Sunbeam

The Sunbeam is a passing cargo ship captained by Avery Quinn that picked up the distress signal sent by the Aurora. It is significantly smaller than the Aurora, with a crew of only six people. The Sunbeam vessel appears to be of Alterra design, though is owned by a small trans-gov based in the Andromeda galaxy.

The player will start receiving transmissions from Avery on board the Sunbeam via the Radio some time after the player has started exploring the planet. The ship alerts the player to its imminent arrival, until it gives a forty-minute countdown to its eventual landing on the Mountain Island. It will give the player a signal with the landing coordinates.

The Sunbeam's Failed Rescue
The Sunbeam had planned to land on the Mountain Island to rescue the player. However, before it can land, the Quarantine Enforcement Platform activates, weaponizing itself and shooting the Sunbeam down, as it did with the Aurora and the Degasi. As the Sunbeam is quite a bit smaller than the Aurora, which was relatively intact albeit heavily damaged with a massive amount of debris left behind, the Sunbeam is completely obliterated, its crew members are killed, and its debris rains down afterwards. Upon the destruction of the Sunbeam flaming debris can be seen descending from the sky, but no wreck results from its destruction.

This tragedy can be avoided if the player somehow manages to disable the Quarantine Enforcement Platform before the Sunbeam arrives. If so, Quinn will inform them that they cannot attempt a landing due to large amounts of debris orbiting the planet (originating from the Aurora when it was attacked). Despite the Sunbeam and its crew surviving, their attempt to rescue the player still fails, forcing the player to build the Neptune Escape Rocket.

Gallery
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Trivia

 * The original dialogue that played when the player was not present at Mountain Island described the Sunbeam as a "Bulldog Class" vessel.
 * If the player is not on the island when the Sunbeam arrives but is still able to see the sky, the player can still see the Sunbeam and observe its destruction. To allow for this to happen, the actual model for the Sunbeam in-game is almost the size of the Aurora.

Bugs

 * If the Quarantine Enforcement Platform is shut down whilst the countdown timer is already active, a bug occurs where the Sunbeam's final cutscene plays out anyways. However, only Audio is heard, as the Quarantine Enforcement Platform stays offline. The beam and explosion are still visible, however.
 * Seemingly by chance, the Sunbeam can be fully invisible when the final cutscene plays out. There is no specific cause, but it has happened to many on multiple occasions.
 * If the player uses the cheat 'precursorgunaim' they will still receive messages from the sunbeam, and the timer for the sunbeam's landing will still start, however it will not end. Instead it will count down infinitely even after going to the negatives.

Sunbeam Солнечный Луч