Wing Commander Part #82 - Mission #78: TCS Concordia, K'Tithrak Mang system

Part 82: Mission #78: TCS Concordia, K'Tithrak Mang system

Mission #78: TCS Concordia, K'Tithrak Mang system

Previously on Wing Commander: Tracking down a Ralatha destroyer enabled us to find a way into K'Tithrak Mang system, where the Tiger's Claw attempted ten years ago, unsuccessfully, to destroy the Kilrathi Enigma Sector command base. Maybe Concordia will have better luck with that?

Yeah, we've been in Kilrathi territory before... for example the Goddard campaign...

...also that, too.

This time, we shall succeed. We must win here, and wrest back control of this sector. If not, the enemy will be within strike distance of our homeworlds. Today, you will make sure we can proceed towards K'Tithrak Mang undetected.

There's Banzai again, the brother of Buckaroo, who was mentioned a few missions ago!

Yeah what else is new.

...the destroyer probably has a heavy fighter escort. When you have destroyed it, proceed to the rendezvous point. You'll be flying a Sabre on this mission, Blair. It's our best fighter, with excellent guns and armour.

Oh groan.

So as was already mentioned this is the final set of missions in Wing Commander 2 and unfortunately our wingman is Jazz. Incredibly, he is just as useless as he was in Wing Commander 1 (although there we only flew with him in a Dralthi which is hardly a good measure of anybody's effectiveness, but still). We are also flying a Sabre, for the first time after that unfortunate outing with Spirit. Yay maneuvrability!

Mission Video (Youtube)

This is actually a pretty fun mission--it's somewhat challenging but not frustratingly so; it strikes a good balance I think. All four Jalkehi that you find protecting that Ralatha turn out to be the Imperial Guards, however, even they are unable to compensate for the slowness/lack of maneuvrability of the ship they are flying--and on the other hand you are in a relatively fast Sabre. Also, as always Jalkehi=vulnerable to missiles, so use them.

I thought it was pretty funny how that one guy escaped and then decided to return--this has happened I think once or twice before but not so obviously. Luckily he caught us between two torpedo runs otherwise it could have been hairy. Speaking of torpedoes, since Sabre is not as sturdy as a Broadsword, some careful use of afterburners will be needed as you approach your target in order to minimise the amount of time you spend in the zone of fire.

As for the Grikaths, let me quote Stingray on that one: "Hey, target practice!". They will be too distracted trying to attack Concordia and thus easy targets. Plus there's only three of them. So nothing much to write home about.

Update from the "bad" side: What does all this look if you failed in the previous set? First of all, instead of pushing forward to K'Tithrak Mang, you will fall back to Gwynedd and the missions represent last line of defence at the Caernarvon station area. As I've mentioned, the missions are similar, but there are some differences too. In the first mission there, instead of a Ralatha, the Jalkehi are defending two Fralthra (!) and you also have to fight the Grikaths at the Concordia first and not at the end. Also there is a bunch of Drakhri somewhere along the way; so all in all it's similar but a bit more difficult. There is no interesting dialogue to mention as it's largely a mirror image of what we saw here and it does not even contain all of that to begin with.

In any case, let's go visit with Sparks once again!