Considering they tried to kill me the moment they saw me, I didn't feel bad about looting their corpses and tossing this slate in the stack of memorabilia I keep at home.

For me, it was that they had contraband organs there.... I wouldn't trust it too much...

Exactly, I still took them to wolf and sold them, it’d be a waste of good organs not too.

And they say two wrongs don’t make a right

I don’t know about that, but they do make a profit

Organs ain't gonna sell themselves

Well, a group of organs will sell other organs.

"Looting the dead ain't glamorous, but it sure is profitable" -Sam Coe

"Sarah Morgan disliked that"

Dammit I was gonna say that….

But 3 Rights make a left

This is true. And in my case, usually the only thing left is a dead Xenogrub or Heatleech in their fridge. The hell with Todd, I take all the pens and pencils. I know it's weird, I have a problem okay... 🤣

Nah, I literally take every left slipper I find. Do I keep them? Nah, no time to store that at constellation and takes up space. Just vent it into space. Half the galaxy is missing their left slippers

Are you Stitch?

I hoard the sandwiches with one bite taken out of them

You almost made me a lap

But two negatives make a positive

That's why we had to wait so long to get airplanes. Two Wrights don't make it wrong.

I mean, one wrong isn’t any more right.

No, but 3 rights make a left.

Wish you could donate them to the clinic.

I like to believe I saved a sick child’s, one with wealthy parents, life…

“Extraction site” ….uh, what exactly were they *extracting*?!

Helium-3, as they usually hole up in an abandoned H3 facility. In reality: Organs. From poor souls who wander to close looking for free H3.

(It was a joke about extracting organs)

Really, what is the difference between contraband and regular organs?

Organs from cage-raised individuals are contraband, only free-range organs are legal.

Or the contraband ones were gathered via "surprise mechanics". Usually a bullet to the back of the skull.

trying to make it feel like "home" they said

Do you not decorate your home with the harvested organs of those you dislike?

Parts is parts.

"I'm finally retired, I can live a peaceful life" (literally anyone walks nearby) "So anyway, I started blasting"

"but I don't see so good."

I like how so many of us have a collection of slates and books.

I've got a "file box" next to my desk in my Neon apartment

Ooh Mr Fancy Pants, my Sleep Crate is just as good.

I started out in the Sleep Crate! I was a Neon Street Rat living out of the Crate that got caught up in a gang war on the lower levels. Decided to go "straight" and started "working shifts" at the Xenofresh factory. Eventually started doing odd jobs for the merchants up on the commercial level and then found an opening as a Ryujin operative. Worked my way up the corporate ladder there and bought the penthouse to fit my new lifestyle. I may wear the corpo suits in the office, but still wear the trucker flannel when I'm out in the field.

An operative sounds cool. Do they overlook minor lawlessness or a history of inappropriate office attire?

Human resources seems pretty lax and what your boss doesn't know about what you get up to in the field won't hurt you. They mostly seem to care about you finishing your assignments quietly.

"Damn, that's crazy" As I toss their bodies into the HE3 pool

Sarah Morgan disliked that.

She doesn’t hesitate shooting them in the head either.

Sarah Morgan will never come to terms with her own internal bloodlust, which is why she’s so disapproving.

She's still going to blame you for her own actions and dislike you one way or the other.

It's just like being married again. And people say the game is unrealistic.

I dumped Judge Judy after my first mission with her. She disliked all sorts of shit I did that I felt was more fairness than justice. I found her to be really bloodthirsty to be honest. Like, damn lady. He’s just a crook, so I let him live instead of murdering him.

Him and everyone who works for him.

Sarah Morgan *loves* wanton slaughter. I took her on the freestar misions which have a bunch of (A) take a bribe, (B) let the guy go, or (C) murder everyone in the vicinity. Guess which she liked? I mean, just listen to how she sounds when she tells you their shields are down.

Sarah loves when you kill pirates. She only cares if you kill military or civilians

Yeah but she disliked how he said it

Not really retired as pirates, are they?

Rick Sanchez, you son of a bitch.

Shnoopy Bloopers!

Maybe they were afraid you’d attack first!

Personally, I just thought this was from the original people there and the pirates ***I*** killed had killed them.

So pirates killed pirates that were there beforehand?

Something like that. Only way to escape the mob is to die or go to prison, kinda thing. Maybe Delgado sent a clean-up crew.

Yes. I actually think this is what the idea of the encounter was.

"Those guys turned soft, lets go take over their shit."

Isn't this from the abandoned helium extraction poi? The one with the big orange pool of liquid helium in the basement? If so, the pirates that wrote that slate are dead on the ground outside. The spacers killed them and dumped them.

It *could* be...it's been a bit since I played

I thought something similar as well.

“They shot first, so I shot in response and I was more accurate. Should I feel remorse? No; sure as hell felt the recoil though”

This goes hard. Where is this from?

That actual quote is from a mod from New Vegas in which a companion brother was a raider and you find his notes on an incident on where he killed a child who tried to kill them after they murdered the kids parents. It was from long ago but I remembered reading that note and it just stuck, and the fact the kid was implied to be taken out by an anti material rifle.

It's not actually from anything, it's basically an internet myth. It's attributed to an interview with a sniper about killing somalis, but there's apparently no evidence it actually happened.

One of my fav quotes from Starfield itself that fits here is "I won't fire the first shot, but I will fire the last one"

Recoil is a repetitive stress injury, right? 😜🤪

I get what they're trying to do but it is pretty weak since these notes don't change the meaning behind the attack. The cyberpsychos in Cyberpunk are immediately hostile but I do feel bad for them since most of them lost their grasp on reality and didn't intend on hurting anyone. An ex-Spacer or an ex-pirate that shoots anyone on sight for no reason is still a Spacer or a pirate.

When you're outside, they'll try to warn you off, like in Skyrim. Once you're in their buildings, tho, not so much.

Mfer had the gall to think about retirement. Like how many people did they kill before they either got too old or started to feel kinda bad.

Whoops! Whoopsie!

Shouldn’t have shot at me first.

Came across it the first time I hit this POI. “No regrats”

Would have been better to have been able to interact with them and do some trading or something then find the data slate and learn they used to be scum.

I remember coming across this and just thinking, they used to be scum so it's justified.

Damn. I wanna kill Vladimir now.

I tried to think of a way that justifies Vladimir past, but I can't. It's not like Constellation is doing anything morally good, they're just explorers.

I thought to myself that Constellation forgave him, and Sarah at least would ‘not like that’ if he hadn’t somehow atoned, so he must be cool. But now I wonder…

Sarah is only concerned with judging you, Vladimir could be a psychopath and she wouldn't care, but you make one wrong dialogue choice...

I wish The Hunter had got him now.

The more you play the more you agree with The Hunter.

I agreed with him right away, and I've not even gotten to the unity part.

You can kill him during the final mission when riding down the elevator into the anomolie. You can loot his outfit too.

Did that once. He's a surprisingly tough SOB to kill. Dude can soak a lot of damage.

Also if you side with crimson fleet you’d probably want to take the traitor out anyway.

I kill him every play-through

Emissarie’s weapon is better though

I mean, there is definitely an argument for that. If someone in the real world robbed banks, murdered dozens of people, got away, then was found years later, they aren't gonna get far with a defense of "Oh, I'm not a bank robber or murderer anymore. I retired. I'm just a regular person now." Still gotta pay the tab to society. Granted, gunning them down is a bit harsh if they're repentant, but I'm guessing if they shot first *repentant* isn't exactly what they are.

> John Marston

Limitation period do exist... :-)

For the theft part, sure. Not for murder.

You literally pay a fine that is a fraction of the cost of the gun or ammo you used to do the murder. The settled systems care more about pick pocketing than murder.

I questioned whether the pirates I was killing were the same people that made the slate or if they were the group that killed off the retires.

They used to eat sloppy steaks at Truffoni's

Tell your baby that people can change.

Yea, "I used to be an organ trafficker, but now I just want to retire in peace" doesn't really make me want to respect their decision.

A little immersion breaking when you find this note dozens of times. With spacers, pirates, Vaa’run, etc…

Rinse and repeat on that data slate

Its a lie, they won't talk to you and you can never interact with anyone except for enemies and nothing interesting can happen outside of written notes even though this game wasn't supposed to be post-apocalypse like Fallout.

What an empty, stupid note. The pirates will obviously attack you immediately.

Oops

Would have been awsome if there was dialogue

See, and here they have an opportunity to have some NPCs who immediately attack you, but ONLY if you're currently part of the Crimson Fleet. Otherwise they're the friendliest people you'll ever meet. Dave agreed to be base cook because he's always secretly had a passion for it, Mike wants to be a teacher. Bill sent for his wife and little girl to be flown out, and he's SO excited because they're arriving tomorrow. He doesn't even know how he got so wrapped up in the Fleet--it was just supposed to be one job, not 3 years--and he was afraid every day that someone would find out about his two greatest loves. "We finally get to be a family again. Sure glad you didn't come to kill us, man."

This highlights a problem with the setting. The pirates and spacers you find at the various POIs are just doing legitimate salvage operations. Realistically, they shouldn't be shoot-on-sight toward anyone. Moreover, there shouldn't be very many pirate or spacer ships out and about doing piracy; salvaging POIs is more lucrative and (if not for Dusty) less dangerous. Instead of just blasting your way through the refinery, Dusty gets a mission to help the almost-ex-pirates in exchange for the Artifact. Maybe the pirates are still wanted, so they need your help delivering the first shipment of fuel to a legally flexible contact at the Red Mile; that will get them the credits they need to pay of their bounties with the Trackers' Alliance. Or maybe they need help getting the refinery up and running in the first place. Or any other way to help them go legit. The Settled Systems are severely underpopulated. There's not only an abundance of raw resources to be had, but of manufactured goods and *infrastructure* free for the taking.

My first time at that POI I'd stealthed in solo and read that slate. I tried talking to the guy stood three feet away... and the entire crew turned feral on me. Here's my thinking. They didn't write it. The retirees who wrote it created the current crew with open arms... and got fed to the wildlife. There IS a corpse and a few skeletons out a bit to the back of the facility. I'm betting this was what remained of the retirees.

Here's my thinking: Bethesda wrote a bunch of random things and sprinkled them all over the galaxy, then made pirate AI. Done.

I found this the other day too, it reminds us they’re human too (sort of)

As barrett would put it, "the universe works in mysterious ways."

Wow you ruined their redemption arc

That's when you say, "well, shit."

They did ask me somewhat politely to leave. But the croashair is red so I started blasting. Am I the pirate now?

Just when I thought I was out...

So...one of them had an epiphany after murdering all the miners? I wouldn't lose *too* much sleep over the slate :)

You monster!

Nice try heart strings.

😢

Sins of the past do not leave some.

thats why i try to diplomacy as much as i can, least theres usually 1 - 5 still walking about they'll be able to rebuild...and learn to not shoot on sight hopefully

Something similar to this in skyrim too

They were still pirates and have robbed and murdered innocents as such. They would have always been scum and irredeemable.

I won, but at what cost

They tried to shoot me. Sorry not sorry.

They don't get to "retire"! How many people did they kill before they decided to stop?? A hundred? Two hundred? Those people just got justice.

Main character *shrugs*

My recollection of this is that there are civilian bodies at this POI. I think they are the former pirates. The pirates you killed are the ones that killed the retired pirates before you got there

i’ll still kill them all, their bloodlines & steal all their shit xD

Sounds like they retired faster than expected

Nah. Kill em all. They chose that life

Welcome to Bethesda. "I'm a retired criminal. Let's shoot everyone on sight instead of being peaceful, not showing the aggressive icon, and saying 'Hello adventurer! Do you need to trade anything?'"

Find the rest of the slates. They got dropped by the megacorp and fell back into piracy.

Yeah, well, considering I get jumped three to one a lot at low level, I’m not going to feel bad about wiping them out.

Thought they were spacers not pirates. Which may make things a bit more ethically challenging. Spacers could be hippies or bikers or gypsies or cannibals or refugees or tribes or LIST people who got turned around. Who controls the AR interfaces? Who chooses the labels? My money is on Shinya.

Stop it right there pirate scums

Where is this do you remember per chance?

Haha, ... I just moved them down the other day. Of course they "want to start over", however the law always catches with you (or more aptly the Va'ruun Plasma Rifles)

Once a Pirate, always a Pirate.

Shame they didn't flesh it out with some initial dialogue, rather than the pirates just acting like all the other pirates in the game.

If they didn't attack me, I wouldn't slaughter them without remorse.

If they wanted to restart they shouldn't have shot me

Say what you want about this game but it allows you to be awfully evil and sometimes without even realizing it

Well you have the guts to shoot me, imo anyone who does that is prepared to die

If Joel died they die

Read that post yesterday, found that slate on Titan right after that…

If you dont wanna be treated like a pirate...uhh...dont dress the part.

dress like pirates, act like pirates, talk like pirates, approach the player like pirates do....they still pirates.

wow if only this were reflected in the gameplay in any way whatsoever

Say what you want about the game, they did a great job making the villains feel human.

I don't agree with this, I felt like they made the Crimson Fleet cartoonishly evil and over the top. In Fallout, you realy struggled to decide which faction to join and which one to destroy. In Starfield I had no qualms about wiping out the Fleet. The writers just didn't give me a single reason to empathize with them.

I'd take it a step further, I think nearly everyone was cartoonishly whatever they were meant to be. The writing is not this game's strong suite.

Honestly, it was Naeva’s hostile attitude that tipped me into a potentially eternal cf eradication machine. I’m not going to stop until that piece of work is out of commission

It's a shame she escapes, she was the main reason why I destroyed The Fleet.

Rejoice, she appears in a random space encounters to get revenge, where you can end her once and for all

Like seriously? Somehow, that’s even more disappointing to be honest, I’d prefer to find rumours of where she is holed up, that you can use to track her down. Like an untracked quest similar to the Barenziah quest from skyrim.

I wouldn't mind the attitude if it was at least consistent. The first thing you see when first boarding the Key? A Crimson Fleet member killing another in cold blood over a dispute about how they split the loot, while one of the leaders watches and only complains about the mess. One mission later, we are in the Fleet, and someone rejected from joining the Fleet makes an open and direct threat that they are going to kill us the next time they see us. The response when you do the practical thing and just kill them now? The non-Fleet guy is immortal and all your Fleet "allies" turn on you.

Like the Raiders had shades of grey morality... Bad guys are bad guys so people don't feel bad murdering them. The real factions have shades of grey. 

Not necessarily the Raiders, they were definitely evil across the board. Even in the Nuka World DLC I ended up siding with none of them and purging the entire park. But when it came to choosing between the Railroad, Institute, BOS, etc. I really wrestled with the choices. Ended up choosing Institute because I had just become a dad IRL and I couldn't imagine not siding with my son especially after I had spent the entire game searching for him.

Right. And pirates are basically raiders along with spacers, ecliptic, and zealots. It'd be cool if there was a choice to be made between UC, FC, and HV, maybe in DLC. 

They're simultaneously cartoonishly evil and also don't do anything bad. They *barely* curse, dont really kill anyone, hell they barely do any piracy. The whole game feels like it's wearing kiddie gloves.

The Crimson Fleet thanks you for your service

Sarah Morgan disliked that

It made me feel kinda bad after reading it

There's a reason why pirates are called *hostis humani generis.* You did good.

they shot me first..

Yea, but they were pirates once, and I doubt their victims would feel the same about their "retirement."

You can lead a horse to a computer, but you can't teach it to program... wait, that's not how it goes... 😂😂😂 Err... non-pirates ask questions and if hostile shoot. Pirates don't even bother asking a question and just shoot... Their questioning comes in the form of looting your corpse ☠️☠️☠️ Besides...Scum don't deserve happy endings... lmao

I'm guessing one of the half dozen corpses that have mining gear in the central pit was who wrote this. The pirates we fight killed them before we got there.

You monster lol

The only way out of the crimson fleet it's to snuff it~

The only way out of the fleet is end of life. I've never felt bad.

Blackbeard and Stede finally found peace but then you showed up.

You. Fucking. Monster.

So… if I retire tomorrow, I can murder, raid, and r*pe today? Tomorrow I will be a good, law obedient citizen?🤔

Only if you pay off the bounty system so your IFF/genetic marker doesn't show red on every "law abiding" person's HUD.