Okay, campaign? Got one of those...
You are the squadron commander for the 242th Suicide Kings, flying off the GTD Aquitane. It's roughly two years after Cappella.
Command Briefing #1 outline: The Aquitane and her battlegroup have been pulled out of a scheduled refit because of the appearance of a pirate Deimos corvette in Delta Serpentis, where it destroyed a convoy of several Hippocrates medical ships. The GTVA Security Council is not happy about this, and has ordered the pirates' destruction.
Insystem forces in Delta Serpentis chased the Deimos and several attendant fighter wings into Ross 128 and are sitting on the jump node now to keep it from leaving, while Laramis System Command scrambled bomber wings to watch the the Laramis-Ross 128 jump node. The pirates are trapped. Their forces are believed to consist of fewer then ten wings of fighters/bombers, a few older crusier models, and the Deimos. The Aquitane and her battlegroup have been tasked with finding them and killing them.
Because the GTCv Dynamic, the corvette that's a part of the Aquitane's normal escort, wasn't done with its engine refitting in time to join, the GVD Memphis' battlegroup loaned the GVCv Luxor and a heavy fighter squadron to the Aquitane for this mission.
You'll be flying the Perseus almost exculsively in this campaign, because the 242th is an interceptor squadron.
Mission 1: Faceoff
Briefing outline: Alpha wing will escort the Fenris-class cruiser Fortune as it participates in a sweep of the system. The briefer doesn't know what you'll find, but suspects pirates, if anything. If the Fortune gets into trouble, or finds the pirate Deimos, it can yell for help and have the GVCv Luxor and its escort wing arrive within 45 seconds, with the GTC Lord of the Deep (a Leviathan-class) arrive within 90 seconds. If things are REALLY bad, the Aquitane itself and the remainder of the battlegroup can arrive within 5 minutes.
Mission Outline: You jump in to see a pair of civilian Argos tooling along, nothing much happening at all. This changes when a hostile Fenris and a wing of mixed fighters warp in off to your left a few klicks. The Fortune orders you to engage the fighters and moves to engage the Fenris itself. The fighter wing heads for the Argos, which you have to protect. After you've killed the fighters, the Argos warp out, and you can turn your attention to the pirate Fenris.
Once the pirate Fenris is dead, the Fortune tells you it's warping to the next search area, and you should follow.
Red Alert to next mission.
The pirate fighters should only have one wave.
Mission 2: On Call
Briefing Outline: Your patrol is interrupted when you recieve a distress call from the GVC Re, an Aten-class crusier escorting a small convoy through Ross 128. The Re has been attacked by pirates and badly damaged. It and several of the convoy craft were disabled, but managed to beat off their attackers for the moment. You and the Fortune are to go and offer whatever assistance you can.
Mission Outline: You arrive and find things pretty much as described. The convoy is beat up, the Re is even more beat up, and the Vasudan escort wing is actually doing okay for itself. The Fortune and Re exchange messages (How are you doing?, Pretty bad, etc.), and then a mixed wing of bombers and fighters jumps in, with another wing of mixed fighters for cover.
Because they were dumb enough to engage somebody with the Alpha 1 callsign, they die. Friendly transports jump in and dock with the Re and disabled convoy vessels to repair them.
At this point, three Satis frieghters jump in along with a wing of mixed fighters, and attack. Don't laugh. The Satises have LTerSlash beams in their main turrets, which will do bad, bad things to the Re's hull.
After these are destroyed, repairs are completed to the convoy, the Re and convoy jump out, the repair transports jump out, and the Fortune returns to its mission with your wing in tow.
Red Alert to next mission.
Again the pirate fighters should only have one wave.
Mission 3: Familar Faces
Briefing Outline: Still on the sweep, still haven't found what you're looking for. The pirates can't have too many more fighter wings to throw at you. since they had less then ten to begin with and have expended four by now. The GVCv Luxor and GTC Lord of the Deep have had no encounters with pirates or anything else.
Mission Outline: Lookie! It's that Deimos you've been hunting...except it just got blown to bits by a Shivan Lilth-class cruiser.
Cue general panic. (And comments to that effect from your wing.)
The Fortune yells for backup and orders you to engage the Shivan fighter wing flying cover for the Lilth, as well as destroy the Lilth's main beam. So, you do that and dogfight it for about 45 seconds, then the GVCv Luxor shows up with its escort wing...and so do two more wings of Shivan fighters. 45 seconds after that, the GTC Lord of the Deep shows up as well, along with its escort wing. And so do a Cain-class cruiser and yet another wing of Shivan fighters.
After some intense dogfighting and disabling the Cain's beam cannon as well, the Shivans all die, and your capships are all still alive. (Otherwise, you've failed the mission.) The Aquitane orders the capships and whatever fighters are left to rejoin her battlegroup.
And finally, the uber-mission ends. You warp out normally. No Red Alert.
Shivan wings should have about 3 waves apiece.
Mission 4: Playing Scout
Briefing Outline: The briefer is sorry they couldn't offer you a rest, but every available pilot and ship is needed now that Shivan forces have been discovered in Ross 128.
Your wing is being dispatched to check out an area near Ross 128 IV, where some kind of activity has been detected by the Aquitane's attendant AWACs wing. Nobody knows what you're going to find, but Shivans are expected.
Mission Outline: You see a small Shivan cargo depot. Command orders you to destroy it. It's small, so it's only six containers or so, two sentry guns, and a pair of fighters. After you've destroyed it, one of your wingman asks Command for further orders.
What, you thought you'd get off that easy?
Command orders you to stick around the cargo depot and see what develops. So, you wait a bit. A Shivan freighter jumps in, with two fighters as escort. Take down the freighter and escorts. Another short wait. A Cain-class crusier and another wing of fighters jumps in. Take down the fighters.
When you engage the Cain, you realize there's something odd about it: It has no beam cannon. Instead it's outfitted as though it were from FS1.
Cain fall down go boom. Another short wait. A wing of six Dragons jumps in, and one of your wing tells Command the Shivans seem to be starting to take you seriously. A few seconds after you start dogfighting with the Dragons, a Moloch-class corvette, the SCv Unclean, warps in.
Cue general panic.
Command tells you to hang in there, help is on the way. And it is. Another warship exits subspace, apparently Iceni-class. Command tells you to calm down, and meet the first of the new Tribal-class Frigates, the GTFf Alemanni*. The Alemanni warns your wing to stand clear of the SCv Unclean, then opens fire with its forward beams.
After a brief battle, the Alemanni tears the SCv Unclean to shreds, and you recieve a "Mission successful, RTB" message. The Alemanni warps out, and so do you.
*The Alemanni is an Iceni with a different weapons configuration that I cooked up. If the campaign is selected, I'll dig out the exact weapons configuration. Suffice it to say that it's about as powerful as an Orion but comes in a much smaller package.
Command Briefing #2 outline: The GTVA is taking the discovery of Shivans in Ross 128 very seriously. Ross 128 is now consider a combat theater, and the majority of the GTVA’s combatant ships have been commited to it. The Sixth, Eleventh, Third, and Eighth Fleets have been commited to operations in Ross 128 proper, while the First and Second Fleets blockade the Ross 128/Delta Serpentis jump node, and the Ninth Fleet blockades the Laramis/Ross 128 jump node.
If it weren’t for the fact that there are GTVA systems beyond Ross 128 that can’t be accessed except through that system, the GTVA would have blown the jump nodes leading into Ross 128 already, and been done with it. If anybody spots a Sathanas, they WILL blow the jump nodes, and Laramis and beyond will just have to fend for themselves.
Also, there is a “in other news” bit on the GTFf Alemanni, which has joined the Aquitane’s battlegroup. It includes a brief rundown on the Alemanni’s specs and history.
Mission 5: To Defend
Briefing Outline: They finally let you get some sleep, and now that you're rested up, your wing is to escort your old friend the GTC Fortune as it docks with the newly deployed GTI Europa, a Ganymede-class installation, for repairs. Once the Fortune has docked, you are to protect it and the installation until relieved by the GTCv Dynamic, plus Beta and Gamma wings of the 53rd Hammerheads.
The installation already has an Aeolus-class cruiser (the GTC Tornado) a wing of Vasudan fighters, and a few Mjolnir RBCs for defense.
Mission Outline: You jump in and escort the Fortune as it docks. The Fortune and Tornado exchange messages (How'd you get so beat up?, You know those darned Shivans, Ha!, Fortunately I had Alpha here as escort, etc.)
Shortly after the Fortune docks, a wing of Basilisks jump in about two clicks away. They head for the Fortune. You are ordered to intercept.
Scratch the Basilisks. A pause. Then two wings of Shivan bombers and some fighter escort warp in four klicks away. Again, you are ordered to intercept. You do so, and clean out both waves of bombers.
Now a Shivan Rakshasa jumps in, very far away. The GTC Tornado moves to engage, and you (you specfically, not your wing) are ordered to kill the Rakshasa's beams. You head out to do so.
After you kill the Rakshasa's beams, you're just turning around to head back to the installation when a Shivan Lilth jumps in, right on top of the installation. The Mjolnirs can't engage it; it's inside the defense gun ring. Time to think fast and use those wingmen commands.
About thirty seconds later, the GTCv Dymanic arrives, and moves to engage the Lilth, as do the two wings of fighters it brought. The Lilth dies, the Rakshasa dies, and it's back to base for you, unless you've managed to lose the Tornado, Fortune, or Europa, in which case you lose.
Mission 6: Exorcism
Briefing Outline: Apparently you made an impression on the captain of the GTFf Alemanni, because he requested your wing specfically for this mission.
The Pegasus wing aboard the GTD Tarawa discovered a Shivan cargo depot in orbit around Ross 128 VI. They also discovered the Shivans had commited THREE cruisers to the defense of this depot, and several fighter wings. This implies the Shivans place a very high importance on this cargo surviving.
If the Shivans value this cargo so highly, then the GTVA values its destruction even more. A strikeforce is being sent to destroy the depot.
The GTFf Alemanni will engage enemy cruisers. Alpha will be responsible for close escort of the Alemanni and destroying the enemy cruiser's anti-warship beams. Beta wing from the 53rd Hammerheads will fly Myrmidons and engage enemy fightercraft, while Gamma wing from the 64th Raptors, flying Artemis D.H. bombers, will engage any enemy cargo craft, then assist the Alemanni with destroying the enemy cruisers.
Mission Outline: No bombers present themselves at mission start to be killed by you, so the Alemanni orders you to start taking out beam turrets. Beta wing engages the defending fighters, which aren't too many, and Gamma goes for the lone freighter, an SFr Asmodeus.
After Gamma kills the Asmodeus, the Alemanni says it can handle the cruisers on its own, and Command orders Gamma to destroy the cargo units. Only...Gamma just jumped out.
Command curses about it a bit, then orders you (you specfically) to go kill the cargo, as well as adding that the GTVI requested a scan of at least one container. There are a bunch of Belial sentry guns to shoot at you while you make your runs on the cargo. Meanwhile, a wing of Shivan bombers finally shows up, and the rest of your wing goes to intercept them.
If you scan one of the cargo units, then Command tells you the readings are odd, and they're sending in a frieghter to recover one of the cargo units.
Cue the entry of the Posiden-class GTFr Sea of Stars, which requests cover from your wing. A wing of Shivan fighters appear to attack the Sea of Stars, which displays some unexpected teeth when it opens fire with not Subach HL-7 turrets, but UD-8 Kaysers. Nevertheless, you ought to have do some work to protect the Sea of Stars. When it grabs the cargo unit, the Sea of Stars transmits a "thanks" message and then warps out, and that's good for a bonus objective.
Kill the rest of the cargo containers, help the Alemmani out with the enemy cruisers, and call it a day. Unless you lose the Alemanni, in which case Command thinks you suck and you fail the mission.
Command Briefing #3 Outline: There is good news. This is not the third coming of the Shivans. All Shivan ships engaged to date have been identified as ones that slipped out of Capella before the nodes were closed, or even ships that were thought to have been destroyed during The Great War. Apparently they have been lying low in this system. The GTVI is not certain why.
GTVI estimates a total Shivan force roughly the size of a GTVA Fleet, but this is inferred: no major fleet units have been sighted, save a single corvette. However, these fighters we're facing had to have come from somewhere.
That said, it's not time to relax just yet. A fleet of Shivan ships is nothing to sneeze at, and should they break out of Ross 128 they could do significant damage to the GTVA. The economy is only just recovering to from the loss of Cappella. We do not need a fleet of Shivans wreaking havoc on our shipping lanes.
Mission 7: Hot Scramble
Briefing Outline: Your wing is part of the Aquitane's ready group. The ready group is being scrambled to assist the GTD Sprunance, one of the new Orion Type B destroyers, which was attacked by a Shivan cruiser group and disabled while en route to join the GTD Tarawa's battlegroup. You launch at once.
Mission Outline: You show up, along with a few other wings from other squadrons on the Aquitane (one from the 70th Blue Lions, one from the 64th Raptors, and one from the 107th Ravens) and the GTFf Alemanni. Here's the Spruance and its escorts, two Deimos-class corvettes (GTCv Phobos and GTCv Achilles). The Spruance is somewhat damaged but disabled. The Phobos is mostly undamaged but disabled, while the Achilles is damaged badly but still mobile.
The Alemanni and Spruance exchange messages. (How're you doing, our drive is in pieces but otherwise okay, etc.) It turns out the Spruance's drive can be repaired, but they don't have parts onboard to do so. The GTCv Phobos chimes in to report that they can repair their drives with the means onboard, although they'll need a few minutes.
A few wings of Shivan fighters and bombers jump in. Alpha is ordered to run interference for the wings from the Blue Lions and 107th while they attack the bombers. A few waves later, the Alemanni says that looks like the last of them, and tells you "Good job."
Famous last words.
Two Shivan corvettes jump in, roughly 15000 meters off the Sprunace's port side and somewhat below. They launch fighters, apparently to protect themselves against the wing of Artemis D.H. bombers you have with you, and move to engage the Spruance and escorts. The fighters stick with the Shivan corvettes.
The Spruance orders you not to engage, and to get on its starboard side. When the corvettes reach 10000 meters, you find out why the Spruance is called a Orion Type B, as it blows one Moloch to Kingdom Come with two BFGreen hits. However, the Spruance has depleted its beam cannon capcitators, and you're going to have to go in along with the wing of Artemis D.H.s from the Aquitane and kill the other the old-fashioned way. The surviving Moloch objects to this, and launches even more fighters to defend itself.
Somewhere around here, a transport with the necessary parts to repair the Spruance's drives jumps in and docks with it.
The Moloch succumbs to the power of Alpha 1 like so many others, and the Phobos announces its repairs are complete. After a short wait so does the Spruance. The Spruance and escorts jump out to rendvous with the GTD Tarawa's battlegroup, and Command orders you and the Alemanni to rejoin the Aquitane's battlegroup. Warp on out of there.
Losing the Spruance or Alemanni is a mission failure, while protecting the two Deimos corvettes are two seperate secondary objectives.
The Spruance is an Orion with a different weapons loadout. Again, if selected I can provide the full breakdown of what goes in what turret.
Mission 8: Alpha Strike
Briefing Outline: A Shivan Demon-class the destroyer has been detected making a run for the Ross 128/Laramis jump node. The Aquitane is launching everything that can fly to stop the destroyer and its attendant cruisers/fighters.
The Demon is estimated to have 36 fighters at its disposal, two full Shivan squadrons, and its cruiser screen consists of four Cains, a Rakshasa, and a Lilth. The Demon cannot be allowed to reach the Ross 128/Laramis node. The cruisers are secondary objectives.
Mission Outline: The Aquitane doesn’t have much fighter throw weight left because of nearly two weeks of continous combat ops, so it comes down to your wing, two wings of the Blue Lions, and four wings of Artemis bombers. Tactical command belongs to Alpha 1 of the Blue Lions, (Hey, look, it’s you! Or was you…or something…gah, I’ve confused myself.) so you can give orders to the bombers but not the Blue Lions. Alpha 1 from the Blue Lions will be giving the orders in-mission, rather then Command.
Three of the wings of Artemis bombers attack the Demon, while one wing of bombers and one wing from the Blue Lions attack the screening cruisers. Your wing and the other wing of Blue Lions will cover the bombers attacking the Demon. The Demon, naturally, objects to your trying to blow it up, and launches its fighters in two waves of eighteen to try and fend you off.
You have 5 minutes and 50 seconds. Whatever’s left of the Shivans after that jumps to the Ross 128/Laramis node. Killing the Demon wins the mission, but the node defenses will take heavy casualities if you let too many cruisers slip by, and Command won’t be very happy with you even though the blockade held.
Mission 9: Checkmate
Briefing Outline: The Shivan base of operations in this system has been located. It’s a disabled Ravana-class destroyer. Shivan defenses are heavy, and what remaining strength the Shivans have is concentrated here.
The GVD Memphis’ battlegroup already assaulted the Shivan position, and withdrew after losing ten wings of fighters, the GVC Mycenaus, and the GVCv Luxor. The Memphis herself and most of the other ships in her battlegroup were badly damaged. Shivan losses were also heavy, with several cruisers and numerous fighters and bombers.
The Aquitane’s battlegroup is going to finish the job. The Aquitane will attack the Ravana, with the GTCs Lord of the Deep, Kraken, and Champlain functioning as close escort (all Leviathans). The GTCv Dynamic, GTC Windward (Aeolus-class), GTFf Alemanni, and two other Aeolus-class cruisers joining especially for this operation (GTC Tornado and GTC Typhoon) will attack enemy cruisers and targets of opportunity. The GTCs Fortune and Fenrir were donated to the GTD Tarawa’s battlegroup temporarily in replacement for the extra Aeoluses.
Remaining Shivan strength is estimated at around fifty fighters and bombers, a lone Moloch-class corvette, and a small number of cruisers, probably no higher then five. There are also some Shivan freighters in the area.
Alpha wing, we have a special mission for you. The Ravana is apparently coordinating fire-control for most of the Shivan’s larger ships through its own weapons subsystem. If you can take that out, it will give us a great advantage.
Mission Outline: Well, you know what’s gonna engage. Yes, it has BoE Syndrome, but I happen to like that. The Aquitane and company shall be intelligent enough to attack the Ravana from the side, so it’s pretty much doomed from the word go. Otherwise, go wild. Scatter fighters from both sides all over the place. Set it up so you can rack up a kill count to make Adolf Galland envious. However, just for the sheer neatness of it, Alpha gets to do something fun. When you take out the Ravana’s weapons subsystem, roughly half the Shivan capships stop shooting. (Turret-lock/Beam-lock sexps, anyone?)
And you get the knowledge that the Shivans will be totally owned now, and it’s all your doing.
And…that’s all, folks. However, I have a sequel up my sleeve, too.