Welcome back to Titan Outpost, where we rejoin the action a few weeks after our previous look-in. Last time, we made a deal with Dutch plasticine-suit-sporting Mr House to embezzle methane from the IASA. We accomplished this by bribing Karen, because as rappers everywhere will tell you, you gotta spend money to make money.
After that, nothing's been going on. We still have a homicidal space hippie holed up inside a cave in our front yard who could kill us at any time by activating our suit's kill switch, but that situation's been going on for a long time already and nobody involved seems to care very much.
And indeed, weeks have passed without anything untoward happening. Val has kept on doing whatever she's been doing inside her cave, we've kept building stuff, Karen and Karl have kept getting it on in zero G (probably), and the Chinese have remained a mysterious unseen presence.
As to what it is we've been building, it's these:
More polymer crackers. We've now built enough to get a steady supply of polymers per day, and can turn our attention to expanding our methane pumping operation by building more tanks, pumps and drones. Not that we need to yet, as the output from our single station is more than enough to keep up with demand, but better safe than sorry. And besides, there's nothing else to do.
***
Day 20, approximately.
Why have we stopped the timeskip here? Because we've got mail, is why.
Intredasting.
A new channel appears, as advertised.
In the year 2077, is Globohomo finally reaching out to us directly?
Turns out it isn't. It's just some German guy.
[Lie] <<Laugh.>>
[Poker Face] It's so refreshing to meet someone with a good sense of humor in your organisation.
The dialogue tag is in reference to a perk, Poker Face, which we picked up earlier, and which gets us out of the composure hit that's normally incurred when laughing at something a German said.
You're orbiting Enceladus? And IASA doesn't know?
Of course they know that. We were just visited by the Hesiod. I suppose you were just left in ignorance. We provide them occasional support and in return they value our privacy. We would very much like to work directly with you.
What do you propose?
I want to build a supercomputer on Titan. But first, let's get to know each other. I've read your profile, but what do you want to know about us?
Who or what is Herschel?
We're not affiliated with IASA or the transatlantic government. Herschel is an independent German company and our headquarters are right outside Kourou spaceport.
German? Don't you mean European?
Technically, Germany doesn't exist anymore, but many people still identify as such. I know I do. I guess Europe has never been the melting pot that the United States was. For language and culture to mix, you really do have to uproot people, you know? My family has lived in Germany for so long that it doesn't matter what government they get to vote for. We'll always be German.
In all seriousness, it's good that Titan Outpost's bleak vision of the future is not completely without optimism. At least Germany doesn't exist anymore.
That makes sense.
We are funded by a group of wealthy German citizens who used to dominate the automotive industry. They wanted more of a focus on scientific missions.
Fingers on facepalm buttons, please.
I have no problem with scientific missions being... Kraut funded.
Good joke. I like it.
Thanks. Another question.
Of course.
Why are you wearing glasses? I haven't seen those in ages. Can't you get implants?
Because implants can't keep up with technology. I can change the circuitry in these things every month if I want to. I can't get a new implant every year. I need to be on the cutting edge. Besides, they look geil.
Horst is a swell guy. His vision isn't augmented because he's too much of a Linux user.
To each his own. Can I ask you something else?
Of course.
Just tell me about your proposition.
After a bit more back and forth, we learn that Horst wants to install something called a Herschel Nexus on Titan. Horst doesn't tell us what a Herschel Nexus is, but we can probably infer that it's that supercomputer he was talking about. It'll arrive in three days' time, and we'll have to physically activate it once it does. In return, he's shipping 100 kg of plutonium alongside it. That's not a lot, and we don't need it, but there's no reason to decline. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with helping an eccentric German scientist build an off-planet supercomputer?
Before we say goodbye to Horst, there's something else we can ask him:
Do you have any exploratory missions for me?
And not only that:
Is there research you can share?
We can finally spend our not-so-hard earned spacebucks on something worthwhile. These research thingies improve the rover's performance, improve the polymer crackers, and improve the RTG, respectively. We'll take the lot. With these, we'll be making polymers and Watts even further in excess of what we need. Why not.
At the end of the conversation, we get to level up. I make an executive decision to go for more Construction, because as it turns out, we build a lot of things on Titan Outpost, and it'd be nice to speed up the process. We also get a fresh perk:
These are pretty boring, with the exception of NiHao. Could've also gone with Doctor, which is the only other available perk that's not just a bonus to something we already have. But I'd rather talk to Chinese people.
Them's the breaks, folks.
Let's also take a brief look at our electricity situation.
Remember when I said juggling power would be a constant concern? Turns out I was spectacularly wrong.
Now, back to the action. We head out to the rover for Horst's exploration mission, which turns out to be so unremarkable that there aren't even any screenshots from it. On our way back:
Back at base, we call Horst for technical assistance. He explains what we need to do, but before we let him go, we ask for more exploration missions. I forget what the payment was for this one, because whatever it was, we've got more than we need already.
"Peculiar radio signal", huh? Maybe we're finally getting something good out of one of these missions.
Outside the base, the Nexus isn't hard to find.
Using our Hacking skill on it activates the egg.
And with that, the computer is activated.
We bring our plutonium payment inside and process it for a minuscule boost in power which we don't need. And for good measure:
Okay. Back to Horst.
Hey, what? You've altered the deal, mister! Who does that?
Nodes in the basement? Look, I can't shift our entire operation to cater to your needs.
Don't worry, don't worry, all in due time. Take your time to increase the generator's capacity. I'm just so excited! We might even be able to break the zettaflop barrier.
The what?
Zettaflop! A sextillion calculations per second. It's the next milestone in computation.
[Hacking] Oh, I knew that. It must be your accent.
Apparently, Hacking is the skill that allows us to come up with unconvincing excuses.
Understood. I'll get to it.
Not only have we now helped Volkswagen set up a supercomputer on Titan, we can also build a remote server cluster for them, on Titan. For no reason.
Eh, might as well. At least we get to work towards some sort of purpose.
Now, one thing I've been neglecting to mention so far is research. You might remember the friendly neighbourhood cryovolcano, which we almost killed ourselves attempting to scale a few updates ago. Examining it led to a new research opportunity, which we've since taken the time to complete.
It showed that the liquid which formed the cool ice sculpture was in fact ammonia. That doesn't help us in the slightest, but it is interesting enough that we can keep researching it, which is exactly what we'll do:
No idea what this'll lead to either, but what the hell. I can't emphasize enough just how little there is to do at this stage.
And with that taken care of, there's nothing to do but wait for the next shipment. We could go for Horst's second exploration mission, but it's literally as far away from us as it could possibly be while still being on Titan, and we'd never make it back in time to be on standby when the next freighter arrives, which I'd like to be in case something happens.
***
A day or so later...
As you can see, a bit of methane is set apart for our contractor as planned, although the amount is much less than the settled-upon maximum of 10%, since Karen only agreed to 10 tons. The amount of methane the IASA wants from us goes up with each new shipment, so we'll need to siphon off a lot more than that next time to make this business worthwhile.
For now, let's talk to Mr Plasticine about getting paid:
This also opens up another opportunity for us to spend our cash.
Let's see what you've got.
We get some polymers and minerals. Those things come in handy, no question about it, but there are a few issues here. When we bribed Karen, we had to spend something in the vicinity of 800 spacebucks. We spent all that to reserve 10 tons of methane, which netted us 100 spacebucks in return. That's not exactly a great deal. And what's more, if we want Karen to cook the books again, we'll have to bribe her a second time.
This is clearly not a profitable enterprise. We need to look for a more reliable solution.
And as it happens, there is one option that we haven't explored yet:
Can you help me with something?
What is it you need?
I need to manipulate the space elevator throughput data before we send it to Mission Control.
Naturally, IPMS refuses.
But hold on, what's this? A Hacking prompt?
Reloading user data. Authorization pending.
I need to manipulate the space elevator throughput data before we send it to Mission Control.
Very well. You can now reserve methane on the Outpost inventory tab.
<<Disconnect.>>
That's more like it.
In related news, we get another pay raise for our great performance:
That's it for interaction with the freighter. No new comms channel opens up -- this time, the ship is apparently unmanned.
Which means: guess what?
If you guessed that we lounge about and do nothing, you get a raise for great performance. After a few days, our volcanic tap research is complete:
More crap that we don't need. Excellent. As you can see, we go for another rover upgrade next, in preparation for checking out Horst's mysterious radio signal. We also start constructing a computer room for his supercomputer. Here's a Titan Outpost Top Tip for you: if you need someone to do you an expensive and time-consuming favour, the best way to go about it is to simply identify a person with nothing better to do, and ask him nicely.
Next time, we'll put our kitted-out rover to good use, as we head to the dark side of the moon. Until then, happy new year.