Secret Missions 1 Replay Week 2

Dundradal

Frog Blast the Vent Core!
The hunt continues!

Up this week are Jotunheim and Bifrost. 6 missions to cover, but only in two systems. I look forward to all your posts. I'm on my 2 week break between seminars, so I'll have my post up later today.

Great work so far guys! 4 more weeks and we'll have WC1 wrapped-up.
 
Back in the saddle again...

Shotglass brings the point home of the Claws' current mission as well as its designation as a strike carrier. It's meant to go behind enemy lines alone and wreck havoc. We're doing that right now chasing down the Sivar. I remember playing this the first time and feeling tense making my way through the missions. The feeling certainly is back to an extent.

Knight continues with the tension increase. You'd think with all the experienced pilots on the Claw you'd see more positive messages coming across. Suicide mission or not, we've got a job to do and talk this is never good for morale.

Has anyone else noticed how most of the other pilots are always talking about Iceman? Spirit has quite a bit to say about him. I do have to say he is probably the best wingman in WC1.

Jotunheim 1

We're heading into an asteroid field and have to meet up with the last of the Reavers' ships, a Drayman with communications data intercepted from the Kilrathi. The Reavers have done a great job in aiding the Claw in its pursuit of the Kat fleet. Confed is definitely giving its all to destroy this fleet. I wouldn't call it exactly a suicide mission.

I've got to hit 3 nav points in a Raptor. Should be easy....right?

Yeah right. Nav 1 has 6 Salthi and Frathli waiting. How many is this so far? Don't get me wrong, I love taking these suckers out, but man am I kind of glad that the Claw wasn't near Goddard when the Sivar hit. With all these Fralthi supporting it, it would have had quite the fighter strike force ready to go. This is one where you definitely need to take out the escorts first. 6 Salthi is quite a few to handle especially with Spirit on your wing. A good amount of dogfighting takes care of them and I don't spare a missile on the Fralthi. It's explosion leaves me with a smile...

Gratha aren't much of a problem in a Raptor and the 4 of them are made quick work of. Nav 3 is where the real challenge is. Two waves of Krants. Bastards. It's all about speed here. If you can take a bunch of them out before the Drayman jumps in, it will make this a lot easier.

Shotglass again with the negativity. You'd think someone of his experience would know better than to spread rumors like that. What if the Colonel doesn't know what he's doing? That's on the verge of being out of line especially from a bartender.

Paladin has some information on the nature of the Sivar's weapon. It's interesting that again the Covert Ops guy is the one feeding us intel. Granted this is all taken from hindsight, but still it plays into his overall character quite nice.

Jotunheim 2

The Kats are setting up an ambush and Halcyon wants to spring it, but on our terms. Sounds promising. Even though we are racking up victories, people are still tense about surviving this campaign. Maniac's mental state has gotten to the point where the discussion is raised in the middle of a briefing by Paladin. Maniac's defense is typical Maniac and Halcyon dismisses everyone with no decision.

Nav 1 has 4 Salthi and a Dorkir. Another supply ship gone to make the Kats trip that much more uncomfortable. Nav 2 has Krants in an asteroid field. Pain in the ass.

Nav 3 is definitely the ambush. 5 Gratha and a Fralthi. Damn the kats have a ton of these ships! But I have no problem taking them out! It's great that almost every mission so far has had a capship to take out. But then again we are chasing down a Kat fleet.

There's no conversations here. Shotglass just tells us to get into the briefing room.

Jotunheim 3

The Johann is adrift after being attacked by the Kilrathi and is in need of assistance. This mission has a ridiculous amount of fighters.

4 Gratha en route to Nav 1 then 4 Jalthi at Nav 1 itself. What an opening. I did not make it through these encounters undamaged. Nav 2 is not the Johann. Oh no, it's the Gwenhyvar! 5 Rapiers and the Gwenhyvar to take out. This is quite an encounter. It's our first time flying against our own ships and Rapiers no less. They did a nice job of placing this encounter far enough after the initial reference so that it's been just long enough to where it's probably slipped your mind.

The last encounter is 8 more fighters (4 Krants and 4 Gratha). I was pretty banged up by this point so I had to be careful not to be blown out of the sky.

Upon returning even Halcyon is surprised by the story. I'm amazed I survived the damn mission! That Raptor is going to be in the repair bay for quite a while. For my actions I receive a Bronze Star. It feels well deserved.

I'll finish up the other missions later in the week! I can't wait to keep taking out the Kats!
 
I've got this week off from work, though I'm actually leaving to go to the beach on Wednesday. So, a bit of a push to get the week done, but I have the feeling I'll be left wanting more.

Jotunheim 1:

Another reference to Blair's usual. I wonder if the Hell's Kitchen has been invented yet. Otherwise, things are getting quite depressing. Spirit's lost contact with her fiance and wants to try dodging around asteroids in a Raptor, and Knight's wondering about this being a suicide mission. I hope he doesn't go charging straight at some Jalthi again.

Damn, this was a tough mission. It looks like the Reavers took some big hits on this operation. Only one transport left out of how many penetrated the border. It's still around, though. Spirit got into trouble with the Fralthi, and I took massive damage making sure he got a head start on the way home before re-engaging. Landed my Raptor with no targeting system and acceleration absorbers, a damaged flight computer and missing a Mass Driver and a Neutron Gun. Trading the repair time against the time to make 17 Kilrathi fighters seems like a fair trade to me, though.

Jotunheim 2:

We pick up on Paladin's worries in the pre-mission chats, he's still thinking we're becoming like the Kilrathi. I wonder if he thought back to that worry during the whole Tolwyn business. The line about the new Dralthis made me think of all the ship version arguments we've had at the forums.

This mission was a nice, clean sweep. I'm pretty sure that's only because 3 Krants died to idiocy in the Asteroid field. 2 dodged asteroids into each other and a third clipped a wing while pulling up after an attack run on me. It probably would have survived if it hadn't already been torn up by my Raptor's guns. Why do Grathas seem so much better here than they did in UE?

Jotunheim 3:

Not much preulde for this mission, probably because it was the Johann. Bugger.

I sent Spirit home after the Jalthi, story-wise to join the group protecting that Claw. Game-wise because I knew she didn't have much of a chance. To be honest, neither did I. I drained a lot of fuel boom-n-zoom'ing against the Rapiers, it helped that they shot one of their own down due to sloppiness. Mission developers take note: Krants and Grathas against a ship almost empty of fuel and missiles is mean. I'm pretty sure my landing resembled the one from Hot Shots! I think I deserved more than a Bronze Star for this.

Bifrost 1:

The Claw's pilots are starting to fall apart, being deep in enemy territory without any idea where your prey is would rattle anyone. Good thing to know that Paladin and Hunter are keeping it together, though. Which is good, because he's on my wing.

For a little bit, anyway. Are there enough Jalthi in this system? I bagged 9 of the bastards before being forced to break off back for the Tiger's Claw. There was nothing working in my Raptor's cockpit when I landed.

Bifrost 2:

Another mention of Blair's usual. I'm really getting bugged not knowing what it is. Shotglass seems to be returning to form a bit, maybe the idea of Spirit drunk off her arse is as funny to him as it is to me.

Speaking of funny, 2 scimitars against a vital and well-defended Supply Depot? Ha Ha! Good one, Halcyon! How I made it through this one alive I'll never know. I actually had the eject alarm go off at me, then make a funny sound and stop working. Kind of irrelevant, though, since the eject system didn't survive the mission. That'll get those damned techs fixing fighters faster.

Bifrost 3/Valgard 1:

Bit of confusion here, the game guide and briefing say Bifrost, but the career status and Nav Map say Valgard. Either way, things are coming to a close, pilot morale is back up after taking out the supply depot,

In other good news, the techs have finally learned their lesson and prepared a Rapier for me. Hopefully, it'll never come to this again. The Rapier and I seem to share a special bond, I'm nearly invincible when I'm flying it. Jalthi and Gratha especially have gone from Worrying enemies to lumbering targets, and I like them like that. Iceman wasn't kidding about getting in his way, though, I've had to make sure I don't get in between him and a cat several times in this mission.
 
Sorry I haven't gotten around to finishing mine yet had some stuff pop up this week. I plan on finishing it tonight.
 
Better late than never...

The Gwenhyvar wasn't a myth, now it's history. In the interm though the Claw has lost contact with the Sivar's fleet. Shotglass is a bit back to form, but you can still tell losing his cousin was a big hit to him. Being behind enemy lines seems a bit different aboard the Claw than it is in the future on the Victory, where everyone is upbeat once we go into Kat space. You'd think everyone would want to take the fight to the Kats, but most seem to want to get back to Confed-held space ASAP.

The stress continues to be played up in the conversation with Hunter. One of Zeta Wing's pilots went "bonkers" and kamikazed a Fralthi. Didn't even cause a dent in the ship. Hunter is concerned with the number of pilots being lost, man is there anybody that's positive around here? Someone needs to get working on the ship's morale.

Ahh Paladin, with at least a shred of confidence. Although people are excited about the prospect of retreating without having finished their mission? What the hell is going on here? And others want to blow their brains out? If the Claw wasn't chasing down the Sivar I'd probably have the whole crew sent in for evaluation and a few weeks R&R. They are wound WAY too tight. At least Paladin has the sense to try and even things out.


BiFrost 1

The Claw has lost the Sivar fleet insystem, which isn't too bad, because apparently the Sivar has a mighty thrist and is heading towards a refueling depot insystem. Halcyon thinks the Kats are going to call in reinforcements, perhaps a Fralthi and some Ralari. It's interesting that he notes if "Two Fralthi with additional heavy ships, if they know where to catch us… will reduce Tiger’s Claw to molten slag." Quite the statement.

We're to scout for the depot as well as a large unknown blip. If we encounter it we've got to get gun camera footage back to the Claw. This sounds anything but easy.

This system is filled with asteroids, but luckily we travel around most of them. What it is full of is Jalthi. The first nav has 3 to deal with, but I'm still in a Raptor and have Paladin on my wing. He's getting up there in years, but still a decent pilot.

Nav 2 has 4 Krants and a Ralari. Having blasted so many Fralthi it's nice to take out a Ralari again. They are pieces of cake compared to their bigger brothers.

Nav 3 is a bit intense. Why? 6 Jalthi = 36 Lasers. You have to be extremely careful here. I saved some missiles so it doesn't turn out to be that bad, although my Raptor is pretty banged up. I get the camera footage as well. It's been a while since I've seen him, but the Sivar is still a sight to be seen....soon enough.



Shotglass wants blood still, but now the fear is gone. He wants us to kill some Kats for his cousin and himself. No problem Shotglass, this rounds on me.

Angel explains the obvious. If you haven't figured out how to kill capships just playing the previous missions in SM1 well I don't know. But thanks for the tip anyways Angel.

Ugh, Spirit. All the negativity really starts to get to a guy after a while. But at least she's upbeat about the potential victory party.



BiFrost 2

Are you shitting me? Scimitars? Guess I shouldn't have trashed so many other ships. 3 Navs of hostiles and a depot? Oh yeah sounds like a walk in the park. This isn't starting off good.

We've got to knock out an essential depot and we can't wait for some fighters to be repaired, so I get to go out in the flying pig. Well at least I won't have to pay off my poker debts.

Nav 1 has 3 Salthi. Well at least they don't throw the big guns at me right off the bat.

Nav 2 is 4 Krants and a Lumbari. I waste the Lumbari first because they go down quickly. The Krants are a bit of a pain since it's been so long since I've only had two mass drivers for weapons. I'm a little banged up but I know the big fight is coming still.

Nav 3 has 4 Jalthi and the Depot. What the hell. There's a whole lot of dodging and ABing going on here. And of course after I survive the hell that that just was I get a second wave of 4 Gratha. This Scimitar is going to be in the repair bay for a while, if it's even repairable.

Once all the fighters are down Paladin and I concentrate on the Depot. It's destruction is almost anti-climatic because it's a long process with only 1 gun and a few missiles. Finally, it goes up and I'm ready to go home.

Enough theatrics? Screw you Halcyon! You fly that damn mission!

But you can call me Lt. Colonel Blair now and I'm back in a real fighter, thank you techies.


Apparently blowing up Depots is the way to raise morale. Even Shotglass is more upbeat. It provided hope even though we've been blowing away Fralthi's like it was our job, oh wait, that is our job. Of course we'll win, we are the Mighty Confederation. You'd think more hope would have been created by the camera footage of the Sivar. People.

Bossman wants the glory. If he only knew who is going to take it down. Heh.

Iceman has a better delivery for his wanting to take down the Sivar. Everybody wants a piece of the pie, sorry guys, I'm going to take that bastard out.

BiFrost 3

During the Depot mission a courier ship was also captured providing technical details for the Sivar and patrol patterns for the Vega Sector. The Sivar is classified as a Super-Dreadnaught. However, our current mission is to nail any Kats that try to swing by the Depot. The Claw is parked in the same area laying out a trap for the furballs. It's interesting that Halcyon mentions the Kats trying to negotiate because of their situations. A ruse of that nature seems beyond most lower level Kil. That's something I could see Thrakhath or Jukaga cooking up to buy time.

Comet-style Patrol with Iceman and in a Rapier to boot. This is what it's all about. This mission is very intense.

Start off with 3 Krants which aren't a match for Iceman and myself. Then at Nav 1 2 fat Lumbaris unescorted. What a joy that was.

Nav 2 is 3 Gratha and a Ralari. Not much of a problem in a Rapier. I'm saving my missiles though, there's got to be bigger fish nearby.

Yeah I was right. Nav 4 has 4 Jalthi and a Fralthi. This is a battle. I'm not sure if I'd want anyone besides Iceman on my wing for this. He earned his pay on my wing here and manages to finish off the Fralthi.

Bookend a mission with Krants? Bastards. I waste no time on these jerks and nail them quickly. This Rapier is headed for the repair bay as well. It's really banged up. These missions are getting really intense and we've still got more to go.

Time to find that damn super-dreadnaught...
 
Jotunheim 3: I was able to kill all the fighters in this mission by myself, the last wing of gratha on my way to Tiger's Claw was very tough to kill because I had almost no missles left and very low fuel level.. I killed all the cats and returned home.. if it wasn't a raptor I'd be dead.. Man, I love this fighter!
 
Woah, you're moving thru the missions REAL quick. You might want to take the time to post a journal or reactions to specific missions. It's not mandatory, but I for one like to see other's reactions to the missions.
 
You know, I've got a lot of time now as the weather is bad outside :)
I've gone through Vega in 1,5 day and Special Operations (I've not finished yet) in 2 days now. I'm posting only when I win/loose somenthing significant (or very hard mission). I don't want to copy previous posts. This is the first time I attempt to go trough all true Wing Commander games (whcih in my opinion are: Wing 1+2 with Special operations 1+2, Academy, than Priateer+RF addon, Armada, Wing 3 and Wing 4 as the last one). And for the first time I've got all games fully working on two PCs (old one + another modern with dosbox). It will take a lot of time to beat it :) Good!
 
Best of luck to you then! At your rate, you'll be caught up by our week 2 replay thread of Wing Commander 3(or perhaps earlier).
 
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