Part 125: A Theft
from the Journal of Marcus Gordon, Former Defense Minister, UCS
November 12th, 2150
We've established ourselves in the abandoned base we found following our destruction of the pursuing LC hovercraft. It's a bit rundown but should serve our purposes. With my immediate safety now taken care of, it's time to find out what the hell is going on. I've failed to make any contact with the LC or ED due to the jamming they're employing. Not that it would matter anyway, as far as they can tell I'd look like another one of GOLAN's bots. We have to prove that we're not affiliated with GOLAN. Or, well I have to at least. The bots with me can do whatever.
While we mine out the base and build up some defenses I'll see if I can figure out some way to prove my identity...
November 20th, 2150
Well it's been over a week. The base is fully functional, although I still can't figure out any way to get out of the Grizzly. But, more importantly, I think I've got an idea about how to prove I'm not with GOLAN. The LC and ED are crawling through the remnants of GOLAN's control center, presumably to figure out what happened when they tried to shut it down. It's suicide to go there myself...but if I could somehow look like the Dynasty they'd pay me no heed, and I'd be able to collect my evidence.
To that end, I'm going to need to steal some vehicles. I've been looking and there's a small ED base nearby. Very quiet, at least as far as satellite scans can tell me. If I send in a small strike force I can take down the base and capture a few tanks. I doubt anyone will realize I stole some tanks until after I've already hustled over to the GOLAN control center and gotten the evidence.
Here goes nothing. Time to be a thief!
Briefing Video: video link
Marcus is a little bit confused. It's not guarded by the UCS/ED, but the LC/ED.
10 Panthers...that's it!? To infiltrate an ED base? Couldn't you have, I dunno, gotten some SHADOW units in there? Marcus is getting cheap on us
Speaking of SHADOW...
Research: SHADOW Generator I
Looks like we're going to have to cross a river. Sadly that means finding a bridge.
We found the bridge!
Damn. The bridge takes us right into the ruins of a town. Hard to say what town it actually was, as all the fighting over the last few months have rendered almost all small towns caught in its path unrecognizable.
The path to the south of the town will take us deeper into the hills.
Research: Jaguar Chassis
Another bridge. We've been exploring this map for quite a while and are no closer to finding this ED base. Which is strange. You would think by now a patrol would've spotted us or we'd have seen some sign of them.
Something seems off. Have we ever done a mission before where you spend this long with no sign of the enemy?
Looks like an old interstate highway heads up around this lake. Seems as good a path to take as any.
Ah-hah! There's the ED base! Now to just blast our way in. We'll have to be very careful, with only 10 units and no repairer we can hardly afford a loss.
What the...
They're not shooting at us. They're not doing anything...
Holy shit. Almost the whole base is in ruins. Someone beat us here!
This is worrying. Those scorch marks are very unique. Only the power of an orbital plasma strike could char these buildings that badly. That means that whoever it is, they've got access to a plasma control center, and more worryingly, the access codes to the system.
But there is hope! There might be other survivors out there we can link up with! It'd be a bit easier to argue to the LC and ED that they should let us in if they hadn't just blown up a base, but a larger group of us might be more "persuasive" than just me.
Sadly, the tanks I had planned to capture are in no shape to move, much less sneak into a heavily guarded ED/LC position. I'll destroy them and think of something else.
All these structures are completely dead. No risk at all. Unless your units accidentally shoot each other...which is why one of these Panthers is nearly dead. I thought robots were supposed to avoid human error. Or at least be smart enough to not stand directly in the line of fire.
The base is cleaned up and we're ready to build.
I'm worried that whoever has the PCC may not be the most friendly to us. So I'm using a bit of a non-traditional build that I don't think I've shown in a while. Given how effectively the UCS can space things out with its Energy Transmitters you can build a very spread out base, eliminating the risk that a plasma strike will take out multiple critical buildings.
Meanwhile, I have my Panthers start scouting for these other UCS survivors.
Yay new friends!
I hope our new friends like our base!
Nooo, new friends why are you shooting at us!
Marcus, they opened fire on a Condor that was just sitting there. That's a bit much for a "misunderstanding"
Thankfully the units I built back at HQ are more than enough for the job.
Research: Jaguar II
We've got enough robots here to defend us I think.
But now we have to find that other UCS base. I've explored over half the map and haven't seen any hints at where they could be.
Ah-hah! There they are. Sadly the cliffs there are far too steep for our walkers to climb. We'll have to find another way in or risk an aerial assault.
The northern corner of the map doesn't seem promising...
Ah! But there does look to be a way in over in the northern center. Good scouting Gargoyles!
Our not-friends send more Gargoyles our way. It's even easier to repel them this time.
Hmm...I wonder if I can knock out the power from back here.
Nope! Nope! You definitely cannot.
Blast. We'll have to try a frontal assault.
Okay everyone, let's move out!
Right outside the base I find all the not-friend Harvesters are heading our way. Guess they ran out of resources. That'll make life a little bit easier.
This however will not make life easier. Seems they've planned an ambush for us in the trees.
Focus on the toughest units first! And try and draw them out from the trees so our grenades work.
Looks like it's working. They've moved to point blank range and are getting shredded by our plasma.
We took a few losses, but are still capable of assaulting their little road block up ahead.
...shit. Looks like they got their PCC operational. Good thing I went with the spread base layout!
No buildings have power, but I'd prefer that than having lost a bunch of buildings in the attack.
The not-friends sortie a small force to try and disrupt our attack. Sadly they're hopelessly outgunned and outnumbered. They're bringing Tigers to this fight. Friggin' Tigers!
...Okay this is a little annoying. Right after I get the power back up they hit the Vehicle Production Center.
The Mammoth is going to be running around re-building everything it seems.
With the skirmishers out of the way we're free to being our bombardment of the base. This is why I spent all that time researching grenades. The ED had artillery, the LC had the Crion and we have grenades. All of them allow us to take out static defenses without putting the bulk of our forces at risk.
Heavy rockets can also out-range plasma.
Yay more PCC attacks
We're about halfway through the defenses now. I think it's time to speed things up.
On my order, rush the remaining towers and demolish them.
Aaaaand Go!
Yeah that was pretty easy.
Yet another bridge. I'm a bit worried about a fight breaking out here, as it seems to be the only way into the not-friends base.
Oh look at that. They've prepared a tower gauntlet for us.
Too bad I wrote the book on tower gauntlets and have superior range. With the towers down the rest of the base is under severe pressure.
We can pick off buildings as we please now. The bulk of the fighting is over.
However, the PCC is fairly well-protected. Time for another long-range bombardment followed by a plasma rush.
Just like they wrote it in the textbooks.
The base just needs to be mopped up now. They did build a number of power plants, which is quite annoying, but they thankfully forgot to connect their grids with Energy Transmitters. Thus, those scary towers down at the bottom are completely harmless.
And with that the base has no more power. Nothing left but clean up.
I'd like to know what they're up to too. You'd think that since we're both UCS we could team up, instead of shooting at each other.
This mission, although it seems hard at the start, is a real cake walk. No infinitely respawning units, no early pressure, really the only tough part about it is the PCC attacks. But the enemy has such pitiful resource stores that they can't do much more than harassment.
Next time we try and discover more about this mystery faction. Maybe they know what happened with GOLAN?