I'd say do only the space scenes but have the dialouge as audio/Textual radio chatter
I forgot to ask...are FREDedcut-scene like the ones in Darius' "Blue Planet - AoA" or actual animated cutscenes?
if its FREDed, news announcement can be the command briefing.
I'd suggest you use this as a basis
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My take on the Ribos scene:
Estabilishing Shot:
Ribos - A red star system
Tombaugh - Arcadia Surrounded by 2 Polaris Drydock sets. (By set, i mean Polaris Drydocks on both port and starboard sides of the ship). One has a ship docked with them (A typhon) An Orion and a few Leviathans patrol nearby as do several fighter wings. The station is silhouetted againt the planet Ribos-4
Cut to node...
The SC Tarranis (Cain) and the Ship towing it arrive. (Can't remember the ship's name/class...have to play FS sometime...)
Cut back and forth between the Transport and Tombaugh - Radio chatter from the script + a bit more is heard/seen-as-text here
As the Transport + Taranis get ready to dock with the free Tombaugh drydock, somene suddenly shouts something like
"I'm detecting...My God! Tombaugh Command! I'm picking up a massive subspace disturbance. It's right off the scale"
TCommand: "What the hell? That can't be right. Nothing can cause a distubance that large?"
The lucifer jumps in. [view from several angles]
Command Briefing animation here.
The lucifer approaches Tombaugh and wastes the Tarannis and the ship towing it.
The life pods/transports from from the following mission start launching from the station as The Lucifer then starts destroying Tombaugh. It hits the main station with a single beam volley from the 2 forward beam cannons.
Lucy then fires on the drydock surrounding the typhon. The port Drydock Explodes, causing a reactor overload in the Typon which self-detructs, blowing the whole thing apart.
The terran/vasudan fighters are overwelmed by the sheer number of SF Scorpions. Tombaugh Station is then hit to near critical hul-integrity - ie 6%
The Lucifer is then engaged by the Orion and Leviathans who quickly discover the SSD's inpenitrable shields. The cruisers are soon wiped out by the shivan fighters and the orion is blown away by the Lucifer.
The lucifer then turns back to Tombaugh and finishes it off, the destroys the remaining drydock and departs
[Fade out]
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