Part 9: Mission #9: 7 May 2654, Dakota system

Mission #9: 7 May 2654, Dakota system

Previously on Wing Commander: Bagged ourselves another Kilrathi ace pilot! Tiger's Claw has jumped into Dakota system; we are getting a new wingman (although not a new ship this time). We are making a final push towards victory in Vega campaign!


Hunter and Maniac again, oh joy. What worries me is that we still haven't flown with Hunter...



We just jumped in to Dakota System, you know. It's basically an agro colony, but they've had an outbreak of Watson's Disease. The colonists here're a proud bunch, an' they waited to call for help. That's bad news. Watson's can wipe out a whole city in just a few weeks. There's no cure yet, but the Confederation's 'sportin' in a vaccine.

Ah yes, the Watson's disease will be the subject of this upcoming mission. Well, let's get it over with with the two "hotshots".







This from the guy who goes to afterburners the instant 'e smells a target!

You tell him, Hunter!




Ah, now there's the Hunter we all know and love!

Knight, Paladin, some others, they must be cat lovers...or pacifists. But don't lump me with that lot, mate. The more Kilrah blood I smell, the nastier I get.

Yup, attitude to spare! Incidentally, Knight is going to be our new wingman... just thought I'd mention it.



Take Knight, for example. He flies like an old lady. No vision... and he couldn't find a target if his wingman's life depended on it.

Which it usually does...







Course there're a couple of pilots I don't mind flying with. You're not too bad, Hunter -- almost as good as me. And there's Iceman... Ice is scary, man. I mean, I'm in this for the flying...



Ok, this was decidedly unpleasant. These two really need some serious talking to!



Mission Time!

Let's just get out of there and fly a mission, it's bound to be more fun.



As you may have heard, there's been an outbreak of Watson's Disease here. It's spreading across the fourth planet, Fargo, like wildfire. If we don't get a vaccine down there soon, that colony's history.



Your job will be to cover the Draymans as they come and go. Gamma wing will consist of Maverick and Knight. I'm counting on you two to come through... and so are the colonists down on Fargo. Computer, display Gamma.



Your objective is to protect her from the Kilrathi until she makes her jump out. Once she's gone, go to Nav 2, where you'll rendezvous with another 'sport. Bring this Drayman back to the Tiger's Claw in one piece... she's the one carrying the vaccine for Fargo.







Very good. That's all gentlemen.



So we have two escort missions in one here, really. First we need to escort one transport ship over to its jump point and then go and meet up with another and bring it back to Tiger's Claw. In general, missions in Dakota system and onwards tend to have more "stuff" to do and more enemies in a single mission, unlike so far.

• Mission Video (Youtube)
  

As I've mentioned in the video, the key in this mission is to stay with the ship you are protecting and not let yourself be lured away. This in turn leads to a few enemies possibly escaping, but you do not have the luxury of chasing them as even one Salthi can make short work of a transport ship if you let it! If you don't follow this strategy the first part of this mission can be quite difficult (luckily, saving both ships is not essential to winning Dakota series). Despite having 3 Jalthi at Nav point 2, the second part is actually easier as you have some time to clean up the situation before the transport arrives.

So yeah, a few enemies escaped this time around, but we saved both ships and got a medal and promotion in the process. Awesome. Maybe I should have named the character Major, callsign Major; this way I would now be able to refer to him as Major Major Major.

Medals (I think so far we got all medals that were possible to get):


And the killboard, just a mission or two more and we'll be on top.



Bonus
Another bit from the Japanese SNES manual: it also included a much nicer looking star map in colour! Oddly, note how there are several misspellings in English names, such as "Hostov"--but even stranger, the Japanese transliteration of this one is closer to the correct Russian pronunciation of the name than English! Nevertheless, even Japanese versions are inconsistently translated in a couple of spots. Note also that Hell's Kitchen system is called "Apocalypse" in this version!!

It looks a lot better than the map from English manual, though!



Next time on Wing Commander
Love among the rocks!