Mission 14 - The Artifact

## 14 - The Artifact

The Azrati Cathedral, which stands not for long against the Thorun onslaught, containing the key to the Sylons' future.

## Battle Information

### Aftermath

Tactical Renegade Sylon Victory* Cradle Stone fragments recovered.

## Belligerents

* Renegade Sylons

* Azrati Order

* Thorun Empire

## Commanders

* Praetor (protagonist)

* Zeraphim

* Kagan

## Forces

* Complete Sylon arsenal except Plasma Raids.
* Prototype Host Vessel

* Complete Athrael arsenal.
* Shagua *(Destroyed)*

* Complete Thorun arsenal.

## Objectives

* Reach the Azrati Cathedral and recover the Cradle Stone fragments before the Thorun Empire destroys it.

* Defend the Azrati Cathedral and it's artifacts.

* Neutralize all Athrael resistance.

## Casualties and losses

Substantial
Extensive
Severe

## Involved Characters

* Praetor (protagonist)
* Cura
* Zeraphim
* Nephral

*The Artifact* is the fourteenth mission of Chapter 02 - Ascension in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

Twenty days following the raid at the EIRA Institute facilities at the Vega System and the discovery of the truth concerning the Sylons, the once-loyal Praetor and Cura departed clandestinely to the Sedra System, now under the occupation of the Thorun Empire, to execute the "questionable directives", according to the Praetor.

Cura informed of an Athrael Starcity belonging to the Azrati Order, with a Cathedral station at it's center which had stored an artifact, known as the Cradle Stone, essential for the Ascension program devised by both the Renegade Praetor and the captured United Federation officer, Sterling Buckner.

Buckner himself, due to the injuries which were left untreated, had to be placed into an artificial coma, but would be needed soon enough. The Praetor and Cura, in the meanwhile, would attack the Athrael Starcity and raid the Cathedral for the artifact.

## A Battle Turned A Race

The Renegade Sylon forces had established a position close to the Azrati Cathedral, only blocked by it's spanning asteroid field that prevented a heavy cruiser approach. Cura would brief the Praetor further concerning the Cradle Stone, the idea for the Ascension Program devised by the Renegade Praetor after it observed an Athrael expedition within the Caribou System and monitored it after deciphering it's main objectives. While the artifact could not be reconstructed by the Athraels, Cura believed it could be re-assembled using Sylon Nano-probes. The result would not be perfect, but would carry out the proposed objectives for 'Ascension' nevertheless.

As the Sylon forces secured the perimeter, however, they had also identified new signals also approaching the Athrael Starcity - the Thorun Empire, which Cura calculated, by their numbers, that their objective was to neutralize all Athrael resistance, and most likely the Cradle Stone and Key Stone would be lost if (or rather, when) the Thoruns destroyed it, and thus the Praetor was forced into taking accelerated operations to reach the Azrati Cathedral first. This included inevitable engagements and harassment actions against the Thorun advance force's logistics in order to stall their advance as the Praetor assembled an assault fleet. Recon revealed an alternative entrance, as close as possible to the Azrati Cathedral, in the form of asteroid fields that could be destroyed, thus the Praetor could dedicate a fleet of ships with the heaviest firepower (as well as some occasional contributions from Thorun Grinders). However, the Azrati Order also became aware of the Sylon presence and marshalled forces against the Praetor as well.

## What is Left Behind

> - "Zeraphim, come quickly to the Mothership, we will save you!"
> - "NO! I must protect the artifacts to my last breath! These are the keys; the only chance of survival!"
> - "Zeraphim, don’t be mad, you're just going to kill yourself here. Join us in taking back our home system. The time for action will be upon us!"
> - "You have no idea what we are leaving here..."
>
> - Exchange between Nephral and Zeraphim following the destruction of the Shagua.

As the asteroid entrance was breached, the Sylon forces were able to reach the Cathedral and acquire the artifacts, eventually getting into conflict with the guarding entourage which tried to defend the artifacts, incluing the Azrati Order's High One, Zeraphim. Inevitably the entourage fell to the Sylons' superior firepower and Zeraphim's vessel, the Shagua, was destroyed, but Zeraphim evacuated to a personal Revenger lifeboat in time. At that same time, High One Nephral of the Annaki Order arrived in his flagship, the Mothership Anoch, to convince Zeraphim to come with him to safety and join the Athrael efforts in reclaiming the Sedra System. Reluctantly, Zeraphim agreed, remarking bitterly to Nephral that he had little idea what the Athraels were leaving behind to the Sylons.

As the Sylons finally acquired the Cradle and Key stones, the Praetor informed Cura to depart, as pursuing the Athraels was resource-intensive and futile. Cura agreed, informing the Ascension program had to be carried out, post-haste, before the Sylus would discover their position.

## Walkthrough

The player will start in command of a lightly defended base with Refineries at both Metal and Helium-3 asteroid fields, Labors and Haulers for each, as well as a Drone Facility, an Automation Plant and a Defensive Server, but no Transponders so the player should build one as soon as the economy is taken care of. To the north is a Tachyon field that should definitely be exploited for this mission. For the economic part, the player will want at least 12 Labors for Metal and 6 for both Helium-3 and Tachyon, as well as the Extended Cargo and Extraction Operations researched for a faster income. At least a couple of Support Complexes should be built early as well for a more relaxed supply cap as the player builds up forces.

In the meantime, the player should dispatch the current cruisers, including the Prototype Host Vessel, to attack the Thorun position northwest of the map, where besides the Tachyon and Helium-3 deposit also lie both a Foundry and Siege Yard the player would be wise to destroy. The player should use the Orbiters from the Prototype Host Vessel to take the first shots from the guarding Ion Cannon close to the Guard Station as the battle group moves in and destroys it. The player should also take care to avoid grouping units too close to each other as the Guard Station's attacks deal splash damage. After neutralizing the defenses, the Foundry, Siege Yard and Material Silo, the player can retreat back to base.

*HINT - The player will have better chances at these first actions by making use of the Tactical Pause function, pressing F8 on the keyboard, as orders can still be given in this mode.*

As the player will have easy tech access to the Manufacture, efforts should be made to build this and the Quantum Core as early as possible, as the player will desire Assimilators to capture enemy units that do try to siege the base, especially Flankers, Invaders, Grinders and Flagships. The player should also build an Offensive Server and amass a swarm of Spears while researching the fighters' two related upgrades, the Sol Thruster (at the Transponder) and Integrated Remodulator. The Spears should be used to circle through the southeastern corner of the map and storm the Thorun main base's Metal resource field, as well as it's guarding Ion Cannons. Alternatively, the player can use the vision provided by the Spears to use the Prototype Host Vessel's Recall ability to teleport away enemy Extractors to the Host Vessel's location, allowing other ships (preferably Caldrons) to destroy them. For this, the player will alo want to construct a Conflux and research Fast Charging.

Curbing the number of Extractors is necessary as well to at best reduce the frequency of Thorun attacks that will mostly be focused on the Athrael base, especially Grinder assaults, which can demolish their way to the Azrati Cathedral and destroy it. If the Cathedral is destroyed, the mission is failed. The Thorun forces will mostly attack using Grinders, Havocs, Corsairs and Predators in both modes before escalating to Flagships. The player will also want at least one Aegis close to each entrance against potential Raider attacks, or at least one Mask. The Azrati Order, on their turn will deploy mostly Intruders, Flankers, Lancets and Theocrats before escalating with Invaders. The Theocrat in particular is dangerous due to it's Black Hole ability which can devastate a careless battle fleet, aside from it's magnetic field that slows units down. The player will thus want to have some Spears in hand to force the Theocrats to cast the Black Hole before moving in to destroy/assimilate them.

Because the Azrati base has only one entrance to the far west and is well-guarded, a direct assault is impractical and resource-intensive here. Hence, the best entrance is through the destructible asteroids at the southern part of the map, which the player can reach by traversing radioactive clouds southeast of the base. In the case there's a lack of Grinders to assimilate, the player will have access to the Shade in this mission, a cruiser with long range and a potent artillery battery against structures but not as special against other units, thus requiring assistance of other units such as Glooms and Twinblades or especially Eclipses. The larger asteroids will indeed take more time to destroy because of their 20 armor. While these asteroids are neutralized, the player should keep a watch on the Cathedral for potential Predator or Grinder attacks. Should this happen, the player will want to use the Prototype Host Vessel's recall to capture them before they can deal damage to the Cathedral. The Host Vessel's regeneration ability should be turned off in this case, to save power. The player should attack the Thorun forces only up until reaching the asteroids, as sieging the rest of the Thorun base is a waste of time and resources.

When the asteroids are destroyed, the player can move in the rest of the forces, especially Glooms, to neutralize the Athrael defenses surrounding the Cathedral. By then the player only needs to move in the Host Vessel to trigger the final cutscene and win the mission.

## History and Background

The events leading to the discovery and capture of the Cradle Stone by the Azrati Order were all elaborated from *Daedalus* to *Fury of the Beasts* in Chapter 01 - Hostile Visitors. The consequences of the capture of the Cradle Stone by the Praetor would be elaborated in the following mission, *Deliverance*.

## Notes

The Thorun opposition in this mission, as well as in Chapter 03 - Cataclysm would be colored blue as to denote the identity of the forces belonging to Kagan. The same was done in *War-Path*, which introduced Kagan to the player as well.

This is the sole Free-For-All mission between three bases at once in the game, one of them belonging to the player. *Daedalus* in Chapter 01 - Hostile Visitors does not count as that was a micro-oriented mission.