Siberia - Sea of Okhotsk

February 5, 2008

JBA Assignment: Capture The Supertanker

Time to capture the oil tanker everyone’s been talking about. Why does Emile want it? Who knows. All you’re told is that your job is to go in and get in.

During your skydive in, you can press forward on the analog stick to get a burst of speed. When you’re prompted to open your chute, do so and watch it fail. Your backup chute will work, though; move your left analog stick over to the left side and rub it up and down while tapping the A button rapidly. Doing so will ensure that you hit the icon when it pops up, as it has a habit of flashing on and off when you’re trying to grab the pin.

JBA Secondary Objective: Reach the Rublev Without Alerts
JBA Primary Objective: Retrieve Equipment

You land safely, but your equipment chest will burst open when it hits the ground a hundred yards or so from where you land. The enemies here are on top of it almost before it lands, meaning that you’ll have to avoid or disable them to retrieve it. It’s not mandatory to retrieve it, but the sticky shockers and sticky cameras are going to be really helpful in completing the mission.

A gas grenade will hopefully let you dispose of these gentlemen before they spot you.

Now, the easiest way to take these guys out without raising an alarm is to get them both while they’re still milling about the crashed equipment by throwing a gas grenade at them. To do so, quickly move away from your initial position and head towards the sharp little spire near the fallen equipment. Getting there without being seen will require you to stand up and run and keep the spire between you and your foes. If you can manage it, though, you’ll be able to spot the two soldiers as they mill about the box. They’ll look around for a bit, then start talking. If you scootch to your right just as one says "Maybe they belong to the scientists?" you should be able to pop off a gas grenade at their feet without being seen, which will then knock them out.

If you don’t have gas grenades, then you’ll have to be a bit more careful in your dealings. Both of the soldiers will take opposite paths from the crash site to investigate, so it’s not difficult to split them up. Actually taking them down quietly is a different matter, though, as they’re pretty sensitive to footsteps. If you can get them far enough apart, the airfoil will be a good way to knock them out. Just hit them once, run up and knock them down, then quickly grab the airfoil before it disappears. Of course, you can also try making a noise with your sonic emitter and getting them far enough away from the equipment to pick it up and dive into the water nearby before they manage to see you.

JBA Objective: Use The Detonators To Destroy The Ice Wall

Somehow this detachment of soldiers from the tanker (and since when does everyone on an oil tanker carry automatic weapons?) managed to let a wall of ice freeze up and block them from returning to the ship. Not too smart. Luckily, the bombs they’re placing to free up the ship from its ice prison will let you open a path back to it; you just have to detonate them without getting killed.

Begin by dragging the guy near the first weak spot in the ice to his death. (Some kills are apparently unavoidable in this mission, but he should eventually move away from the spot if you don’t want to harm him.) Hop up from there, but instead of heading towards the buildings in the distance, head right to find another body of water and dive in. From there, head back underneath the ice and go towardss the closest weak spot you can see. There should be another soldier milling about on top of this spot. Lure him over by beating on the ice if need be and pull him under as well.

Explosivo

In addition to the two holes in the ice you’ve made, there’s an additional hole near the second one, as well as a sole remaining weak spot near one of the tents. You have to surface from one of these holes, preferably one near the shed or tents, in order to complete your objective. If you check your map, it should denote the position of the detonator you need to use. It’ll be in the middle of the two tents and the shed, and surrounded by pools of light.

Disabling the lights here will give you slightly more shadow to work with.

Don’t forget to keep your radar screen (left bumper button) up and running while you’re moving around here; it’ll be helpful in letting you see around blind corners. There are a couple of soldiers who will stick close to the wall that the explosives are planted in, so unless they spot you out of the corner of their eye, you shouldn’t need to worry about them. There will still be a couple of enemies roaming the area around the detonator, including one who will initially be sleeping in one of the tents.

With the radar active, it shouldn’t be overly difficult to disable the soldiers near the detonators. If you want to, you can puncture the gas tanks on the generators in the area, thus killing the lights, but since you’re going to be in constant yellow light anyway, this won’t help overmuch in terms of keeping you hidden, although it will force the enemies to be closer to you to get a positive hostile identification on you. Also of note, especially if you’re playing on Hard difficulty, are the two boxes of 5.56mm ammo in this area. One of them is in the tent with the table, on the table itself, and the other one is on a box in the shed, right near the generator there. If you want to finish the mission on Hard difficulty, pick up both of them.

When the area’s cooled down a bit, head towards the detonators and hack them to blow the ice wall. With any luck, this will kill the two soldiers over there, although if you pulled them from their position earlier by being seen, they probably will remain alive. No big deal; just avoid them and run towards the hole in the ground where the explosives went up, then dive in to move on.