Shadow of the Past

Overview

The year was 2318, it was a quiet night in New Atlantis, just like any other. But this night changed it all. A UC special unit raided the apartment, wrong movements were made - your mother got shot, your father taken - and you ended up in a UC facility for difficult children. Your hatred for the UC grew over the years - until you escaped one night, changing your identity and starting a new life in the pleasure city of Neon. Now you've found a new job at Argos Extractors, whilst still searching for answers.

Embark on a journey to find out who ordered the arrest of your parents and what happened to them all those years ago and get to know a new companion along the way! This is a quest mod, but primarily focuses on adding a new companion with a lot of dialogue.

Additional Notes

This story quest functions as a way to join the Crimson Fleet, as its storyline will play alongside it. Already finished the Crimson Fleet questline? Read the FAQ below for more info!
This quest is available in English and German. Please note, the German translation does not include the voice-over - only the subtitles and any other text elements are available in German.
Don't like to join the Crimson Fleet? Not interested in playing through a whole quest for a companion? I can understand, so I added Gameplay Options to skip some aspects! Simply read the FAQ further down to find out more.
Rachel's apartment is on the opposite side of Ebbside to your new apartment, once you need to meet her a new map marker will be visible too. If the quest marker to meet with her points to the wrong location, just open the map and find the map marker. The quest marker acting weird in Neon is unfortunately a vanilla issue - I have this with a lot of vanilla quests too.

How To Start

Shadow of the Past will start if you have the 'Broken Child' background and have delivered the first artifact to Constellation. On a New Game Plus, the quest will start immediately upon loading into your Starborn ship, if you have the background. If you do not want to use the background, or you're on an existing character, head into the Gameplay Options and follow the steps in the 'Shadow of the Past - Use Background' entry. More info can be found further down in the FAQ.

F.A.Q.

I don't want to use a new background to play a quest!

No worries! Head into the Gameplay Options and look for the Shadow of the Past - Use Background option, set it to No and follow the instructions listed there.

I want to play this on an existing character and can't change my background

This is of no issue as well! Simply follow the steps from the answer above.

I don't want to be enemies with SysDef for a new companion!

You don't need to! Head into the Gameplay Options and look for the Shadow of the Past - Play Quest option. Set this to No and the quest will be skipped, a new quest will start to recruit Rachel right away. I highly recommend playing through the quest at least once to get important context about the new character! You may load up a prior save after and then utilize this option - of course, this is all up to you! Do keep in mind if Shadow of the Past already started, SysDef hostility cannot be reversed. Change this setting before triggering the quest start!

I don't want to play through this quest in every new game to unlock the new companion!

Understandable! Simply head into the Gameplay Options and look for the Shadow of the Past - Play Quest option and set it to No! If you plan on not playing the quest, I recommend not choosing the Broken Child background either during character creation. Keep in mind, once you set it to No it is no longer possible to play the quest until you jump into a NG+!

I am in the middle of the Crimson Fleet quest line, what will happen?

Once Shadow of the Past starts, SysDef will be turned hostile. If you've so far worked undercover for Ikande you will get kicked out of SysDef and they will turn hostile. If you do not wish this to happen, finish the entire Crimson Fleet quest line first and then start this quest.

I already finished the Crimson Fleet quest line, can I still play this?

Yes! If the Crimson Fleet is finished, you can play through this quest in one go!

I finished the Crimson Fleet and sided with SysDef, what will happen to SysDef?

In this case, SysDef will remain friendly towards you and access to SysDef missions and the UC Vigilance remains as well. SysDef enemies introduced in Shadow of the Past will still work as expected and be hostile.

I have the 'Kid Stuff' trait, will this create issues?

No, you can use that trait with this Creation. It may not fit into the story, but it will work perfectly fine.

Compatibility

Other Creations making changes to how you join the Crimson Fleet will cause issues.

Support

If you run into issues or have feedback, please join my Discord server: discord.gg/qVRcJNGJ69 I am also in the official BGS Discord as well as the Starfield Modding Discord!