Description
A strange peice of alien technology has been discovered in the Capella system, you must escort the wing transporting it through the Vega system. This is a mission from the Eve of the War campaign and it includes a new model for a planet that is used in the mission and a new command briefing animation.

Storyline:
At last, a breath of fresh air in the storyline department. In very professional command and mission briefings, you are told that some sort of alien artifact (A Shivan cargo container) has been found in the Capella system, and is being transported to Delta Serpentis for further study. The transport's path takes it through an asteroid field in the Vega system, right by Vega 7c (A planet! In the mission!), where it's suspected that there is a Vasudan outpost. Oh yes, we're back in the good 'ol days of Freespace here, boys and girls! We're still fightin' the good fight against the evil Vasudans, Shivans are yet to come, and life is good. Your job here is to escort the freighter and two transports full of scientists safely through the asteroid field and keep the Vasudans off their backs if any show up. This is supported throughout the mission by several messages, and is closed out well by the debriefing. I must throw in some additional praise for the mission briefing here. To say that it is good or professional just doesn't do it justice. It's absolutely magnificent, with every stage thought out perfectly, and the camera pans and rotates beautifully. Even the main Freespace campaign can't rival this briefing. One of the best storylines I've seen in quite a while, 'nuff said.

Balance:
This is really the only low point to the mission, because it is very difficult to complete your objectives. Naturally, having no shields and pre-great war weapons will make things much harder, but the main difficulty isn't the Vasudans, it's the asteroid field. The artifact carried by Omicron 1 must have a gravity well or something, because asteroids have an odd tendency to gravitate toward it in mass numbers. It's nearly impossible to get Omicron 1 through the asteroid field with a hull strength over 60%. I realize that this isn't something the author can really control, but I really had to babysit Omicron through the asteroid field (not to mention shooing away the Vasudan scum). You will more than likely fail the first couple of tries on medium, because you'll be concentrating too much on the Vasudans. They will lure you away from your charge and let their wingmen (and the pesky asteroids) pound it mercilessly. Overall, the mission is very well balanced, especially for having no shields. Normally these missions are pretty much impossible to survive, but in this case, the enemy isn't as much of a threat to you as it is to the escort ships, so you will have to worry less about your own hide and more about saving theirs. It took me a couple tries to develop a good strategy to win, but rest assured that this mission is entirely beatable, if on the hard side.

Design:
Wow. This is the stuff that five star missions are made of, folks. I can't find one single error in the design save a few spelling mistakes here and there, but even they aren't obvious unless you're looking for them. The planet looks incredible in the background and really fills out the mission. When you recieve the message about the Typhon's arrival, you MUST turn to watch the spectacular sight as a huge Vasudan destoyer arrives in front of the planet. Truly a sight to see. There are several other touches that you probably won't notice unless you open the mission in FRED, like the fact that there is a waypoint path set so that the Prospero will slowly orbit Vega 7c. It's this kind of attention to detail that makes for great mission design. I was awed by things like the aforementioned mission briefing and the incredible the visual staging of events in mission. It's almost cinematic. For an example of what I mean by "cinematic" take a look at this screenshot. The only thing I might possibly change is to replace the Osiris bombers with some Anubis class ships, but this is nitpicking more than anything. Overall, a technically astounding mission.

Gameplay:
Yes, the mission is difficult, but I found it to be challenging rather than frustrating. You are forced to come up with a strategy to defend Omicron wing from both the asteroids and the Vasudans. You will very likely lose at least one ship, probably two, but if you manage to defend Omicron 1, you still succeed (That's a relief, I can't imagine having to babysit more than one ship). It's definitely harder than most missions, but with some patience (I never get tired of watching that Typhon warp in), you will invariably succeed.

Other Thoughts:
Geez, three reviews in approximately 24 hours. I'm stuck in the house with a back injury, so I really don't have anything better to do...