Sunbeam

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This article is about the Sunbeam. You may be looking for the Aurora or the Degasi.

There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad. Sounds like you tasted a bunch of the former, but that only means you're overdue a whole lot of the latter. Might just be we're it.

― Avery Quinn

Sunbeam is a passing trade vessel captained by Avery Quinn that picked up the distress signal sent by the Aurora. It is a 5-seater cargo ship significantly smaller than the Aurora and appears to be of Alterra design, though it 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.

To do the above, the player should refrain from playing any radio messages after initial contacts with the Sunbeam to avoid starting the timer. This does however impede the story progression, much of which are sent through the radio such as location beacons and clues etc. The player may see the original timer radio message icon disappear after they shut down the Quarantine Enforcement Platform, and thus will have to wait for the new radio signal that indicates that the Sunbeam cannot land.

Dialogue[]

Radio[]

	Day and Message Number	Dialogue
	Day 9, Message 1	"This is Avery Quinn of trading ship Sunbeam. Aurora, do you read? Over. Nothing but vacuum. These Alterra ships. They run low on engine grease, they send an SOS; you offer to help, they don't pick up. Aurora, we're out on the far side of the system, it's going to take more than a week to reach your position, do you still need our assistance? Over. I'll try them again tomorrow. Damn charter's going to have us wasting our profit margin running errands for Alterra. See what the long-range scanner picks up in the meantime."
	Day 13, Message 2	"Aurora, this is Sunbeam again. We just picked up a massive debris field at your location. I didn't know how bad... How many of you... I didn't know. We are now en route to your location. We're going to bring you home. Sunbeam out. What else can I say? The only time I parked a rig this big on a rock that small was in VR, and I blew it. Oh, it's a bad option alright, but so are all the others."
	Day 19, Message 3	"This is Sunbeam. Y'know, Aurora, we're from a little trans-gov on the far side of Andromeda, and we have a saying there. There's no bad without the good, no good without the bad. Sounds like you tasted a bunch of the former, but that only means you're overdue a whole lot of the latter. Might just be we're it. We're scanning for somewhere to park, we'll be in touch when we find it. Sunbeam out."
	Day 21, Message 4	"Aurora, we're approaching the planet now, and we have a landing site for you that's... well, it's better than the alternatives. We've sent you the coordinates. It'll take us a couple of days to align our orbit, we should be able to establish direct contact with you during that time, then we're coming in to get you. Cross your fingers the weather holds, and don't leave us waiting. Sunbeam out."

Final[]

	Conditions	Dialogue
	Player is present at Quarantine Enforcement Platform	"Survivor, we see you! Man, I don't know how you held out down there. We've broken atmosphere and we're descending towards the landing site. Is that a building down there?! What do you mean you can't identify it? Hold on, no turning back now Static Positions everyone, touching down in 10, 9, 8- It's coming from the building?! Change course, set thrusters to (full)- Static Sirens
	Player is absent at Quarantine Enforcement Platform	"PDA: Picking up orbital transponder signature of trading vessel Sunbeam. Vessel is approaching planet surface and initiating surface scanning procedures. Detecting massive power surge from anomalous contact. Energy discharge detected. Vessel signature lost."
	Player disables the Quarantine Enforcement Platform before Sunbeam arrives	"Aurora survivors, this is trading ship Sunbeam. We've tracked your distress signal, but your ship's left a substantial debris field up in orbit, we can't attempt a landing. We're gonna have to head home. We'll send our data to Alterra as soon as we can. Hold on in there. Sunbeam, out."

Gallery[]

Badaboom

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[]

This section contains bugs related to Sunbeam. Make sure to only post reproducible bugs, and use appropriate system template ( , , , / ) depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on.

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.