| “ | With the Soviets beginning their march through Europe, PsiCorps must subvert a heavily guarded choke point, softening up the European Alliance's defense and granting the Russian tank divisions safer passage into Western Europe. | ” |
| —Mission description |
Accelerant is the second mission of the Epsilon Act One campaign. Like the first mission, Peacekeeper, this is a micro-intensive mission, in which the player must depend in unit management and mind control constantly to accomplish the objectives, here.
Background
With the threat of the Peacekeeper network neutralized, PsiCorps, with the exception of establishing its Psychic Beacons, relatively stayed out of that conflict - the Soviets had their own battles to fight and thus the Proselyte was chosen to conduct another critical operation.
In addition to the conquest of America, Romanov and the Politburo desired the reclamation of its former territories it lost during the previous war. One of these is Ukraine, which, along with Poland and the United Baltic Republic, have had guarantees from America as well as the European Alliance, and thus have gotten too used with their freedom, to the point of fighting themselves against their former Soviet comrades to defend it.
The Battle for Ukraine wouldn't be further difficult weren't for the fact the Soviet Commander in charge is an amateur - enough to drive his forces straight through the Verecke Pass, a heavily defended choke point, littered with Allied forces and Artillery Bunkers.
Though reluctant, PsiCorps chose to perform this operation for its own reasons: Despite its successes, PsiCorps' funding and even independence were always criticized by Soviet Command. It'd take but a single failure for them to take advantage of Yuri's fragile position.
Events
A small PsiCorps team under the Proselyte's command airdropped behind enemy lines along with a small Soviet infantry team as escort, right as the first wave of Soviet forces tried advancing through the Pass, but were shortly obliterated not only by enemy numbers, but by the Artillery Bunkers, as well. The gravity of the situation as well as the Soviet Commander's impatience meant the Proselyte had much less time than he had when he had to deactivate the Peacekeepers in America.
Fighting heavy enemy resistance, especially close to the Bunkers, the Proselyte figured that, instead of destroying them, he could turn the Bunkers to in turn soften enemy defenses at the pass below. The greatest issue, however, was that he had no Engineers given to him, so he had to resort "convince" the ones already in the field to his side. The first two Bunkers, close to a bridge connecting both sides of the pass and also near an Allied base, were captured, but some of PsiCorps' escort had to remain behind to defend them from European reclamation attempts. The 'replacements' had to come from mind-controlled Allied forces.
On the other side of the bridge lied not only garrisoned troops near a farmhouse, but also a small European outpost with a Barracks in it. The PsiCorps Adepts nearly strained themselves fighting through it, but they had managed to capture the Barracks with a spare mind-controlled Engineer, ensuring a supply of infantry that could fight through the defenses to the other Artillery Bunkers. On their hand, the Artillery Bunkers the Proselyte managed to capture had been at work devastating European positions whom didn't have air support to neutralize the enemy threat.
By then the second wave had arrived and, despite renewed artillery support, it was also defeated. The Proselyte was warned that the Soviet Commander would make one last attempt to push through and would mass up forces for it. If that wave was equally routed as the other two, the Soviets would have to abort, meaning a defeat for PsiCorps. With limited time, the Proselyte used all forces from the Barracks he captured to push through the defending Allied Forces and captured the remaining Artillery Bunkers, whom were working around the clocking softening up as much European forces on the pass as they could. Along the way, PsiCorps spotted a reserve of unmanned Allied vehicles that the Proselyte immediately ordered be commandeered, as he prepared his subverted forces for a suicidal plan - Even if the final Soviet advance managed to come through the Pass, he doubted there'd be enough strength to fight through and destroy the Allied base he discovered earlier, since it guarded the Pass' only landslide access to the upper cliff.
The Proselyte's forces, despite the advantage, waited until the third final wave arrived to start their advance on the Allied base, and even with the Allied vehicles they captured, the final fight was all but easy. Fortunately, they managed to break through and hold the access long enough for the last of Soviet forces to pass through and finish enemy resistance. Stragglers would be mopped up hours later.
Aftermath
The capture of Ukraine meant not only the reclamation of a former USSR territory, but also allowed further access towards Western Europe. Pretty much like it happened in Vanderberg, PsiCorps also pulled out and allowed the Soviets to fight their own war.
One important thing to note is the level of distrust concerning PsiCorps despite their proven success time and again by Soviet Command. This would be further explained in the next mission, when PsiCorps would depend on a terrorist leader and engineering genius, Rashidi, to obtain Mobile Construction technology, one of the many sacrifices PsiCorps had to make if they were ever to get off the ground.
Walkthrough
In this mission, the PsiCorps Troopers and player-owned Engineers (whether mind-controlled or trained) will not be fired upon by the Tech Artillery Bunkers.
