Part 81: Invasion

Welcome sisters (and brothers) to Luna! Sadly, things are not all sunshine and roses up here. The UCS has, as I'm sure you're well aware, launched a surprise attack a few days ago on the LC positions in Lesotho, betraying the LC-UCS alliance. Worse news awaited the LC at Luna 1 though: the UCS has landed on the Moon and intends to conquer Luna for themselves!

Sombra and Fang are much too busy trying to beat back the unrelenting UCS assault on LC positions on Gaia to assist us at this time. It is up to us to repel the UCS and secure Luna from the invaders.







Unlike the UCS campaign, you start out with the traditional Main Base set up in the LC campai-

Oh. Right. Did I mention you have three Main Bases now?

Main Base is well, your main base. It serves the same function as the standard Main Base from the base Earth 2150 campaign and the UCS's outpost on Luna.

Luna 1 is your research center as well as the heart of the Lunar Corporation. Here is where the LC High Command and our scientists at the Ixchel Research Center work tirelessly to ensure our victory.

As for Sun Light, well... let's just say it's our ace in the hole. Note that this is the exact same valley I showed in the final UCS mission, but this is on a much smaller HQ map.



A much needed upgrade for the LC in The Moon Project is the ability to dig tunnels. Finally. Not that we'll typically have much use for tunnel digging, but now we at least have the option.



Our first goal is to push back this UCS attack force. They are much, much too close to Luna 1 and the Sunlight Control Center and early reports indicate they've almost breached an ancillary research facility near Ixchel.




So the UCS are moving in on the research center responsible for the Fat Girl. We've all seen the absolute carnage these things can do, so it's crucial we save the prototypes and the facility.

This mission is much, much easier than the one you start with in the UCS campaign. Tami said the Fat Girls alone should be enough to beat back the UCS.

Spoilers: she's right.



But before we can go beating anyone back, the UCS begin decimating our outpost to the northeast. There is nothing you can do about this. You can't even add shields or weapons to those buildings; they solely exist to be destroyed.

And as you can see, the UCS AI has gone with a very heavily plasma-based unit composition, just like I did last campaign. Smart robots.



Tami said we'd get command of some Fat Girls to push back the enemy. Here they are, all...

...five of them? That's it?

These are Fat Girl c2s so they only have 2 weapon mounts. Even with only two electro-cannons per unit, we should be able to beat the UCS.

Well, assuming we have shields. Which we don't.



Each subsequent model of the Fat Girl adds an additional weapon mount. Because we only have access to the c2 model, our Fat Girls are limited to only two weapons. The Fat Girl, if used correctly, is one of the most devastating units in the entire game. No other unit can bring so much firepower to bear except for Jaguar triple plasma walkers or the quadruple laser Ural.

But those units are insanely expensive. A fully decked-out Fat Girl will only set us back 1,900 credits (700 for the chassis and 1200 for the rocket launchers or electro-cannons) plus shields. A similarly equipped Ural or Jaguar would be in the 3,000s. Fat Girls are your friend this campaign. Learn to love them.

Research: The upgraded Electro-cannon.



The research base here has no local resources. Lucky for us, there's a large mineral deposit in this crater. A crater that makes it inaccessible to the UCS. Well, I guess they could use flying harvesters. But they don't have those yet.

So it's just for us.



Oh hey look. Six shields for 5 units. Isn't that nice?



The UCS has started building their base and they haven't even finished destroying my sacrificial buildings! What jerks.



Well they're about to have 5 fully shielded, very angry units barging down on them. Sucks to be them!





You get a free Photos Detector when you start the mission. It's sight range isn't as great as the Scout (well not yet anyway), but it's still able to give me a heads up about the rampaging UCS walkers headed towards the second base.

We'll be waiting.



20-some unshielded UCS walkers versus 5 Fat Girls, who ya got?



If you picked the UCS you would be wrong. These units are very, very quickly disabled thanks to our double-barreled electric blasts.

Oh and to add to the fun for the UCS, meteors start falling.





Not even 10 minutes into the mission and all the UCS units are dead and we're barely scratched. Shit, even the Phobos survived. I wasn't kidding when I said this mission is cake.

Research: Double Chaingun



Okay I lied. Not all the UCS units are dead. They left 4 back at the base.

Not that they're a match for us.







Thanks to the power of the electro-cannon and the power of the-UCS-has-no-shields we're able to quickly disable and destroy any threatening UCS structures.

From there it's just clean up.





Pictured: clean up. And stealing their money.



It's over. We won! Yay winning!



Er, where's the end mission icon?






Oh okay. Now we won.

And Kilija is so sweet. I think I might like it better than NEO I's weird creepy virtual reality things he offered to give me.



A new wrinkle for the LC in The Moon Project: non-infinite power grids. No longer can you slap down Solar Power Plants and Solar Batteries in the ass-end of the map and laugh as the enemy fails to take down your power.

This, unfortunately, makes mining out resources a bit more expensive.

Research: Lunar m2, Moon m2, Moon m3, Power Shield Generator 1000 PSU, Fat Girl c3, Fat Girl c4, Rocket Launcher upgrade 1, Rocket Guidance 25%, 50% and 100%

Wow. That's a lot of research. And that's really just to get us up to the bare minimum tech level needed to compete with the UCS. We're fortunate in this first mission because our Fat Girls get great shields and the UCS can be rushed very quickly. Other missions won't be so favorable.



See, it's just like I said. Fat Girls are death on wheels hover...things. And Only 2,100 credits! Well, they'll be 2,200 once I research the medium shield. They're still an absolute bargain.





Don't mess with the Moon



Next time we'll see how you can win a mission without firing a single shot.

Trust me. It is going to be absolutely hilarious.





New campaign, new music! This is the third LC Day Theme. Enjoy!