Operation: Cipher is a mission conducted by the United States Empire against the Arm of Orion during the Outer Rim War. Following the success of Operation: Spearhead, the USIF had established a firm beachhead on planet Atlas, and began combat operations to liberate the planet. Acting on captured intelligence, the USIF initiated a bold plan to severely cripple the rebel Arm fleet one decisive attack. Deploying the elite 1st Recon Platoon to carry out this mission, the USIF intended to capture a Titan Array communications center. Once captured, the US Imperial Navy's Artificial Intelligence, code-named Mother, would upload false rendezvous coordinates to the Arm fleet, where they would unknowingly move into a US Imperial ambush.