Part 34: Finale, Part 1 - Suicide Mission

In the end, we're going with a nice and simple design for the Heart of Gold. Five Crew Pods, one Fuel System, one amplified Precursor bomb, one escape pod. No weapons whatsoever.



Our fleet will be one of every ship available for us. To max it out, we'll need to take a short trip.







I swing by the Yehat Rebellion to pick up one Terminator.





The Pkunk and the Melnorme both reveal the location of the Sa-Matra in the Crateris constellation. Time for a search!



Something tells me I found it.

You're up, Dnyarri!



It is time, Captain.



Oh gosh, gee! I don't know. Let's just sit here and talk a while AND IGNORE THOSE THOUSANDS OF DREADNOUGHTS THAT ARE GOING TO CREAM US IN A FEW SECONDS!



'I'm scared, Dnyarri. What if this doesn't work?' My species have waited two hundred centuries for this moment, SO STOP BLUBBERING! Let's get to work.



Okay. Now, whatever you do, once I've started, DON'T LEAVE THE STAR SYSTEM! We've only got one chance at this, let's make it good! Here I go...



Now's our chance!



Unfortunately, the Sa-Matra still isn't unguarded.



VIDEO: FINALE, PART 1



Your presence here is further violation of the slave laws, which your species have already violated so flagrantly. We cannot tolerate such insubordination! Your species' penalty shall be annihilation!



Twelve of us, six of them. Let's go.



I haven't gotten this far into the LP by grace of my incredible combat skills.

Captain Trifid dies in battle. Eleven left.



Next up is Captains TotToe, representing the ZoqFot! Their strategy is to keep a distance, shooting down the drons as the Dreadnought launches them.



When it gets low, I go in for a tongue attack! It even almost works.



TotToe die in battle. Ten ships left.



WHY SO CLOSE



Captain *Hungry* doesn't do very well - I panicked because the Nemesis can't properly outrun the drones.

Nine ships left. I still haven't taken out a single Ur-Quan vessel.



Captain Feep-eep achieves our first victory of the battle! The Terminator's forcefield is ideal for tanking fusion blasts, as long as it doesn't get swarmed by drones.



The enemy fleet alternates Dreadnoughts and Maulers. So, it's Kohr-Ah time.

Feep-eep puts up a valiant effort, but is blown out of the sky. Eight ships left.



KYAIEEE!

Seven ships left. Four enemies left.



For whatever reason, the AI violently spams drones against the, er, Drone.



It works. Farewell Captain Pruk'u, six ships left.



The Earthling Cruiser hasn't done good for me since the first update, has it?

Captain Adama is down, five ships left.



The Skiff used to be way better against the Dreadnought, but in the 3DO version the drones are way better at not suiciding against the planet.



Captain Tiptushi dies in battle. It's down to four ships against four.



Three against four. Sorry, Munro, I've never been any good with a Penetrator.



Time to bring out my secret weapons!



The Avatar was designed to counter the Ur-Quan fleets. Its secondary weapon is a powerful tractor beam, and its primary weapon is a super-powerful short-range laser.

The zapsats orbiting it would shoot down any drones, rendering one of the Dreadnought's greatest weapons useless.



The next Mauler crushes one of the zapsats, but at close range, the Avatar's firepower is far superior. Two wins in a row!



Vzrzn finally goes down. I only have two ships left in my fleet.



Fun fact: If the Utwig and Supox intervene in the Doctrinal War, it delays the Kohr-Ah victory by a full year.



There's a reason for this - the Jugger is a monster that can take out a Dreadanought or a Marauder, with no damage if your shield finger is quick.



Thusly does Captain Thory push through! Now all that's left is the Sa-Matra itself...

Wait, I have an incoming transmission!



...and probably don't like being interrupted, but we have important news! The Rebellion is WON! We are VICTORIOUS! We have pulled the Veep-Neep harpy Queen and her cronies from the High Perch! And better yet... we have found a new Queen! A Queen who will unite the Clans in peace and harmony as never before! You will never guess who it is, Captain!
A PKUNK! Yes! It is TRUE! They survived their absorption into our culture, and are now providing us with insights into ourselves we never dreamed of! We only THOUGHT we were being happy birds of prey! We were fooling ourselves!
Our new Queen's name is Braky Girdy the First... and her first command was to rush here and bring ye these ships...Yehat Terminators and Pkunk Furies. Now, Captain, together we can attack the Sa-Matra!



VIDEO: FINALE, PART 2



...and now you can attack the vessel itself, so listen closely.
The Sa-Matra is protected by a thick shell of fused asteroids reinforced with a weak stasis field. You will never break through that. The only opening through the asteroid shield is covered with a powerful force screen. One touch of that screen, and you're history, Captain.
To destroy the Sa-Matra, you will have to destroy the shield generators embedded in the asteroid shell. To drop the force screen, you will have to destroy all eight of them. When the screen is down, bring in your flagship, move into the asteroid shell, and then press the Big Red Button on your controls that starts the detonation sequence. Your escape pod will eject automatically. Just hope you're far enough away before that ship blows.
Ok, human, this is it! The last battle, your final moment of triumph! Don't screw up. And in case you're wondering, I'm not going with you, Captain. I'm staying on board. Why, you ask?
BECAUSE I'M LOCKED IN HERE YOU IDIOT! GET ME OUT!! HELP!!! HELP!!!



LET'S DO THIS



The Sa-Matra is an order of magnitude bigger than any ship in the game. Unfortunately for us, it's still very well-defended, even with its whole fleet wiped out.



Its primary weapon is extreme range homing fireballs. Up to three can exist at a time, they do damage every frame they touch you, and they last forever.

Secondary is homing green orbs, which follow you relentlessly, only doing 1 damage on a hit but with massive knockback. There can be four of those at once.



In order to take on this death fortress, I need to navigate seven homing projectiles to close distance, and even then, my weapons can't event dent it.



Captain Thory is no match, having barely even gotten close to the Sa-Maatra.

It's time to send in my reinforcements!



The Terminator's shield is a useful tool for fighting the Sa-Matra, since most ships will just be shredded by the fireballs with no recourse.



The Dnyarri gave us the secret - the objective here is to take out all eight of the shield generators on the outside of the ship.

Makes you wonder why they didn't put them on the inside of the ship, but a videogame's a videogame, I guess.



Captain Teep-eep's batteries give out, and the ship disintegrates less than a second later.



Geep-eep does a vengeance run, blowing up a second generator!



With ships like this one, the trick is to use your shield and the repulsor orbs to get punted around the map at massive speeds, too fast for the fireballs to chase you. Then, just coast until you get into fighting range, and take out another generator.

Five left!



Brave Captain Geep-eep sacrifices his life to take out a fourth generator.

Now, it's time to reveal the Sa-Matra's great weakness:



A bunch of bird-brains from the goofiest corner of the galaxy.



The reason is simple - the Fury is faster than every one of the Sa-Matra's weapon systems. It's untouchable in the right hands.



Obviously not my hands.

So long, Brakky. Your turn, Screech!



That's the last one! The shield is down!



I try to pull Screech out, but it's a lost cause. I lose one more ship.



Time for the final run!



The Heart of Gold has no defenses, no weapons... all it has is 251 health and some decent middleweight thrusters.



I have to use that to survive against these killer fireballs long enough to dodge all the orbs and do a slam dunk into the gap in the asteroid shield.









We had a good run, Heart of Gold.