Description
The Vesudans have stolen advanced weapon prototypes from the GTA. GTA forces have tracked the freighter carrying the prototypes and disabled it before Vesudan reinforcements could jump in and inflict heavy casualties upon the GTA. Your mission is to take out those reinforcments and ensure that the freighter is captured.

Storyline:
The mission briefing is informative but could be polished. However, there are a few consistency errors which ruin the attempted tie-in to the Great War campaign. <p> Why would the Vesudans steal the advanced weapon prototypes from the GTA, when in the Great War campaign the Terrans and Vesudans are allied against the Shivans? That alliance included a technology exchange, since Terran and Vasudan scientists worked together to decipher the technology. However, this idea is at least a nice attempt to tie into the Great War campaign. <p> Another continuity issue is that all of the Terran ships are available in the ship loadout, even those ships which weren't developed yet. The weapons loadout also contains the D-Advanced, which wasn't introduced. Finally, the use of shields for the Vasudans and Terrans is questionable since the main Shivan technology obtained in Alpha-Cygnai was shield technology. <p> If you're not concerned about the accuracy of the Great War tie-in, then the storyline is enough to give you a reason to care about the outcome. I like the idea of the PVFR Tempest being already disabled, even though it might have made the mission more difficult if it was only crippled to under 20% engines.

Balance:
The default Apollos, and even Ulysses, will have a good time facing off against the PVF Horus and PVF Seth defenders. Choosing a GTF Hercules would usually make the mission a little unfairly balanced, except that a large part of the mission is to <u>disable</u>, not destroy the freighter. Moreover, the more powerful weapons are not available. These factors tend to level out the advantage of the Hercules and makes bombers impractical. Limiting this mission to a timeline-consistent loadout would be reasonable and improve the game balance. As the mission currently stands, the mission is exciting, but not too difficult.

Design:
The preset AI commands are actually helpful. This was noticable when I destroyed the weapons subsystem of the freighter and (unwittingly) left my wing to take out the turrents. Alpha wing performed admirably, which is more than can be said for many missions designed at the time of this release. <p> Ship placement isn't perfect, but it works out moderately well -- if a bit cramped around the Vasudan transport towards the middle of the mission. a<p> I am baffled, though, by the transports. Two Terran transports arrive alongside each other, which might be useful if the Vasudan fighters actually threatened one of the Terran transports. But it isn't necessary in the current design and, in fact, detracts from the mission after the first one leaves with the Vasudan transport - leaving the second one sitting in space and unable to "dock." It wouldn't have been hard to cause the second Terran transport to arrive only if the first had been destroyed. In addition, the first Terran transport arrives alongside the Vasduan transport long before the Vasduan repair ship. I suspect that the Vasudan repair ship actually ENABLES the Terrans to escape with the Vasudan transport, since I can't find any events where the Terran transports would move along the departure waypoint or jump out with the cargo. <p> The voice for the sound addon is nicely done, although a few of the sounds could be amplified to increase the volume. Although the only events in this mission are to trigger these sounds, there are quite a few objectives. However, a secondary objective will identify the need to destroy a reinforcement wing (Vestdar) during the briefing.

Gameplay:
I hate to point out this mission's design flaws, because I really enjoyed playing it. The Seth and the Horus are the strongest of the Vasudan fighters, not at all easy to knock out. Combine this with the limited/disabling weaponry, and this mission turned into an enjoyable but non-threatening, dogfight. There's no question that you'll succeed in the mission, but there are just enough fighters to keep you busy and thinking. When you get on their tail, however, the Captian AI seems to be a little too easy to kill, unfortunately. This makes for limited replay value, but it's great the first few times through.

Other Thoughts:
Fly the Apollos or Valkyries for a better challenge.