Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow Diaries Part Four

This is my ongoing exploration of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series, played in release order, where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. This time I continue Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow.

After a couple of difficult missions followed by a fairly straightforward trip to Milan, I was heading into things with a bit more pep in my step…

It turned out that a downer point for Operation: Castle was letting one of the terrorist higher ups escape. As it happened, he ran to Tunisia, which is where Operation: Ruins began on 14th August 2008. The terrorists were holed up in an old Roman temple outside Tozeur. We were to make our way to the temple in the middle, and find any links we could between the various groups we had encountered. I was warned to watch the corners, and told that the terrorists had been recorded speaking in various Russian dialects. I equipped my M16A2 and deployed.

After very carefully sneaking, nice and slowly, through the empty hallways I was immediately fired upon by an RPG the moment I spotted the first terrorist. Luckily, before the rocket hit near me, I managed to shoot the rocketeer. Popping my head back out from behind cover, I shot his buddy who was inexplicably not ready and waiting for me. Nor was a third man who was crouched next to a wall as if I was coming from behind him, despite the fact that I snuck up to the left of his position.

Unfortunately, the people on the other side of the staircase I had left on my left flank threw a grenade at us, causing me to leg it into their oncoming fire. It was also at this point that I realised I had only come with Eddie Price, the other two mysteriously absent from this mission.

I killed another terrorist inside a building, who was just stood there doing nothing next to a map and radio, and moved on carefully. It was a good thing, too, as from my elevated position I noticed three more terrorists milling around and seemingly waiting for me to come down to them in a moment.

Heading down into an enclosed area, I followed a terrorist as he wandered away from me. I shot him in the back, and as I crept forward another man ran from the left while a third shot at me from an opening right at the back of the corridor. Eddie and I finished them off and moved forwards, shooting another one who appeared in the window. At the end of the corridor, I had a firefight with a handful more terrorists, then moved into the next corridor.

There were barred windows on alternating sides as I went forwards, so I kept an eye on them. It was a good thing, too, as more terrorists tried to shoot me from them. Moving down some stairs, I entered a wide open area with a gantry along the top. I shot a couple of men, one left and one right, before going up some stairs to access the upper level and gantry. I shot some men opposite then went to a stairwell and shot a man at the top.

After checking the way was clear, I went inside the shrine to check the area ahead, the route to the temple. Eddie shot at some enemies that I couldn’t see, then we moved out. A grenade made me stop and rethink for a moment, but we had to go on, and it was only a smoke grenade anyway. The terrorist who threw it was behind a pillar, and easy to shoot in the back after I leant around from my position.

With some sneaky sniping, I shot a terrorist who was off the actual path, and snuck on through the open plan corridor. We were almost ambushed, but we ducked into an open prison cell and fended them off. The guy in the cell at the end, however, shot me before I noticed and shot him. With our backs against a wall, I watched as a terrorist rushed towards us, as I fired my grenade launcher directly at him - having been actually aiming for it to go down the ramp which he had just rushed up.

Down the ramp, a bright light silhouetted a terrorist against the wall. I snuck silently towards him, when suddenly he legged it and a grenade came dropping down in front of me. Thankfully, I hadn’t moved forwards and was clear of the blast zone, but he was still ready for me when I did move forwards, shooting me from his position above me before I could kill him. Around the corner, another bright light coming through an archway was accompanied by another grenade and a second terrorist, one of which I avoided, the other I shot.

Up some stairs, my objective updated - I was at the temple, and now had to storm the hideout. Leaving the safety of the corridor, the temple loomed to one side, a blank wall to the right, and a bunch of terrorists in front of me. A dust storm was blowing through, so it messed with my aiming somewhat, but we got through it.

Climbing the temple steps, I kept an eye out for more terrorists, and it was a good thing too! There were at least four waiting to try and kill me inside, and Eddie shot some who popped out of a building opposite, atop my so-called blank wall.

At the rear of the temple was a staircase which led to a bunker, outfitted with beds and lockers. Two terrorists were inside the bunk room, with a bunch more on the other side running around like headless chickens in the store room.

Exiting ever so carefully, I was surprised when someone shot at the archway that I was about to enter, the sheet covering flapping madly as they did so. Then the madman ran out and straight towards me! I shot him, then his mates who followed - though they came out much slower.

After hacking the laptop inside, the mission was over. Mission success in 26:09.71, with 61 dead terrorists! My score was 39757, and I was glad that mission was done with. We were certainly entering the endgame, with only three missions to go - speaking of which, we were off to Athens!

RAINBOW had been capturing related terrorist cells left and right thanks to my recent efforts, but one had seemingly been warned. Which was what was taking me to Athens on 1st September 2008. The terrorists had a bomb which, in theory, could kill thousands if it went off.

What John Clark failed to mention was the 11-minute time limit which began flashing above my minimap as I deployed! Trying to be fast, and yet slow enough to avoid ambushes, was not my strong suit. However, I did manage to shoot the first terrorist who snuck out above us, and my men shot the one who came from the right.

At the end of the street, another man came rolling out from around the corner, dying to our bullets. Around the corner was another man sneaking straight towards us, but managing to distract me from the one popping out from the windows behind and above him. Another opened the windows on the ground floor, while a third loaded a rocket launcher. He didn’t get a chance to use it as they all were shot.

As I tried to take out the men approaching from the right, my men shot the one hiding behind a gate to my left. Checking before I continued down the alley, I spotted two men behind some wooden pallets and shot them before moving onwards to enter the market. Literally the first stall I came across had a terrorist inside, waiting to shoot me. It was a good thing I expected it, and shot him first.

The first turning had a couple more terrorists, who tried to grenade me before I shot them. I was noticing that the men here were very grenade-happy… Despite Clark’s warning that this area would be perfect for snipers, we only had to shoot a couple of surprise attackers before leaving the marketplace.

In the next street, a gate ahead of me fell over followed by two terrorists, who we killed. Further down the alleyway were more terrorists and some stairs letting us get past some scaffolding. Up the stairs, it led around to stairs leading back down, as well as some more terrorists and grenades.

At the end of the latest alleyway, we reached the next objective - the ruins. One terrorist hid between the remains of some pillars, while two more waited to the right. Once we’d dealt with them, two came out onto the veranda while a third fired at us from behind a fence. Quickly running out of time by now, we entered a building, and I was surprised by a terrorist opening windows in front of me and gunning me down.

Luckily, I had saved not too long ago, so getting back was pretty simple. Annoyingly, the guy who opened the window wasn’t there, so I had to exact revenge on his friend around the corner. Leaving the building, we were in another market area and almost pinned down by some terrorists with the high ground. Thanks to their needing to reload, we shot them and moved on to the building which housed the loudly-beeping bomb.

A few terrorists awaited us on the ground floor, with a couple more on the upper level. It was an indoor market, so there were plenty of places to hide, but we went up a ramp, and I shot the final terrorist who raced out to attack. The area relatively safe, I disarmed the bomb with exactly three minutes to spare.

The mission was a success in 08:10.85 with 53 terrorists dead, and a score of 51116. The next mission was almost a month away, so I decided to relax. I would have to go to “one of the tongue-twister republics” of Russia, and that could wait…