Silent Storm — Mission 18, Part 2: Split Up, Gang!

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We’re surrounded.

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ss_portrait_bogeyI guess we should have taken a peek inside before we all shoved through the door.

And shut it behind us?

That too.

So what are we up against?

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We’ve got two soldiers in the office a floor above. Two panzerkleins on the upper walkway just to the west of the office (one you can see above and another a ways out of frame).

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And a couple soldiers just to our right.

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Rocket launcher sighted!

Also — explosive barrels right next to us.

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Since Kate’s in the most danger of getting exploded by them, we run her to cover first. Most of the others follow suit.

The “cover” to the west isn’t very covered, so we have to clear the way first.

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Done and done. Rocket launcher’s down and most everyone is behind some degree of cover, even if it’s just wooden boxes.

That’s only our first turn. Your move, Hammer.

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Oh — uhh… That’s not a bad move, actually.

Kate doesn’t fare well in the explosion that reduces a bunch of the crates to dust right in front of us. And then they hit the barrels.

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Ouch.

Zinaida melts the PK that fired on us.

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But we know there’s at least one more where that came from. Once Zinaida and Doug have tag-teamed the office…

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…they move up to get eyes on the other PK. They don’t have far too go before Zinaida spots it, but she doesn’t have enough action points for a shot, so we back her up and out of range again — or so we think.

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It’s a beam PK! Great.

By the end of the volley, both Zinaida and her panzerklein are ready to drop dead.

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Viper finally has to step out of cover and handle the pesky armor himself. One perfect shot and it’s out of the picture. We kill the last soldier and spread out to secure the room.

I should also mention that for the whole firefight, there was this huge, mounted beam weapon staring us in the face. It was never manned, though, so we dodged a bullet there for sure.

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There’s only two ways out of the storage room we’re in: the large ramp on the south side, and the door at the top of the stairs in the northwest corner. Viper remains here to watch that door. The rest of us, with an additional PK at our disposal, are headed deeper into the facility.

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We’ve left Zinaida’s old armor behind for now. Bogey managed to heal her up, but the suit’s barely holding itself together and I don’t even know what happens when they reach 0 HP. Explode, if I had to guess.

So Zinaida’s got herself a relatively undamaged new beam PK, and Bogey’s tagging along in one with the same explosive cannons Doug has.

Back in action! Again. I will definitely get my glory this time.

Down the hall, Doug blasts the heck out of a rocket launcher soldier who could have potentially done some damage to us. And then Zinaida’s sniper’s eyes spot an enemy PK that hasn’t noticed us yet.

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There are two PK guards down that way, but they turn out to be chumps just like their friends.

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Here’s where we split up. The place is just too big to explore as a single group, and the opposition doesn’t seem to be that dangerous after the initial ambush.

Doug branches off to check out the side hallway.

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It loops back toward that door Viper’s keeping his eyes on, so knowing it was clear would mean he can come off watch duty. And it does end up clear… after Doug kills a Hammer soldier over there and sets off a mine on one of the doors.

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Just walk it off, buddy.

Meantime, Zinaida and Bogey get a little hung up on the wrecked panzerkleins. Rowdy has to run over to haul one of them out of the way.

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The hall stops going west after this point and heads north and south. Zinaida and Rowdy tramp off northward, where some ramps lead down to the first floor.

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Unsurprisingly, there’s more chumpy-chump panzerkleins downstairs.

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Up above, heading south from the fork, Bogey and Kate discover some shipping containers with that odd kind of PK in them.

Now that we’ve got a bit more time to check it out, this other style of panzerklein looks like it’s got a little less HP than the standard ones, but they also allow two weapons to be equipped and switched out like normal guns.

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It comes with a machine gun already attached and all we’ve got nearby is another machine gun attachment. So not much variety at the moment, but dang that’s a lot of firepower on one suit.

Way north, in the narrow hallways Doug’s scouting out, he finds another trapped door. This explosion is enough to take the floor out and drop Doug down into the hallway below. Two soldiers are lying in wait for him.

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Nice try, guys.

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So we end up scouring the base in three groups. Bogey and Kate raid the last of the PKs in storage, and then bust into the factory area.

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Doug works his way through the north tunnels and breaks into the Hammer’s safes.

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And Zinaida and Rowdy eliminate the last of the manned panzerkleins.

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We meet up in one of just two areas that are left unexplored.

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This looks like somewhere you do engineer stuff. Maybe our engineer friend Berger is in here.

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I guess exploding doors count as engineer stuff.

Shockingly, the mine is enough to put Zinaida out of commission. We’re in too deep to worry about it too much. Rowdy grabs her out of the PK and carries her to safety — and Viper comes down to replace her as the pilot.

We continue on, but this area, as it happens, is actually empty. So we — the four of us now — head back out and prepare for the end.

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This has to be Berger’s hidey hole. There’s literally nowhere else for him to run.

Team Bogey, roll out!

Fer the last time, that is not th’ name’a this team!

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On to the next episode!
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