Part 59: Mission #55: TCS Concordia, Niven system
Mission #55: TCS Concordia, Niven systemPreviously on Wing Commander: Just as we were returning to Caernarvon, there was a sabotage on the Concordia so we had to go back and defend it again. Unfortunately, Shadow did not survive. There was no time for us to launch before the jump into Niven system, so here we are on the Concordia for the time being.
Since this will be our home for the foreseeable future, let's have a look at it:
Concordia
Class: Carrier/Dreadnought
Length: 983.7 Meters
Mass: 73000 tonnes
Max Velocity: 100 kps
Cruise Velocity: 50 kps
Acceleration: Bad
Maximum Yaw: 1 dps
Maximum Pitch: 1 dps
Maximum Roll: 1 dps
Weapons: Flak Cannon (3x), Anti-matter guns (8x), Phase-Transit Cannon (1x)
Shields: Phase Shields
Armour: Front: 500 cm; Right: 400 cm; Left: 400 cm; Rear: 500 cm.
Fighter complement: 120
Not too shabby actually. It has phase shields, so definitely need some heavier weaponry to punch through that! Anti-matter gun is basically particle cannon on steroids and could basically one-shot most of the fighters, not to mention do some good damage on the capital ships too. Phase-transit cannon was seen in action in the last mission and is as it turns out a modification of the technology that was originally used for the Sivar's super weapon that destroyed the Goddard colony--meaning it can one shot everything. Knowing its origin, obviously it is not much use against fast moving target due to charge time. Interstingly, it was not seen again in use by the enemy after the destruction of Sivar; this may be due to numerous technical issues that plagued this device that caused it to fall out of use on the human side too after a few years.
And now...
That would be fifteen minutes after our landing last time, i.e. just after the jump into Niven system...
Her death is the Confederation's loss. Our friend is not the only Confederation pilot who has died in the line of duty. Death is a fear each of us must face, everyday aboard this ship. But we cannot forget why we are here, and what we are fighting for.
Later on...
She WAS pretty shaken for quite a while back then...
He is definitely still alive at this point, by the way.
That would be "Kitchen Patrol" for the non-military types. But yes, Hunter's pranks on Maniac were often the subject of conversation on the Tiger's Claw, although personally I though some of them went too far...
The Admiral said we should make ourselves useful while here, so...
Good old Spirit, always a dedicated friend...
We need more information on the Kilrathi capital ship movements in this area. Your ship is equipped with a trace analyser. The analyser automatically scans for the jump trails of Kilrathi vessels.
"Not as agile" is the understatement of the century! The thing barely moves--but it's not all bad as will be seen.
Wait, somebody's callsign is "Banzai"? Really?
There is no reason why this mission should be in a Broadsword heavy bomber since it is just a normal patrol type outing, but there it is. I guess they wanted to give us a taste of something different for a little bit.
Broadsword
Class: Heavy Bomber
Length: 36 Meters
Mass: 100 tonnes
Max Velocity: 320 kps
Cruise Velocity: 150 kps
Acceleration: Poor
Maximum Yaw: 5 dps
Maximum Pitch: 5 dps
Maximum Roll: 5 dps
Weapons: Mass Driver Cannon (3x), Neutron gun turrets (3x), Friend or Foe missile (3x), Torpedo (4x)
Shields: Fore: 18 cm, Aft: 18 cm
Armour: Front: 15 cm; Right: 13 cm; Left: 13 cm; Rear: 15 cm.
Other features: ITTS, Tractor Beam, Hyperspace Drive
So, no, it's not "agile" for sure--and it gets worse; it has no afterburners either! But at least it has shields to compensate. It has quite a few interesting features, some of which we'll be able to see in this mission. Those that we won't be able to see this time are: tractor beam, hyperspace drive and torpedoes. Tractor beam, like its name says, you can use to "pick up" objects floating in space--this includes any ejected wingmen: you can leave them there and Search & Rescue will get them; but if you are in a Broadsword, you can pick them up yourself and bring them back to the base! Hyperspace drive is exactly what it says on the tin and we'll get to use it later. Same goes for torpedoes, which we will use against capital ships. One of the things that we will use in this mission already is ITTS (Improved Target Tracking System, god kill me now with names like these); it is a kind of an aiming assist and you'll see how it works in the video.
Also for this mission and the next few, we will be going solo. So, without further ado...
Well, that was the shortest mission yet; the effective in-flight time was only about 2 minutes believe it or not! But at least we got to try out the turrets (not that useful really) and ITTS (very useful). Too bad there weren't any capital ships around to blast with our torpedoes! However, it does serve the purpose to getting you accustomed to a slightly different flying stile that you will need to employ with a slow ship like this.
Still we got to meet some Grikath:
Grikath
Class: Heavy Fighter
Length: 17.7 Meters
Mass: 27 tonnes
Max Velocity: 330 kps
Cruise Velocity: 200 kps
Acceleration: Bad
Maximum Yaw: 3 dps
Maximum Pitch: 3 dps
Maximum Roll: 3 dps
Weapons: Neutron Guns (3x), Neutron gun turrets (1x), Friend or Foe missile (2x), Torpedo (3x), Chaff Pod (3x)
Shields: Fore: 17 cm, Aft: 17 cm
Armour: Front: 16 cm; Right: 14 cm; Left: 14 cm; Rear: 16 cm.
Like Jalkehi, this appears to be another development from the old Jalthi base, this time in the direction of a Fighter/Bomber. If you look at the stats, you'll see that they are not very different from a Broadsword in fact! In any case, definitely don't approach from either front or back, and be warned: these guys have torpedoes--this means that they can and will destroy a capital ship, including the Concordia if they ever attack it! The protracted lock-on time of a torpedo should be used against them in this case.
Our average is really being brought down due to small number of enemies in missions!
Current kill total: 55 missions/527 kills
Next time on Wing Commander
A fateful game of poker!