| Storyline: | Specter from the Past |
| Your Face suggests you need to talk privately about a name from our past. | |
| Type of Storyline: | Mercenary |
| Repeatable: | Repeatable |
| Era of Storyline: | Any |
| Minimum PL: | 5 |
The following jobs may be part of this Storyline:
- Unexpected Specter
- 'Dead' merc can rejoin as a recruit
- New recruit gets Like Family trait
- new recruit gets Scarred Specter trait
- new recruit gets Escaped Imprisonment trait
- Mission team members each get +10% Hype bonus
This story line can trigger if you have any merc who was killed on a mission. It requires team Power Level 5+.
This story line appears on the timeline as a request from your Face to talk privately. The initial dialog reveals that one merc who was killed in a mission, was not actually killed. Instead, they were imprisoned by the faction which was the target of that mission. There is an opportunity to rescue them with a prison break mission.
If you succeed, the mercs who went on the mission gain hype and you have the chance to re-recruit the merc. If you fail, all mercs get +10% stress and the Face gets +10% discontent. The dialog says that if you ignore the mission, stress and discontent will rise across the team. As of March 2026, ignoring the mission doesn't have any negative effects, and it doesn't even have any dialog. The mission just expires.
The mission takes place on the Harbor Prison map, and has the same setup as other prison breaks: you need a red key, which you can get by killing a warden or finding it in a lockbox. There is a matrix terminal which also controls the cell door. As always, make sure you choose the correct terminal by hovering over it and tracing the blue highlight lines. The prisoner has all their armor, gear and consumables, but they have a -50% move penalty due to torture.
After you escape the prison level, there is a second level, on the Dusted Hover-Evac map. This is a siege mission against the same faction. Once you have killed all the reinforcements, the mission completes. The rescued mercenary has a dialog where they re-affirm their loyalty and get a major boost to Loyalty and Hype. They also get the Like Family Trait, the Scarred Specter Trait, and the Escaped Imprisonment Trait. They become Faction Barred to the faction that captured him, and thereafter Hates Faction. Each team member who went on the mission also gets a +10% hype bonus.