t wasn't long before I plundered into the new ME mission, as I had a file save on the Normandy before Virmire. As soon as the game launched, I was very excited. Allow me to lay down the basics and understanding of the mission.
Batarian extremists have taken over a soon-to-be mineral mining asteroid. Flame Torches are scattered across the asteroid, in hopes the humans of the colonized world of Terra Nova can mine this asteroid for proper materials. The Batarian leader decides an attempt for revenge against the humans for what happened at Elysium, and takes over the mining facilities with his gang of hardered biotic batarians and their beasts, the varren. The Flame Torches propelling this asteroid to reach orbit of Terra Nova has gone completely wrong - instead, it's heading straight for Terra Nova and is on a collision course to eliminate 4 million people. You have to stop it. The batarian extremists are holding hostages captive, and it is your job to free them as well.
One thing to note is that Omni-tools are commonly found, and are given to you for completing the mission or by exploring the asteroid to locate dead human soldiers. This may be an attempt to make up for the Omni-tool problem that exists in the current game (when you complete ME, you keep everything from a new save, but lose your Omni-tools), which can be easily overlooked. I posted this back in early December in their official technical issues forum, and since then have seen numerous reports of the same issue.
The Batarians are ruthless, and most of the time are in league with rocket drones or varren. This can become a major problem due to both varren and rockets from the rocket drones eating away at your health much more than your shields. Needless to say it is somewhat challenging, and I would imagine is extremely challenging on the Insane difficulty.
In the Mako, however, you notice the beautiful world of Terra Nova in the background as you race to stop the Flame Torches under batarian control. You do have renegade and paragon choices, more than you would in any other ME side mission. There are numerous places to explore on the asteroid, and I recommend you visit them as they appear on your map.
There are three Flame Torches you must shut down. The first has a group of batarians and varren guarding the first vault. The second Flame Torch is convered with proximity mines. During this section of the mission, you are required to walk into the facility on foot. However, this does not prevent you from being cautious, as the proximity mines have a detection system that allows them to locate movement. If the altitude of this movement increases to its maximum, you take damage (or die). The facility itself also has a group of batarians. The third facility is much bigger and a bit complicated at first sight. At first glance, it appears to be the hall of the Citadel's main tower. Defeating the batarians in this room initiates a cutscene that introduces the batarian leader.
After a brief conversation with him, you are given the choice to attack him. In this case, he mentions that doing so will detonate the charges scattered in this room, and kill the hostages. Letting him go, however, prevents the fight, and allows him to escape unharmed. Choosing this option gives you three minutes to disable the detonators, or game over. If you manage to stop the detonators, you are eventually led to free the captives of the facility. In this case, Shepard mentions his plan to continue to follow the batarian leader, claiming the mission is not yet over.
If you chose the option to attack the batarian leader, please post the outcome here. I chose to allow him to live and free the hostages myself, and would wonder the outcome of attacking the leader.
After the hostages die, the Batarian leader puts up a force field in front of the stairs and sends two Varren dogs after you while he and his bodyguards run away around the upper level of the room. I killed all the dogs and bodyguards, and then it went to a cutscene where you spoke to the Batarian leader. The option I chose was to kill him right off the bat, but there were other dialogue options you could choose if you weren't quite as bloodthirsty as my biotic renegade. The leader is really shaken and sad when you tell him the two hostages got blown up, and the prison cell they were in is a charred mess, complete with charred, messy corpses.
|