I was not shocked when my next stop would be HopeTech. Whenever something a bit odd is going on you can almost bet, they had something to do with it. What a shipbuilder and farmer land have to do with each other I have no idea. It was, however, time to find out.

At least that is what I wanted to do. Turns out both my hands would be tied behind my back in any attempt to do so. They have their ranger stations out in that part of the region that I would have to meet up with first. You could call him more of a babysitter to make sure I don’t say anything anyone at HopeTech might take offense to.

It turns out HopeTech has a lot of political sway in the region. Not making nice with them could end up costing the Freestar Ranges a lot of funding, support, and even locations they base out of. I do hate it when politics gets in the way of getting to the bottom of strange things going on. I’d however attempt to bite my lip the best I could.

At least the investigation was not fully at the start looking into Hopetech. It was more about the ship the military group was using which happened to have been built by Hopetech. There was some hope that perhaps they could shed some light onto who it currently belonged to.

This job, however, did not go like I thought it would. I was on my way to meet the ranger I was supposed to meet up with. It turns out they ran into some awful trouble, and I ended up coming to save them.

I do find it funny they were unsure if I showed up to help or steal the ship. Honestly, if this had been a week earlier, I’d have been there to steal the ship. Now however since I got the Ranger badge all I had to overlook was the kind of opportunity stealing a should bring.

After making sure the ranger was stable, I went around repairing the ship. Many of the sub-systems were damaged but not beyond repair. I could see why she was not going anywhere fast. Everything from navigation to the landing gear was damaged. I doubt the ship would have even been able to dock at the hospital on a station.

I was then sent out to seek revenge. You don’t just attack a ranger and get any with it in these parts. The ships were rather laughably easy to destroy. I’m starting to wonder if all the rangers are a bit of heavy drinkers or anything. I, however, was going to play the role that sure she must have put a hurt on them, and I was sweeping up what was left.

Once the ranger was feeling a bit better it was time to go visit Hopetech. It was at least nice for once to go into Hopetech by the front door and be invited in. Usually, I’m going in through an unsecured door and I would be even more unwelcome than I was already.

I then went to have a chat with the CEO of the company. It turns out according to him that the ship I had questions about was stolen. Why did they not report the theft? They did not want to attract bad press and show there was blood in the water risking further ship thefts.

To have a ship that size stolen and not seem to be doing much about it did not sit right with me. It seemed like there was some kind of inside job going on. I, however, could not press the matter like I would have liked to.

The CEO also liked to go on and on about how good and important he is for the area. About all the jobs he is providing and so on. Things were starting to not quite add up with him one bit.

He gave little to no information. Other than the ship after it was stolen was taken to Neon. I don’t think I needed anyone to tell me a stolen ship would have gone to Neon instead of pretty much anywhere else in the galaxy. So, this information was not that helpful or even unexpected. If it had been anywhere else that would have been quite telling. Neon, however? I’m not expecting much to go there.

It also turns out that Neon is quite a large station that has its ranger stationed there as well. I’m starting to get a feeling I’m just getting passed off from ranger to ranger. I am the new guy, and it seems like people can’t wait to get rid of me and see me off to another solar system.

Once I arrived at Neon, I was told what I was expecting to hear. If something was to be stolen there was a chance it would end up passing through Neon at some point or another. At least the ranger at Neon had a contact I could reach out to who was now our best lead in the dark of trying to uncover what was going on regarding a stolen ship and an attempt to steal farmland.

I was also told before meeting this new contact that I should not expect anything free while in Neon. From the many trips I’ve taken to this city, I am quite f with there is always some kind of price for anything information or otherwise given to you while here.

Turns out there are lots of places to land a stolen ship in Neon without anyone asking too many questions. Naturally, the new contact just can’t help me out without taking a huge risk himself in the information I was giving me. I assumed this was where the information payment was about to start.

It turns out there was a debt by the contact's former brother who passed away and that debt for whatever reason passed to him on his death. Criminals in Neon are funny like that. If you can’t pay someone you know will be expected to pay for you even if you are dead.

I went and met with the head of the Syndicate. We did not see eye to eye on anything at all. Even more so since I was not going to pay the debt myself. While I was trying to not make too much trouble on Neon I had enough of getting now here. Two shots to the face were more than enough to resolve anyone attempting to collect the debt.

Thankfully once I returned and told everyone I resolved the situation my way. The ranger in charge was just fine with how I went about my business. While I seemed to get the impression from other ranges that I always needed to act like I was walking on thin ice. He almost seemed rather relieved I took out the leader of the Syndicate.

With that settled, I was given yet another name and another person to shake down for information. It was starting to feel like I was not getting anywhere fast. At least the person I was looking for was known for being at a bar. I could use a few before working out what new hoop I now needed to jump through to get someone to help me get to the bottom of what was going on.

Final Thoughts

Never a great feeling to feel like you are no closer to finding a resolution to the problem than when you first started. I now had far more questions than answers. Everything seemed to lead to something else that did not go in any direction I could see being helpful.

Other Content

• Starfield | Joining The Freestar Rangers
• Starfield | My Biggest Heist And Wild Times
• Starfield | Major and Minor Crimes

Information

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.