Operation Shattered Mind

Operation Shattered Mind is an operation where a Mu-13 "Ghostbusters" task force is sent out to restore a Scranton Reality Anchor located within a subway station.

Briefing
''Operatives, your mission is to reactivate the Scranton Reality Anchor inside of Track 61 of the Grand Central Terminal. Due to the reality warping effects of the area, you will be unable to make contact with us once you are inside. Locate the power cells that we assume are in the area, and restart the anchor. Good luck, and don't let the Foundation down.''

Initial
Once entering the station, the squad is tasked with locating and inspecting the disabled/malfunctioned Scranton Reality Anchor (SRA from this point forward) within the station, which is at the opposite end of the station on the opposite side of the platforms from the entrance.

Mission Update 1
After inspection of the SRA, the squad must locate the three power cells scattered around the station, with the first one just across the track from the room housing the SRA. Players are advised to be very cautious here as a ghost train, seen at the very start of the mission, will thunder down the track players have to cross at irregular intervals and will constitute an immediate knockout. Once carrying the power cell, the player holding it has to bring it back to the SRA and insert it.

Mission Update 2
Once the first power cell is inserted, the squad needs to locate the two remaining power cells. The second power cell is accessible in a room after navigating a (presumably) warped section of the station that has become a maze of corridors (entered through crawling under debris blocking the entrance tunnel). Before reaching the room with the power cell, the squad will come across a Spirit in another room along the way, who initiates a cutscene as the Spirit attempts to investigate your existence. After the cutscene, players will find the second power cell in another room and eventually the exit.

Mission Update 3
The maze exit leads into a near-identical platform to the starting area, where players carry the second cell across the tracks to a set of doors on the opposite platform. The doors open into a wide corridor which players have to navigate until they reach the blocked set of doors in the room where players entered the maze by crawling under the debris. The third power cell is found halfway through the corridor. Once the players reach the blocked doors, they must shove the lockers blocking the doors aside and open the doors. Finally, the two power cells are to be carried back across the tracks and inserted into the SRA.

Plot
(Please note that this is mostly speculation as new connections have to be made following the release of future chapters.)

During the encounter with the Spirit, it will attempt to investigate the squad members' existence (akin to reading their minds/histories), and the visions it sees are shown through the cutscene following the initial dialogue. The cutscene will show flashes of the player lying half-dead in an icy cave and their whole squad wiped, the same vision seen by squad members at the end of Operation Clean Out. The cutscene then cuts to the player being in a chamber of some sorts, and ends when the Spirit states that his confusion is too great and apologizes for failing the squad.

Once the SRA is reactivated, the screen cuts to white, then flips rapidly through several CCTV feeds before zooming out on a room with several CCTV screens and a shadowy figure watching the screens. The screens eventually cut to static.

One particular feed to note is a room with a chamber (presumably a cryo-pod of some kind), which seems to be the same one as seen in the Spirit's visions of our existence. Many have speculated that this indicates that the squad member in the cutscene is not actually on the operation but is either within the cryo-pod and the operation was being simulated, or the player's squad member is a clone of the dead original (who was shot dead in Disavowed: Paper Trail by Overwatch) and was being kept in cryogenic storage after the operation.

Reminders

 * 1) Equip the flashlight attachment on both your primary and secondary firearm. There is nearly no lighting throughout the game except for the rooms with the SRA, the Spirit and the second power cell. While there are wall lights along the maze, they are too dim to provide any vision.
 * 2) Watch out for the ghost train when crossing its track in the starting area. Being hit by it constitutes an immediate death if without revival, and potential hitbox errors stretch the point of impact beyond the actual track, so it is recommended to cross the track right after the train passes and if not crossing to stay clear of the track.
 * 3) As there are a large number of hostiles in the form of ghost-like humanoids, it is recommended to save your ammo for large hordes. Individual hostiles can be killed by melee, which is by pressing the middle mouse button. Being in contact with these hostiles also do not immediately deplete your health - instead, when you are in close contact your screen will fill with static and you will start taking damage if you do not move away. If you do move away in time, it is possible to avoid losing health at all.
 * 4) Use the glowsticks to mark your path. Many players get lost in the maze section by being unable to retrace their steps after taking wrong turns.
 * 5) It is also recommended that this operation be undertaken in a larger squad to have a much larger amount of glowsticks to mark a longer path as each player only has a limited amount, as well as being able to cover power cell carriers as they are unable to defend themselves unless they drop the cell.

Trivia

 * For the players' convenience, the doors of the rooms that players need to access are all bathed in red light to indicate the objective more clearly (as while the power cells are marked by white indicators that can be seen through walls, the doors are not).
 * The ghost train and the Spirit cutscene were not in the earlier versions of the operation, but rather added later as a presumably new threat for the former and extra lore for the latter.
 * This operation actually came out before Disavowed: Paper Trail while being the 6th mission of the game and Paper Trail being the 5th. This may be due to lore reworkings as the current plot in Shattered Mind is mostly a direct connection back to the finale events of Paper Trail.
 * This is the first mission to have no communications with any command body beyond the briefing, whether it be Overwatch or ACE. The reason for this is cited in the preparation screen, stating that "This is a radio interference zone, no communication to the outside can be made."
 * The other alert in the preparation screen also states that "This operation has no lighting; ensure you have a tactical light equipped." This is the third operation in the game with a requirement for tactical lighting, with the first two being Operation Clean Out and Operation Blind Eye. This is also the first operation to feature glowsticks (colored green) as stationary light sources and path markers.
 * This is the first operation to be entirely indoors.
 * Most other operations have short walking distances from the spawn-in to the entrance to the structure, such as:
 * From the outside of Site-19 to the site entrance in Operation Red Skies;
 * From the mountain drop-off to the entrance of Site-17 in Operation Clean Out; and
 * From the street drop-off to the entrance to the UN building in Disavowed: Paper Trail.
 * Other missions with larger outdoor sections also include:
 * From the parachute landing site to the mineshaft, then the surface fight to disable the anti-aircraft guns in Operation Black Nightmare; and
 * Most of Operation Blind Eye, with the long walking distances between the GOI safehouse, the encounter with the UNGOC in the small town, and the capturing of SCP-096 itself in a forest.
 * This mission, however, starts directly in the subway station without an outdoor segment.
 * The track where the mission takes place, Track 61, is a reference to the real-life abandoned Track 61 platform beneath the Waldorf Astoria New York Hotel, which has several urban legends of its own. The ghost train also looks similar in design, make and model to the baggage car that was stored in Track 61 that was mistakenly identified as President Franklin D Roosevelt's personal train car.