Basket flies the Lanius Cruiser for the first time: the Lanius Cruiser Type A, the Kruos, on Normal with Advanced Edition content enabled. It starts with a Chain Burst Laser, an Ion Stunner and the Emergency Respirators augmentation, plus Hacking and a Clone Bay. The crew list shows a Human, Williams, and two Lanius, Alison and Kusy. "This one has two of the crew that don't take oxygen," Basket explains. The Kruos reaches Sector 5 before it is destroyed, with a score of 1767.
Part 1: Learning to hack
The ship's achievements are all still locked, and Basket reads them out: one needs Hacking, Mind Control and a Battery active at once, another means keeping net oxygen low all the way to Sector 8. "I probably won't do this particular run."
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector. A pirate ship demands a crew member for its slavers. "We do not want to surrender our crew so we will beat them up," and after the fight Jill joins. Basket has rarely used Hacking in this series and likes it fast: "With the hack we can actually see inside the ship." Later a station worker asks to buy one of the crew ("Our crew is not for sale"), and a beaten ship hands over Sophia.
In Sector 2, an Abandoned Sector, a Federation science craft is studying the Lanius. The Lanius crew offer their translator data, and the scientists pay with an FTL Recharge Booster. A store sells Mind Control for 75 scrap, and Basket buys it: "that would get us closer to one of our achievements." Before the exit, Uncle Jack's fix-it shop upgrades the reactor for a little scrap.
Part 2: One big gun
Basket picks another Abandoned Sector for Sector 3, hoping the Lanius there "might be more receptive to us." A Slug vessel is being stripped by a Lanius ship, and the Kruos attacks the Lanius in a "very slow fight."
The next store sells a Burst Laser Mark III, five shots for four power. Basket buys it and sells the Ion Stunner to power it, then notices the charge time: "it takes 19 to charge up so that does that takes a while." A second translator event adds a Pegasus missile launcher. An ion storm fight goes badly, with weapons and engines down at once ("That's rough"), but the enemy surrenders. At the next store the Chain Burst Laser goes too, for a Scrap Recovery Arm. Intruders are handled with Mind Control and by shutting off the oxygen, and a station upgrades the piloting for 11 scrap.
Part 3: Losses in Zoltan space
Sector 4 is a Zoltan Controlled Sector. A lone survivor on a colony joins as Charlie, who "provides power" and is "a pretty good pilot." Two pirate ships drift apart in a nebula, one with fuel and one with ammunition, and Basket goes for the ammunition. The fight costs Jill and a lot of hull. "I figured I would get like a weapon from securing the ammunition."
A store sells the Ion Stunner again, and Basket buys it back: "This is the thing I actually had earlier that I sold." Then a Zoltan elder on a rogue planet offers a look into the Great Eye. Basket pulls the ship closer, and the event text reports that Kusy is gone. "Some of these random things are really frustrating."
The Kruos keeps winning fights on a thin crew ("I lost a lot of guys, but we're surviving"), puts scrap into Hacking, beats a boarding party and trades missiles for drone parts at the exit.
Part 4: The Rock Homeworlds
Sector 5 is the Rock Homeworlds. "We're really beat up and we're having lots of problems," Basket says, and fuel is low too. A Pirate Fighter with three shields falls to Mind Control and missiles. In an asteroid field a cloaking ship brings the hull down to a single point. "We have one health." The last shot lands: "I thought I was going to miss."
Scrap goes into the engines for "a little bit of extra dodge," and a trader sells fuel. Then a distress signal leads into a fight with a Rock Scout, with intruders on board. Basket tries to trap and suffocate one of them, but the hull is already almost gone.
How it ended
The Kruos breaks apart during the Rock Scout fight. The game-over screen reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," with a score of 1767. The crew at the end was Williams, Alison, Sophia and Charlie. "We didn't get any of the achievements for this ship," Basket says, and draws a lesson: "selling all your small weapons for one big weapon that takes forever to charge up is maybe not the best idea." In the hangar Basket looks at the Rock Cruiser next.
