Slug Home Nebula surrender

Spoiler warning: The following contains spoilers for the game. Continue at your own risk if you do not mind ruining some fun of the game.

This random event occurs in:

Slug Home Nebula
Slug Controlled Nebula
at a non-distress beacon. in a nebula. The Long-Ranged Scanners will detect ship presence.

This is the event that unlocks the Slug Cruiser. It is meant to be confused with the Slug Fight in Nebula random event as it has the same intro texts and the same kind of fight, leading to the same surrender text. Accepting that surrender, however, yields different results and reveals which event is actually occurring. This means that if you don't get the choice listed below, you merely haven't found this event yet.

To unlock the ship, you will need to have either a Slug crew member or Sensors level 2+ at the quest marker.

The intro text for this event varies, and could be any of the following:

Your sensors are no match for the Slug's telepathic abilities - a ship you never even saw opens fire from astern!
The Slug vessel you encounter here has obviously made a big score and is looking to test its new armaments. They picked the wrong ship to attack.
A Slug passenger ship hails: "Please, your worthy alien highnessesss, we are unarmed and sseeking asssylum." You approach cautiously, and weapons immediately spring from their hull!
A Slug ship - a rogue, you suspect - approaches, but when he sees you're Federation he thinks better of the sneak attack and fires everything he has.
Direct attacks are not preferred by the Slugs, but of the three you see at this beacon, one has the brass to make a move on your position!
- Fight a Slug ship (default rewards).

When the Slug ship surrenders

"You have besssted us! Will you accept what is in our storeesss in exchange for our livess?"

Let them live.
- "Take thisss newly developed weapon we're transporting... They're not going to be happy we gave it up, that isss for ssure..."
  1. Accept the prototype weapon.
    - This odd beam weapon does no damage to ships but instead greatly hurts the crew! Diabolical!
      - You receive the Anti-Bio Beam weapon.
  2. We don't want the weapon, we want information.
    - You ask where they were delivering the weapon. "By telling you we will probably die jussst as like as not... Oh well." They give you the coordinates of the a prototype cruiser's mobile construction platform.
      - A quest marker is added to your map.
We will not accept surrender!
- Continue the fight.

Quest Marker

You arrive to discover an impressive cruiser being worked on by a few smaller ships and guarded by an assault ship. The mobile construction platform is slowly slipping into the clouds. You have not yet been noticed.

Charge them before they escape.
- Fight the ship defending the platform.
Try to tail them without being noticed.
- You slip into the nebula undetected but at this rate you are likely to get lost and lose track of them.
  1. Fly slowly toward their last known position.
    - You are advancing slowly when suddenly the assault ship bursts through the clouds. They must have been able to detect you with their telepathy!
      - Fight the ship defending the platform.
  2. Wait and hope the escort leaves.
    - You wait for a time before attempting to advance toward the platform. However, after some frantic searching you can't tell if they left or you simply miscalculated your trajectory... You give up the search and prepare to leave.
      - Nothing happens.
  3. (Slug Crew) Have your crew member monitor their life signatures.
    - You try to stay just far enough away that they won't detect your life signatures without actively searching for you. After a time, your Slug tells you the ship with a larger crew has jumped away. He guides the helm toward the platform...
      - The only ship left near the cruiser is an interceptor. This should be easy!
        Fight the interceptor.
  4. (Improved Sensors) Try to maintain a lock on their ships from a distance. (Requires level 2 Sensors)
    - You overclock your sensors, trying to get them to function in the clouds. They work just enough to let you keep tabs on their general position. After a time, the assault ship and most of the escort jumps away from the platform. You take the opportunity and move in to attack.
      - The only ship left near the cruiser is an interceptor. This should be easy!
        Fight the interceptor.

Fight the ship defending the platform

This ship is stronger than the interceptor.

(After destroying enemy ship) With the assault ship taken care of, you turn your attention to the construction platform. However, you find that it has long since disappeared into the clouds. You scrap what you can and prepare to move on.
- You receive a high amount of scrap and resources.
(After killing enemy crew) With the assault ship taken care of, you turn your attention to the construction platform. However, you find that it has long since disappeared into the clouds. You scrap what you can and prepare to move on.
- You receive a high amount of scrap and resources.

Fight the interceptor

This ship will try to escape right away.

(When the ship wants to escape) The interceptor powers up its FTL drive in preparation to escape. At the same time, the cruiser's FTL drive does the same. They must be linked! Don't let them get away!
(After the ship successfully escaped) The interceptor jumps away with the cruiser linked to its FTL signatures. You were so close...
- Nothing happens.
(After destroying enemy ship) With the escort destroyed you take a look at your impressive prize. Your mission is too pressing to take a test flight. Before you rig the ship's computer to guide the it back to the main Federation hangar you discover a unique augment that duplicates the Slug's ability to heal breaches!
- You receive a high amount of scrap and resources, the Slug Repair Gel augmentation, and you unlock the Slug Cruiser.
(After killing enemy crew) With the escort destroyed you take a look at your impressive prize. Your mission is too pressing to take a test flight. Before you rig the ship's computer to guide the it back to the main Federation hangar you discover a unique augment that duplicates the Slug's ability to heal breaches!
- You receive a high amount of scrap and resources, the Slug Repair Gel augmentation, and you unlock the Slug Cruiser.

Trivia

This event is called "NEBULA_SLUG_FIGHT_UNLOCK" in the datafiles.

This event always occurs once in the Slug Home Nebula, but the Slug Fight in Nebula event can occur multiple times, as well as other events involving Slug fights with similar surrenders. This may give the impression that this event is elusive or luck dependent, where it really is just a matter of finding the right beacon.

If you get the quest late in the sector, and it is transferred to the next sector, there is a chance that the quest location is not in a nebula on the sector map, despite being in one when you jump at the quest beacon. Click "expand" below to see a screenshot of this.

Slug Cruiser Quest Bug — In the top-right hand corner, you will see a faint nebula sign, when the map says other wise

Code Trivia

This event is called NEBULA_SLUG_FIGHT_UNLOCK in the data.dat file:

<event name="NEBULA_SLUG_FIGHT_UNLOCK" unique="true"> 
    <text load="NEBULA_SLUG_FIGHT"/>
    <ship load="JELLY_UNLOCK1" hostile="true"/>
    <environment type="nebula"/>
</event>

It loads the normal introduction text, NEBULA_SLUG_FIGHT, and loads a ship that has the blueprint as the other ships, but it loads a special event when it surrenders:

<ship name="JELLY_UNLOCK1" auto_blueprint="SHIPS_JELLY">
    <surrender  chance="0" min="3" max="4" load="SLUG_UNLOCK_SURRENDER"/>
    <escape  chance="0.5" min="3" max="4" load="PIRATE_ESCAPE"/>
    <destroyed load="DESTROYED_DEFAULT"/>
    <deadCrew load="DEAD_CREW_DEFAULT"/>
</ship>

It is only listed once in the sector specifications:

<sectorDescription name="SLUG_HOME" minSector="3" unique="true"> 
    <nameList>
        <name>Slug Home Nebula</name>
    </nameList>
    [...]
    <event name="NEBULA_SLUG_FIGHT_UNLOCK" min="1" max="1"/>
    [...]
</sectorDescrption> [sic]