The Stealth Cruiser A gets a second run, on Normal. The ship is The Nesasio again: no shields, a Cloaking system, a Mini Beam and Dual Lasers, and the Long-Ranged Scanners and Titanium System Casing augmentations. The crew list shows three Humans, Pomeroy, Tach and one more. The cloak carries the ship through three sectors with very little damage, and then an Auto-Assault with three shields destroys it in Sector 4.
Part 1: Cloak when they fire
Basket starts by listing the ship's achievements, among them one for reaching Sector 8 "without going through any environmental damage squares." The plan for every fight is the same: wait until the enemy fires, then cloak. "I'm gonna pause it as soon as he shoots."
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector. A Pirate Interceptor offers to surrender, and Basket takes it because its shields are still up. A Pirate Investigator goes down. At an Auto-Scout parked near a space station, Basket picks the cloaking option, "Attempt to stealthily access the space station," and comes away with a Hull Repair drone. "Oh, we got a free hull repair drone."
A second Pirate Investigator starts fires on board before it is beaten, and Basket spends scrap on a longer cloak. A Pirate Rigger, shooting at a ship that is not there, loses its weapons and shields, and leaves behind a Hull Beam, "another beam" that does extra damage to rooms without systems. Two Rebel Invaders follow. The second is handing out supplies to colonists, and after it is destroyed Basket tries to steal the supplies. "Looks like they got away. Oh well."
Part 2: Drones and a Heavy Laser
Sector 2 is another Civilian Sector. Basket puts the cloak to its maximum level ("That might not be a good idea"), and it now lasts 15 seconds. A Rebel Disruptor is beaten with its weapons down, and Basket takes the civilians' supplies: "That'll teach them."
Twice Basket pays a mercenary to delay the Rebels. A Rebel Fighter sends boarders and is destroyed. A Pirate Disruptor with a repair drone drops a Heavy Laser Mark I: "It takes nine seconds to charge, that's even better." At the store Basket sells the Hull Beam and buys Drone Control, which comes with a free Defense Drone Mark I, so the Hull Repair drone can finally be used.
A Rebel Invader teleports crew aboard and is destroyed anyway. An Auto-Assault's combat drone is the bigger worry, so Basket targets it first and wins again. At the exit beacon a refugee ship trades drone parts for missiles. "We're hardly even getting hurt," Basket says. "Having the cloak so high really helps."
Part 3: The Uncharted Nebula
Sector 3 is the Uncharted Nebula. A Mantis ship hails The Nesasio with "Next time, humans all die," and Basket opens fire; it blows up before its weapons come back. A store has nothing Basket wants, so it is fuel only. A Mantis Fighter with a crew teleporter, a Pirate Hacker with a flak gun, a fleeing Auto-Assault and a Pirate Scout all fall to the same pattern: cloak, Dual Lasers and the Heavy Laser on the weapons, then the beam.
A black market weapons trader offers an unknown weapon for 45 scrap. "Or it's a trap, or it's something really cool." The trader takes the scrap and backs out of the deal, and the Pirate Fighter it was flying gets attacked. It sends a teleporting bomb and boarders, then surrenders and hands over a lot of fuel. "It doesn't quite make up for what you just hit me with."
Following faint signatures through the nebula brings a fourth crew member, Willow, aboard. At the last beacon a Rebel Rigger waits, and Basket uses the cloak to stay hidden. Basket skips one beacon "for the achievement" and jumps to the exit.
Part 4: Three shields
Sector 4 is a Rebel Controlled Sector. Basket wants a store "to buy some good weapons." A Rebel Rigger with a combat drone gets cloaked against, damaged, and then jumps away. "Well that's not the end of the road." The hull is down by half, and the Hull Repair drone patches some of it.
Inside a nebula the ship meets an Auto-Assault with three shields and a drone. "I'm not sure how I'm gonna pull this one off." The Dual Lasers and Heavy Laser cannot get through the shields fast enough, the cloak gets knocked out, and fires spread to the cloaking room. The pilot goes down, then the engines. "Why aren't you FTLing? Oh, the engines are down."
How it ended
In the last seconds the crew list drops to Pomeroy and Tach, and then The Nesasio breaks apart in Sector 4. The game-over screen reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," with a score of 1457 and "New High Score!" "We got pretty far with this ship," Basket says. The video goes on to the hangar and the stats screen before its end cards.
