Part 25: Mission #21: 27 May 2654, Border Zone
Mission #21: 27 May 2654, Terran Confederation/Empire of Kilrah Border ZonePreviously on Wing Commander: Things are going pretty badly. Goddard colony has apparently been annihilated by the Kilrathi, and we have no idea what kind of weapon did they use. The mood on Tiger's Claw is rather dark...
Angel and Maniac. If anything, I'm pretty sure we can expect from Angel to maintain professional behaviour in the face of crisis...
I can't get any answers from the bridge... nothing except 'Pipe down and do your job.' And Colonel Halcyon looks like he wants to bite somebody's head off. 
All the higher-ups have got their shoulders and teeth clenched. More than usual, I mean. 
And up ahead is the biggest Kilrathi ship I've ever seen. All my guns are gone, my missiles blown, shields at null... And my hands are shaking, shaking as I pull the throttle... 'cause all I've got left is a mine in my belly. 
Normally I would consider something like this funny, but I am not so sure this time...
I wonder what it will take to make HER crack?
Mission Time!
After having had a thoroughly depressing time in the bar, let's see what awaits us today.
My condolences to any of you with relatives on Goddard. We've tried to reconstruct what happened there. This is what we know... According to black-box recordings of radio chatter and comm-sat data the Kilrathi arrived at the colony five hours ago. This game is absolutely awful about keeping the dates and times straight. It wasn't 5 hours ago, it was at least 6 days ago according to mission dates. Don't know why this was so difficult to get right.
According to Goddard's comm-sats, a single energy weapon blast registered on their screens. That one blast destroyed the colony. And our current defense systems can't counter it. We don't know whether or not this weapon will be usable against starships, but we can't risk the Kilrathi destroying another colony. So we've been in jump-space communication with our High Command. And our orders have just come in. Listen closely. 
...keeping a low profile for as long as we can. Then we'll attack their fleet... and wipe it out completely. And then get the hell out of there. Furthermore, you may encounter some technical problems as we enter Kilrathi space. Our lack of accurate star charts will play havoc with your on-board Nav systems. So don't be surprised if Nav points, asteroids, or minefield information is not accurate on your Nav screen. You must fly your assignments diligently. Follow your flight paths to the letter. 
All wings will launch to escort Tiger's Claw. Then you'll fan out to clean enemy ships ahead of us. Individual wing assignments... 
And when that region is clean, return to the Tiger's Claw.
Well. Going undercover into the Kilrathi territory certainly sounds interesting. However, we need to prepare before we can do that. Our immediate mission seems relatively straightforward: defend Tiger's Claw from a possible attack and then go and clear out the enemy around Nav point 1 to enable TC to pass through unnoticed...
...but this wouldn't be Secret Missions if it didn't throw just a small surprise at you. This time the surprise consists of no less than five Dralthi that you find upon returning back to TC. You definitely need to be fast there but it IS a bit easier if you do actually have a wingman with you at that point, unlike us, since Angel bailed mid-mission. Also, Raptor's guns are pretty powerful so that helps. Other than that, we nabbed ourselves a Fralthi, but I've stopped counting those long ago.
I think you can see the general pattern of missions in SM1 expansion by now, but there will still be harder ones pretty soon (this one wasn't super hard except for that last bit). If nothing else, there are more enemies to contend with, and the numbers will just keep growing as head deeper into the Kilrathi territory.
Killboard receives a big jump due to the above:
Next time on Wing Commander
A god riding on an eight-legged horse? I guess it must be Wednesday!