Red Mars

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

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Chanticleer MIssion 6
Location: Utopia Planitia Station, Mars orbit

Background

The 52nd is ordered to defend an under-construction drydock.

Walkthrough

Your options are the GTB Artemis D.H., GTB Rhea, GTF Perseus, GTF Aurora, and GTF Atalanta. There are many ways to approach this mission and your loadout determines how you do it.

You'll start next to a Ganymede-class drydock and an Arcadia-class installation, guarded by three Leviathan cruisers and a quartet of Mjolnir cannons. Once you arrive, Kappa wing will return to the Phoenicia, and you'll take over for them. After some dialogue, the disabled freighter Miriam Godwinson will warp in 10,000 meters from the station. Fly to the Godwinson and scan it.

When you scan the Godwinson, the UEF springs a trap. A Federation AWACS jumps in at very long range, jams your long-range comms, scrambles the capital ships' beam targeting, and vectors in a strike force. Four UEC Custos-class gunboats, two Kentauroi, and four Uhlans warp in, targeting the drydock.

Now you have to protect the drydock and your fighters are outnumbered. The biggest threats to the drydock are the VLS torpedo launchers on the Custos cruisers. You can take them down a variety of ways:

• Take a fast, maneuverable fighter like the Atalanta, Aurora or Perseus, and TAG the gunboats so the Mjolnirs and capital ships can target them with beam fire. If you've chosen the TAG route, remember that the point defense cannons have a range of 1500, and your TAG missiles have a range of 2000.
• Take the Rhea, and use Trebuchet/Maxim fire to knock out the torpedo launchers from long range.
• A combination of the two. The Artemis with two banks Trebuchet and one bank TAG missiles works well for this, but you run the risk of getting shot down by UEF fighters.

Shortly afterward, GTVA reinforcements arrive: an Aeolus, six Myrmidons, and six Kulas. The UEF raiders warp out once they've taken sufficiently heavy losses, or if the drydock is destroyed. Once they've left, there's some dialogue. After the dialogue, jump back to the Chanticleer.

Notes

• Even if the player fails the mission, the player can proceed to the next mission in the campaign.
• This mission is named after the Kim Stanley Robinson novel of the same name.
• One of the Leviathans is named the GTC Lone Wolf, a reference to the classic Derelict campaign.
• If you fly an Aurora, you'll get scans of the Godwinson from ~1500m away from the transport, potentially reducing the difficulty.