Xenowars | Defense, Dungeon, And Dung
Starfield | Artifacts And Consequences
I had a feeling something bad was going to transpire at some point for not heeding the Starborn’s warning. It turns out they can be quite a wrathful race when they choose to be. The consequences of my actions would end up being quite heartfelt.
I made it back to the Lodge loaded with artifacts to find out some rather terrifying news. The Eye had been hit and it sounded like things were going rather badly up there. I had to make a hard choice. Do I head up there to help defend The Eye or stay down here and try to defend the Lodge?
Starborn was done playing nice with us. From here on out I'd be hunted down. There would be now here safe to go. If I could be attacked, they could and would show up on occasion to try and emilite me as being some grand threat.
I decided to gather all the artifacts I could and see what kind of stand I could make at the Lodge. In retaliation for my deeds, The Hunter sent after us to take back all the artifacts and to finish us off once and for all.
This was quite a hard choice to make. The follower I've been using for most of my adventures, Andreja was up on The Eye, and I had to let her go. For a while afterword, I would choose sometimes to adventure alone not wanting to get attached to a different follower as they slowly spill their beans on their life story and share many insights even when you don’t care to hear about it.
Then The hunter broke into the place. No matter how many times I tried to emilite him he would just vanish on me. It was not that I had defeated him either. He would reappear shortly later to lay down even more of an assault on me.
What I had considered to be home for so long was now compromised and not a place I'd be looking to return to anytime soon or take any kind of harbor in. I felt a little bad for just abandoning the place. All I really could do was take all the artifacts with me and escape.
In the basement of the place was a backdoor to exit into The Well. Not even down there were we safe. The Hunter quickly found and went after us down there as well. It’s kind of funny early on in the game I felt this back entryway was kind of pointless since at the time you could not get some further doors once you were in The Well to go out that way. Now I could.
Despite how much I wanted to keep fighting back every time The Hunter showed up. I also had to be careful. While most people were running and fleeing from this massive death The Hunter brought. If a stray bullet of mine by mistake hits a citizen even down in The Well that would not end well for me for committing such crimes on this planet. I would not even be forgiven for it occurring while trying to defend the place. Creating an extra challenge all in itself.
I then slowly fought my way out of The Well and onto the surface of the planet. Then I headed down to my ship the best I could. There were a few more fights with The Hunter along the way. At one point I had burned through so much healing I was starting to wonder if I'd be making it to the ship itself.
Thankfully the ship was still intact by the time I made it to it. I quickly got onboard and headed into space. Where no shock to me I was greeted by a ship. The artifacts I had acquired he was referring to as the Armillary.
I had to make a hard choice of where I was going to store the thing. Wherever I put it the Starborn and who knows what else would come looking for it. All I do know is it was not going to be safe at the Lodge.
For a while, I was considering setting it out at my main outpost. I could load the place up with defense turrets. Every time I thought about this, however, I recall the time that base got raided. All my power structures got taken out. It was a mess to try and repair the insane number of buildings I have powering my massive operation.
My next thought was perhaps I'd set up an outpost just for the artifacts. The issue with that is similar to my main outpost. Once all the buildings supplying power to any kind of defense system, I put in place get taken out only any of the NPCs I have at that outpost would be left to defend it.
There was also another option. To build and leave the darn thing on my ship. My ship was already going to be a massive target anyway since I was flying around in it a lot. My only issue with that is how often I'm not on the actual ship itself.
While the Starborn attack my ship while I'm off on some mission miles away from my ship? I do love my ship and what if I wanted to change and have a different ship? What then?
I decided on the best option and perhaps the most insane of them all was quite a simple one. I’d just carry it around with me. There is no one better suited to defend the artifacts anyway. I could always build the thing on the ship if and when needed then disassemble it again.
I was going to be hunted down by the Starborn anyway. I had to ensure that with my last dying breath, they were not going to get any of these artifacts back. The Starborn would darn right try quite often attacking me while I was out doing other things in the universe and even when I was trying to rest.
With all of that out of my mind, I hurried up to The Eye to check in on the members up there and most of all Andreja. She did not make it. For the rest of this universe, I'll have to live with the choices I made that led to her getting killed.
Final Thoughts
What was left of us flew back down to the Lodge to pay our respects to Andreja. The place looked like a disaster and I for one was not going to spend any time cleaning it up. I wanted to go out and seek some retribution.
I have to give it to this game. I had spent so many hours with the same follower. Then it shoved a knife into my heart. I almost can’t bring myself to pick another follower. I never thought she did an amazing job or anything. That was just quite a brutal thing for a game to pull on the player after having you spend so many hours with a character right by your side always having your back.
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Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Starfield.
Disclosure: Starfield received for free through AMD rewards from the graphics card I purchased.