Description
It has been six months after all nodes to Capella System were collapsed. Rumors of Shivan ships in outlying systems have surfaced over the last few weeks. Now our scouts have picked up a Shivan task force on its way to Vesuda System.....

Storyline:
This would be a good start to a campaign, if it was planned to be one. Despite the fact that the Shivans were supposedly cut off from Terran-Vasudan space after the Jump Node collapse, some have been turning up in strange places. This suggests, of course, that there is yet another entrance into T-V space.<p> The story is maintain in the briefing and great debriefing. Only real quibble is that it is "Vasuda Prime," not "Vesuda Prime." The command briefing feels worthless, as it is only one stage and doesn't really explain much. A more comprehensive command briefing could have boosted this score.

Balance:
Despite the fact that you'll have a ton of behemoth capital ships all dueling at once, the balance is still pretty good. It is thrown off, though, by the simple act of not destroying the enemy beam weapons. So, it's ironic how a battle of such huge ships is determined by what you do. Kinda' nifty, huh?

Design:
In a word - uh, wow! Take a look at this baby in FRED2 and you'll see what I mean. Extensive choreographing of ships, lots of events, and so forth. The designer could have used the send-message-list to cut down on the latter, though.<p> A few problems exist though. For example, why to the Shivan ships so disorganized? They should have all travelled together... as this would have easily overwhelmed the Terran-Vasudan forces.<p> Also, while the "Battle of Endor" syndrome is much less prevalent in Freespace 2, this mission even slowed down my computer a bit. There is simply put, a ton going on at once. Cruisers that jump in unmentioned, directives and escort monitors that overflood their lists.<p> All that said, it's sort of a marvel as to how the mission actually all comes together and really doesn't alienate the player in the end (as most beam weapon missions do).

Gameplay:
This gigantic mission, surprisingly enough, lasts only about as long as a typical one. It is a fun mission too, especially in the race to destroy the beam weapons. But, actually, there isn't a whole lot to keep you coming back... it's fun once, and then it's over.

Other Thoughts:
Folks, meet the new king-size mission. This monster is a whole 134Kb in size, easily twice the size as a normal mission. Lots of waypoint action and several capital ships contribute to that size.