The Intervention
| The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe. |
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MISSION 08
ACT 2, MISSION 01
Fighter squadron: Not given. The squadron may not have a name; Simms seems not to care about flashy squadron names.
Description: On Laporte's first flight with the Navajas, she tries to talk Lorna Simms out of her guilt-induced self-destructive pattern.
Background
Between the Navajas breaking up, Brie and Kassim leaving, and First Fleet's assets being reprioritized to defend Admiral Byrne's classified projects instead of engaging in counter-attacks, Laporte desperately wants a transfer off of the Solaris. With her glowing letter of recommendation from Captain Telfer and some string-pulling, she manages to get a transfer to the Second Fleet's UEFg Indus, serving in a fighter squadron commanded by Captain Lorna Simms.
While she is well-received on the Indus, a letter from Karen Ng'Mei lets her know that not everything is hunky-dory aboard the frigate -- specifically, with Captain Simms. After three weeks of her squadron having a 400% casualty rate, she is detaching herself from her new squadmates; she doesn't let the deck crews paint their names on their fighters, and she assigns them numbers instead of callsigns. All of this is having a disastrous effect on the squadron's morale; if this keeps up, Simms' squadron won't be picked to participate in the rumored Big Op that is going down soon.
After complaints by the new pilots aboard the Indus that they haven't had time to actually fly the squadron's Kentauroi fighters, Simms decides to take Laporte out on a training sortie deep in the Asteroid Belt, where they will go over the Kent's flight systems. While GTVA activity is light, it is still active, so Beta wing from the UEFg Yangtze will be on rapid-response readiness if there's trouble.
Meanwhile, Ng'Mei has a task for Laporte -- to break Simms out of her guilt-fueled death spiral before she kills her squadron's morale and gets her pilots killed.
Walkthrough
This is a scramble mission, so you can't choose your loadout. This won't be a problem.
At the beginning, your fighter will be slaved to Simms' autopilot; just enjoy the view. When you jump to the Deep Belt, you get your controls back, and you get to select which conversational style you want to use when talking to Simms about her actions. Next, check out the flight controls, especially the reverse thrust and afterburner.
After a bit of dialogue, you'll start talking about Simms' behaviour, and you'll have to choose from a list of options. When making your choices, the best thing to do is remember what Ng'Mei told you in the briefing:
- Don't get personal. Criticise her actions, not her personally.
- Being emotional is OK, but don't try to empathise.
- She does some of her best thinking when angry.
- Don't come off as stupid. The worst thing you could do is convince her you're a moron.
After the arc has been resolved, one way or another, a wing of Nyx will jump in. They outgun you 2 to 1, and their fighters are specifically designed to kill gunships. Right as they come into range, your primaries will lock up. Simms will tell you how to fix it; just press 1 when the relevant prompt shows up and you'll get your primaries back.
Simms will call for backup from Beta wing. Meanwhile, your job is to stay alive; you can choose to engage or evade the Nyx. If you get into trouble press Alt/Option-G to call for help from Simms. A bit later, Ng'Mei and her wingman Olefumi will show up in Uriels and engage the Nyx. Not long after, they'll jump out, so if you want kills, make them fast.
When the Nyxes are dealt with, you can stick around for the story dialogue or jump out.
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