Description
The GTA is running out of pilots.The new fighter drone will help

Storyline:
Disable one of three Hammer of Light Aten cruisers, then destroy the rest and their fighter escort. Several Dones are sent in to take the brunt of the punishment, and an Elysium transport must be protected as it docks with the assault troops to take the "new technology" in the Hammer cruiser. The briefing could elaborate more to flesh out this bare bones storyline. In addition, all ship icons in the briefings are shown as friendly even if they are hostile. And the debriefing is much too "brief."

Balance:
A very strange ship and weapon selection, but some thought was taken for balancing the difficulty of the mission. Choose from Ulysses, Valkyries or Hercules fighters or Ursa bombers. However, the weapons loadout is very skimpy on the missile selection. Perhaps one Hercules could be adequately outfitted; choosing one Ursa is possible but would result in a suboptimal loadout. In addition to being skimpy on the missiles, there are no Synaptic or Disruptor missiles available. None, even in a disabling mission. <p> Of course, these missiles would make short work of the Aten cruisers. But this highlights the vulnerability of Aten cruisers, a problem in this mission. Even three in close proximity to each other have little chance of fending off the drones and nine fighters without an escort. And, unfortunately, that Anubis escort arrives in the mission too few and too far away to be of much help. When they do arrive, they won't last long at all.

Design:
There are a few events which send in-flight messages, but not much else. No directives or ship status HUD features are used. However, at least the designer uses a wide variety of built-in AI orders. The Aten cruisers should warp out in the Jump Node, making failure a remote possibility. <p> The enemy ships are placed too far away from each other, forcing Alpha to chase down each Hammer "escort" wing. I would think that the Hammer fighter escorts would be much closer than 2500 meters from the capital ships. And only four initial fighters makes for a short initial battle, leaving too much opportunity to carve up the Atens even with dual Disruptors. A better placement would have been to warp in the fighters with the Arrival Location set to "near" the Atens. <p> At the same time, there are too many Terran fighters for the attack since there are drones to take the brunt of the attack. Or perhaps it would make more sense to just have fewer drones <u>and</u> fewer fighters, if there really IS suppposed to be a shortage. Not that you'll lose any of your wingmen in the mission. <p> Alpha should be forced to disable AND disarm the Aten cruiser before the assault trasnsport arrives. Otherwise, the transport is in marginal danger from the turrets of the cruiser as it attempts to dock.

Gameplay:
Attacking three Aten cruisers in close proximity to each other would be a welcome challenge, except that the three Drones remove too much of the danger. Or it could be that even three Aten cruisers only four fighters for cover isn't much of a challenge, especially when Alpha can beat the Hammer fighters to their escort.

Other Thoughts:
Some thought went into some parts of this mission, but not others. The author should have seen it had a few flaws and spent some more time polishing it. It has the feeling of an incomplete design.