Friends Like These – Starfield Mission


After you have cleared out all the Terrormorphs rampaging around the landing pads in New Atlantis, you’ll be tasked with an even deadlier task: diplomacy. The Cabinet has conveniently come around to your idea about drudging up the Terrormorph data from the archives. However, you must get authorization from the two other Armistice factions — House Va’ruun and the Freestar Collective to gain access.

Overall, this mission is rather plain, and not as exciting as fighting terrormorphs. It does an okay job of world building, though, and goes more in-depth about the major faction relations. You’ll be exclusively running around the MAST area of New Atlantis. We suppose its true purpose is to get you ready for the bureaucracy of being a citizen.

  • Quest Type: Faction
  • Prerequisite: Eyewitness
  • Unlocks: The Devils You Know
  • Location
  • Rewards (At level 42)
    • 15,400 Credits
    • 350 XP
    • UC Citizenship
      • Can buy property in New Atlantis
      • UC Citizen ID
      • 5000 Credits

After you have finished talking with the Cabinet, your new mission will start, and the first person you need to chat with is just a few rooms over. If you pull out your scanner, it will lead you right to her. Walk to Macintyre’s office and she will give you the details. You will have to go to the embassies of the Freestar Collective and House Va-ruun to persuade their ambassadors to give access to the Terrormorph archival data.

Deputy Macintyre will give you useful information on both of the ambassadors, so you might as well ask her about them. It becomes pretty clear that you will have to use subterfuge to reach one, and brute strength for the other.

You won’t have to do any fast travelling for this mission. Hop into the elevator and take it down to the ground level, then follow your starfield objective marker over to the Freestar Embassy (Image 1). Take the elevator down, and you’ll find Ambassador Radcliffe’s office in the back left of the building. She’ll be talking with a diplomatic aid about the Terrormorphs.

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these fc embassy
Image 1

When you speak to Radcliffe, you’ll get the opportunity to [Persuade] her to give you the archival code. It is a difficult persuasion check, and you will likely fail it, but if you succeed then you’ll get the archival code.

If you fail the persuasion attempt, you will need to gain access to the ambassador’s room to find incriminating information that is recorded on a UC listening device. For this, you have two courses of action:

Note: If your glib tongue passed the persuasion, then skip down to “Follow Radcliffe”.

This is the less risky route of the two. MacIntyre will have mentioned to you that there’s a disgruntled aid working at the embassy; he’s the same person you saw speaking to the ambassador when you entered her office. His name is Cameron and you can find him skulking around the other offices.

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these cameron
Image 2

When you talk to him, he’ll make you follow him to a more private area, then you can ask him to help you. He’ll only agree if you pay him 1000 credits or lie to him and say he can become an agent with the UC (Image 2). We just lied to him, as there weren’t any repercussions. He’ll give you a key that gives you access to a utility vent.

Follow the starfield objective marker to the conference room, which has a utility section in the back. Wait for the guard’s to turn away, then sneak and open the door. Inside, you’ll see some crates stacked that you climb to get into the vents (Image 3).

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these utility vents v2
Image 3

The first drop you see will be into the Ambassador’s bathroom. From there, you just have to sneak into her room and activate the UC listening device in her plant (Image 4). After listening to the whole recording, you will learn some damning evidence against Radcliffe. Leave back through the vent, but sneak the other way (not towards the conference room). This puts you out in the upstairs bathroom, where there are fewer guards.

This is a quicker route, but you will want to avoid it if you don’t have some pickpocket or lock picking ability. Simply wait for the guard to leave the ambassador’s office, then sneak behind her and pickpocket her embassy key. You will actually notice that you can also steal her code machine key, but this is much more difficult (Image 4).

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these pick pocket the ambassador
Image 4

Another way would be to just lock pick her room door; it is a master lock, though. Her quarters are right behind her. When you sneak into them, you’ll see the plant in the corner that houses the device. Listen to the whole recording, which will give you incriminating evidence. After you have the information, sneak back out the door, then confront the ambassador.

It is very incriminating evidence you have found, damaging enough to extort Radcliffe for a unique pistol, the Ambassador. In order to get this weapon, you have to choose the dialogue, “You call that a negotiation? Without even offering me a gift?” (Image 5). If you’re feeling nice – and don’t want a unique pistol – you can just use the info to get the code.

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these radcliffe extortion
Image 5

After you’ve decided how to use the information (or you persuaded her), she will tell you to follow her down to the basement. She’ll unlock the door and use her key to retrieve the Freestar Collective archival code for you (Image 6).

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these fc archival code
Image 6

Alright, with the cloak and dagger embassy down, that leaves the more combat-oriented diplomatic mission. After you leave the FC Embassy, you can follow your scanner or starfield objective marker to the side entrance of the House Va’ruun Embassy – just to the right of the Galbank building (Image 7).

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these entrance to house embassy
Image 7

Go through the nondescript passage and enter the lobby of the Embassy. You’ll see some elevators to your left; take one down to the House Va’ruun Embassy level. It’ll be immediately apparent that there’s something wrong because there’s nobody around and the building is a mess.

Entering the embassy, you’ll hear a crackly voice over an intercom. When you talk into it, you’ll be asked to throw the power switch directly next to it (Image 8). It’ll tell you that you need to restore the rest of the power, but to be careful of the embassy’s defenses.

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these intercom house
Image 8

Opening the door next to the reception desk, you’ll be in an office area over grown with plant limbs. The limbs create barriers that lead you through some rooms filled with robots, so be ready for close quarters combat. It is a weird layout; use your scanner to guide you if you can’t find a way forward.

If you want to avoid combat with the robots, you can use your jetpack to fly over the limbs. By the door to the intercom there are some turrets, for which you will want to be ready (Image 9). Exactly like before, there’s a power switch by the intercom that you must turn on.

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these turrets
Image 9

Leave that room and head up the stairs, following your scanner as a guide. When you open the door at the top of the stairs, you’ll see a room full of work cubicles and enemies: two turrets and three robots. The two turrets are towards the back and the three robots are of the melee variety – a shotgun is well suited for this job. In the next room is the last intercom and power switch.

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these fighting robots
Image 10

The mysterious voice will tell you to proceed down to the basement; head back down the stairs you came up, and you’ll see the stairs leading down. There’s an intercom here with a starfield objective marker above it, basically telling you to get ready for a fight.

Through the next door, you’ll find a pair of different looking robots that resemble NASA’s Mars rover (Image 11). They can only attack you with melee. As a result, try to keep your distance and the fight should be easy.

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these rover robots
Image 11

The ambassador will be on the other side of the room after you defeat the robots. He will apologize to you for the fighting, and ask that you come into his quarters to talk. Just converse with the old codger and be nice. After some dialogue, he will lead you over to the archive code machine and provide the armistice archival code (Image 12).

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these varuun amabassador
Image 12

Head back through the embassy the way you came to go to MAST. Follow your scanner if you don’t remember the location of her office. This is simply another dialogue step where you will update MacIntyre, and she will send you on your way to Archival Records.

Go back down the elevator to the lobby and run over to Armistice Records – not far from the Freestar Collective Embassy. There will be an elevator inside that you can take to the monitor station level. Go through the guarded doors and walk up to the big door, then the monitors will begin giving you instructions.

After the monitor is done talking, you will see three starfield objective markers around the room; input the codes you’ve collected into each one. Once that is done, the big archives door will open, and you can enter to grab the data (Image 13).

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these archives
Image 13

You’re in the home stretch – only dialogue from here on out. Go back to MAST and take the elevator up to the top. Hadrian will be in MacIntyre’s office, and you will hand off the data to her. She will let you know that they’re going to analyze the data back on Mars, where you found Doctor Percival.

The end of this mission is all pomp and circumstance. You can follow MacIntyre through the door to the balcony overlooking all of New Atlantis and Jemeson. This is where she will naturalize you as a citizen of the UC. Talk to her and take the oath to receive your ID, credits, and authorization to buy property (Image 14).

starfield uc vanguard with friends like these naturalization
Image 14

She will lastly inform you that a mysterious someone wants to talk to you, and that’s how the mission ends – on a cliffhanger (or skyscraper-hanger?). If you’re cool, you will jump off the top of MAST, and use your jetpack to land safely.


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Kelson H.
Kelson H.

Kelson is a spud head from out west. He is most happy when holding a milky tea with too much honey and playing a sprawling role playing game or reading a fantasy novel. His video game tastes vary but his main genres are looter shooters, RPGs, and real time strategy games.

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