Description
The Terrans escort a captured Hades to another system.

Storyline:
I looked everywhere for a story but I didn't find much. I guess that SOME HOW we captured another Hades class destroyer, the Phantom. You only get a rather lame one sentence command briefing and then a one stage regular briefing saying we must protect it while a transport docks with it and then escort it to the jump node. The command briefing leads on that this ship was built right after or with the original Hades. So, how the heck did the ever-so-evil GTI conjure up the resources to make ANOTHER one so quickly? How did the GTA manage to capture it? The story for this mission is like swiss cheese, full of holes...No, correction, it's more like <i>moldy</i> swiss cheese.

Balance:
Maybe I'm missing something, but I failed to notice any balance either. Ship selection is somewhat acceptable, but the weaponry options are just downright bizarre. You can only choose from five of EVERYTHING, except Hornet missiles of which you get a quantity of 325. Why? I don't know why, and as far as I'm concerned that mystery is up there with the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa. The balance of enemies isn't anything special, but it's definately <i>not</i> anything remotely good. See below.

Design:
Ah, yes. The highly coveted ranking of zero stars. This mission has certainly earned it, too. The big problem: Both primary objectives are complete as soon as you enter the mission. I can't believe someone submitted this thing to Xanadu's with a bug ten times the size of the Hades itself! Obviously this wasn't beta tested to any extent. What's the point of playing a mission when the possibility of victory isn't even challenged? Then there's the objectives themselves. <p> The primary objectives are to make sure the transport that's supposed to dock with the Phantom is saved, and all hostiles are destroyed. What happened to escorting the Phantom? The objective of escorting the Phantom is a secondary goal for some reason. This makes absolutely no sense at all. Clearing out the hostiles should be a secondary, and escorting the Phantom should be a primary. <p> To make matters more fun, the bad guys are there as soon as you arrive. To add to the entertainment, you're placed only two kilometers from the baddies. As the icing on the cake, all ships are placed on one plane and the GTD Phantom is nearly 14 kilometers from the jump node. Enemy waves will only arrive for several minutes into mission, after which you have to wait FOREVER until the Phantom gets to the node. Add to this two events that don't even work (And if they did, they wouldn't make any sense in relation to the mission).

Gameplay:
Gameplay is horrible. You get to blow away a couple Shivan bombers and fighters at the start of the mission, but after that it's an endless and incredibly boring journey of the Phantom. The Phantom itself never comes under serious threat, since a Hades class destroyer can absorb a whole bunch of Harbingers without flinching. And considering that ultimate defeat can't happen, what's the fun of playing something that wins itself?

Other Thoughts:
Again, absolutely awful design.