Despite the long pause between posts, I assure you the journey back to base was quite a bit shorter. In fact, it took all of five seconds. The future is now!
We find ourselves alone in the foyer. No welcoming committee or nothin’. So much for being greeted as a hero upon our return. Is anyone even home?
This starred door looks important! Bogey busts in like the boss he is and finds himself in Colonel We-Have-All-Died-in-Vain’s office. So much for that sentiment, huh? He sure recovered quick, and apparently he’s been waiting for us.
Excellent. I suppose you’re looking to give me my reward.
Wait, our reward for saving the mission is another mission? Oh well; Bogey will be happy for the chance to get out there and continue being a coolguy-warhero. Who knows how Bogey got his own command after just one mission, though. Maybe the conversation went something like this:
Officer 1: Can you believe Bogey made it back from the suicide mission?
Officer 2: Pay up, chumps.
Officer 1: How does an art critic survive a suicide mission, anyway?
Officer 3: I thought he was a mortician.
Officer 2: Honestly, I had him pegged as The Professional.
Officer 1: So what do we do with him now? I can’t take any more of him going on about how Russia’s going to win the war.
Officer 3: What if… you know how Simmons is always writing those weird sci-fi stories when he’s supposed to be on watch? Just give Bogey a few of them and tell him they’re real. We’ll send him out with a few guys on a “super top secret mission” to find the aliens or whatever. The war’ll be over by the time he figures out we duped him.
And that was that. Anywho, where were we?
Right. The reward. On top of the super secret mission, the colonel also tells us we can call him Terrance, which I guess is something.
So how about that mission?
…and that’s about all we’ll get to go on. Great briefing, Colonel!
At least we’ll have some backup for this mystery mission. The “most elite personnel in the war,” he says. Of course, we can only take five with us at a time… because videogames.
And so ends our chat. Any time we’re back home at the base, we can talk to Colonel Buzzkill here to switch our squad members. Since we’re just starting out, we’ve gotta fill up the whole party, and there’s a big pool to choose from.
First up, James “Viper” Austin — a sniper. Seems like a no-brainer to grab the dude who fights rhinos in his free time. Also honored as first round Bogey-picks are these fine folks:
You can click on the portrait for their bios, but here’s the TL;DR. From left to right:
Sgt. “Nessie” Nelson, grenade-tossing grandpa.
Lt. Jerzey Rozanski, street samurai.
Lt. Doug Ricketts, techno-wizard and gentleman.
And Lt. “Elf” Farrell, who just really likes to stab dudes.
I decided to start off with a balanced party — one of each class — even though I didn’t find engineers and scouts all that useful last time. I know I’ll get a lot of use out of Viper, Nessie, and Jerzey, who are my sniper, grenadier, and soldier, respectively. And then there’s Bogey himself, who’s our healer. But my last playthrough presented me — at what I’m guessing was about halfway through the game — with zero mines to disarm, and while there were tons of locked doors, I just blasted them to splinters instead of picking the locks. And the scout’s melee specialization? In a game where guns are so deadly, I can’t see melee combat as anything but a Terrible Idea. Guess we’ll see how it goes this time…
Team assembled! Everyone stand uncomfortably close together for the group photo!
Okay, before we go anywhere, we’ve got to pick up some gear. Everyone’s got the basic equipment and a bit of ammo, but there’s a few things I’d like to grab real quick. Over in the armory, we meet Mr. Brian Ozwell, whose stockpile of gear we’ll be bleeding dry for the foreseeable future.
I like to hoard a slightly absurd amount of ammo, and I always take as many grenades as are available (grenades are a priceless commodity). While we’re here, we’ll also give Bogey some more medical items and Doug a few tools he’ll probably never use.
With that, our business at the base is mostly concluded. We’ll just stop by the infirmary to introduce ourselves for now. We’ll be seeing Doctor Norris a lot in the future.
Sorry — “Susan.” I love how everyone in this game goes by their first name. Definitely how the military works.
Bogey takes this as one of them “signals” and gets his flirt on with Susan for a minute.
“SE2,” which I’m pretty sure is a name he just made up. Sounds fancy. She kindly puts up with him, but I think it’s about time we were off. Stay on target, Boges.
We assemble in the main hall and take a look at our orders.
Seems we’re sticking to Britain for the first mission.
To the “place” where “the agent” stashed “documents.” Awesome. Well, it’s not like the mission can go horribly off the plan when there’s no plan and you have no idea what you’re being sent into. Gotta think positive!
Everybody ready?
What a handsome collection of ragtag heroes!
The adventure is about to begin!
On to the next episode!
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