Requirements

The plot begins as soon as the Blood Stained Note is obtained (completion of Share Recovery (6): Auction mission from the Corporation Troubles plot)

Chapters

Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Gate Research and Development
Making Repairs
Gate Deployment
Sector Registration

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Objective: Comm Rurandis Libaras Tertasobas VII on the Teladi Trading Station in Freedoms Reach

 Find Molo Do's asteroid in Hetetics End
 Scan the asteroid
 Destroy the asteroid
 Contact a Mining Specialist
 Dock a TS at the corporate headquarters and pay 75k credits
 Load 20 mines onto the modified TS
 Move the modified TS near Molo Do's asteroid
 Investigate the Jump Gate

Time Limit: N/A
Loss Conditions: N/A
Reward: N/A
Commentary: The Blood Stained Note obtained from Share Recovery (6): Auction mission of the Corporation Troubles plot will indicate a contact in Freedom's Reach. Head over to the Teladi Trading Station in Freedom's Reach and comm Rurandis Libaras Tertasobas VII. If the player has lost the Blood Stained Note by ejecting or selling it, the note will be returned to the player along with more information as to what Molo Do was doing in Terran space. The player is then tasked with locating the asteroid in Heretics End mentioned in Molo Do's notes.

The asteroid is easy to spot since it is a lone asteroid in the west of the sector (x="-68200m" y="-14500m" z="-8360m") that has spontaneously materialised since the player last visited the sector. When the player gets within 15km of the asteroid they are tasked with scanning the asteroid to find something hidden within and then with destroying the asteroid. Hitting the asteroid with a Mobile Mining Laser, Hornet Missile, Firestorm Torpedo or Spectre Missile counts but the asteroid is invulnerable. The player is then tasked with contacting a Mining Specialist either at the NMMC Headquarters in PTNI Headquarters or the Plutarch Headquarters in Albion Delta. After the corporation headquarters is commed the player is told that detonating a modified TS near the asteroid should suffice to destroy it and that the Mining Specialist will modify a player owned TS for 75k credits. Buy or cap the cheapest TS and dock it at the corporation headquarters for modification and then pay the credits when prompted.

After 5-10 minutes the player can collect the ship and is told to fill it with at least 20 mines (SQUASH, Tracker, Ion and M/A-M all count). Since stations in the war sectors respawn often with half full capacity of each ware it is probably fastest to obtain Terran M/A-M Mines. Once the modified TS is loaded with the mines jump to Heretics End and then jump the TS in (remember OOS in the war zone the lowest Race Rank faction will attack player owned stuff) before either personally piloting the TS near the asteroid or ordering it to move there remotely. Once the TS is within 5km of the asteroid and the player is over 15km away the asteroid will be blown up revealing an inactive Jump Gate. Move within 5km of the gate to continue.

Gate Research and Development

Objective: Comm the scientists at Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)

 Dock a TL with Cargo Life Support and a Jump Drive at Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)
 Find Gate Debris outside known space
 Collect Gate Debris
 Dock at Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)

Time Limit: N/A
Loss Conditions: N/A
Reward: N/A
Commentary: The player will be commed by some scientists who detected an energy spike from the gate and told that they will have some questions that need answering shortly. After a 10-15 minute delay the player will be asked to comm the scientists at Terracorp HQ in Home Of Light (Commonwealth starts) or the Military Base in Neptune (Terran starts). The scientists want to repair the newly discovered gate but require spare parts from a nonfunctioning gate which has not already been looted which will require finding gate debris using the Unfocused Jump Drive. Dock a TL (Split Elephant is recommended) with a Jump Drive, 3000 Enegy Cells and a Cargo Life Support System at the contact station to pick up the scientist (Daye Poler for Commonwealth starts or Mizuki Nakano for Terran starts) and then use the Unfocused Jump Drive. The gate debris have a 25% chance of spawning at 15-25km from the start location so use the F1 hotkey to get a view of the whole ship and then use the num pad keys to pan around the sector. If the gate debris have not spawned, return to known space and keep trying until they do. Fly to within 5km of the Gate Debris to pick it up after 5 seconds and then return to known space and dock at the contact station.

Making Repairs

Objective: Comm the scientists at Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)

 Deliver 150 Quantum Tubes, 200 Computer Components and 100 Microchips to Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)
 Obtain 5 Black Crystals from Pirate Caravels in the Gaian Star stock market region
 Deliver 5 Black Crystals to Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)

Time Limit: N/A
Loss Conditions: N/A
Reward: N/A
Commentary: 10-15 minutes after having delivered the gate debris the player will be contacted and told to comm Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts). This time the scientists need materials to repair the gate debris delivered previously requiring 150 Quantum Tubes, 200 Computer Components and 100 Microchips to be delivered to the contact station. As with all delivery missions the difficulty of the mission depends greatly on the current state of the X-universe economy at that time point. If the player has a complex for supplying the PHQ then there should already be a stockpile of the required wares in the PHQ, otherwise use the local stock exchanges to see if any regions have a supply of the wares available for purchase. If the wares are being sourced from multiple locations it is advisable to have two TS+ ships being remotely commanded to different destinations while the player ship does other things. Once all the wares have been collected the mission requires the player ship to dock with the wares to deliver them which is best done by changing ship at the contact station and re-docking using a Docking Computer.

The player will then be informed that 5 Black Crystals are required which are being hauled by Pirates posing as salvage crews. The Pirate Caravel convoys with the Black crystals patrol between the stock exchange in Gaian Star to the Merchant Haven gate in Maelstrom and spawn with 2 Blastclaw (M3) and 2 Pirate Eliete (M4) escorts with a new convoy spawning every 2-3 minutes. As Gaian Star and Mercenaries Rift have Pirate owned capital ships patroling it is recommended to attack the convoys in Maelstrom. Each Caravel holds 20 Black Crystals and 8 Mercenaries (two 5 star and six 0 star) so capping one can instantly complete this part of the mission while killing requires 2-5. If friendly to the Pirates it is possible to get a reduced Race Rank penalty for killing the convoys by ramming into the TM with a corvette. If the player has not already obtained a Caravel this is a good opportunity to do so. If hostile to the pirates this infinite supply of TMs to board is also a good opportunity to train the Fight skill of player owned Marines/Mercenaries and to obtain Mercenaries with 5 stars. Once 5 Black Crystals have been obtained, deliver them to the contact station.

Gate Deployment

Objective: Comm the scientists at Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)

 Fly to Void Of Opportunity
 Protect the TL until the gate is deployed
 Fly within 3km of the deployed Jump Gate
 Comm the scientists at Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)
 Transport Daye Poler (Commonwealth starts) or Mizuki Nakano (Terran starts) to the Xenon HUB
 Collect 20 Cartography Chips from Uckmanckamstras
 Buy 20 Hacker Chips from Jennaia Sahkarna
 Deliver 20 Cartography Chips and 20 Hacker Chips to the Xenon HUB
 Choose a gate pair to realign
 Pick up Daye Poler (Commonwealth starts) or Mizuki Nakano (Terran starts)
 Investigate Uncharted Space
 Transport Daye Poler (Commonwealth starts) or Mizuki Nakano (Terran starts) to Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts)

Time Limit: N/A
Loss Conditions: N/A
Reward: N/A
Commentary: Another 10-15 minutes later the player will get a message telling them to comm Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts) again. Comm the contact station to learn the gate is ready for deployment and the TL transporting it will require an escort through the Pirate sector Void Of Opportunity to the destination. If the pirate owned stations in the sector have been previously destroyed by the NPC military the Pirate Base will be respawned and set to invulnerable. When in Void Of Opportunity the TL will jump in behind the player ship after a 3 second delay but will only start moving towards the navagational beacon after the player puts enough distance between the TL and the player ship. The TL is invulnerable (so this mission cannot be failed) and has a random escort of 5 M3/M4s matching the race of the TL. From when the TL enters the system until the gate is deployed Pirate owned attack waves will start spawning at the Pirate Base at 45-90 second intervals and aim for the TL. The attack waves consist of a pirate Argon or Teladi M6 and 4-7 random pirate M3/M4s. The numbers of ships spawned are enough to seriously impact any positive Race Rank the player has with the pirates so it is advisable to do many missions for the Pirates beforehand and move player owned ships out of heavily pirate infested sectors, leave the sector and come back later once the gate is deployed or pospone doing this mission until an NPC military patrol is invading the sector and let them handle the attack waves. Once the TL gets within 7.5km of the navigational beacon an inactive North gate will be deployed and the player tasked with flying towards it. Once the player ship is within 3km the researches will wonder why the gate is not working and go home.

After another 10-15 minute wait the player will be messaged telling them to comm Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts) to find out that the scientists want to use the Xenon HUB to try and forcefully activate the Jump Gate that was deployed in Void of Opportunity. Dock at the contact station with a ship that can carry M size cargo and has a Cargo life Support System to pick up Daye Poler (Commonwealth starts) or Mizuki Nakano (Terran starts) and fly them to the Xenon HUB station. Once there the scientist will need 20 Cartography Chips and 20 Hacker Chips to continue. The station for obtaining the Cartography Chips is random within at least 2 jumps from the sector the player is currently in and can be obtained by comming Uckmanckamstras on the station before docking at it. The Hacker Chips are obtained from a random station with a preference for Yaki stations within 2 jumps of Senators Badlands followed by Pirate owned stations at least 2 jumps from the current player sector and a default for any station at least 2 jumps from the current player sector if there are no pirate or yaki stations. Comm Jennaia Sahkarna on the station and pay 150,000 credits for the Hacker Chips before docking. Return to the Xenon HUB and dock at the station to deliver the chips.

There will then be a 20 minute delay before the player will receive a message telling them to comm the Xenon HUB where there will be an option to reallign a gate pair that is not in cooldown. The chosen gate pair is then connected between Heretics End and Uncharted Sector while the Void Of Opportunity North gate is connected to the Uncharted Sector and the player is tasked with picking up the scientist before exploring the Uncharted Sector. Fly through the gate into the Uncharted Sector to get some dialog from the scientist who then wants to be delivered back at Terracorp HQ (Commonwealth starts) or Neptune Military Base (Terran starts). The reallignment does not set the gate pair into cooldown so the gate pair can be set back to the previous destination as soon as the scientist is dropped off.

Sector Registration

Objective: Comm NMMC Headquarters in PTNI Headquarters

 Name your sector

Time Limit: N/A
Loss Conditions: N/A
Reward: Player Owned Sector (12,4)
Commentary: After 5-10 minutes pass the player will get a message asking them to register the newly discovered sector with the Stellar Cartography Guild. Fly to PTNI Headquarters and comm the NMMC HQ to talk to Kokalis Tumulis Gustiosanis IX and choose one of the six names listed to gain ownership of the perviously uncharted sector. If the player has placed their PHQ or Corporate Headquarters there will be a message from a random boron working for Special Porpoise Removals offering to pack them up so they can be transferred to the new sector. If the player was careful in choosing where the PHQ and Corporate Headqurters were originally placed there will be no need to move them since the asteroid related economic output of the Player Owned Sector is less than some neutral sectors like Savage Spur and it does not have any NPC equipment docks to purchase equipment for new ships like Getsu Fune does. Note that the Player Owned Sector always spawns an abandoned Kha'ak Corvette (M6).