Night Terrors is the fifth mission of the Nova Covert Ops campaign, and the second mission of the second mission pack.
History
The Highlord's Bargain
Alarak arrives on the Griffin
Following her return to the Griffin from Tyrador IX, Nova found Highlord Alarak of the Tal'darim aboard her ship. She raised her gun against him, but was stopped by Reigel. Alarak told her that the Defenders of Man had attacked a Tal'darim outpost and then retreated, and that the Tal'darim sought vengeance against them. Alarak noticed that Nova was once one of the Defenders of Man, and thus decided to try to help her restore her memories using terrazine. Alarak made her a bargain; he would help her get terrazine, and in return she would lead him to the Defenders of Man.[1]
Mission
"I think she's still mad about her mothership. This isn't going to be easy..."
Alarak lead Nova to the planet of Jarban Minor, a former Umojan Protectorate colony that went dark. Nova and First Ascendant Ji'nara set up bases, with Ji'nara saying that this would be a competition to see if she could gather the terrazine before the Tal'darim destroyed the extraction devices. She found the terrazine was being extracted from the native Jarban gliders of Jarban Minor, and enough could be gathered using the Umojan devices already set up.
Upon reaching an extraction device, she found the fate of the expedition; they had become infested. Nova was swarmed by infested Umojans and zerg, but her forces were able to beat them back. During her operations, Nova ran into stranded remains of the Umojan expedition sent to the planet, who aided her in return for a way off of the planet. In addition, Reigel noted a mine nearby, which contained a blightbringer with Umojan technology embedded in it. In addition, Reigel made light of a nearby Umojan science facility with deserted technology inside, but the facility was guarded by sentry bots and two heavily armed eradicators.
Nova was able to obtain the canisters of terrazine before Ji'nara destroyed the extraction devices. Alarak warped in to meet her, saying that she would gain knowledge of the Defenders of Man, provided the terrazine didn't destroy her mind. Nova asked how should she contact him when she found the Defenders of Man, and Alarak stated that when the time came, he would know.[2]
Walkthrough
This mission is similar to other holdout missions such as "Welcome to the Jungle," but has the added obstacle of endless waves of infested terrans swarming the player like in "Outbreak." Nova's Hellfire shotgun and grenades are useful during this mission, as is siege tanks no longer requiring tech labs. Liberators with either cloak or the ability to quickly transform is also very helpful.
When defending from the zerg waves, have the liberator rings hug tight to the extraction device to ensure maximum overlap. In later stages, be sure to have a few in fighter mode, as infested banshees, infested siege tanks, and mutalisks will begin to attack as well. Suicidal volatile infested also make a return, and can break clumped groups of marines. A tight bunch of liberators, marines, siege tanks and goliaths should hold any point, so long as Nova supports them. Be sure to reposition liberators if needed, as attacks can come from all angles.
Both bonus objectives are boss fights, and are Nova against a boss enemy. These can be done at any time during the mission without worry, as the battle outside pauses while Nova is in the cave or science facility. During the battle against the blightbringer, stay out of the blight it spawns, and focus down the large eggs it creates. Use area of effect on the other eggs, and focus him down. The second fight against two eradicators is purely based around avoiding the red dots and lines, as they advertise their attacks.
When the Tal'darim attempt to destroy an extraction device, send a group of liberators to take them out. Focus down their warp prism in order to prevent ground reinforcements. If they are moving toward a path that has not been cleared, wait for them to attack the zerg fortifications first, as it will make them easier to take out and will weaken the zerg defenses around the extraction points.
The Umojan outpost up North consists of resource clusters, an extraction device, a HERC compound, a missle turret and a bunker with four War pigs garrisoned inside. In addition, a War pig and HERCs are present outside. It is advisable to build a new base there to get additional resources and the extraction device. The HERCs can be trained from the compound and are immune to the volatile infested acid. The compound cannot be rebuilt if destroyed.
While it is possible to destroy the Zerg's main hive cluster and the Tal'darim nexus point with nukes and a massive army, this does not end the mission and the protoss will continue to warp in above the site of the Nexus point to destroy the extraction devices.
Achievements
 Night Terrors
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Complete the “Night Terrors” mission in Nova: Covert Ops. |
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 Liberty Rains from Above
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Destroy 500 units with liberators in the "Night Terrors" mission. |
| Notes | |
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The achievement name is likely a reference to a quote by Pharah from the Blizzard Entertainment game Overwatch. | |
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 Save the Whales
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Complete the "Night Terrors" mission without any extraction devices being destroyed on Normal difficulty or higher. |
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 Friendly Competition
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Complete the "Night Terrors" mission without killing any Tal'darim units on Hard difficulty or higher. |
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 Up Close and Personal
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| Points |
10 |
| Criteria |
Complete the "Night Terrors" mission without building Siege Tanks or Liberators on Normal difficulty. |
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Trivia
- If Nova dies during one of the bonus objective boss battles and returns them after she is revived, a batch of vespene gas will appear where she died. If picked up, it will give the notification "+800 souls retrieved," (the number is 100 times Nova's kills), but has no tangible gameplay effect. This is possibly a reference to the Dark Souls franchise.
References
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II: Nova Covert Ops. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Cinematic: The Highlord's Bargain. (in English). 2016.
- ↑ Blizzard Entertainment. StarCraft II. (Activision Blizzard). PC. Mission: Nova Covert Ops, Night Terrors (in English). 2016-08-02.