Part 57: Mission #53: TCS Concordia, Gwynedd system
Mission #53: TCS Concordia, Gwynedd systemPreviously on Wing Commander: We responded to a distress signal from TCS Concordia, a terran carrier ship. Turns out, our old friend Angel is the CAG there!
[The following scene is accompanied by very cool music; listen to it while you read by using the link below.]
Last time we were invited to stop by the observation deck, so let's go there.
Even more familiar looking people. Looks like a few of our friends did survive. Though there's that dude over at the piano; not sure that I'd call HIM a friend.
Hey, it's Spirit, wearing a nice looking kimono when off-duty!
Well I'm glad HE survived, can you imagine amount of "I-told-you-so"s that he would subject us to otherwise? Uh, wait a second...
I'm surprised there are so many of us left. Now all we need is Paladin and Maniac so we can all die together.
Oh, you know...
Man, I want to punch this guy in the face.
Seriously.
Some time later...
But Jazz... he is bitter, perhaps, but mostly I think he is jealous. Until you arrived, he was the best pilot on the Concordia. But he knows you are better. Please do not take it personally.
Let's see if they have anything for us to do here...
Folks, meet Stingray. He is always right. We'll introduce him properly in a little while, but for now I'll say that despite everything, he's still way less annoying than Jazz.
This is not quite the harmonious crew of the Tiger's Claw, is it?
So we need to escort two Broadsword bombers and track down that annoying Fralthra cruiser. We'll talk more about Broadswords when we get to fly one (which will be in just a mission or two), but for now let's say that they are heavy, slow, well armoured and somewhat powerful. Most importantly, they carry torpedoes, which are actually capable of destroying a capital ship that your guns and missiles normally wouldn't be able to. Speaking of Fralthras, here are some details:
Fralthra
Class: Cruiser
Length: 612 Meters
Mass: 20500 tonnes
Max Velocity: 150 kps
Cruise Velocity: 100 kps
Acceleration: Poor
Maximum Yaw: 1 dps
Maximum Pitch: 1 dps
Maximum Roll: 1 dps
Weapons: Flak Cannons (3x), Anti-Matter Guns (3x)
Shields: Phase shields
Armour: Front: 700 cm; Right: 600 cm; Left: 600 cm; Rear: 700 cm.
As you can see, this is a heavily upgraded version of a Fralthi (also a lot cooler looking!). Check out the armour thickness--no more will we be able to destroy a carrier with a couple of shots from our guns! We can't destroy the Fralthra with a Ferret, so it will be up to the Broadswords to do that.
As mentioned, destroying the Fralthra is essential in this mission; if you don't manage, you'll find yourself on a losing track after the first plot branch. In order to succeed in that, therefore, you must keep the two bombers safe until they manage to do it (you'll know, because they'll tell you they've done it). There are a few Sarthas flying around there, but they are a lot more dangerous than usual as they are all flown by the dreaded Imperial Guards (they will KILL YOU, in case you haven't heard!). Unlike the first two easy missions, it's definitely possible to fail here, mostly through both bombers getting killed before destroying the Fralthra. Once the Fralthra is gone, their existence has no further implications to the success of the mission, so if you find yourself in that (buggy?) situation that they self-destruct (or whatever) because you strayed too far chasing an escaping enemy, don't worry about it too much.
On the way back we run into some new enemies, the Jalkehi. This is essentially a modified (and still pretty dangerous) version of a Jalthi:
Jalkehi
Class: Heavy Figther
Length: 25.2 Meters
Mass: 20 tonnes
Max Velocity: 280 kps
Cruise Velocity: 200 kps
Acceleration: Average
Maximum Yaw: 4 dps
Maximum Pitch: 4 dps
Maximum Roll: 4 dps
Weapons: Laser Cannon (2x), Particle Cannon (1x), Rear turret: neutron gun (2x), Image Recognition missile (4x), Dumb Fire missile (1x)
Shields: Fore: 11.5 cm; Aft: 11.5 cm
Armour: Front: 13.5 cm; Right: 12.5 cm; Left: 12.5 cm; Rear: 13.5 cm.
It's actually not that different from a Jalthi, except for two things. It has slightly weaker guns in front (note I made a mistake about this in the video--it seems really hard to find accurate info), but it also now has a particle cannon in front--this is an upgraded version of a neutron gun; basically all flaws have been fixed, it has range almost as good as a laser and does more damage than a neutron gun. Don't worry, the human ships have it too and we'll get to use it. The other thing is the fact that it has a rear turret with a dual neutron gun! This makes it very dangerous to approach either from the front or from the back so the only viable solution is to attack these guys from the sides or from above/below. There are also human ships with turrets, in fact a Broadsword has one on all three sides; we'll get to try that out soon.
A few minutes after landing...
That's one very banged-up Ferret. Hopefully not the one I just flew!
Sparks is going to be one of our few allies for the time being.
I'd never let that happen, Sparks. But this was a tough fight - I escorted the Broadswords to the battle, and they engaged the cruiser. The Concordia pilots are very good. They destroyed the Fralthra.
Happy face.
Sad face.
Current kill total: 53 missions/517 kills
Next time on Wing Commander
Like a Shadow.