Call Of The Strong

Call of the Strong is a Major Story Vignette. It will appear when the Captain lands on a Cadar world. An officer will begin a dialogue saying there is Military Commander who is looking for capable Star Trading Captains. The contact Russ Axeil will appear on the planet and speaking with him will give the Captain the opportunity to learn about the mission and accept it.

## Synopsis

An elite Cadar Soldier holds many secrets to the faction's plans against Steel Song, and was captured during a top secret mission. The Cadar receives intel that the soldier is soon to be transferred to a maximum security prison, where he will surely be tortured to the point where secrets may spill. Your mission, should you choose to accept it Captain, is to travel to the prison where he is being held, befriend the prison warden by any means necessary, and then assess your options to free the prisoner. Succeed, and riches await. Fail, and find yourself in the same predicament. Or might you be interested in becoming double agent for the Steel Song?

## Walkthrough

Reveal/Hide SPOILERS

This is one of the more involved Story Vignettes and can take quite a long time to resolve. It will to involve ship and crew combat. If you are not equipped for such things you may want to try it at a later point.

**Proving your capabilities**

* When you first talk to Commander Axeil he will give you only the least bit of info about what he needs done and tell you that you need to prove you capabilities.
* Being serious about doing your duty can gain you +2 Personal Rep with Axeil in the first conversation.
* You'll need to gain 20 personal rep with him before you can carry on with the story so you'll need to do some random missions for him first.

**Down to Business**

* Once you've gained Axeil's respect he will tell you about Vytautas Giedaitis a soldier from Cadar's elite 303 unit.
* Cursing Steel Song in the conversation will gain you +1 Personal Rep with Axeil
* You'll learn that Vytautas is being held in a Steel Song prison by a warden named Melisha Seith, but he will eventually be transferred to another prison where he will be severely tortured.
* The mission is to earn Melisha's trust in hopes of gaining the job of transporting Vytautas to the other facility, or at least finding out when he will be moved. If you accept Axeil will give you a $20,000 advance for the job. He promises another $10,000 for gaining the warden's trust and $50,000 for the eventual liberation of Vytautas. You will gain another +10 personal rep for accepting, an introduction to Melisha Seith and +120 xp across the crew.
* You will have 4 years to complete the job.

**Gain the Warden's trust**

* You will have the Steel Song Warden Melisha Seith as contact. Go visit her and offer your services.
* You will need get 20 personal rep with and a level 1 edict. Again you'll need to do some regular missions for her for this.
* Once you have this, talk to the warden she will tell of her employer the Faug Daen and about a Zenrin Consul that needs to "disappear".
* She will offer you the mission "Shadow Transport" through her mission screen.

**Shadow Transport**

* The first step is to get the Consul out of the Starport and on to your ship. You should have two options for a Negotiate test or the possibility to start crew combat as a diversion.
* With the first step complete, you will have be presented with two options for completing the larger mission.
* You can continue on with the mission as usual which will eventually get you Vytautas without needing to shed a lot of blood.

**Bloody Secrets**

* Alternatively, with the Consul liberated you know have intel on how to raid the prison and where to find Vytautas. It will require significant crew combat, but will be faster and will gain you positive rep with Zenrin as well.
* If you chose this, you'll have a conversation with Consul Mattack where he will give you intel on the prison. The mission "Bloody Secrets" will then appear as an option in Melisha Seith's zone.
* Once the mission starts you will face an initial crew combat. It is good to keep your crew healed up or else have reserve fighters.
* Following the first battle you will find Vytautas cell and as you are cutting it open you will face a second crew combat, the enemy is likely to be very high level.
* You will free Vytautas and then face a third crew combat as you approach the Starport.
* If you survive the combats you will liberate Vytautas and earn the Call of the Strong Award and +240xp across the crew. You will also lose around 150 rep with Steel Song and Melisha Seith will disappear as a contact.
* On take off you will face 1 or 2 Steel Song military ships. You can use escape or avoid and talents with them though.
* You will have a mission to deliver Vytautas to a covert Cadar operative.
* On delivery you will face a Tactics test to complete the mission.
* The operative will offer Vytautas a position as a Weapons Smuggler contact in the zone and you will start with 100 personal rep with him.
* You can also talk to Vytautas and offer him an officer position on your ship. He will be trained in Pilot and Soldier and have significantly boosted skills, attributes and traits.
* You can visit Russ Axeil again and he will reward you with $50,000 and +240xp across your crew, +5 Rep with Cadar, +40 Rep with Axeil and he will gain +10 Influence.

**Caught and Released**

* If decided to liberate the Zenrin Consul you will also have this mission to drop him off to Zenrin Prince Michael Guun.
* On delivery you will be thanked again by Mattack and be introduced to Prince Michael Guun if you haven't been already.
* You will gain +20 Personal rep with him, +10 rep with Zenrin and +240xp across the crew.
* Some time later you will be informed that Michael Guun has used Consul Mattacks case to begin a Spy War with Steel Song. You can work with him to further wound them.

**Payback**

* If you successfully liberated Vytautas, shortly afterward you will be attacked by a Steel Song bounty hunter which will be introduced with some officer dialogue letting you know that it's in retaliation for freeing him.
* Later again you will be attacked by a specifically Faug Daen ship. Be careful as it will be very powerful. You can however use Skip-off-the-Void to evade it.

**Vytautas As an Officer**

* Despite being called a shock trooper in the missions, Vytautas when hired as an officer will have ranks in Soldier and Wing Commando