Basket takes The Adjudicator out again with the same goal as last time: "the primary objective is to not upgrade the reactor and get to sector 5." The Zoltan Cruiser, Type A, starts with a Halberd Beam, a Leto missile launcher, the Zoltan Shield augment and three crew, Mort, Weston and GM Faux. The run lasts two parts and ends in Sector 3, the Zoltan Homeworlds, where an Energy Instigator destroys the ship for a score of 903.
Part 1: No reactor, and a free Ion Blast
Sector 1 is a Civilian Sector, and it goes well. "I like this, no damage in the first sector." At the first store Basket hires James Pomeroy, a Human, to be the captain, "so that it'll skill up."
Then a small convoy offers to try to improve the reactor in exchange for military supplies. This time Basket reads the text first. "Improve your reactor. No. Thank you." A second store has a Weapon Pre-Igniter, "but I'm broke."
Sector 2 is a Mantis Controlled Sector, picked in the hope of finding more Zoltan crew. A Pirate Light-Surveyor with two shields takes a lot of missiles to beat. "So that was a costly fight. We survived it, but hardly." After a Mantis Scout goes down, a survivor named Manon joins the crew.
Basket then aids a civilian ship against a second Mantis Scout. The captain turns out to be a shipwright and installs an Ion Blast. The rest of the sector goes better. An Auto-Assault in an asteroid field and an Auto-Scout are beaten, and against a Rebel Rigger Basket says, "I like to see guys dying before they even hurt me." Basket turns down a plea about giant alien spiders, and an abandoned station gives up schematics for an Anti-Combat Drone, though the ship has no drone system yet. "This Ion Blaster is pretty sweet."
Part 2: The Zoltan Homeworlds
Basket sets the plan: reach the Zoltan Homeworlds "because then we can get some more Zoltan guys and actually have some power," and save scrap for a store. Sector 3 is the Zoltan Homeworlds. An Auto-Hacker goes down "before he had a chance to complete the hack," and a Zoltan science ship docks and leaves a gift of supplies and 14 scrap.
Then, in an asteroid field, a Zoltan guard says the ship is breaking the Natural Mineral Protection Act and its weaponry "will be confiscated for processing." The ship is an Energy Instigator. "Mind Control 2. Wow, this is going to be rough." Fires start, the weapons go down, and the hull bar drops into critical. With the engines out, Basket finds there is no way to leave: "Oh, we can't jump. Can we... can we make peace?"
How it ended
By the end the crew list shows only GM Faux and Pomeroy. "I should have just gone for the store," Basket says. The Adjudicator breaks apart in Sector 3, and the game-over screen reads "One last explosion marks your fate as your ship is torn apart," with a score of 903. Basket plans to try the Sector 5 achievement again, "but not in this episode." The video goes on to the hangar before its end cards.
