Mission Blog: Chapter 3 - Man on the Moon

The Laptop system was, on first impressions, a bit of a letdown. One planet with two moons? Is that all you've got for me, Laptop? Pfff.

It wasn't all bad, though. I hadn't really seen many moons at that stage, so I was intrigued to see if there were any differences. Perhaps they'd be rockier and less rich in resources. Whatever the case, one of these moons would be my next celestial body to investigate. Before that, I needed to make a quick pitstop at the space station to sell off some excess materials.

With my money nicely boosted, I jetted back out into the void, and set a course for the nearest moon. On my pulse drive, it was still a minute or two away, so I played some inventory tetris and had a look at some tech I'd yet to install to pass the time. It wasn't long, however, before something else new cropped up - a distress signal, from some nearby freight ships. Up to this point, I'd only had a space scuffle once or twice with some greedy pirates, and they'd gone well, so I decided to head over and see if I could help out.

I couldn't.

There were roughly a dozen enemy ships attacking the freighters, my HUD plastered with arrowheads pointing in all directions as they buzzed around, taking potshots at the giant spacecraft. My little yellow star skipper was ill equipped for combat, but I was lost in the heat of the moment, taking out the pirates one by one as my shields rapidly failed, and after taking out roughly half of them, my ship spiralled - I was dead. Handily, this is a video game, and thus I respawned at the space station, ready to fight another day. Or, more likely, avoid all future distress signals like the plague. To the moon.

I touched down atop a hill, and hopped out to get a better view. The landscape was extremely rocky, as I'd suspected, but what I wasn't quite so prepared for was the total absence of life. There didn't appear to be a single plant or animal in sight, which was, perhaps oddly, something of a rarity. This was a dead, jagged place, with large floating islands hanging in the sky like UFOs. There seemed to be some good resources to gather, at least, and a stunning view of the moon's parent planet looming on the horizon. Close by were several points of interest, so I decided to go for a wander and see what I could find.

I found a lot. Abandoned buildings and drop pods, mostly, but as I kept walking, the question marks just kept on piling in, each one just a minute or two away. It seemed that this moon was once a rather populous place, going by the sheer number of outposts I scavenged. I gathered a nice collection of new tech recipes and suit upgrades as I meandered around, and the more I acquired, the more I wanted. Even the sentinels were few and far between, so I was in no danger and no rush.

Eventually, I stopped, realised how far I'd walked, and turned around. According to my ship's marker, it was about 45 minutes walk away.

Oops.

I'd gotten a little carried away hunting question marks, and now my ship was an agonisingly long walk across terrain I'd basically wiped clean. Surely there was another way?

I started heading vaguely back, travelling from marker to marker, this time in search of an outpost featuring a beacon at which I could recall my ship. Of all the points on this moon, there must be one where I could do that.

As it turned out, there wasn't. Not a single one of the countless outposts I visited allowed me to do this. What had I done? I was doomed to walk back across an area I'd mostly cleared out, with only an incredible view of the moon's planet for company. I couldn't even commit suicide and respawn at my ship, because I'd saved the game multiple times at various waypoints. There was nothing for it.

Twilight crept upon the moon rather swiftly as I walked, turning the sky a brilliant star-speckled orange. Large arches and other strange shapes protruded from the ground - it turned out they contained iridium, a rare element that I swore I'd seen in a few tech blueprints before. I nabbed a bunch as I went.

For a moon with no life, it sure was noisy. Deep, echoing moans and roars could be heard every so often, and it made me wonder if I was really alone. Maybe they were under ground, taunting me and my idiocy, or maybe they were simply invisible. Perhaps I was just losing my mind.

After a while, I came across a crashed starship. My current ship was still a good 20 minutes away, and this one had an extra inventory slot… Maybe this was my answer?

…Nah. I'd need to fix the broken parts, and while there were some resources dotted around, there wasn't near enough for me to quickly get it up and running. My trek continued.

After discovering yet more locations, and finding that none of them had a way to summon my ship, I eventually stumbled onto some alien ruins. These were particularly interesting, as while I learned some new Vy'keen words, there was a large, golden ball on a small plinth. It would've been unremarkable if not for the fact that it moved; it wasn't fixed in position at all, and I was able to roll it around. It was the first time I'd seen this, and I couldn't figure out if it served some sort of greater purpose. I still don't know now.

To add to my troubles, it seemed I'd begun walking in circles, as I stumbled into the very same crashed ship I found earlier. Inspecting the debris, I unlocked a blueprint for a hyperdrive upgrade, one that would let me visit red stars as well as yellow ones. After all that time spent lost on that blasted moon, maybe this had made the entire excursion worth it. I gave in, and excited about my new tech, made a beeline for my ship. It was time to get off this damn rock. I named it Moonwalker before I took off.

I was about done with this system already, but I thought I'd give the planet a fleeting visit before I moved on.

It was terrible. Screw you, Laptop system. Screw. You.