[GameSpot] - Apex Legends Unveils Vantage In Stories From The Outlands: Survive

[343iBot]

After teasing Vantage's reveal on Twitter last week, Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has released a new episode of Stories From The Outlands that gives players a closer look at her past before joining the Apex Games.

Born on the icy, abandoned planet of Pàgos, Vantage--real name Mara Contrares--grew up with no one to entertain her save for her mother Xenia and Pàgos' diverse wildlife, which Mara hunts on a daily basis. She enjoyed more freedom than the average child, living by only one rule: survive.

Although Mara and her mother's frigid homestead is secure, free, and private, danger lies beneath the planet's snowy surface, making Vantage's mother a bit overprotective. We see this in the trailer when Mara shoots down a bat-like creature that bites her, wounding her hand. After being bitten, Mara uses a carved whistle imitating a bird call to signal to her mother that she is unharmed. But as she sits in the snow, she notices something beneath it: a cargo ship by the name of G.D.S. Vantage.

After the biting bat incident, Mara's mother chides her for her curious nature, but appears somewhat understanding. "When the ship crashed, I was curious, as you are," her mother warns. "And it nearly killed me."

Xenia has a massive scar on the side of her face, and is blind in one eye--almost certainly a result of tangling with whatever danger lurks inside the G.D.S. Vantage. It's clear she raised Mara up to be a skilled hunter for a reason.

Vantage's mother, Xenia, has a massive scar across her right eye.

Back at home, Xenia wraps her daughter's wounded hand, assuring her that there is nothing worth exploring on the G.D.S. Vantage and describing it as "an empty cargo ship driven by computers." This indicates that Xenia has explored the spacecraft for herself--a detail that Mara likely notices, furthering her determination to learn more about the ship. Mara asks her mother why there's a cargo ship on Pàgos with no actual cargo on it, but ultimately receives a non-answer.

"Never mind the outside world," Xenia tells her, when asked what the initials on the ship stand for.

Unfortunately, Mara doesn't listen. She returns to the crash site, rappels down into the abandoned craft's interior, and gives the place a good look for herself--with disastrous consequences. Unlike her mother has led her to believe, the ship is far from empty. As Mara explores, she comes across a row of cells, some still containing the decayed corpses of the ship's involuntary occupants. One of the cells has broken bars, and Mara notices that her sniper rifle is the same type the ship is stocked with, indicating that her weapon of choice was looted from the fallen cargo ship.

Approaching the cockpit, Mara makes another grim discovery: a corpse in the pilot's seat. It seems the ship was neither empty nor flown by computers. Upon reaching the cockpit, Mara finds another, smaller bat-like creature resting on the console. When she startles it, it steps on a few keys, awakening the ship's AI system and revealing a terrible truth: Mara's mother is a liar.

She's also a wanted felon. She was not born on Pàgos, as she told her daughter. In truth, Xenia only arrived when the G.D.S. Vantage crashed on the planet. Mara's mother is--or was--a prisoner.

A holographic wanted poster of Xenia appears, showing her as she appeared before the ship crashed. The AI system's voice also answers a question Mara's mother wouldn't, revealing that G.D.S. stands for Gaean Detention Ship, indicating that Xenia may have originally been a resident of Crypto and Caustic's homeworld. Xenia's crimes are not made known.

Xenia's holographic wanted poster reveals she has lied to her daughter regarding nearly every detail of their lives.

Instead of imparting further tidbits of valuable information, the AI system attacks, scanning Mara and mistaking her for Xenia. It seems the ship's giant metal cargo-moving arms have been programmed for hostility, lunging and snapping at Mara as they try to drag her to her mother's cell. (Interestingly, each of these cargo arms has a Hammond Robotics logo on it).

Mara barely survives the scuffle, escaping by the skin of her teeth. As she lies bleeding on a snowy cliff, she watches her bird call whistle slip off the cliff's edge, squashing any chance of rescue. Luckily, she isn't completely alone. Echo, the baby bat that set off the AI system retrieves her whistle, but she's far too injured to use by the time Echo returns. Instead, the creature carries the whistle to Xenia, who has been frantically using her own whistle to search for her daughter.

Echo attempts to coax a wounded Mara into using her bird whistle.

As Vantage slips in and out of consciousness, her mother approaches, surrounded by a flock of little bats that almost seem drawn to her, very similar to the in which way Bloodhound interacts with ravens. Crouching down, Xenia activates her personal prisoner distress beacon, slipping it into her daughter's hands and proclaiming that she can't save Mara. The scene ends as the Gaean Space Authority arrives to retrieve Mara in response to the distress beacon's activation.

This episode of Stories from the Outlands answers plenty of questions about the upcoming season, but if you're still itching for Season 14 content, you won't be waiting long--the season launch trailer will be released on July 28 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET, with the Apex Legends Season 14: Hunted set to begin on August 9.

Apex Legends is free to play on console and PC. A mobile version of the game, Apex Legends Mobile, is available for download on Android and iOS devices.

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