The object we discovered when we first touched down on Mars confirmed the nagging feeling in the back of all of our minds. We knew the bio-metal wasn't natural. Someone or something had created it. Now we held an object that contained their complete historical record. Locked away inside its enigmatic recesses were untold weapons and vehicles and countless anecdotes that would tell us who these people were, and where they'd gone. For now, all we knew was a name: the Cthonians. But we had a new imperative. We had to explore every nook and cranny of the planet's surface. We had to learn everything that they knew. We became anthropologists uncovering a lost civilization whose knowledge could literally raise us amongst the gods, and whose weight could crush us forever.
Surveillance images from Sky-Eye identified a geographical feature that matches the referenced volcano. Initial scouting teams have run into active alien mine fields, which are both dangerous and intriguing. We believe the structure must hold great value if the previous owners went to such lengths to protect it.
MISSION OBJECTIVES:
- Find the alien site.
- Fortify the site.
- Recon all alien structures.
ENGINEERING REPORT: Engineering has supplied you with the new Supply Launch Facility (SLF). The SLF can catapult supplies from your base to distant locations. The SLF will supply your team with ammunition packs, weapon upgrades and repair drones.
Walkthrough[edit]
This mission will be tricky as the geysers are spread out. Immediately in front of you is one geyser, but you'll need three if you want to concentrate your base. Unfortunately, there aren't three geysers set together. However, there are two more geysers to the north, which can be a good place to set up your recycler and unit factory. Set up your armory on the closest geyser to your start location - you'll need to lock down the volcano to the north, and reducing the travel time for repairs and ammo will be helpful. The CCA might attack it, but even if you lose it, you can always build another. Losing the recycler will fail the mission.
Start by building scavengers and destroying the pair of CCA flankers attacking your position almost immediately. Once you have a few scavengers built, start working on a defensive perimeter around your recycler. Three to five turrets should be sufficient to defend your recycler. Once you've got a perimeter set up, start on your unit factory, and have it deploy on the geyser next to the recycler. This way, should your turret wall fail, you can have the unit factory churn out some grizzlies and bobcats.
After building some grizzlies, work on interdicting a few more enemies coming for your recycler. CCA attacks will mostly come from the north, so set up your turrets accordingly. Four or five turrets should be more than enough protection. There are also a number of arc mines set up in the gulleys. These devices fire arcs of lightning at you if you get too close. The bright lightning the arc mines fire is blinding, so you cannot destroy them while being engaged by an arc mine. The AT-Stabber and the Minigun both outrange the mines, so destroy them to prevent your scavengers from being harassed by mines.
Once you're ready to proceed, go to the Volcano nav point and set up units in the area. Entering the volcano itself, you'll find the bio-metal factory Lenmos, which now must survive. Press the I key to scan the Lenmos factory, the surrounding magma tubes, and the Cyclops drone.
You'll face several waves of CCA units, most of which should be easily handled by yourself and your own units. CCA attacks will focus on entering the volcano through the ramp near the volcano waypoint, so concentrate your defences here.
You'll need a lot of ammunition to defeat the waves of flankers and czars coming at you. Before you take too much damage, use the armory to slingshot some repair and ammo powerups to the ramp, so you can replenish yourself if necessary. If your vehicle takes too much damage and can be fully written off, switch vehicles with an AI and tell the AI to recycle the damaged unit. Use the scrap from recycling your damaged units to produce more.
The CCA will, as part of their second to last wave, send a trio of Grendel bombers to try to destroy the factory. Grendels are extremely dangerous from the front, and their rockets cause huge amounts of damage. However, the rockets are slow and the Grendels themselves have trouble turning, making them very vulnerable to flanking attacks. If you end up in front of them, back off to give yourself distance from their powerful rockets.
Defeating the bombers will result in a few remaining CCA units to attack, though if you've held the base so far, you shouldn't have any trouble here. Destroying the last CCA wave ends the mission.