Grandmaster Adams want the Freelancer to meet their newest prisoner, Doctor Harken, who would only speak with the person who captured him. Commander Vule is skeptical about what might happen, but agrees to let the doctor speak with the Freelancer. What does the Dominion Arcanist really want?
Objectives
- Report to Grandmaster Adams
- Meet Adams at Fort Tarsis Prison
- Collect Materials for Harken
- Suit Up
- Head to Ursix location
- Recover Crystal Quill from Bristleback
- Defeat Ursix
- Find Bristleback
- Get Bristleback Crystal
- Locate Scars
- Explore Further
- Recover 5 Fragments
- Locate Escari Swarm Leader
- Acquire Pneumatic Leg
- Pick up Leg
- Travel to Faye’s coordinates
- Acquire Dominion transtator for Harken
- Defeat Dominion troops
- Defeat Crystal Guardians
- Destroy 8 Clusters (of Crystals
- Destroy Crystal Emitter
- See Harken About Building the Egress
- Speak with Harken
- Two Weeks Earlier
- Present Day
Script and Walkthrough
Briefing
Report to Grandmaster Adams
Meet Adams at Fort Tarsis Prison
- Enter Prison
- Interact with Adams
- Adams: "Thank you for coming."
- Freelancer: "You said Harken wants to talk to me?"
- Vule: "I dislike the precedent this sets. Prisoners do not make demands of fort residents."
- Adams: "Time is of the essence, commander. We didn’t have a choice."
- Harken: "No, you really didn’t."
- Freelancer: "Alright, Doctor. I’m here. What did you want to tell me?"
- Harken: "You’re carrying a lot of tension, Freelancer. If you don’t learn to relax, you will ruin your health."
- Freelancer: "If that’s all you wanted, we’re done here."
- Harken: "Now that’s just sad. Your stodgy betters have rubbed off on you. Do you really want to wind up like Vule, here?"
- Vule: "You have two minutes, Doctor. Whatever you wanted to say, say it now."
- Harken: "Patience is virtue, Commander. Just look at the poor Monitor for that lesson. With our borders under attack, he was set to weaponize the Cenotaph. But he just couldn’t wait for us. And now Vara’s made the same brash mistake. Lancers are so hasty. I blame the jets."
- Freelancer: "Vara’s trying to weaponize another Shaper relic?"
- Harken: " Oh, yes— without a cypher. Very poor choice, but she just wouldn’t wait for another Monitor to arrive. She has convinced her Valkyries that she can control the cataclysm through sacrifice—her sacrifice. She is prepared to give her own life for the Dominion, to stop the Urgoth attacks and reshape the world."
- Freelancer: "That didn’t work for the Monitor. Why would it work for her?"
- Harken: "Oh it won’t. but she won’t hear it. She’s already begun activating the relic. You’ve see the result."
- Adams: "The storm on the horizon."
- Harken: "What you call a storm is a solid wall of Shaper energy. With no way in or out."
- Freelancer: "All right, that could be a problem."
- Harken: "Lucky for you, I was working on a solution when you interrupted me. A gating device."
- Freelancer: "Gates. Like the ones the Dominion uses? The ones that send different soldiers out than went in?"
- Harken: "This one is much more stable, I assure you. I was planning to use it myself, after all. But what’s a little irrevocable transformation compared to the end of the world? The Egress is your only hope. Bring me what I need to build it, and you can go to Vara. Sound fair?"
- Adams: "You’ll get your materials."
- Vule: "He can’t be allowed to have tools or equipment of any kind without supervision."
- Harken: "Surely your good Sentinels are up to the task of guarding one poor Arcanist, Commander."
- Freelancer: "Why do I think we’re going to regret this?"
In Mission
Collect Materials for Harken
Suit Up!
- Faye: "Connection established. Adams gave me a list of…wait. This can’t be right? According to this we’ll need a Shaper relic, crystals from a bristleback, and a Dominion transtator. Sending you possible coordinates for a bristleback. I’m still working on the rest."
Head to Ursix location
- Faye: "Linking in Harken."
- Freelancer: "The let him out of cell for this?"
- Faye: "No. just gave him a link. That’s still too much if you ask me."
- Harken: "Freelancer! Isn’t it exciting to be working together? I’m looking forward to this. By the way, I also need you to bring me a pneumatic leg from an Escari."
- Freelancer: "An Escari leg? Why?"
- Harken: "It’s an important part of the design. Just the leg! I certainly cant use the rest of it."
- Freelancer: "Right."
- At reaching the location
- Freelancer: "Faye, I’ve got ursix here. Multiple ursix."
- Faye: "I’m detecting bristleback as well. Get rid of these two, and maybe it will draw it out."
- Combat begins
Recover Crystal Quill from Bristleback
Defeat Ursix
- Combat ends
- Freelancer: "Last one down. Where’s that bristleback, Faye?"
- Faye: "Found it! It’s not too far away. And only one tis time."
- Freelancer: "Something tells me “one” doesn’t exactly mean “easy”."
Find Bristleback
- Go to new location
- Freelancer: "Faye, technically there’s only one, but it’s big enough to count as two. At least. Maybe three."
Get Bristleback Crystal
- Combat begins
- Harken: "Bristleback are fascinating creatures, aren’t they? Their migrations in the north are quite—"
- Freelancer: "Shut up, Harken. Faye?"
- Faye: "Don’t panic. You’ve fought titans. You can handle this."
- Combat ends
- Collect the quest item (yellow) dropped by the bristleback
- Freelancer: "Got the crystals."
- Faye: "Excellent. I’ve found our next target."
Locate Scars
- Faye: "There are Scars nearby, and a lot of Shaper energy. It’s fair to say they’re tampering with a relic."
- Harken: "That sounds fascinating. I want to hear all the details when you get back."
- Head to the location
- Enter The Mandible
Explore Further
- Faye: "There’s definitely a relic in here. That’s the good news."
- Freelancer: "Do I want to know the bad news?"
- Faye: "The closer we get, the more Scar signatures I detect."
- Harken: "How interesting! I wish I could see this."
Recover 5 Fragments
- Combat begins
- Freelancer: "Found the relic, Faye. It’s about one moment from going critical. What are the scars doing with it?"
- Faye: "What do Scars do with anything? Just get it away from them. Fast."
- Freelancer: "Faye, what’s the big energy field thing?"
- Faye: "That’ll mess with your javelin’s cargo."
- Harken: "Now that’s interesting. Those fields are Dominion technology. Did the Scars steal it, or mimic it, I wonder?"
- If carrying a cargo and passing through the suppression field
- Faye: "Relic fragment lost. That field just stripped it off your Javelin."
- After inserting all 5 relic fragments back
- Faye: "Relic secured. With this level of Scar coordination, you can bet an Escari is directing them."
Locate Escari Swarm Leade r
- Faye: "Detecting what might be an Escari further in. might be best to clear this lot out first."
- Combat ends
- Head further into The Mandible
Acquire Pneumatic Leg
Pick up Leg
- Combat begins
- Faye: "There’s our Escari. A veritable array of pneumatic legs to choose from."
- Freelancer: "Just what I wanted."
- Collect the quest item (yellow) dropped by the Luminary
- Combat ends
- Faye: "Excellent! Just the transtator left. And I think I might have found one."
Travel to Faye’s coordinates
- Faye: " I’ve located a dominion gate device for a transtator, but be careful. It’s on the edge of a conjunction."
- Freelancer: "A conjunction?"
- Faye: "Don’t worry about it yet. You might not have to go inside."
- Exit The Mandible
- Freelancer: "Quick question before I reach the transtator… what exactly is a transtator? I’ve never heard of it before."
- Faye: "They’re components for the gate devices the Dominion use."
- Harken: "A transtator is responsible for connecting two non-continuous regions together."
- Faye: "Right. It’s part of the gate device. Which is what I just said."
- Freelancer: "Okay. All I needed to know was, “don’t blow up the gate device.” But the rest is helpful…"
- When near the location
- Faye: "Be careful, you’re approaching the conjunction. Visibility is going to be poor."
- Freelancer: "I noticed the change in the weather."
- At reaching the location
Acquire Dominion transtator for Harken
- Combat begins
- Freelancer: "I’m here, Faye. How do I find the transtator."
- Faye: "Take it one thing at a time. The crystals are your top priority. Destroy them to access the gate."
- Freelancer: "On it"
Destroy the 4 Clusters (of Crystals)
- Faye: "Focus your fire on the crystals. If you don’t disable that gate, the Dominion will use it to bring reinforcement."
- When the crystal clusters are destroyed
Defeat Dominion troops
- Combat ends
- Freelancer: "why can’t I access the gate? All the crystal anchor things are gone. I’m detecting more underground. They’re gowing."
- Harken: "Using crystal formations as anchors was a poor choice. They scatter energy in unpredictable ways."
Defeat Crystal Guardians
Destroy 8 Clusters (of Crystals)
- Faye: "Look out! You’ve got Furies inbound. They’re resonating with the crystals."
- Freelancer: "Why do I get the feeling that’s bad?"
- Combat begins
- harken: "I told you using crystals was messy. Furies are not very stable. The effect on them will be… interesting."
- Freelancer: "The crystals are exploding!"
- Harken: "What an exciting side effect! I must write this down."
- Defeat the Ancient Crystal Guardian
- Harken: "If my former colleagues were going to try to replicate my work, you’d think they would be more cautious."
- Freelancer: "Your work? You built this thing?"
- Harken: "Hardly. This, my dear Freelancer, appears to be a larger, cruder form of the Egress I’m designing. Vara tempered with her relic too early and left much of her forces trapped outside the energy wall. They’re simply trying to get inside to reach her, just like you."
- Combat ends
- Crystals are destroyed
- Faye: "Focus on disabling the gate’s anchors."
Destroy Crystal Emitter
- Destroy the crystal on the gate device
- Faye: "The gate’s disabled. You can take the transtator now."
- Pick up the transtator
- Faye: "That’s everything on Harken’s list. Let’s get you back and put him to work."
- Freelancer: "Music to my ears, Faye"
- Harken: "This has been so much fun. I feel like part of the team."
- Freelancer: "This device better work, Harken. I even got your damned Escari leg."
- Harken: "You actually did that? Wonderful! I only asked to see if you’d go through with it."
- Freelancer: "What? (Sighs.)"
Post-Mission
Everything Harken wanted Harken got. It might just have been entertainment for him. At least the Egress was finished.
It is hinted that some time has passed between this mission and the next. So the next time the Freelancer visits Dr. Harken, the Arcanist would have made preparations.