Cheshire: Northern Command

No Way Out

This mission starts out somewhat unfairly, with a group of eight or so Hybrids jumping you as soon as it starts. There’s cover in one of the short hallways nearby, so duck into it before tagging and taking out the Hybrids one by one, or killing them off with grenades. Move through the mess hall beyond them, then back into the tunnels beyond that. You have to be careful here, as Hybrids will attempt to ambush you, both by surprising you from in front of you and from behind.

Slipstreams slow you down, but they can’t move outside of the room that they start in, letting you pick them apart at leisure.

When you head out to a larger corridor that leads off to the right, you can search off to the left to find some grenades and other items, but two Steelheads will come after you. The sound of Auger rounds penetrating the base’s hallways will still echo after you take them both down. Up the steps in the hallway, you’ll find the Intel: Cheshire: Invasion intel, near a dead body in the tangled generator room. It’s right in the middle of the room, so it shouldn’t be hard to spot.

There are plenty more Hybrids in the rail room nearby, mostly clustered within the storage boxes. You can snipe them from afar, if you like, or unload your Auger into the boxes to tag most of them before moving on. Pass through the bunking corridor to the shower room, and from the hole there move through the tunnels beyond the armory until you reach a corridor where a new type of enemy awaits you: the Slipskulls. These are essentially smaller Hybrids, built for speed and stealth; they can attach to walls and fire on you from above. Don’t enter the corridor where they dwell; just hang back in the tunnel, lean out to tag one of them at a time, and fire from cover; they’ll die pretty quick.

He Who Controls The Spice

The officer’s quarters here are threadbare, but they do contain a couple of useful items. If you head into the doors on the right side of the corridor, you’ll find a tunnel that’s been dug between two of the quarters; the one at the end of the tunnel you’ll find a desk in the darkness with Air-Fuel Grenades on it, as well as the Intel: Cheshire: Specimen Tank document.

At the end of the corridor here, it’ll look like you’re heading for a dead end, but before you know it, a huge Chimeran worm will tunnel through the corridor. Jump up into the tunnel it leaves behind and follow it until you reach another room, which suspiciously enough bears no other tunnels in it; apparently the worm was created here, grew to full size, and then tunneled through to your location without boring through any other walls. Regardless, head up the walkways to the top of the room and flip the switch there to open the doorway leading on.

The large generator room here is empty, until you drop down, when two Howlers attack you. Take them both out, then wander through the corridors beyond this area to find the switches that will reactivate the generators.

Secrets

The lights are on! Kill your way back to the generator and climb the stairs. A new path is open to you, so head through. When you reach the long, darkened corridor, get ready for an ambush. Eight hybrids all told will come at you, and you don’t have much cover to work with. We found it best to use the Fareye to take them down; once you get into the rhythm of tapping L1 to zoom in, hitting right on your d-pad to zoom in, firing at their head, and letting go of L1, you should find yourself able to chain together headshots quickly enough to take them down before they reach you. It’s important to let go of the button after firing; if you hold it down your slomo meter will fill up and take a goodly amount of time to recharge.

You can destroy Leaper Pods with grenades, if you wish, but it’s not really necessary.

Head into the open room here, follow the path through the vents below through the Leapers, then come up into another small generator room and flip the switch in the hallway. You’re going to face a Steelhead ambush in the next tunnel, so be ready for bullets coming at you through the walls. Best to take them down with grenades, if possible.

Crawl through the next worm tunnel, but be ready for Leaper Pods. Each of these will eventually hatch and issue forth a leaper. You can only destroy them with explosives, but if you want to save your grenades, feel free to walk forward enough to trigger the pods, then back up as they slither out and shoot them with your shotgun.

You’ll reach the Map Room shortly thereafter.

Angel

Time to kill a vampire with a soul. Make your way out of the map room to the autopsy room nearby. Kill the Menials, then look at the desks in the center of the room to find the Intel: Cheshire: Post Mortem document. Bust through the glass here and move up the stairs to find a small room that’ll be flooding with Hybrids as you arrive. If you want to get the "Why are these candles screaming?" Skill, bust out your air-fuel grenades and throw them into the room as Hybrids arrive. You need to kill 8 of them with fire in 30 seconds to earn the skill.

More autopsy rooms await you as you move on. The Hybrids will fire through the frosted windows, so be careful not to think you’re safe just because you can’t see anyone. The first autopsy room on your right will have the Intel: Cheshire: Autopsy file on a table inside.

Move on to have your first encounter with Grey Jacks, failed Hybrids that are being cooked from the inside out by their speedy metabolisms. They’re big and move quick, and will slash away at your life with each swipe of their claws. Keep your Rossmore handy; one round will stun them and three will usually finish them off. If you want to get tricky, making Bullseye grenades with the tags can be an amusing way to take them down, since there’s a bit of a gap in between rounds of Grey Jack action. There’s a box of Fareye ammo in the middle of the room, too, so feel free to use that to nab some slo-mo headshots.

The Fight

When you’re good to go, head up the stairs nearby and wade out into the firefight going on between the Hybrids and the soldiers outside the Angel’s cell. Bust some heads with your Fareye, if you can, but try not to take much damage either way, as this is only the preliminary fight.

A single air-fuel grenade, timed properly, will end this fight right quick.

When all of the Hybrids are dead, you should start hearing some odd noises in the area. This presages the appearance of a Chimera worm that’ll pop out of the rear wall of the room when you approach it. This fight can either be really, really tough or really, really easy. You’re going to be facing numerous Hybrids, as well as a couple of Steelheads, so there won’t be many places to hide. You can try to fire back with the Auger, but you’ll likely get surrounded by foes and taken down rather quickly.

In one of the train cars, though, you can find some air-fuel grenades. If you wait for the worm to pop out of the wall, then lay down a couple of grenades in front of the hatch as it opens up, you’ll kill everything that comes out in one fell swoop.

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