Red Tape Blues is a side quest in Starfield that revolves around your character trying to make life easier for the Cydonian miners and jumping through a hell of a lot of hoops doing so.
Your character begins the game as a miner, so it could be an issue close to your heart. That being said, whether or not you are going to do anything about it all depends on what kind of character you are playing.
If you do choose to help the miners out with their struggles, then you need to begin by going to the underground settlement of Cydonia. Cydonia is located on Mars in the Sol system, and you will be traveling there relatively early on in the game, so it isn’t too difficult to find.
How to start the Red Tape Blues mission
Upon entering the central hub on Cydonia, you will notice two miners talking to a man named Trevor Petyarre. If you listen to the conversation, you will hear that the miners came to Mars in search of work after being told there were plenty of jobs available.
Talk to Trevor after this conversation ends, and there will be a dialogue option where you tell him that it is a shame that there isn’t any work available for you as you have mining experience. He will then mention an off-the-records job that he has if you are willing to undertake it.
If you don’t see Trevor during this interaction with the miners, head to the lower deck in the central hub on Cydonia. You will see an area filled with Mars dirt, machinery, and various miners going about their business. Trevor should be standing next to a parked mining vehicle near the bottom of the stairs.
The Red Tape Blues quest relies on you getting an Executive Assistant position at Deimos Staryard so that you can approve the mining requests that Trevor has been putting in to Peter Brennan, the guy in charge of the Deimos Staryard operations on Cydonia. Peter has been ignoring Trevor’s pleas for better mining equipment to make the miners’ lives easier, so it’s up to you to answer them via Peter’s private terminal. It’s basically an infiltration mission as you will have to apply for the job and then deal with the other candidates to make sure that you are a shoo-in for the role (don’t worry—in a non-violent way).
The first steps of the Red Tape Blues mission in Starfield
The first step of the mission is to collect 10 pieces of Iron and then store them in the marked container in that ground-level Mars dirt area. You can do this pretty easily while in that area, as there are pieces of Iron dotted around all over the place. All you need to do is take out your cutter and start harvesting it.
Once you have your 10 pieces, put them in the container and speak to Trevor again. He will explain the next and most crucial part of the mission: getting that Executive Assistant position. To apply for the job, you will need to travel up to the Deimos Staryard space station orbiting Mars. Dock your ship and follow the mission marker. It will lead you to a small kiosk where you can complete your job application.
How to answer the Deimos Staryard job application questions in Starfield
You will have seven questions to answer, but don’t panic, as your answers won’t matter in the long run. Choose whichever answers you want and submit your application. Return to Trevor on Cydonia, and he will give you the next part of your mission, which will explain why your answers to the application aren’t important.
How to delete other candidates’ applications for the Red Tape Blues job in Starfield
Trevor will tell you that to ensure that you are definitely going to get the Executive Assistant job, your next task is to remove the other candidates from the equation. No violence is required, though, as you will do this by deleting their job applications so that the company will have no choice but to hire you.
Trevor will also give you some helpful information about Tia, one of the HR employees for Deimos Staryard, whose computer you will need to get into. He will tell you her password and that she usually goes to the bar at around 5pm every day, so you know when you will have an opening to access her computer.
The task is more than a little morally ambiguous, and you are welcome to refuse it, of course, but, as Trevor says, “this is the best shot we’ve got at getting that request approved.” if you are up for a little tampering, then you will need to head upstairs to the Deimos Staryard corporate office. You will find it up the stairs from the mining area and then to the left. Go up another set of stairs, and you will see an office on the right with a sign above the door that reads “Deimos Staryard Corporate Quarters.” Head inside, and you will see various desks and computers. The one you need to access will be marked with the blue mission marker.
If Tia and the other staff are still working, sit at one of the empty desks and wait until between 17:00 and 18:00 local time. To do this, simply sit on a chair and press the button prompt to wait for however many hours you need to. When you come out of the wait screen, Tia and her coworkers should get up and leave.
It’s imperative that you wait before using Tia’s computer. If you try to use it when she or someone else is in the room, you’ll have a bounty placed on your head. It’s not something you want to deal with while trying to complete the rest of the quest.
Once they are gone, head over to Tia’s computer, unlock it, and click on the tab that says “applications.” You will see yours as well as those of the other candidates. All that is left to do is to go through each application and delete them so that yours is the only one left.
Return to Trevor, and he will confirm that you have successfully been hired as Peter’s assistant. Return to Trevor, speak to him, and you will have officially completed the Red Tape Blues mission in Starfield. Now that you’re Peter’s assistant, you’ll get access to his terminal as part of the follow-up mission: Red Tape Runaround. Once you jump into that mission, you’ll have a big decision to make regarding Governor Hurst’s spaceship and whether or not it should be blown to smithereens.
