Description
This takes place immediately after the Lucifer's jump to Sol. You have been assigned to ferry Apollo fighters to a backwater station in the Hawking sector. Due to shifting lines, this sector's strategic value has increased, so GTA is beefing up the defenses.

Storyline:
The premise for this mission is extremely interesting: a Shivan capital ship outfitted with a megaweapon assaults a lightly-defended GTA Arcadia station as a messenger arrives with news of the Lucifer's attack on Sol. The storyline nicely includes the GTA pilot's reaction at being removed from the defense of Sol.

Balance:
Some may not like the limited ship selection: GTF Apollos only. The Shivan megaweapon doesn't seem to pose much, if any, of a threat to the Arcadian Station. Each time I've played, the Station received no more than 5% damage before it was destroyed -- even when I held myself in reserve.

Design:
There are a few design flaws which are blatant to me as a mission designer. The Jump Node is named "Jump Node 0" and the placement of mission briefing icons is poor. The messenger sends messages a few seconds early, since no one has arrived then. The AI for the GTF Valkryie messenger also requires tweaking. Every time I've played, the messenger will turn around to fight the advancing Shivans and then die when I'm about 2000 m away. The messenger should be running for cover behind Alpha wing and then racing to Downunder Station as fast as possible. In addition, the .zip file is extremely large, but I didn't seem to hear many in-flight sounds. Most of the file is devoted to briefing and debriefing .wavs, which could be compacted by using the ADPCM format.

Gameplay:
The mission is generally enjoyable and gameplay is smooth as silk. The Shivan fighters pose a threat, but are not overwhelming. Most of all, the mission is fun. <p> A few gameplay problems do exist. The Shivan capital ship is poorly defended, as its defending fighters appear too late and too far from the action to save it. This could've been fixed by warping in the fighters near the capital ship instead of back at the Jump Node. Alternatively, the waves of Shivan fighters could appear more quickly. However, the dogfighting in this mission currently has a nice and leisurely pace and will not crash your system.

Other Thoughts:
This mission stands out from the early design attempts of developers learning FRED, but it is clear that progress could be made with this mission.