Part 119: USA, Part 2
from the Journal of Selena Shattan, Chief of Security, Project ESCAPE
October 17th, 2150
Rebel robots? Who would've thought. Although according to Kilija they're not robots, just people using the robots. What a shame. For a minute there I thought it would be like one of those old sci-fi books my sister shared with me. One of the ones like Isaac Asimov wrote where the good robots team up with people to stop the bad robots. Oh well.
Even though our new friends aren't robots they're absolute wizards at getting UCS mechs to do what they want. We've hatched a plan to steal the teleporter technology and the UCS rebels say we can do it without firing a shot. The Florida base is in some sort of hybernation mode. With the shuttle already having launched for the UCS escape ship, there's nothing to do at the space port. Come to think of it...there really isn't anything for any of the robots to do with all the people gone. Perhaps the UCS leadership just forgot to disable GOLAN before they left? I'm not really sure, but I'm starting to think there might be something going on here we're not aware of.
Regardless, hopefully this is a quick in-and-out mission. Our scientists need this information to continue work and I don't want them to delay any further!
Briefing Video: video link
rest of briefing posted:
Lunar luck and health!
-Kilija
The UCS rebels say this should be a quick operation but we do have some units standing by. No LZ or anything, just a handful of Craters and Crushers.
Once you finish reading the briefing this little cutscene plays. We're gonna watch the Salamander retrieve the data. If it goes right this is going to be a really boring update, sorry guys
Whatever sort of IFF blocking the rebels used seems to be working really well. No one is shooting at us.
The sleep mode the rebels talked about seems accurate too. Absolutely nothing in the base is moving.
Okay now we just have to download the data and get out of here...
Shit. I think the UCS figured something is up as they've blocked in our Salamander. Thankfully they're not shooting at it but if we want to get the data off the Salamander we're going to need to do a rescue operation.
Plus, if that one Jaguar was able to move presumably the base is waking up from sleep mode. We need to move very quickly before everything is fully operational. We have no chance of penetrating one of the cornerstone UCS bases at full operational capacity.
Just the basics here, the power infrastructure, a supply depot, LZ and Main Base.
I've sent our compliment of Craters and Crushers out to try and find if the UCS defenses are operational yet. If they're not we can just fly a Unit Transporter in and be done with it.
Research: New Hope
Shit. The units are definitely active and they're out on patrol. We can't let them find our base. Right now we could still be some lost patrol but if they see the HQ and all the related infrastructure they'll figure it out.
Fortunately we've got a beefier patrol than they do and we win without taking any serious damage.
We've spotted lighting on the defenses and even though they're only armed with chainguns I think it's just a bit too risky to test. Instead we're going to head down the Atlantic Ocean and see if we can't find a weaker spot.
The UCS have sent a strike force out to find their missing patrol. You'll meet the same fate as your dead robot brothers!
Jeez, this is some response. They're sending what seems like everything in the base after us. The one bit of good fortune is their clever choke point is working against them. Since their defensive towers are still on chainguns as presumably the base is still warming up we can evade their range and take out the UCS defenders one by one.
All the UCS defenders are out. Time to take to the sea!
We hit a few towers on our way down to make the UCS think we're just a raiding party heading back to sea.
What they don't know is that we're a rescue operation for that mysterious Salamander. If they figure that out they'll certainly destroy the Salamander and all our data with it. To that end, this seems like a good spot to strike. We're almost in sight of the Salamander and the defenses here look very weak.
Defensive weakness confirmed. We've blasted quite a hole in the walls and now we need to work our way towards the Salamander and secure it in preparation for the pick-up.
The main component of that will be destroying all the towers that could possibly be in the flight path.
The UCS are starting to put shields on some of the towers, if we wait to fully destroy them it might be too late. For now let's just focus on disabling them and then we can figure out what to do from there.
We've destroyed the units boxing in the Salamander. We're almost ready for the pick-up!
Last tower in range is down! Now to just destroy the last of those AA plasma Salamanders and we'll get going.
Oh shit! The UCS war machine has clearly woken up. Kill the last Salamander! Kill it now!
Our task force is almost completely destroyed and the Salamander is still alive. I just ordered the deaths of a dozen sisters and I don't even feel anything about their deaths, just frustration that they couldn't finish off that last Salamander.
We've got bigger problems than wallowing in the degradation of my own conscience though. The UCS have found our base and are hitting it hard.
Our Fat Girls should be able to settle this.
Or not
That is a lot of plasma fire.
Our defense is collapsing. We have Jaguars and Panthers in our rear.
And they just keep on coming
Our automated defenses from the HQ have finally turned on and we've been able to get the UCS mechs in our base to fall back. We're still taking horrifying casualties on the front lines though.
We need to upgrade our unit defenses. The Fat Girl isn't going to cut it anymore.
Research: Crusher m2 and m3
Hey look at that! In my panic I had the Unit Transporter pick up one of the UCS units and then drop it. Wow! I bet no one has ever thought of that before!
The automated defenses are being moved in now, but all they'll do is slow down a true UCS assault. We've only got a few more minutes left to get that Salamander out of there before we're completely overrun. We're only going to get one shot at this...
I've sent in three escorts for the Unit Transporter. Normally I'd be using these Thunderers to conduct a heavy assault, but their tough shields and armor also make them the perfect search and destroy units for the enemy AA plasma.
May the Goddess protect you
The Thunderers have ID'd the target, now to go in and destroy it. If you notice the area is absolutely swarmed with UCS Panthers, some of them sporting Shadow Generators. No way we could even attempt a ground attack now.
Here it goes...
Success! With the AA Salamander gone and all the defenses neutralized the pick-up should be able to proceed now.
Just in case, I have the Thunderers maintain guard during the pick-up.
We've got it!
Everyone get ready to head home, once we've downloaded the data we are getting the hell out of here. 
Remember to place the Salamander down gently instead of dropping it...
There we go! Now time to get out of here!
Just as I predicted, our base is completely overrun only a few in-game hours later. But we have our teleporter tech! Project ESCAPE is saved!
A 3:1 Kill-to-Death ratio is absolutely horrible. The AI completely outclassed me on score too. I also have no idea why there was an ED player on this map as he had no units or structures.
The UCS rebels have made good on their promise. Now we have to help them disable GOLAN. To do this is going to be a bit more complicated than just waltzing in and switching off the power. We're going to need to very cleverly disable GOLAN's defenses first. And to do that we need a bit of help from the Eurasian Dynasty and their Ion Cannon. So since we've proven what good thieves we are, let's steal the Ion Cannon next!