After your archaeology field trip, you'll end up back at Leeds. You are now Level 10.
Interlude[edit]
Sell your diamonds. You can now buy Class 5 weapons/shields, the Tadpole mine launcher, and the Starkiller torpedo launcher. And better ships. Unfortunately, none of those ships are sold nearby.
If you're up for a challenge, try picking up a load of H-Fuel and going back to Mactan to pick up the Dromedary Freighter. It's more complicated than it sounds: even though the Hackers don't mind you the Outcasts hate you, and they have an alliance. So if there are any Outcasts around Mactan when you approach within 5K, it will go hostile and you'll have to reload from your autosave to try again. It's OK if you see and kill some Outcasts (and Lane Hackers) along the way as long as you don't do it within 5K of the station or its weapons platforms. You only need to get close enough for the base to give you permission to land; once you're in the landing sequence, they can't change their minds. This works better if you approach from the Manchester gate.
Once you've landed at Mactan, buy the Dromedary and a Class 5 shield. I outfit my Dromedary with the Dragoon 2s from the San Vicente, five Angelito 1 turrets from killing Corsairs, and the Pyros type 2s from the Lorenzo.
While you're here, you can also bribe the Rogues and Lane Hackers in the bar, which makes the Outcasts no longer hate you. If you don't do this, you'll have a hard time getting off the base alive. Note: If the bribe on offer isn't the one you want, just launch to space and reload the Auto Save to try again. You could also just bribe the Outcasts, but that's more expensive.
On your way back into Bretonia, why not loot the storage depots at Sheffield station to fill your new freighter? The Bounty Hunters hate you anyway. They have Boron, Optical Chips, H-Fuel and Hydrocarbons. If you can't carry it all, leave Hydrocarbons behind. Sell the H-Fuel at Birmingham (or take it back to Mactan), take the Boron and Hydrocarbons to LD-14 in Leeds, and the Optical Chips to Leeds itself. There's a jump hole from Manchester to Leeds in the upper right of D3.
Now that you've got yourself a spiffy freighter, it's time for some trade! The Leeds-Cambridge Optronics/Diamonds run you've already done once is quite lucrative ($745 profit per unit, round trip). If the Corsairs don't hate you, an even better route ($1502), is running Artifacts and Light Arms between New London and Cadiz, a Corsair base in the Omega-5 system; get there through a jump hole in SE Cambridge. While you're in Cadiz, you can also pick up an Advanced Thruster and Advanced Countermeasure Dropper. Alternatively, you can take a load of Pharmaceuticals or Gate/Lane Parts, and just get them at Holman Outpost in Tau-31.
While you're trading, explore a bit. There's a Junker base NW of Southampton Shipyard in New London. There are a couple of derelicts in Cambridge near the Omega-5 jump hole:
- Henry Jones (lower left F5) - 6xStarbeam Turret, 10xGold
- Caraz (right E6) - 2xAngelito Mk 1, 20xArtifacts
There are a bunch of derelicts in Omega-5; most of them are empty, but a few drop weapons:
- 1xRoter Blitz Turret, 2xNatter
- 1xNatter Turret, 2xNatterturn
- 2xAngelito Mk 1
- 2xSalamanca Mk 1
If you are having trouble finding a derelict or a jump hole, take a mission near the area you want to search and fly through said area on the way.
When you're ready, pick up more Diamonds (though you might leave some room for salvage), and continue on to Dublin.