Part 39: Episode 7-2: Strike Force

Today's operation is probably the hardest thing in the game for me, outside the X operations, provided you play on Hard. Holy Freakin' Crap.

Episode 7-2: Strike Force



Marshall: The organization in control of the pathogen has become an international syndicate. Even the guerilla forces in Culuruma are part of their network. The organization is employing Stigma as a weapon to terrorize the world. Their recent activity in Europe is particularly of concern, and those nations are on high alert. Furthermore, a base of operations was recently uncovered in Russia.



Mendez: Caduceus International has dispatched a special team to Russia. They've already confirmed cases of Stigma there.

Marshall: And within the United States, we've uncovered another node: Kidman's hideout. A sweep is planned for two days from now.

Irene: My name is Irene Quatro. I'm the director of Caduceus. Our organization has agreed to assist in the operation. We will inspect the site for Stigma and, if necessary, deal with any contamination.

Mendez: This is a risky operation, considering the nature of the pathogen. Please proceed with extreme caution.



This one line renders the entire previous scene pointless, except, maybe. for the brief mention of Russia.

Everett: And just so you know, I'm not that good of a shot, either.

Leslie: I thought we were just going to be on standby.

Elena: We've been asked to investigate Stigma at the scene, Leslie. We'll be entering the hideout once they confirm it's safe.

Leslie: Really!? Oh no, what am I going to do…?

Tsuji: What I fear is an outbreak of Stigma. We'll need to assign those patients to Markus and the others.

Cromwell: This is an anti-Stigma agent. It hinders the synthesis of nucleic acids, thereby inhibiting the growth of Stigma. Needless to say, it's clinical trial isn't complete, but this is an emergency.

Tsuji: So it's like an antibiotic. Any side effects?

Cromwell: It has strong nephrotoxicity.

This means that it's poisonous to the kidneys.

Everett: Well, we appreciate your efforts, despite the less-than-perfect solution. If anything happens, it looks like we'll be counting on Dr. Vaughn and Dr. Blaylock again.

Markus: Let me guess: the private sector pulled their support for research on this drug, right?

Cromwell: Yes, unfortunately. We're not very popular at the moment. I was hoping to have Cynthia's assistance, but nobody knows her whereabouts. Hopefully, she's just taking a vacation, but I've asked the Director to look into the matter.

Valerie: I doubt she'd just run off without telling anyone…





So… I guess he works on the news now.

Guy: Earlier this morning, the FBI raided a mafia hideout as part of a major investigation. The members of this crime ring are suspected of manufacturing a deadly pathogen known as Stigma and are believed to be responsible for a number of recent terrorist acts. Stigma is a man-made… I'm sorry, the situation seems to be changing as we speak. I've just received information that someone has been injured in the raid! Apparently, the suspects are armed with both firearms AND biological weapons!

And he hams it up a little more, but on to the important stuff: operatin'.



Markus: How many?

Elena: Three!

Valerie: So they had Stigma, as we thought.

Markus: And without a boss, they're out of control. What a nightmare.

Valerie: Why don't they just surrender?



Markus: Do we know what type of Stigma they're infected with?

Elena: Brachion and Cheir are confirmed, but we're getting other reactions besides those two. I believe that they're infected with three or four different Stigma!

Thankfully, this means 4 types between the three, and not four in one patient.

Elena: Thankfully, Chief Cromwell's anti-Stigma medication is suppressing their development, but…

Markus: That only buys us some time. We need to hurry.

Valerie: Bring in the patients, in order of severity of their conditions.

Elena: Understood. The first is infected with Brachion. Please get ready.

The honor of this horrific operation goes to…



Markus!



I tried. I really did. I could not do this on Hard. Over and over, I reached the last operation and failed immediately. If it was on its own, I could probably figure it out, but the six-minute grind through two operations that I CAN do for every single attempt took its toll on me. I said it in the OP: the later operations seem to have been designed with co-op in mind. Instead, I dialled down to Normal and still made a mess of things. This is my eternal shame.

OPERATION VIDEO

Viddler Backup



Operation 1: Brachion. Nothing special about it.



Operation 2: Soma and Cheir simultaneously. Even better: they included a third type of Cheir.



The new type makes the large gashes, so it's good to get rid of that. Before you see it, you'll meet two normal Cheir, and two of the tumor kind. Deal with them, and the fused one, before you touch Soma. Other than having to stop to laser Soma's attacks, this isn't too bad.



Operation 3: Onyx and Soma. This is horrible. On Hard, you have almost no time to find Onyx, and Soma will actually become a significant problem. Abandon all hope, ye who operate here. On Normal, you have lots of time to find Onyx(I still manage to miss it three times in a row) and this becomes a reasonable challenge.

As before, deal with Onyx first. There's no way you'd be able to win any other way.



Even Elena has apparently stopped paying attention by the end of the operation, telling you to close him up immediately after you finish doing so.



OPERATION END



All I missed out on was no-miss. For time and vitals reasons, you should be trying for the other challenges anyway.





Guy: We've also learned that the individuals believed to be injured were, in fact, infected with Stigma. At this point, they've all been treated by the on-site medical team. What you're seeing now is the suspects, who have been arrested and are being taken away. Among them, I see a man who appears to be a scientist of some sort.



It's great how Guy assumes he's a scientist based on the fact that he's old and has corrective eyewear.

Valerie: That face! Markus! It's definitely the Professor!

Markus: So, he was behind this…

…Next time: the real story behind Professor Wilkins.  It's silly. 

Oh, and if you want to guess who the villain is. Three hints:

1) They've been mentioned before.
2) Remember that the main base is in Russia.
3) Your first guess is most likely wrong. I'll be completely amazed if anyone could actually figure it out beforehand.

BONUS


Oh, fine.


Viddler Backup

No way was I going to talk over this operation a second time, but I tried putting words on it instead, just to try it. Youtube being Youtube, the Viddler version may look nicer to you. If you don't watch the video check the incredibly important spoiler below:

 I beat it this time.