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To begin the Mercenaries encounter, a
team must seek out the ICC
Peacekeeper Commander. He is, fairly obviously,
stationed at the ICC Headquarters in Andromeda. Simply
head on over to ICC using Rubi-Ka's trusty whompa
system, and have a short conversation with him. He will
be standing at the central platfrom, in front of the
statue.
During the conversation with the
Commander he will ask you two questions, each with a
range of options. In order to continue the quest, the
Commander needs to know who you're looking for. Indeed,
he will immediately ask who you are looking for. Answer
this question by asking "Have you
seen a man called Joe around here?" He'll then
play a little game with you, presenting you with names
of various Joes to prove you have no idea what you're
talking about. To shut him up, answer "Joe
Two-Fingers." At this point, the Commander will
get all panicky and disappear, but not before leaving
you a clue as to where
Joe Two-Fingers is hiding out.
If you pay attention to the Commander's
final statement before he abruptly ends the
conversation, he will mention a general direction and
location where ol' Joe is at. At this point, you must
head in the general direction given to you by the
Commander, and keep an eye out for settlements he may be
taking cover in. You may also receive specific location
descriptions, such as a "mutant
settlement," in which case you must use the
directions given, your map, and your knowledge of
Andromeda to find your way. It should be noted that Joe
will never be outside of Andromeda, but that said, time
is of the essence here. Joe is a busy, busy man, and he
must remain on the move, so if you spend any more than
30 minutes hunting for him, you should return to the
Commander and try again.
Once you find Joe Two-Fingers (who
curiously seems to have all 10 anyway), he'll grill you
a bit more about who you know and what you know. He'll
immediately try to give you the brush off, so you need
to get his attention. The only way is to mention the
name of one of his agents: "But I
was hoping to talk to you about a man called Otacustes."
Now he'll pay attention, but he's also now suspicious,
and he'll grill you on how you know
Otacustes, first
wondering where he is. Answer him with, "In
Eastern Fouls Plains." Giving out perhaps more
info than he should, Joe presses further about the
whereabouts of Otacustes: is he in the Mercs good
graces, and in their camp, or out of it? Answer him
with, "Yeah, inside," at
which point he will become concerned and ask you for
help in reaching Otacustes. Once you answer him by
saying, "Sure, I'll contact him,"
you'll receive the
Sealed Letter
and a grave warning to avoid Ian Warr. And with that,
it's off to Eastern Fouls Plains, and the Mercenaries'
Bunker.
Otacustes is not one for a show, seeing
as he is busy infiltrating the Mercenaries organization,
so he'll need some coaxing to appear. With your trusty
several teams of allies by your side, commence killing
off the Mercenaries' army of Primus, Secundus, Tertius,
and Quartus foot-soldiers, and the Notum Profundis
officers. After enough damage has been wrought, and
enough fodder killed, which can take anywhere from 30
minutes to four hours or more, Otacustes will emerge
from his control room. Apparently, however. Otacustes is
so well undercover that he is really a very definite
she, and SHE has managed to take control of some
operations of the Mercenaries. However, this trust is
suddenly shattered when the security cameras of the
compound catch you handing her the letter from Joe
Two-Fingers, and an enraged Ian Warr will emerge with
his loyal commanders in tow. The five of them will
emerge in an area, ready to take on all comers and show
the world how mighty they are.
Here's the problem though: they ARE
mighty by themselves, and in a group of five they're
unstoppable. There is no way any number of teams could
keep up with Ian, Peter, Ris, Patricia, and Nelly all
hammering on them at once, especially with more
foot-soldiers and Profundi running about taking potshots
too. Instead, it is imperative that players get ready to
move away. The best way to proceed now is to send in the
strongest, fastest, and ablest tank (probably an
Enforcer) into the ring to catch the attention of ONE of
the five, thus being aggroed by him (or her), and then
for said tank, in all his glory, to high-tail it the
hell out of there. There's no shame in survival here
folks, so while your Enforcer is running out of the
camp, with his selected Mercenary in tow, every healer
in the vicinity should be healing, and everyone else
should be following out the gate, if not already lying
in wait at the pull point over the bridge. Once a
sufficient distance from the foot-soldiers, the Profundi,
and the other four, proceed to hammer away steadily
until the Mercenary falls, or he teleports out of danger
and back into his bunker, whichever comes first.
Fortunately, they don't teleport out for about two
hours, so I wouldn't worry about that too much,
especially since many raids now routinely defeat all
five mercenaries. It is, however, imperative that the
main kill team be kept alive, as if they all fall, the
mercenary will run amok making an attempt to (and
frequently succeeding at) killing all the raid members
in the vicinity.
In the end, it is really a lot of work and effort, all
for what usually becomes a lot of junk of the soldiers
and Profundi, and some very nice, but very limited in
number, rewards off the Mercenaries. Indeed, assuming
you get very lucky, it would take at least seven kills
(2 pieces from Ian, 1 piece and 1
Notum
Tank Armor from Peter, 1 piece thereafter from
any of the five Mercenaries) to complete a set of
Azure Reveries with a Notum Tank Armor. However,
doing this is definitely worth it because of this and
some of the very valuable drops like the
Reign of Patricia
and
Nelly Johnson's Little Black Dress. |
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