Description
Alpha is sent out to rescue a orion class ship that was on a secret mission.

Storyline:
Storyline? What storyline? The FORTA was behind enemy lines. Its info is vital. Why it doesnÂ’t just use its comm to the readily available KARA III... I don't know. Save the FORTA or, if it dies, the Scientists and the captain, who has ALL the vital info on his person. Wha'da'ya know! The captain can carry ALL the info himself!

Balance:
This mission, with a little tweaking, could be one of the best balanced missions. However, you need a few more fighters, and a few less enemies to truly have a blanced version of this. Essentially, four fighters are all that's sent on a VERY vital mission. What happened to the FORTA's fighters is beyond me. Until the KARA III arrives-after the FORTA blows up five seconds into the mission-and calls for reinforcements, it's four fighters against oodles of enemies. Also, you have to protect the Scientists (Elysium; no problem), the Captain (Cargo container you have to scan), and two Hermes that are running right into the enemies. Oh, and, the "reinforcements" are Apollos. Yeah. That'll help Bunches.

Design:
O.K., let me see. Every word, every chance he has, the creator has put it in caps. Messages that aren't exclamations. Especially in the briefing, this is quite unprofessional. In the briefing, the two jump nodes are named "Jump Node 00" and "Jump Node 01". Not to mention that both are shown as "Terran NavBouy". The path of escape for the ESCAPE 1 and ESCAPE 2 are amazingly stupid - why would you even need to escape with a friendly ORION RIGHT THERE! In the briefing, he mentions the "Orion class Cruiser FORTA". Hm.... Orion = Cruiser? I don't think so. In the briefing, again, every frame cuts to the next with static, rather than morphing. Granted, that would sometimes be good if its a scramble, but, for one thing, every frame is almost exactly the same thing, so the static detracts from an already lackluster mission

Gameplay:
Not very fun. If I had two wings to organize, I could do it. If there were just slightly fewer fighters, it would be a synch. As it is, I got a teensy bit to few men against a teensy bit too many enemies.

Other Thoughts:
The design simply KILLS this mission. If the missions make spent some time revamping the mission, like stopping the gratuitous capitalization, fixing bugs, etc. the mission would be good. Then again, it would take almost as much time as making a whole new mission.