Terran Plot Walkthrough
This walkthrough is mostly spoilered, so that if people get caught on the common sticking-points they can read it without spoiling the story for themselves.
However, it is not expected that the replies will be spoilered, so don't read beyond the second post if you are stuck but don't want to know the plot!
As one of the original plotlines, only very early versions of the game have appreciable bugs. However, if you have mods, it is possible that they may introduce problems with the plot. As this is a Vanilla forum and a repository for information and issues regarding the unmodded game, if you have a problem with a modded game you are requested to post in the Scripts and Modding forum.
The Terran Plot begins immediately if you begin as the Terran Defender. Otherwise, you have to complete the bridging mission to access it;
see here for that.
Chapter 1; The Sol Incident
You begin by getting a message from Lt Samuel Plinter, a USC Commander in Uranus sector with your patrol assignment. Fly there and talk to him to begin the plot. You don’t have to go immediately, you can do some trading first if you want.
The patrol mission you are given begins quite simply. Just set your autopilot to follow Plinter’s ship. It won’t take long for the first part of the plot to get underway.
Your squad mates will pick up targets on their sensors moving in from the outer Solar System. Plinter thinks they’re meteoroids until a distress signal comes in from ships in Neptune under attack by AGI – Xenon – forces. Plinter will head over there, keep following him.
When you arrive in-sector a cutscene shows Terran and Xenon forces battling. Head over and join them. Terran forces will make short work of them, and if you’re in the Terran Defender starting ship, you won’t have even the basic combat amenities such as auto-aim, making killing enemies quite a challenge. Just do your best.
Xenon forces will continue to jump in in the vicinity of a jump beacon. After a couple of waves, you are ordered to scan the beacon; to do so, simply fly in close. A scan notification appears at the bottom of the screen when you’re close enough; stay in range (about 300m). Once scanned, the beacon turns red; blow it to pieces.
Word now comes in of a bigger attack wave that has broken into a Mars research lab and is now in the Oort Cloud; you have to head over there and patrol the gate for stragglers. Off you go; it’s to the West. Some good news; Plinter has finally figured out that you’re not fighting meteoroids. Our esteemed commander isn’t totally incompetent after all.
Docking and saving is a good idea at this point; if this isn’t your first plot and you’ve got some Salvage Insurance, then there’s no need to dock to save. Either way, you should save regularly.
When you arrive in Oort Cloud, a cutscene shows a message drone making a run for it. Your mission is to follow it; use the autopilot. It may jump out before you catch it; if so, return to the gate and wait for the next one.
You’ll follow the drones to an Argon Nova sitting next to a jump beacon. When you get in range; the Nova will blow the beacon up and jump out. Mission complete. Save, and return to Lt Plinter’s ship for the next mission.
We’re heading to Pluto to clean up any remaining Xenon ships. You’ll be paid a bounty for each one you destroy. Once they’re all dead, you do the same thing in Neptune. Once all of those are dead (they may be finished off by security forces before you get to them) you head to Uranus. Same again; wipe out all AGI forces. Keep saving.
Saturn next; dock at the Saturn Research Station to upload your sensor logs for the Terran scientists to take a peek at.
Chapter 2; Terran Recon
You can break from the plot to do some trading here if you like.
Next mission is to meet with Major-General Ichiyama in the Asteroid Belt. Head on over, dock at the base, and he’ll start chatting to you. Being a man in the elite AGI Task Force, or ATF, working for him is a big promotion.
Apparently, the Argon ship is causing quite some concerns. You’re now being allowed into Mars sector, and you’ve been given a new ship to play with, an M5 Rapier. You have to dock at the Shipyard to get it; do with it as you please. The M4 Sabre is a better combat ship but the M5 Rapier is much faster and makes a reasonable scout craft. And for the next mission, you want a decent combat ship.
Once you’ve picked up your scout, head back to Ishiyama’s patrol base in Asteroid Belt. He passes the buck to Mark Jackson in Heretic’s End, one sector south of your current location. Go there.
If this is your first time playing, then say hello to your first jumpgate. The Trans-Orbital Accelerators you’ve been playing with to date are nothing compared to this baby, and outside Terran space they’re the one single way of getting around. They’re better than TOA’s because a jumpdrive can lock onto them, taking you anywhere in the X-Universe except, of course, Terran space, as it has no gates.
Jackson’s briefing is a little long; they know that the Xenon attacks are being manipulated by an entity in the Commonwealth, possibly the Argon, and they need you to find the base of operations. He’ll contact you when a suitable Xenon raiding party to follow is found. It won’t take long; mine was in Nyana’s Hideout and I think this is always the case, but it might be different for you. Just follow the signs.
You’ll come across some Argon stations in the south end of Heretic’s End. They’re a little smaller than Terran equivalents. Docking at them is much more pleasant.
At your destination, a cutscene of a Xenon strike force with our Argon Nova will play. We have to follow the Nova. Be careful, as the Xenon ships may be bigger than anything you have encountered before; skirt round them. Their weapons will shred anything smaller than a heavy fighter in seconds. Follow the Nova at a little distance; if you get too close an anxiety meter will appear and if it counts to 100% you fail the mission, but the same happens if you get too far away. The match speed key is your friend; look it up in the controls menu if you don’t know what it is.
The Nova will lead you through Teladi space to the Unknown Sector east of PTNI Headquarters. Save when you enter the Unknown Sector. There, it will dock at a Pirate Base, which you have to scan. Problem is, there’s a welcoming committee for you; several Xenon and Pirate ships. You can either try and hide behind the base whilst the scan completes, which is darned near impossible, or you can fight and destroy your opponents before scanning in clear air. You’ll probably need that save whichever option you pick, unless you’ve got a decent ship by now.
Once you’ve worked your way past that bit, save again. You don’t want to go crashing into the next station you dock at to find you have to do that really hard bit all over again. You’ll probably want to go spacewalking to repair your ship with your suit’s Repair Laser as well.
Then fly back to Jackson in Heretic’s End. If you like, you can break from the plot again before doing this.
Jackson’s next mission is another patrol. This time, though, you’re the leader. You are given two Sabre escorts and three drone Rapiers. Best use for the Rapiers are as scrap for cash, but take off their expensive weapons first and put them on something a bit more worthy. When you’re ready, fly to your Sabres. You’re better off in something faster if you’re early in the game; an M4 is ideal. If you are later you might need something bigger.
Your patrol route takes you through Circle of Labour, Omicron Lyrae and Treasure Chest. In the first two you meet Xenon; in the last one, you come across your first Terraformer ships. Just destroy red blips until you’re told to move to the next Sector, and remember to save between sectors. At the end, you are told to return to Jackson to fill him in on the latest bad news. You don’t have to go immediately though, if you want to do some more trading etc then feel free.
When you dock, Jackson pawns you off back to Plinter, who is escorting a convoy to Venus. Your access rights are now upgraded to include Venus in your list of allowed visits.
Rendezvous with Plinter and comm him to start the mission. There’s USC and ATF patrols everywhere so we won’t run into any trouble, he says. I for one don’t believe him. Weapons at the ready.
When you reach Mars, a report comes back that a lone scout has breached the lines. It gets to Mars and drops a Jump Beacon. An entire Xenon fleet jumps in, and guess whose job it is to blow up the jump beacon? That’s right. You’ve got two choices, either engage elements of the Xenon fleet (the whole lot will be too much for you unless you’re flying a Destroyer) and fight your way through, gaining a bit of rep and rank in the process, or skirt round them and perform a surgical strike before showing the enemy the true meaning of cowardly. Either way you have to destroy the beacon, because otherwise the Xenon will lay waste to mars sector. Then get to Venus, leaving the locals to mop up the mess they’ve created.
When you get to Venus, talk to the girl with the book symbol. She gives you a rest and an Advanced Discoverer. That’s why they call them the ‘fairer sex’!
Wait for orders. Do as you please in the meantime. When you come back, it’ll be to Jackson in Heretic’s End.
Chapter 3; Rendezvous
It is strongly recommended that you complete the first mission of the Operation Final Fury plot before attempting this mission.
Jackson informs you that amongst other things downloaded during the Xenon attack on Sol were blueprints for Terraformer technology. It looks like the Terraformers you just located were constructed somewhere in the Commonwealth, though no-one is sure where. The best guess is to be made by undercover operative Robert Pearle, who is presently on the Trading Station in Nathan’s Voyage. First order is to go there and pick him up.
When you arrive, you’re interrupted by a very rude woman who demands that you follow her. Might as well. If she knows you then she knows why you’re here. Turns out she’s Pearle’s accomplice, and just trying to fit in with the locals on comms in case the Argon are monitoring her. It seems that she and Pearle are not undercover anymore; he got caught hacking an Argon data terminal and he’s been taken to Argon Sector M148’s military outpost. If you hadn’t completed the OFF first mission, going into that sector would be suicide, as every ship there would shoot at you on sight. Now, we have a chance. But first, you’ve got to talk to a Teladi contact. If you don’t mind crawling around at snail speed then just sit back and let your autopilot do the work. Otherwise, fly to Grand Exchange. The contact is on a station there. Don’t dock, just fly up to it.
When you get in range, the Teladi will start chatting to you; you don’t need to wait for Heywood. Apparently, the Teladi can get you into M148 but wants something in return; you need to shut down his ‘friend’s’ drug smuggling operation. Proceed to sector Tears of Greed.
When you arrive, a cutscene plays showing your target. This luckless Teladi has to meet his end today. Blow him away. After that messy business is done with, you need to scan for remaining smugglers. Check your Sector Map and they’ll be highlighted in a special section. Scan them for contraband and if there is any, open fire. When that’s done, return to your Teladi contact. They’re grateful and have arranged a trade run to M148; you need to deliver 200 Teladianium.
So, take your nice shiny well-equipped fighter… and dump it somewhere in favour of a big fat slow badly-armoured defenceless freighter. You aren’t going to fit 200 Teladianium in anything smaller than 1000 units of cargo space. If you don’t own a freighter, then buy and equip a Pelican at the local shipyard; it is a long way from ideal but it’ll do. Put your prize fighter inside it. I recommend heading south to Queen’s Harbour to pick up a Jumpdrive from Atreus HQ, putting it on your fighter and filling the ship with a hundred or so Energy Cells to get out of trouble in a hurry. You’ll need it. Get a cargo lifesupport system on your fighter if you havn't already got one, then stock up your Pelican with 200 Teladianium from one of the foundries in the Sector and head to Argon Sector M148.
Move up towards the Military Outpost, which has turned blue just for you. Dock, and Heywood will also dock with it. She’s going to bust Pearle out of there, and you need to be ready to pick them up. Undock, and get ready with your fighter. It’ll need 12 units of cargo space free.
When Heywood rescues Pearle, she can’t get back to her ship. They jump out of an airlock in their EVA suits. You need to pick them up by running them over; this is difficult at first as they’re moving very fast but they’ll eventually slow down to 14m/s. When they do, slow down to about 20, creep up and get them on board. Then jump out.
Mission finishes when you make it to the Orbital Defence Station in Heretic’s End. It’ll be some time before your next mission.
Chapter 4; Reconnaissance
The plot resumes at Ishiyama’s base in the Asteroid Belt.
According to Pearle, the Terraformers are being selective with their targets; they’re hitting the Boron and some Split factions hardest. That implies that one of the Split families is in control; Pearle suspects either the Ryk or Zyarth. We are to drop recon satellites in Split space to figure out which.
Collect three Navigation Relay Satellites and move to Family Zyarth. There’s a Xenon sector in the way so you might want to jump there. Drop the satellite somewhere in sector and move to Family Ryk. Drops another navsat and them move to Zyarth’s Dominion and drop the third. You have to wait a short while whilst Pearle checks for Terraformer activity.
He soon spots some unusual activity in Family Zyarth; some Terraformer ships that didn’t enter the sector by gate. They quickly jump out. Move back there. Pearle, having a Sherlock Holmes moment, comes up with a brilliant idea; if the Terraformers are being manufactured in Family Zyarth and they have jumpdrives, then we can trace freighters with jumpdrive components to find the factory. This idea isn’t so brilliant for the poor sod who has to do the scanning, though. The ships are highlighted as before, in a separate section on the gravidar.
When you find the right one, he tries to get away. You have to force a bail; the pilot will bail when his hull strength drops low enough, and you’ll need the ship afterwards, so be gentle and try to do as little damage as possible. When the pilot bails, do some repairs, and claim the ship.
Now, transfer the shields from your fighter to your new acquisition, along with your jumpdrive and enough jump fuel to get at least 1 sector. You’ll need that equipment. Then save, as you’ll need that too. Send your fighter to the Trading Station in the next Sector.
There’s an Elephant roaming round the sector somewhere; should be easy to spot. This is your factory. Fly up to it, and Pearl will instruct you to plant a tracking device. You have to be close and a counter will appear. To make it really hard, a group of Terraformer fighters will swarm out and attack you. As soon as the counter hits 100%, activate your jumpdrive. Get back to your fighter and rendezvous with it; transfer yourself and your equipment back and dump the freighter. No time to lose; proceed to Ocean of Fantasy and rendezvous with the Terran Odin there. Make sure you have a Cargo Lifesupport System installed too.
The tracking device you planted shows that the Elephant is in the Unknown Sector east of Zyarth’s Dominion. You’ve been given a prize for your efforts; a Cutlass. Fly to the target Sector and you’ll find the Terrans mounting an attack on the Elephant. There are three Scabbards trying to board the TL. You have to protect them until they reach their destination. Forget about the cloud of Split in front of you and let the Terrans take care of them; your priority should be the line of Split ships that the TL launches at you when you get close, so stay with the lead transport.
When the Scabbards get close, they board the Elephant without much happening. Some charges blow up the information terminals, preventing the Marines from finding out who is responsible. However, a Split ship is hit and the pilot bails. You must pick him up and when you do, take him to the Military Base in The Moon, which your clearance is upgraded for. There’s also an Enhanced Jaguar waiting for you next to the astronaut should you be so inclined.
When you dock at the Moon military base, General Ichiyama informs you that this could take a while. Your time is your own.
Chapter 5; The Lost Colony
When you come back, it will be to the Mars shipyard.
Ichiyama and Pearle have extracted the necessary information from the Split; The guy in charge is a Terran named Martin Winters. He dates from before the original Terraformer War, and it is presumed that he cryogenically froze himself during the intervening centuries. He seems to be based in a former Terran colony lost during the war; Aldrin.
Your first mission is to play with some Marines, boarding a Vidar. You can if you like, but there’s no point really. The Vidar will be gifted to you after a time. If you like, you can transfer to it, it’s a good ship for killing bigger prey, though struggles with smaller fighters.
After you’ve selected your ship, you need to rendezvous with Jackson in The Moon; he’s on board a Terran Tyr battleship. He gives you the co-ordinates for Aldrin, it’s up to you to get there. You’ll need 60 Energy Cells for a fighter, and to find the sector, press ‘A’ repeatedly to cycle through.
When you jump in, what a sight greets your eyes. Welcome to the Rock. Yes, that really is what we call it. And yes, it does sound better said with a Scottish accent. But there’s a mission to hand.
We have to recon what look like factories. You’d better start getting used to the distances involved in this humongous Sector; the factory is more than 100km away, and the Rock messes with autopilots. You’ll have to do your flying manually.
When you get there, a Springblossom will undock and head for the fleet. Jackson orders an interception, but when the ship stops, the pilot turns out to be Human too. He’s a commander of the Aldrin defence forces. Apparently, they used to own Terraformer technology, but Winters stole their CPU ship. Jackson goes to have a chat with the Aldrin government to figure out how to rectify the situation. Your job in the meantime is to deal with any threats.
One quickly develops. A group of Terraformer and Xenon ships comes in for the kill. Annihilate them. After they’re dead, the Terrans find the CPU ship and go on the attack. You are given a Marine boarding team. However, you don’t have to use them. You can let the Terrans deal with everything from here on in, although there is an exploit which can be used to capture the CPU ship if you wish to. You can read about it elsewhere on the forums.
When it’s done, your new mission is to transport Aldrin dignitaries to Earth. Clearance upgraded again. Dock at the Energy Production Base and pick up the passengers; you need a Cargo Lifesupport System. Then jump back to Asteroid Belt and fly to Earth. Be careful when you enter the sector, as the autopilot hates the Torus as much as it hates the Aldrin Rock... and if you move too far out of the direct line between the gate and the docking bays you get a spectacular firework display courtesy of the Torus defence systems with yourself as the star performer. You’ll have to dock manually. You thought other Terran stations were big?
So, let’s round off your campaign; You’ve got four Rapiers, an Advanced Discoverer, a Cutlass, two Scabbards with several Marines aboard and a Vidar. There’s a Claymore bomber sat in the Earth Torus after you dock. You might have picked up assorted other ships too. Quite a haul; the beginnings of a fleet with which to forge your way to Galactic domination. Have fun!
You’ll get more rewards in the following plotlines, but for now, that’s the conclusion of the Terran plot.