**Halo Wars 2: What Could Go Wrong? — escort the Scarab and shut down the defenses**

**Halo Wars 2: What Could Go Wrong? — escort the Scarab and shut down the defenses** **Awakening the Nightmare, mission one. Story spoilers.** A Scarab sounds like all the help you could possibly need until the enemy starts attacking it from the air. Your job here is to keep that enormous machine moving, keep the Sentinel launch bays under control, and finish the Forerunner interface before the final defenders tear the escort apart. This is the opening of the separate Awakening the Nightmare campaign, not another mission from Operation: SPEARBREAKER. **Reach the base and suppress the launch bays** Follow the opening path. Use the Reavers' jump to cross the inactive lightbridge and activate the route for the other units. Break the obstructions and gather resources as you move toward the base. The **Disruption Emitter** disables the nearby Sentinel threats temporarily. Put it over the launch bay when introduced, clear the remaining enemies and build defenses. Keep checking those bays throughout the mission: one emitter does not shut them down permanently. Use the preparation period to improve income and build an escort with anti-air damage and Engineers. Reavers are useful against Sentinels; Banshees give you a mobile response force. Keep the healers behind them. The Scarab follows its own route. You are escorting it, not issuing its movement commands, so send your force ahead far enough to remove threats without leaving the machine undefended behind you. **Work from obstruction to obstruction** When the Scarab stops to cut through wreckage, use the pause productively. Heal it, clear the next launch bay and check the surrounding expansion space. At a newly encountered bay, suppress the defenses, clear the area and build on the available turret slots. Anti-air defenses can cover a section of the route while the main escort moves forward. Keep some production running at home. Reinforcements arriving steadily are much better than discovering a depleted escort has to cross the whole map to recover. When the route reaches the UNSC position, clear the defenders and occupy the available base space. Adjust your target selection here: anti-air units cannot solve every ground fight. Use your broader army and the Scarab's presence rather than leaving fragile support units in front. **Fit the side objectives into the escort** For **Smash!**, you need Gold and every objective in a single mission run. Unlike the SPEARBREAKER Vidmaster challenges, the achievement does not specify Legendary. The side objectives are: - Occupy all three base plots. - Rescue the Reavers. - Fill the five required turret slots near launch bays. - Capture four power nodes. - Salvage ten Covenant resource structures. The rescued Reavers are east of the initial base. Clear the enemy force around them before pulling them into the escort. Bring a Jump Pack Brute squad for the isolated western power node. An army made entirely of aircraft can win fights and still leave you unable to complete the required capture. For the salvage objective, watch the structure counter. The mission is tracking the relevant resource buildings being destroyed, not simply the total resources in your bank. Make your collectible sweep while the Scarab is working through wreckage or waiting at the final inactive bridge. Keep healing coverage on it while another group explores. Before opening the last approach, check the counters and return to any missed base, node or salvage site. **Phoenix Logs** Two campaign logs are available: - **The Pandora's Box I:** at the end of the side branch after the Locust and Grunt reinforcements join. - **The Pandora's Box II:** on the plateau east of the UNSC base area. Use a mobile escort for these detours. Leave the main protection force with the Scarab rather than turning a collectible pickup into an unguarded escort failure. **Solve the interface** Activate the final lightbridge and protect the Scarab as Voridus works on the network. The Sentinel pressure increases; renew disruption where useful and keep the Engineers alive. When the final ring puzzle appears, solve it instead of trying to defeat the Retrievers through ordinary damage. From the puzzle's initial positions: - Rotate the outer ring left three times. - Rotate the middle ring right once. - Rotate the inner ring right twice. If you have already moved a ring, those counts no longer describe its starting position. Watch the aligned sections lock into place rather than blindly repeating the sequence. Finishing the interface shuts down the defenses and ends the escort. **Serving a New Master** is the normal mission-completion achievement; **Smash!** is the additional Gold-and-objectives challenge.