Bait and Switch

The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe.

Campaign Walkthrough

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ACT 1 MISSION 6

Fighter squadron: 212th Silver Scythes
Description: Alpha and the LoneWolf attack a pirate base, but things are not as they seem...

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Background

• With some help from the MMC's scans of the area, and from this latest attack near Tau Sigma Station, we now know that the pirates staged their raid from this remote location within the Tau Sigma system. If we move quickly, we may be able to surprise them, re-capture any stolen goods, and restore the confidence of the local business operations.
• The staging area is located on the outer rim of the system near a large ice debris belt. Central to the area is a large refuelling vessel along with several cargo containers and a Triton class freighter.
• Guarding the area is a Gunship of unknown configuration. There are at least two wings of fighters flying escort. These will be your primary target.
• Alpha wing and the GTC LoneWolf will jump in at close range for the element of surprise. Alpha, your primary target will be the fighter escort, while the LoneWolf will concentrate on neutralizing the gunship. Once disabled or destroyed, we should have little trouble apprehending the rest of these pirates. Good luck, pilot!

Walkthrough

Your first challenge of the campaign. Don't worry about killing the enemy fighters at the mission start, as they will soon turn friendly when Command recognizes its mistake. The pirates will then launch a massive fighter/bomber/cruiser attack on the LoneWolf. The Fenris is not nearly strong enough to withstand the assault, so you will probably have to loose the mission 5 times and then skip, unless you're playing on low difficulty.

Excellent voiceacting and script on this one.

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As mentioned above, this is quite a tough mission. However, it is quite possible to beat it even on higher difficulties.

For loadout, you'll want a mix of tempests and rockeyes (with at least eight of the latter), plus whichever guns you prefer - not that you have a whole lot of choice there.

From the beginning of the mission, order your wingmen to ignore both Sai and the medical frigate, and then you can either fly around dodging the initial fighters for a few minutes until they change IFF, or you can start fighting them properly. Save your rockeyes regardless of which you choose. If you do the latter, you will get more kills, but the second part of the mission will be harder. If you can't seem to get past the second part, simply have your AI wingmen ignore ALL enemy fighters at the start and simply evade, and that should help some later.

Either way, it will eventually turn out that the supposed pirate staging ground was in fact no such thing, and the remains of the enemy will turn friendly. This is where it gets interesting. A pirate Leviathan accompanied by both fighter and bomber wings will jump in, with the bombers heading for Sai while the cruiser tends to duke it out with LoneWolf. The safest solution here is to order your wingmen to guard Sai, while you use your rockeyes to destroy the main beam of the cruiser from a safe distance and then hang back outside of beam range. You really do NOT want to get into AAA range of a Leviathan if you're playing on hard or above, as it can swat you out of the sky in an instant should it target you.

Feel free to engage any enemies which stray far enough from the cruiser for you to safely engage them, but at this point, you should mostly be directing your wingmen. When no bombers are left in the area, have the wingmen engage the pirate cruiser, or guard the LoneWolf if her hull is getting too low for comfort. Eventually, the cruiser will die (with no main beam, LoneWolf and Sai between them outmatch it easily) and you can mop up any remaining pirate fighters. Congratulations, you've won.

Notable ships present

• GTC LoneWolf
• TRGC Sai
• TRGF Haulian
• Redbeard (pirate Leviathan)
• TRGS Meridian