Battlezone (Activision)/Escape from Mars

"By the end of our time on Mars, we'd all learned to question our individual value in the grand scheme of things. Collins gave us orders and left some of our people to die. Nobody wants to be responsible for their friend's death. But no general wants to be responsible for losing a war. We learned to trust our generals and to follow their orders. But we all feared the day that we would be abandoned and left to die."

While exploring the Olympus Mons area in search of the lost relics, the 5th Platoon has come in contact with a large CCA contingent. They are pinned down in fierce combat and have already lost their Recycler. They need your help.

MISSION OBJECTIVES:
 * Assist the 5th platoon.
 * Look for Cthonian relics.

ENGINEERING REPORT: The SLF has been equipped to build and launch the Day Wrecker bomb as well as build the solar flare mine.

The Recycler can now build mobile construction rigs, which are capable of building armories, repair hangers, satellite comm towers, long range radar arrays, gun towers and various power supplies.

Your command HUD indicates where you can construct buildings. Green indicates terrain suitable for building while red means that the terrain is either rough or you are too close to another structure. Yellow means you could build there, but you would not have a power supply (solar, lightning or wind) for the structure.

Walkthrough
The mission opens showing a cutscene of the 5th Platoon being locked down in battle against a Soviet contingent. They already lost the recycler Minnesota. Your objective will be to escort the recycler Wyoming to the 5th Platoon to assist them. There is also an enemy base in the canyons that will be important later.

Start by ordering your recycler and two grizzly wingmen to follow you through the canyon. As you exit the canyon, you'll receive another notification indicating a large object has been sighted ahead. Head for it, as attempting to go around it will result in a mission failure. After the cutscene, press I to scan the target and ID it as the Hephaestus transport vessel.

Most notably, the Hephaestus' ID mentions that it transported bio-metal from the Lenmos facility in the previous mission to a place called the "Omega Star Port". Collins will order you to search the area for it. Do not dally in scanning the Hephaestus - you will fail the mission if you take too long, or attempt to sequence break.

Proceeding further on, you'll see a giant scrap field that will be useful in just a moment. Defending the scrap field are two Paks and a Cannoneer. Take out all three and proceed onward. You'll then find three large structures, comprising the Omega Star Port. Search the structures by pressing I on each one. Taking too long to scan the star port, or trying to bypass the star port, will result in a mission failure. Each will have the same result: No flight log found. It seems the Soviets beat you to it. Collins will then order you to deploy the recycler and prepare to assault the CCA canyon base, abandoning 5th Platoon over his lieutenant's objections. There are four geysers in the area, so you'll have more than enough space to build your base. Close to the other end of the star port is an additional turret that you'll need to take care of.

Get scavengers going as soon as possible, and keep your other tanks close by. You'll be prodded by CCA patrols consisting of flankers and czars. The new construction rig is available for you - use it to build structures to provide logistic and defensive support. One of the most notable structures you can build with the construction rig is the scrap silo. Building this in the middle of the giant scrap field will reduce the travel time your scavengers need to drop off scrap, allowing you to build everything else considerably faster. This includes the S-Power (solar power) and the gun towers, two of which should be sufficient to eliminate any CCA attacks from the canyons.

After a few minutes of base building, you'll receive a report indicating a transport is lifting off from the enemy launch pad. The CCA has escaped with the Omega Star Port flight log, so you'll need to find out where they're going. There is a snag, however - the enemy platoon is headed back to their base, and will reinforce it in just a few minutes. Build a unit factory and start producing tanks as fast as possible.

If you need more space for building structures, you can order the construction rig to recycle the Omega Star Port at this point without penalty. You will not receive any scrap for doing so, however.

Once the countdown reaches around 2 minutes, however, the remnants of the 5th will come to your aid. They will throw themselves at the enemy force to delay them and eliminate the countdown timer. However, the mission will still fail if you take too long.

There are two paths to the enemy base: the first path is the way the mission was intended, attacking through the canyons. You'll need a large force to fight through the canyon patrols, which will whittle down your ammunition and health. Once your vehicle is low on health and ammo, switch vehicles with one of your allies, then send your old vehicle home to be recycled. Keep producing units back home and have them come reinforce you. The front entrance to the base is locked down by a pair of gun towers powered by a wind power generator. Destroying the wind power generator has low health, but you may be hurting after dealing with CCA patrols in the canyon. Behind the gun towers are three more Czars, which will come after you when you attack, so only proceed if you have a strong force after dealing with the gun towers.

Behind the Czars is the enemy Recycler, two Paks, and a number of Cafeteria and Barracks structures and the Soviet Command Tower. Have your allies destroy these targets of opportunity if possible, but the real goal is the launch pad just past them. Scan the launch pad the same way you scanned the Omega Star Port and the Hephaestus.

The alternate path is to use your jump thrusters to become a mountain goat and climb the canyon walls near the Omega star port. The AI will be unable to follow you, so you will need to do this route alone.

Press Caps Lock to open the area map and follow the path to the launch pad nestled into a crater. You'll need to descend into the crater to recon the launch pad, but getting out should be fairly straightforward. If you're alone, do not attempt to rush through the CCA base - you'll be picked apart by the time you get to the canyon.

After scanning the launch pad, all timers will be concluded. You'll need to just get yourself and the recycler to the dust-off nav beacon, located close to the Omega Star Port. Get there with the recycler to complete the mission.