Mars: The Greek god of war and the blood red planet. There couldn't have been a more appropriate place for uncovering the origins of this...material that we'd fabricated into such amazing weapons. When we left, in some ways we knew more. And in some ways we knew less. But we sure did further the legacy of Mars.
NSDF UPDATE: It appears that the CCA tracked our movements to Mars, and they have beaten us to the planet's surface. We do not know how they could have had advance knowledge of our intentions to move on to the Red Planet, but we do plan a formal investigation into the matter.
MISSION OBJECTIVES:
- Establish a base at one of the geyser regions.
- Avoid the CCA base.
- Standby for additional orders.
ENGINEERING REPORT: You will have additional building resources provided by an NSDF Mobile Unit Factory (MUF). Like the Recycler the MUF requires a geyser power source, but it is tooled to build highly specialized vehicles.
Walkthrough[edit]
Your first objective is to choose which of the three geyser sites to set up your Recycler and Mobile Unit Factory at. While any of the choices work, the nearest geyser set is the southwest geyser site. Choose a site and deploy both the Unit Factory and the Recycler, and produce some Scavengers to begin gathering resources.
It is important to not go south too quickly, as this will cause issues later on.
Within 30 seconds of setting up, you'll be accosted by a pair of CCA Flankers. Destroy both of them and continue to set up your base. Once you have a few scavengers, begin setting up a turret wall to protect your recycler. The unit factory can be destroyed, as it can be replaced by the recycler. Losing the recycler will fail the mission.
The first wave will consist of two flankers, and the second wave will consist of a flanker and a czar. The fourth CCA attack will be from the north instead of the east, so ensure your defences are properly spread out.
While Collins advises you to stay away from the CCA base, you will not fail the mission should you destroy it. The CCA base is heavily guarded, and is generally not worth engaging. The base consists of several turrets, four or more flankers, a recycler, and a mobile unit factory. In addition to the base's defenders, which are considerable, you'll also need a lot of other vehicles to take down the enemy recycler's regenerating health. Don't forget your own recycler - CCA squadrons will continue to attack it even while you're causing havoc at their base.
Should you destroy it, Collins will praise you for destroying the base, then berate you for disobeying orders. Destroying the base will also stop the CCA attacks, but the attacks even with the base are sporadic at best.
In between you and the CCA base are a number of turrets that may harass your scavengers should they wander too far in search of scrap. Destroying these turrets is an important step to taking on the CCA base, should you decide to.
After a number of CCA attacks, a Soviet squadron will be spotted to the south in one of four areas. The "Investigate CCA" Nav Beacon will be placed at that location. Taking too long to go near the nav beacon will fail the mission. Close within 450 meters of the nav beacon to see a strange object surrounded by a number of flankers. General Collins will then order you to build a tug and carry that item back to the recycler. Players who attempt to sequence break and go south will instead be met with a huge number of flankers instead of just two that you would get normally. Destroy the flankers guarding the relic and get a tug over to pick up the object. Bringing it back to the recycler shouldn't be a problem. Once it's back, you can drop the cargo and recycle the tug.
The mission will fail if the object is destroyed. However, the object has a lot of health, and can survive unintentional attacks.
If you haven't destroyed the CCA base, the final wave will consist of a large number of flankers and at least one czar. Coordinate your turrets around the east and the south, and have your other vehicles aid them as this wave crashes against your defences.
Survive this final attack to complete the mission.