Part 24: Vengeance

Waylon is out of our hair. Dead, captured, or fled, it is never said. I like to think he's captured by Will and company, kept in a mobile brig just close enough to hear the planes taking off, unable to ever fly again.


I'm basically a terrible person.


Man, Greyfield has one opulent command tent. It's impressive, really.

: Caulder! What in the name of Rubinelle do you think you're doing?!

: Whatever do you mean?

: Don't play the fool with me! That virus is tearing through my troops! Where is my cure? I ordered you to find one!

: Ah yes. The Creeper. The Green Thumb. I hear it is causing...problems in the ranks.


: How dare you question me?! Who are you? Just some pathetic man in a lab coat!

: Treating your infected troops in such a manner has sowed the seeds of discontent. Rather than seek help, infected soldiers conceal the truth for fear of the firing squad. This has allowed the disease to spread almost unimpaired through your army.

: S-silence! I will hear no more of this! I am not a man to be taken lightly, Caulder! If you had done your job, none of this would be a problem. Get me a cure by the end of the week, or I will have you executed!

: Hmmm... Is everything all right, Admiral? You look somewhat unwell.

: Wh-what do you mean?! How... How dare you mock the mighty Greyfield!

: Ah ha! Not another word, Admiral! Your eyes tell me all I need to know.

: And that vaccine of yours can only hold it off for so long...

: B-bah. Bah! Admiral Greyfield will not be brought low by some common virus! Only the weak succumb to this disease, and I am not among their number! I am strong!

: Your fear is palpable! If word spread that you had been infected, your army would crumble. You said yourself that this virus affects only the weak, did you not? I wonder, Admiral... Will you order your own firing squad to execute you as well?

: Insolence! I'll see you hanged for this!


: But worry not. Your little secret will be safe with me. And as we speak, I am but hours away from perfecting a cure.

: ...T-truly?

: Truly.


: I want this cure delivered to all of my troops without delay. ...But first, give it to me! N-not that a man of my strength will need it! It's just to show the men that I am one of them.

: Yes, yes. You and your troops will get your medicine in due time. But first, we must discuss my masterpiece. The preparations are almost complete.

: Ha ha! My time of destiny is at hand! Admiral Greyfield shall rule the world as king! Show me how to operate it! Show me your masterpiece...
Man, I hate Greyfield. We aren't even done with him, as we head to the Missile chamber


: You will rain destruction down upon the entire world.

: You outdo yourself, Caulder! No leader has ever wielded the power I now possess.

: Now where are those miserable traitors cowering? They shall get the first taste...
With this power, I control a charred wreck of a world with most, if not all, life dead! WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

...I sense a problem with your plan.

: Do calm yourself, Admiral. The launch system was heavily damaged by the meteor strikes. There are a number of locking mechanisms that must be bypassed before it can be used.

MISSION TIME LIMIT DETECTED!

: That is unacceptable! Tell them to hurry! I want those wretched traitors to feel the full force of my wrath! Make them hurry! Tell them King Greyfield orders it to be so!

Finally we get away from this discussion, but not the intro. This mission is very wordy.




: That force is huge. Maybe we should retreat and plan a strategy.

: There isn't time. We must strike them now and find Greyfield. We need to learn the status of those Caulder Missiles.

: I... I can help. The launch system was damaged but is being restored as we speak. The process will be complete in forty days. Once launched, the missiles will cause anyone in the blast range to suffer--



: All right. We have to stop him. I'll take the troops and--


: I mean... Permission to lead the troops, Commander?

: Why?

: I know you and Brenner were close, but he was my...my captain. I failed him.

: Plus, I have the virus and you don't. ...I have nothing to lose.

Lin is ready. I'm ready. I hope you're ready.


We start at the bottom of the map, with a bridge at the east end heading across to Greyfield's area. We also have a rather large ground army.


In the west, we have a little piece of land with another port and factory, along with a couple more cruisers and a battleship.


Somewhere, up in this massive expanse of fog, is Greyfield's entire army. This covers northwest and northcenter. Rest assured there is a northeast, and it is just as covered in fog.


Step 1 is to bolster our funding.Mech jumps into the lander, lander deposits him on the island, and the bike takes the bridge.


Everything else moves up to cover the eastern flank. Between the two rockets, we should be fine up there. The east sub jumps back to the port for loading a CO next turn.


In the west, the infantry visible that hadn't moved jumps into the gunboat (remember that they can load infantry? It's been a while since I have), and the westmost infantry grabs a ride in the rig. Our naval fleet moves up towards the middle, except for the battleship. It has a later job.


And, as was stated in the pre mission chatter, this is Greyfield's army, and by God, will he command it to his highest potential.

: It will be fully operational in 39 days.

: Splendid! I can hardly wait! My glorious reign as king is about to begin! Those traitors will serve as an example for all the world!
Luckily, that won't happen every turn. We'll see it again at turn 10.


Oh look, an anti tank. Whatever shall I do?


Well, first I launch a flare, see if there's anything more ripe for the taking. Turns out, no, there isn't.


They may be strong against tank shells, but rockets sure hurt.


Then Lin goes for a voyage. Let's take a look at her page.


A terrible CO zone, only a decent boost to ground units only, and her power is only good in maps like this, with fog of war. She's basically Sonja from the previous games. Only without the bad luck, and without the hiding HP from the enemy.


Greyfield, meanwhile? Good CO zone, boosts copters and seaplanes, which is always nice, as well as all naval units. That defence boost makes killing his stuff annoying. His CO power does what Jess did in the previous two games, only in addition to refuel and rearming, it gives them back materials. This allows the rig to build another temp port, but more importantly it gives the carrier the ability to build another FOUR seaplanes. Which Greyfield can then boost with his zone. But we won't see him on this map. Dunno why the AI decided he wouldn't help here.


Back to the map, in the enter we begin capturing the port and factory. Our west sub dives down and spots a gunboat. Lin also moves to rejoin the rest of the fleet.


South infantry finishes capture, and will continue moving west. Tank continues rolling along to join the rest of the land units.


And we begin grabbing the west end of the map as well. Lin and Greyfield have an exchange before Day 3:


: Treacherous swine! Inglorious, backstabbing vermin!



: You pathetic traitors understand nothing! You can't see that war is caused by the fact that other nations exist. I shall be the man to unite all the world into one nation! I will be the man to end all war forever!



: Save the sarcastic asides for your tombstone, dog! That meteor strike and all that followed was a test! The situation demands that a natural leader unite the survivors below him. And I, King Greyfield, shall be that leader!

: That is a great plan. Let me ask you something.


: Wh-what...?! You dare to--

: I've seen your records. I know you were a subpar commander at best. And you know it too. That's why you strut around like a playground bully. You hid your shame by faking results and taking credit for the work of--

: Silence! Enough of your loathsome falsehoods, you treasonous hound!


When I ended last update with "Lin is the BEST CHARACTER", the thread collectively told me "like we need to be reminded about this." Well, maybe, but this entire mission just reconfirms her status. GodDAMN I love that exchange.


We start the turn in the middle of the map, where we have now claimed most of the island. I also place the lander a little differently. My plan is to catch the lander off guard. Landers, if you'll recall, have a vision range of 1. Assuming nothing else is there, the lander will have no idea I moved mine. Lin's sub is also underwater. Her CO ribbon blocks that sight.


The other sub reveals that mass of navy. Time to get to work.


Exposing where my battleship is by attacking this one, but every bit helps.


Units begin capturing, and I move the cruiser over a bit, since I see a carrier with cargo.


That's all this turn. The south infantry moves west to go after the remaining cities down there, and nothing happened in the east.


Well, my lander plan backfired. Though it then attempted to land a unit right onto the factory. Which is quite occupied. The second lander was a surprise though. Elsewhere, my cruiser that was giving support to the battleship got sunk.


I'm mildly annoyed.


But then I remember I have Lin in a sub.


And while subs don't get her extra zone bonus, they still get the basic 10% for simply being in the zone.


The gunboat gets the last laugh though.


Meanwhile, in the east...


Mech goes to capture the city, the bike cripples the infantry, and a battleship is bought.


Let me be lucky...


Nope. I COULD overkill the mech with this rocket, but that lander caught me off guard. I'll teach it to land there.


Flare shot shows I should be okay.


Suddenly Greyfield's navy seems... gone. I'm sure it's nothing.


The gunboat attacked my cruiser. How troubling. More concerning to me, that seaplane damaged my battleship.


So it retreats to the cover of the port. Out of sight, hopefully out of mind.


The other battleship sails up and kills the gunboat.


Mech finishes capture, bike cripples the mech as well.


East looks clear for another turn, so the rocket kills off that mech. The anti tank finally made it up to the front line, and takes position at the corner.


Back at the action, more sub carnage.


Really though, that was just to get access to the carrier. Mission accomplished, that seaplane is kinda screwed now.


Then I derp, and instead of supplying the gunboat, I accidentally build a T port.


Wouldn't be an IntSys LP without a little stupidity, right? Right??


On the plus side, my subs are safe for another turn, and I'll have time to get them back to refueling.


Well now, Greyfield had another carrier, and it launched a seaplane to attack my other battleship. Of course, he forgot where my sub was, and ran the cruiser right into it. Then moved the carrier... beside the now exposed sub? What?


May as well finish that port, I guess. Battleship retreats back to the port to heal up.


The cruiser needs to be destroyed. The subs are keeping us in the game right now, and the naval dominance is mandatory in this map.


Speaking of the subs...


They do their thing.


After retreating the weak cruiser to the corner, the other one sails up and shoots at Greyfield's cruiser. I still love that they allowed cruisers to target other ships.


This may seems strange right now, but I will eventually need to land units on his shore. And meanwhile, in the east...


Huh. Carry on then.


Oh right, this guy is still trucking along. Keep on going dude!


Start of day 7 has the cruiser finally being taken down after spotting where Lin was.


Was being the key word, because I retreated her to get refueled by the rig. The seaplanes, meanwhile, continue searching for the battleships, and found one. This doesn't bode well.


Refueling everything all at once, because why not?


Well, may as well build an AA for this one instance.


And the battleship retreats out of view. Safety for the moment.


War tank and mech jump into the lander. That does it for this turn.


Day 8, and my port is blocked. Two targets, which do I go after?


That answers that question!


I'd be more concerned about exposing the battleship if one of those planes wasn't sinking this turn.


Gunboat gets a good shot in.


And the sub finishes the job.


Once again, nothing happening in the east. Sorry to those that enjoy land battles, but this mission takes forever going that route.


Greyfield knows that central island is the only way he could win (beyond somehow skirting a lander around my east forces), and again lands a mech there. I still have my bike, luckily.


So that's handy.


Hindsight says I should have led with the battleship. Oh well.


The state of things. That 2 HP seaplane is still to the south, but it can't see anything now. It may also be almost out of fuel.


Futility.png. This was Greyfield's turn.


He was slightly intelligent. He used that infantry to get sight on my war tank, before sending in an Md tank to damage it.


I say slightly intelligent.


Because there goes that offensive.


Oh hey, it WAS almost out of fuel. And now it just... is out of fuel.


Battleship targets the cruiser.


And I build a carrier. This will be integral to the victory.


I pull up this image for one simple reason. Look at his health and my damage percentage.


I think I rolled a natural 20.


We now control Greyfield's inlet. This is good. 30 days left.



: It will be fully operational in 30 days.

: Music to my ears! Now work harder!


Well, I'll work harder by building this first seaplane.


Then I'll send the sub on a recon mission, abusing DoR's fog mechanics, and follow it up with a salvo from one of the battleships.


Meanwhile, in the East...


A target!


This should do it.


Hey rocket?


Be glad you're in my army. Greyfield would have hung you for that.


No time to worry about that. If I move something forward, it's target practice for the rockets. And who knows what else Greyfield could send my way? Instead, I begin moving the lander across, and the south battleship undocks and begins moving around the island.


Greyfield repeats history. We should know how this'll turn out.


More seaplanes!


I pull the battleship back, keeping it in Lin's zone to get the 10% boost, which is enough to kill this cruiser.


Advanced scouting tactics in this thread.


No new ships, I'm happy with that.


I don't trust that the ruins are empty, so I drop my war tank away from it. Who knows if there's rockets hiding somewhere.


And meanwhile, in the East...


He... retreated the rockets and mech? Sure. Alright. I'm good with that.


Look at this chump. Still dropping crap down on my turf.


This reminds me that I do still have an anti-tank.


And I have a bike to kill the other mech, and get veteran.


Battleships gives firing support to the war tank in the west, and I pull the veteran sub back for refueling. Lin takes over the recon.


This will be a mistake soon enough.


Carrier comes up to join my fleet.


War tank got rocketed from a forest. Hmm...


Time to hide it in the ruins.


Then this guy gets killed off. My island.


Oh look, a cruiser. I think he's tired of my drive-bys.


Same as before. Battleship takes a shot.


In the East...


I swear... better not happen twice...


NOW you're learning! Off screen, I put my other sub southwest of Lin to block the cruiser from getting near the battleship.


Which worked. Poor ship.


Now it has no defences to it's name.


On land, I use the war tank to scout out where the rockets are. In so doing, I discover an anti-tank. I know my priority here.


I roll Lin across the ports before realizing I already scouted the east port with the war tank. Not really a mistake, but still.


As strange as this path looks, once you realize I'm also scouting that city beside the anti tank, you'll understand why I chose it.


Because it lets me do this afterwards with knowledge I won't get ambushed.


And this also scouts the factory, so now I know I don't even have to worry about an obvious AA. I just have to worry about hidden AA's.


More seaplanes, because seaplanes are awesome. Shame there aren't a huge amount of times you'd want to use them, due to costs.


I think the mech should be safe, so I drop him off to make the inevitable trip to the port. You might be wondering why I didn't park on the port to drop them off. You can. I'm just an idiot. Your attack ships cannot use enemy's ports, but landers and gunboats can. I thought none could enter them. Air and land units can block them though.


Meanwhile, in the east, nothing, as per always. I do build another war tank. I really don't know why, it doesn't go anywhere. I think I might have been worried my other one would die in the west?


There's another rocket out there, since my battleship went from 9 HP to 3. I'm also amused by the lander just chilling by mine.


Well, no time like the present to have fun with Lin.


Remember Lin's specialty way back when in Chapter 1...


Reconnaissance.


Having hiding places exposed is the biggest boon Lin offers. That war tank is about to pay for itself.


See, by moving it up to this woods and attacking the rockets...


I see the rockets hidden in the OTHER woods.


Better still, I can see the direct path to it, thanks to the war tank also getting +2 vision range.


Not that it's needed, mind you.


The other rocket also drops, thanks to that new seaplane.


A quick check on the east shows nothing happening. Ho hum.


This AA cannot be allowed the first strike.


Given that after the counterattack, my seaplane lost half it's health.


Thankfully, a 4 HP AA can't take out either plane. And if Greyfield had another AA, he'd have brought it up by now. I also made the fourth seaplane the carrier could make. Now it simply functions as a mobile refuel station for the planes. Also, the infantry on that western island jumped into the rig. I have a plan.


He built a tank. Surrounded by 3 (that he knows of) seaplanes, he built a tank? Sure thing Greyfield. You subpar commander.


Lin sits by the coast, placing her CO range onto land.


What? 10% is a big deal sometimes.


For example...


It helped kill that AA off.


Carrier moves up, the weak seaplane lands, and the mech begins capture on the port.


This is just for fun.


And also for this.


Oh right, that tank.


War tank covers the newly cleared factory, and this seaplane covers the other port. Nothing new will be built to surprise me.


Still, he has at least two units left standing here. Time to cripple them both.


Just beautiful.


The now 5 HP seaplane comes back out to kill the tank.


And the mech gets completely overkilled.


Lin needed the fuel. The rig was just able to reach her.


A quick recon mission confirms the west is ours.


Since no ships are out here, I let both subs surface.


Action in the east!


Wait, nevermind.


We're very close to ending this.


This close to be specific. Two more days.


A case of amnesia causes me to recheck this city. Heh.


And, in the east...


The other rocket gets to become a veteran.


Notice my screwup.


Yup. Forgot to reblock the port.


Not that a single cruiser will save Greyfield from losing the HQ.


Or this city, apparently.


May as well put this port to use.


Then the full health battleship gets in Lin's zone for a little more damage.


And the seaplane takes out the cruiser. Great use of 18000 funds, bud.


Then I reblock the port.


Nothing new here.


: It will be fully operational in 20 days.



You're a turn away from a loss, you idiot.


A last ditch effort for Greyfield to take the center island. because THAT'S the priority here.


Right.


OH COME ON.


Fine then!


Once more, for old times sake, the flare launches a flare to reveal... nothing! Then I capture the HQ.


: Idiots! Wretched, lousy, foul, incompetent idiots! All my dreams...

: We did it! We actually did it!



: Defeat is not an option.

Boom. S Rank. One unit lost (that cruiser to the battleship salvo at the start. Could have done it much faster, apparently, but then my technique would have likely suffered.


: When I find out who is responsible, I will have them executed immediately! I am the supreme leader of the world! I am the strongest of all men! Defeat is only for the weak!





: Defeat is for the weak. You were defeated because you were weak.


: Y-you wouldn't dare!

: Actually, I would. Will wouldn't. Will would try to put you on trial or something.



: You wouldn't dare...! Y-you can't...! You can't do this!


: You killed him, and now I'm going to kill you. Will and the others won't like it... But it's what needs to be done.

: Stop! I... I... I surrender! I surrender my forces to you! Th-there! You can't hurt me now! I am a prisoner of war! C-C-Captain Brenner would never hurt a prisoner! It's murder!


: ...Huh.


A gunshot is heard


: ...I think I'll see you soon.




: The war is over! You did it! Hurrah for Brenner's Wolves!

: Will! Everyone! Listen up!

: I think we can keep the infected alive long enough for me to find a cure. We did it! We did it! Oh ho ho ho!

: Yeah, we... We did.

: Oh ho! This is no time for frowns. It's over! We won!


: Dr. Morris? I don't think Will...

: He should turn that frown upside down! Oh ho! Oh ho ho ho ho... ...I'm sorry, Will. What is it?

: We... We lost so many. So many people.

: I'm just...not in the mood for a party. I'm sorry.

: Typical.


: Lin, I...

: We all love ya, Will, but please... Stop feeling sorry for yourself.


: But without you and Isabella and--

: What you lacked in talent, you made up for with heart and guts.

: That's what led us to victory. Not my tactics. Not Isabella's...whatever she does. It was you, and you should be proud. So let's go have a party.

: ...Yeah, all right.


: I've got a few classic jokes that I save for special occasions...


Silence was necessary for this, just as it was for Brenner's death. On the plus side, we get Greyfield for custom battles. So... yay, I think?

Next time!
Who the fuck cares right now? Greyfield got what was coming to him.