Part 118: USA, Part 1
from the Journal of Selena Shattan, Chief of Security, Project ESCAPE
October 14th, 2150
Well I never saw that coming! I head off to fight the Dynasty and the UCS robots take care of it for me...and then turn on us! I suppose it did make things a bit easier in the end. The UCS base was completely exposed to our attack and within a few hours it was a smouldering husk. Kilija says that this journey across the Atlantic will take the better part of a day so I've nothing to do except plan for the invasion.
October 15th, 2150
We've decided a landing in the Carolinas makes the most sense. GOLAN's nerve center is located in the remnants of New York City and the UCS launch base in Florida is too well-protected for us to gain a foothold. A New England landing simply puts us too far away to realistically achieve our objectives as well as forcing us to cross right near GOLAN. That only leaves the Carolinas and Delmarva as suitable options. Delmarva was appealing but the rough terrain in the ruins of Washington D.C. and Baltimore would make the goings rather slow. A landing in the Carolinas allow us ample time to situate ourselves before encountering UCS resistance, has a natural landing point in its beaches and provides an easier path to the south if we decide to steal the teleporter tech from the Florida launch base. Once I presented my logic to Kilija she agreed instantly. I suppose this means she is starting to trust my judgement.
Our scouts report that they can see land. I'm ordering a few units ashore to ensure there is ample room to construct a base. Once we've confirmed the area is clear of UCS we should be able to use a Phobos to temporarily jam GOLAN's SDI Network and prevent it from shooting down the Jupiter or any orbital construction drops. Once the base is established we can work on a more permanent jamming system. It'd be awfully foolish of us to come all this way only to have our buildings shot from the sky.
Briefing Video: video link
Thanks for the welcome Kilija. It seems my attempt to land unnoticed has well, failed as there are lots of UCS troops headed right for us. I agree that it makes more sense to scout before we fully commit to the operation. If things are too heavily fortified we can still pull back and attempt a landing further north in the Delmarva region.
However, assuming we can get situated this Phobos will be our key to establishing a base. We've installed a special jammer that should neutralize any UCS attempts to use the SDI network to shoot our buildings out of the sky. Once we have an LZ set up some modifications our engineers made should enable it to act as the jammer. But until then we must ensure the Phobos lives!
Research: Heavy Rocket upgrades 2 and 3
Huh. Our radar said the area should be absolutely swarming with UCS, but we've yet to see anyone. Where the goddess are they? Is our luck finally changing?
They're...attacking each other? What the...
What's going on here?
I have no idea what's happening but the red UCS robots are absolutely kicking the stuffing out of the yellow ones. Maybe we should intervene...
I'm right with you on this one Kilija. Clearly they're not both under GOLAN's control so maybe there's a chance we can convince one of them to help us out.
And thankfully we should be able to slip in some buildings undetected while this battle rages. Guess we don't have to play "protect the Phobos" after all!
Ladies, you need to push these Craters as hard as they can go. These robots aren't gonna help us if they're all dead before we get there!
As we arrive to the battle the yellow UCS base looks like it's on the verge of collapse. Power has been cut to most of the defensive buildings and one more solid push will utterly cripple them. It's up to us to stop the onslaught.
We've engaged the enemy just in the nick of time. One more volley of plasma and their defenses would be wiped out.
We've managed to push back the initial assault but UCS reinforcements have arrived. The yellow base is still incapable of defending itself so we'll need to run off these reinforcements too.
Fortunately for us these scrapheads didn't think to put shields on their assault force. Our electro-cannons made quick work of them.
Hooray us! We've held off the UCS attack long enough for our new friends to start rebuilding their defenses. Good job ladies!
And like I said earlier, the attack distracted the UCS enough that we've got our base up and running. No more worrying about the SDI network! Plus, I'm sure our new UCS buddies won't mind as I'm bringing in Fat Girls to help shore up their defenses.
Hmmm...our allies are sending out a Cargo Salamander. I wonder where it's going? I'll have our Detector follow it.
Oh shit! It's the other UCS base...and it's defenses are still all chainguns. Without shields.
QUICK, MUSTER ALL THE WOMEN YOU CAN! WE'RE RUSHING THIS BASE NOW BEFORE THEY REALIZE WE'RE HERE!
The good UCS units are content to drive headlong into the fire. Silly UCS.
They're upgrading! They're upgrading their weapons! Now's our only chance, go go go!
We're absolutely done for if they get those guns working. Presumably they're all gonna be plasma cannons. We can't hope to stop that. So I'm ordering everyone to focus fire on a single defensive installation at a time until it's disabled and then rapidly switching our target to another one.
Most of the towers and fortresses are disabled but a few are starting to come online! Hurry!
Haha! There it is! With the power down these defenses are utterly useless. I knew you could do it girls!
Our other UCS friends (we need a name for them...) are destroying the last UCS Mammoth. Thanks guys!
Whoa. Look at all those WPCs. Good thing we staged a blitz or we'd be in for quite the slog.
At this point it's just about following the standard base destruction procedures. Destroy any defensive units that are causing serious harm, then destroy the power, then destroy everything else. Since there aren't any units left we can just focus solely on taking out the power.
One more left and then this mission will be in clean up territory. Bet you didn't think we'd be in the mop up phase this fast, eh?
And there it is. The UCS base is dead. Now to clean it up and head home...
Research: Thunderer m2
Hmm...that's curious. Why are there little yellow balls going through the sky...
Wait.
Little yellow balls?
Shit! That's artillery fire! Everyone scatter! There's still power somewhere in the base and we're about to take the shelling of a lifetime!
It looks like it's coming from that hill to the east. Charge!
Okay the power's down that should be the...
...why are there more little yellow balls coming towards us?
Guess this means there's another artillery battery somewhere. Gotta quick find that one too!
While our troops are running around trying not to get blown to bits by artillery our new UCS friends are having problems of their own. Those mysterious bombers we saw back in Spain have shown up again and are headed right for their base. I hope they invested in some AA plasma...
Whew! The artillery threat is neutralized, but not before we took some serious losses. I apologize to the families of all those brave women, this was all my fault
Meanwhile back at the other UCS base, the bombers have crippled our friend's mining operation. Thankfully they do have AA plasma so they should hopefully be able to hold their own.
Wait...are those Jaguars? Jeez. The red UCS really must hate our yellow friends. They aren't even trying to get back at me for destroying their base.
It's touch and go for a few minutes but the reinforced and bolstered friendly UCS towers are enough to push back the attack.
And we've managed to take out the last few UCS structures. I hope they mourn the twisted metal of their artillery-shaped comrades
Computer...rebels? Uh...okaayyy then. I didn't even know robots had feelings and could be abused but here we are. At this point we'll take any friends we can get. All that's left on this rock are those crazy Dynasty guys, ourselves, a whole boat load of civilians we've gathered in Poland and robots. If some of the robots want to help that's fine by me.
Awww, look at that symbol of cooperation. The LC and the UCS sharing a mineral patch
Back at HQ I've ordered a whole bunch of units built and research conducted while we await everyone's return. We've scrimped on the airforce until now, but given how those damn bombers keep showing up I think it's wise for us to build some stronger anti-air capabilities. In addition to the Fat Girls you see here I order two full squadrons of Super Fighters and a squadron of Thunderer bombers, just in case.
Research: Heavy Sonic Cannon Upgrade, Super Fighter m2, Air Heavy Rocket Launcher Upgrade
We're also gonna have Zeke here upgrade the Craters from the mission. I know they're already shielded but when we've got the m3 chassis researched it just seems silly to keep a bunch of m1s around.
I probably spent more time re-building the army and researching than it took to actually play this mission. It's probably the fastest one we've seen since the ACME/Stanford lab days back in the base game.
Next time we'll make our move against the UCS teleporter tech. My suspicions were right, the Florida base looks the most vulnerable. Guess all that land they had to waste on building rocket pads to launch transports to their evacuation ship will finally come back to haunt them.