Description
Alpha must lure away the defensive screen of an HOL capital ship so that a GTD capital ship can engage her.

Storyline:
The story is well-done and is incorperated well into the mission itself. The player is told to take a Vasudan craft and escort Leo 1, which is a Baast that will be impersonating a PVD craft. It carries a Fusion bomb which will be used to damage the HOL Retribution, and a second to destroy the cargo depot the Retribution is guarding. Then, Alpha needs to draw the Retribution's fighter suport away so the GTD Draconis and its fighters will have an easier time. Leo 1 kamikazeing into the Retribution is the player's cue to press shift-k to detonate the bomb in the depot, which will cause the enemy fighters to start running after Alpha. There is a small problem with this; not all fighters follow Alpha, and with the force the Fusion Bomb provides, there's really no need to draw away the Retribution's cover, as it is heavily damaged. Still, the briefing is very nice.

Balance:
This is the major sticking point with OpFusion. The player is allowed to take Terran craft. Doing so would erase the whole point of the mission, since the HOL wouldn't exactly trust a Ulysses flitting around. Also, the only missles available are MX-50s, and worst of all, the mission in-game is unbalanced. The "fighter cover" is pathetic even considering the 4 Horuses the player draws off, and the Fusion Bomb does a whopping 46 percent damage. Of course, that's just FRED's Kamikaze value for Leo, but it seems overkill to then bring in Harbinger-equiped Ursas and plenty of other fighters, in addition to an Orion.

Design:
Aside from the ease of killing, the mission is well-done. The idea of a big fusion bomb is carried out well with a cargo container, and the "manual-denote" ability of these "bombs" is mucho kewl. I can see excellent possibilities in the future with the player being able to trigger self-destructs on other craft (Didn't manage to kill that Anubis in five minutes, eh, Alpha 2? *BAM!* One less bad pilot...." >:] ). It would have been nice to see some more waves of enemy craft fly in. As it is, if the player can handle the 4 Horuses that bother to chase him or her, he/she doesn't need to expend any more energy; the friendlies are more than enough to overwhelm the Retribution. This is the downfall of OpFusion: the player doesn't really have do <i>do</i> anything!

Gameplay:
The major problem is that there's little for the player to do. If a few more waves of Vasudans were added, this would be a lot better.

Other Thoughts:
A nice gimmick in the manual detonation, but....