Part 207: Brute

Brute (25:30)














As names go, I think 'struc' - they've said it twice now - is particularly lazy.




We can use some of our weapons on it but not others. That should make things interesting.




Somebody take Ogun shopping, and don't come back until he's been outfitted with a personality. Seriously.




As much as I'd like to mock the first thing Danu said here, this is an important strategic point worth remembering.










Here's what we're looking at - rather fortified positions on the right, the benign-surrounded energy sources next, and then the clear starting location for us on the left side.




On that side, the middle Energy Source is more lucrative than the other two (5 to 3). That's as good a reason as any to start there. And it's also where our benign emitter is. One Lathe eventually heads to each of the others.




Particulate copying our technology. AGAIN. Lack of originality may be their greatest crime.




She's talking about those little red 'spoked' thingies, I assume the 4 above it is just the miring power or whatever of it. The game's messaging system calls these 'Strange Mire Structures'.













What a collection of Directors we have on this mission. They're a bunch of dumb animals to be sure, aren't they folks?




I finagle with the Grabber a bit and get a stream of particles being sent out towards the central enemy emitter, there on the right. I also discover that we can use lathes to repair our own struct, which as you can see here our initial defensive 'wall' or whatever is virtually gone. Meanwhile we have a couple of omnis on the two large islands flanking this, so on 'our' end of the map we're soon fully engaged and fighting back.

I also am doing something here that unfortunately will become a pattern, at least for a while. We carry over the Amp Gems from previous missions, and I am exceptionally good so far even after I figured out that was a thing at totally forgetting to equip them when starting a new level. That's a new CW concept - in all of the previous games you had to research or whatever fresh at the start of each new scenario.




Not sure what triggers this, but we're nowhere near what she's talking about - it's on the far end of the map. The messaging system lists them as 'derelict structure', in full possession of it's powerful Captain Obvious capabilities.







I say chill out Dir. Ogun. We're nowhere near those energy sources and there's still hostility between us and them.










Takes a blunt instrument to know one ...







And I thought the movie Thor had moments of bad jokes ...




Another feature of the Mire that I didn't realize right away. Some enemy emplacements, not all but some, are automatically destroyed by it's advance. When it blows, we're told it's called a 'Mire Spawner'. Their Energy Mines can be destroyed the same way.




How many is that now? (six)




Kami, go ahead and explain what it is that you think you mean by 'large parity redundancy'. I bet you can't do it. In fact, I double dog dare you.










Ahh, so now we are going to go on a mini-quest to learn how to build a better mousetrap.




SHUT.UP.




Ticon is a more patient man than I. It remains to be seen whether that's a good thing.




Next, I seize the energy sources on the leading edge of each island. That allows us to get close to that central emitter, and also grab a new pair of amp gems. Light dawns on marble cranium and I figure, about nine minutes into the mission, that it might be a good idea to mount the existing pair we already had as well.




Next stage is seizing those further energy sources. Time to get our MicroTank to work. Significant particle reinforcements are coming from those big struc complexes on the far end still. We've actually only knocked out one emitter I think at this point.




Here's a zoomed-out view of the scene and what those emitters do - they basically pulse out a nice sizable blob of hostility at us every so often. A fair amount of fleet concentration is necessary to seize the energy sources and extend our range, after which rebuilding the benign struc certainly seems useful.

Note that I've built our new ship but not done a single darn thing with it, because I'm that kind of awesome.




Ok so notice the structure in the upper-right here as I expand to the other energy sources and gain control of them. We're activating that ... thing, which is clearly copied off the Glider facilities from CW3. This is known as 'Great Moments in Tunnel Vision', because I'm to preoccupied with what I'm doing with the fleet to notice.

I do notice it a bit afterwards, but then get distracted by other shiny things happening.




After powering up, it self-destructs, sending this blue thingy through the enemy struc towards one of the emitters. I don't notice.




Totally miss this fireworks show when it reaches the target and eats through the struc like crazy as well. I was busy trying to secure the third energy source.




I get a better view though when the second one (on the bottom) blows and does exactly the same thing. A bunch of its particles hang around a while, harassing the enemy, and a large part of the fortification is now gone. Also noteworthy is how the enemy particles go in a strict path from one emitter to the other.




I still need to make an entranceway though, and I do deploy the Hammer for its actual intended purpose at this point. When that thing wants to go somewhere ... well, it's coming.




They do eventually blow it up though, and then ... look at our HQ here. Some of the weapons, including it's Lathe (normally in that big circular port at the front of the ship), get taken down while the ship is still active. That's a nice detail! I end up having to bring in more firepower to get this done.




Now, I just need to do it two more times. Here in the middle, you can see we basically have half of a hammer at this point. Our particle stream has gradually made another entrance, and also the remains of what was another 'Glider' structure ... that ruin has been there since mission start. Strangely, the ones we used didn't leave such wreckage ...

Anyway, I basically use the hammer to absorb damage - it gets blown up more, but who cares - and microtank my way into range. The predictable particle path the enemy is using makes the kills pretty routine.




Here's a fun example at the very end of that technique.







*Sigh*. If there really is some massive gun at the end of whatever trail lies ahead here, I'm going to be seriously annoyed.




There are no super-obvious clues to what new toys Potential might have in store.