Mission 05 - Regression

## 05 - Regression

The information within a building that would be the undoing of an entire empire...

## Battle Information

### Aftermath

Strategic Sylon Collective Victory* Azrati Order's Knowledge Central accessed, Athrael ship schematics downloaded.

## Belligerents

* Sylon Collective

* Azrati Order

## Commanders

* Praetor (protagonist)

* Unknown Consultant

## Forces

* Sylon arsenal except Manufacture units and Masks
* Prototype Host Vessel

* Athrael arsenal except Motherships and Theocrats

## Objectives

* Access Athrael Knowledge Central with an Assimilator and download Athrael vessel schematics.

* Destroy all assaulting Sylon forces.
* Destroy the Sylon-invaded Basilica.

## Casualties and losses

Substantial
Severe

## Involved Characters

* Praetor (protagonist)
* Cura

*Regression* is the fifth mission of Chapter 02 - Ascension in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

Having recovered the Renegade Praetor's central processing unit in the Hathor-4 System, Cura had analyzed the original plans of the Praetor's predecessor, having determined the results were more efficient than the ones determined by the Sylus, and thus advised the Praetor to implement it, despite the success rate being determined by 39.1%.

While the Praetor argued this is not a high enough rate to consider the execution, Cura informed this plan was one of gambling, educating the Praetor as it did not understand the concept, the predecessor having learned it from the captured human, found by the Renegade Praetor's derelict command vessel.

The first part of this gambling strategy was to seize an Athrael Knowledge Central, stored in a Basilica within an Azrati Order Starcity at the Arcturus System, with an Assimilator vessel, as to copy the Athraels' vessel schematics.

## Hostile Takeover

The Praetor's forces established a foothold close to the Azrati star city, where they started preparing temporary defenses and a small force to fight a way through to the Praetor's primary target. While the Azrati Order itself reacted to the Sylon presence, activating it's manufacturing complexes and deploying vessels to eliminate the Sylon presence, the Praetor fought them off, manufacturing and deploying additional Assimilators to take over the ship systems of most Athrael vessels, especially those of a high combat potential such as Flanker cruisers, Rectors and Invader destroyers.

Using both available Sylon ship designs and assimilated Athrael vessels, the Praetor, which also fought about a new experimental Host Vessel, had cleared the way for an Assimilator to enter and invade the Azrati Basilica, starting to download the Knowledge Central. Realizing the true goal of the Sylon forces too late, the Azrati forces attempted attacking and destroying the Basilica before anything could have been taken, but the Praetor's units kept the Athrael vessels at bay until the download was completed.

As the Knowledge Central was downloaded, the Sylon forces promptly retreated the Arcturus System.

## Walkthrough

The player will start in command of the Prototype Host Vessel, an Installator, up to five Labors, a couple of Haulers, some Twinblades and an Assimilator, right at an available resource site of Metal, Helium-3 and Tachyon asteroids which should be settled and built a base from there, totally from scratch. An additional Metal asteroid field, a bit to the east of the player's starting position, can be later exploited on for further resources. Two things to note is that the Praetor's new Host Vessel is now cloaked, which will provide some advantage in a combat (especially when Absorptive Plating is researched), as well as it's previous camouflage ability is now replaced with the recall ability, which can be useful for teleporting enemy units (especially artillery ones such as the Harbinger or the Invader) for a more numerous force to take it down in close range.

As the base must be built from scratch, the player should take advantage of the available Labors and build, one by one, a pair of Support Centers and the Refinery by the Metal asteroid field, taking full advantage of the maximum 5-worker limit per construction to speed up building. The player should also research Extraction Operations at the Refinery as well as the Replicants upgrade at the Transponder due to the limited Helium-3 supply. The player will be able to construct a Manufacture in this mission but build no units from it - This is simply to allow construction of a Quantum Core that will allow the training of Assimilators at the Automation Plant. The player will also be able to construct Support Complexes, which require a Defensive Server and have better energy and supply outputs than Support Centers, and an Array to allow the construction of Arsons, that definitely should be deployed at the base's entrance to the south to fend off cruiser attacks, aided by Aegises barricaded by structures.

The Assimilator and it's Assimilation ability, researched at the Quantum Core, will definitely be of use as it will allow the player to capture enemy units. The player should focus on high-value, durable units such as Flankers, Rectors and especially Invaders as these will allow a proper sieging of the enemy base. Each use of the Assimilation ability costs 200 power, so the player will want to have multiple Assimilators in hand to capture multiple units.

There are two Athrael bases, the green to the south mostly protecting the target Basilica where the player is to bring the Assimilator, and the orange base at the northeastern corner of the map. Both will first attack with Warpgliders and Intruders and then escalate with Flankers, Rectors, Invaders and Harbingers, to not mention dangerous numbers of Lancets and Martyrprobes. Both Rectors and Harbingers can be easily handled with Glooms, but the player will want to assimilate Invaders to be able to properly siege the way south towards the Basilica, as well as large numbers of Twinblades or a trio of Rectors to better handle the Athrael fighters. The player will want to assimilate and conserve as much forces as possible before committing to attacking towards the Basilica, as the resources at the player's starting point, especially Helium-3, aren't plenty. At least a couple of Flankers and about three to four Invaders should be enough to assist the siege. In order to ease the pressure of the attack waves, the player will also want to destroy at least two of the green base's Cabals and a Haven.

The player needs only fight the way through, with enough forces, towards the Basilica, where there will be but a couple of Polaron Spheres and Obelisks guarding it. As the player brings an Assimilator to the Basilica, the building is automatically turned to the player and a countdown starts of the construction plans to be downloaded, in which the player must guard the Basilica. Fortunately, if the player has caused sufficient damage, the green base will be unable to muster attack forces and the orange base will mostly focus it's waves on the player's base, but a few guarding units, especially deployed Arsons, won't be as bad an idea. The player needs only hold for at most five minutes before the download countdown is finished.

As the download at the Basilica is completed, the mission is finished.

## Trivia

The possible meaning behind the mission title - *Regression* - is due to the fact of the Sylons utilizing the technology of another species, that they consider inferior to Sylon design.

The identification of the Athrael Starcity belonging to the Azrati Order is confirmed by Zeraphim in *Hermit of Krion*, on Chapter 03 - Cataclysm.