Part 71: Landing Zone

We made it! We're the first non-LC humans on the Moon since the Cold War! Unfortunately the incoming fire we took from the LC have scattered our attack group all over the surface. To make matters worse, we haven't heard anything from the other landing craft. We'll need to link up and ensure everything is operational before we can even begin our campaign against Project Sunlight.

So let's go find our two Assaults.



One of our landing pods had a nice, safe landing here. Unfortunately we can't fit too much into the pods so we've only got these 5 units to work with. We'll need to take care to ensure they all survive.





Recon indicates the two pods carrying the Assaults landed to the north and west of us. Let's go north first.



Well shit. Good thing we got out of there as fast as we did. Our landing craft has been obliterated by a meteor. I'm not sure if these are LC-controlled meteor showers or just what you'll naturally see out on the Moon, but either way we don't want to get caught with large rocks falling on us.



LC scouts have come to investigate our landing. I think they need a nice dose of plasma.



And now there are no more scouts.



Er well, except for these ones. When the Moon is your home I guess it's pretty easy to scramble people into position to check on an invasion.



It still doesn't matter. As we all know by now, unshielded units do really, really poorly against energy weapons.



We're heading into the crater where the first pod landed.



Shit. Looks like the LC found the Assault first. Light 'em up boys...er robot-boys!



Good work! We've still yet to lose a single unit despite the LC throwing lots of ladies at us. Two of the units are heavily damaged at this point though. We need a Tiger Repairer real bad right about now.



With the destruction of the LC guards its now safe to activate Assault 1. NEO might be dead, but we don't want to risk the LC intercepting the activation codes. All we need is one of these Assaults to go rampaging through our base to end this excursion.



Even though the pod crashed the Assault still looks pretty good.



More meteors? Aw man. Run everyone!

The meteors trigger as soon as the Assault is online, so get ready to run.



We're safely out of the newest meteor shower and the Assault is leading the way. This will give our more damaged units some cover in case we run into any more LC patrols. The Earth 2150 Trilogy AI will always target the nearest unit/first unit it sees even if one of your units only needs a single 20mm bullet to kill it.



Well shit. The LC are definitely not sleeping at the wheel here. They've prepared another ambush for us. That Panther R does not look like it's going to make it. Damn!



It looks like the LC were actually guarding a small supply depot. We can reload and repair our damaged units here. I'm grateful for this as it didn't look like the rest of the task force was going to make it much longer.



All patched up and ready to go! Onwards robots!



A Crusher? Really? The LC apparently are much more advanced up on the Moon than they are down on Earth. If I'm sending Tigers against Craters and Crushers this is going to be a long campaign.



Fortunately I can use the Assault or Panther to draw the fire from one or two Crushers. A whole army of Crushers is not something we can handle though. Let's hope there aren't any around here.



The LC have a small base in the area. Looks like it's guarding some sort of A.I. processor. It's not like the ones we're using, it's...a bit different.

We should capture it and study it. At the very least it might help us figure out more about this Project Sunlight and how to destroy it.

Of course before we go off and do that we need to get Assault 2 working.



Unfortunately for us, the path to Assault 2 puts us right in range of the LC's defenses. We end up losing a Tiger



Oh good. Another LC ambush at the pod.

Of course with the firepower of Assault 1 the moon ladies don't stand a chance.



We've got both Assaults running! We still don't know where the hell the rest of the landing party is with the important things like Mammoths and all the other support infrastructure, but the possibility of an abort due to irreparable damage to one of the Assaults is now nil.



Meteors again destroy the pod crash site once the Assault is up and running.



The Moon's naturally cratered and rocky surface makes it very easy for the LC to funnel us into choke points. There's no other way into the LC base except the defenses we passed on our way to Assault 2. I have everyone heal up at another depot before the attack. We're going to need every shot we can get.



Charge!



The LC have Electro-cannons because of course they do. Electro-cannons are death here on the Moon. We don't have shields, and we don't have repairers. If one of the Assaults gets disabled you may as well restart, because you just lost.



Fortunately the combined firepower looks to be enough to break-through, even with the loss of our Panther R. Keep shooting!



That's it for the defenses. Now to take out the structures themselves.



The Main Base melted our last two Tiger Ps but the Assaults are looking great. Both Assaults have extremely long-range weapons so they can usually sit back and hit the enemy from a distance.



In a bit of a twist, I end up cutting the base's power last. The layout of the base made it far simpler to just plow through without doing the usual power cut and mop-up routine.



Thanks Mr. Minister. I think I could see that from all the charred buildings around me, but I'm glad I have you here to point out that I've destroyed the LC base.



Now it's time to find that A.I. processor. And for the first time ever, we'll get to see what LC tunnels look like.



They...pretty much look like the alien tunnels. I'm digging the nice purple mood lights though.



There's a few sentries around the tunnels but they're no serious threat. Except for the threat of being disabled of course.



Seriously, how are these tunnels? These are way more fun than the boring mineshafts we saw back on Earth.



More sentries. Great job guarding this thing guys!



This tunnel complex is ridiculous. It goes under the entire map.



Just to make sure you know how fucked you are, the game throws a Crater in here. Get used to fighting chassis and weapons that are significantly superior to yours. The only equalizers you have are the two Assaults, so don't be afraid to use them.



With the last of the sentries dead we just need to find the processor and get the hell out of here.



Got it!





I can already tell I'm not going to like this Minister of Defense fellow. Even the robots are more interesting than him.





An almost 10:1 kill:death ratio? This has to be one of my best performances ever without a base.



We're still waiting on some of the pods to come online, but with the Assaults working we were able to find where almost everything else landed. Unfortunately, we still need to get this new A.I. processor there somehow. And that's where our newest unit can help out.




The UCS get not one, not two, but three new battle songs. This is the first one.