Commander Altsain has had a keen interest in pursuing Guardian modules, ship components gleaned form the study of alien technology, for quite some time. She had been poking around Guardian ruins, figuring out puzzles that would unlock their secrets, and beating back automated Sentinel defenders in preparation.

However, she had heard rumours that refinements in the technology were on their way, and so she held off visiting her local Tech Broker at Shinrarta. Instead, she made a few more expeditions into Guardian space, about 1,000 light years along the Orion Spur, diligently collecting all the artefacts, materials and blueprints she could find so that when the revised technology was ready, she would be in position to take advantage of it.

Finally, the day came, and the commander was there at Jameson Memorial when all the new technology became available. So were many other commanders, but they seemed to have something else very much in mind…

As well as items garnered from Guardian space, a few more mundane bits and pieces were required to harness this new technology, and Commander Altsain spent a little time zipping about between systems, purchasing the necessary items. Finally, she was ready.

Module Reinforcements

These were the first things that the commander persuaded her Tech Broker to pass along and, to her mind, they are a no-brainer. More resilient than standard reinforcements, they consume power but, if a ship has juice to spare, there are no drawbacks. She duly swapped over to the new technology with every ship in her hangar that was so reinforced.

Power Plant & Distributor

The commander had heard others deride these upgrades, citing that a well-engineered power plant and distributor combination would always be far superior. She is not so sure, and while she has yet to make the change in any of her ships, the commander ran the odd analysis that suggested they warrant a closer look. More power and better recharge rates are on offer, but these things run hot, and look like they can turn a well-behaved cool running ship into something that fairly lights up surrounding space. The recharge rates on the distributor are similarly attractive, but actual capacity is seriously hammered. Worthy of a look, but care should be taken before going into battle…

Hull Reinforcements

These the commander has actually not tried out yet and, given that they cannot be engineered, she is dubious. However, her Type-10 Defender is an anti-Thargoid ship that is basically full of hull reinforcement modules, so there may be some potential here for a specialised ship…

FSD Booster

Now the commander started getting to the good stuff – a flat increase to jump range (up to a little more than 10 light years) for what looks like no increased fuel consumption? They could sign her up straight away!

As it turns out though, there are some drawbacks…

First, the large FSD Boosters (they go up to Class 5) consume a lot of power. A lot. If a ship is already running near maximum on its power draw, some jiggling will be required, which is exactly what the commander had to do with her Beluga, the Queen of the Stars.

The Queen of the Stars was already running hot, something the commander had been planning to solve with a more efficient power plant. However, the FSD Booster she tried to fit pushed the power draw of the ship well over its limits, meaning she had to overcharge the current power plant even further, making the problem that much worse.

She also had to lose the SRV the ship carried, which was a great shame and highlights the other problem with the FSD Booster – a well put together ship may not have the spare module slot required, meaning increased jump range will demand a loss of functionality, even in ships like the Python and Anaconda.

The plus side? The Queen of the Stars was now jumping over 45 light years at a time, and the commander was so pleased with this that she immediately began outfitting other ships with the FSD Booster, if they had sufficient room.

With her Corvette now jumping at 28 light years and her Exploraconda at over 70, she turned her attention to her favourite Fuel Ratting ship, the Exxon Valdez, a super-fast Orca.

This ship had to lose its auxiliary fuel tank to fit a modest FSD Booster, but this enabled it to stretch its legs out at a comfortable 47 light years. The commander firmly believes she could push this to over 50 light years with a bigger booster, but that would require swapping the Shield Generator out for a smaller model, and she is not comfortable with that, given the dangers in the galaxy.

Shield Reinforcements

This is a fun module, but one that suffers the same issues as the FSD Booster – it consumes more power, and takes up module space that a ship may simply not have. Also, the increase it gives to shields can seem marginal, though multiple modules will stack in their effects.

The only ship the commander saw fit to mount one of these initially was on her Cutter, the I Iz A Duval. This pushed its shields up to over 6,000 Megajoules which is, however you look at it, a lot.

The commander feels a lot safer flying it now.

So, Commander Altsain’s final assessment of the new Guardian modules is that they will not turn a vessel into a super-warship, but remain very much worth the effort, especially now that the Tech Brokers have got their act together and made this technology far easier to obtain.

Guardian technology is likely to remain a component in every new ship the commander purchases…