Part 12: Maelstra Barrens
Aaaaand we're back. What's left of Alpha Squad has been successful in evacuating the New Sun. Templar, with his dying breath, made one last desperate gambit to take down the Helghast's Arc Grid. We'll see if he was successful (he was). We'll also see if we can link back up with a surviving ISA group on the ground.
Maybe Captain Narville?
Ayup, we're teaming up with Captain Narville again. Glad to hear he's doing alright.
Natko is still playing the role of mediator. Y'know? Natko's starting to grow on me a bit. He recognizes that Rico is in a bad way and is trying to console him. It's more than Rico did for Sev, and is probably more than Rico deserves, but they're a team and Natko is a professional--he wants everyone to be focussed and on their game. If you rewatch this cutscene and focus on Rico and Natko's banter behind Sev (while you can't really hear what they're saying), it becomes clear that Rico wants nothing to do with anything. He eventually throws out a death glare until Natko backs off.
Lovely. Well, hopefully we make it out of this chapter with our squad intact
.Glancing around our surroundings, there are massive chunks of the New Sun strewn about and burning
In the Maelstra Barrens, those bits of burning wreckage are the most interesting things to look at. Welp, let's get out of this wasteland.
Over the corner, we find an ISA survivor: Private Richards!
And what's that behind him?
A working EXO
Alright, foreshadowing has paid off! Now we get to ride around in the ISA's very own mechwarrior. We also picked up a new member of Alpha Squad. Private Richards may not have Alpha's extensive training, but he's a decent shot. Besides, he's one of ours. It's always good to have a few more soldiers in the fight. Rico's being pretty aggressive towards him, but I get it, he's hurting over Templar and is just sort of lashing out at whoever pisses him off. The thing is, Richards has every right to be annoyed with Rico--Rico almost shot him! Richards' response wasn't even that rude. He called Alpha Squad "cowboys", teasing them for shooting first and asking questions second. Yeah, fair enough. Laugh it off, Rico, you nearly shot him, right? No, Rico is going to get up in his face. Still, Sev gets to ride the EXO because of that interaction, so it's not for nothing.
Oh hey, what's this? Are you guys arguing again already? Jeez, we've barely even started the level! What's it about this time?
Uh, Richards? You don't really know Rico, yet. I know you're kinda pissed off at him, but you're going about confronting him in the worst possible--
What.
Just.
WHAT ARE YOU DOING, RICO?! HE'S ON YOUR SIDE!!
Wait--and you're not even going to check to see if he's okay?
Uh...
You know what?
- MURDER, JUST STRAIGHT UP MURDER.
And no, that is not a hyperbole. Rico must've broken Richards' nose and sent a fragment of cartilage into his brain or something, because that man is dead. Throughout the entire game, consistently, hovering your reticle over a living human will cause it to light up. If it lights up green, they're an ally. If it lights up red, they're an enemy. If it doesn't light up, you're either a cadaver beetle or a corpse. Hover your reticle over Rico and Natko? It's green. The wounded ISA soldier and medic off to the right? Green. Hover it over Richards? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Why? Cause he's dead. I fire a rocket at him to get a reaction, but there's nothing. No shouts of "blue on blue!" or similar friendly fire chatter. He's dead.
Notice that neither Sev nor Natko stop to see if Richards is still breathing. There's a reason for that: they don't want to know the answer. If they just pretend he's unconscious and leave, then they'll have plausible deniability that Rico isn't a murderer. Checking for a pulse would be admitting Rico just fucked up and would put further strain on Alpha Squad's working relationship.
Yup, better just pretend it never happened.
Anyways, let's move on. There isn't a whole lot more to this level, really. It's the shortest in the entire game. Alpha Squad is hurting, Rico blows up in a huge WTF-moment, and you get to pilot a sweet Exo suit that absolutely trivializes the Helghast. That latter part is probably why it's so short, as none of the encounters are all that challenging as long as you pay attention to your damage warnings.
Narville wants us to confirm that the petrusite grid is down. It is:
The Helghast aren't fixing that anytime soon. Narville's convoy will have more than enough time to get back to Pyrrhus and punch its way into Visari Palace.
It feels good to join back up with Avenger Convoy. We've fought alongside them for so long. We nearly made it all the way to Visari Palace with them. That detour into Suljeva Village took us away from our allies for far too long.
It's good to be back
The mission wraps up when Helghast forces in the vicinity of the crash site are destroyed. At that point, Alpha Squad meets up with Narville to hear the next phase of the mission:
Aaaaaalright! We're gonna join up with the ISA forces in the city and take the fight to--
What the--
Jeez, what happened? Is that--
Uh. I--
So, uh, that was Red Dust. You know, the nuclear bomb we've been trying to find since Killzone: Liberation? Yeah. That one. We found it.
It's a nuclear bomb designed to cause maximum damage with as little radiation as possible. Something, something, space technology makes it so that Red Dust's yield has an extremely short half-life. Oh, there's still radiation, as it winds up irradiating a bunch of petrusite sources, but it doesn't last long. See, the ISA wanted a bomb that allowed them to obliterate their enemy and then allow them to safely colonize over top of their remains (they wanted to drop it in Southern Vekta, remember?).
"If there's radiation, shouldn't the ISA and Helghast be getting sick?"
Yes! In fact, the ISA do. This happens off-screen. It's mentioned in Killzone: Mercenary that they ISA came prepared with loads of anti-rad medication. See, they were concerned about a potential Red Dust detonation and planned ahead. That's why we don't ever actually worry about becoming irradiated. For the Helghast, well, they're immune to radiation. They evolved that ability.
Now, before I wrap up this analysis, I should point out the immediate ramifications of this blast:
- An ISA nuclear bomb has been detonated in Helghan's capital city - Red Dust's existence wasn't even common knowledge. Alpha Squad knew about it because they were tasked with getting it back, but otherwise most people, Vektan and Helghast, have no idea Visari had it. Thus, all the Helghast know is that an ISA nuclear bomb has exploded in their capital city. You can be sure Visari is going to use it to further galvanize his forces.
- Pyrrhus City is now, more or less, gone - To his credit, Visari HAD evacuated the civilian populace to Konstantin City--that's the main reason why Helghast air support has been so light, as the main fleet is elsewhere dealing with the refugees. That said, A LOT of Helghast soldiers were killed in this blast. If Visari manages to win this war, it will truly be a PYRRHIC VICTORY
- The majority of the ISA's ground forces were in Pyrrhus City - Heh heh, yeah. You know how I said the last update was the ISA's darkest hour? Well, now it's become the ISA's darkest day. There's not a whole lot left of Battlegroup Mandrake. There's a few ISA cruisers still in orbit, but their ground forces were already deployed--so no fresh reinforcements. A few detachments of ISA were outside of the blast range, but they're scattered. Honestly, what's left of Avenger Convoy is the largest and most organized collection of ISA soldiers currently on the ground in Helghan. Things do not look good.
Yeah. So these last couple of updates have been a pretty big bummer. I know Killzone 1 wasn't the greatest of games, but at least it never got this depressing. Let's look back fondly on better times with a bit of Killzone 2 concept art that is really more of a "what if" than anything else. It's a little piece called "Reunion With Old Friends":
Vehicle section! Sort of. I don't really count it, since it operates identically to walking on foot. Movement feels a bit more robotic to give the feeling that you're inside a giant robot suit, but otherwise, no controls change. Your grenade button is the analogue for your rockets, but that's it. Your suit even heals the same way. It sparks and beeps, flashing warning lights at you when things are dire. Take some cover and the Exo will repair itself. Nanomachines, I guess. The glass cracks with damage, which gives some neat persistent damage effects, but that's it.
It's a nice little shake-up to gameplay and it doesn't overstay its welcome. So, props to the Exo section!
Abrasive ISA soldier who meets his untimely demise at Rico's
He didn't last long.
LS209 Exoskeleton
The latest in ISA weapon platforms and technology. The "Exo" we pilot in the game is the third iteration, mass-produced for use on Helghan. (The previous two iterations exploded during trial runs). In the first chapter, you can hear ISA engineers talking about the various problems with the suits. Despite their advertised reliability, they are prone to breaking down. Turns out they only have a shelf life of a few months in the Helghan atmosphere before they stop working entirely. That said, when they do work they're pretty awesome. They have a left arm mounted rocket launcher and a right arm mounted machine gun. I assume it has some sort of magic pocket-dimension technology, since you never run out of ammo. It's great. It's armour is solid, but the glass canopy leaves the pilots exposed to well-placed small-arms fire. Though to be honest, that's not a problem in single-player (it's a problem in multiplayer, since enemies can snipe your pilot and steal the Exo).
Maelstra Barrens concept art (at the site of the crash):
Exo concept art:
