Her Finest Hour

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

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MISSION 21
ACT 3, MISSION 05

Fighter squadron: Falcata Wing, Fedayeen

Description: Facing an opportunity to retake Neptune, Laporte must lead the Third Fleet in an attack against the GTD Carthage battlegroup.

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Background

After making peace with her choices at the Kostadin Cell habitat, Laporte starts thinking about Admiral Steele. He is ruthless and extremely cunning, but his weakness is that same cunning. He lays very intricate traps with razor-thin margins for error. In addition, he has a bottomless wellspring of confidence in his own plans, assesments, and views of the Big Picture that his subordinates do not necessarily share.

If pushed at the right spot, his plans will collapse. Laporte and Thorn share the same conclusion at his vulnerability: Rear Admiral Anita Lopez, commander of the GTD Carthage. Steele's use of her battlegroup in the trap at Saturn that killed the Wargods virtually eliminated her entire air wing, destroyed most of her cruiser escorts, critically damaged her ship, and, worst of all for her, killed thousands of personnel who had been under her command for years. In the wake of this, Lopez must be harboring doubts about her superior's choice of tactics. That said, she is also a professional, and will follow orders despite her doubts unless stressed to the extreme. In addition, she will not fall for a second attempt to exploit her tendency to protect those under her command. To get her to break with Steele's plan will require planning and an opportune moment.

Conveniently, that moment has arrived. In order to avoid strategic overextension during his buildup for the invasion, Steele is pulling his forces out of Neptune, concentrating them at Jupiter. The Carthage and her battlegroup has been tasked with covering the evacuation and ordering the destruction of their installation once the evacuation is complete. Doubtless she has orders to blow the station and pull out if she can't hold off any attackers; however, with a big enough push, she might decide to ignore those orders and stay until the evacuation is finished. In addition,

Mission-killing the Carthage battlegroup, even while it's understrength, will require a fleet action. As such, the Fedayeen has convinced Third Fleet's Admiral Calder to undertake the operation, but only if Laporte is made his tactical liaison. This is agreed to, and Laporte is breveted to the rank of Captain in Third Fleet and placed in tactical command of Third Fleet's assets in the attack. That attack is now underway; Admiral Calder has committed all of his fleet's assets, save for the UED Toutatis herself, to the field. The frigate Serenity, the cruisers Segura and Tripoli, and the AWACS ship Anansi have committed to close action, and are taking heavy losses; meanwhile, the Carthage with her Mjolnir-class RBCs and the artillery frigates Vikrant and Toreador have begun an artillery duel.

The key asset in this battle will be the Toutatis air wing, held in reserve by Admiral Calder for the final attack run on the Carthage; however, he will not release the fighters until he has confidence they won't be shredded immediately by the enemy. To this end, Laporte, Falcata wing, and the rest of Third Fleet must build that confidence by eliminating Tev assets before calling in the final strike. There is a time limit; the Carthage will finish the evacuation and jump away in 13 minutes.

During the final strike, the Carthage must be disabled, or she will jump away after taking heavy damage. Mission-killing the Carthage, either through destruction or capture, is the priority; dealing with all other ships are secondary. Once the Carthage is dealt with, transports with UEF marines will board the station. The Hammer of Light has disabled the station's self-destruct charges and given the marines a nerve gas that will corrode Tev suit seals and render the defenders unconscious or dead. With the defenders decimated, the marines will secure the station for Third Fleet's use in harrassing the Delta Serpentis subspace node.

Walkthrough

This mission has two parts:

1. Destroy or disable enough Tev assets to gain reinforcement points, and
2. Use the reinforcements to attack the Carthage and her battlegroup.

The artillery frigates can be switched between free fire and target designation mode; use the 1 key to switch between modes, and the 2 key to designate targets while in target designation mode. You can designate more than one target at a time, and the frigates will target them as the opportunity arises. There are some assets, like the AWACS ships, that they won't be able to target.

When you're ready to commit to attacking the Carthage, you can select Declare The Attack from the Reinforcements menu to release the fighters to you and begin the second phase of the mission; during the second phase, you gain no more reinforcement points, and you can select fighter wings to jump in using the Reinforcements menu as normal.

Your HUD will show the status of the artillery frigates, the estimated departure time of the Carthage, how many reinforcement points you have, and how many units are on station.

Gaining Reinforcements

To gain reinforcement points, you must make conditions favorable for a fighter strike on the Carthage. The following are the things you can do to make that happen:

• Destroy the two Mjolnirs flanking the Carthage. (? points each)
  • This will also give the artillery frigates the upper hand in the artillery duel.
• Destroy the corvettes Iolanthe and Deianira. (? points each, but difficult)
  • Alternatively, you can scan one of the subsystems (except Navigation) on each corvette to upload a virus that will disable their weapons. (? points each)
• Destroy the minelayers McAuliffe and [???]. (? points each)
  • Destroying the minelayers will keep them from deploying more sentry guns, making torpedo runs more effective.
• Ensure the escape of the UEFg Serenity. (2 points?)
• Destroy the two radar dishes on the Carthage to degrade their sentry net. (? points each)
  • This will lower the rate of fire on the sentries.
• Destroy the various other subsystems on the Carthage to further degrade their sentry net. (? points each)
• Destroy the GTCv Radhanite, which is low on fuel. (? points)
• Destroy the four tankers the Radhanite is protecting. (? points each)
• Upload a virus into the sentry net by scanning the Sensors, Weapons, and Communications subsystems on Neptune Station. (? points)
  • This will cause most sentries to self-destruct.
• Destroy the AWACS ships Beholder and Shrievality. (? points each)
  • This will allow the stealth ships to move freely around the battle space, as well as allow the artillery frigates to bring their main guns to bear on the enemy.
• Destroy the wing of Aurora fighters (Pisces). (? points each)
  • This will allow the stealth ships to move freely around the battle space.

Being within 2000 meters of the AWACS or in the line of sight of Pisces will cause you to lose your stealth. In addition, firing a weapon will break your stealth in any circumstance until you have ceased fire for five seconds. Breaking stealth near a warship is a quick way to get killed, especially if the sentry net is still fully functional.

One way to play this out: Have Falcata wing cover the Serenity while slaving the artillery and having them take out the Radhanite, the tankers, and the minelayers. Once the Serenity is safe, have Falcata banzai the AWACS assets, including Pisces wing. After the enemy's eyes are poked out, go and infect the corvettes while assigning Falcata to destroy the Mjolnirs. After you infect the corvettes, burn over to the station to take down the sentry net; if Falcata's finished with the Mjolnirs, send them to deal with the radar dishes on the Carthage. Once the sentry net is down, set your artillery to free fire, pull back yourself Falcata to the frigates, and call in the final strike; you should have 30-40 points available, with about five minutes on the clock.