Part 2: Nexus Sweep, Nexus System, Gemini Sector (Story)
A substantial part of the storyline and character development in Standoff proceeds via your e-mail messages (much like in X-Wing Alliance). In order to preserve that I'm posting these here; though I'm keeping them in a separate post to allow skipping by the walls of text without missing the mission videos.Here's the pre-mission 1 e-mails.
There are (officially at least) three e-mails before the first mission.
*URGENT* SWES Message - Recieved at 1945 hours GST on 2668.219 posted:
From: Adm. D. Terrell (TCN Sector Command, Perry Naval Base)
To: Capt. Charles Graham (TCN, TCS Lionheart)
CC: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Lionheart)
Subject: New orders, TOP PRIORITY
Captains,
It would appear that an "incident" has occured five hours ago, just outside Victoria, in the Junction System. A complete report is still unavailable, but here is what we know for certain - at 1407 hours, pirates operating an indeterminate number of Talons and at least one Tarsus managed to force their way into the hangar bay of the TCS Guadalcanal. The ship was in the process of being mothballed, which unfortunately meant very lax security. The pirates were able to not only steal a large part of the ship's fighter compliment, they also were able to damage most of the other fighters AND to take several pilots hostage. Five other crewmembers were killed during the raid.
Initial reports indicate that the ship's entire squadron of Sabres was stolen - 12, in all. As for the hostages, we believe there are 11 in all. All but one of the hostages are Sabre pilots. Their names are as follows: Capt. Marie LeBlanc, 1st Lt. Jason Beverly, 1st Lt. Joanna Doyle, 1st Lt. Chiang Sun-Li, 2nd Lt. Paul Henderson, 2nd Lt. Wilfred Lockwood, 2nd Lt. Tamara Bletchley, 2nd Lt. Anne Summers, 2nd Lt. Wong Kai Chen, 2nd Lt. Abdullah Farouk, and Petty Officer Pierre Adorno.
The pirates were pursued by 3 Rapiers from the Guadalcanal until they reached the Nexus jump point and made the jump, at about 1520 hours. Your orders are to proceed immediately into the Nexus System, rendezvous with the platoon of Marines we've dispatched, and pursue the pirates to their base of operations. Your primary objective is to completely terminate the pirate operations. However, you MUST recover as many of the hostages and fighters as possible. More information will be forwarded to you as it becomes available.
Adm. D. Terrell
Commander-in-chief, Confed Naval Forces, Gemini Sector
I guess five-paragraph orders didn't survive into the 27th century. We don't really learn much from this we didn't get from the intro, but it wouldn't really make sense to not have this message. Sparrow, as mentioned in the intro, is Marie LeBlanc.
1IES Message - Received at 0313 hours GST on 2668.120 posted:
From: Capt. Charles Graham (TCN, TCS Lionheart)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Lionheart)
Subject: Preparation for the jump to Nexus
Hello, Captain
It's been eight hours since we've heard from Perry on this little situation at hand... We've almost reached the Nexus jump point, and everyone's probably wondering why our techs are down there clearing enough deck space to fit two Marine LCs on.
I want you to brief your pilots on the situation with all the information we have so far, while I do the same with the rest of the crew, since I believe it'll be a while until Perry has more information for us.
For all we know, there might already be a welcoming committee waiting for us on the other side of the jump point, so we can't take any chances. Chief Henderson is already readying all our Stilettos for launch, so I want two pilots ready to scramble as soon as we jump out, with everone else on alert. As a matter of fact, I want two pilots on the flight deck and ready to launch whenever you're not briefing them. Fariss quadrant is full of tricks, and these pirates now have state-of-the-art fighters at their disposal, some of them possibly loaded with torpedoes. Work out a schedule so everyone gets enough sleep before the next shift or mission, you might get a lot of unexpected sorties in this operation.
Again, let me know the minute your pilots are briefed and ready for an eventual scramble.
Cpt. Charles Graham
I'll let you guys guess exactly how many scramble missions there are in this chapter. Hint: it's a round number.
1IES Message - Received at 0540 hours GST on 2668.120 posted:
From: 1st Lt. Fabian Schroeder (TCSF, TCS Lionheart)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Lionheart)
Subject: Re: [Fw: Combined details, TCS Guadalcanal situation]
Hey Marksman... are you trying to add some more drama to the situation, make me feel sorry for you, or are you just the unluckiest bastard I've ever met? I mean, explain this... It's from the Guadalcanal report which you passed around:
> The hostages include: Capt. Marie LeBlanc, 1st Lt. Jason Beverly,
Okay, so I'm worried about Squealer, but you know what he's like. He can get himself out of wherever it is they're keeping him before you can say "New Constantinople", and he'll probably even bag a few pirates in the process... but are we really gonna put our asses on the line in the damned Fariss quadrant to rescue "Sparrow" LeBlanc? I'd have helped those pirates take her hostage, if they had only invited me to the Guadalcanal raiding party!
> Two Hermes-class Marine LCs will soon be onboard to help us. Those pirates need to land those Sabres somewhere, eventually, since they only had enough fuel for one jump. We'll need to make sure the Marines can secure as many Sabres on the ground as possible.
Great. So we might have to remove all turrets from a possibly huge installation... but last time I checked, we didn't have any dumbfires. And as if that wasn't enough, our Rapiers are sunbathing in front of some hangar on Budayeen Island, while we're stuck here with half a dozen Stilettos. Viper's probably crying tears of joy right now, but you know I prefer ships that can actually survive one particle cannon hit.
Anyway, please tell me you were just pulling my leg by making that report look worse than it really is, man. Taking SIX Stilettos up against A DOZEN hijacked Sabres (and God knows how many Talons) to rescue your psychotic ex (of all people) isn't a good idea. I know we should be thankful we weren't given a permanent shore leave after the truce was signed and all, but I sure as hell wish I didn't have to take part in getting that woman back into a fighter's cockpit... specially if that means risking my own neck.
Spoons
This is a fairly good introduction to the character of Spoons, especially in situations where Sparrow is involved. It's like the reverse of a love triangle or something.
Now, those are the three messages actually present in the game when you click on the communications screen, but in the game files, there's the text of a fourth e-mail. I asked on the game's official forum about these, but I haven't had a reply from the developers. My guess is that this one was written for the game before they learned how to splice cutscenes into Secret Ops, and was removed since it was superseded by the opening conversation with Chief Henderson.
For completeness, here it is.
1IES Message - Received at 0620 hours GST on 2668.120 posted:
From: Chief Petty Officer Jean Henderson (TCN, TCS Lionheart)
To: Capt. William Bradshaw (TCSF, TCS Lionheart)
Subject: Flight deck status
Hey there, Captain B.
Here's our usual rundown on the situation of all the things you and your fellow flyboys get to play with.
I've just readied all our Stilettos for combat. All the Gladii are still being checked, though. We've only got 6 of each, and only the Gladii are jump capable and can carry torpedoes, so we have to take special care of them. We've got enough Javelin Heat Seekers and Shipkiller Torpedoes for about 10 sorties, but that's all we have... the HS is the most cost effective missile, so with the peacetime budget cuts, the TCS Firekka's and Perry Naval's squadrons are the only units in Gemini which get to use other types of missiles from now on.
As usual, be sure to bring those babies back in one piece. After those damn cats called it quits, I keep getting less and less to work with as each day goes by.
Then again, I ask you to bring the ships back in one piece every time you go out on a mission... but just this time, I won't mind if you trash your ship, as long as you bring my brother back. He's one of the Guadalcanal's pilots...
Oh, what I am talking about, right? We've been getting assigned the same units for eons, and we've always got the job done. I'm sure we'll find my brother before those pirates mess him up.
Jean