Basket takes the Rock Cruiser out again, the Bulwark, Layout A, on Normal with Advanced Edition content enabled. The hangar shows an Artemis and a Hull Missile, no drone system and Rock Plating, and the crew list shows three Rocks: Rebekah, Justin and Fenn. This run is about achievements: first a quest that needs "the stasis pod and the research station," then a kill by fire. The Bulwark reaches the Rebel Flagship in Sector 8, drives it off once, and is torn apart in the second fight for a score of 3757.
Part 1: A Burst Laser and a Chain Ion
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector. The first ship, a Rebel Disruptor, hacks the medbay, and the missiles keep missing. At the first store Basket buys a Burst Laser Mark I for 50 scrap. "That could save us on some missiles. Let's buy that. That's it. We're broke." A pirate fight later leaves the Bulwark with a second Hull Missile. "That's kind of funny."
Sector 2 is an Engi Controlled Sector, picked for the stasis pod quest. Basket sides with a refugee against an Engi ship that hacks the Bulwark and sends boarders, and wins. One drone-heavy ship dodges shot after shot ("This guy has so much dodge... this is the longest fight ever"), and a quest beacon turns out to be a trap. At the last store Basket sells a Hull Missile and buys a Chain Ion, even with no power to run it yet.
Part 2: The stasis pod
Sector 3 is another Engi Controlled Sector. A young Mantis teleports aboard and begs for sanctuary from the Engi, and Basket sides with the fugitive again. "Oh, good. I like it." The Mantis, Tai Yi, joins the crew. A station overrun by giant spiders gets skipped ("If you have a cloning bay, it might be okay, but we don't"), and a run of distress beacons pays off. "So now we have the stasis pod."
The jump out lands in the Mantis Homeworlds, and Basket thinks that costs the quest: "I believe the last thing has to be a Rock homeworld." Fights with crew teleporting ships follow. A ship offers a reactor upgrade for missiles and drone parts, which Basket takes ("Sounds great to me"), and the crew fights off a boarding party by opening the doors and venting the air. "We won't be able to do that one quest for this thing because we would need different sectors coming up."
Part 3: The Weapon Pre-igniter
Sector 5 is a Civilian Sector. Boarders are herded into one room and killed there with the doors shut ("intruders, easy"). Basket now needs crew teleporting and "some sort of fire" for the second achievement, and spends scrap on shields. A ship charging its FTL slips away ("I always forget about the jumping"), and a quest pays off: "we got a reactor upgraded by one."
The first store has no crew teleporter, so Basket tries the second. "Weapon pre-igniter. Well that's pretty sweet." It costs 120 scrap and makes the weapons ready right after every jump. The part ends at the sector exit.
Part 4: A Crystal, a teleporter and a fire
Sector 6 is an Engi Controlled Sector. At a Zoltan research facility, a blue option offers the Damaged Stasis Pod. The pod reforms a crystal being, Ruwen, who asks to be taken to a hidden wormhole near the Rock home-worlds. A shuttle of strange creatures leads to an old Engi, Williams, and some fuel. Basket buys Drone Control at a store, and a ship that surrenders hands over a combat drone.
Sector 7 is a Slug Controlled Nebula. A Slug captain comes aboard with a flask, and Basket picks the Rockman option. Basket then sells both missile launchers for an Ion Bomb, wins enough scrap from a pirate to go back for a Crew Teleporter, and tries for the achievement. "We have to have a fire on their ship, have their guy burning, and then kill them with our guy." The crew teleports onto a burning Slug ship, but its crew dies without the achievement. "So I didn't get the achievement, I did get a lot of money." Williams is gone from the crew list after that fight.
Part 5: The Last Stand
Sector 8 is The Last Stand. Basket boards a Rebel ship with a cloning bay and a fire inside, and the enemy crew dies, but again no achievement. Basket reads it out: "Have your crew kill a burning enemy on their ship while using the Rock Cruiser. I guess he wasn't burning." Ruwen is gone from the crew list after. At a store Basket buys a Clone Bay and hires Borman, a Rockman, plus Remo and Sophia, a Mantis.
Then the Rebel Flagship. The Chain Ion, Burst Laser and Ion Bomb wear it down until explosions run across its hull, and the event box reads "Just as you finally gain the upper hand it finds a way to make an FTL jump."
How it ended
The second fight goes the other way. Intruders get aboard, the shields go down and the hull drops to critical. The Bulwark breaks apart, and the Game Over box reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," score 3757. The crew list behind it shows Rebekah, Justin, Fenn, Tai Yi and Sophia. "We didn't get any more achievements on that one," Basket says. The video goes to the hangar and ship list before its end cards.
