Hardspace: Shipbreaker

Gecko class ships contain a class two reactor, a couple of radiation containment units, an ecu and a power generator. They take some work and planning to take care of.

The first thing you want to do is to strip the outside. This is the low hanging fruit, any antennas, lights, or sensor arrays that you can remove without effecting the interior.

Next you want to start depressurizing. Your scanner will indicate pressurized areas of the ship with a green rectangle; this is in the structural view. Go inside through the air lock and find the atmospheric regulators. Use them if they work. If they don't work, you'll have to improvise. Finding a safe way to depressurize is an important skill in the game. Bear in mind that once you begin the process, any loose objects will fly towards to where the air is rushing out, posing a serious danger to you. One way I like to depressurize is to cut the glass in the cockpit. You can do this from a safe distance. Just be sure to be out of the way of the flying debris and be sure to anchor yourself with a handhold so that you don't go flying into the processor or something. Pulling out the thrustcaps in the back also works.

Now the ship is depressurized and you can start salvaging the interior. Personally, I like to start at the back. I go into the rear compartment that generally holds the thrusters and reactor, eject the thrusters from the engineering consoles, and then melt the cut points with the stinger. First I remove the nano-carbon shell and dump them into the processor and salvage the thrusters, trying to expose the reactor for easy disposal. If you have ejected the thrusters, the fuel lines (highlighted in red in the systems view of the scanner) should be safe, but the coolant (blue) lines are still dangerous so avoid them at all costs. Now, you've exposed the reactor to open space. You simply need to detach the aluminum casing, pull out the reactor with your grapple tool, and push it into the salvage. However, be sure to leave the coolant pipes and the mounting plate they're attached to, as they can't be safely removed yet.

Remember to use the yellow "jacks" in the yard. Your tethers are very strong, and tethering massive objects to the jacks is a good way of getting them clear of the ship, where they can be moved to the furnace or processor or wherever you want to put them.

From there, continue removing the nano-carbon hull, exposing the inner aluminum frame of the ship. Take special care with the airlocks; they're valuable salvage and can also be very dangerous if you melt the cutpoints while the airlock is still pressurized. Once an area is exposed, you can tackled it by going inside, cutting out the aluminum floor of the inner frame with your level two cutter, grabbing any internal objects (storage containers, computer terminals, seats, etc.) and dropping them straight into salvage. My recommendation though is to handle the major remaining systems (ECU, radiation containment and power generator) the last, after you've cleared most of the interior spaces.

Now I will cover each of these systems separately.

1) The ECU (connected to the reactor, which presumably you have removed at this point) is best handled by first pulling off the computer console with your grapple, as well as the access panel. This exposes the coolant containers inside, which you can pick up simply by pressing x. Once that is done, the coolant pipes can be safely cut, detaching the ECU from the ship. The ECU is pretty massive and hard to handle, so I recommend cutting a hole in the aluminum to get it out with your level two cutter. Now it is also safe to go back and remove the coolant pipes attached to the

2) Radiation filters are highly dangerous, and must be disposed of quickly. Be sure the area around the unit has a clear path to the salvage barge. Pull the access panel with the grapple, then melt the inner yelllow frame holding the filter in place with your stinger. Now you can pull out the filter with the grapple.

Once the filter is removed, the containment unit goes into the processor. (This method is also used for the air filters.) It can easily be removed by melting the aluminum frame along its edges with the stinger. Do not forget the cube shaped aluminum frame at the corners. If the containment unit still doesnt' move, even after melting the frame, it is because it is being held in place inside by some kind of fixture, like a storage container or a seat or bed.

The Gecko should have two radiation filters.

3) The power generator is easily removed once you dispose of the fuses. The fuses are located near the generator, generally in two groups, one of two together and one of one by itself, and are visually identified by three blinking red lights next to an engineering console. Note the timing of the three lights. Press x to remove the fuse once all the lights are off. If your timing is bad you will receive some electrical damage.

Once you've done all of this you should be left with a mostly aluminum structure. However it is too big and unwieldy to be moved easily to the furnace. What you need to do is to cut it into three or four pieces, which an then be moved with tethers. Th level two cutter works for this, but I personally prefer to use the stinger, melting the little aluminum beams between the panels.

And that is how you "full buffalo" a gecko.