Core of the Matter

"The Allies have infiltrated one of our nuclear reactors! They have tampered with the core so that a meltdown is imminent within 30 minutes. They must not succeed! Enter the base and find any remaining technicians. Guide them to the four coolant stations so they can activate them, then activate the main computer. The security systems have been armed so beware. Kill any Allies you find."

- Mission briefing

Core of the Matter is the seventh mission in the Soviet campaign of.

Background
From a phonecall, Nadia receives a report that the core of the Komensk nuclear reactor has been rendered unstable by Allied spies. When she tells Kukov about this, and he tried to go but Nadia forced him to stay with her for the time being. The Soviet Commander was sent to the underground facility so that the core can be repaired online once again.

Aftermath
Unbeknownst to both the Soviet Commander and his rival-in-arms, Soviet military officers backed a plan to assassinate Stalin which eventually fails and the Premier finds out that his subordinates are behind it. Vladimir Kosygin decides to get out from Soviet exposure as Stalin (after an Allied tragedy at Elba island) finds out that Gradenko must be behind it, but Nadia Zelenkov poisons him with tea following orders to the Soviets' own leadership.

Walkthrough
The instant you have control of your troops, run them down to the right to avoid the explosion caused by the barrels. Run down the hallway through the next set of barrels, then turn around and shoot one of them once you are clear to slaughter the soldiers that are still chasing you. Proceed to the west and find the little room with a bunch of attack dogs in it. Shoot the explosive barrels to free them, then gather them together and head farther west.

This area is not very big, and there are not many soldiers in it. Kill the next pair you find near some more barrels, then head farther west until you are in a room with a series of crate things in the way. Kill the guard that runs up the screen, then go farther up and kill the guard that is standing near your engineers and rifleman. Collect them once they are free and head east.

Turn up the first chance you get. The two little alcoves here are two of the four terminals you need to activate. Stand an engineer in front of each one, then move your group farther to the east. There are two more terminals on the other side of the reactor, so get an engineer to activate both of them. The fifth terminal on the wall that is guarded by some soldiers will deploy two flame towers near the main computer. Use it, then send an engineer to the terminal behind the flame towers to finish the mission.

Trivia

 * The two Bio-Research Laboratories in the northern part of the map belong to Multi3, the red multiplayer house. This is one the few times, perhaps even the only time, that a multiplayer house is used on an official singleplayer map.
 * One of these buildings blows up halfway through the level and the area it occupies is revealed the moment it does so. For reasons unexplained, this causes the timer to jump forward by approximately five minutes (it is likely a piece of equipment the Allies sabotage to accelerate the meltdown).
 * A Construction Yard and Advanced Power Plant are clearly visible in the lower left corner of the map on the game’s Remastered version. It’s likely these are part of the mission’s mechanics. These buildings were not visible in the original game so this is clearly a bug introduced in the Remaster. (The Counterstrike mission Down Under also features hidden power plants for the various defensive structures the player encounters, as well as a Construction Yard, but all of these are invisible without modding. The same is true for Focused Blast.)
 * This is one of only three indoor missions in the main game and all three have a time limit. Of the three, this is the only Soviet mission.