The Von Braun is laid out in decks, and you work your way through them more or less in order, riding the elevator between them once you get it running. These are the first four. I'll do the later ones when I've played them a third time and can write about them without giving away the plot. For now, if you get past Operations, you don't need me anymore.

All through these decks, a scientist named Dr. Janice Polito talks to you over your implant and tells you where to go. Do what she says. It's the only plan you've got.

Where you wake up, and where you learn everything the hard way.

• The first thing you'll meet that wants you dead is a person. Or used to be. They talk while they come at you. It's worse than if they didn't.
• Find this deck's Quantum Bio-Reconstruction machine and switch it on before you do anything brave.
• Read the e-mails and listen to every log. The door codes on this deck are in them, and you'll be walking back and forth a lot if you skip them.
• Don't fire the pistol at everything. Wrench what you can. Save bullets for what you can't.
• Find the first upgrade units and spend your first modules here. Don't hoard them on deck 1. You need the help now.
• Cameras. Learn the sound the alarm makes. Learn to hate it.

The engine deck. Big, loud, and leaking.

• Radiation. There's radiation in parts of this deck, and your job here involves getting it purged so you can get to the engine core. Carry anti-radiation hypos and don't stand around in the hot zones admiring the machinery. Your radiation meter will tell you when you've had enough. Listen to it.
• You'll be seeing more machines from here on. Armor-piercing ammo for robots. Anti-personnel for people. Switch before you shoot.
• The protocol droids are polite and they like to blow up when they get close. Don't let them get close.
• This is where my Marine's pistol broke. See Maintenance on the main page.

The garden deck. It should be the nicest place on the ship. It is not.

• Something is growing in here that isn't a plant, and the whole deck is infested with it. You'll pick up an experimental chemical called Toxin-A. Research it, then put it into the four environmental regulators around the deck to clear the place out. That means you need some Research. Don't arrive here with none.
• Carry anti-toxin hypos. There's poison in places here.
• Four regulators means four trips into four different sections. Activate the deck's QBR first and save before each one.
• Dena says this is where I scream the most. I say it's where the monkeys are the worst. These might be the same thing.

The ship's offices and command systems. Lots of security, lots of locked doors, lots of things you'll want to hack.

• More cameras and more turrets than anywhere so far. If you put points into Hack, this is where it pays off. Hack a security computer and the cameras go quiet for a while. Use that while to move.
• Turrets can be hacked too, and a hacked turret works for you.
• Keep your weapons maintained before you go deep. You'll be in a lot of long fights.
• Pick up every cyber module you see. You'll want them all for what comes next.
• And when you reach the end of this deck, something happens. I'm not saying what. If you want to know before you get there, the spoiler page is behind a warning. If you don't, stop reading guides and go play.