Marathon: How to Sabotage UESC Comms Antenna Fast – Starter Guide

Why This Antenna Matters (And Why It’s Annoying)

After spending a couple of evenings grinding early contracts in Marathon, this was the first objective that genuinely slowed me down: sabotaging the UESC comms antenna on Perimeter for Welcome to Tau Ceti 2/2. The objective sounds simple, but the game hides the exact antenna marker until you’re basically on top of it, and that led to a lot of pointless wandering while UESC bots and rival runners chewed through my shields.

Once I finally cracked a reliable route, I was able to spawn, hit the antenna, and be on my way to extraction in under five minutes. This guide walks you through that exact process: how to reach North or South Relay, how to spot the antenna even before the marker pops, how to interact with it, and how to finish the run cleanly so you can move on to better contracts like Introducing: Traxus.

Step 1: Know the Contract and What Actually Completes It

This sabotage objective is part of the starter chain “Welcome to Tau Ceti 2/2”. You’ve probably already done the earlier steps (killing UESC bots and scanning the FTL array), so this is the final piece before the game opens up more:

• Map: Perimeter
• Objective: Sabotage a UESC comms antenna
• Possible locations: North Relay or South Relay (either one works)
• Completion condition: Interact with the antenna tower until the sabotage bar fills; then successfully extract and complete the run.

You don’t need any special tools or a specific Runner Shell to do this. On PC, you just hold E at the tower’s base when the yellow/orange interaction prompt appears.

What tripped me up early on was thinking I’d missed something when I couldn’t see the antenna icon on my map. The important thing to understand is:

• The antenna only appears on your HUD/marker when you’re roughly 80 meters away.
• Until then, you’re just navigating to the Relay landmark itself.

Step 2: Orient Yourself on Perimeter – North vs. South Relay

The antenna can spawn at either Relay, but the process to sabotage it is identical. The only difference is how you find the spot quickly.

North Relay (Top of the Map)

North Relay is exactly what it sounds like: a named area towards the top of the Perimeter map. When you open your tac-map (Tab on PC), you’ll see “North Relay” as a labeled zone once you’re headed in that direction.

In my runs, North Relay tends to be a bit more exposed with longer sightlines. That’s great if you like to fight, but it also means more chances for rival squads to third-party you while you’re trying to hold the interaction button. I usually only go North if my spawn is already up there.

South Relay (Southeastern Corner – My Preferred Route)

South Relay sits in the southeastern corner of Perimeter. If you spawn on the right or lower-right side of the map, this is almost always the faster option. Most of my successful fast clears have been from heading straight to South Relay.

What makes South Relay easier is that the antenna spawn has very clear landmarks once you know what to look for:

• It’s in the northern part of South Relay itself.
• It’s tucked near a single-storey room (a low building, not one of the big towers).
• This is all close to the East Wall – a solid boundary on the right side of the area.

When I started building the habit of “hug the East Wall as you push into the northern part of South Relay,” I stopped running in circles looking for the marker. Even before the icon appears, you can start angling toward this little cluster of structures and be basically on top of the tower when it finally pings.

Step 3: Finding the Antenna When the Marker Is Hidden

This is where most new players get stuck, and I wasted multiple raids doing lazy loops of the area. Here’s exactly how I now find it with minimal confusion.

At South Relay (Recommended)

From any spawn on the right or bottom-right of the map:

• Open the map with Tab and identify South Relay in the southeast.
• Set your mental line straight there; don’t get baited into side-fights unless you have to.
• As you enter the South Relay label zone, start moving toward the East Wall.
• Look for a low, single-storey room with some structural clutter around it.
• Circle slightly north of that building – once you’re within ~80m, the antenna quest marker should ping and the tower icon will appear.

The breakthrough for me was ignoring the absence of the marker at first and instead navigating by these physical landmarks. The game’s “proximity reveal” is the real enemy here, not the actual UESC defenses.

At North Relay

If you spawn closer to the top of the map, go North instead:

• Push into the North Relay zone label on the map.
• Head for the more central tower structures rather than the edges.
• Weave your way through cover until the yellow/orange objective icon appears on your HUD.
• Once it pings, hard-commit toward it; don’t detour unless a squad is directly blocking your path.

North Relay is harder to describe with one perfect landmark the way South is, but the rule is the same: get into the named zone, then slowly spiral in while watching for the marker to appear at around 80m distance.

Step 4: Approach Safely – Don’t Die on the Tower

Once you’re close enough that the antenna marker is visible, the next choke point is actually getting to the base alive. I play on PC with mouse and keyboard, usually as a mid-range rifle build, and here’s what helped me stop dying two seconds into the sabotage:

• Clear the immediate ground floor first. Don’t sprint directly to the tower if there are UESC bots patrolling under it. Pick them off from cover, then move up.
• Use buildings as approach lanes. Especially at South Relay, move from wall to wall and use the single-storey room as a shield while you flank toward the tower.
• Reload before you start the interaction. You don’t want to cancel the sabotage to reload halfway through a firefight.
• In squads, have someone cover. One player holds the interaction; the others watch angles and call out pushes. This objective is trivial with even a halfway coordinated team.
• Don’t over-fight. I lost more runs from getting greedy with PvP than from the tower itself. Your goal is the sabotage, not a 20-kill game.

If you’re solo, it’s perfectly fine to play like a rat here: wait for other players to move on, third-party UESC bots, and only commit when things are quiet.

Step 5: Sabotaging the UESC Comms Antenna

Once you reach the tower marked by the objective icon, the hard part is basically over.

• Stand near the base of the antenna structure.
• Look for the yellow/orange interaction prompt to appear on your screen.
• On PC, hold E (or your interact key) to start the sabotage.
• A progress bar will fill; keep holding until it completes. If you let go or get knocked away, you’ll have to restart the hold.

You don’t need any special gadget or ability – just proximity and time. On my system, the interaction only takes a couple of seconds, but that’s long enough for a bot or another runner to ruin your day if you got sloppy in the approach.

When the sabotage finishes, you’ll see the objective update on your HUD. At this point the contract step is technically done, but the game only counts it fully once you successfully extract and finish the raid.

Step 6: Extract and Claim Your Rewards

Don’t make my early mistake of doing the hard work, then getting greedy and dying with your objective complete but your contract unclaimed.

• As soon as the sabotage completes, pull up your map and pick the nearest extraction point.
• Route there using the same “stay near cover, avoid unnecessary fights” mindset.
• Extract normally; you’ll see the run summary screen.
• Back at the menus, go to your Contracts or Faction screen and turn in “Welcome to Tau Ceti 2/2” to get your rewards.

Finishing this contract is what opens up more advanced options like Introducing: Traxus and additional faction chains. That’s where the more interesting loot and build options start appearing, so it’s absolutely worth pushing this sabotage early rather than letting it sit.

Common Mistakes I Made (So You Don’t Have To)

Looking back at my first few attempts, there were a handful of repeat offenders that kept costing me runs:

• Waiting for the marker too early. I’d stand at the edge of South Relay staring at my HUD, instead of pushing in until the 80m reveal actually triggered.
• Looping the wrong buildings. Before I learned the “single-storey room by the East Wall” trick at South, I wasted minutes circling the tall structures instead.
• Over-committing to PvP. I’d win a fight, feel invincible, then chase a second team and die with the objective still unfinished.
• Not restarting the interact fast enough. If something bumps you, re-clear the immediate area and restart the sabotage right away – don’t run off and reset the whole fight.
• Forgetting extraction matters. The game will not care that you pressed the button if you die on the way out.

Avoid these, and this goes from “confusing beginner roadblock” to “quick warm-up contract” very quickly.

What’s Next After the Sabotage

Once you’ve successfully sabotaged the UESC comms antenna and extracted, you’re basically done with the training wheels phase of Marathon. Clearing the starter contracts gives you:

• Access to more advanced contracts like Introducing: Traxus
• Better reputation and rewards from factions
• A clearer sense of how objective-based raids work on maps like Perimeter

The good news is that once you’ve done this sabotage a couple of times, you’ll barely think about it again. You’ll know that North Relay is up top, South Relay is southeast, and that the antenna at South hugs the East Wall near that single-storey room. From there, it’s just a question of how aggressively you want to play the rest of the raid.

If I can turn this from a 20-minute frustration loop into a five-minute in-and-out run, you absolutely can too. Treat the marker reveal distance as part of the puzzle, trust the landmarks, and you’ll be unlocking your next round of contracts in no time.