Part 56: Area 51

Welcome back comrades. Our trip to recover the alien craft was long and arduous and I have quite a tale to tell now.



Igor has located the suspected location of the UCS alien craft. Stealing this craft will change the course of the war for sure. We must not allow the UCS to harness the ship's secrets. The fact that Fang is out there in his glider is bad enough, we don't need another rival army having a super-tank like that.



This is a covert mission so our resources are at a minimum here. No starting credits and only an LZ, Tunnel Entrance and 2 comically out of date Pamirs to protect it. We'll need better defenses, the UCS are sure to sound the alarm shortly. I'll bring in our top veterans for this mission.



Good thing I did. A UCS scouting party has found us, only hours into the mission. With the general alarm sounded getting this craft is going to require all the ingenuity the ED can muster.



The craft is somewhere in these tunnels. There's no use building your own tunnels, the rocks in the soil are too ubiquitous. This means we'll need to fight our way through. The UCS has filled the tunnels with their plasma units. Our laser Caspians are quite capable against them and should be able to manage as our scouts and strike team for this mission.



Bringing in some "liberated" credits from the Spaceport allows us to set up a defensive matrix to the north of the tunnel entrance. We'll need to the area well-defended. If the UCS can destroy the Tunnel Entrance we'll have no way to recover the spaceship. And if they destroy the LZ we'll be unable to return it to the Motherland.



More resistance from Spider Ps in the tunnels. Bringing along some ZK Taiga Repairers allows me to keep the army in top fighting shape. So far we've yet to take a causality.



The base is well-established at this point. I think it's unlikely that UCS air strikes will be able to drive us out of the valley. Still, we like production capabilities in the field. A suicide strike to take out our re-supply craft will cripple us.





The nearest alien tunnels are clear of UCS robots, but we don't find any evidence of the alien craft. The tunnel system goes on for miles, this could be an extremely long search.



This is the fate of all the UCS air patrols at this point. They're not smart enough to try attacking our reloading craft, instead focusing all their efforts on the LZ. I suppose it makes sense, since they're trying to cut our lines back to HQ.



This is not good. The UCS is bringing in their big guns. Panther HR/Ps. They've finally gotten us beat on firepower. Quick! Everyone fall back to that maintenance pocket!



Fight you bastards! If you all die this mission is over, the UCS will have complete control of the tunnel system! For our Motherland!



Casualties were massive. We lost half the Caspians and both Taiga Repairers. We can't hope to continue without reinforcement so I order everyone to stay put while I bring in reserves from HQ.



Our last 2 Caspians are committed to the front along with a new Repairer. I wish I could figure out something to do with the Groznys and Pamirs though. The helicopters obviously can't go underground, and without regular resupply the Pamirs are useless.





Repaired and reinforced our strike team moves deeper into the tunnel system. The architecture is breath-taking, and I'm sure our ED scientists would love to study some of these runes on the walls but the situation is far too dangerous. Perhaps after we've fully conquered the UCS they can have a look.



Shit! Another group of UCS heavy armor. Use the same strategy as last time!



Losses are even more horrific than the first encounter. The UCS took out all but 2 Caspians and the Taiga Repairer. I've got to build more Caspians for the next phase of the advance. I'm sure the pencil pushers at procurement won't notice another 5,000 credits missing from the Spaceport allowance.



7 Caspians and 2 Repairers. It may not sound like much, but I think it'll be enough for the rest of the mission. Let's move out!





Another bust, but we've found where all these UCS walkers are coming from. They won't be expecting an assault in the middle of their base, now will they? If we can surprise the UCS and eliminate their production capabilities the tunnels will be ours.



Oh shit. They knew we were gonna come! Look at all those Spiders and Gargoyles and defense towers. This is not gonna work. Fall back to the ambush positions! Prepare for a counter-offensive!





At least our trap and encircle ambush strategy seems to be working against this counter-attack. But 2 Caspians are not enough to prevent a UCS advance throughout the tunnels.





As I suspected, the UCS robots were able to reach our Tunnel Entrance and destroy it. We won't be able to rebuild unless we clear out those walkers. I hope those last two Caspians are up for a suicide mission.



Your sacrifice for the Dynasty will be remembered comrades! :salute:



The attack is enough to move the Panthers and Spiders out of position and allow for the re-building of the Tunnel Entrance. We'll need to stall the UCS from assaulting the new tunnel again.



Hello Grozny Squad





A direct attack on the UCS base is madness, look how much fire our pilots are taking. But they're able to shut down power, at least for a little bit. And that's enough to move the UCS walkers back to base to reinforce the defense.



Allowing our third strike team to move in and clear out the stragglers.





More strikeouts, but we're so deep in the tunnels now it's unlikely we'll encounter any more UCS robots from the base.



The Groznys took extreme losses in their feint. I'm recalling them back to HQ for resupply and reinforcement; they're in no shape for fighting now.





This labyrinth looks promising. Those purple rooms in the second shot looks like somewhere you'd hide an alien space ship. Now just to get there.



Clever. The UCS try another sneak attack against the Tunnel Entrance. But this time I've posted underground guards that fend off the plasma without much of a scratch.





Nothing in either of those purple rooms.



Or this weird blue room.



Or this other purple room.



Perhaps they've hidden the spaceship in the old mining tunnels and not these alien ones? I send one of the Caspians to check. The mining tunnel is extremely narrow and cramped so it will take a while to explore.



Hmmm...That area to the north is one of the few unexplored areas left. If its not in the mines its gotta be there.





Two more strikeouts.



And the mine isn't looking promising either. What if the UCS were able to evacuate the ship to their base during the chaos of the first attack on the Tunnel Entrance? We'd be fighting an almost impossible battle to crack that base, but we need that spaceship.



Looks like there's a little maintenance tunnel here. I'm going to follow it and see where it goes.



The mines don't seem to hold any secrets, except for really confusing and convoluted pathing. The Earth 2150 AI handled it pretty damn well though.



Well look at that! I think we've found something! Everyone converge on that Caspian's location!



The UCS begin an utterly desperate attack against our base at the same time. I think it's safe to say we've found the alien hanger. Now we just need to clear its defenses and claim our prize.





They really could've used some of those Panthers here, although their Spiders did quite a number on the strike force. But 2 survivors should be more than enough to find the spaceship.





Yessss! Now we just have to find these damn energy cells and we can get out of here.



Things are going well at th-wait what the hell!? Is that a Panther coming out into the middle of our base!?



Oh holy fucking shit yes it is. They're throwing all they can at the LZ and Tunnel Entrance right now. And they might actually pull it off. I guess they jammed the Caspians down below while they took them out or something since I had no idea they were this close. We've gotta blow the Tunnel Entrance! If one more of those Panthers get up here the LZ will be finished and the mission will be over.



I really hope those 2 Caspians are enough to find the energy cells. They're all we've got left at this point





Oh good they found them! That was rather fast. Good work guys!





The Alien craft is undoubtedly the strongest tank in the entire game. It's faster than Fang's ship, it does 800 damage a shot and it's fully armored. The only weakness it has is its lack of shields, but since it's fighting for the ED now we don't have to worry about lasers killing it.





Did I mention how much damage it does per shot? The UCS Panthers didn't stand a chance next to it. And now it's headed back to base. We did it! This war is about to become a rout, the UCS can't possibly hope to compete with our technological advantage now.





Casualties were rather light for a mission this tough, but I'm not about to complain. Oddly, the Spiders defending the UFO are all technically LC units. I have no idea why they did this.



Our only technological weakness at this point is the lack of shield tech. We're going to fix that next time. Soon the LC and UCS will be crushed, with their own weapons turned against them thanks to the daring and genius of the Eurasian Dynasty.