Sometimes the Reach asks for help. A distress call is a ship under attack a gate or two from you, with a clock running: get there and kill the attackers before it runs out, and everyone who helped shares the reward. An escalation is a thread left behind by a fight you won: the pirate ran, and you know where. It's yours to follow, a few sites deep, to a named boss.
Steps
- When a distress alert appears, read it: who's in trouble, where, and how long they have.
- Press Slip there if it's in your system, or Set destination if it's next door.
- Shoot the attackers. They turn on you once you open fire.
- For escalations, open your Journal with J and follow the next step.
Distress calls
Calls come from systems with pilots in them, or one or two gates away. Every pilot in the call's system and next door gets the alert. It folds into a small pill after a few seconds, and you can drag the stack by a card's header.
| Call | In trouble | Clock | Reward pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freighter under attack | A Halcyon freighter | 4 min | 120,000 LUM |
| Warden patrol pinned down (Frontier and Void) | A Warden patrol | 5 min | 150,000 LUM |
| Boarding party on a mining barge | A Vorr barge at a belt | 4 min | 90,000 LUM |
| Stranded escape pod | An Ostrava pod, with 6 minutes of oxygen | 6 min | 60,000 LUM |
- The clock is honest. With every attacker alive, the victim lasts exactly until the clock runs out. Each attacker you kill buys it time.
- Anyone can answer. No fleet needed. You take part by damaging an attacker or by spending 20 seconds near the beacon. Every two pilots beyond the first bring one more attacker, up to three.
- Core space calls bring Core Cutters, slow enough for a starter cruiser's guns. Frontier and Void calls are harder.
How it ends
| Outcome | When | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Saved | Every attacker is dead and the victim lives. A pod also needs a pilot within 2.5 km to tow it. | The pool, bigger by a quarter for each extra pilot (at most double), is split equally. Everyone gains standing with the victim's faction. Sometimes one helper finds a named module in their hold, or the captain puts in a word with one of their agents. |
| Destroyed | The victim's hull or oxygen runs out | A wreck with some of its cargo. The attackers stay and fight. |
| Expired | Time runs out with attackers still alive | The attackers take their prize and leave. |
Escalations
Clearing a pirate hideout, a Choir shrine or a combat signature, or saving a distress call, can open an escalation for the pilot who did the most damage: "The pirate fled to a hidden base." The deeper the band, the better the odds.
- A chain of 2 to 4 sites, each a gate or two from the last, harder as you go. Every step's leader carries a named module, and the final boss carries a faction module.
- Private. Only you see the sites, unless you share them. Share with fleet adds every current fleet mate; share again for pilots who joined since.
- Each step is done when its ships are dead and you or someone you shared with helped. Everyone who damaged them splits a bonus, and the final step adds 250,000 LUM. If none of you were part of it, the group comes back after 5 minutes.
- Time limit: 36 hours for the first step, then 24 hours from each step you finish. You can hold five at once; a sixth is lost.
| Chain | Where it starts | Steps | Ends with |
|---|---|---|---|
| The smuggler fled to a hidden cache | Core space | 2 | Quartermaster Ressa Vane |
| The pirate fled to a hidden base | The Frontier | 3 | Overlord Kessa Varn |
| The ledgers point to a deep-space network | Frontier combat signatures | 4 | Broker Ilsan Morrow, with two faction modules |
| A Choir echo answers from deeper in | The Void | 3 | The Cantor of the Hollow Hymn |
The Journal
J, or Journal on the Commbar, lists your escalations: the step you're on, the system and jumps, the time left, who shared it with you and the boss on the last step. Set destination plots the way; once you're in the system it becomes Slip to site. The Commbar button glows when something new arrives, and the Star Map marks escalation systems with a diamond and the step.