Description
The first run-in with the vasudans.

Storyline:
Sadly, this plot simply involves unknown craft (vasudans) attacking the player's forces as he arrives to save a doomed cruiser. This is untrue to the given origins of the 14-year war as given in the Technical Database, and doesn't really "explain" anything.

Balance:
Only the weapons available at the start of the 14 year war are available in this extremely hard mission. The destruction of many fighters and an Aten without the help of advanced weapons or shields is difficult at best, and taking out the Aten with my mere 14 hull points required standing just out of range of the cruiser's guns and pumping very carefully aimed MX-50s into the weapons system, which, when destroyed, keyed the entry of an Athena. This Athena unleashed some sort of bomb that destroyed the Aten, but what it could be in an Athena I don't know. Overall, with only two wings of Apollos and a Fenris, this is a very difficult mission, but beatable for a veteran pilot.

Design:
If I may say so, "ouch!". There are many design issues with this. First, all of Delta's fighters are listed under Reinforcements, but only Delta (the whole wing) is an option to be called in. In addition, the second Primary Objective (the first, defend the doomed cruiser, is impossible - but that's the idea) is simply called "(none)", giving the player no clear idea of his intended tasks were it not for the well-done Directives and in-flight messages. In addition, I was told in my debriefing that I had failed the secondary objective, to defend the GTC Hydra, when in fact it was only reduced to 18 hull. Ugh. Still, these are relatively minor and other than the difficulty of the mission, it is pretty good overall.

Gameplay:
Yes, this is hard - very hard - and the lack of shields makes it worse, but overall it's good for a tight, intense dogfight, and depending on your situation, various tactics must be evolved to successfully defend the Hydra (whose guns are absolutely vital in this shield-less scenario) and take out the Aten. Overall, pretty fun for a veteran pilot - and at this point, who isn't veteran?

Other Thoughts:
Nothing.