S.A.S.S. Nova And Nova Reach

Nova Reach is Veloris's capital of commerce and technology, and the Welcome Center is its front desk. Marsh works the checkpoint there. A whirlpool anomaly off the islands has Nova Reach opening the Nova Gate and taking volunteers, and volunteering is how an outsider earns a berth on S.A.S.S. Nova — the Signal Analysis & Survey Ship, a research and response vessel holding station above the anomaly.

You do not need to be from Nova Reach, and you do not need anyone's permission to begin. Greet the desk, take the application, and start working through the branches.

The volunteer application has four branches plus a final review. Three of them can be worked in any order.

1. 1Bonnie's field-safety sequenceThree requests in order: help test a harmless Nova Link harness while your pet reassures the lab familiars, have a pet carry a training sensor along a marked route, then hold steady at the threshold. If one of these is abandoned or expires, you can simply take it again — there is no penalty to your standing.
2. 2AUSTIN's Mergeworks calibrationFinish one Mergeworks run that the server accepts with a score of at least 248.
3. 3Mina Rook's supply handoffPack a crate at the Nova Gate supply depot: five qualifying foods and five qualifying seeds or garden starters. You choose the exact ten, and they are consumed when you hand them over.
4. 4A sponsorSpend enough time with any established Nova Reach citizen that they would vouch for you, and they will issue a visitor pass. Greeting people and giving gifts is the intended way in.
5. 5Anna Turney's final approvalBring all four to Anna at the Welcome Center, holding the visitor pass your sponsor issued. Her review is the step that waits on everything else.

Approval issues a volunteer berth. Commander Rae meets you on your first arrival, and acknowledging the handoff opens the approved areas of the deck:

• The Grand Concourse — the ship's main floor and its workshop wing
• The Fabrication Deck — file a work order and build from the rack
• The Defense Center — Beck's workbench, where a pet trains for deployment
• The Notice Board — the kiosk carrying whatever the crew has filed
• Recycling
• The Science Office

The Nova Canteen is a counter you take a plate from rather than a shop, and Mallow keeps the Welcome Aboard desk on the atrium floor. Mallow and Marsh are two androids of the same model and share a face; they are not the same person, and they are not in the same place.