Part 5: Flight Log 5 - Lt. Lance Casey

[Flight Log 5 - Lt. Lance Casey]







The mission was nothing that I hadn't been trained for, yet it was my most exciting mission to date. I was going to be one of the first people ever to see one of the new alien race's capital ships. While I knew this was going to be a dangerous mission, I still couldn't help but feel like I was being a part of history.



As soon as we jumped into the system, I saw the destroyers. You couldn't miss them. Even with enemies too far away to get a missile lock, the destroyers were clear as day, with every deadly missile and gun turret visable to my targetting computer. I knew that the Shrikes would have a hard time with targets that size, and I was determined to take out the fighters to make their lives as easy as I could.



Dallas got pinned down by enemy turrets almost immediately into the mission. I realize that Stiletto told me to look out for him, and she was right. A wing commander needs to take care of the people he flies with, and be as helpful in getting them through stressful situations as they can. However, a wing commander also has to know when certain people aren't cut out for the stress, and Dallas was one of those people. I wasn't sure what to do, but I just hoped it didn't end badly for him.



As I took the fighter screen down to a more manageable size, I noticed that a larger ship was travelling with the strike fleet. I wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it looked like some sort of alien corvette of some sort. A target that big and slow was an easy kill, and I had the perfect weapon for it. Knowing that my dumbfire Dragonflies were mostly useless against maneuverable targets, I decided to use them to take out this big boy. And it certainly did the trick.



Taking out the fighter screen proved invaluable to allowing the bombers to do their job. I hadn't even finished mopping up the last of the fighter screen before the Shrikes had already taken out the engines of the first destroyer. There was no shortage of these bugs, but it looked like they weren't that tough!



As soon as I killed the last of the fighters, I heard an explosion rock through my headset. Apparently the bombers had hit the bridge, too, because the aliens were broadcasting one last desperate message as a fiery inferno rocked their ship. They think their deaths will be avenged, but little do they know that we'll take out every last one of those suckers that they throw at us.



I immediately targetted the second destroyer and began picking off its gun turrets. I barely got two turrets finished before I saw the bridge of the destroyer get hit with a torpedo. Another one down, and another successful mission!



Unfortunately, our mood was darkened when we returned to the Midway. The brass was kind enough to inform us that, even though the destroyers were gone, the cruiser was still coming. As if any of us didn't have that in the back of our mind. As big as the destroyers were, the cruiser could only be far bigger. But we'd fight that battle when it came. For now, it was time to celebrate.



A 98% was my bast score since I first got on the Midway, and Rachel even said I reminded her of my father. I didn't know that she knew him, but one of these days I'll have to ask her what he was like. Anyway, I noticed that I had another 9 kills under my belt, so I decided to take a stroll over and check the killboard.



Top of the killboard! I had heard I was getting close, mostly by Maniac and his friends while he was grumbling about how he hadn't seen any bug action in forever. But I guess this last mission put me over the top. I generally didn't put too much emphasis into the killboard, but I have to admit that I was pretty proud here.

G'wriss 2 ** (only notable for seeing capital ships for the first time, but you'll see that plenty in the future)
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Cutscene 6
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(next video, I'll talk about a lot of the points raised in this thread so far, and try something new that may or may not be less annoying)