Description
You must esscort the GTD Calvin to a jump node.

Storyline:
The GTD Calvin needs escort from one jump node to another. Simple enough, right? Wrong. The GTA has launched some type of offensive campaign against the Shivans that got off to a rough start, so now you must make sure more forces can make it to the scene to help. This would've been a reasonable plot, but I'm just guessing on this one. The briefing suffers from very poor word choice, and is difficult to understand. This is only augmented by the debriefing mentioning the fleet going on to destroy the Shivan homeworld. What? The Shivans don't have a specified homeworld! The briefing (Which is all you get to explain the plot) doesn't say anything about this matter. What gives? This plot had some great potential but it got lost somewhere in deep space. <p> The briefing, from a mechanical perspective isn't terrible, but it doesn't shine through as the saving grace for this category. Icons are usually clumped a bit, but that's all the excitement you'll get out of the briefing.

Balance:
This mission barely got .5 stars, mind you. Ship selection is good, but weapon load outs don't come much worse than this. You'll be flying a Ulysess armed with an Avenger cannon, Flail, and hornets. This isn't bad, but you can forget about choosing different weapons - The ONLY weapons available are four extra Flail cannons. This would be bad enough, but it gets even better with the fact that the wing of Medusas that are present to help you out don't get any primary weapons! That's just downright insane! Medusas don't take Flails, so too bad for them. The fun even gets doubled when your reinforcements made up of Valkyries sport the default load outs of a Prometheus, ML-16, and a salvo of MX-50 missiles. It gets even better when you realize that the wing of Athena's you can call in as reinforcements only carry 10 Phoenix V missiles. The author tried to load the Athena's with Harbinger bombs, but as you can guess, that just doesn't work. <p> The Shivans don't prove to be incredibly difficult in the mission except at the very start when you have to take down a cruiser and a wing of Dragon class fighters. You'll fight assorted enemy bombers, Basilisks, and some Dragon fighters, and that's about it. Some enemy capital ships will arrive later, but those can be ignored.

Design:
Design is reasonable in some places and just downright bad or not thought out in others. The biggest problem that you may fall victim to (I did the first time around) is how the GTD Calvin will just plow you over if you don't get away from jump node in time. This is a terribly huge error that should've been addressed in testing right off the bat (If this was tested, that is). You can't ignore having several hundred million kilotons of steel hit your little fighter at speed of 250 meters a second or more. <p> The second huge problem is the proximity of the jump points. When the Calvin comes barreling out of subspace, it covers nearly half the distance it needs to in a few seconds. When the Shivan Destroyer shows up, it nearly collides with the Calvin because they're so close. The jump nodes and ships need to be moved back. <p> Another big problem is how the other wings are loaded out, especially those Athena bombers armed with Harbingers. Even if you select a weapon for a ship in FRED, it won't work in the game itself if the ship can't take the weapon. This is why the Medusas don't get any primary weapons, in FRED they're armed with Flail, but in the game they can't use it. <p> Other smaller errors include the neglect of all dimensions. Some ships are raised above the main plane a few meters, but that hardly changes anything. At least one message is too long to fit on screen, while all the others have grammar problems (No spaces after periods or commas and some other minor things).

Gameplay:
Your wingmen might be killed off quickly, probably because of the Calvin warping in right on top of them. With a big reduction in firepower and reinforcements armed with blanks, game play can get pretty ugly at times. <p> The Calvin is never in any serious danger, since the Shivan bombers aren't armed with anything of power. The result is that the player can happily dance around enjoying the turkey shoot, knowing that failure is unlikely (But possible for the totally careless). The only time you'll be seriously challenged is when the Basilisks start coming after you with volley after volley of hornet missiles themselves.

Other Thoughts:
Directives and selecting the GTD Calvin as an escort ship so it's hull appears on the HUD could go quite a ways to helping this mission out of the abyss.