Nuclear Operative

Congratulations! You have been chosen to be a member of (insert random organisation here). You, brave agent, must retrieve the nuclear authentication disk and activate the nuclear weapon on-board your shuttle with 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 acquire the disk and kill everyone. You start with a revolver, a syndicate teleporter, a poison pill, some ammunition, and are pre-implanted with a microbomb implant.

Now what?

Take off your helmet and body armor and put on one of the red spacesuits from the lockers. Also take a jetpack and breath mask, and make sure you turn on your jetpack's air supply. From another locker, you should get a pinpointer and turn it on. An arrow will appear on it, pointing in the general direction of the disk. There's also a station bounced radio in your pocket that will let you request a limited selection of Syndicate gear to help you or your teammates. You've also got a secure radio channel for speaking to your comrades, accessed by putting ":h" in front of your message. If one of your fellow syndicates blows your cover by mistakenly speaking on the main radio channel rather than your secure channel, please feel free to push him down and fart on him to teach him a lesson.

• Don't forget to bring a thermite breaching charge and/or an RPG!

Toys for big boys

Syndicates have "recently" gotten a load of new equipment to help them get dat fukken disk. In addition to the standard revolvers and red spacesuits, syndicate operatives now also get:

• A suit of Space Armor: Armored spacesuit that let's you move fast. Pretty much the same as industrial space armor, but cool and red.
• A Rocket Launcher: It's too big and unwieldy to fit in a pack, but will absolutely ruin someone's day if used correctly. Can fit on your belt. If you can see what you're shooting at, you're inside the blastzone.
• A Fully Loaded Syndicate Pod: It's heavily armored, seats 2, and comes with twin-linked shotgun cannons. Can be locked with a 4 digit keycode.
• Two Syndi-Brand Mini-putts: They seat one, are armored fairly well, and are armed with a laser cannon.
• One pair of Optical Thermal Scanners: Being able to see through walls will give you the element of surprise and can help you get the disk as fast as possible. Note that you are more susceptible to flashes of light when wearing these.
• A Free Box of Syndi-Brand Preheated Donk Pockets: What it says on the box! Just keep one in your pocket, and eat it when you are hurt or right before battle. Surprisingly effective at treating bullet wounds and laser scars.
• A Crate of Sarin Gas Grenades: Located next to the nuke, these pop-rocks are filled with sarin gas, a killer toxin so illegal, you are probably committing about five or six war-crimes just by standing near it. The gas is highly toxic, and will massively fuck-up anyone who inhales it. Gas masks DO NOT protect you from it, so don't try to let it go off in your hand in an attempt to kamikaze someone. The victim can be cured by an injection of atropine commonly available in the medbay. Also, don't try to put a grenade in your backpack if it's already full, as you will just arm the grenade and probably kill/injure yourself, and anyone nearby (This also goes for any other item that you activate in your hand, like pipe bombs).

The Listening Post

The syndicate listening post is your only safe-zone on the station z-level. Only syndicate operatives 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. Hold on to your agent card, or you won't be able to get back in here.

Get dat fukken disk

It spawns in the captain's pocket. Your job is to follow your pinpointer to it, get it, and come back to the shuttle. The captain is armed and security 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 if they aren't idiots. To exit the shuttle, stand on the teleporter pad and use your syndicate teleporter. This will take you to the syndicate listening post. You return to the shuttle in the same way. The station is to the north-east of the listening post. Fly left until you're clear of the asteroids, and then fly north. This should take you close to escape wing.

I GOT IT

Great! Now get the fuck out of there before someone shoots you and head back to the shuttle. The nuke is at the south end of it.

• Click on the nuke with an empty hand.
• While holding the disk, click the line of minus signs in the window to insert it.
• Head to your left and grab the audio log. Play it. It will tell you the activation code. Alternatively, type the notes command, which lists the bomb code as well.
• Enter the numbers into the window and then click the E.
• Disable the safety.
• Set the timer and activate the countdown.
• Gloat over the radio and vanish in a cloud of radioactive fire!

Sound syndicate strategies

• 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. You'll be glad you did!

• It is always a good idea to grab a donk pocket or two in case things go south. There's a whole box of them next to the microwave on your shuttle.

• Need more inventory space? Stealth storage can hold as many items as a regular box, yet is small enough to fit in jumpsuit pockets. Remember to use drag and drop (its icon onto yourself) to quickly access the goodies inside!

• Riot storage lockers, located in the armory, contain handy shotguns and flashbangs. I bet you could access them from space somehow!

• Consider turning the AI to your side, if you have the time and ability to do so.

• Feel like going undercover? Consider ordering a voice changer, chameleon suit and agent card. Use a DNA 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.

• Consider where the best places to use the RPG might be. Suggested locations include the bridge, security, genetics, and the AI.

• Beware of security or vigilantes in space suits or pods! They can really ruin your day.

• Record the nuke code in your notes using the add-note command. Nothing more embarrassing than failing your mission because you lost the briefing and forgot to write down the code!

Sound crew strategies

• Let's just make one thing clear before you get any ideas: the disk is indestructible and cannot be simply thrown away. The only way it can leave the station z-level is through the syndicate teleporter; if thrown away in/brought to another z-level that isn't the syndicate shuttle or it is somehow destroyed, the game will merely spawn a replacement disk in a random location back on the station. Attempting to sabotage the operatives like this before things have even gotten underway is not only really shitty, it's also impossible and could very well drop the disk right in front of them!
  • And before you try to be smart, the syndicate shuttle and their teleporter are also indestructible. You must kill the syndies or they will kill you, there is no third option.

• Don't wear syndicate clothing, like red space suits and tactical turtlenecks, as doing so will likely get you shot by the captain who has a phobia of anything red and suit-shaped!

• Speaking of the captain, keep an eye on him (If he is the current holder of the disk). Ask the AI, preferably through PDA messaging so the syndicates don't hear you, where the captain currently is and if he, and more importantly the disk, is safe. If possible, try to also get into a group with the disk holder and protect them, as shotguns and revolvers are useless if you have enough bodies to soak up their ammo!

• Watch out for suspicious items on people, like SWAT gloves, SWAT helmets, or out of place gas masks. The SWAT gear, although identical to normal black gloves and security helmets, are only found on the syndicate shuttle, so anyone wearing them are most likely syndicates in disguise (Or people who didn't read the second tip about not wearing syndicate items).

• For more job-specific strategies, scientists should create silicate, and with it, reinforce the windows of key areas, such as genetics, or the escape arm. Speaking of genetics, mechanics should scan the cloning pod, cloning scanner, and the enzymatic reclaimer and build a new set of them, as genetics will normally get destroyed during a nuke round, along with it's cloning machinery. Just be sure to place the reclaimer, cloning scanner, and the cloning pod right next to each other, or else they won't work properly!

• Heavily consider moving the pods out of the main hangers, and into safer areas, as they are easy targets for red-suits with rockets or in their own shotgun-wielding pod, and an exploding pod can do a lot of damage to the surrounding area.

• Don't camp/blockade the syndicate shuttle or listening post the second you learn it's a nuke round. This is metagaming and will get you punished by the admins. The syndicate facilities are strictly off-limits to non-operatives.
  • The sole exception to this rule is if you are explicitly told in regular game chat by a reliable source that the syndies have the disk, in which case it's crunch time and you have to do whatever you can to stop them. This can extend to personally entering the shuttle if you believe the disk carrier has returned to it, but no sooner.
    • If you need to check the shuttle and find that the syndies are absent/the nuke isn't armed, don't overstay your welcome, as this is camping; go back to the station immediately and hunt down the syndies.

Supplementary Video

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