Part 86: Mission #82: TCS Concordia, Pembroke system
Today's special is an operation!This title screen will not be very surprising.
Let's watch a video first!
So. Shortly after barely managing to survive the duel, Prince Thrakhath is again plotting a new campaign against the Confederation, this time centering on the mutinuous planets around Ghorah Khar. Well, we'll see what happens with that, but in the meantime, the Concordia has some final clean-up duties after the victory at K'Tithrak Mang.
Meanwhile, back in 1992...
In early 1992, again just a few months after the original game, the first expansion mission set was published, Secret Operations 1 (SO1). This time, it was clearly the plan from the beginning to publish more than one expansion set as this one in actually labelled with the number "1", unlike the first Secret Missions for the original Wing Commander. Like previous expansions, it contained 16 extra missions on the mainline plus a few losing ones.
As you can see, it continues the story pretty much exactly where it was left at the end of WC2 and throughout this and the following expansion, Secret Operations 2, we'll be focusing on some of the plot threads that were so far mentioned, but not explored in detail, such as the Ghorah Khar situation, the Mandarins and other stuff. The game mechanics again stay largely the same (and so will the presentation style), but like SM2, it does feature some new characters and new ships--but we'll come to that in due course. Another thing is that this where game starts to 'open up' the missions a little bit--often we will be going out in groups of more than just 2 ships (groan, friendly fire!), and there will be a few incidental wingmen that don't figure prominently in the story otherwise, and so on, similar to how it was in later games--the 'strictness' of one wingman-one system is going to be relaxed quite a bit.
And of course, like before, there's the increased difficulty of missions. Not to mention--minefields will be making a return after there not being a single one during WC2! (They do exist on losing branches of WC2 though).
The beginning finds the Concordia dealing with remains of defeated Kilrathi forces in Pembroke system...
Mission #82: TCS Concordia, Pembroke system
Previously on Wing Commander: K'Tithrak Mang base go boom. Also we defeated Prince Thrakhath in a duel, but he somehow survived. As a reward we were promoted to Colonel and finally earned Admiral Tolwyn's respect.
I like this colour scheme better than then one in Angel's office!
Ha ha, of course!
In the meantime, we still have some Kilrathi forces left in the Enigma sector. After we deal with them here, Paladin will give you instructions about your new assignment - if you decide to join the Special Operations division.
Colonel, no one transfers 'officially' to Special Ops. Everyone on this ship but myself, Colonel Ralgha, and Angel will be told that you are leaving on an extended R&R.
Therefore, we will begin a thorough rotation of patrols in this system. Maverick and Stingray will fly the lead patrol. Just touch your Nav points and return. If you encounter Kilrathi, use your best judgement, but do not be too cocky. We cannot afford any more casualties among our pilots.
So as in every WC game so far, we start with what should be a fairly simple patrol. Also we are back in a Ferret, but this is an improved version that now carries two heat-seeking missiles; other than that it's more or less the same as the old Ferret. But a couple of missiles are sure nice to have.
Well, this mission is actually a little bit harder than it looks, but still not too bad. The main issue is that most enemies are fast Imperial Guard ships so they take quite a few hits. Otherwise, it's not particularly frustrating.
Use your missiles on the first bunch of Sarthas as you won't need them/be able to effectively use them against any other enemies in this mission. As for the Kamekh, definitely go for it first--fighting Strakhas while being bombarded by flak in a Ferret would be just totally silly, especially when Kamekh goes down so easily.
And that's really all, a nice and relaxing mission to start us off. Let's see what Angel wants.
[And the spelling errors in subtitles continue... that should be "C'est mal"]
Uh... ok.
Current kill total: 82 missions/695 kills
Next time on Wing Commander
Stop me if you've heard this one before.