Starfield Failure to Communicate – Walkthrough and Safe Key

Failure to Communicate Mission Overview

Mission type: Miscellaneous Mission, not tied to any faction or the main story
Prerequisite: None, it triggers on its own
Starts: Automatically when you grav jump into a qualifying system and receive Alban Lopez’s distress call
Completed at: The Retrofitted Starstation, in the same system
Rewards: Around 2,500 credits after the satellites, around 5,000 credits and 100 XP on completion, plus everything in the starstation safes

The system this mission takes place in is randomised. This playthrough put it in Denebola, but Eta Cassiopeia, Aranae, Tau Ceti and Delta Pavonis are all reported starting points, and the planet names shift with them. The mission structure never changes, so follow the objective names rather than the system names and every step below will line up.

Two things are worth knowing before you start. If you leave the distress call unanswered for too long the mission can close itself out with a red cross and you cannot get it back. And the persuasion attempt on Jacquelyn Lemaire is one-shot, so save before you talk to her.

1 – Talk to Alban Lopez

Mission Text:
“Someone named Alban Lopez is sending a distress call asking for help from LIST. I could drop by and investigate.”

Land at the landing site called Lopez’s Farm and walk up to Alban. He explains that LIST sent four families out to colonise the system, that the Spacers have knocked out their communication satellites, and that the families are now cut off from each other and getting picked off one at a time.

2 – Repair the Lopez Communication Satellite

Mission Text:
“Alban Lopez has a communication satellite that needs to be fixed. There are probably Spacers there. Once I fix it, Alban will contact me with more information.”

Head back to orbit and select the Communication Satellite from the system map. The satellites sit in solar orbit rather than around any planet, so you have to target them directly. Three Spacer ships are waiting here. Clear them out, then fly within 500m of the satellite and interact with it to repair it.

3 – Repair the Wen Communication Satellite

Mission Text:
“I fixed the Lopez family’s satellite. Now I have to fix the rest of the families satellites in the system: the Bandas, Lemairs, and Wens. The Spacers will probably have ships there to stop me.”

Set course for the Wen Communication Satellite. There were no Spacers guarding this one, which turns out to be the story: the Wens have already been wiped out. Fly within 500m and interact to repair.

4 – Repair the Banda Communication Satellite

Mission Text:
“I fixed the Lopez family’s satellite. Now I have to fix the rest of the families satellites in the system: the Bandas, Lemairs, and Wens. The Spacers will probably have ships there to stop me.”

Three more Spacer ships are guarding the Banda satellite. Take them out first, then close to 500m and repair. Alban patches in afterwards and Chanda Banda agrees to the meeting.

5 – Repair the Lemaire Communication Satellite

Mission Text:
“I fixed the Lopez family’s satellite. Now I have to fix the rest of the families satellites in the system: the Bandas, Lemairs, and Wens. The Spacers will probably have ships there to stop me.”

Another three Spacer ships here. Clear them, close to 500m and repair. Jacquelyn Lemaire only agrees to meet on one condition, that everyone comes to her ship. The order you repair the satellites in changes some of the dialogue, but not the outcome.

6 – Report Back to Alban Lopez

Mission Text:
“I fixed the four families’ communication satellites. The leaders of the three surviving families are meeting on Jacquelyn Lemaire’s ship. Alban Lopez wants me to go there to pick up my pay.”

Fly to the Family Rendezvous point, dock with Jacquelyn Lemaire’s ship and board. The three family heads are already arguing, so let the conversation play out before you speak to Alban. He pays you around 2,500 credits for the satellite work, then asks for help getting everyone to sign a defensive pact.

7 – Get Jacqueline Lemaire to Join (Optional)

Mission Text:
“Alban Lopez wants to have all the LIST families join a Defensive Pact to take care of the immediate Spacer problem (and beyond). I need to convince Chanda Banda to join. Getting Jacquelyn Lemaire to join would be even better.”

Save before you talk to her. Jacquelyn is the hard one because Alban has cheated her in the past, and you get two ways in.

Persuasion is a six bar check across three turns. The line that opens her up is the one pointing out that whatever she has, the Spacers have more.

Paying is the fallback, but read this first: offering her the 2,000 credits makes her counter with a demand for 10,000. Worse, if you attempt the persuasion and fail, the credits option is gone, so you cannot try to talk her round and then buy her off. Pick one.

She is optional, but bringing her in means extra Lemaire ships fighting alongside you later, and those matter at the starstation.

8 – Get Chanda Banda to Join

Mission Text:
“Alban Lopez wants to have all the LIST families join a Defensive Pact to take care of the immediate Spacer problem (and beyond). I need to convince Chanda Banda to join. Getting Jacquelyn Lemaire to join would be even better.”

Chanda is standing by the ladder on the lower level. He needs no convincing at all, just ask and he signs on.

9 – Talk to Alban about the Defensive Pact

Mission Text:
“Alban Lopez wants to have all the LIST families join a Defensive Pact to take care of the immediate Spacer problem (and beyond). I need to convince Chanda Banda to join. Getting Jacquelyn Lemaire to join would be even better.”

Go back to Alban. He sends you after two groups of Spacer ships and offers to send family ships along as backup. Turn the backup down here. Both of these groups are manageable on your own, and the help you use now is help you will not have at the starstation, which is the fight that actually needs it.

10 – Eliminate Spacer Ships Orbiting Denebola II-A

Mission Text:
“The LIST families now have a Defensive Pact. Alban Lopez has asked me to take out two Spacer ship contact groups, and then report back to him at his farm.”

The first contact group sits in orbit around one of the inner planets, four ships instead of the usual three, and levelled a little higher than the satellite guards. Aim for engines first if you want to board and loot rather than destroy.

11 – Eliminate Spacer Ships Orbiting Denebola III

Mission Text:
“The LIST families now have a Defensive Pact. Alban Lopez has asked me to take out two Spacer ship contact groups, and then report back to him at his farm.”

Same again at the second contact group, another four ships. Repair your hull and restock ammo between the two if you took a beating, since the next stop is the base itself.

12 – Report Back to Alban Lopez

Mission Text:
“The LIST families now have a Defensive Pact. Alban Lopez has asked me to take out two Spacer ship contact groups, and then report back to him at his farm.”

Land at Lopez’s Farm again and talk to Alban. He has traced the Spacers back to a derelict starstation they have retrofitted into a base. Take him up on the backup ships this time.

13 – Clear Out Spacer Ships Orbiting Denebola II

Mission Text:
“Alban Lopez found that the Spacers are using a Derelict Starstation as their base. The plan is to eliminate their ships then board the Starstation and put an end to them for good.”

Select the Retrofitted Starstation directly from the system map. The station itself has no weapons, but two waves of four Spacer ships defend it, so this is the longest fight in the mission. The Lopez and Banda ships fight alongside you, and if you brought Jacquelyn in, the Lemaire ships join too.

14 – Clear the Spacers from the Retrofitted Starstation

Mission Text:
“Alban Lopez found that the Spacers are using a Derelict Starstation as their base. The plan is to eliminate their ships then board the Starstation and put an end to them for good.”

Dock with the starstation and board. Clear the Spacers room by room, then find Alban by the bridgeway to finish the mission. He hands over around 5,000 credits and 100 XP.

You can turn the credits down. The families are not wealthy and refusing changes nothing mechanically, so it comes down to how you want to play your character. Do not talk to him until you have read the next section, though, because there is loot on this station you cannot come back for once you leave.

15 – Stolen Safe Key and Galbank Safe Locations

The Spacers stole a safe before you got here, and the station logs tell you where they put it.

Read the terminal in the command room and you will find the entry about the stolen safe, stored in the old storage room on the floor below, along with the detail that the crew always kept the key in the room with the computers.

Turn around from the terminal and take the stolen safe key off the desk.

Head down one floor to the storage room. Alongside the stolen safe there are several more locked safes down here, plus a Galbank safe that needs its own keycard. That keycard is in the room above the safes, and there is a skill magazine sitting next to it, so grab both on the way through.

Between the safes you are looking at a solid pile of credits, ammo and gear, which is easily worth more than the mission reward itself. This is the part most players fly away from without ever opening.

Failure to Communicate Rewards

Around 2,500 credits from Alban after all four satellites are repaired

Around 5,000 credits and 100 XP on completion, which you can refuse

Everything inside the starstation safes, including the Galbank safe

A skill magazine on the deck above the storage room

The Lemaire family as allies for the final fight, if you got Jacquelyn to sign

If Failure to Communicate Bugs Out

Alban stops responding during a conversation. This is rare and usually clears if you walk away, talk to another NPC or two, and come back to him.

The mission shows as complete with a red cross before you started it. That means the distress call went unanswered too long. There is no way to reopen it on that save.

You cannot repair a satellite. You have to be inside 500m with the satellite targeted, and every Spacer ship in the area has to be down first.