Thankfully we have other things to occupy our time. For instance, merchants are under attack! We have three merchants we have to defend, and they all send us video messages.
This is required viewing. No summary can do justice to the glorious full motion video contained within.
The very first merchant is up here. I'm not entirely sure how long the time limit is for saving him, but it's not like we have anything else to do.
Let's see, two fighters against a destroyer and three fighters. Yeah, this'll be a cakewalk. I'll probably talk about the combat more when we get to some actual fighting. For now, you just have to know two things:
1. I have no tactics beyond blobbing.
2. You can send messages to the enemy during a fight.
Unfortunately the big space pirates are mean to Dante, and refuse to back off.
Overwhelming firepower wins any day of the week.
Great shooting! Respect due! If you can't tell, this game was translated from Hungarian. Still, I'm not one to laugh at 1000 credits. It's about a fourth of our daily income at this point.
Life ain't all about protecting merchants though. Commander Douglas manages to put on his most serious performance so far and informs us that we have a cargo ship to protect. Why? I have no idea.
Said cargo ship comes in from the bottom right of the map from somewhere or other.
Still, what could possibly go wrong?
Pictured: Stuff goes wrong.
My strategy here is pretty much the same as before. Get as close as possible to the ship, than blob up and take down them pirates.
Damn it, we're supposed to be Fantastic Negotiators! Can't even get a bunch of pirates to piss off...
Oh well, something to be said about the tried and true, after all.
That shield 1.0v could be useful.
Assuming that my fleet was near a planet, of course.
And that I had set the spaceport to be repaired since I clearly had enough money for it. Gah.
While we're waiting for more money,
Dante gets a call from his loving wife and kid.Unfortunately said wife and kid are more obnoxious than anything else. Still, I expect great things out of you kid. You have the real makings of a full motion video star!
Anyways, more pirates, more merchants to defend. Yadda yadda.
Someday someone will listen to Dante. :c
More money for the war chest. One of the days it'll actually be full enough to build the damn hub.
What's this? Massive energy readings? Major battles? Looks like we've stumbled upon something exciting guys!
Looks like two armies of pirates are duking it out by Naxos.
And by armies I mean one dude and his mate. Oh well...
Oh, what's this? A branching conversation path?
What the- Someone actually listened to Dante for once! c: This moment will surely be recogn-
Nope. Said pirates must have short-term memory loss because they keep on attacking. Did you know that short-term memory loss is the second most common ailment affecting pirates these days?
Hot burny death is the most common ailment, of course.
No gold this time, but at least Dante made a friend.
Just one more merchant to save and then we can sit around and say, "Gee willikers, wouldn't be it great if we had some money?"
The pirates attacking this merchant are much more dangerous than the one before. Watch out for that destroyer and its massive firepower.
...is what I'd like to say, but it charged straight for the merchant vessel and completely ignored my ships. So... easy victory?
Easy victory.
Having completed all of the missions, we now have more or less enough money for a colony hub.
Finally!
The 'Guardian' also gets its shield generator which I totally could have placed on it at any time. Now we just have to wait an-
...
Wat.
Um... Apparently Achilles is just as pissed about the lack of a colony hub as I was, and... well... Long story short, it's now a public holiday on Achilles.
: Wow! Which holiday?
All of them. I don't care.
I do care about the colony hub though, and soon enough we'll be able to tax Achilles again.
To stop the people of Achilles from complaining about the rolling brownouts and starvation, I've built some hydroponic farms and a nuclear power plant.
Apparently that's enough to complete my objectives.