Basket comes back to the first ship with one goal. "Today we're going to see if we can get some wins on the Kestrel. If you look here, we don't have a win on any of the versions." The Kestrel launches on Normal with Advanced Edition content enabled, armed with an Artemis and a Burst Laser II, and the crew list shows three Humans: Ohm, Ken and Jon. Seven parts later the Kestrel destroys the Rebel Flagship in The Last Stand with all five of its crew alive, for a score of 4986.
Part 1: A Halberd Beam
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector. Basket opens most fights with one Artemis missile on the enemy weapons and saves the rest. "We want to take down his weapons, but we don't want to use up all of our missiles." An asteroid mining colony asks for 5 missiles and gets turned down ("I like my missiles"), and a Rebel automated scout gives up its data stores without a fight.
The first store has little worth buying, so the scrap goes into repairs and fuel, and a second shield layer follows later. Then a civilian ship under attack from a Pirate Interceptor asks for help. After the fight the rescued crew turn out to include a shipwright, and the captain installs a Halberd Beam. The part ends at the sector map, with Basket leaning toward the Engi Controlled Sector for "some cool drone stuff."
Part 2: Two Burst Lasers
Sector 2 is that Engi Controlled Sector. A Federation settlement hands over a Hull Beam, and at the store Basket sells a beam drone schematic to afford Drone Control, which comes with a combat drone. Two jumps later the event text reads "Holy crap! A weapon is just floating in space!" It is a second Burst Laser Mark II. "So now we actually have two burst lasers. That's going to be awesome."
An Engi ship insists the Kestrel carries a virus. Basket asks to purge the code, the Engi wipe the engine core anyway, and a fight follows. Late in the sector the Kestrel meets a ship that can barely hurt it, and Basket lets the fight run so the pilot and engine crew can level up before finishing it.
Part 3: Zoltan space
Sectors 3 and 4 are both Zoltan Controlled. Fuel given to a stranded ship brings a reactor upgrade, and a man living alone in a cave gets left behind ("I don't want to risk losing our guys"). The store adds a Defense Drone, a fourth crew member, Kletzkin, and Long-Ranged Scanners, paid for partly by selling the Halberd Beam. "I really, really like these long range scanners."
In Sector 4 Basket upgrades the shields and later the doors. A boarding party spreads through the ship and the crew pull back to keep everyone alive: "I'll take some hull damage if I have to but I don't want to lose my guys." A Mantis Fighter beams in more boarders and is destroyed with them still aboard. The part ends at the exit, headed for the Slug sectors.
Part 4: Captain Nights
Sector 5 is the Slug Home Nebula. Basket upgrades doors, engines and oxygen first because "they like to disable all that good stuff," and later points back to it when a Slug ship knocks out the oxygen. At a store Basket sells a stun bomb and buys Mind Control to undo enemy mind control.
A Slug Assault with "The Black Raven" painted on its side hails the Kestrel: "I am the dreaded pirate, Captain Nights." Basket accepts the challenge, beats the ship down, and takes its surrender, a Flak Gun Mark I and 56 scrap. "The dreaded pirate Nights is not too impressive." Two more stores bring a Defense Drone II, a Drone Recovery Arm and a fifth crew member, a Rock named Butters.
Part 5: A Hull Smasher Laser
Sector 6 is the Slug Controlled Nebula. Basket buys a System Repair Drone, and after a fight with an Auto-Hacker a storage site for military weapons turns up a Hull Smasher Laser Mark II. "Ooh, we got another laser thingy." It goes in beside the two Burst Lasers, with the flak gun moved to the backup slot.
A standoff between a Slug ship and a Rock ship ends in a fight and a reactor upgrade. At the next store Basket buys Hacking, the last system slot. Shields reach their maximum before the exit, and the part ends heading for an Engi Controlled Sector.
Part 6: Last stop before the Flagship
Sector 7 is the Engi Controlled Sector. An event upgrades the piloting cheaply, Basket upgrades Hacking and gives it power, and a satellite defense station deals damage and gives nothing back. A pirate ship that blows apart leaves 54 scrap and an Anti-Combat Drone, and a later fight adds a Pike Beam. Basket skips the last store and jumps to The Last Stand with a cargo hold full of things to sell. "I wish I could sell some of this stuff."
Part 7: The Last Stand
Sector 8 starts with free healing and fuel, but no store. Basket fights for scrap, finds a repair station, and spends the money on upgrades. A ship at the Federation base hacks the Kestrel's shields, and that fight costs a lot of hull.
The Flagship fights are about the hacking and the defense drone. In the first, the Flagship's own drone shoots down the hack. In the last, enemy crew teleport aboard and mind control hits the Kestrel. "Who are you and why are you here?" Basket asks one crew member out of place, then finds a door destroyed: "that's why I can't close it." Anti-mind control, the Burst Lasers and a hack on the shields finally break it.
How it ended
The Flagship splits apart and a "Kestrel Cruiser Victory" popup appears. The end crawl names the Kestrel and its crew, Ohm, Ken, Jon, Kletzkin and Butters, and the VICTORY! box shows a score of 4986 and a new high score. "So we have a win," Basket says, then shows the Kestrel's Type B, the Red-Tail, in the hangar as the next ship to try.
