| Mission | Walkthrough | Gallery | Changelog |
| “ | To deal with the threat of the Chinese, Rahn and his forces invade one of their newly established bases. Yuri hopes to acquire intel in order to learn about their new developments. | ” |
| —Mission description |
Operation: Metaphor is the ninth Epsilon cooperative mission.
Briefing
Despite our failure to stop them, the Soviet negotiations were unsuccessful. Still, as China controls most of the Far East, it remains a major threat to us. To collect intel about their activities, we'll infiltrate their base at Leyte Gulf. China's navy on the Philippine Sea is heading east, giving us an opening. This Atomheart might be connected to a larger Chinese information network. If you can get Rahn close to it, he'll attempt to connect it with our devices.
Objective 1: Get Rahn close to the Atomheart.
Objective 2: Get Rahn to the Driller.
Events
Purge the frontal Chinese outpost
The Chinese fleet in the Philippine Sea had left, and the location of an Atomheart that may connect China's larger information network had also been revealed. As long as Rahn is close to it, he could get important information stored there.
Rahn and another squad arrived in the southwest of the battlefield and were ready to destroy the nearest Chinese base and build their front base to support Rahn’s actions. Rahn made a lot of Brutes while the other team destroyed the bridgehead's defense by letting infantry occupy the buildings, and let Gatling Tanks shoot down a Dragonfly and Gyrocopters ahead. When Rahn and his Brutes and the support team were about to empty the frontal Chinese outpost, Chinese commander deployed infantry reinforcements behind the support team. As soon as Rahn saw this, he immediately turned them all into Brutes. As the barrels in the outpost exploded one by one, the enemy’s first line of defense was dismantled and the Epsilon MCV along with 4 Marauder reached the place where the supporting team came.
Approaching the Atomheart
The deployment of the MCV caused the Chinese to be on alert. The troops in the south began to station its attacking troops behind the base, and those in the north also started to paradrop infantry to the base. The proselyte who controlled the base was focused on defending his base. Another proselyte took Rahn and Brutes to the port, cleared one side of the port, and captured a Helipad. When he captured Helipad, he received 6 Hijackers.
The advisor revealed the location of the three intersections for the proselytes. As long as the guards at these intersections are eliminated and when Rahn approaches there, the proselyte who commanded him will get more reinforcements. After he was cleared at the intersection of the west, he received four Speeder Trikes; another proselyte captured Helipad at a tram station and received 3 Epsilon Elites and 3 Viruses; the proselyte who controlled base captured the Tech Secret Lab on the hillside and later got the Chinese Dragonfly blueprint; after the intersection cleared at the northwest, there were two Magnetrons, and in the north there were four Marauders.
All the attacking forces went to the opposite side of the bridge in north base. Two proselytes discovered that there were many opposing enemy's defenses there. They discussed the tactics: let the proselyte who controlled base gather large numbers of troops and rushed across the bridge, and destroy the barrels there as fast as possible. After the large forces rushed across the bridge, the forces in the south also sent reinforcements to the north base, including many Terror Drones. Meanwhile, two proselytes also found some Pacific Front vehicles parked in the base. After the large troops completed the work of clearing the portal, Rahn approached the Atomheart and successfully linked Epsilon's network with the Atomheart's network.
After a brief analysis of the information obtained from Atomheart, Epsilon received three important pieces of information: First, the destination of the Chinese fleet was Totoya Island; Second, Chinese troops controlled more KI Labs in their country to develop certain new technology; Third, these technologies would be transferred to Kashmir from time to time. The Epsilon Army decided to launch corresponding operations soon, but Rahn must first evacuate from here.
Evacuate Rahn
Before the attack forces decided to open the way for Rahn, they eliminated a large number of Chinese interception troops while marching. After an Engineer captured a Tech Hospital at this time, the troops discovered that the Chinese troops on the other side of the port were using Dreadnoughts to bombard them, but this was totally overkill. Rahn destroyed those Dreadnoughts and after the final level was destroyed, he boarded Driller waiting in front of him and left the battlefield.
Aftermath
The data extracted from the Chinese outpost left the Epsilon in a state of surprise, since the very same Chinese fleet that had left Leyte Gulf was in fact heading towards to one of their main bases in the Pacific. The data also includes some classified information regarding the Chinese cybernetic research... which the Epsilon can use to lure the Russians.
But first, the Chinese navy must be dealt with; hence Yuri called his most trusted Proselyte for such operation.
Difficulty changes
Casual
- Starting credits for the 2nd player: 30000
- Chinese troops will be less aggressive.
- All player 1's infantry will quickly recover HP.
- 1 additional Mastermind will be included in the 1st player's reinforcement when reaching the top left corner of the map.
- Additional Stingers and Engineers are added to player 2's initial units.
- A Tech Heavy Machinery is present next to the ore field in the base construction area.
- Some enemy Terror Drones and Eradicators will be removed.
Normal
- Starting credits for the 2nd player: 20000
- Chinese troops' attack intensity is medium.
- A Tech Artillery Bunker on the cliff in the middle of the map is initially owned by the enemy.
Mental
- Starting credits for the 2nd player: 15000
- Chinese troops' attack intensity is the highest.
- When player 1's troops approach the bridge above the evacuation point, the enemy will send two Armadillos to attack the player from the right waterway.
- When player 1's troops pass the upper right bridge, reinforcements consisting of Gyrocopters and Pyros will arrive to attack.
- A Tech Artillery Bunker on the cliff in the middle of the map is initially owned by the enemy.
Easter egg
Capture the K.I. Laboratory east of the Atomheart to access a rechargeable Cryoshot support power. However, only Player 2 may access this support power, even if Player 1 captured the laboratory.
Behind the scenes
- This mission replaced Cornered in 3.3.3.
- Prior to version 3.3.5, this enemies at south was Russians, and this mission was meant to be "investigating the reformed Sino-Russian alliance", while the consequence during the gameplay was still find out the intel about Chinese experimental technology.
