Part 18: The Snare - Part 2

The Snare

Last time, our crew discovered the location of NOAH's main base, only to find out that the remnants of the Claw gang were laying siege to it. After breaking the siege, we can now finally make contact with NOAH. Let's hope that they really can help us with information about the SGDS disaster. Cause that is still our main goal, remember? Yeah, this game isn't too big on developing its own plot, and the whole SGDS angle is kind of a janky motivation overall. But we're almost at the point where the main plot element will get revealed, and then the story takes a neat direction. Just trust me, okay?




Your bad at playing coy, Czeko

Okay, before we can have the chat that we've been chasing for so long, we'll have to prevent a nuclear meltdown. Just a day like any other, right? The time limit is pretty generous though, so there's no reason to freak out about the whole deal.

We also got some new recruits and a free Vulcan.

Ivan Trojwitsch and Nadya Czelenko join our ranks. They are clean slates, but by this point, it's only worth to use them if you lost people. There simply isn't enough Xp left to really train them.

Let's take a look at the power plant.

The game spawned a good number of Claws all around the area, and the assault is going to be pretty straight forward. There's really no need for fancy tactics, just bust in with your tanks! Though, you want to be a bit careful with your explosions. Destroying some of the structures here can result in nuclear doom.





My T-55 gets tickled with fire grenades.

The Claws will quickly start to pour out of the plant, and it's pretty fun to just pump shells into their ranks.

Can you see the burning wreck just behind the gate? That is a disabled and heavily damaged BMP. Why do I point this out?


Because a Claw soldier decided to reclaim it, which prompted a bunch of his buddies to also jump in.


Yeah, okay.

The battle also dies down after that.

Another BTR turns into salvage, and I can move into the plant area.


There is a T-55 lurking around the corner, so I decide to sneak some soldiers up to it.


You really should have turned towards the battle, pal.

On the other side of the base...

...I discover a Shilka.


It never had a chance.

I send out the helicopter to scout the rear part of the plant.

Some soldiers and a BTR lurk behind the main building, but the T-55 next to the towers is going to become a bit of a pain in the ass.


And here we have the lesson of the day.


Don't bunch up during combat


The BTR is swiftly dealt with..


...and I'm very rude to this Claw soldier.




Let's direct our attention towards that damn T-55 now.

This fucker, is standing so close to the tower that I can't engage him. Any shell that hits him, will also blow up the tower which fails the mission

I don't think that this is intended though. It probably just randomly decided to move a bit from his starting position or something like that. I have to draw him away from there, which isn't too hard, but I also have to destroy him quickly. Because this jerk is using APFSDS shells, and will quickly gib my crews. On top of that, I'm also greedy and hope that I can disable him to loot a few of those shells.


I've set up my vehicles in good firing positions, and plink at the tank with my chopper.


My BMPs use their missiles, while my own T-55 advanced under the cover of the train car.


The resulting explosion causes a crater under the T-55, and traps him for a second. Perfect moment for everyone to shell him!


Bullseye


The remaining Claw soldiers get gunned down mercilessly.





And this is why I brought a Grail launcher for this mission. Yeah, I could use my Shilka against it, but the chopper would still be able to cause some nasty damage with his missile launcher.


A single missile is enough to burn the last members of the Claw gang

Before going back to NOAH, I loot the battlefield and check out the salvaged T-55.

Holy fuckballs

A stash of seven shells is a huge deal on my difficulty level! That's really lucky, and means that I'll start using them in the next mission. The tank also isn't too busted, so maybe I'll fix it at the base.


Hey Czeko, can we be pals now?


Yay?

Well, this wasn't entirely the big reveal that we expected, right? The latter half of the scene also was weirdly disjointed, so let's look at the facts.

The SGDS virus is apparently linked to a sect called the "Church Of The Undying Child", or "COTUC" for short. While they didn't really come into the picture before the outbreak, an uncanny large amount of their members were immune to the virus. This allowed the sect to persist to this day, and evolve into a powerful organization in this new world. Jfyi, "The Fall" also had a crazy sect as the reason behind the apocalypse, so god job on recycling your ideas, Silver Style.

But Czeko is only speculating at this point, and there is no hard proof that the COTUC is actually responsible for the outbreak. We have to make contact with them, and find out on our own. Czeko gave us the location of one of their monasteries, and also told us about the gimmick of the next mission - Crawler Mines. I'm not going into detail about that right now, but you can probably guess what they do, right?

Well, we're done here. So let's grab our loot and get home.

The NOAH base has a heavy box, and a stash of miscellaneous gear and ammo.

I'm also left with a lot of weapons and junk from the Claws.

Especially a lot of 7,62mm boxes


HONK HONK