Description
A remake of my FS1 mission by the same name. The same basic idea as the original Choke Point, only this mission is a bit more difficult thanks to the addition of flak cannons. Possibly first mission of a future campaign

Storyline:
It what is quite possibly the longest Briefing and Command Briefing that I have seen, we learn that the Hammer of Light somehow still exists. And somehow, they have a massive fleet of two Typhons, some thirty Atens, and hundreds of fighters and bombers.

Hmm... I wonder how that slipped through Terran Intelligence.

In this aptly named mission, you are to intercept a fleet of Aten cruisers heading towards the Jump Node - as advised by an agent working within the HoL. However, it turns out to be much more than that. While there aren't too many messages in the mission itself, there are enough surprises to keep you on your toes.

However, I found it interesting that while the Debriefing does tie up the loose ends of the story, there are only a couple stages - you either succeed or you fail.

Balance:
It will take more than five wings to down this Hammer of Light advance. Your wingmen drop like flies (probably because of all of the explosions). It is good that the Atens are not outfitted with Beam Cannons, since you wouldn't stand a chance. The Terran cruisers, on the other hand, aren't armed with beams either.

Design:
The design of this mission is sure to throw you off in the beginning. The first time through, I was annihilated when a passing Aten exploded in my face. Ideally, you want to allocate most of your energy to your shields to avoid getting caught in an explosion.

There are a lot of fireworks in this mission. However, you'll never really get a chance to rearm and there is one wing of fighters, Thorth (sic) that respawns once after the mission is over. There really isn't a message that tells you to return to base - sans the "eliminate all fighters and then return" one. But who expects a bunch of wayward fighters to respawn once again?

What the designer should have done is rig the arrival cue for Thorth Wing to happen only if the cruisers still exist. Freespace 2 actually checks the arrival cue for each successive wave - so this is a good way to prevent this.

The designer also needed to check the Team Loadout and modify it to get rid of the "clone" weapons.

Gameplay:
Once you figure out the gimmick here (shield allocation) this mission feels like something reminiscent of Silent Threat's infamous Hellfire mission. This mission, as I said, has all sorts of explosive action mashed into a nice under 6 minute package.

Other Thoughts:
Some more depth would have been nice... maybe. This mission would fare well in multiplayer too, if the author decides to convert it.