# Captain's Brief

The Jovian fleet is in the galaxy. UP bases are under fire. You are the Endever.

There is no second ship. There is no reinforcement coming. While you're reading the scanner, a Jovian is aiming. While you're typing a firing angle, a base is screaming for help in another quadrant. Everything happens in real time.

## The bridge

Top of the screen is the tactical view — the current corner of the galaxy. Bottom is your status panel — stardate, quadrant, energy, missiles, deflectors, and CONDITION:

- GREEN — the sector is clear.
- YELLOW — Jovians somewhere in the galaxy. They're moving.
- RED — Jovians here. They see you.
- SOS — a base is under attack. You have three stardates before it's gone.

## Your console

Key |
--- | ---
1 | Damage report
2 | Hyperdrive — type column, row (0-7 each)
3 | Long range scan
4 | Deflectors — shields UP / DOWN
5 | Masers — type heading, then ENTER
6 | Triton missiles — type heading, then ENTER
7 | Self-destruct — confirm 123
Arrows | Fly the Endever
CLEAR | Abort current command (backslash in XRoar)

Arrows work while you're typing any command. Dodge while you aim. This is the game.

## The galaxy in one glance

Press 3 and the tactical view becomes the galaxy. `E` is you. `B` is a base. Numbers are Jovian counts. `M` is a magnetic storm — you can't scan through it.

## Pointing a maser

Press 5, type an angle, hit ENTER. Angles are a compass:

      090   (up)
       |

180 — + — 000 (right) | 270 (down)

So `045` is upper-right. `315` is lower-right. Short entries work — `90` then ENTER is the same as `090`.

Masers stop at the first thing they hit. If a star is between you and a Jovian, the beam dies on the star. Move. Find a lane. Fire again.

## Dock or die

Fly onto an UP base with shields DOWN to dock. Dock and you get everything back — every damaged system, every drop of energy, every missile your supply can hold. But each base has a finite missile store. Visit the same base twice and it's running dry.

## Endgame

You win when the last Jovian is dead and at least one base still stands.

You lose when every ship system is at 0%, when a star or black hole takes you, when the last base falls, or when self-destruct reaches zero. Black holes are invisible until something — a beam, a missile, or you — vanishes into one.

## The feel

It's not point and shoot. It's navigate, aim, duck, warp, scan, dock, and fire again, and the galaxy won't wait for you to catch up. You'll think as fast as you can type.

Good luck, Commander.