Do I have to capture the Fralthi? I saw some movies where they transfer Daniels to a Fralthi, a Fralthi is under repairs, etc. So if mission 2 fails the Fralthi gets it on mission 3 (alt) is that path closed?
Anyway... The following mission with the bugs. It's a nice mission, but it suffers from the "everything but the kitchen sink" syndrome. They should cut it into 2 different missions. Because if you fail the last and most difficult part, you must replay the entire mission again. 10 minutes on some easy, semi-automatic mindless action so you can get to the tough part. That's not good mission design. Don't get me wrong; I think UE is great, but to make a mission where you refuel 3 times, and save several different objectives? That's like putting 3 missions in 1. If you fail the last, you must replay all 3. Over and over. Kind of boring. At least put the very-difficult part first, so it takes less replaying time to finish it.
BTW, yes, the Epee is ugly, but so is the scimitar. When I started UE and saw the very two worst confed ships in history, I knew this would be trouble.