I thought I would try out my unfocussed jump drive as I have read that the sectors it leads to can contain engine tunings and on rare occasions the legendary Aran. I loaded my Hyperion with eight of my best marines and set off into the deep black with no idea of what lay ahead.

Upon arriving I immediately detected nearby Xenon fighters and switched to my Enhanced Chimera to engage. As I dodged and blasted my way through the Xenons I spotted something else nearby - or perhaps just huge. Ordering the Hyperion to follow I set off to investigate. A derelict ship of a type I had never seen before gradually grew before my eyes, but with a Xenon Q following my Hyperion in I had to put my investigation on hold. The Q is a formidable warship but the superior speed and agility of the Hyperion kept me (mostly) out of harm's way while I pounded it into scrap. With that taken care of I turned back to the derelict, and sent in the marines. After persuading all of them to land at the same time they had little trouble seizing control of the ship and turned over control of the Aran to me. With a fresh wave of Xenons bearing down on us I wasted no time docking my ships and transferring over a jumpdrive and energy cells and jumped back to the known universe as the first shots started to land.

When I found my prize had a top speed of 4m/s I had to scout out shipyards for proximity to gates and settled on Kingdom's End as the best choice, and have sent it in for repairs and upgrades.

Given I had read that sectors had perhaps a one in fifty chance of containing an Aran I was not expecting much, but there it was - first sector, and not hard to spot at all. I am not sure if I just got lucky, or if it is an Albion Prelude thing, but either way I am happy.

Great luck you have :-)

Nice layout! It's a shame that the game usually ruins the look a bit with all the connecting conduits after installing the construction kits. When your done with your hub plot, can I have some of your crystals at bargain prices for mine? ;)

Congrats!

Congrats for the Hub Plot!

And I was beginning to feel like I hit the jackpot with my board-and-scrap operation in pirate space - capping Brigantines and selling them for 60+ millions. Oh well, I guess in the end it's only scraps for late-game players that have invested heavily in economy/traders :).

Congratulations indeed! I think not many have completed that Hub without resorting to any modding, like one mod I spotted that allowed you to cut away large percentages of the materials required, or cheating other than letting the game run by itself.

Here, an achievemnt badge for you: *A * A * A*

To some extent it is annoying that working for money is now essentially pointless, and that in order to complete the hub plot you have to build up the infrastructure that will earn you that money. I am currently focussing on acquiring all the non-purchasable ships I can, and am just about done with those belonging to friendly races, but it looks like I could be spending some time in Yaki and Xenon territory. Also, it is probably about time I started the main plot.