Part 13: Unresolved Issues (A), New Detroit System, Gemini Sector (Cutscene)
27th August-20th December 2668, New Detroit System, Gemini SectorEnd of Episode 1 - Unresolved Issues (A)
End of mission 6:
Say goodbye to the TCS Lionheart, as we come in for our final landing on it:
Mission Video (Youtube)
He did *warn* you he'd make a story up, you've only got yourselves to blame. (Sparrow survives even if you don't pick her up; Bradshaw and Freyers have a bit of an argument about what happened and the Lionheart sends an SAR fighter out. No transcript, this post is going to be long enough without adding that as well).
Why does he get away with this? Well, like I said in the video, there's no mission report screen, so it's entirely possible there wasn't time to get the Sabre's flight recorder into a working condition. And apparently Squealer declines to testify against Sparrow or Confleet doesn't believe him if he does.
Between-"mission" cutscenes:
Cougar makes an attempt to cheer Bradshaw up. It doesn't go particularly well for him, or for that part of the audience hoping they'd heard the last of Bradshaw's moping.
Cutscene video (Youtube)
: Captain, have you heard? Search and rescue found Squealer. He's in the brig.
: Squealer's alive? How's Spoons taking it?: He's... pretty mad. Captain, you need to talk to him. : [sighs] I know. I am not looking forward to it, though.: Well, at least Sparrow didn't betray us. You've gotta be happy about that.: Yeah.: Sir, for what it's worth...once I saw this guy get killed - he was practically asking for it, it was his last mission before retirement.: He just didn't have anything else to live for. I think with Squealer, it was the same. : It's no excuse for treason, but I guess it's something to think about. : Yeah. I wonder what they'll do to him. End of episode cutscenes:
Spoons says a few of the things that the player is probably thinking. Sometimes (like the opening two lines after Spoons arrives) I get a bit of a Wedge Antilles/Wes Janson vibe from Bradshaw and Spoons, for those of you who've read the X-Wing novels. I think it's probably more just the situation rather than any strong resemblance, though. Anyone else?
Cutscene video (Youtube)
: It didn't take much to work things out for Sparrow. She'll have to face an inquiry over the Guadacanal raid, but I'm guessing she'll be back in service in no time. : Why did I cover for her? I just don't know. Was it the right thing to do? Probably not, but I--: You know why there's a bell on that door, right?
: Sure, because if you just knocked, nobody would ever hear you. : Right. And it's polite to give some warning when you're about to enter someone's room.: Yeah. Well, I guess I'm through being polite. : Look, Spoons...: What? You wanted to tell me but you couldn't? Don't bother.: I'm sorry. I should have told you.: Damn right you should have. What, were you scared that I'd tell the Captain, that he'd cancel the rescue?: It wouldn't have been so bad had you at least admitted that there was something you didn't want to tell me, but feeding me with this bullshit about damaged flight recorders...: I've just one question, and I want a straight answer. Did Sparrow defect?: Yes.: I thought as much. And, as always, good old Bill Bradshaw was here to bail her out. : And what was I supposed to do? Let her die? She screwed up but she doesn't deserve that. : Chief, bottom line is: you keep cleaning up after her, you'll end up as fucked up as she is. : Take a friend's advice, while you still have any friends. Stay away from her. : Will that be all, Spoons?: Yes, Captain, that will be all. Episode 2 - Back to Business
And, apparently, there's a war on again. Though the game kind of does a terrible job of explaining what's actually happening here, in large part I think because they seem to think most of the people who will download it will have read Fleet Action and therefore already know.
Cutscene Video (Youtube)
Narration [translated from Kilrathi]: Tarvakh, Shok'lar Bak'tra reporting. Terrans!
[translated]: Terrans? Bak'tra, attack!
[translated]: For the glory of Kilrah, the Empire, and the Emperor! Engaging! They'll be destroyed!
Bradshaw: And so, we're back to business. It's funny how these things turn out. A few hours ago, I was taking off for another exciting New Detroit patrol, hoping that maybe I'd at least run into a smuggler or something. And now, now we're back at war. I didn't even land at New Detroit, they sent me straight to the Firekka from my patrol. Everyone's excited. It's a funny thing, that - there is every reason to believe that this will be the hardest campaign we ever face. The cats are throwing everything at us, and we've got nothing to stop them with. But everyone's acting like it will be the biggest party of our lives. Maybe it will be. Or at least, it's likely to be the last party of our lives. We're...well, we're utterly screwed.
Bradshaw: The Firekka is already enroute to meet with the rest of the Fleet, but we haven't even got a full fighter complement. We'll be picking up more ships and pilots in Saxtongue and Oxford, but there won't be any time to train them to work as a proper team. Battle-readiness? Hell, this flight wing is a circus. And here's the best part - I'm the one they've put in charge. The Firekka's newest wing commander. Right now, I'm kind of wishing they'd mothballed me along with the Lionheart.
Speaking of explaining what's going on:
What the hell is going on?
Good question. Let's break it down a bit.
What are the Kilrathi doing?
Fleet Action posted:
On the main holo screen a map of the Empire appeared, the frontier with the Confederation at the top, Kilrah and the Empire in the middle, and far down at the bottom the conquered space of the now dead Hari, a collection of a thousand stars around which orbited more than a thousand blasted lifeless worlds. Thrakhath highlighted a single star deep within the former territory of the Hari.
"Here, for the last five years, a new class of carriers has been tested and developed, overcoming the difficulties of translight jumping of ships above a certain size and mass. These new carriers, what we call the Hakaga-class...in addition we are building more than eighty escort ships of frigate, destroyer, and cruiser design."
I'll do a full summary on the Hakagas when we meet them. For now, they're heavy carriers about twice the length of the Kilrathi Snakeir or Terran Concordia classes, carrying 288 fighters. Also, see below.
What happened in that cutscene?
Fleet Action posted:
Tarawa's got a different job, in fact the real reason behind our moving out here to the Landreich. They needed the carriers, to be sure, and some of us wanted to keep a light strike force ready and available on the edge of the frontier. But it also served as a cover for the real mission...we're going to take our new ears inside the Empire, and get the evidence we need to pull the mask off what they're doing.
Fleet Action posted:
"And my ship?" Paladin asked.
"Once we off load the equipment onto Tarawa, we'll leave the Hell Hole and head off to a quiet corner a couple of jump points up, and then off-load your new toy..."
"A light smuggler craft with stealth technology," Paladin said with a grin.
Fleet Action posted:
"Fifteen hundred and eighty metres, estimated half a million ton bulk weight." Paladin whispered. "Range 102 million clicks, orbiting the only planet in the system."
"Dozens of ships orbiting that planet," Ian announced, "coming up now on second screen."
Paladin spared a quick glance over to the secondary images forming, three more ships like the first one, half a dozen more apparently still under constructoin, a dozen cruiser type vessels...a count of transports, more than a hundred of them docked into what appeared to be an orbital construction yard that filled half a dozen cubic kilometres of space, or hovering around it."
The alarm went off again, warbling with a high insistent tone and Paladin turned to look at his tactical.
"We've got company, laddies. Looks like two Stealths just jumped in behind us. Prepare for evasive!"
"We'll lose the visual lock," Ian shouted. "I don't have a full read on it yet."
Paladin weighed the variables and in less than half a dozen seconds from the sounding of the second alarm came to his decision. Turning back to the main screen he cleared it of the optical and punched in the order for a translight beam sweep, dropping his ship out of Stealth mode. The pulse went out, even as he swung his ship hard over into an evasive. The first Stealth already had a lock on him and dropped a missile which he assumed was one of the new and more deadly IFFs. Before the missile was even away Paladin dropped a scrambler, a decoy pulsing with Confed IFF codes and capable of reflecting back a radar image of a light corvette, a counter he had rigged up based on Ian's unpleasant experience."
In short, Paladin and Hunter, flying a light smuggler with a mostly-functional cloaking device, Bannockburn, managed to penetrate Kilrathi space as far as the shipyard where the Hakagas were built, having staged halfway there with Tarawa (which is carrying a sophisticated listening device), were detected, and ran the hell away with the cats on their tail.
In the next update I'll talk about what happened when the news got back to the Confederation; that'll either come tomorrow or the day after, depending on how long the job interview I have tomorrow takes.