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Huh, we're getting some supplies? Really? You mean there are more than three humans in existence, and some of them want to help us out!? Wow! I mean, just wandering around HS-0204 with some space marines almost makes you think that the game is designed such that it's just you and some buggy baddies trapped on a dusty rock and left to fight it out. What kind of sick and twisted idea is THAT, huh?

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Mission 6: Rapid Deployment

Aha, another mission with a short operating time...which can only mean more defense duty! Defending some supplies sounds easy enough, right? Wait, what? Where are the supplies?! We're supposed to be getting some and guarding them, that's what the mission said. Wait, WHAT? You mean they're all the way out there? They bothered to bring us stuff and then just leave it in the middle of a bunch of bug nests? What's up with that?

So this mission is a sort of hybrid cross between two types, since you've got to make it to the target point and then you've got to defend it at all costs. That's a really tall order, I'd say. It makes me wonder why this is Mission 6 instead of Mission 7, actually. I'd put the actual Mission 7 as Mission 5 and bump Defend the Base up one notch...not that it actually matters, you can tackle the three in whatever order you want. It's just that laid out as they are, you'd naturally be misled along the relative difficulty curve...

You'll notice that as you make your way along that the bugs are already making their way to the destination, although any given cluster of enemies can be forced to change course and attack you instead if you shoot at them. I mean, you weren't going to be able to cleanly pass by them anyway, so might as well get the drop on them.

It has come to my attention that there are some newcomers among us that I forgot to introduce you to. Mostly I'm talking about the new beetle "tank" type of enemy: a slow and heavy-duty bug with a rather large weak point which we couldn't even see in the last mission. The weak spot is its entire backside and a protruding underbelly, meaning that you either need to circle around to see it (which I couldn't exactly show you while I was defending the base) or shoot between its legs for the slim target it provides from the front. We've also seen the effects of one of the higher-grade beetle enemies: a radar-jamming effect of a circular radius which was used to help keep the enemy movements a secret until we could attain visual confirmation of a new wave rounding a rock formation. Those particular variants won't see much action again until the next batch of three new missions.

At the very least, both aspects of the mission are made somewhat simpler by the fact that somebody left a BKD-G9 out in a canyon in the middle of nowhere...good job, guys...I mean, why is it even in pristine condition with all this ammunition if it's just going to be left around? Why didn't the bugs destroy it? Oh well...waste not, want not...and finders, keepers and all that good stuff. Taking it will trigger a bunch of enemies to take note of your presence beyond all the bugs you busted just to reach it. Mmm, smells like a good combo bonus to me.

So with that, let me clear out the elephant in the room here. This mission is tough. Even if you've played it before, it's not going to be an easy fight, because like every other mission of its kind, you're not just fighting for your own life and you can fail just because some bug managed to slip in unnoticed. What's more, unlike your other defense missions so far, you can expect some harassment from all directions, even though the swarm will mostly be concentrated along the land bridge that you followed to get here. If there's a small reprieve in the surge of attackers, expect that it's the game's way of pulling a punch while jabbing you from a different direction instead.

I finally realized that if you see a series of concentric red circles radiating from your target point on the radar, that means it's currently under attack. This wasn't really explained too well, but at least it takes the guesswork out of when your defense target started getting roughed up by unnoticed intruders.

Oh! Oh! Watching this level again finally gave me a clear reading on what Excelion was saying for her "GOOD!"/"GREAT!" words of negative-sounding encouragement, because I happened not to be shooting at the time she backhandedly compliments Levin with a "Long way to go." All my previous guesses are proven wrong after the very first wave of wasps, so give her a listen and see if you can finally hear it and get some closure on this whole muffled ordeal, too. Either way, it's still going to live in the infamous shadow of Roberts's "That's why you're still a kid!"

Anyway, poor supply drop management and mission planning aside, something definitely stinks on HS-0204...and it's not just the rotting, gooey carcasses of all the cyborgs you had to turn to green slush just to get this far.