[Nix]

I'm Graham Nix, the Director of Petrov's Shard.

I'm still uncertain exactly how we reached you, but my contacts often refuse to reveal the full picture.  Nevertheless, welcome to our family.

Belacqua informs me that you have no prior experience as a Tactician but given your references, I believe you should do just fine.

We manage our combat operations according to the Petrov's Prism philosophy: small groups of vatform units, known as "systems", controlled entirely by tactical data sent via the shape.  

[Belacqua]

Vatforms know how to walk and fire a gun but give them a crossword to solve and they'll probably try and eat it.

[Nix]

Shapeforms like Belacqua on the other hand...well, they're all brain and no brawn.

Now, to business.  As you are no doubt aware, we are engaged in a campaign to subvert Enyo:Nomad.

Our first target is the Nashar Research Institute in Torpor: we will be breaking in to extract our double-agent Kate Soulsby.

This operation will be comprised of three missions: the initial incursion, an attack on Enyo:Nomad's research programme and then the extraction.

Minor Tacticians will control the systems initially: if we hit any difficult chokepoints, you will be patched in.

Let's get to it, Tactics.