Greetings Starmourners,

Going forward, you might run across some new entities in space, marked with "$" on your map. These are refineries or autofactories operated by rogue organizations of the Starmourn sector (pirates, smugglers and the like). While they pose no passive threat to any wandering space explorer, nobody will really mind if you try and take the goods in those installations for yourself (well, the owners will...). To that end you may proceed and attack these refineries/factories. If you do attack them, a number of things will happen:

- The refinery/autofactory will immediately deploy defensive systems which will, naturally, attempt to reduce you to a pile of smouldering debris
- The area becomes OPEN PK! and this will be announced on the Conflict channel (giving the exact location)
- The area will remain OPEN PK until combat ends or the refinery is destroyed (the destruction of one of these things is also announced on the Conflict channel)

You may continue your attempt to take down the pirate installation. Destroying it outright will leave some finished goods / parts or processed commodities for you to scoop up (or for anyone in the area, really. Remember that OPEN PK bit). Alternatively, if you get rid of the installation's defenders, you may DOCK at the installation and hack the terminal you find within. If you manage to hack it, you'll send the installation into overload and it'll soon blow up by itself. Overloading it will have the refinery/factory leave behind more resources than it would if you were to shoot it down directly. Just be sure to launch out of the place BEFORE it explodes...

Now then, the refineries/autofactories themselves come in a number of sizes (from small to huge) and pop up randomly throughout the game month. Their size determines the reward and the power/number of the defenders. As time passes, some of these installations will be spotted by wandering travelers, space explorers or patrols and their location will be reported to all factions. While at a station, you may check STATION PIRATE REFINERIES and get a list of all discovered installations. If you manage to find one of these installations in space before it's been discovered, the yields from destroying it / hacking it will be greater. It can really take a while from when a refinery/installation spawns until it gets publicly discovered.

We're going to rely on you all to let us know how you find this system, especially in terms of the firepower needed to bring their defenders down. Bring some friends at first!