I found this on an old ISO image of my (former) CD archive:
The Juggernath Mission
The relative abundance and availability of screenshots from the "Juggernath Mission" suggest the mission was somewhat of a cornerstone in the early phases of FS1's development. There were, in fact, two different missions with the Juggernath cruiser; one with a blue nebula background, and one with a red/purple nebula background. Of course, these might be the same mission at different points in development, or they might be two entirely different missions. With the information we have, nothing conclusive can be deduced.
The "Juggernath" is a Fenris class ship, called simply a "Terran Cruiser", unsurprisingly carrying a cargo of "nothing". The orders for the Juggernath are simple, as expected; "Fly waypoints". The mission directives are simple, too; "Escort the Juggernath". The friendly force seems to consist of a single wing of unshielded Apollo fighters.
At the inception of the missions the NPCs chat away, highlighting their distrust of the Vasudans, their new allies who recently were their deeply recented enemies. A part of this amazing dialogue survives to this day:
Alpha 2 or 4: "[...] them enough to fly together is stupid."
Alpha 3: "I just hope I don't accidentally fire on one of them in the heat of battle. Old habits die hard."
The enemies are Shivans, and the Apollo ships do not have shields. This places the mission in the first quarter of FS1, right after the formation of the GTVA. This would place the mission at least after the Paving the Way mission, not sooner. Unfortunately there are too few events known to entirely reconstruct the mission. We know a little, though; there is one wing of Shivans already attacking at 1:18, and one wing of Shivan Dragon class ships already attacking at 3:09. The Dragon class was entirely different when the mission(s) existed. It is even doubtful the class was called Dragon. Screenshots only suggest the name Shivan Fighter.
Also, the stats for the demo Dragon class were nowhere near the retail Dragon class stats; a wing of Dragons makes minced meat out of an unshielded Apollo wing in no time. The player ship is seemingly outfitted with Rockeye and Fury missiles, as well as Light Lasers and Disruptor lasers. This might not mean much, since this seemed to be part of a standard mock up HUD display in the early Alpha builds, meaning it was a static display for all the missions. The later version with the red nebula has the player carrying Swarm missiles. Nothing is known of the briefing, de-briefing, or other mission chit-chat.
The theory is the mission was included in an in-house Alpha build, but that this Alpha build is forever gone due to a destroyed backup tape. Volition mission designer Brad Johnson stated the cruiser, the Juggernath, could be a ship existing in retail but simply renamed. There exists no Fenris escort mission in the entire Retail campaign, nor does any dialogue similar to the surviving snippet exist in any retail mission. Where the Juggernath was heading is unknown and there are no clues as to why the cruiser needs an escort. Nothing is known about the mission post mortem.
By extrapolating all possible data, a skeletal reconstruction can be made; Alpha wing is to escort the Juggernath until it can be delivered to the care of Vasudan allies. Why the escort is needed is unknown. The cruiser could be damaged, there could be key personnel on board, or the area is heavily patrolled by enemies. From the screen shots it is clear the cruiser seems to be in fine shape, making the need for an escort even more questionable. Early Freespace players have recalled that beta testers have mentioned the presence of "important live cargo". One theory places Colonel McCarthy on board the Juggernath, since a heavy enemy presence would suggest a stronger escort than a simple wing of unshielded Apollo fighters. Be advised this is a reconstruction, nothing more. What the actual mission contained and entailed is effectively unknown.
Make of it what you will.
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