Nuclear Operative

ModernClassicFestive

Congratulations! You have been chosen to be a member of [insert random organisation here]. You, brave agent, must move the nuclear weapon we've provided you with to the main station and activate it. Did we mention this was a suicide mission? No? Whoops!

Red Mean Syndicate Machine

You and your fellow operatives spawn on the Syndicate Shuttle. Here, you have a load of gear to help you kill everyone. Noteworthy starting gear:

• A .357 revolver and a spare speedloader of FMJ rounds.
• A teleporter remote.
• A poison pill.
• An agent card.
• Your very own uplink (), which vaguely resembles a station-bounced radio.
• You are also implanted with a microbomb.
• If you spawn as the leader, you also get a pinpointer for the (optional) nuke auth disk, a commander's cap, and a commander's great coat. Together, the last two protect you from Space and the Trench and considerably reduce damage from bullets, explosions, and melee attacks--all common things you'll get hit by, whether from your team or the crew.

Toys for big boys

In addition to the gear everybody spawns with, Syndicate operatives have access to other free goodies:

Red = Cockpit
Orange = Corridor, with smaller rectangle for nuclear bomb storage
Yellow = Equipment Room, with smaller rectangle for closets with red spacesuits
Olive Green = Storage Room
Light Blue/Cyan = Medical Bay
Royal Blue = Side Room
Pink = Hangar

Cockpit:

• A sleepy pen.
• A camera monitor for remote reconnaissance of the station
• A snack machine with Discount Dan's.
• A cigarette machine.
• A sizeable 1500 credits, split into 3 500-stacks, for said machines.
• A bottle of hobo wine and Bo Jack Daniel's for toasting to victory. Or drowning sorrows.
• An extra red closet with a red space suit and jetpack.
• A monkey in a retro-looking red space suit named Von Braun. Keep your distance from him so he can't pick your pockets or shove you and take your weapon, lest you end up like this guy.

Corridor:

• Sunglasses and thermals
• A camera viewer for somewhat more convenient remote reconnaissance of the station.
• A flash/cell assembly for stunning people AND setting them on fire. But only once.
• Balaclavas for that "Russian Counter-Strike player" look.
• The star of the show, the nuclear bomb, in its own subsection with red circuit-like tiles and a sliding windoor.

Equipment room:

• Standard-issue red space suits and jetpacks in personal closets
• A PDA with a built-in Detomatix cartridge, a box of flashbangs and multiple green pinpointers in the top most closet.
• An uniform manufacturer for making slightly less conspicuous jumpsuits and shoes, plus a rack of bedsheets to rip up for cotton.
• A coffee machine with stamina-boosting coffee. Money is in the cockpit.
• An crimson couch for evil relaxation. Perhaps there's extra change behind the cushions?

Medical bay:

• A medical crate with several medkits and a table with reserve tanks of medicine.
• Bandages and blood bags.
• Four sleeper units.
• A medibot.
• A crate of with one set of standard arms and legs (run faster, rip apart handcuffs) and one set of treads (run ridiculously faster)
• A operating table and a suite of surgerical tools for installing said limbs.

Storage room:

• Several rocket launchers. Will absolutely ruin someone's day if used correctly. Don't stand too close to what you're shooting at!
• A couple of fanny packs Syndicate Tactical Espionage Packs and utility belts
• A crate of emergency oxygen tanks
• A pile of frag grenades. Explodes in a burst of shrapnel, giving everyone in the blast radius nasty brute damage and lodging shrapnel in their chests, causing further brute damage. More can be found in Tactical Grenades boxes.
• Pairs of night vision goggles.
• Several breaching charges and land mines
• A crate of "nerve gas" grenades. Filled with sarin gas and very lethal. Try not to let one go off in your hand or immediate vicinity. Sarin poisoning can be cured by an injection of atropine, shots of which can be found underneath said grenades.
• Miscellaneous supplies, such as regular tools and all the components required to craft stun gloves (power cells are stored in the equipment closets)

Sideroom:

• A rack with an extra red space suit set and jetpack.
• A tank dispenser with more oxygen tanks.
• The entrance into the room with the telepad to the Listening Post.

Hangar:

• A large Syndicate pod. It's heavily armored and seats two. Can be locked with a 4 digit keycode
• Three Syndicate miniputs. They seat one and are armored fairly well. Can be locked with a 4 digit keycode
• Multiple twin-linked shotgun cannons and SEED modules to upgrade the pods with
• An O2 canister to top off your jetpack from.

Setting Them Up the Bomb

Prepping Up

Grab the audio log in the bottom left corner of your shuttle. Play it. It will tell you where to move to nuke to. Alternatively, if you can't be arsed to go through all the lore crap, use the Notes command to quickly get the name of the designated area.

There's no need to rush, though! Teamplay is key in this game mode! Discuss the mission ahead with your comrades and come up with a solid plan before anybody heads out. You don't need to all do the exact same thing, but you should at least be aware of who's doing what and, failing that, who's carrying the nuke. (You'd be surprised how often people forget the bomb.)

You also have a secure radio channel for speaking to your comrades. The specific channel used is randomized every round, so there's a slim chance of some meta-gaming nerd snooping in on you. To use it, simply type something like:

• say ;I'm about to activate the nuke in security. Let's do this, boys!

Don't forget to order items from your Syndicate uplink. It's somewhat limited; you're restricted to generic, all-job items, and even then, a few selections are unavailable. (For example, you can't order cloakers or more microbombs.) That said, you still have useful staples like EMAGs and shotgun boxes, and at the bottom of the list, you can find a whole set of special themed loadouts with all sorts of items. If you're feeling indecisive, why not order one of them?

After you've gotten your weapons and tactics settled, take off your helmet and body armor and put on one of the red spacesuits from the lockers. Also put on a jetpack and breath mask, and turn on your jetpack's air supply. From another locker, you should get a green pinpointer and turn it on. An arrow will appear on it, pointing in the general direction of the nuclear bomb.

Again, bring a green pinpointer for locating the nuke. The crew might steal the pod it's loaded in or the bomb itself, you never know! This is also why you should lock all of your pods!

Remember: the green () pinpointer tracks the nuclear bomb, the red () model the authentication disk.

Rolling Out

Once you've got your spacesuit, weapons, and tactics down, it's time to actually haul the nuke and your Syndie asses onto the station. You have two main approaches for getting onto the station, each with their own ups and downs and special tactics:

By Pod

You board some space pods with a nuke in one of the cargo holds and fly to the station through the pod beacons. It's faster than using jetpacks and requires less map knowledge, but there's higher risk of getting spotted since the syndicate pods are easy to spot. On top of that, if someone hijacks your pods, things can go wrong quite quickly depending on what said pods have.

Go to the hangar on the left side of the shuttle and load the nuclear bomb into any of the syndiputts, syndicate pods, and, if you're on, minisubs there by click-dragging the bomb's sprite onto the space pod's. Do the same with your own sprite to board the space pod. Crowbarring the pods open to arm them with is nice, though

Before you leave, practice good pod security. Be sure to set your pod's lock code so enterprising crew members can't steal the pod or, worse, the nuke if you leave it in the pod's cargo hold. You can make it any 4 digit combo of numbers 0-9 and letters A-D you want; just make sure put in your notes through the Add Note command and tell your teammates the code. Also, after you set the code, don't forget to toggle the locking mechanism closed. No use setting it if you just leave it unlocked like a goofball.

Once, create a wormhole to one of the station Pod Bay beacons. The specific beacon depends on the map and the area you need to take the bomb to (you remember it, right?); naturally, it's good idea to consult a map. Generally, you should avoid the main hangar beacon(s), since they tend to get a fair bit of traffic. When flying around the station, keep your distance and stay away from any windows to avoid the crew spotting you. For a stealth infiltration, it might be worth it to have a teammate warp to the Space/Sea Diner beacon and drop you off there. You then have them hide somewhere while you enter the station, whether through the Mining Shuttle on Space maps or just swimming to it on the Ocean maps.

Once you arrive at your desired location, don't forget to unload the bomb by unlocking the pod lock mechanism and click-dragging the pod sprite onto a tile. You'd be surprised how many people forget to unload it; it's a classic "fluke op" mistake.

By Listening Post

You teleport to the Listening Post and jetpack/ to the station while pulling the nuke. You have a bit more flexibility in where you can land, since you don't have to go to a pod beacon first, slightly reducing risk of detection. However, since the way from the Listening Post to the station isn't marked, there's high risk of getting lost.

Assuming you've your spacesuit and jetpack on, stand on the teleporter pad in the Syndicate Shuttle and use your teleporter remote. You'll arrive at the Listening Post's own telepad. You return to the shuttle in a similar way, by standing over the Listening Post telepad and using the remote. To teleport the nuke to the Listening Post, simply push it over the telepad and hit it with the teleporter remote.

The listening post is your only safe-zone on the station Z-level. Only people with an agent card can access it. Make sure you have everything in order the way you like it before leaving. It has some spare clothing and supplies in case you forgot something on the shuttle, but there's no real weaponry to speak of there.

Once you're comfortable leaving and know who's pulling the nuclear bomb, head out the airlock. If you're on a Space-based map (i.e. Cogmap1, Cogmap2, Destiny, Clarion, Atlas, Horizon), press the Toggle jetpack button in the top left to ensure your jetpack can actually also propel you through space, instead of just acting like a standard air supply. If you're on a Seafloor-based map (i.e. Oshan Laboratory), you can move through the water without it on, but you might want to exchange your boots for the flippers by the external airlock so that you can move much faster.

Don't leave the listening post without the teleporter remote and agent card, or you won't be able to get back in.

Going in hot

Eliminate all hostiles, secure and fortify the target area. How you accomplish this is up to you and your team - a coordinated infiltration can work just as well as the Rambo approach. Either way, security and the crew in general will be all over your asses as soon as they hear about red spacesuits, so be quick and strike true. Work together with your allies, since a lone operative will be very hard-pressed to fend off an armed, angry mob for any period of time.

Trigger the nuke

Your side has the upper hand? Great! Now trigger the nuke:

• Load the nuke into one of your pods and drop it off near the station.
• Move the nuke to the designated area. If you've forgotten, use the notes command to remind yourself.
• Click on the nuke with an empty hand to activate it. That will prompt a station-wide red alert, stating your exact location. Needless to say, stealth is no longer an option at this point.
• Insert the authentication disk if you have it.
• Defend the nuke for 10 (or 7 with the disk) long minutes. It's all or nothing!
• Gloat over the radio and vanish in a cloud of radioactive fire!

The authentication disk

An entirely optional objective that can nevertheless be vital to your planning. When used on an armed bomb, it modifies the countdown depending on who inserted it: 3 minutes less (operative) or 3 minutes more (crew member). Needless to say, the first outcome is vastly preferable from your perspective. The disk can generally be found in the captain's pocket and if your team decides to send somebody after him (be it undercover or not) in preparation for the main strike, remember that he is armed and likely to expect trouble.

The Syndicate team leader spawns with a special red pinpointer in his backpack. It tracks the location of the authentication disk and should be given to the operative who has been tasked with obtaining it.

Sound Syndicate strategies

• It's redundant but worth repeating: defend the bomb! So many rounds were lost because the operatives were too occupied with wandering about and hunting for kills to notice the lone Staff Assistant slowly but surely destroying the nuke with a fire extinguisher or the cyborg unscrewing the nuke's bolts and loading it into a Space Pod.
• Speaking of unscrewing, while crew members can unscrew the nuke to move it, at the cost of halving the time to detonation (more on that in the next section), you cannot. Don't try it; it'll do nothing.
• Feel like going undercover? Consider ordering a voice changer, chameleon suit and DNA scrambler. Use the scrambler and make the agent card match your new identity. Try to keep a low profile. A greyshirt walking around with a jetpack and insulated gloves tends to catch the attention of any competent security officer.
  • Should you go undercover, dress sensibly. Walking around with military boots while not disguised as Captain or Head of Security is suspicious, and walking around with SWAT gloves on is very suspicious.
• Don't set a name on your agent card until you are already on the station. If you are spotted in your approach and the AI catches your fake name, your cover is busted and you don't get another chance to change it.
• Feeling unsubtle? Consider buying extra ammo for your revolver or a shotgun. You'll be glad you did!
• Be careful with the RPG, you don't want to hit your comrades with friendly fire or splash damage.
• Don't forget your donk pocket or medical supplies! You are going to need them, guaranteed.
• Need more inventory space? If the fanny pack isn't sufficient to store all of your gear, consider stealth containers. They can hold as many items as a regular box, yet are small enough to fit in jumpsuit pockets. Remember to use drag and drop (its icon onto yourself) to quickly access the goodies inside!
• The Armory contains handy shotguns, stingers and flashbangs, among many other things. Even if you end spacing all the gear or not using it all, looting the armory deprives your foes of weapons they could use against you.
• Consider turning the AI to your side, if you have the time and ability to do so.
• Beware of security or vigilantes in space suits or pods! They can really ruin your day.
• Using a power sink can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, they'll turn your run-of-the-mill crowbars into all-access cards, because you can bypass any access-locked doors by crowbarring them open, and you'll get a tactical darkness advantage. On the other hand, they'll also turn the crew's run-of-the-mill crowbars into all-access cards, getting a tactical darkness advantage is useless if you can't see in the dark either (and it's nullified if you plant the bomb next to the power-sink), and robbing them of their power is a great way to get the entire crew coming for your red-suited ass.
  • If your are going to utilize a power sink, consider putting on some night vision goggles, found on the table near the cockpit. That way, you can actually use the darkness to your advantage, since you'll be able to see through the darkness while most of the crew generally won't unless they raid the Armory for their NVGs.
• Even a just few girders or windows around the nuke can go a long way.

Sound crew strategies

Please be aware of the special guidelines regarding Syndicate facilities.

• If possible, try to get into a group to increase your odds of fending off the Syndicates. Their guns aren't very useful if you have enough bodies to soak up the ammo!
• Watch out for suspicious behaviour or items. That greyshirt wearing insulated gloves and a gas mask might be an operative in disguise if they appear to be scouting the perimeter or trailing the disk holder (typically the captain).
• Don't wear Syndicate clothing, like red space suits and tactical turtlenecks, as doing so will likely get you killed.
• Try everything in your power to destroy that nuke. Best case, the Syndicates should be unable to even get the bomb onto the main station - engage enemy pods on sight, as the nuke might be in one of their cargo holds.
• If the weapon has already been deployed, eliminate all redsuits defending it or at least drive them away. Insert the authentication disk if available to buy you three more minutes. Now, while the nuke can't be disarmed, you can dispose of it in some manner:
  • The bomb can be destroyed by brute force alone, but it takes a lot of effort and high-powered gear (such as eswords, multiple laser guns or revolvers), since it has a good bit of damage reduction and roughly 150 "health". It is also susceptible to EMPs, which take out a good sixth of the bomb's health and bypass the armor protection.
  • Alternatively, get someone with screwdriver to loosen the bomb's floor bolts. Unscrewing takes about four seconds, and it will trigger a motion alert and halve the time remaining. Move the nuke off the main z-level (via mass driver, pod or teleportation) or destroy it (e.g. with the crusher) as soon as possible to avert certain death. Beware--dragging the nuke slows you down somewhat, even for cyborgs.
  • Don't try to blast or rocket the nuke, it is invulnerable to explosions.
  • The nuke can be teleported by Telescience at any stage of deployment.
• Security barriers are loads of fun against ops. Not only do they reduce damage from bullets and melee attacks, but if you use their special attack (click on any tile at least two tiles away while on Harm or Disarm intent), you create a shield that reflect their projectiles back at them. Yes, this includes rockets.