Escalation - Kidnapped - Part 1
"As you enter the room, you receive a weak transmission; a hushed voice sneaks through your audio system, hastily whispering some words. All you can understand is something about kidnapping, pirates and a group of people. You play it back a several times, trying to make sense of it, but you can not discern who is kidnapped or how this group of people is involved and you cant actually hear what part the Guristas play in this, even though you take it for granted that they are the kidnappers in question. This message was sent on a general channel and your instruments have no problem pinpointing its origin. They have actually done so already in case you would like to investigate this further. Cant beat these new auto-personalizing AI systems, you have had this one for only a few days and it already feels like it has known you all your life."
This room initially is empty. After a few seconds, you will receive this transmission.
"grrble grbble gurista taken away....left beacon...no power. rescue us"
A small fleet of battlecruisers, cruisers, elite frigates and destroyers will spawn. Among them will also be a Dread Guristas cruiser. As with all parts of the expedition, there may be heavy jamming.
Killing the Dread Guristas cruiser may trigger a further escalation. The Dread Gurista may drop a faction item and faction ammo.
Escalation - Kidnapped - Part 2
"While investigating the wreck, you all of a sudden receive the same transmission as before, but this time in much better quality. Soon you discover that this is actually a message recorded on some child toy that utilizes small shiny plastic discs as storage medium, something that partly explains the bad quality. But also, this message must have been running for some time as the walkie-talkie that is taped to the toy and used as transmitter has almost run out of electricity. After playing the message again and analyzing it better, you can now hear that the person is describing an attack and she, along with a group of people are being kidnapped by a known local Gurista bandit. She hastily says she knows he has several hideouts in the region, but the only one she knows exactly where is, is this one..."
This room will also initially be empty. Wait a few moments, and a small fleet similar to the previous room will arrive, again with a Dread Guristas cruiser among them.
Killing the Dread Guristas cruiser may trigger a further escalation.
Escalation - Kidnapped - Part 3
"You find no sign of any hostages and you are pretty sure that if they had been in the bunker, you would have noticed some body parts being thrown around when you blew it up. You notice that all the ships and the buildings are marked with some sort of a logo, depicting a triangle with glowing corners in different colors and everything encircled with a band of I´s and O´s. You have never seen exactly this one before, but it reminds you of badges some of the more pretentious pirate chiefs you have met have used to bolster their image. After your main computer has had a few seconds to munch on this graphic, it suggests that this symbolizes three locations, one which you are at now and two others, the I´s and O´s seem to be the coordinates to all three locations in binary, the only problem is that there is no indication where on the circle to start reading. But it seems like your instruments have found some reason to make an educated guess and come up with two unexplored locations, the nearer one of the two being..."
The room will consist of a token Gurista force, accompanied by a Dread Guristas cruiser.
Killing the Dread Guristas cruiser may trigger a further escalation.
Escalation - Kidnapped - Part 4 (Low Sec)
"Another puny little station and now you were absolutely sure there were not hostages or anyone else for that matter inside the bunker when it blew. They must be in the other station! "
Upon warp-in you will find a sizeable Guristas fleet defending a the conquered station "Fatal Rabbit." Your mission is to destroy the station to force the station's overseer to show himself. The station has a lot of effective hit point, and will take some time to destroy.
While the initial force is small, they will be reinforced at various intervals; this includes when the station takes armor damage, when the station is at roughly 50% structure, and when the station is almost destroyed. The final fleet will consist of roughly the following:
- 10 elite frigates (some ECM)
- 4 elite cruisers (ECM)
- 5 heavy missile batteries
- 7 battlecruisers
- 7 destroyers
Note - this fleet does not always spawn, and the arrival of the final wave is not linked to the appearance of the overseer cruiser either.
Again, it is important to note that you do not need to destroy any of these ships. If your ship can handle the incoming damage, focus on the station.
Upon destroying the station, the Gurista Special Aquirement Captain will arrive.
A message in local will appear.
"AI Message: Hi Captain! In the explosion you have obliterated not only the station, the kidnapping gurista but also the people you tried to rescue. Whoopsy! Let´s hope they have found release in death. I do not recommend collecting the body parts because it will stink and extra energy will then be required to make this vessel habitable."
A pop up message will also appear, indicating the end of the expedition.
"If ending the hostages plight was the objective, this is definitely a case of "mission accomplished" and as the people who would most energetically refute that statement are eternally indisposed, you should have little problems feeling good about yourself. "
The overseer can drop a Pithi A-type Small Shield Booster, Pithi A-type Small Shield Transporter, Worm blueprint, 15 civilians or nothing.