[ExplorerBob]

I was in sector 4, I believe, having gone back after crashing a Temple and acquiring the Ceiling Fan of Forever in sector 5. With a kitted Assault Scout and a rifle for ground combat, things were good.

I landed on a Terran planet and explored it without much event. There was a cave; I went back up to the ship to heal, and figured I'd land again to see what was in there.

I landed one square away from the cave. I was kicking myself for forgetting to bring the Oxygen Replenisher, but figured it was too good a chance to pass up. After I ran out of suit oxygen, I found that the planet's atmosphere was non-toxic, even better. I could explore the cave as far as it would go, with health being my only limitation.

I was returning back to the ship after getting in some licks from various cave creatures... and turned a corner right into a pair of suckers.

Game over, just like that. I never got to find out what that Ceiling Fan did or whether there was anything down on the second level of those caves. Not only that, there was like ten shipwrecks that I hadn't gotten around to exploring yet... and there was likely an Embassy at sector 6 or 7 that I never saw.

It's one thing to bumble into the second sector and get jumped by 5 pirate ships before the game even really starts (which has happened to me); it's another when things are going good and one little mistake is the catalyst for disaster. I guess I probably shouldn't have gone down myself on that away mission, and in the full version, I might not have, but I feel that in a 7-sector game, it's too much XP to pass up. The downside to that, is that if you stumble across one too many plants, or blobs, or whatever, your time's out -- which isn't a total disaster, considering it's just the demo, but it's still annoying if you have unfinished business (like with that Artifact).

That's just the way life (and death) goes, though.