Part 65: Mission #61: TCS Concordia, Ghorah Khar system

Mission #61: TCS Concordia, Ghorah Khar system

Previously on Wing Commander: It's Paladin! And he has a really loud shirt!

So, last time when we left off, Paladin was going to go over and talk to our friend Admiral Tolwyn. Let's eavesdrop...






His... agents? Is he... a spy?




Ah yes, the stealth fighter factory that Prince Thrakhath destroyed in the intro.




So he IS some kind of spy/intelligence operative!






He needs to chill a little.



















Ok then. Later on...




















Oh, not again!





An indeterminate number of corvettes and enemy fighters. We lost communications shortly after we received a distress signal. Once the enemy is destroyed, report to Olympus Station for debriefing. You will rendezvous with the Broadsword wing at the Nav point. They're currently guarding a Clydesdale minesweeper. Assist them if the minesweeper is under attack.




OH! COME! ON! Lay off it already!











I'll take anything just not to have to listen to him any more! Anyway, we have two things to do in this mission. First we need to "defend" the Concordia, and then meet up with the two Broadswords to attack the enemy task force that is on its way to attack the Olympus star base.

Speaking of which, the Admiral mentioned that we may run into a Kilrathi corvette. Here is what it looks like:

Kamekh

Class: Corvette
Length: 135 Meters
Mass: 1300 tonnes
Max Velocity: 200 kps
Cruise Velocity: 100 kps
Acceleration: Poor
Maximum Yaw: 3 dps
Maximum Pitch: 3 dps
Maximum Roll: 3 dps
Weapons: Flak Cannon (3x), Image Recognition Missile (6x) Torpedo (4x)
Shields: Fore: 98 cm equivalent; Aft: 98 cm equivalent.
Armour: Front: 20 cm; Right: 18 cm; Left: 18 cm; Rear: 20 cm.

The Kamekh that we will encounter in this mission is actually a victory condition for this set. It must be destroyed, otherwise you will be branching off to the losing path. However, make note that it does NOT have phase shields, so at least in theory the success of this mission does not depend on Broadswords. In practice, coming within gun range to a capital ship is a bit difficult in WC2, so if the Broadswords fail, you'll have to either use missiles or do multiple hit and runs to avoid taking too much damage from flak guns. Note this is one of ships that is usually described inaccurately in various Wing Commander manuals. Most often, it says that it has phase shields, but it most definitely does not! But enough talk.

• Mission Video (Youtube)
  

And for some reason, they persist in sending Sarthas to attack Concordia, even though they must know that it doesn't work--which is why I said "defend" under quotes. Apart from Concordia defensive fire, there are also at least two friendly Rapiers there with you, so you have more risk of friendly fire than of getting damaged by the enemy. Truth be told, with all that friendly firepower, they are usually dead pretty fast and sometimes you may not even get in a kill yourself!

The fight against Kamekh (which we will get to see up close very soon, don't worry) and his Grikath escort is also not too difficult; just distract the Grikaths a little bit (there are only 3, and they are not as annoying as ones from a couple of missions ago) so that Broadswords can use their torpedoes. But if they fail, like I said, all is not lost and you can try to do it yourself. As with previous Broadsword escort mission, I have no idea where they went in the end, but it doesn't influence win/lose situation either way so it's not worth worrying about.

Current kill total: 61 missions/557 kills



Next time on Wing Commander
"Slaughterhouse" by Powermad.