Description
A routine scouting mission turns into a full fledged battle with little or no hope of survival. The action is fast and furious in this Silent Threat only mission.

Storyline:
The Shivan attacks have settled down a good deal after Lucy died. We want to know why. There should only be a couple of wings, but lotsa ships are available should they be needed. First of all, "a couple of wings" of Shivans does NOT mean a couple of wings with a bunch of waves set up, it means one wave - at most two - of a single wing. Second, if this is a "scouting" mission, why is a GTD Hades present without explanation? Why the hell is there no Jump Point in this recon mission? And why, may I ask - above all - is there an <i>Arcadia class Installation</i> present here??? The last time I checked, Arcadias were incapable of making subspace jumps... a lack of engines would be a small problem.

Balance:
While there is a great selection of fighters - including a full selection of Vasudan craft, which is wonderful - and the weapons are plentiful, this mission is still impossible. Waves of enemy craft, including WAY too many Dragons, are the norm. The player has almost no chance of winning - read on to find out that a quick glance into FRED showed why.

Design:
Yup. A 0 in design. Why? Well, first, there's the fact that there are 8 waves of a wing of Dragons. That's nearly 25 Dragons. Not to mention a whole lot of Manticores and Basilisks, and (should you survive long enough)a pair of Cains and a duo of Lilliths. Then there's the consideration that those Liliths are just called "Lilith wing". Since when are Capital Ships in wings? Compounding the mistake is the little matter of the accompanying message "Oh my god! It's the Lilith!". First, it's not "the" Lilith, it's two of them. Second, the only time when a ship is referred to with the clss name also that individual ship's name is when it is the first ship of that line. In other words, the first ever produced Fenris is called the Fenris, etc. This is just bad thinking. But wait, there's more. The reinforcements neccessary to kill off these cruisers <i>are not labeled "reinforcement unit" in FRED</i>. Though they are listed in the Reinforcment Editor, with that box unchecked, 2 fighter wings and an Orion are not able to be called in. Finally, there's the small matter of why the hell an Arcadia is present for a "recon" mission and why there's a phreaking HADES sitting around, for no explained reason. And did I mention that not one capital ship actually has the dignity of a name? They're all in wings. Oh yeah. And the Silent Threat content consists of permitting the use of ST weapons (none are useful here) and enabling the Hades to exist.

Gameplay:
Well, without the reinforcements needed, nothing can be done to stop the enemy... even the first fighter waves. 4 Dragons are more of a threat to a fighter group than a Lilith. And there are <i>8</i> waves of 3 Dragons apiece here. Even with the reinforcements, there's nothing fun about this... no plot... nothing new... just a total lack of testing.

Other Thoughts:
Proof that Beta Testing seems to be anathema to FSM designers. One runthrough - just one - would have revealed the gaping hole in this mission.