Space combat is an integral part of being a pilot in Starfield and one mission where you can go all out with it is Failure to Communicate. During this side quest, you will come across Spacers sieging the local satellites of the Eta Cassiopeia star system. It will be up to you to join arms with the natives and lead them to freedom.
How to start the Failure to Communicate quest
To start Failure to Communicate, orbit the planets of Eta Cassiopeia till you get Alban Lopez’s distress call. It was most commonly found around Aranae II or Cassiopeia II.
He will mistake you for a Spacer at first and will be a little hostile. Follow the signal to his farm and speak with him to clear the air. Something to note here is that the planet you end up reaching after following the distress beacon might be different in each playthrough.
He will share that a Spacers group has been going after the LIST communication satellites used by his family in the system. They use them as bait to lure and then attack his family. Your objective is to repair the satellites so Alban can return to his people.
Find and repair communication satellites
There are a total of four satellites that you need to repair: Lopez, Wen, Banda, and Lemaire.
The first one you are going to visit with Alban is the Lopez. Clear out the nearby Spacer Ships and then repair the satellite.
The next three can be visited in any order and will be orbiting a random planet within the Eta Cassiopeia system. In our experience, Banda and Lemaire were always guarded while Wen remained without any Spacer defense.
Once you have repaired all the satellites during Failure to Communicate, report back to Alban on the Jacquelyn Lemaire ship in Starfield.
Persuade Alban’s family to join Defensive Pact
When you enter Jacquelyn’s ship, you’ll find Lopez asking Jacquelyn and Chanda Banda to form a defense pact to help stop the Spacers once and for all.
When the family reunion ends, you can talk to Alban about the satellites. He will reward you Credits for your efforts and request you to aid him in convincing his family to join his cause.
Chanda will be near the stairs and is more than happy to join forces. If you talk to Lopez he will ask you to buy them more time by taking care of the Spacers nearby. He will offer backup but refuse his offer to save it for your final fight since these Spacers are fairly easy to deal with.
Optional: Convince Jacquelyn Lemaire to join the pact
Jacquelyn will be a bit hesitant to join the defense pact due to Lopez’s past. You can either use your persuasion skills to have her join the defense pact or pay 10,000 credits to compensate for Lopez’s past actions.
Convincing Jacquelyn can take down 2 Spacer groups by herself so having her on the team can be more fruitful than you might think. We advise going through the extra mile since you will need all the help you need.
Eliminate the Spacers
Once you have convinced the family, talk to Alban who will direct you to two locations to clear out the Spacers in the area. These locations are random as well and the most common ones are Aranae IV-B and Aranae IV-D or Cassiopeia III and IV.
These Spacers are more challenging than the ones you have encountered up till now so remember to ask Lopez for backup.
After visiting the two areas, regroup with the Lopez and other families. Alban will have discovered the main Spacer base at Retrofitted Starstation where you need to make the final stand. If you have convinced all the members, you will see the benefits of the defensive pact in action against the numerous enemy ships.
Defeat the Spacers and clear out the Starstation to complete the Failure To Communicate side mission in Starfield. Alban will reward you with 5000 Credits and 100 XP.
Optional: Loot the stolen safe
After dealing with the Failure To Communicate mission, you can explore the Retrofitted located in the room full of lockers under the command room.
To get the key to the stolen safe, go up the stairs to the captain’s deck. It will be on the desk on your left in the room with the monitors. Now go back down to unlock it and get the rewards.
Starfield – Failure to Communicate bugs
During the Failure to Communicate mission in Starfield, there are a couple of bugs that will disrupt the whole experience for you. Thankfully, we are here to address them.
Alban Lopez not responding
During one of your talks with Alban, there is a bug where he stops responding to you. This is a rare occurrence and can be solved by walking around the area, interacting with nearby NPCs, or traveling to another starsystem first.
A more popular fix is to ignore the mission and explore the Eta Cassiopeia till you find a Space station. Take care of the Spacers in the area and you can find Alban in one of the hallways.
Common spots you can find him are the connecting bridges at the bottom floor of the Space station and the top floor. To get to the upper level, take the panel in the second-floor elevator.
If it does not solve the issue, you will unfortunately have to reload an old save to replay the mission.
Repair prompt not appearing
There is a bug where you do not get the prompt to repair the communication satellites during the Failure To Communicate side mission. Before you resort to restarting the mission, make sure there are no enemies in the area. Also, be within 500m of the satellite and try approaching from different angles.
Incorrect quest marker
Another bug that might occur is after Lopez asks you for help with repairing the satellites, the quest marker that is supposed to point toward a satellite either doesn’t appear or leads to a dead end. In this case, you have no choice but to restart the mission and try everything again. This might be annoying but there is no other way.
Allies offering no help
Even after gathering all the allies and requesting the ships, some players can, unfortunately, get a bug where they offer no help while fighting Spacers. This can force them to continue the quest solo.
This can be because the allies get bugged when you travel to the destination instead of making the jump. You can try leaving the star system and then making the grave back to the destination to “force” them to jump in with you.
Friendly NPCs shooting you after the fight at Retrofitted Spacestation
Some players have also experienced where friendlies will start shooting you once you defeat the Spacers. The cause of this glitch is unknown and while there is no permanent fix, you can work around this.
Simply, down the friendlies, careful not to kill them, loot their bodies, and then revive them. If this doesn’t work, try revisiting the Starstation or reloading an old save.
