Description
Player is sent out to renovate the Asteroid Belt of some Shivan scragglers. Suddenly, a Shivan Freighter carrying an unknown cargo arrives with an odd wing of fighter protection...

Storyline:
Clear out Shivan fighters located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. With Lucifer being destroyed in the Sol Jump Node, you can expect a few Shivans to be lying around. However, the entire second portion of the mission was confusing. Where did the freighter come from and why did it have an "odd wing of fighter protection"? This confusion isn't resolved, since the debriefing only suggests that the unscannable cargo container would help GTA Intelligence.

Balance:
Alpha will be limited to a GTF Ulysses fighter armed with some combination of Avenger/Prometheus cannons and Interceptor missiles. The maneuverable Ulysses is an understandable choice for the asteroid field. With its light hull, the Ulysses is well-suited to fight Shivan Basilisks and Scorpions, as well as the other "odd" defenders.

Design:
The asteroid field is incredibly dense, resulting in some incredibly tense dogfighting. Although the asteroid field is long, it is only 2000 meters wide. Since the Ulysses can quickly cover this distance, the visual effect is ruined. The narrow width also results in too close of a ship placement for wingmen and the first Shivan wave. Even 1400 meters away and in an asteroid field, these Shivans are just too close to give pilots a chance to orient themselves. <p> Difficulty levels are implemented in this mission, so those who play on "hard" or higher will have to target the Shivans visually instead of using your sensors. Now I'd call <u>that</u> difficult, which is a nice touch. <p> However, the transport events suffered from problems. The bonus objective to "protect the cargo" is immediately satisfied when the transport arrives. Given the dressing down you receive in debriefing for failing the objective, this should be an "invalid" secondary objective that later becomes "valid." Also, the transport doesn't do well in the asteroid field: its speed will vary from 35+ m to 9 m as asteroids block its waypoint route. It will finish the waypoint path at the edge of the asteroid field, too close to avoid collissions. As a result, the Shivan cargo will be in as much danger from the asteroids as from your stray fire. <p> Finally, the "odd wing of fighter protection" appeared to be a bug until I checked the storyline given on Xanadu's archive. I realize that the ship choice was deliberate, but there were no messages in the mission commenting on the oddity.

Gameplay:
All the fighters fly using captain AI, so every ship flies well even in the dense asteroid field. The enemy will get in close and use asteroids for cover. The result is an excellent dogfight, where all the ships are zipping in, out and around the ever-present asteroids. <p> However, the fun ends when Alpha must take out the transport. It is difficult to destroy the Shivan transport without severely damaging the cargo. A trick, however, forces the transport to undock with the cargo. But the cargo will remain inside the dense asteroid field, and asteroids destroyed the cargo every time I was able to avoid destroying it.

Other Thoughts:
Some nice touches, but also a few aggravating problems dealing with the transport portion of the mission. I'd have been much happier if the author had decided to stick to the dogfight. As it is, I suspect the mission expanded on its own as new FRED features were discovered.