Part 130: Great Britain
from the Journal of Selena Shattan, Chief of Security, Project ESCAPE
December 4th, 2150
Our evacuation of America is complete. I am still angry with myself for what occurred at New York. GOLAN is much stronger than we ever imagined. It sliced right through our base. Thank the Goddess for Boston, or we may not have made it back. It was foolish to not have our bases consolidated and to rely on a bridge that we did not fully control. General Fedorov thankfully had made his departure earlier in the day and had placed the evacuation in the hands of a younger officer in his absence. An officer which, I now believe to be dead. According to our intelligence, the entire Dynasty navy was wiped out and only a handful of Fedorov's staff who evacuated during the early parts of the fighting made it back alive. Those poor men... I hope, for the Goddess, that they all were slaughtered by the robots and not left to die in America, knowing that no rescue will come.
The biggest concern I have now is our operational capability. Hunting down, or well, attempting to hunt down GOLAN stretched us very thin. Fortunately, General Ivanov's forces guarding Project ESCAPE appear to be fully functional and if what Kilija said is right, the first test of the teleporter worked. Hopefully the joint operation between Fedorov and myself was able to both buy us enough time and blunt GOLAN enough for us to make our escape. But, if GOLAN manages to cross the Atlantic...I'm afraid with our forces so depleted we may not be able to stop an attack.
I'm currently stationed in what was once England, trying to shepherd the last few straggling sisters through. Kilija says we should be good to send the first transport out with the teleporter in a day or so. Fedorov has also moved over to White Russia (Belarus) to guard us against any surprise attacks with what little forces he has left under his control. Not that I expect any to come from that direction.
We just need to hold out a little longer...
from the Journal of Marcus Gordon, Former Defense Minister, UCS
December 4th, 2150
That earthquake...I am glad we left when I did. I was only able to get a few ships ready, so we traveled light. Just me in my Grizzly, a few Jaguars and a single Mammoth. There was no time to take anyone else. We are approaching the shores of Ireland, where I will land and attempt to make contact. This far away from GOLAN we shouldn't be affected by its communications jamming. I've only got one shot at this, and it had better be a good one. I doubt there is enough time for me to attempt a hostile takeover of their Project. It is diplomacy or nothing.
Long-range scans indicate there is a small LC presence in England. They should be close enough to pick up a message if I broadcast on all frequencies. I just have to hope they are listening.
This is the message I have crafted:
quote:
TO ANYONE LISTENING: THIS IS MARCUS GORDON, FORMER DEFENSE MINISTER OF THE UNITED CIVILIZED STATES. WE COME OFFERING FRIENDSHIP. WE HAVE EVIDENCE ABOUT GOLAN AND ITS TRUE NATURE. WE ARE NOT GOLAN. WE ARE NOT GOLAN. PLEASE HELP US. We don't want to die here...
That message is currently playing on a loop on all channels. I...I'm not sure why I added that last bit. I guess I'm scared? If the LC and ED don't take us in, we will...no I will die. I very much do not want to die. Please hear us LC! Please save us!
Briefing Video: video link
Sending a small envoy to meet with us is far better than what I thought they would do, which would be to kill us all immediately.
TRANSMISSION FROM SELENA SHATTAN, LUNAR CORPORATION posted:
UCS units: We heard a transmission from this location. You claim you are not GOLAN. Prove it or we will kill you.
Please transmit using the following secured frequency: 48.15.162.342
SECURE TRANSMISSION FROM MARCUS GORDON, UNITED CIVILIZED STATES posted:
You heard us? Oh thank god you heard us! I have evidence about GOLAN. It's not what you think. Not at all. GOLAN has been operating off its central core. And not just recently, it's been almost since the day it was turned on. From what I can tell, GOLAN is almost like a cloud-computing network from back in the 21st century. It exists in every processor in every machine the UCS ever built. The units I have with me are running in manual mode, the mode the UCS originally wrote. It's all routed through this Grizzly unit, that's how I'm able to keep control.
I have it all here in a journal. It's a physical journal but I can transmit a copy to you. I also have files. They...well I'm not sure what they are. They're all about about some secret UCS project called Project Icarus, but the encryption is beyond what I can crack. I'll send you those too. Please, you have to believe me!
SECURE TRANSMISSION FROM SELENA SHATTAN, LUNAR CORPORATION posted:
That's...quite a story. I'm receiving your files now, but I'm going to need to talk to the rest of our leadership. For now you need to stay put on Ireland until we figure out what to do with you.
Well we aren't dead. That's progress I suppose.
Wait...what?
Oh no...
No!
It's GOLAN!
I don't know how it did it, but its here. How the hell could this happen?
SECURE TRANSMISSION FROM MARCUS GORDON, UNITED CIVILIZED STATES posted:
You saw that right? Other UCS units were just shooting at me. Do you believe me now?
SECURE TRANSMISSION FROM SELENA SHATTAN, LUNAR CORPORATION posted:
I don't know what you are, but I do know that I can't talk with anyone outside of these islands now. And if you're willing to shoot GOLAN's robots with me, I think I can vouch for you in front of everyone else. But unless we kill those robots we're stuck here.
Oh and one last thing. The frequency I gave you will only work with me. If I die there won't be any way for you to verify this with the rest of us. So you'd better keep me alive!
So we need to kill GOLAN while keeping both Marcus and Selena from dying. Things are never easy are they...
And hey look at that, Selena must've found General Fang's glider. And she added a Crion cannon to it
Damn girl. You barely knew what you were doing when you started this and now you're running around in a customized alien glider. You've done good for yourself.
Once again, Marcus Gordon is in his Grizzly. I like his chances of survival way more than hers.
I have no idea what's in store for us, so for now everyone just form a protective ring around Selena.
Selena's base is pretty tough, so maybe we'll actually get some help from them. I don't think we'll have to worry about GOLAN overrunning it.
Two mineral patches! Well that's a nice little treat. While I get everything running here, let's go scout it out.
Huh, GOLAN must be low on resources if its already sending Harvesters to try and steal our stuff.
Looks like this is the only way off Ireland.
Oh god, it's guarded by SHADOW units!
GOLAN must've learned from all the mayhem we've caused over the last few missions. This is just going to make our lives tougher...
In a bit of good news, there's actually a second bridge that connects us to Great Britain and it leads right into the LC base. So if things go sideways we at least will have that.
GOLAN keeps trying to steal our resources. I need to put a stop to that.
A giant wall and a bunch of Jaguars should do it!
Our scout has pushed forward and found that GOLAN is prepping for a big attack. Great...
Unfortunately for them, I put a Fortress right in their path.
And between the Fortress as the anvil, and my Jaguars as the hammer, they have no chance.
:wow: The LC are taking the fight to GOLAN. Thanks ladies! You rock!
This is a base with entirely too many Tiger units. Does GOLAN really think that's going to work?
A bunch of unshielded Tigers versus Crions and Electo-cannons. Yeah. That's gonna work out well.
Meanwhile, I've nearly completed my enclosure to force GOLAN's units away from my minerals, but I'm interrupted by these annoying Tigers.
It was not a long interruption.
And yet they keep coming. They're apparently on a suicide mission.
A larger attack comes up the hill, but is again outmatched. For safety's sake I build a second Fortress though.
Okay, things are built-up enough that I feel comfortable actually building some units now. We shouldn't need too much if the LC are helping out.
GOLAN's cloaks are falling thanks to the Radar I have there in the back. Thank god, because otherwise we'd be getting pummeled.
More walls! And more hopeless attacks against an opponent with the high ground by GOLAN. Maybe it's not so smart after all... Or maybe it works like the Geth and it gets smarter the more robots that are around and it's just being dumb now because there are only a few robots here in Europe
Geth-like or non-Geth-like I think it's time we finally make our move against GOLAN's base. Move out!
More GOLAN SHADOW units
Thankfully our mobile radar is enough to let them show up.
The LC are literally wandering around GOLAN's base. I uh, guess they did a good job with it then
And now they're going for the kill shot on the power plant. I'm genuinely impressed.
Our units show up though, and make sure to add a bit to the fireworks.
Wait...was that they're only power plant
All the towers are dark now. You have got to be fucking kidding me. This is the most pathetic base I've ever seen!
Yeah, no it really looks like power is down. Damn. MVP medal for this mission goes to the LC. All I did was distract them long enough for the LC to put in a whooping.
There are a bunch of very annoying towers out on these small islands. Perfect for my donated Crushers to deal with.
Oh well look at that. Unit spawns. That's cool game. Yep. Thought you were done with this whole cheating thing
All these towers are armed with chainguns. CHAINGUNS. Good lord GOLAN.
Oh and now the rest of the LC wants to get in on the fun too. The more the merrier!
And with that the towers are gone. Now to just wipe up the last of the base.
There really isn't much left. Those LC women do not fuck around.
Uh, Marcus, I think you mean "there were plasma control centers until our new amazon warrior friends burned the base to the ground"
More auto-spawning units but this time I'm parked on top of them. Hah! Good luck cheating now game!
A few Panther STEALTHs I built are mopping up the last of the base. That's a whole lot of Condors though.
Almost done, just need to root out the last of the cloaked units. And it looks like they've found our LC friends.
Yeah, thought you could hide didn't you? Didn't think we'd bring along radar did you?
We corner the last of them by the Condors.
Yes! GOLAN has been kicked off the British Isles. And even better, we're tentatively approved to join the ED and LC! Maybe we'll get off this rock after all...
I am pretty sure the LC will win the mission themselves, you've just got to not get killed long enough for their wrecking ball to smash through GOLAN's base.
Next time: From (White) Russia With Love (for the Dynasty)