Congrats to you Lorien! You beat my kill count, and I don't think I got to 500 kills. I had 441 before heading out on the final mission. YouTube comments have said that this is the worst game in the series, but I don't agree.
On a football related note, the Arizona Cardinals are looking bad for the playoffs. Looks like one and done to me, with more time before they make another run.
Kilrah 3
I head into the briefing room to find out our next plan of attack is. We’re to go after the support vessels of the alien dreadnought. We’ll be using the Devastators again to attack the cap ships at two separate nav points. I’m responsible for the cap ship at the first nav point, and Stiletto will take on the second nav point.
We head off to our assigned areas, and I sit back and let the fighters do their thing to attack any alien fighter cover. I have to fend for myself a few times, but I manage to get two Morays and two Squids with a plasma shot. My bomber is a bit damaged with the rear armor gone and light damage to my ship’s core. A torpedo from one of the other bombers in our wing damages the bridge of the carrier, and I blast the bridge with a plasma shot. With the carrier ‘blind’, I head for the engines. We lose a pilot to the bugs, and I’m within range of the carrier’s engines. A few blasts to the tailpipe, and there is one less big bug to worry about. Stiletto called for some help at the second nav point, so I use the computer to set course for it. When we arrive, an alien carrier goes up in a massive explosion. There’s a bit of fighter cover still left, so I keep my eyes open for any potential attackers. I manage to hit a Moray, and an alien cruiser is tagged. There is only a destroyer left, but another Moray tries its luck of its firepower versus mine. All I need is to hit that Moray once, and he is a pile of debris. The bridge of the destroyer fares little better against the plasma cannon, and it’s time to hit the engines to finish it off. I damage the engines badly, and a torpedo from another bomber gets the final blow. Stiletto had to eject before we could pull the plug on the destroyer, but a SAR shuttle should be able to bring her back. On approach to the Midway, Anderson congratulates us on taking out those cap ships. I wonder what the cost for Confed pilots will be to destroy that dreadnought.
Kilrah 4
I enter the briefing room to see what plan is put into play to destroy the dreadnought. We’re tasked with taking care of the defenses of the dreadnought. Any fighter cover along with the turrets of the dreadnought are our targets. Commodore Blair makes a suggestion to use training missiles to distract the dreadnought. The CAG compliments Blair for his idea, and tells us to expect those missiles to be launched along with our fighter wing. We look over the briefing information in detail to make sure there is nothing missed for our mission objectives. We launch in Vampire fighters and head for the dreadnought.
Once we arrive, Spyder suggests attacking the turrets first since the training missiles are drawing the Squid fighters away. I gun down two of the Squids with one of our wingmates contributing with a kill. A pilot on our wing warns us of inbound fighters, and the bugs kill him. I take out two Squids, and check the radar for close targets. The fighters are wisely staying close to the dreadnought to take advantage of its turrets. A Squid comes straight at me, and I turn on its tail in pursuit. I take care of the Squid, but notice that I picked up an alien shadow. I see the Moray that was attacking me, and it soon joins the Squid as squash. Two more Morays are eliminated, and I see a turret of the dreadnought that would be a good target. The turret takes a few hits, and there is one less stinger on this bug. A Squid tries a direct frontal attack, but the guns of the Vampire are too much for it to survive the pass. I see a damaged Squid, and chase it down to finish it off. Another Squid is blasted from behind, and another wing of defenders comes to help the dreadnought. This wing has some heavy guns from Mantas along with Stingrays. Two of the Mantas go into the blackness, and I also take down a Stingray. Three Stingrays join together into a cluster, but I break it apart quickly. I put a missile into the rear end of one Stingray to quickly get rid of it. Another Stingray segment follows the same fate as its friend. A Manta is attacking me from behind, but I turn around to make it into mush. Two more Mantas are destroyed, and the dreadnought prevents me from shooting down a Stingray with a missile. I finish off that Stingray with point-blank blasts from my guns. Two more Mantas fall to my fighter, and it looks like only the Stingrays are left. There are not enough Stingrays left to merge into a cluster, and I blast another to bits. Our fighter wing takes care of the final Stingray, and now we can focus on defanging the dreadnought. It takes a few minutes to trash all of the turrets, and we head back for the Midway. No doubt that our bombers will be going after it on the next mission. After landing on the Midway, I see Maestro still trying to make a move on Stiletto. I’m surprised he has not learned his lesson yet that she’ll just keep giving him a cold shoulder.
Kilrah 5
The CAG comes to tell us to stay ready for our next attack on the dreadnought. Maestro bemoans having to face the dreadnought, but Stiletto does note that it now has no turrets for defense against torpedoes. As soon as we take out this capital ship, we can make an attack on the Wormhole Gate itself. Anderson comes over the intercom to alert us about approaching enemy ships. We make a run to launch in bombers and fighters.
I’m in the Devastator again, and I manage to take down one of the Mantas attacking. Another Mantas dies from multiple hits from my plasma cannon. Our fighters take care of the Squids that came along with the Mantas. The CAG comes on the communication line to tell us that our bombers will be targeting the bridge and engines of the dreadnought with a recon group to check out the Wormhole Gate. At our arrival to the dreadnought’s position, there is a renewed fighter presence along with an alien Devil Ray ace. I keep my eye on close targets, but decide to make my attack against the Devil Ray. A combination of missiles and the plasma cannon takes down the ace. The frontal armor of my Devastator is completely gone though, so I’ll have to be careful for further direct attacks. A Manta falls to another combination of missiles and plasma shots. I manage to take down a missile that a Moray launched directly at me. That Moray is taken care of by my bomber, and another Manta pilot experiences the void of space. A second wing of alien fighters comes to defend the dreadnought. This force seems to be composed mostly of Mantas. I check my radar for any targets heading for me, and then move in on a Manta within close range. That ship is destroyed with two direct hits from the plasma cannon. A missile along with a plasma shot shatters another Manta. Three more Mantas are finished by my bomber, and I head for the engines of the dreadnought. One of the other bomber pilots has blasted the bridge, and I have an attack vector on the engines. The engines take a few direct hits, but I have to pull out of my attack and then turn back to finish off the dreadnought. One lone Moray is left to deal with, and I make a combined kill with our fighter wing. We head back for the Midway, and Anderson congratulates me for my work. He also says that we got the needed reconnaissance on the Wormhole Gate.
Kilrah 6
I check the killboard before heading into the briefing room. We’ve lost fifteen pilots to the alien forces, but they have paid with over 8400 kills from our crew. I walk into the briefing room, and Finley explains that seven stabilizing towers are keeping the Wormhole Gate open. The wormhole will collapse with all of the towers destroyed, and the CAG takes over the briefing to explain that the Midway will act as bait for the alien forces. Two Vampires will clear out any alien forces guarding the gate, and the Marines will help out by boarding the platform to kill the shields of the towers. The Marines will split into two teams to get the towers down, and then we’ll all clear the area to avoid the implosion of the gate. The CAG tells us all that we’ve come a long way to reach this point, and wants us to make the Midway proud by pulling the plug on the Wormhole Gate.
Stiletto and I reach the position of the gate in our fighters. She takes down the alien Devil Ray ace, and I turn my attention on the multiple attackers here. My Vampire takes some hits to its core, and more Vampires join the attack. After clearing out the Mantas, I turn my attention on other alien ships still defending the gate. Looks like Squids, Stingrays and Lampreys for this wing and I go after the Stingrays as the priority targets. Dekker then communicates the news that they have made it into the control room for the Wormhole Gate and has started work to take down the shields of the towers. Stiletto wants me to attack the gate towers once Dekker has lowered the shield on the first tower. I decide that attacking the alien fighters is more important since only one tower is open to attack at the moment. Several of the alien fighters are shot down before Dekker can drop the shields on another tower. The defensive cover for the towers has thinned enough for me to make an attack. Two of the towers are destroyed, and I turn my attention back to the alien fighters. A few more bugs bite the bullet before Dekker can get the shields down on three more towers. I head for another attack run on the towers and take serious damage. The eject warning is flashing for my Vampire, but I can still take a few more hits. Those towers are all brought down, and more alien fighters are finished off. Dekker tells us about more bad news about not being able to reach the final tower. There’s also a huge fleet approaching from the other side of the gate. With no way for me to help out Dekker, all I can do is to keep killing fighters around the gate. After more bug blasting, Dekker tells us that he’s pinned down and needs reinforcements. Unless the shields of that last tower are brought down, the gate will stay open and the Midway will have to deal with any ships that get thru. Some more bugs are brought down, but Dekker then tells us that he could not take the tower down. The Midway calls a retreat to a nearby nav point where I can get rearmed and refueled. I get news from the CAG that Blair will be along to assist in taking down that final tower. There is the matter of clearing out the remaining alien fighters before I can head to the rendezvous point. Only a clustered Stingray presents a challenge to getting there without further damage. After getting refueled and rearmed, Commodore Blair expresses his confidence that I am up to the task of finishing this mission. All of us head back for the Wormhole Gate, and there is another alien ace in a Devil Ray with other fighters for backup. Two MIRV tracker shots do some damage to that Devil Ray, and I finish it off with my guns. Blair makes it to the seventh tower, and I have made more bugs experience the vacuum of space. It takes about another minute for Blair to get the shields down on that last tower. He emphasizes to attack the tower since he believes he can get out in time before the collapse of the Wormhole Gate. I take the tower down, and Blair congratulates me on a great job. We’re clearing from the collapse of the gate, and another dreadnought is trying to get thru before the gate is gone. The dreadnought does not get thru the gate before the collapse, and I get to see a nice explosion of the entire structure with this gate gone.
I head back for the Midway to land, and see that SAR rescued Maestro after ejecting from his fighter. I ask about Blair, but he did not make it back so something must have gone wrong. After a bit of time, I get to receive a medal award for my work on stopping the bugs. I’m pondering over the award along with its costs to Confed in the Rec room. Stiletto comes in to ask why I’m not celebrating on the flight deck with most of the crew. I tell her that I was thinking about Blair and what he would have said if he was still around. Stiletto says that she knows that Blair would have been proud, and then shows me the contraband bottle of booze that Maestro brought aboard when we first arrived on the Midway. She opens the bottle to pour both of us a drink, and I state that the bugs will be back. She knows this as well, but we might as well enjoy the moment. We make some toasts to Blair and to our friends. We look off into the void of space to reflect over the past, present and future.