C04: A victory at last!

To all our loyal soldiers,

It looks like our gamble in the Smoke paid off!

We dropped troops in small pockets throughout the territory. We managed to avoid the patrols the Underworld Collective stationed around the exterior of the factory. After eliminating the few guards stationed at the front, the first squad infiltrated the factory and cleared out the skeleton crew of rebels.

After we got the first few squads through the front of the factory, it was a turkey shoot. The Underworld Collective managed to breach the control room but we were able to catch them on the backfoot. They even made a last-ditch effort to reprogram the bots but we were able to overwhelm them before it became a problem.

We left Atiley Ona licking her wounds and we are now the proud owners of a shiny new android factory. Solid work all round (although I know the troops only worked so hard because of the example I set).

In terms of what we do next, that is as always up to you.

We have four options: the Circuits, the Reeds, Valhalla, or Rivers End.

The Circuits would be a valuable target as it is the only territory that has been successfully invaded by the Underworld Collective. The place is a black-market wonderland with tunnels leading to every territory in the dome. In addition to this, the Underworld Collective will be surrounded if we took it. However, because of this fact, Atiley will fight tooth and nail for it. I know fighting them in the Smoke may have seemed easy (because it was) but it is going to be an absolute bloodbath in the Circuits. There is no chance for stealth here, we must put all our chips down.

The Reeds could be recaptured. This would prune the Cultivation Society from our border and give us some room to breathe in the east. However, we still haven’t figured out a cure to Dionea’s brain washing so we will have to go with scorched earth. We will essentially be ruling over a pile of ash by the end of it.

Valhalla is basically an over-funded retirement home for old CEOs and bureaucrats. I actually have a house picked out there that I want to move into, so if we could annihilate the property value of the area that would be a plus. The biggest threat they pose is their militia of re-programmed drones (some of which have gauss canons might I add) and their other unmanned defences. It seems like another turkey shoot, but we thought the same about the Reeds and look where that got us.

Rivers End is probably the riskiest play of the lot. They control all the water in Atlaunder and have previously revoked it when under threat. The leader of their union is an absolute steel wall of a woman. Any time we’ve tried to negotiate deals with her, she wouldn’t even respond until we pulled all our troops out of the area. We obviously need water so this would be an extremely risky play. However, if we controlled the territory, we would have the same power at the negotiating table. We could cut off water to the Crates or Level 99 and demolish them. The only way we could possibly do this is through a night raid. Pushing through with a full-frontal assault is a recipe for drought.

The Council of 20 have been thirsting for a military victory for quite some time and you have quenched it.

Jerit | Head of Public Relations and Target Elimination