Basket starts a new run in the Rock Cruiser. The hangar shows the Bulwark, Layout A, on Normal with Advanced Edition content enabled, armed with an Artemis and a Hull Missile, no drone system and the Rock Plating augmentation. The crew list shows Davion, Shelton and Malott. "Last time we did pretty good, but not enough," Basket says, and recalls the charging laser from the last run. This time the Bulwark makes it to Sector 6, the Rebel Stronghold, where an Auto-Hacker tears it apart for a score of 1762.
Part 1: The Ion Stunner
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector. A pirate ship offers equipment for sale, but "we don't have any money. So let's just attack him." The missiles do the work: the weapons first, then the empty rooms. At the first store Basket buys a Repair Arm ("I haven't done that in a while"), and at the second, Long-Ranged Scanners. A hacking ship locks the doors, a Mind Control ship turns the crew on each other, and a beaten pirate surrenders and hands over an Ion Stunner.
Missiles run low, and the later fights eat them, with shot after shot missing. "Everything's missing." At the exit a convoy offers a reactor upgrade for missiles and drone parts, and Basket declines. "We have the Ion Stunner, but we need another laser to go along with it."
Part 2: Out of missiles
Sector 2 is an Abandoned Sector. A pirate ship surrenders and gives the Bulwark a crew member, Tomas, a Mantis. A merchant docked with a Lanius transport offers to craft an augment or a drone schematic for scrap, and Basket passes. Then the missiles run out mid-fight. "I forgot that I was low on missiles."
At the next store Basket sells the Long-Ranged Scanners and buys a Laser Charger, which charges two shots. "It charges up pretty fast, and then you have the option of doing two of them." A fire and a broken oxygen room leave the crew patching the ship at the exit. "It's important to get other sort of attacking abilities earlier on," Basket says.
Sector 3 is an Engi Controlled Sector. "I don't have no luck with this ship." A passenger quest pays off with a hull repair, a store trades the Hull Missile for a Flak Gun Mark I, and a second flak gun turns up for free soon after. Basket sells one of them later for fuel and repairs. "We came back from the dead."
Part 3: The Slug Home Nebula
Sector 4 is the Slug Home Nebula. "They're pretty mean about disabling your stuff." A ship with three shields gets left behind. A boarding party lands in the Medbay. One Slug ship offers to surrender, but "they don't tell you what they're going to give you," so Basket finishes it off.
Then the ships start knocking out systems. One takes the door controls, and the next disables the Medbay while its boarders come aboard. Missiles go into its weapons, one crew member barely makes it out, and the ship goes down. "Having them disable all your stuff makes it really tough, but we made it." At the last store Basket buys Drone Control, which comes with a free System Repair Drone. "I didn't think we'd actually last this long."
Part 4: The Rock Homeworlds
Sector 5 is the Rock Homeworlds. A Rock ship with its shields down asks for help, and Basket picks the Rock Armor option to escort it out, for fuel and scrap. Backtracking to a store, Basket buys an Ion Charger, sells the flak gun and adds an Anti-Drone. The weapons bar now reads Ion Stunner, Charge L, Charge I and Artemis.
The fights get rougher. One ends with the shields down and a fire, and Basket jumps away. A distress beacon turns out not to be the quest Basket was hunting. "This sector was a bust."
Sector 6 is the Rebel Stronghold. An Auto-Hacker comes at the Bulwark with a hacking drone. The Anti-Drone goes after it ("It is a drone. Awesome."), but the drone still gets through and hacks the weapons. The hull runs out, and the Bulwark breaks apart with all four crew still on the list.
How it ended
The game-over screen reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," with a score of 1762. "That's unfortunate," Basket says. The video goes to the hangar before its end cards, and Basket says the next video will try another ship.
