Missions - Tau Station

Missions

Missions explore aspects of the story behind Tau Station.

All known missions

Mission	Level	Station	Area	NPC	Released	P¹	R²	S³	Sy⁴
CORETECHS Calibrations	1	Tau Station	Port	Fellie Norbush	Closed α	X	✓	1	1
Secrets and Servos⁵	1	Tau Station	Bar	Eleni Llywelyn	Closed α	X	✓	1	1
Ready Player Everyone	1	Tau Station	Government Center	Errik Mclure	Closed α	X	✓	1	1
Prologue: Fighting off the Pod Fog⁶ (tutorial)	1	Tau Station	Hotel Rooms	Evangeline	2019-10-15	X	X	1	1
Fly Hard: An Emberfest Tale	1	Tau Station	Port	Jelena Starkiss	2019-12-23	?	✓	1	1
The Bad Egg: A Reclamation Story	1	København	Employment	Vilhelm	2020-06-09	X	✓	1	1

A Rude Awakening⁷	2	Tau Station	Clones	Tamhas	2018-01-31	X	✓	2	1
X Marks Our Shot	2	København	Inn	Pompano	2018-02-07		✓	1	1
Bond Villain	2	Tau Station	Ruins	Hennix	2020-05-01	X	✓	1	1

Cloned but not Forgotten	3	København	Port	Iwo	Closed α		✓	1	1
Downed Quixote	3	København	Market	Corneel	Closed α		✓	1	1
Moemedi More Problems	3	København	Port	Iwo	Closed α		✓	1	1

Holy Work	4	Daedalus	Bar	Strabo Talos	Closed α		✓	1	1
The Lost Children	4	Daedalus	Market	Shadiya Reeve	Closed α		✓	1	1
Waste Not, Want Not	4	Daedalus	Government Center	Brother Alpheus	Closed α		✓	1	1
From the Ashes	4	Daedalus	Residences	Sister Fotini	2018-02-21		✓	2	1

A System Shock	5	Taungoo Station	Gym	Yuzana	Closed α		✓	1	1
Freedom for the Press	5	Taungoo Station	Inn	Sho Sein	Closed α		✓	1	1
Symposium of Souls	5	Taungoo Station	Security	Sergeant Diao Bu	Closed α		✓	1	1
Smoke and Mirrors	5	Taungoo Station	Market	Saya Khun	2018-02-28		✓
First do no Harm	5	Sol Jump Gate	Security	Mazhar	2018-09-05	X	✓	1	1
Eat Your Heart Out	5	Moissan Station	Brig	Ensign Jarka	2021-08-16	X	✓	1	1

Beam Me Up	6?	Nouveau Limoges			Closed α		✓
In the Name of Honor	6?	Nouveau Limoges			Closed α		✓
Possession	6?	Nouveau Limoges			Closed α		✓
The Hollow Ship	6	Sol Jump Gate	Interstellar Shuttles	Consortium Officer Bilko	Closed α	X	✓	1	1
Possessed	6	Nouveau Limoges			2018-02-21		✓
One's Own Hands	6	Sol Jump Gate	Shipping Bay	Jana	2018-02-28	?⁸	✓	2	1
She Sells Spaceshells	6	Sol Jump Gate	Bank	Talia Lish	2018-02-28	X	✓	1	1

Hailing Red Jane	7?	Alpha Centauri Jump Gate			Closed α		✓
The Sleepless Ship	7?	Alpha Centauri Jump Gate			Closed α		✓
The Tinkerer & Mrs. Star	7?	Alpha Centauri Jump Gate			Closed α		✓
Beyond the Seal	7	Alpha Centauri Jump Gate			2018-03-15	✓	✓
The Chemist	7	Moissan Station	Bar	Drab Tooth	2018-03-15	✓⁹	✓
The Damsel in the Dark	7	Moissan Station			2018-04-25		✓
Fun Gus Among Us	7	Moissan Station	Market	Fun Gus	2018-08-08	X	✓	1	1

Absolute Power	8?	Paris Spatiale			Closed α		✓
After the Harvest	8?	The Ghost of Mali			Closed α		✓
All That Glitters	8?	Paris Spatiale			Closed α		✓
Dark Star, Bright	8?	The Ghost of Mali			Closed α		✓
Stealing from Ghosts	8?	The Ghost of Mali			Closed α		✓
The Last Night in Paris	8	Paris Spatiale			Closed α		✓
Namesake	8	Ghost of Mali			2018-03-21		✓
Shrine of Remains	8	Paris Spatiale			2018-04-04		✓

Clean Slate	9	Cirque Centauri			Closed α		✓
Everybody Loves a Clown	9	Cirque Centauri			Closed α		✓
On Thin Ice	9?	Spirit of Botswana			Closed α		✓
Poetic Justice	9	Cirque Centauri			Closed α		✓
To the Last Drop	9?	Spirit of Botswana			Closed α		✓
Untamed Menagerie	9?	Spirit of Botswana			Closed α		✓
Dear Heart	9	Cirque Centauri			2018-04-04		✓
Dancers of the Night Water	9	Spirit of Botswana			2018-04-11		✓
One Egg, Two Yolks: A Reclamation Revelation	9	Bordeaux Station	Employment	Renata Sauvignon	2021-04-23		✓	1	1

On the Outside	10	Yards of Gadani	Market	Azali Sambi	Closed α	✓	✓	4	2
Twisting Nether	10	Yards of Gadani	Port	Slyniti	Closed α	X	✓	1	1
The Warning	10	Bordeaux Station			2018-03-28	✓	✓	2	1
Fair Game	10	Bordeaux Station			2018-04-25		✓
Ships in the Night	10	Yards of Gadani	Ship Breaking	Mehreen Rana	2018-05-09	X	✓	1	1
The Beast of Bordeaux	10	Bordeaux Station	Port	Aurelija	2018-05-09	X	✓	1	1
By Any Means	10	Bordeaux Station	Gym	Augustine	2018-05-30	X	✓	1	1
The Brinkmanship	10	Yards of Gadani	Local Shuttles	Baggage Attendant Troy	2018-07-11	✓	✓	1	1
Hello Stranger	10	Barnard’s Star Jump Gate	Bar	Yolanda Harris	2018-09-27	X	✓	2	1
The Crossing	10	Barnard’s Star Jump Gate	Hotel Rooms	Egan	2018-09-27	X	✓	1	1
Keeping the Peace	10	Barnard’s Star Jump Gate	Government Center	Orson Xian	2018-10-10		✓	1	1

The Lion’s Den	11	Hopkins' Legacy	Security	Emmeline	2018-10-10		✓	1	1
In the Crossfire	11	Hopkins' Legacy	Market	Oliver	2018-10-17	✓¹⁰	✓	1	1
The White Lady	11	Hopkins' Legacy	Bar	Hugh	2018-10-24	✓¹¹	✓	1	1
Moments of Truth	11	Hopkins' Legacy	Brig	Martin Clarke	2020-07-17	X	✓	2	1

Education	12	Estación de Amazon	Market	Oksana Yanick	2018-10-17	X	✓	1	1
Enemy of the Gate	12	Barnard’s Star Jump Gate	Port	Dorian	2018-10-24	✓¹²	✓	1	1
A Difficult Anniversary	12	The Maid of Orléans	Government Center	Ava Dusol	2018-10-25¹³	X	✓	1	1
Hero’s Journey	12	Estación de Amazon	Consortium Embassy	Gerold Jana	2018-10-31	X	✓	2	1
A Minor Offense	12	The Maid of Orléans	Ruins	Lieutenant Max Marchand	2018-11-07	X	✓	1	1
Invent FEST	12	Sirius Jump Gate	Bar	Pharaoh Byzantium	2020-12-31	?	✓	1	1
The Apples of their Eye	12	Sirius Jump Gate	Ruins	Jellyfish Girdle	2020-12-31	?	✓	1	1
Wanted Dead or Alive	12	Sirius Jump Gate	Interstellar Shuttles	Matrix Ozone	2020-12-31	?	✓	1	1

Journey’s End	13	Estación de Amazon	Consortium Embassy	Gerold Jana	2018-11-07¹⁴	✓¹⁵	✓	1	1
Send in the Clones	13	Caen Stronghold	Market	Cloister Vindaloo	2018-11-14	X	✓	1	1
Stormbringer	13	Estación de Amazon	Government Center	Commander Luka	2018-11-14	✓¹⁶	✓	1	1
Honor Among Thieves	13	The Maid of Orléans	Docks	Adda Core	2018-11-22	X	✓	1	1
Ladybug and the Tramp	13	Caen Stronghold	Lounge	Paradox Virtue	2018-11-22	X	✓	1	1
Family Matters	13	L 726-8 Jump Gate	Interstellar Shuttles	AGS Contractor 265	2019-04-18	X	✓	1	1
The Curious Incident	13	Orwell Stronghold	Market	Nyx Bozic	2019-04-18	X	✓	1	1
Paper-Thin Lies	13	L 726-8 Jump Gate	Lounge	Clark Gable	2020-12-02	X	✓	1	1
Paper Town	13	L 726-8 Jump Gate	Bar	Pressley Garnier	2020-12-02	✓¹⁷	✓	1	1
All Our Activisms	13	The House of Congo	Lounge	Alphonse Ndala	2020-12-31	?	✓	1	1
All Our Hackers	13	The House of Congo	Inn	Barium Theory – Caracal Cyborg (He/him)	2020-12-31	✓¹⁸	✓	1	1
Hasta La Visa	13	The House of Congo	Security	Goetia – Caracal Elite (No Pronouns Please!)	2020-12-31	?	✓	1	1
H.Y.T.T.I.O.A.O.A.	13	Heinlein Stronghold	Market	C.M.O.T Dribbler	2022-03-29	?	✓	1	1
Individual Granted Objective Responsibility	13	Heinlein Stronghold	University	Malleable Dolomite	2022-04-26	?	✓	1	1
The Heat Is On	13	Sirius Jump Gate	Gaule Embassy	Colline Beverly	2022-05-11	?	✓	1	1
Seeking the Sanguine Samhain	13	Heinlein Stronghold	Local Shuttles	Quantum Spanner	2022-05-04	?	✓	1	1
The C.O.B.R.A. Effect	13	Heinlein Stronghold	Government Center	Aby Stander	2022-10-07
???	13?	The House of Congo	Shipping Bay	Marmalade Eland (She/her)	2022-10-07

Riches to Rag-Tag	14	Caen Stronghold	Hotel Rooms	Henry Hephaestus	2018-11-30	X	✓	1	1
Fanning the Flames	14	The Maid of Orléans	Government Center	Gaspard Kieren	2018-12-31	✓¹⁹	✓	2²⁰	1
My Savior	14	Spirit of Tianjin	Local Shuttles	Greeter Paul	2019-02-05	X	✓	1	1
Ghosts in the Machine	14	Caen Stronghold	Bar	Charly Anderson-Farrar	2019-02-28	✓²¹	✓	1	1
Shadow in the Dark	14	Caen Stronghold	Port	Gherrek	2019-03-19	✓²²	✓	3	2²³
Solomon's Treasures	14	Orwell Stronghold	Local Shuttles	Criles Nane	2019-10-15	?²⁴	✓	1	1
Dynamic Evaluation	14	Orwell Stronghold	Side Jobs	Eva Kypos	2020-06-09	✓²⁵	✓	1	1
One Life on Little Earth	14	L 726-8 Jump Gate	Clones	Flora Robinson	2023-02-02
Curtain Call	14?	Spirit of Tianjin	Security	Charmane Parris	2023-02-02

Trade Secrets	15	Spirit of Tianjin	Decommissioned Area	Talisa Banks	2019-02-28	✓²⁶	✓	1	1

Clone of Contention	16	Spirit of Tianjin	Gym	Muscle Man	2019-03-19	✓²⁷	✓	1	1
Bloody Evaluation	16	Orwell Stronghold	Vendors	Stella Koukoubani	2020-07-17	✓²⁸	✓	2	1
A Farewell to Armors	16	Ross 154 Jump Gate	Government Center	Paulo Reiser	2022-08-08	?	✓	1	1
Thereafterward	16?	Ross 154 Jump Gate	Inn	Charlotte Rampling	2023-02-02
Lost Boy	16?	LeGuin Stronghold	Government Center	Reginald Smythe	2023-02-02

Trophy Wife	17	Asimov Freehold	Bar	Jassandra Phoenix	2020-12-02	X	✓	3	2
Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Die	17	Madame de Pompadour	Market	Tam Tim	2021-04-23	X	✓	1	1
Citizen Omni-Chronicle: Settled Dust	17	The House of Syria	Market	Gaius Saladin	2021-08-16	X	✓	1	1
Making a Killing	17	The House of Syria	Decommissioned Area	Karl Guigino	2022-05-04	?	✓	1	1
The Art or The Artist	17	Madame de Pompadour	Market	Philippe Gaston	2022-08-08	?	✓	1	1
The Eye of Iridium	17?	Madame de Pompadour	Inn	Gaspar Simenon	2023-02-02

Fool’s Gold	19	Cape Verde Stronghold	Bar	Jada Perez	2020-05-01	X	✓	1	1
Down With the Sickness	19	Cape Verde Stronghold	Decommissioned Area	Shinji Kinsaka	2020-06-09	X	✓	1	1
Unrequited	19	Asimov Freehold	Employment	Fareeha Adela	2020-06-09	X	✓	1	1

Drone Alone: An Emberfest Caper	24	Spirit of New York City	Lounge	Gunther Sentraperk	2020-12-31	✓²⁹	✓	1	1

The Paper Trail	26?	YZ Ceti Jump Gate	Interstellar Shuttles	Antonina Samiya	2022-10-07

The Truth is Down There	27	Spirit of New York City	Bar	Bing Lancaster	2022-08-08

Note: Sort order: level, release date, mission name.

There is also the option to accept some Discreet Work or perform Side Jobs.

Description

You’re exploring the shipyard of København Station when you bump into Kane, the distraught owner of Citizen Shipbuilders. He’s recently challenged his rival, Chamberlain, to a contest to prove who can build the fastest ship, but now the day of the race has come and he knows he’s going to lose. He doesn’t really care how you do it, but he needs you to get the race called off and will pay you a reward to make it happen.

As you navigate Tau Station, your character will be offered missions. There’s nothing really unusual there; missions are pretty common in MMOs. A non-player character (NPC) has a problem and hires you to solve it. You do the work, get your pay and experience points, and move on. But we see every mission, even the short ones, as a chance for the player to interact with the game world and make meaningful choices through their character.

A mission is a story, and Tau Station is a game built around stories.

Some are fairly short and straightforward like the one described above, “Competitive Edge.” It’s just a side mission, a brief interaction with an NPC that gives you a little insight into their life and the background of the space station you’re on. Other story plots are longer and more involved, spreading out over several missions and stations. They may give you clues about what caused the Catastrophe, or delve into the differences between the game’s Consortium and Gaule governments. The missions in the game will take many forms, and with a setting as rich as Tau Station’s there’s no shortage of story ideas and themes to explore. What they all have in common, even the side missions, is that they involve player choice.

We think that stories in games are the most fun when you have agency as a player and can affect the course of the action. We also think those kinds of stories are the most fun to write, so it works out well for everyone. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the occasional “fetch” mission, such as when an NPC hires you to go to the next station over, pick up an item, and bring it back for them. Tau Station will offer some missions along those lines. But in most of the missions we write we’re striving to give you a more interesting, interactive, experience than that.

In some missions your goal is clear: the NPC needs you to do something fairly specific. But how you accomplish your task will be up to you, based on how you want to play your character. “Competitive Edge” asks you to decide how to go about getting the race canceled. If you like to be reasonable or have a high Social stat, you might appeal to Chamberlain’s better nature by reminding her of all the people who will lose their jobs if Kane’s shipyard goes under. Or maybe you’re feeling a bit more forceful and will use your Strength to convince her to call off the race through intimidation or combat. To keep things interesting, sometimes we throw in hidden options for your character that you’ll only find if you go looking. After all, Chamberlain can’t win the race if she doesn’t have a working ship …

At other times your choice will be less about how to do something and more about what you should do. You’ll be asked to make tough decisions, and the path that you take may lead to very different outcomes for you and the NPCs involved. Perhaps the NPC that you thought was the victim turns out to be the aggressor and you must decide whether or not to keep helping them, even at the expense of others. Or you could be hired for what looks like a totally legitimate job and discover that you’ve gotten mixed up in some criminal activity. Should you take the risk and finish the job? Turn the criminals over to station security? It will be your call. But be prepared to deal with the results – your actions in the missions can affect how much you get paid, your reputation with political factions, what information you learn, even who around you lives and dies.

And sometimes, as in life, you’re going to be presented with multiple options but with no clearly comfortable way forward or happy ending in sight. In a post-Catastrophe galaxy where most people are just trying to survive, it isn’t always possible to be the good guy and there may be no moral choice you can make. At these moments it really comes down to how you perceive your character and the game world around you. Your character will come to life through the choices and decisions you make.

What all this means for the game is that no two players are going to have the same exact experience. The actions you take and the choices you make in the missions can lead to very different outcomes, and those outcomes can affect your character elsewhere in the game and in other missions that you take in the future. You might find yourself in the game’s chat room discussing a mission with a friend and discover that you each got a different piece of information or reward out of it. Their ending to “Competitive Edge” might have been completely different than yours, and that’s part of what makes Tau Station so much fun.

Kickstarter

I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.
Mark Twain

One of the core pillars of Tau Station are its missions. They are the main medium by which you can experience the many stories of our galaxy, how we introduce you to its denizens and engage you with their struggles, their passions, fears, their loves and laughs. Our missions weave throughout the systems and their stations, tying in themes and genres while guiding you through each narrative.

“A good story well told,” is very much how we approach the crafting of our missions. We want them each to feel like a unique short story that takes you on a journey, be it of emotion, humor, adventure, or the like. We craft them with the user experience very much at the forefront of our design, wanting to engage you in the most satisfying way possible. Aspects such as subtext, agency, and conflict are some of the lenses through which we view and review our missions many times over before we make them live.

There are a number of mission types that each focus on a part of Tau Station that we want to help you delve into. What we refer to in game as Missions tell a variety of tales and tend to explore the thematic focus of the station they originate on. They are the people’s stories, introducing you to characters and seeking to engage you in a number of ways. Some example include:

The Hollowship—Sol Jump Gate

An ancient and apparently unmanned vessel has arrived at Sol Jump Gate. Various factions demand ownership when the ship suddenly comes to life and demands you, and only you, enter to defuse the self-destruct protocol it has just initiated!

Bloody Evaluation—Orwell Stronghold

A series of murders framed as grotesque art pieces will take the player and their sleuthing partner Qui9 around Spirit of Tianjin. Question suspicious patrons, check recordings and gather clues—but know the murderer may also be keeping an eye on you.

Moments of Truth—Hopkins’ Legacy

A once-revered Tanegashima fleet admiral languishes in a brig cell on a treason charge. She counts off the days until her capital sentence, troubled by one lingering question about her past. Can you help find the answer before her time runs out?

Our Mission Dispatch (and two and three) posts can further tease you with a little extra detail on many more if you find your curiosity piqued!

Weaving through the aforementioned Missions and the stations they take place on is a newer development we are adding very soon. Core Stories grab the mystery at the heart of Tau Station and guide you through the shadows to try and unravel its dangerous plot line. Core Stories will have a unique functionality that focuses on this epic scale quest that will take you through the galaxy and where your choices can branch off into a multitude of possibilities!

Story is quite obviously front and center in a lot that makes up Tau Station. If Tau Station was some sort of time-traveling, intergalactic alien, narrative would absolutely be one of his and her hearts. Each beat tells a tale that we have carefully woven with utmost respect and care so that it reads like a lovingly crafted short story that you direct.

Notes

Missions will be terminated if they run longer than 15 days:

The mission '<mission>' has been terminated: mission ran longer than 15 days.

Tau Station Notebook

Tau Station Notebook is an on-going project to conceptualise the storyline behind Tau Station. The results are progressively being included in this Tau Station Wiki, under the Additional information from the storyline section. An experimental conceptual approach, as the next image, is updated here as missions are processed.

Footnotes

_m incomplete mission

page revision: 205, last edited: 30 Mar 2023 16:49

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Tau Station

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Notes

Tau Station Notebook