Part 114: Alcor System, Vega Sector, Mission 1 (drunk) (Story)

Alcor System, Vega Sector (Mission 1)
TCS Victory

Fleeing the Kilrathi pursuit of the task group that escorted the Behemoth, the Victory and her escorts arrive in the Kilrathi-controlled Alcor system, home to a small prison colony.

Flight Deck

Admiral Tolwyn returns to Jupiter station to plan the final defence of the Sol Sector from Kilrathi attacks. He's also realised - too late - that the cats knew he was coming and what that means (also, with the war in it's current state, the Confederation can no longer afford decent video compression even for Admirals; not helped by the depth of field in this shot. I should probably stop banging on about the compression artifacts in the cutscenes, but as you can probably tell by now, they really bug me).



: I am returning command of the Victory to you, Captain.
: Yes, sir.
: They knew where we were going, and when. They knew exactly where to strike. I have every reason to suspect you have a leaky ship, Captain.
: Respectfully, sir, I resent such innuendoes concerning my crew's loyalty. Battles are won or lost - there are never any guarantees. And at the time, she was your ship. Sir.
: Fight well, Captain. The struggle will only get harder.

Rec Room

It appears that the news services know only slightly less about our previous mission than the Kilrathi did:



: Stockmarkets across the Confederation took a nose-dive, with reports that an incursion deep into Kilrathi territory resulted in heavy losses, including classified offensive weaponry that had been years in development. Unconfirmed reports had suggested development of a new secret weapon that could end the war, but other sources are now extremely pessimistic about concluding this... seemingly endless conflict.

Speaking of which, um, yeah. We appear to be completely screwed. Tolwyn called the Behemoth our last attempt to win the war outright, and this now lies in several pieces near the Loki-Kilrah jump point. Angel was killed by Thrakhath himself, who appears to have a personal grudge against Blair - which just makes a bad situation all that much worse. Sounds like a good time to have a drink to me:



: You look like you could use some anaesthetic.
: You know it's kind of spooky the way the Kilrathi zeroed in on that soft spot...I guess uh, Thrakhath zoomed in on yours, too. I feel for ya, Colonel.
: Do you want some company?

Well, do you?

The killboard hasn't really changed all that much from last time. Flint closes in by one on Maniac for second place.



Mission Briefing
Briefing Room

There is no briefing. This mission is a scramble.

Choose your own Blair!
Well, it's a scramble mission, so we're flying an Arrow with Hobbes. The primary question is whether we're going to talk to Rachel or have another drink in the bar. There's also difficulty level, though that's not an absolute vote I'll listen to any strong opinions people might hold on the matter. Basically it's a very long, very difficult mission; I'll probably do Nightmare as a bonus video to appear later on and then see how long it takes to fly the mission on what levels to see what to use for the main thing.