Description
The story revolves around an Outpost Traffic cop, aspiring to become a GTA fighter pilot. He gets his chance when he finds himself in the wrong place at the right time .... When rebel faction of GTA mercenaries arises, GTA Command is quick to blame Earth-based anti-colonization groups. Unfortunately for all of humanity, it goes much deeper than that.

Storyline:
The premise for this mission made me laugh: a GTA traffic cop desperate to become a figther jock gets his chance. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically when, in the first mission, the main goal was to "pull over" speeding GTT Elysiums. From this highly amusing initial mission develops a plot as the player discovers a conspiracy revolving around the conflict between the Terran and Vasudan interests to colonize a planet in Manda. Unfortunately, the campaign describes the Vasudan interest in this planet as their new homeworld, but a Volition employee has already stated that the new Vasudan homeworld will be on Aldeberran.

Balance:
The missions in this campaign vary between highly amusing, highly balanced, and overly complicated. The majority of the missions are nicely balanced and use FRED Red Alert missions well to advance the plot. However, in one mission the player and all friendly ships retain their shields after chasing a capital ship into subspace.

Design:
This campaign overuses capital chips, which <u> could cause some machines to crash</u>. The last mission is the worst offender, as it includes a GTI Arcadia, 3 enemy GTD Orions, and 1 friendly GTD Orion. These capital ships are basically useless after their few fighters are destroyed and are sitting ducks for the player's bomber to leisurely choose their targets and then reload. Perhaps worst of all is the traffic pile-up they cause on top of the Arcadia. I plan to replay this mission just to obtain a screenshot to display just how silly this looks. <p> The objectives in this final mission can, at best, be described as cryptic and it seems illogical to have the Arcadia invulnerable when GTD Orions die around it like flies. Given that the technical database describes that the GTA lost only three GTD Orions during the 14-year war with Vasuda, the ability to destroy <u> three in one mission </u> seems absolutely absurd.

Gameplay:
It would not be fair to evaluation this campaign only on the absurdities the last few missions brings out in the plot. The missions are generally enjoyable to fly and sounds are very well-used to enhance the flavor of the campaign. I would have liked to see more sounds used, especially for key plot dialogue. The fighting is well-paced and not overwhelming. And it is enjoyable to have the opportunity to execute "justice" to the villan at the end.

Other Thoughts:
At the end, I found the reach of the villan's power questionable and the gullibility of the GTA to be extremely overstated. The command briefings could use some more work, especially in their organization. With a little more polishing of the briefings, the revision of a few mission design flaws and the addition of a few more sounds at key moments, this campaign would really shine.