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Part 2: Stranger in a Strange Land
Last time, we were roused from our 70-year-long cryosleep and landed on Terra 2, which is where we're supposed to start looking for chemicals to help our mad scientist buddy revive all our old friends from the Hope colony ship. We were meant to be assisted in this quest by a dashing smuggler known as Captain Hawthorne, but... well, we made closer contact with him than intended, and now he's dead underneath our escape pod. So, naturally, we're gonna go take his ship now.
The skyboxes in this game are pretty fantastic, and those volumetric clouds aren't half bad either.
We make our way down the path as the game teaches us the basics. Sneaking is something we'll make extensive use of throughout our journey. I don't think the guy up ahead was very skilled at avoiding detection.
Our legless friend here is a marauder. Marauders are the main human enemies we'll face in The Outer Worlds, and I think the game kinda dropped the ball by making them these pretty generic crazy masked guys not unlike Borderlands psychos. There is some lore here and there that fleshes them out a little, but for the most part the marauders are just cannon fodder. Killing and looting them is the only interaction you'll ever have with them.
Speaking of loot, Adreno is our main healing item. By default, it's equipped in the first (and currently only) slot of our medical inhaler, which is used by pressing LB.
As the game is telling us here, we have a few cover options such as this tall grass here. Generally, as long as you stay in cover, enemies don't seem to find you unless you actually alert them.
Tall grass works well as cover, but this transparency effect can be distracting and also kill your frame rate if your hardware can't handle it. On my PC, the game generally runs between 80-120 fps at 1440p but frequently drops down to the low 60s when this alpha effect is onscreen. In any case, we have to make use of this grass to avoid the two canids atop the ledge there.
Here's a better look at the canids. These particular ones are "Timid Canids" that quickly lose interest even if they do catch a whiff of you.
The small white downward arrow means the enemy is unaware, like the canid closer to us. The bigger white downward arrow above the other canid is actually a meter that fills as the enemy gets more suspicious, and it turns red once the enemy actually enters the investigating state. They'll half-heartedly look around until the red meter drains and then return to unaware status. Alerted is a white and red downward arrow with an exclamation mark, and that means everyone in the general vicinity knows where you are.
We make our way past the canids to this cave and drop down a short distance.
As we head forward and have a look at the sprat (I don't know if that's actually short for space rat, but they are space rats), our vision goes a bit blurry and weird.
Not to mention quite purple, as time also slows down. We should probably mention this to Welles at some point.
PHINEAS WELLES: Easy, now. You've been frozen for a while. (static) bound to be unforeseen side effects.
Oh, okay then. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure.
That's a big drop. It's also the only way forward, so here goes nothing.
GAH! MY SHINS! The cracking sound effect when you take fall damage is rather unpleasant.
We had to take damage there because the game wants to teach us how to use the Emergency Medical Inhaler, so let's do that. Adreno heals over time.
That is certainly a pile of explosive barrels, but we have nothing to blow them up with. Let's look around a bit.
GUARD PELHAM: Hey, you. Come here.
To the left, we find this guy beckoning us over. Maybe he can help us out.
GUARD PELHAM: You've tried the best. Now-
Uh, what?
GUARD PELHAM: - now try the rest. Spacer's Choice. Oh Law, that stings.
Let's just ignore the fact he's spouting some kind of advertising slogans at us and heal him.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Sit still. I'll patch you up.
GUARD PELHAM: Looks like the bleeding has stopped. I owe you one. Hope you don't mind me omitting this little exchange from my report. Spacer's Choice doesn't like us accepting outside help.
Now, Cornelia has been in cryostasis for the last 70 years and presumably has no idea what this guy is babbling about or what a Spacer's Choice is.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Spacer's what?
GUARD PELHAM: Oh, we're all part of the Spacer's Choice family here. Not that I deserve to be. Can't even deliver a company slogan. We were out on patrol. I saw a marauder camp up in the hills. Thought I could take 'em. Then my gun misfired. Right through my side. I mean, what are the odds of that, right? Just barely scraped by with my life. Crawled in here and blocked off the exit with those canisters.
The likelihood of a Spacer's Choice weapon malfunctioning is pretty high, if I'm remembering the marketing materials correctly. It doesn't affect gameplay at all, because having your Spacer's Choice weapon randomly shoot you in the side during a fight probably wouldn't be very amusing to most players. Maybe it should be an optional feature for both the player and all enemies using Spacer's Choice gear, like the trait in Fallout that makes critical misses more common.
CORNELIA VECTREX: What were you doing out here?
GUARD PELHAM: Investigating an illegally grounded ship! All spacecraft must arrive and depart from authorized landing pads. That's Board law, that is. Some hullhead grounded their spacecraft out in the open. That's a real good way to attract marauders. See those canisters by the entrance? Marauders come sniffing around in here, and I can take 'em all out with a single shot! Not bad, huh?
This will not go well.
CORNELIA VECTREX: [Persuade 1] I've got a better idea. Give me your gun, and I'll go get help.
GUARD PELHAM: Yeah, okay. You look like you know your way around a gun. Got some spare ammo, not counting the bullet in my side. Here, you can have my sabre, too. For patching me up and all. All Spacer's Choice weapons are now thirty percent less likely to malfunction. You've tried the best. Now try the rest. Spacer's Choice. Yes! Nailed it that time.
I'm surprised Spacer's Choice doesn't count the bullet in his side as spare ammo, to be honest.
He's so pumped about finally getting the slogan right. Good for him!
CORNELIA VECTREX: Can you tell me where I am?
GUARD PELHAM: You hit your head or something? You're in Emerald Vale. We're a Spacer's Choice community. Edgewater's a little ways down. Prettiest place in the vale. Be sure to stop by our provisioner's for a can of our famous saltuna.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Do you know anything about the Hope?
GUARD PELHAM: The Hope? Is that some sort of fancy new drug? Are you with Auntie Cleo or something? Don't take this the wrong way or nothing, but I'm not allowed to fraternize with Cleo workers. Company policy.
Great. I guess this mook wouldn't know about some ship that disappeared decades ago. At least we now know where we are, so let's leave Pelham alone and get a move on.
Mag-Picks are lockpicks. That's the long and short of it.
So, let's blow up these crates and make a path.
PHINEAS WELLES: Damn it! My ears! What just happened? (static) you hear me? What in the (static) wrong with this (static) piece of junk?
Maybe should've told Welles to turn off the monitor before we blew up the crates. Oh well. He'll live, I'm sure.
Since we now have a weapon, the game is telling us about the weapons tab of the inventory. We can equip four weapons at once, and there are also options like breaking down weapons for repair parts, or field repairing your stuff if your Engineering is high enough.
Light Pistol: "This is probably the most common handgun in the entire colony. It's not a bad little gun...and it's a great source of parts!"
Sentry Sabre: "This melee weapon is standard issue to military recruits, who are taught swordplay before being taught ranged combat. Coated with Spacer's Choice patented Never-Dull Finish, this blade stays durable for at least twenty swings."
So yeah, all we have is the Spacer's Choice light pistol with 111 bullets and the Sentry Sabre Pelham gave us, so not exactly top of the line hardware. We'll have a look at the rest of the inventory when it becomes relevant. I'm probably not going to transcribe all weapon and item descriptions because there's roughly 900 million of these things, but if I see anything interesting I'll highlight it.
As we emerge from the cave, the world goes a bit slow and purple again.
Tactical Time Dilation, caused by our brain processing time differently due to complications from the revival process, is basically our version of the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. Right now, with our current weapons, it's largely just a basic bullet time thing to help us shoot marauders in the head, but eventually we'll get access to targeted attacks that cause status effects and extra damage. Well, technically we have access now because all you need is 20 points in a combat skill and we do have that in Long Guns, but we don't have a long gun at the moment.
As the tutorial explains, the TTD meter drains slowly when you stand still and faster when you move and attack, and it also regenerates over time. There are also various perks to improve TTD in general, but we'll get there when we get there.
MARAUDER VANDAL: (Incoherent grumbling)
Hm?
MARAUDER VANDAL: (Snarling)
Yep, this guy clearly isn't interested in a nice conversation. Since he chose to hang out right next to explosive barrels like a dumbass, that makes our job easier.
That'll take care of that. Of course, this racket also alerts his buddy nearby.
Here's something I completely forgot existed because the left side of the screen is usually the last thing I'm looking at during a firefight: TTD shows you the targeted enemy's level, current and max HP, and armor points (the level 1 Marauder Goon here has 4 armor against physical damage) and a brief analysis. Marauder Goons are melee attackers, as we can see from the blade he's trying to whack us with. We also get some amusing factoid about the targeted enemy, such as "Has a terrible taste in fashion" here.
Let's grab these guys' stuff, then. This goon has a massive bounty of 11 bit cartridges (that's money), 17 light ammo and another sentry sabre. All these sabres will be broken down to parts later so I can repair the actual weapons I want to use.
The game popped up a tutorial about armor management, but there wasn't anything interesting about it. We only have our starting armor at the moment, and as you can see it's not really very protective at all.
If you pause the game and choose the Idle Camera option, the camera will rotate around your character as they stand around. We can't adjust the angle or anything to get a better look, as soon any button is pressed it just goes back to first person.
Here's the little campsite next to where the first marauder with his explosive barrels was. There are some mag-picks lying around, as well as various food items like a Mock Apple, a Bunch of Nanners and "Tarmac & Cheese", the latter of which doesn't sound very edible. More importantly, there's a yellow box over there. The game pops up a tutorial about hacking and lockpicking, but I'll just explain it myself.
23/3 means we have 23 lockpicking skill and this box requires 3 lockpicking to open, so we can easily open it. However, it also requires two mag-picks and we only have one, but there's two right next to the box and one offscreen to the left, so that's not an issue.
Oh, great, a worthless 2-handed melee weapon we'll never use. We can see it has Knockdown as its associated special effect. I'll cover status effects in more detail once we can actually inflict some of them, but Knockdown... well, briefly knocks the target down.
As we proceed down the hill, we come across two more marauders. This one is a Marauder Vandal, a light armor marauder variant that uses handguns. Before we do anything, we'll just let one of them wander off a bit further.
Marauder Vandal (level 3): "Is in the 5th percentile for literacy."
The other marauder is too far to hear his friend getting shot, so he'll still be unaware as long as we take this guy down fast enough.
This goon eats more saltuna than the average person, but it won't stop him from getting shot in the head.
Finally, we reach Hawthorne's ship. We can just about see some marauders hanging around the ship, but there are some folks in what looks like Spacer's Choice armor closer to us. Let's go and say hello, maybe tell them one of their guys is still in the cave.
Also, I think the ship's shadow isn't rendering properly here because I have shadows set to medium. Shadows are usually the first thing I turn down a few notches when I want some more frames. It's either that or the general draw distance (which is set to high) that's causing the issue. The Spacer's Choice Edition on Xbox Series and PS5 also fails to render this shadow at range even though the original release on Xbox One X/PS4 Pro managed it, so that's just great.
LIEUTENANT MERCER: Hey! Get over here before you get yourself killed!
Can't refuse an invitation like that, can you?
LIEUTENANT MERCER: Don't know where you came from, stranger, but you best keep your head down. There's marauders hereabouts. And worse, landing violators! Gall on that rungleech. Landing in the Vale without using an official Spacer's Choice landing pad. I'd slap 'em with a fine, if it weren't for all these marauders shambling about.
You could always... I don't know, fine the marauders for loitering around a crime scene?
CORNELIA VECTREX: It's just a landing violation. Let it go.
LIEUTENANT MERCER: Are you out of your mind?! No way. Once we've dealt with these marauders, I'm hunting that sick freak down. I just, you know... need a couple of winks to catch my breath. Stretch my legs some.
Ah, I see.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Don't worry, you sit tight. I'll handle it.
We could have easily persuaded Mercer and Private Kimball to help us in this fight, and by "help" I mean "charge in and get themselves killed". Well, Mercer can hold her own but Kimball bites it every time I ask these idiots to help me out, so in the interest of keeping him alive (not that it matters at all) I'll just do this myself.
There are five or so marauders here, a mix of goons and vandals. This goon cheated on their career aptitude test, which is of course an unforgivable crime and the only punishment is a bullet to the head. Well, that's what I'd say if I was a Spacer's Choice guard, I suppose.
Let's start by taking down this vandal who prefers smoking cheap Tile tobacco products to the higher-end Wentsworth stuff (which is only sold to the rich, so presumably he mugged some rich folks for their cigarettes). We actually manage to inflict a status effect on him - the icons can be hard to parse even at high resolutions, but he is cowering. That's an effect you can inflict when your Persuade skill is 20 or higher, and it makes the target... well, cower in fear and do nothing for a while. Unfortunately, the fact he's cowering also means my bullets are missing his cranium as I can't see too well from this angle, and I really needed him out of the picture ASAP.
oh shit oh fuck this was a bad idea, why did I not ask the guards for help
Honestly, these really early encounters with multiple enemies are among the hardest in the game because you have fuck all in terms of health, armor and weapons. You always start with very low max health as well because there's no attribute that increases your initial health pool.
Despite our general squishiness and my incompetence at video games, we take the marauders down. This one has nightmares of being killed by a dashing space captain. We're about to have a spaceship, does that count?
And with that, we gain a level, which gives us a health boost, ten skill points, and a perk point (every other level).
Seven of the points are split between dialog, stealth, and tech skills. The most important thing here is getting Sneak to 20 so we can actually deal extra damage when shooting enemies from stealth, but we also get a second drug mixing slot for the medical inhaler. I may even equip something in it at some point. Lie and Intimidate are also at 20 and offer bonuses of their own (Lie: 15% chance to scramble automechanicals and make them attack each other; Intimidate: 20% chance to terrify creatures and make them run away for 10 seconds).
The remaining three points go into Ranged so we can eventually get Handguns to 20. I don't really use Heavy Weapons that much.
Then, it's time for perks. Most of them are pretty boring, which is a shame. I'll just go with +5 base armor rating to make our armor offer slightly more protection than tissue paper. +50% health would also have been a good option. Not very exciting, but good.
LIEUTENANT MERCER: This is gonna take a lot of paperwork.
Would take more if Kimball had kicked the bucket, so at least I did her a favor there.
Let's see what lurks inside Hawthorne's ship.
ADA: Please be informed that this vessel contains no valuable plunder.
That doesn't sound very convincing, ship AI.
ADA: Unauthorized access of spacefaring vessels is a crime. Please submit yourself to the authorities.
Maybe later. I want to talk to you first.
]
ADA: Hello, marauder. I am ADA - the Autonomous Digital Astrogator of this vessel.
Hello.
ADA: Please be informed that I am authorized to use violent retribution against unwanted solicitors.
ADA's expressions keep changing, so it's gonna be fun switching portraits each time.
ADA: Please return any misappropriated equipment, and exit this vessel in an orderly fashion. Failure to do so will result in your immediate destruction.
CORNELIA VECTREX: What are you going to do? Self-destruct?
ADA: Jettison procedures initiated. Disengaging airlocks. Preparing to eject all boarded parties in: Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
CORNELIA VECTREX: You realize we're on the ground, right?
There are many loud noises, which might scare off a marauder but won't work on us.
ADA: You are still here. My deception protocols have failed. I have been programmed to express disappointment.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Is this Hawthorne's ship?
ADA: This vessel is the registered property of Captain Alex Hawthorne.
ADA: I am incapable of accepting orders from anyone other than Captain Alex Hawthorne.
Yeah, about that...
CORNELIA VECTREX: Your captain's a red smear under my escape pod.
Maybe not the most respectful way to put it, but at least we're letting ADA know what actually happened.
ADA: I understand. I will require some time to process this informatiom. Thank you for your patience, and for your honesty.
ADA: I am programmed to take orders exclusively from Captain Hawthorne. If I accept your orders, then you must be Captain Hawthorne. Do you understand?
CORNELIA VECTREX: Okay, but I'm not Hawthorne. Hawthorne is dead.
ADA: I understand. You are speaking metaphorically.
Err, no, we're speaking quite literally. Of course we know what she's getting at, but let's just play dumb for a bit.
ADA: You wandered outside this ship and experienced a permanent, life-changing encounter. The old you is dead.
Uh... I guess you could say that?
ADA: Welcome back, Captain Hawthorne. I extend felicitations and congratulations on your life-changing experience.
CORNELIA VECTREX: You don't understand. My name is Cornelia Vectrex.
ADA: I understand. You are going undercover with an alias. I will update my discretion protocol accordingly.
Sure, that works.
ADA: Unfortunately, our engine is currently inoperable. Our main drive suffered a critical power failure, and we were forced to make an emergency landing.
That's gonna complicate things.
ADA: The main drive's power regulator has been irreparably damaged, and must be replaced.
CORNELIA VECTREX: [Engineering 5] I doubt I'll find a part like that just sitting in a garage.
ADA: Astutely observed. However, the probability of locating a power regulator within a worker settlement falls within acceptable parameters of certainty. High-capacity power regulators are sometimes employed in the electrical networks of worker settlements. I have taken the liberty of printing you a new Captain's Identity Cartridge. Please try not to lose it this time.
Well, the guard said there was a Spacer's Choice town near here. Maybe they have a power regulator, but they presumably need it so we're going to have to figure something out.
ADA: This cartridge identifies you - Alex Hawthorne - as the registered proprietor and captain of the Unreliable. Do you understand?
CORNELIA VECTREX: Yeah, ADA. I got it. Thanks.
ADA: Best of luck in your search for a power regulator. Try to stay alive this time.
Can't promise anything. But yeah, Cornelia's Captain Alex Hawthorne now. That might come in handy if we ever need to go by an alias. Unless, of course, we run into Hawthorne's old acquaintances, in which case it might be awkward.
While we're here, let's have a look around the Unreliable.
And the quest journal. Nothing super exciting there, but might as well show it off for posterity.
Here's our map. The quest marker is pointing at the exit door of the Unreliable right now, so it's not particularly useful at the moment. The Emerald Vale region is very small by open world game standards, some might say it's cramped. I don't really mind not having to traverse vast expanses just to get to quest objectives, and it also works nicely as a tutorial zone.
For whatever reason, you can inspect our items like this by pressing R3 in the inventory screen. Zoom in or rotate them if you want to. There's no reason to do so, ever, but you can do it.
ADA: If your equipment is in need of repair or modification, the Crux 2000 workbench is at your disposal, Captain.
We're not gonna bother with the workbench right now. I'll show it off once we get some mods and that sort of thing. I do pick up the weapon parts and the sawed-off shotgun, though.
ADA: I suppose everything on the Unreliable belongs to you now, Captain. Help yourself. No, really.
Thank you, I will. There are some lockers near the airlock that have some more stuff, but I forgot to check them this time.
What I failed to notice was the fact this shotgun is at 5% condition, so the 15 weapon parts next to it were meant to be used for repairing it at the workbench. We'll get to it eventually, don't worry.
ADA: The ship's engines cannot be powered until a replacement regulator has been properly installed.
Yep, the ominous red lighting tells us we're not going anywhere on this ship just yet.
Up the nearby ladder is the ship's kitchen. Not much to see there right now.
ADA: These are the crew's quarters. Alex preferred to travel alone. But he always had me. Due to catastrophic power failure, all doors will remain on security lockdown.
Right then, that's pretty much all we can do aboard the Unreliable right now. Except for one thing in the main hold, which is up a different ladder.
ADA: Want to be a brand new you? Try out our Respecification Machine. Alex installed it himself, right before he died.
We might make use of the respec machine later on in case we need to pass certain skill checks in quests. We'll leave it alone for now, though.
Let's head to Edgewater.
LIEUTENANT MERCER: Say... this wouldn't happen to be your ship, would it? Because you sure walked in like it was your ship. And if this ship is yours, well ma'am, you owe Spacer's Choice a hefty fine. Afraid we gotta dock your pay.
Somehow, I doubt she'd believe us if we told her this ship wasn't ours when it landed, I do have this handful of bits I looted off marauder corpses, but I don't think that's going to cover this fine she's talking about.
CORNELIA VECTREX: I don't have a job.
LIEUTENANT MERCER: I'll waive your fee since you helped us with those marauders. If you're looking for work, talk to the Constable down in Edgewater. She's got a bounty on marauders. Edgewater's not too far. Just follow the road east of here, over past the cemetery. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to inspect the crime scene before I make my report.
At least we're not on the hook for Hawthorne's parking ticket, that's good news. This path should take us to Edgewater.
There are some marauders along the path, so let's try out our new sneak attack bonus on this fellow who's suffering from halitosis. Our first shot takes off about 90% of his health, which is pretty good.
His friends are not too impressed, so let's give the shotgun a try.
The shotgun is falling apart, but we do manage to inflict Cripple (reduces movement speed, melee attack speed, and rate of fire), Blind (reduces vision range and ranged weapon accuracy), and Weaken (lowers all skills a moderate amount, target takes increased plasma, shock, and N-ray damage) by targeting various body parts. The icons, again, are very hard to actually parse during gameplay.
At the edge of the water, we find Edgewater. That makes sense, I suppose. We should probably put our gun away before we approach any of the townspeople (not that it actually matters, I just think it looks silly running around town waving a gun around).
SILAS: Whoa. Hey. Where'd you come from?
Earth?
SILAS: Don't go ambling out in those hills. That's marauder territory, friend.
CORNELIA VECTREX: How do yo know I'm not a marauder?
SILAS: You talk too pretty for a marauder. Most of them just grunt and yell. Ain't safe out here. You'd best head into town, avail yourself of Edgewater's high walls and low, low prices.
If you're wearing looted marauder armor (I didn't find any for some reason, maybe I forgot to loot one of the guys from the landing site), Silas does mistake you for a marauder until you start talking, and there are other NPCs in Edgewater that suggest maybe changing into something less marauder-y if you don't want to make the wrong impression.
CORNELIA VECTREX: I never got your name. I'm Cornelia Vectrex.
SILAS: Pleased to make your acquaintance. I'd shake your hand, but I been hauling corpses. You don't want none of that on you. Name's Silas. Junior Inhumer for the town of Edgewater. We're all part of the Spacer's Choice family.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Junior Inhumer. Fancy title for a gravedigger.
SILAS: Hey, I earned that fancy title. Started off as a lowly Junior Gravesite Builder. Then Junior Internment Engineer. Oh, and I was a Junior Burial Assistant, for a time.
I sort of regret bringing that up.
CORNELIA VECTREX: You seem pretty old to be a junior anything.
SILAS: The rate I've been working, I'm bound to earn a promotion. Must be about fifty, sixty burials away from Associate Inhumer.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Who do I talk to about a power regulator?
SILAS: Definitely not the Junior Inhumer, that's for sure. If you've got business inquiries, you should stop by Reed Tobson's office. He's up in the tower above the cannery. Head into town and follow the road. Look, you obviously ain't a worker. What's your racket? You a smuggler? Freelancer?
I think "wandering murderhobo" is the best description for what we do as an RPG protagonist. Freelancer would be the polite way to put that, I guess.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Depends on the work. You offering me a job?
SILAS: Edgewater is a company town. Board owned and operated. That includes the cemetery. None of us own our gravesites. Renting means money. Money means paperwork. Paperwork means signatures. Some of our family's become a mite delinquent in paying their dues, you see.
Shaking some poor sods down for their gravesite fees (which seems like a perfectly normal and healthy practice in itself) is not the most glamorous job to start with, but we're broke so at this point we'll take what we can get.
CORNELIA VECTREX: You're making people pay for their own graves?
SILAS: Company policy. If it was up to me, I'd put the whole town ten feet under, free of charge.
You might want to phrase that a little differently in case the Spacer's Choice guards are listening.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Why can't you collect these fees anyway?
Quotas, mostly. Got a backlog of graves to fill. Bodies won't bury themselves, you know.
CORNELIA VECTREX: All right. I'll collect your fees for you.
SILAS: Four workers still haven't paid up. Phyllis, Conrad, Ludwig, and Martin Abernathy. He's a special case. You may wanna twist his arm a little.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Where can I find these people?
SILAS: Conrad's got a barber shop in town. Phyllis works at the cannery most hours. Abernathy - I ain't seen him in a few days. His domicile is near the cannery. You'll find 'em in town. All except Ludwig, that is. He's over by the landing pad.
CORNELIA VECTREX: Why is Abernathy a special case?
SILAS: He just is. Look, I don't want to get into it. Just make sure he pays up.
Let's just ask him some general questions before we head into town.
CORNELIA VECTREX: This town must be in pretty bad shape, if it's keeping you employed.
SILAS: You could look at it that way, I suppose. You could look at us and say, "Those Edgewater saps lost near every soul to plague." But you'd be wrong. We're survivors. Loyal company folk braving the wilds.
Wait. Nobody said anything about a plague. What's this about a plague, now?
CORNELIA VECTREX: You're not worried about being sick?
SILAS: Every now and again a virulent plague sweeps through our town. That's life on the frontier, I suppose. A body grows accustomed.
Hopefully, whatever Welles injected us with is enough to keep the plague at bay. We have at least managed to avoid explosive cell death so far, which bodes well.
CORNELIA VECTREX: How long have you been a Junior Inhumer? Gravedigger. Whatever.
SILAS: Hang on. I'm doing some math in my head. Twenty, thirty, carry the one - uh, all my life.
I like how, even though the conversations still use the old Fallout talking head style, the characters at least show some expression. You can just about see the gears turning in Silas' head when he's trying to do the math here.
SILAS: Work's been real good to me. Fresh air. Exercise. Only problem's the paperwork. Can't get anybody to pay their gravesite fees.
CORNELIA VECTREX: You lose a lot of people to marauders?
SILAS: Former people, yeah. Marauders been raiding my graves, you see. Hence the armed guards.
CORNELIA VECTREX: What are they after? Loot?
SILAS: They are after the most precious loot of all. Spacer's Choice company property. If those marauders swipe any more bodies out of my cemetery, company's gonna dock my pay.
Well, we can't have that, can we? We've only encountered a few marauders and know nothing about them so we can't say whether marauders are normally in the business of digging up graves. Maybe we can catch them in the act at some point.
And we're finally at the Edgewater entrance. No question who runs things around here, you can probably see the Spacer's Choice branding from orbit. There's some loot in the buildings to our left and right, but we'll check them out later.
Next time, we will explore Edgewater and talk to a man about a power regulator.
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