Part 104: Mission #99: TCS Concordia, Canewdon system
Mission #99: TCS Concordia, Canewdon systemPreviously on Wing Commander: Our mission to escort Jazz to a ship that would take him back to Earth to be executed for treason failed when Mandarins created a diversion that we had to react to. His whereabouts are currently unknown although he DID sent us a farewell message!
And now, let's eavesdrop on our friend prince Thrakhath and his grandfather, the Emperor of Kilrah.
Not to be confused with crystal meth, I guess.
Good save there, Thrakhath.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a mission briefing was happening...
A standard patrol you say? Ok then.
So let's see what we will find on that routine patrol...
Ahh, lots of Gothri everywhere. But seriously, this mission is actually not as easy as it seems. Don't let the fact that I ended up undamaged again fool you; it took A FEW tries to make it look this easy, believe me.
Main issue is with Stingray: he likes to get himself shot up and will often either eject or leave usually by the time you are done with that transporter and sometimes even sooner. This is a problem because fighting those four Gothri in an asteroid field is not an easy task and you really really need a wingman to watch your back there; otherwise that part is nearly impossible. With him around, it's not so bad I guess.
The rest of the mission is easier since you fight either weak enemies or not so many of them so just do like normal. If Stingray starts to complain, order him back into formation to 'recuperate' a little, same like we did long ago with Hunter. He will generally obey the order to withdraw so no problem there.
Unfortunately, SO2 seems to suffer from a small bug where enemies would 'not quite escape' and end up lingering just at the edge of your radar reach (you can usually see a very very faint dot on the display showing where they are), thus causing the music to keep flipping back and forth between 'battle' and 'travel', like you saw in this mission. This is not the last time, and an even more egregious example will be seen in next mission. There is not much I can do about this.
It's time to say goodbye to the Rapier, this is our last mission in it (not counting any fan made Wing Commander projects, of course). In the mainline games you don't get to fly it again, and honestly I am sorry to see it go. It was not particularly sturdy, but the updated version in WC2 had the advantage of very long range guns, this allowing you to literally 'snipe' enemies from afar. I also though that they did a good job of conveying the feeling of it being a ship based on older style technology and thus not quite up to date with the newer embellishments.
In the meantime, it's time to do something we used to do much more often in the past--yes, it's time to visit the Chief Petty Officer McCullough!
I'm pretty sure we haven't seen this particular greeting yet... wonder why.
<groan>
Oh, gee, I wonder if we'll get to fly in the near future? Although I hope it doesn't go the way of Crossbow, i.e. completely forgotten in a matter of few missions!
Sorta. A little bit.
Current kill total: 99 missions/807 kills
Next time on Wing Commander
