Feint! Parry! Riposte!

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FreeSpace 2 Campaign Walkthrough

Next Mission or SOC Loop 1

ACT 1, MISSION 10

Fighter squadron: 242nd Suicide Kings

Description: The 242nd attacks two rebel cruisers and their escorts in an attempt to lure the NTD Repulse into position.

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Background

The 242nd Suicide Kings and the GTC Rampart are to act as bait for the Neo-Terran Front. Their orders are to launch a feint attack on two NTF cruisers, which will hopefully lure Rear-Admiral Koth's warship, the NTD Repulse, into the open.

Walkthrough

You have a choice between flying the GTF Perseus and GTF Hercules Mark II in this mission. Although the Perseus is the default choice, the Herc II can also be an effective choice given good management of the ETS. Ship-to-ship combat is the focus here, so choose a loadout that you are most comfortable using while dogfighting—you should be good as long as you are not using the GTW Prometheus R.

You start this mission flying a few clicks ahead of the GTC Rampart, a Leviathan-class cruiser, which is being escorted by Iota and Zeta wings, each comprising two Medusa bombers. About four clicks in front of you is a wing of six NTF Hercules-class fighters, and behind this wing are six more fighters, escorting the rebel Fenris cruisers NTC Majestic and NTC Refute.

Avoid charging the Hercules fighters at long range on higher difficulties as they have a lot of firepower. You can try sending your wingmen out ahead, or stay abreast of them; this makes it easier for them to cover you if the rebel fighters try to rush you all at once. If you are flying the GTF Perseus, you can use its superior speed and maneuverability to flank the Hercs and splash them. Otherwise, get in close and shoot them down one by one.

Taking down the wing of Hercules fighters guarding the Majestic and Refute is much more difficult, since you need to fly into the firing range of the cruisers. They may only be Fenris-class, but the cruisers' AAA beams are a danger to you and your squadron. It might help to take down some of them, but on higher difficulties, this can translate into definite suicide. You are much more likely to survive if you follow Command's advice and try to lure the Hercules fighters away from the cruisers, back to the AAA range of the Rampart. Order your wingmen to protect the Rampart (or another ship idling around, such as a support ship), then target one of the Hercs escorting the cruisers. Next, approach the cruisers and their escorts, but pay attention to your targeting display; when you see the fighter you targeted turning towards you while suddenly increasing its speed, that means you have drawn the attention of all the Hercs. Turn back towards your wing or the Rampart, but do not try to fly back as fast as you can—if you put too much distance between yourself and the pursuing Hercs (above 1800 meters), they will stop chasing you and fly back to the cruisers, and you will need to waste time trying to lure them away again. Try to keep the fighters pursuing you at around 1400 meters away—at that range, they will still pursue you, but you will be out of the range of their weapons.

Once the fighters guarding the Majestic and Refute are down, do not continue (or start) attacking the cruisers. Pull back to the Rampart and rearm while Iota and Zeta wings break formation and bombard the two NTF cruisers. At this point, all three cruisers should be within beam range of each other, so they will be exchanging salvos. Despite being outnumbered 2 to 1, the Rampart, by virtue of it having more armor and better armaments, can hold its own against the NTF cruisers without your assistance.

When both the Majestic and Refute have their hull integrities reduced to critical, the NTD Repulse will jump in. Defend the Rampart from the Lokis that will begin launching from the destroyer. Shortly after the Repulse's arrival, Command orders the GTVA Colossus in. Avoid the beam salvos between the two vessels. The Colossus orders Rear-Admiral Koth to surrender, but Koth instead sets the Repulse on a collision course with the Colossus. The Repulse will be destroyed on contact with the Colossus, dealing only minor damage to the Allied warship, and you will be ordered to return to base.

Objectives

(Objectives are viewable by pressing F4 and going to the Objectives tab)

• Primary Objectives:
  • Destroy the cruisers' fighter escort
  • Help destroy Koth's battle group
• Secondary Objectives:
  • Defend the Rampart

Medals

You will obtain an Epsilon Pegasi Liberation medal for defending the Rampart.

Notes

• In some versions of FS2 the Repulse gets halfway inside the Colossus before it is destroyed.
• You can attempt to disable the Repulse's engine subsystem so that it cannot ram the Colossus, but it will explode before you can do so, and the damage done to the Allied warship will still be the same.
• If you wait for the NTC Majestic and NTC Refute to finish most of their waypoints before destroying their fighter escort and engaging the Repulse's escort so the Colossus will jump in, the cruisers will end up in the juggernaut's upper-rear blindspot and will slowly beam it to death. The Colossus will remain immobile and unable to return fire, as all of its beams are mounted on the side and front.

Total number of forces

Forces involved
Belligerents
GTVA	NTF
Ships
1 GTVA Colossus Colossus 1 GTC Leviathan Rampart	1 GTD Orion Repulse 2 GTC Fenris Majestic Refute
Strikecraft
3-7 GTF Perseus Alpha (4) (*) Epsilon (3) 4 GTB Medusa Zeta (2) Iota (2)	12 GTF Hercules Capricorn (3) Scorpio (6) Gemini (3) 12 GTF Loki Aries (4) *2 waves Libra (4)
Casualties
0-1 GTC Leviathan Rampart 0-6 GTF Perseus Alpha (3) (*) Epsilon (3) 0-4 GTB Medusa Zeta (2) Iota (2)	1 GTD Orion Repulse 2 GTC Fenris Majestic Refute 12 GTF Hercules Capricorn (3) Scorpio (6) Gemini (3) 8-12 GTF Loki Aries (4) *2 waves Libra (4)

(*) May be replaced with the GTF Hercules Mark II

Technical information

Feint! Parry! Riposte!
File name:	SM1-10.fs2
File size:	66.0 KB
Author:	James Agay
Total number of objects:	36 (+6 waypoints)
Total number of wings:	9
Number of mission events:	69
Number of messages:	26
Event music:	3: Leviticus
Briefing music:	Brief3