Mission 09 - Blackout

## 09 - Blackout

A Wormhole Generator providing reinforcement and strategic coordination.

## Belligerents

* United Federation

* Sylon Collective

## Commanders

* Benjamin Colburne

* Unknown Sylon Praetor

## Forces

* Complete Federation arsenal, excluding Crow stealth bombers, Joseon support vessels and Dresda cruisers
* UFN Fenrir

* Complete Sylon arsenal, excluding Assimilators

## Objectives

* Destroy all Wormhole Generators.

* Protect the Wormhole Generators.
* Eliminate all Human forces.

## Casualties and losses

Severe
Extensive

## Involved Characters

* Benjamin Colburne
* Greg Leskovski
* Victor Komarov *(Briefing only)*
* Jacques Boyer

*Blackout* is the ninth mission in Chapter 01 - Hostile Visitors in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

Almost one week following the success of Operation Gaugamela, Benjamin Colburne and Greg Leskovski, now assigned into a new, prototype Avenger II battleship named the UFN Fenrir, were recalled back into duty and assigned with a small battle force towards the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the Sol System.  Arriving there, the Fenrir's AIDA played an encrypted message from Victor Komarov, which was to be sent by the time the Fenrir reached the assigned coordinates.

The message was a briefing from Komarov informing that the Sylons were reorganizing their forces at their stations in the Kuiper Belt, in which, according to a new report from the EIRA Institute, they had established Wormhole Generators which functioned both as a means of reinforcement and long-range transponders for the Sylons to control their forces from their home sector, and thus had to be neutralized in order to put an end to the Sylon invasion of the Sol System.  Unfortunately, both Colburne and Leskovski knew that they couldn't count on support from the United Federation Navy, given the loss of one third of their fleet during the Battle of Gaugamela and the rest of the ships being stationed at the Memphis Shipyards, heavily damaged.

## You See a Wormhole, Blast It

Colburne's forces arrived at the Kuiper Belt as they established a foothold at the edge of the Sylon perimeter, preparing their forces to assault the Wormhole Generators which, according to the report, would deactivate the Sylons' on the Sol System if destroyed.  The Sylons, doubtlessly because of the extensive losses suffered in Jupiter, remained mostly on the defensive, yet continued to send attack drones to attempt to neutralize the Federation forces.

At one point, the Sylon Wormhole Generators activated and started bringing in periodic forces from their home system, but Colburne's forces remained firm.  Given his rank as Admiral, he could assemble and deploy Avenger battleships and Teller thermonuclear support vessels, which proved pivotal in sustaining the assault against the generators.  The UFN Fenrir itself was instrumental in initial defense stages, due to it's heavy weaponry and availability of Pegasus and Harpy UAV drones.

Eventually, the Federal forces managed to neutralize the Sylon drones, their manufacturing facilities and the Wormhole Generators, deactivating all Sylons within the Sol System.  As Leskovski was excited to give the order to destroy them all, however, the Chief Executive Officer of the EIRA Institute, Jacques Boyer, intervened and stated all the deactivated Sylon equipment was now confiscated, claiming their technology would assist the United Federation in winning the war against the Sylons.  As Leskovski and Colburne attempted protesting, Boyer remained firm, reminding both that most of the Federation's current technology have been coming from capturing and studying Sylon vessels, with a grudging Leskovski criticizing Boyer for withholding this information, which led to the losses of several Federation personnel.

Boyer's orders stood, however, and Colburne's forces were forced to return home, leaving the remaining Sylon equipment intact behind.

## Walkthrough

The player will start in command of the UFN Fenrir, a few Orcas, a St. George with a few Hurricanes to dock in, some Engineer Shuttles, an Icarus and a Kutuzov.  The nearby Metal, Helium-3 and Tachyon asteroid fields, plus the open space where the player starts, make this the clear location for establishing a base, so this should be done post-haste.  A bit to the north of the starting position is an expansion site with Metal and Helium-3 asteroids guarded by a few Aegises, which should prove little challenge for either the UFN Fenrir or a small force to clean up, and has the advantage of only one access to cruisers which is it's southern entrance.

The Fenrir itself is the most useful of hero units, arguably more than the UFN Trinity and the UFN Ulysses in the previous missions - Besides it's high health count that allows it to tank most damage from Sylon attack waves and defenses, it possesses potent weaponry even against enemy shields and can temporarily deploy Pegasus UAVs, which are very useful for reconnaisance and can detect stealth units, and Harpy UAVs, which can greatly counter enemy fighters and defenses such as Arsons and Aegises due to both their high speed and instant hit attacks.  Thus, the Fenrir will provide a great boon to both defense and offense.

There are three Wormhole Generators for the player to destroy in this mission.  The first is at the center of the map and is easily accessible to the player, and with proper micro-management can be destroyed early in the mission, guarded by a Gloom, an Arson, a couple of Aegises and a Caldron with an Absorber.  The second is to the northeast of the Metal and Helium-3 expansion and has arguably more fortifications than the first Generator at the center of the map, but can be handled as well with the Fenrir and a few supporting cruisers - particularly Pasteurs and Hailstorms.  The third and final Wormhole Generator is within the heavily guarded red Sylon base to the far northeast, so establishing a base is necessary to assemble a strike force.  One important element is that the Wormhole Generators have no shields, so they'll be very vulnerable to either the Fenrir, a group of Orcas or a couple of Avenger battleships.

Besides the mentioned red Sylon base, there is also the purple Sylon base to the southeast whose function is to send attack waves against the player.  Though not necessary, it is better off destroyed or at least mostly neutralized (particularly without it's Installation Prime, Drone Facilities, Automation Plants and Manufactures) to ease off the pressure of the attack waves.  Both the Purple and Red Sylons will send attack waves of Spears, Twinblades, Arsorbers, Caldrons and Arsons, and later on the red Sylon base will send Plasma Raids as well, so a consistent defense of KEIKO Sentries and Barricade Sats is required.  In addition, after several minutes into the mission, and then once every few minutes, the Wormhole Generators (Green) will open and send attack forces in the form of Twinblades, Absorbers, Caldrons, Glooms and Arsons against the player, so destroying at least two of them as soon as possible is also recommended.

In building forces, the player will want a mixed strike force of Hailstorms, a couple more Avengers aside from the Fenrir and at least two St. Georges filled with Hurricanes, with a few Orcas for anti-fighter escort, Pasteurs for repairs and at least one Teller, though two are better.  The Avenger and the Teller require the Fleet HQ, which also opens up Level 3 upgrades, so two Research Centers will serve the player well.  The Fleet HQ also provides strong upgrades in the form of Accelerated Courses, which increases unit training speed, and Hermes Thrusters, which grants speed bonuses to both the St. George and the Avenger.

The Red Sylon base only has one entry point and is heavily guarded by Arsons, Shades, Eclipses, Caldrons and Plasma Raids, so the best chance for the player is to use either the Fenrir or an Avenger to fire at it's defenses and pull back, as the defenders are lured in for one Teller or two to devastate them with nuclear warheads.  As the frontal defenders are defeated, the player can move in with all it's forces and push to the Wormhole Generator, or even rush a couple of Avengers past the few defenses left to a clear line of fire where they can shell the Wormhole Generator there.

When all Wormhole Generators are destroyed, the mission ends in victory.

## History and Background

Jacques Boyer's admission of the EIRA Institute exploring and exploiting Sylon technology was also, covertly, a confession of the events that led to the catastrophe of the clandestine EIRA expedition in the Hathor system, depicted in the Prelude - Calm Before the Storm chapter, which resulted in the destruction of the UFN Pacific under Anton Vargas.

This statement also confirmed Salamon Zamor's claims in *The Bargain*, which he implicated EIRA as the responsible for drawing the Sylons into conflict against the United Federation.