O.K. Here is what worked for me.
The premise for this mission is to kill the Lucifer by using harbinger bombs to destroy it’s reactors.
Here 's the thinking outside the box part: LEAVE THE BOMBERS BEHIND.
It’s just too easy for bombs and bombers to be shot out of space, but a Prometheus cannon cannot be stopped. The idea here is to mass as many cannons as you can against any reactor, ONE reactor at a time.
1. Equip yourself with a Valkyrie fighter. You’ll need the speed as you are the primary fighter cover for this mission.
2. Designate one other wing as fighter cover and equip them with Apollo fighters as they carry more missiles and equip them with Interceptor missiles.
3. Equip the rest of the group with as many Hercules fighters as you can as they carry more cannons and equip them with a mix of Interceptor and Phoenix 5 missiles.
And everyone gets Prometheus cannons all around.
4. As you make your run in to the Lucifer, tell your fighter cover (extra Toths sent to help you included) to protect the group but ignore the Lucifer. That way they’ll attack enemy fighters only.
And tell the rest of the group to target the first reactor.
5. Now you can race out ahead and kill as many enemy fighters as you can until the group reaches the Lucifer. Hope you’re a good pilot.
6. Once the hole group reaches the Lucifer, it’s up to you to use your speed to kill as many enemy fighters as possible and if you can get ahead of the game and catch them as they come out of the fighter bays, so much the better, but you MUST keep track of the groups progress with each reactor as once they destroy one, they will do nothing until you tell them to go on to the next one and you will have lost some time. Keep the fighters off your group and keep them busy.
Be prepared to tell another wing to ignore the Lucifer and go chase fighters if you get behind but get them right back on the Lucifer when your space is clear. Then as fast as you can, you should position yourself to jump on the next group of fighters coming out of the fighter bays. By the way, you are never, NEVER flying in a straight line but changing direction constantly to avoid getting hit by turret fire.
If you want, you can try different things like using Urea bombers equipped with disruptors and stiletto bombs but now you have the basic idea.
And if you haven’t learned how to use the hot keys, do so first as they make giving all the different orders so much faster and easier. And as we all know, time counts here.
When you do kill the Lucifer, the ending sequence and game narrator will pull the whole story together and tell you what the Shevins are all about. I think the game tells one H#!! of a story and everyone who plays FS2 should play FS1 to get the background history of the game.
So go give this a few tries and report back here how you did.
You have your orders.
SpaceAce.