but whatever it is, I’d like to give you a hand.
Yuri: What, a former high-ranking official wants to be a zero-G dog?
Fomich: You can’t judge a man by his title, whether it’s current or not. You have to see the man within the man.
Yuri: I think we’re going to get along just fine. How about joining my crew?
I guess if you’re sufficiently cryptic enough, you’re just fine with Yuri?Fomich: Sure, Rudak Fomich, at your service!
Rudak Fomich joined your crew!Didn’t see that coming, did you?Up the elevator we go, and we check if Fomich is useful to us. At the moment, not entirely, though he replaces Emiliiano as our head chef. Once our guests leave, Fomich will probably be reassigned, since he has the special ability
Cool & Calm Lv 2, and high stats in Leadership, Control and Management.
We move on to Heraklion next.
>>Heraklion
Entering the Tavern, we get accosted by Zografos. (Remember him? He’s been pretty quiet since we picked him up.)
Zografos: Captain, Captain!
Spying Yuri entering the tavern, Linus Zografos comes running over in a hurry.
Zografos: I found it! I really found it!
Yuri: You found what?
Zografos: My home! The place where I lived with my dad until I was five!
Yuri finally figures out what Linus is talking about. Linus and his father had been navigators, once upon a time. They had set off one day from the Kalymnos cluster only to end up in the LMC.
Yuri: So this is where you’re from?
Zografos: Yeah. Even though I was only five at the time, there’s still a lot of stuff I remember. I recognize our old house right away, even though it’s abandoned now and completely run down.
Yuri: At least it’s still standing so you could see it.
Zografos: Yeah, and look what I found when I took a look inside! I think it used to belong to my dad, but you can have it if you think it might be useful.
You got blueprints for a Security 7 module!His dad was apparently a design genius, as this is advanced for the LMC, much less the SMC.>>Talk to the bartender.
Bartender: Rumor has it the crown prince of Lugovalos will be visiting this sector soon. I guess that goes to show you how important they think it is. Personally, I don’t see what’s so special about it.
>>Minas’ Lab
It’s probably too much to expect that Minas is still around…
Gavriil Minas’ lab is deserted. Dust covers the lab equipment, as if it hasn’t been used in a very long time.
Rhea: Leo, what do you think you’re doing?!
Everyone turns in unison to see what Rhea Loizou is so upset about. Clearly, Leo Folias has gone to the back of the lab when no one was looking and is now rummaging through some trash there.
Leo: You never know where you’re going to find the good stuff in a professor’s lab. Even in a trash can. Who knows? We might even be able to use some of it.
Rhea: It’s not nice going through other people’s stuff like that, Leo, even if it just garbage.
Leo: Oh, what’s the big deal? Nobody uses this place anymore. Ah! See, Rhea! This is what I’m talking about! This could really come in handy!
Rhea: hey, you’re right. That’s a module plate, isn’t it?
Semias: Maybe it’s one of the professor’s designs.
Yuri: Could be. But I wonder why he threw it out.
You got blueprints for an Analysis Room Level 2 module!There’s nothing left to do but to visit the resistance forces on Skantzoura.
>>Skantzoura
The spaceport seems deserted except for Yuri and company. It’s so quiet, you could hear a pin drop.
Alik: I-It feels like we’re on an uninhabited p-planet.
Franny: It’s kinda creepy if you ask me. Like the place is haunted or something.
Alik: Th-That’s irrational th-thinking. There’s n-no s-such th-thing as gh-ghosts.
Franny: No? Then how come your voice is all shaky Alik?
Alik: Uh…. Um…
Heh, she has him there.
Baecker: Captain, there’s a small ship the next dock over, and it looks like someone, probably not a ghost, has used it recently.
Yuri: Okay, let’s go check it out.
When we take the elevator down, we find out what’s happened to the planet since the last time we were here.
It wasn’t good.
A scene of utter devastation greets the eyes of Yuri and company as they exit the orbital elevator.
Baecker: (gasps) How awful!
Franny: Man, this place is a mess…
Yuri: Well, let’s go check out the facilities. Or at least what’s left of them.
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Topic: Let's Play: Infinite Space (Read 109339 times)