Part 4: Jump Point Run, Nexus System, Gemini Sector (Story and Gameplay)

7th August 2668, Nexus System, Gemini Sector
Episode 1, Mission 2 - Jump Point Run

Intelligence believes that the pirates are operating out of a base in the Capella system, so the TCS Lionheart wastes no time in heading for the nearby Capella jump node, while her Captain calls for reinforcements and the flight wing continues to wonder if Spoons is actually going to be a problem.

Pre-mission cutscenes:
Captain Graham explains how the reinforcements are going to link up with us, with some terrible dialogue which the voice actors do not improve upon. I told you it got worse.
First cutscene (Youtube)
Bridge, TCS Lionheart
: How is everything going so far, Bradshaw?
: All good, Captain Graham.
: I just talked to the militia. Given those stolen Sabres, some reinforcements might be useful.
: Definitely agree on that, sir.
: They promised to send a wing. We don't have space on deck for them though, so they'll tail us into Capella and only join up for the final show.
: That'll be real useful, Captain.
: So, get us to Capella, Bradshaw.

The flight wing's XO asks us if Spoons is going to be a problem. This is one of the better scenes in Episode 1 from the perspective of the acting, since Cougar is actually fairly good and Bradshaw tends to perform to the level of whoever he's talking to.
Cutscene video (Youtube)
So is Spoons going to be a problem?
: I've already talked to him. Should be alright.
: Well, I don't know. He almost seemed happy to hear about Marie Leblanc.
: Listen, I don't wanna pry, but if it affects our pilots, I've gotta know.
: Sometimes having a second-in-command is a real pain in the arse.
: Well, that is when I know I'm doing my job right, sir.
: Right. Look, we'd better get ready. After we get back I'll mail you a note, alright?
: You will, I'll make sure of that.

Mission Briefing:
Briefing Video (Youtube)


Recon and clear this side of the jump point, so that the jump-capable Gladii can go and do the same on the other side. If hostiles are encountered, protect the Lionheart and let nobody escape. Simple enough, but this one doesn't go to plan either...


Mission Video (Youtube)

Commentary volume level are a bit unstable in this video, sorry about that, it should be a one-off problem.

Kills this mission: 10

Tactics Corner
A brief note on correspondence between the maps and the video before we get started here. What I'm now doing is recording two run-throughs of a mission, the first one is then used to pick out map shots for the tactics post and the second is turned into the update video. This is so that I don't have to worry about remembering to hit the map button at the right times to get screenshots for the thread while I'm trying to produce a good run. So the screens here won't match precisely to what you see in the update, but they have a fairly accurate correspondance to what happens in general.

Here's the situation as we arrive at the jump point:
Friendly forces:
6x Stiletto light fighter
1x Gilgamesh-class destroyer, TCS Lionheart (mission objective, must survive)
Enemy forces:
1x Talon medium fighter (retreats)
3x Talon medium fighter (reinforcements, after ~30 seconds)
2x Talon medium fighter (reinforcements, after ~1 minute)
2x Talon medium fighter (reinforcements, after ~1 minute 30 seconds)
2x Talon medium fighter, 2x Sabre heavy fighter (reinforcements, after ~2 minutes)


There's no way a Stiletto can close the gap to the retreating Talon before it reaches the jump point and enters hyperspace, so that section of the mission happens the same way every time.

About five seconds after the Talon jumps, three pirate Talons jump in:

You've got about thirty seconds in a 3-on-3 fight before two more jump in (though around the same time your wing that's still close to the Lionheart is reaching the battle, so this is now more 6-on-5; on 6-on-2 if you're as quick as I am. They do appear right on top of you though (after all, you're at the jump point) so they can get a few shots off while you're distracted or trying to turn to face them, which can be dangerous.

If you kill the first wave fast enough, this is the situation when the second wave arrives:

If you've got four or five enemies here this can get a bit hairy since almost certainly you'll end up locally outnumbered close to where they jump in, so losing a wingman is a reasonable probability. Three or two is usually quite easy and the main challenge is to kill the pirates before your wingmen do; the other issue is that you've got to close the distance to the pirates before you can kill them, and you've only got 20 or so seconds before the next pair arrive:


The other problem is that you'll doubtless end up chasing these two Talons a fair distance, since they fly fairly defensively. This means that you're horribly out of position, as you can see above, for each newly arriving wave. Not too much of a problem for the Talons, but in another 30 seconds or so after this wave, this happens:

You have to be either quick about this or careful not to chase Talons too far. Either way you don't want to hang around with Sabres; they're worth saving your missiles for because the rear turrets can really chew a Stiletto up if you don't. Sabres have torpedo armament, of course, so the Lionheart can take damage from them, though it has enough turrets to hold its own for a while, usually. That said, they've still got to gain enough distance from the Lionheart in order to make a torpedo run, so provided you act quickly getting into this sort of situation isn't disastrous.

Overall, I like this mission; taking a force almost twice your size out in detail as it jumps in, provided you can do it quickly enough. It shows that the TCN is a bit smarter than the pirates and simultaneously provides a fair piloting challenge for an early mission. It's also a nice twist to have on what would otherwise be a fairly standard faux-escort (the Lionheart isn't really in much danger) mission.

New characters:

Captain Theodore Murphy ("Cougar")


Cougar is a mustang officer, or whatever term the TCN/TCSF use for that - he originally joined as an enlisted man and was a turret gunner on a corvette before he was a pilot. He is therefore some years older than most of the flight wing, Bradshaw included. In previous assignments he's had some amount of trouble fitting in with academy graduates, but Bradshaw seems to have much more respect for his experience. Cougar is also unusual amongst the Lionheart's young flight wing because he's married, something which occasionally gives him a different perspective to much of the flight wing. On the whole he's probably the steadiest and most reliable pilot on the destroyer, and he seems to have undertaken something of a personal project to try and reform "Spoons" Schroeder, taking it as a point of pride that the younger pilot has never had to eject when he's flown on Cougar's wing.

Cougar is supposed to represent the wiser, older voice throughout most of Standoff, though all of the cast manage to be stupid at various different times. He's actually a pretty decent character, and does better at not being a stereotype than I guess he would have done had this been an Origin/EA game. It's hard to give a parallel for him from WC1/2; there's elements of Hobbes, but without (obviously) being a Kilrathi, which is kind of the defining characteristic. Knight, I guess, though Knight didn't exactly have a huge amount of character since he wasn't really around by the time the writing picked up.

Captain Graham of the Lionheart doesn't get any more scenes, so I'm not going to bother writing him a character intro. Especially because I don't really know anything about him.

Ship of the day:
Talon

Class: Medium Fighter
Length: 17.40 Meters
Mass: 15 tonnes
Max Velocity: 380 kps
Afterburner Velocity: 1000 kps
Maximum Yaw: 80 dps
Maximum Pitch: 80 dps
Maximum Roll: 80 dps
Weapons: Mass Drivers (2x), Particle Cannon (1x), Heat-Seeking Missile (2x)
Shields: Fore: 70; Aft: 70
Armour: Front: 90; Right: 70; Left: 70; Rear: 80.

Game says: Introduced in 2642, the Talon's low afterburner speed made it unsuitable for the front lines. However, it proved to be a valuable asset for militia squadrons in peripheral sectors like Gemini. Many Talons have also found their way into criminal gangs.

I say: Yeah, the Talon is absolutely awful. Thankfully you don't have to fly it. The primary problem is that low afterburner speed, just like the game says - 1000kps is 400 kps slower than the Stiletto at afterburner and 300kps slower than most fighters, and it's just not fast enough to allow you to get out of trouble in a hurry, or keep a bead on a light fighter. We can add to that the fact that it's slower than a Sabre and has terrible shield strength, meaning the rear armour can't stand up to a single hit from a Javelin. The front guns are good, but it's not particularly difficult to make sure you aren't facing them, especially in a Stiletto. My suspicion is that the prevalence of Talons amongst pirates is actually a Confed black op to make sure that pirate bands are never actually a threat to TCSF fighter squadrons.

Total kills (Standoff): 2 missions / 15 kills
Total kills (including previous thread): 115 missions / 937 kills

It's possible that Spoons will be shot up and forced to eject in this mission. If he is, then obviously the encounter with the Gothri plays out a bit differently, with Bradshaw being a bit more trigger-happy.

: Uh, Lionheart, this is a Kilrathi fighter.
: A Kilrathi fighter? What the hell is it doing here? What class? Move in closer and scan it. Is it jump capable?
: It's a Gothri, definitely jump capable. Maybe a spy...do I have permission to open fire?
: Hey, do NOT fire unless fired upon.
: It could be a privately-owned ship, and the last thing we need is for them to accuse us of violating the truce! Damn bastards...
: Roger that. And finally...


Episode one is a bit strange in terms of how it interacts with Prophecy's difficulty settings. Since (as far as the obsessive types at CIC can tell) both friendly and enemy AI get boosted when you go up in difficulty, for some missions higher levels can actually be easier (though the additional penalty you take to ship durability on Nightmare means that's usually the hardest level). That's quite frequently true in the earlier missions in Standoff because you're not fighting against the avalanche of numbers you will be later on, and in particular a couple of missions like the fourth one really benefit from non-stupid wingmen. If you're playing on Ace because that's what you normally do, try Hero.