Here's how things go when I use the standard mission VP.
I'm running XP Home and running FS.exe directly, in Win98/WinME compatibility mode. When I commit to the mission, I boot to desktop with two errors: the first is the "When-arrive Delta" posted earlier in this thread. The second is this one:
Error: Argument count is illegal.
In sexpression: ( send-message )
(Error appears to be: send-message)
File:D:\PROJECTS\FREESPACE\Mission\MissionParse.cpp
Line: 3245
Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
FS is minimized while this is on-screen. I click OK for both errors, and FS maximizes and continues to load.
The mission appears to progress normally. The synthesized speech is working. I choose my loadout and begin the sortie.
I scan Navpoints Alpha and Beta. Freighters Kappa arrive. Vasudans attack. Vasudans suck, so we kill them. Transports Sigma arrive (this is the last scripted transmission I receive). Wipe out the remaining Vasudans. Cruiser group arrives, but there's no transmission to announce it. From here on in, nothing happens.
Playing on medium difficulty. I'm reasonably sure that all friendly fighters survived; Alpha wing survived for certain, I never called in Delta, and the Hercs fare better against the Vasudans than the Apollos do. All members of Kappa and Sigma wings survived, and successfully jumped out.
After scanning the Navbuoys, that particular objective reads as being "cleared" in the directives window. The directives to protect Kappa and Sigma wings are never cleared, even after the ships jump out. "Patrol the Area" also remains incomplete.
One Chronos freighter belonging to no set wing hangs around near the Riviera without going anywhere, but I assume that's intentional.
On the last playthrough I did a little tinkering with the debugging mode, just to see what would happen. I destroyed all the cruisers (one of which prompted the arrival of the Einstein, which quickly jumped back out), the stray freighter, and the Riviera. After the Riviera blew, I was given clearance to jump, and received a full mission debriefing.