Part 37: Mission #33: 27 June 2654, Vigrid System

Mission #33: 27 June 2654, Vigrid System

Previously on Wing Commander: Tiger's Claw under heavy attack, but there's not much left of that enemy fleet. We're almost ready to go after Sivar.

Norse mythology corner: Vigrid (Vígríðr) is the large field where forces of gods (æsir) will be battling forces of the giants (the ones from Jötunheimr, remember) during Ragnarök. Various famous faces will make an appearance, such as Fenrir the wolf, Fáfnir the dragon, Thor, Odin, Freyr and other gods and also Loki (who is both a god and a giant) and also a giant named Vafþrúðnir whose name I dare you to try pronouncing! In any case, this is about it for the Wing Commander course in Norse mythology--those interested in it should do well to check out the Tomb Raider thread for more!


Knight will be our wingman for the final couple of missions.





Scuttlebutt has it that we're just about ready to go for the kill. I hope that we get that shot soon... for Zach and Trisha.




Who are you calling kid! Maybe I should remind you that I outrank you, huh?



Remember missiles. Don't use 'em up too fast, kid. Your guns will sting, and take out the smaller targets for you... but there's nothing like a missile to finish the job.

People, I promise you, this is the LAST time we are having this particular conversation, and it's about 5 times too many already! SM2 and onwards gets heavy on plot and time won't be wasted on hundredth repeat of this advice.










If he talks to others like this, no wonder everybody always gives him a hard time!



Mission Time!

Just a final bit of business before the big showdown.















Our guess is that they'll have at least one heavy ship, with multiple fighters. Whatever's there, it has to be stopped before it jumps to our position. When you're sure the area is clear, head back to the Claw.







It's a bit strange to have a mission with just one Nav point in SM1 but there it is. Let's go and find out what awaits us there.

• Mission Video (Youtube)
  

So there wasn't a whole lot at Nav point 1 really, the main force was found back at TC, attacking it, upon our return!

Nav 1 is a bit curious because those 3 Jalthi don't seem very interested in attacking, not to mention, unlike in 100% cases so far, one of them is even positioned to be flying AWAY from us as we approach--not really sure what that is supposed to be about; but it prevents Knight from getting destroyed by them at least. It might be a bug, as there are other glitches on that nav point, such as the fact that Ralari sometimes doesn't show up correctly on the target display and so on.

The fact that there is 11 of Grathas (albeit in 3 waves) notwithstanding, the situation upon return to TC is not that bad because you have additional help in the form of a couple of extra Rapiers flying around. Between the two of us, the TC itself and the other Rapiers, chances are that TC is not going to be any real danger. Note I made a mistake in the video when I said that first wave of Grathas contains four enemies, actually there are five.

It's a bit surprising that we are getting such easy missions near the end after all we went through, but you can look at it the other way... because we did a good job of decimating the enemy forces in the area, they don't have much left to attack us with at this point. Or something.

Also I would like to emphasise that in this and the previous mission I didn't bump into Tiger's Claw once! Which is quite an achievement.

Well, all that is really left to do is strike the Sivar now and finish off 'Operation Thor's Hammer'.

Not too many kills this time, due to the fact that quite a few Grathas were nailed by others:





Next time on Wing Commander
The grand finale of 'Operation: Thor's Hammer', part 2: Why does a god need a spaceship?