[Spoilers] Tainted angels
Okay, I know it's just a game, but I couldn't help noticing that the Starlink crew aren't the heroes they think they are.
1. Atlas was destabilized by the arrival of the Equinox and the abduction of St. Grand. Prior to that, there were no extractors, primes, or dreadnoughts, because nobody in Atlas knew how to make Nova. The crew is all, "We're the good guys; we're here to stop Grax and the Legion," but what they're really doing (yet never acknowledge) is trying to clean up the mess that St. Grand made. [Correction: there were some old extractors. You eliminate the only one on Kirite during the opening, there are a few on Haven and Tundria, and Vylus and the Dark Sector have a bunch. But there are no primes to create more and no dreadnoughts to create primes.]
2. St. Grand's failure to share the Nova formula with anyone -- not even with Mason -- means that Team Grax can create Nova but Starlink can't. Starlink is forced to scrounge uncorrupted Nova. [On review, depending on how you interpret some of the dialog, Judge might know how to create Nova. But if you were to ask him, I suspect you'd get only a blank stare.] [St. Grand's secrecy is puzzling; during the opening cut-scene Levi gets reminded that "nobody is supposed to know," presumably about the Equinox's mission.]
[Added] 2a. St. Grand had met with Shaid in Alcyone before going to Atlas. St. Grand certainly was aware that Atlas was a lawless place -- he was dealing with an outlaw. He might have learned from Shaid that Atlas was starved for Nova yet chose to go in there anyway. If so, the piracy of the reactor core shouldn't have been a surprise. Perhaps this explains St. Grand's secrecy, although if he'd shared with Razor, she certainly would've launched patrol flights as soon as they arrived in Atlas and wouldn't have sent everyone off to help Shaid. Shaid didn't believe in the existence of Grax, so that issue isn't on the table.
3. The only renewable source of uncorrupted Nova is from the new Nova-powered Legion machinery: extractors, primes, and dreadnoughts. If the player becomes too ambitious about eliminating those early on, it can become hard to scrounge enough Nova to deal with all of the Equinox upgrades and the Mod Foundry. Consequently, it's almost necessary to allow one or more dreadnoughts to continue creating primes for quite some time, even though that's not in the best interest of the Atlas system.
4. After the player finally chooses to eliminate the third dreadnought, the Atlas system returns to its pre-Equinox state with no more extractors, primes, or dreadnoughts being created. Arguably it's even more peaceful due to the creation of the Alliance, the rehabilitation of abandoned facilities, the destruction of some Outlaw bases, and the spreading of armories. But then the Starlink team goes after Grax, and that brings about a permanent cycle of dreadnought creation, which, left unchecked, means more primes and extractors. Atlas can never return to the relative peace it once (twice) knew.
5. The Starlink team continues receiving tribute -- electrum from the Prospectors and mods from the Expedition -- even when it already has far more than it'll ever need.
6. After refusing to allow Dr. Thorn to deal with the Swarm by using Judge, the Starlink crew's solution for dealing with the Swarm is by using Judge. [Correction: on reviewing the cut-scene, it's Judge who chooses to assimilate the Swarm into himself.]
We're the good guys? Not really. St. Grand is personally to blame for enabling Grax, but the player and the Starlink crew make a few morally ambiguous choices. Oh, and the game design doesn't provide any way to shut off the tribute, so that one's on Ubisoft.
Now I should find something important to worry about.