Starfield Surgical Strike quest guide

You’ll be very close to finding the culprits behind the Freestar Rangers stolen ship in Starfield, but you’ve some more sleuthing to do yet. The ‘Surgical Strike’ quest will have you going to the Clinic, where medical care and privacy are supposedly the best that they can be.

That won’t stop us from trying to track down Maya Cruz, however, but as is usually the case in Starfield, things will hardly go as planned. So, here’s how to complete the Freestar Rangers ‘Surgical Strike’ quest in Starfield.

Starfield Surgical Strike quest guide

Start off the Surgical Strike quest by making your way to the Clinic. Once inside, go and speak to Ranger Ben Armistead about why you’re here.

After speaking to Ben, he’ll take you to meet with Ari Miller, who will try and help you track down where Maya Cruz is within the facility.

Speak to Ari Miller and follow him over to his computer station, where he’ll try to find where Maya Cruz or anyone matching her description is staying. He’ll give you two names: Candace Doolin, and Jane Nakamori.

Speak to each patient in their rooms, and don’t worry too much about how the dialogue goes. Candace will seem suspicious, while Jane is a huge hypochondriac. Either way, neither patient is the Maya Cruz we’re looking for.

Return to and speak with Ari Miller again. He says he’ll have found someone who fits our suspects profile, but the issue is that they’re staying in the VIP Wing, which we do not have access to.

Ari will inform us that we can gain access to the VIP Wing by getting a Keycard from Dr. Titus Cassidy, or by stealing one from their office. Quicksave your game here and approach Dr. Cassidy, where you’ll then be able to try and persuade them to hand over a keycard.

Alternatively, if you have the Medicine skill, you will have a Medicine-related dialogue prompt that will instantly gain the doctors trust. He’ll then hand over the keycard without issue.

With the keycard in our possession, make your way to the VIP Wing. As you enter, disarm the turret and head to Maya Cruz’s room. Surprise, surprise; she has vanished and her doctor is dead. You’ll now need to search the room for evidence.

Take a look at the computer terminal in her room, and then collect the data slate from the bedside table with the food tray on it. This will reveal that Maya has fled, and exactly where she has fled to.

So, make your way to the Sakharov space system. The Eklund Site CL25, where Maya is hiding, is built into an asteroid here. Dock with it and enter.

Now, this facility is pretty straight-forward. There’ll be lots of turrets and aliens to tackle along the way, however, so keep your wits about you and prepare to take cover. There’ll also be sabotaged switches and so forth, that when interacted with, will electrocute you. So, be careful!

On top of that, there’s emergency cuttable walls; you’ll need to shoot the yellow bolts on each corner of these doors for them to open. You will have to go through these to progress, so keep an eye out and be careful to not mistake them for the locked security doors that are all over Starfield.

Overall, we want to keep heading deeper into the site and towards our quest marker. When you first enter the site, go across the metal platforms in front of you and through the emergency cuttable wall. Keep heading downwards in the next area, where you should find a small building with a computer terminal inside.

You’ll need to digipick the computer, and will then be able to open the nearby Security Door using it. In the next area, head downwards again. There’ll be a security door that can be opened using the switch in front of it. Head through the door.

Follow your quest marker to the elevator and press the button to take it down. Prepare for a lot of turrets in the upcoming area.

Climb the metal structure in this area and break the emergency cuttable wall at the top. You’ll be faced with Maya Cruz. You can shoot her until she is downed, and she’ll magically get back up again to converse with you.

Maya will reveal that she doesn’t have long to live as it is, and would rather you kill her where she stands or let her live her final days in peace. She will also give you an encrypted slate of information about the First. Then, you can choose to kill her or leave her be. We chose to let her live.

Now, it’s time to finally return to The Rock in Akila City and hand over this encrypted slate. There’ll be an elevator in the back of the room that Maya is in; follow this route and you’ll soon be spat back out where your ship is.

When you get back to Akila City, give the encrypted slate to Alex Shadid in The Rock again. With that, your quest will be complete and it is now time to complete the ‘On the Run’ quest.