Rainbow Six: Lockdown Diaries Part Seven

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: Lockdown.

Fresh from an operation in Marseilles, we had to fly south the very next day…

Operation: NATO Summit (such a subtle name) had us heading to Barcelona on 20th August 2009. The October Resistance - who we had just tangled with yesterday - had attacked the NATO Summit, taken hostages, and planned on detonating a Legion virus bomb. I was heading in with McAllen, Murad and Yacoby to get the hostages out, and stop that bomb from detonating.

We deployed in a corridor, and I led the way to the first door. My motion detector showed a weird reading just inside, so I opened the door expecting something dangerous. What I didn’t expect was a rotating globe! Also terrorists, who opened fire at me.

Once the area was clear, I went over to a security camera on the left and began disabling it. Unfortunately, my squad were almost immediately spotted, setting off an alarm and bringing some more terrorists inside before I had finished. Once the room was safe again, I spotted the control console on the reception desk, and deactivated the rest of the cameras.

Leading the way through one of the doors, we cleared some tangos and went through a large room containing a whole bunch of vases and paintings. Somehow, they all avoided the bullets, as did the artwork in the adjoining room when we shot people in there. The hallways led into what I can only describe as a security room, with a bunch of monitors along one wall, with more on a desk in the middle, and a screen showing the map of the building.

Of course, the security room was full of tangos, with more in two offices to the left as we entered. However, it was a fairly simple task to clear it out. The corridor leading out of the room actually took us outside of the building, where even more tangos awaited us. They were guarding the satellite dish which was set up to receive the signal to detonate the Legion bomb.

Once the area was clear - which was relatively easy, given the number of tangos - I deactivated the satellite dish and led the way back inside. The corridor led us down to an area set up for a broadcast, with cameras, bottles of win and a big canister of Legion. Again, things went well and we deactivated the bomb with little incident. With that complete, we loaded into the next area.

Now in front of some stairs, I checked the motion detector and spotted a bunch of men above us. I tossed up a grenade, but that either missed or just didn’t kill many of them, as we had to fight our way upstairs. At the top, I led the way through the hallways, checking the motion detector to clear the rooms to the left of the target room. Once the area was clear, I opened the door and took out the tangos inside before ordering my squad to nab the hostages. Keeping an eye on the motion detector, I noticed what looked like a grenade dangling on the other side of one of the closed doors, so I made sure to exit back out the way we had entered.

We had to clear the roof for extraction, so I led the way upstairs and shot two men. At the top, I ordered my men and the hostages to remain away from the door, and opened it a crack. The rooftop was swarming with tangos, two of whom were nearby. The rooftop to the left had a few, a handful were on the rooftop directly opposite, and there was a smattering of tangos on a lower level.

It was frustrating, but I eventually managed to kill them all - while one of the hostages complained that he was being shot. Venturing out of the doorway, I shot the final couple and called everyone out. Once they were in position, the mission ended. Mission success in 19:00, with 68 dead terrorists.

Five days later, on 25th of August 2009, Operation: Estate began as our informant from the October Resistance gave up a name. He had fingered a man named Bastian Vanderwaal as the one in charge of the Global Liberation Front - the terrorist group who had stolen Legion in the first place. Yes, that made them the sixth terror organisation that had come up since May 2009.

Lofquist, Pak, Yacoby and I deployed in Vanderwall’s Catalan Bay, Gibraltar mansion. More accurately, we deployed in the basement jetty of the warehouse complex on the estate. Even more accurately, as I would soon discover, it was one of two basement jetties! We moved off, going through to the second jetty which housed a small yacht - and some tangos. After shooting them, it led into a warehouse with stairs up to an office ahead of me, and more stairs to the left. And lots of tangos.

Annoyingly, once the area was clear, I had to use a door on the ground floor, so I had wasted time going up the stairs to check there… The corridor led into another warehouse full of shelving units, and of course tangos. There were also a handful of Legion canisters, too, which I avoided whilst shooting the enemy.

At the rear of the warehouse, a door led into the office complex connected to the warehouses, with an office and a staircase. Once I shot the two tangos, I went upstairs. The motion detector showed more tangos, but unfortunately, a grenade that I threw managed to miss them all. Upstairs was a canteen area, which connected to multiple office areas.

Within a few minutes, thanks to my motion detector the floor was secure, and we hacked the computer in Vanderwall’s office. Unfortunately, the network was secure, so Lofquist was apparently not that great a hacker. We had to go to Vanderwall’s home office to get his location.

Loading into the next area, we were treated to a cutscene of someone running to an office as security doors slammed shut on doors around him. Apparently, we had tripped an alarm as we stepped foot into the mansion, and so we had to disable the security systems.

Somehow, the tango behind the first door into a lounge area wasn’t expecting us. We shot some more tangos on our way through the adjoining corridor, and out into a reception area. A whole bunch of tangos showed up on my motion detector, but again I managed to miss them all with a grenade.

After a brief firefight, the area was clear and we headed through a door and upstairs. I could see that we were approaching a likely kill zone, so told my squad to hang back. Unfortunately, they didn’t and when I entered the open foyer we were attacked from the balcony from multiple assailants. Thankfully, the ones ahead and to the left of us were easy, and the ones directly above us (thanks motion detector!) were even easier.

We went upstairs and followed the hallway that had been above us, but found nothing except locked doors and the motion signals of tangos. So, we went back into the foyer and around the balcony to the opposite side. The corridor led to a blockade and a handful of tangos, with one positioned off to the right. A door to the left led into a dining room with more tangos who died soon after.

Across the hallway was a library/game room, with a pool table, two arcade machines and some tangos. Again going to the room across the next hallway was a fused shut door, a few tangos and the master bedroom. Lofquist hacked the console next to the bed, and then we had to go back the way we’d come. In the foyer were some more men, who we shot, then went back around the balcony to get to the previously-locked doors and two tangos.

By now I was almost out of ammo, so had to switch to my handgun. So, when I opened the door a small amount and headshot the first of the two men, I was happy. The second man took more ammo to put down, but down he went. A console in the room allowed Lofquist to deactivate the security systems, and my motion detector showed some men in the office next door.

Opening the door carefully, I shot two men, then got my rifle back out to expend the remainder of my ammo into the final two tangos. Lofquist hacked Vanderwall’s PC and we had his location.

Mission success in 28:35, with 82 dead terrorists. There wasn’t time for celebration, however, as we had to get going to Minorca - tomorrow!