Basket takes the Kestrel Cruiser Type B out for the first time, on Normal with Advanced Edition content enabled. The hangar names the ship the Red-Tail. It starts with four one-power lasers, listed as Basic Lasers ("They're all just one power, they all take 10 seconds to charge up"), and four crew: Magmar, Bomfy M, CY Heng and Jack. The run lasts six parts and reaches Sector 8, The Last Stand. There the Rebel Flagship destroys the Red-Tail, for a score of 3126.
Part 1: Four lasers and a lot of timing
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector. With four small guns, Basket staggers the shots: "I'm making it so these are like half a second fire before the other two. So I can go after the shields and then go after something else." A station turns up a Combat Drone before the ship has anywhere to run it. In Sector 2, another Civilian Sector, the Red-Tail fights an Auto-Scout in front of a sun, and Basket vents most of the ship first: "This place is a pain in the butt for fires, so let's preemptively discard all the oxygen around."
At the next store Basket buys Drone Control and a Hull Smasher Laser, then sells the Combat Drone to pay for repairs. "Hopefully that was a good choice." Beating a slaver ship earns a new crew member, Markand, and a second store adds a Hermes Missile. The part ends at the exit beacon. "Right now we're not actually using our missiles."
Part 2: Rocks, then the Engi Homeworlds
Basket picks the Rock Controlled Sector for Sector 3, "because actually with our defense drone, the missiles that the rocks like to use aren't too bad." The fights there go badly. "Okay, this isn't going great," Basket says in one, and after another, "That was also kind of a costly fight." An Anti-Drone joins the drones, and a Slug cruiser and a Rock ship in a standoff get left behind.
Sector 4 is the Engi Homeworlds. Jack, the Mantis, settles one event, and Basket booby-traps a cache, which "gonna slow down the other guys for two jumps." A Drone Recovery Arm comes next, and then a stop at Uncle Joe's Fix-it Shop upgrades the sensors. "So now we can see where the bad guys are."
Part 3: One long sector
Sector 5 is an Abandoned Sector. A quest beacon leads to a big ship with a crew teleporter and "a huge beam," and the missiles finally land: "Their shields are screwed. Yes. Awesome." An event asks the Red-Tail to transmit the coordinates of Federation command. Basket guesses it is "for the stealth thing, I think, which we already got," but the reward is something that "helps us take less damage."
A Lanius merchant sells its translator for 40 scrap, and a new Lanius crew member joins. The crew list cuts the name off at "Translat." "So this guy, he sucks oxygen out of a room," Basket says. A Lanius Bomber in an asteroid field sends boarders over ("them teleporting in is a pain"), then surrenders. "This episode is actually only one sector," Basket says at the end.
Part 4: Better guns
Sector 6 is an Engi Controlled Sector. An Engi distress call brings a ship that shoots down missiles and hits hard, and Basket gets out: "So we need to jump as soon as we can." At a later beacon, a free weapon turns out to be a Hull Laser II. "It does 3 blasts. Oh yeah. I like it. I'm excited about that." A Pirate Instigator brings Mind Control ("He's going to beat up my own ship") and holds out for a long fight before it surrenders.
At a store Basket sells the Hermes Missile and buys a Breach Bomb Mark II, "so we wouldn't have to worry about the things shooting it down." A Laser Charger comes free at another beacon, and scrap from some debris pays for a shield upgrade.
Part 5: Surviving, but barely
"I'm surviving, but barely," Basket says going into Sector 7, the Zoltan Controlled Sector. After a pirate surrenders: "Man. Normal is tough." A store adds an Ion Charger to the weapons.
Then a ship with two teleporting bombs and a crew teleporter sends boarders. Both boarders die, but the enemy still gets away: "After all that he still jumped." A cloaking ship is destroyed after a long fight. In a nebula, the event text reads "A Rebel teleporter was used in one of the stations. You've been boarded!" Last, a ship full of drones, and Basket stops trying: "I don't want to die, I want to try and get to the next area."
Part 6: The Last Stand
Sector 8 opens with a popup: Kestrel Cruiser Type C unlocked. "I thought we had to beat the bad guy to unlock C. Well good." Basket wins one more fight and gets repaired at a construction platform, then buys a Clone Bay at a store. "I have no idea how I'm supposed to try and accomplish beating the bad guy."
The Rebel Flagship has four shields and hacking. The Breach Bomb and the lasers take turns on its shields while the Red-Tail's hull runs down. "Well I almost made it, this one," Basket says, and then, "Man, we were so close!"
How it ended
The Red-Tail breaks apart, and the game-over screen reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," with a score of 3126 and "New High Score!" All six crew are still on the crew list at the end. In the hangar Basket looks over the new Type C, The Swallow: "So maybe I'll try this one next."
