Wing Commander Part #62 - Mission #58: TCS Concordia, Niven system

Part 62: Mission #58: TCS Concordia, Niven system

Mission #58: TCS Concordia, Niven system

Previously on Wing Commander: We are now everybody's errand boy; after quite a while escorting a pair of transports again. Came back to the Concordia only to find there was a murder on board. How lucky that we were half a system away when it happened!

Ah, so they didn't forget!

Seriously? Seriously?

Later...

Like I said, it's so totally awesome that we weren't even here when it happened!

Hm, a little odd, that. But I guess we'll find out eventually what's up.

Reconnaissance near Niven indicates that the Kilrathi moved through the Niven system, but their real target is Ghorah Khar, the rogue Kilrathi colony that joined the Confederation ten years ago.

One final mission in a Ferret, for the time being. Next time, we get a different ship to fly. But let's see what we can find on our patrol. Note: even if you normally skip videos, you should definitely watch this one!

Mission Video (Youtube)

So, the enemies in this mission are still labelled as unidentified, but to make it easier to talk about them, I'll tell you that this type of fighter is called "Strakha". This name has no importance to the plot in any way, so it's not a spoiler. Here is some data about them:
Strakha Class: Medium Fighter Length: 17 Meters Max Velocity: 320 kps Cruise Velocity: 200 kps Acceleration: Poor Maximum Yaw: 4 dps Maximum Pitch: 4 dps Maximum Roll: 4 dps Weapons: Laser Cannon (2x), Dumb-fire missiles (2x), Torpedo (2x) Shields: Fore: 4 cm equivalent; Aft: 4 cm equivalent. Armour: Front: 4 cm; Right: 2.5 cm; Left: 2.5 cm; Rear: 4 cm. Special Features: Cloaking device
As you can see, literally the ONLY thing they have going for them is the cloaking device. They are extremely poor in all other aspects--of course, remember that we are talking 10-year old technology here as the factory on Ghorah Khar was destroyed back then by order of Price Thrakhath! Still, even so, the cloaking device must impose severe limitations on ship construction to make them this bad otherwise. They also can't attack you while invisible--to turn this into a minor advantage, they will NEVER decloak in front of you, but only when they are behind, hoping for an element of surprise and to get in a few hits before you realise what's up. Essentially, except for the annoyance of having to wait for them to re-appear they are not a big deal at all for dogfighting one-on-one. Of course, like the Tiger's Claw example shows, they can be considerably more dangerous for capital ships as they carry torpedoes!