Airborne


 * "Man, it sucks to be right."


 * —Sweetwater, at the end of the level.

Airborne is the final single player level of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. It involves the storming of the plane containing a scalar weapon, and then jumping out of the plane once the scalar weapon is destroyed and killing Kirilenko.

Walkthrough
The level starts with the squad near the back of the plane where they stowed away. Sarge orders Marlowe to storm a guard that is in front of them, knife him, and then take his weapon. Just as Preston is about to reach the guard, another guard pops out and alerts the first just before Marlowe stabs him. The other guard throws down his weapon since its out of ammo and he starts charging at Preston with his knife while Preston reloads. Marlowe shoots the guard and the squad proceeds to look for ammo.

Once they find ammo in a nearby crate at the back, the squad clears out two rooms filled with weapons, ammunition, vehicles and more guards. Once clearing the second room, the squad reaches the compound containing the scalar weapon, only to find that it is sealed off.

Since they don't think that they can breach through the barricade to get to the scalar weapon without destroying the plane, they decide to head up to the cockpit to try to gain control of the plane and to find Kirilenko. Marlowe and the squad clear out the passenger area of the plane after Haggard says he is sick of being quiet - tossing Marlowe a USAS-12 - and they reach the cockpit after clearing out the top level of the plane, only to find that it is on autopilot and that there is no sign of Kirilenko.

Kirilenko then sends them a message through one of the monitors in the cockpit thanking them for the compound containg the scalar weapon. Redford then asks Haggard if it is possible to blow up the glass barricade into the compound. Upon agreeing to try, they head back to the barricade where Kirilenko tells them that they are too late. Sarge says "I don't think so." and orders Haggard to plant C4 charges on the barricade.

The glass barricade is blown through and Marlowe shoots the scalar weapon with an MP-443 Grach, limiting the size of the explosion, but tearing off the front of the plane, sending it down. As Sarge and Haggard jump out with parachutes, Marlowe asks where Kirilenko is, as his body is nowhere to be found. Just as Sweetwater is about to hand a parachute to Preston, Kirilenko rushes Sweetwater and pushes him out of the plane trying to get the parachute.

Realizing that he has no other choice, Marlowe jumps out of the plane with only his sidearm. In mid air, Marlowe shoots Kirilenko and Sweetwater hands him his parachute. All four of their chutes deploy and they reach the ground. Upon landing they find that they are in Texas.

While pondering what they will do next, General Braidwood's convoy pulls up and he personally thanks them for destroying the plane and scalar weapon, but regrets to tell them that they must get in his humvee because the Russians are invading. Haggard gruffly responds, "Uh, sir. No their not. We just blew up that f'in ultimate weapon of theirs! P.S., invasion cancelled, sir!" Braidwood then replys, "Not here, they're coming in through Alaska." The camera then zooms out and ominously shows the advancing Russian army as they push across Canada.

Trivia

 * It is impossible to knife the charging guard at the begining of the level.
 * This is a considerably short mission compared to other missions in the game.
 * The achievement/trophy "It sucks to be right" is rewarded for completing this level alone on hard, not the whole campaign. It is also a reference to a similar achievement/trophy in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, as the missions both play out similarly.


 * After killing the first group of guards, their is an easter egg (Or so thought to be) of a poster advertising kiwi, on the poster it says "Just eat it!" Which may be a reference to the spoof song on "Just eat it!"
 * It is odd that Kirilenko was not killed by the destruction of the scalar weapon as he was in the chamber when it went off. This could be explained that there was another way out that was not known by the squad, and he went around to try and kill them or escape the plane.