Part 112: Mission #107: TCS Concordia, Canewdon system

Mission #107: TCS Concordia, Canewdon system

Previously on Wing Commander: We were doing a prisoner exchange with the Mandarins. It almost didn't happen when they decided to send their Kilrathi friends after us!

And now... the Wild Eagles!









This guy is such a tool...


Five minutes later...





Eh, what?


Uh-oh, this is not looking good! What is she up to now!












I think it's pretty clear by this point what Minx is up to...


...there she goes... (the original version by the La's, of course)


This looks familiar too...


...and I think I know how it...








...ends!




You don't say!






You know, I didn't like the guy, but getting killed like this is a bit much.





The Morningstar doesn't have enough range to reach the nearest habitable system - and since the ship is still subject to random jump failure - Grimaldi must be headed for a rendezvous with a nearby Kilrathi ship.








Moments later, in space...



Oh, yeah, let's hear it!


Oh for... Also DO NOT GET YOUR HOPES UP! ABSOLUTELY NOT!













Well, yes, there you go. I guess the Mandarin traitor that was arranging the transfer of Morningstar over to the Kilrathi was our friend Minx after all. Ah, I didn't like her anyway, but now we know it was all just an act.

In any case, we get to fly the Morningstar ourselves now finally, so let's take a look at it first:

Morningstar

Class: Heavy Fighter
Length: 20 Meters
Mass: 20 tonnes
Max Velocity: 400 kps
Cruise Velocity: 220 kps
Acceleration: Excellent
Maximum Yaw: 8 dps
Maximum Pitch: 8 dps
Maximum Roll: 8 dps
Weapons: Particle Cannon (3x), Image Recognition Missile (2x), Torpedo (2x), Mace (1x)
Shields: Fore: 15 cm equivalent; Aft: 15 cm equivalent.
Armour: Front: 20 cm; Right: 20 cm; Left: 20 cm; Rear: 20 cm.

Unfortunately, this is kind of a mixed bag. It's relatively fast and has decent shields and armour; also triple particle gun in front is not bad at all; however, the missile loadout is absolutely atrocious. First of all, let me tell you, Mace, the nuclear missile is almost completely useless. To begin with, it is not guided in any way, just flies in a straight line until it hits something or you detonate it by shooting at it. This actually sounds better than it is--in reality, judging distance at which you have to shoot it to do ANY damage at all against enemy targets is nearly impossible so you usually just end up wasting it. Therefore it is not going to see a whole lot of use here. Other than that you have two torpedoes that you can only use against capital ships which is... ok I guess. And finally, two IR missiles. And that's it. So really, you only have two useful missiles here out of five. But, considering that Maniac designed this thing, I guess you are really supposed to just ram the target with your ship and cause a nuclear explosion or something.

Oh, yeah, one more thing: when you launch, Mace is selected as the default missile (but of course), so remember to switch it out or something so you don't launch it accidentally!

Well, enough complaining, let's try it out.

• Mission Video (YouTube)
  

Yeah, I don't think anybody has expected this, but it has to be said... Maniac is in fact fairly awesome as a wingman in WC2! Sure, he might occasionally shoot at you by accident, but otherwise... check out the great teamwork in this mission that made fairly short work of all those enemies! This was not accidental, he really is that good.

None of the fights are really very difficult, and most are over before they even begin--I have a suspicion that this mission is deliberately designed in such a way to really push the point about how awesome Morningstar is. Well it's not really awesome, but its not really bad either, except for lack of missiles.

The big group of mostly harmless capital ships at the end was probably intended for you to test out the Mace. However, as I've mentioned, it's a total pain to use so it's much easier to just go and shoot them down. Don't worry, I'll show off the Mace at some point so you'll get to see what the explosion looks like.

Anyway, no sing of Minx so I guess the chase is on!




Current kill total: 107 missions/844 kills


Next time on Wing Commander
Paladin has a new ship. You'll never guess what it is!