4 Ways To Survive Space Combat

So you’ve made it through the gate hub network only to be immediately set upon by pirates. I’m very glad that I am not physically on the ship with you, merely relaying this kiosk information via radio. Because I do not want to die, which you are probably about to do. I will do my best to lay out the options for survival you have before you.

1. Scream

The pirates are definitely gaining on you, and the radio signals they’re broadcasting make it seem like they might run with the no-respect-for-the-sanctity-of-life crowd. You could try to raise Gate Hub Security, but their primary motivation is protecting the hub itself and you came out of there at speed so there’s actually a surprising number of miles between here and there. Also, the paragon marshals of the Orbis Aurea Hierarchy haven’t spent as much time clearing the pirate/smuggler types out of the gate hub, so the place is crawling with them. You might just start a blood-in-the-water shooting war for the contents of your ship.

2. Run

How fast does this ship go? I’m hoping really fast but you’re new at this so I’m assuming your first ship isn’t built for races. I know a lot of aetherships are pretty easily customisable, so it wouldn’t have been too hard for you to swap out the stock engine for something that would make a lot more noise (if we weren’t in space where there is none of that).

Orbis Aurea’s gate hub sits in the barycenter of the planet and its massive captured-rogue-planet moon. It’s pretty much an equal sprint in either direction, and neither option is particularly palatable. One is a barren, inhospitable frozen nightmare and the other is the moon, a distinct yet equally terrible place. However, Orbis Aurea does have breathable atmosphere so my vote, and I can’t believe I’m actually recommending that you do this, is that you head there.

3. Hide

I suppose you could make a break for some space debris and try to lose them. Maybe you could agitate a void kraken so the pirates get caught up in those crushing, sucking tentacles to be slowly compressed into nothing in its black hole of a beak, but there’s a chance that’d happen to you instead so maybe not. If you were closer to the Amrita asteroid belt you could do all sorts of hiding there, but out here there aren’t a lot of options other than Orbis Aurea’s cloud cover and that’s not exactly a great place to hide an aethership. It’s pretty much only a great place to lose all power to the ship and catch on fire as you hurtle at blinding speed toward a frozen mountain.

4. Fight

You have failed to run and hide like a sensible person, leaving you with one unspeakable option: you must rally your crew of misfits and fight to survive! Get into your spacesuits (or creepy erahthi vacuum-symbiont), buckle up, and hope you weren’t mentioned in the Score as “Dies in Space Today”. You’re all going to have to work together to make it out of this. Put your gunslinger on weapons control, your cavalier in the pilot seat and maybe get a magey-type to blast a few spells out through the arcane turrets.

Remember to stay a reasonable distance from the enemy lest they board you! Some pirates, or even taur, have mechanical grabby-arms for pulling you in so they can punch through your hull, in which case you’ll have to resort to good old-fashion melee combat.

You made it! I honestly did not see that coming. Though, I am no cantor of the Score, merely a lowly knowledge-relay servant. Your ship seems to have taken quite a beating, so you’ll need to get that repaired at Catena. I’m referring of course to Orbis Aurea’s space-elevator station and sole means of transit to making the biggest mistake of your life.