After entering the Paleontology sector of the Research Facility, you can find a key to the Reaper Barracks, the quarters of an elite military unit. This underground area is where you can find several weapon parts, circuits, and the one and only Peng. There are also several logs which tell the story of an individual who wanted to join the Reapers. Be sure to visit this location as soon as you get the key.
Scavenge the 163rd Reaper Barracks
These underground barracks must have been used by S.C.A.F. to house the men and munitions that protected the Research Facility’s scientists.
What I don’t understand is what they needed protection from. There’s no evidence of Necromorphs in any of the logs I’ve discovered. Lucky for me, the soldiers were well armed. I bet there are some valuable weapon parts in here.
Ride the elevator down to the Reaper Barracks. When you arrive there, you will notice that the layout is exactly like the Way Station. This time, advance through it in the opposite direction. Start off by picking up a text log and then moving through the gates toward the suit kiosks and workbench. A second text log is near the large door by the suit kiosks.
//Text Log: “Head Above the Rest”
“SCAF-ISC-30694 TV-MD212
FROM: Gen S. Mahad
TO: Adm M. Graves
SUBJECT: RE: 163rd Special Unit
If it’s bunk space you’re worried about, you won’t have to worry for much longer. I’m taking half of them down with me to the planet once we get ourselves dug in.
And as far as manners go, I didn’t pick them because they play nice with others. There’s a reason they call the 163rd the “Reapers.” These guys all cut their teeth doing wetwork for us during Secessionist riots on Earth. They’re the coldest bunch of killers you’re ever going to find and they’re my insurance that nothing’s going to go wrong.
——————————————-
SCAF-ISC-30694 CMS-ROANOKE
FROM: Adm M. Graves
TO: Gen S. Mahad
SUBJECT: 163rd Special Unit
Would you mind telling me why I have to double-bunk half the officers on my ship so you can house your freeloading 163rd? They’re rude and they don’t do a single useful thing aboard my ship. Why are we wasting resources on this frivolous addition to the mission?”
//Text Log: “Getting A Head of the Game”
SCAF-ISC-31022 TV-AF2
Personal Log: Pvt K. Myers
I did anything I could to get put on the mission, to go to this frozen wasteland so I could follow the Reapers. It was my chance to get them to notice and I wasn’t going to let anyone stop me. After Pvt Freeman went missing, I became the new “water boy.” I scrubbed Reaper toilets, made Reaper beds, and cleaned Reaper guns, admiring the notches carved into the stocks of each beautiful weapon.
I finally worked up the nerve to ask one of the Reapers if I could join their team. I was ruthless; I was determined; I was ready.
He laughed at me just like my drill sergeant back at boot camp. Then he said I could join if I cleaned the toilets for a week with my bare hands with no shower privileges in between. He said if I could do that, I’d have what it takes.
What could I do? It was my dream. And he promised. So I did.
Advance through the door into the pump control room. A corpse on the far side of the room is being animated by a Head, so shoot it and then the Head when it comes out. Another text log is in here, so pick it up before moving out of the control room and onto the catwalk.
//Text Log: “The Axe Is of Evil”
SCAF-ISC-31022 TV-AF2
Personal Log: Pvt K. Myers
So there I was a week later. Caked in human excrement. My skin broken out with sores. I had gone the extra mile. I was ready.
I guess I should have seen it coming. They took my picture and sent it out to everyone to see. They told me the only way I’d become a Reaper is if every last one of them miraculously died and I was the only one left who could take their place. Then they sent me packing. I got demoted to working in the pits.
I credit my determination and strong work ethic for not giving up.
In the dead of night, I returned to their barracks and went to their beds, silent, discreet. With a firm, swift stroke, their heads rolled away one at a time.
One … Two … I counted as I cleaved. Three … Four … Scratching the notches into my axe. Five … Six … They couldn’t refuse me now. Seven, eight, nine, ten …
Fifteen heads later and I’m the 163rd. The most feared unit in the S.C.A.F.
I am the Reaper.
As you move onto the catwalk, you come under attack from more Head-animated corpses. One is on the catwalk with you and two more are on the catwalk on the other side of the pumping room. Once the Heads are all dead, climb down the ladder to the main floor of the pumping room.
The pump on your side of the room is still running. Move to the opening and, as the piston moves away from you, hit it with stasis. Follow it to the end and then get out through the opening on the left before the piston moves back toward you.
In the area between the two pistons, kill another Head before it can animate a corpse. Then pick up a damage support weapon part on a table next to a couple of severed heads. Kill some more Necromorphs that rush in from the ducts.
Before leaving this area, go back to the moving piston. Stand next to the opening and, as the piston moves to the right, hit it with stasis. Look through the opening toward the back of the pumping chamber. There on the bottom is the Peng. Use kinesis to pull it to you can add it to your collection.
There’s Always Peng!
In each Dead Space game, there is always one Peng. Find the one and only Peng in Dead Space 3 to earn this award.
The second piston is not functioning, so you can move through the chamber without having to stop or slow it with stasis. Move into the area to the side of the chamber to get a circuit from a box on the wall, then continue to the end of the pumping chamber. Climb the ladder to get up to the catwalk, where you are once again attacked. Kill the Necromorphs and then exit through the door into the next room.
Continue through the pumping access room to the bunk room. Kill some more Heads, then search the area for several items and containers. After defeating more Necromorphs that rush in, move into the small private bunk room to find an artifact. Pick it up and add it to your collection.
//S.C.A.F. Artifact 18
S.C.A.F. Artifact 18
FROM: Cpt Raymond Reed
RE: Pvt Myers Appeal to Join the 163rd
When I look out across the yard, I see only weakness. The war with the Secessionists has claimed our fiercest warriors and replaced them with children.
Half of these pricks can’t hold a rifle and the rest piss their pants the moment they hear one go off. If you want to make it in this world, not only do you have to be willing to kill, you have to like it.
Pvt Myers is a tool so it’s only fitting we use him as one. Let’s give him one week of solid abuse before we kick him out the door. Maybe then he’ll wise up and realize he’ll never have what it takes to be one of us.
Advance into the next room. There are mines positioned across the room with laser tripwires. Shoot the mines where they are attached to the wall to destroy them. As you begin to move through the room, you are attacked by a Necromorph. Kill it and then pass through the door into the mess hall.
A mine is deployed in the middle of the room. Shoot at it and then search the room to find a Reaper officer’s key, and a supply chest. Inside it you find spare parts boxes, a heavy elite frame weapon part, a rail accelerator weapon part, and some other items. Don’t take too long at the chest because Necromorphs are moving into the mess hall to kill you.
After they are eliminated, use the key to open the locked door. Another Head-animated corpse is in the kitchen. As it fires at you, more Necromorphs drop down from the ceiling behind you. Rush into the kitchen, killing the Head as you go.
Neutralize all Necromorphs in the kitchen, then hack the controls to open a locked door that leads into a storage room. Once it is open, enter and pick up the circuit you find inside. Now make your way back to the kitchen. Exit through the door on the right to return to the barracks entryway. Return to the elevator and take it back up to the Paleontology sector.
Disposal Services Optional Quest
Explore the Disposal Services
The further I go on Tau Volantis, the more danger I encounter. Between the Necromorphs and Danik’s forces, it’s hard to believe I’m still alive. The parts and tools I’ve found so far are why they haven’t been able to kill me—yet. If the Disposal Services site is like any other facilities I’ve seen, there may be something valuable to uncover. I should it explore it when I can.
The entrance to the Disposal Services area is located between the Biology and Geology sectors. Once you go through the doorway, you are actually in a tram station. Make sure the optional quest is selected as your current objective, then follow the locator beam to an elevator that takes you down to the storage hall of the Disposal Services to get started.
Recover Anything That May Have Survived the Purge
It seems that someone ordered a purge of the entire S.C.A.F. operation on Tau Volantis. Not just this outpost, or this facility—but on the entire planet, and for all the ships in orbit, too. They wanted to bury every last trace of what they discovered here. Or maybe—what they built here? Anything I recover from this place may provide some insight into our mission.
When the elevator reaches the Disposal Services facility, exit and advance through a hall to a door leading into a workshop. As you enter the workshop, you immediately come under attack by Necromorphs that come out of the ducts. Once they are dealt with, search the room to find pick-ups as well as a text log. Then advance through the engineering hall to a small room where you can take an elevator up to the second level of the facility. Fight off any creatures along the way.
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