One Future

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

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MISSION 20
ACT 3, MISSION 04

Fighter squadron: Falcata Wing, Fedayeen

Description: Laporte must take an experimental cruiser on a mission to save Earth from the Kostadin Cell's desperation move.

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Background

The countdown to Steele's invasion is 15 days, plus or minus 4; however, that may as well be one day. The Gaian Effort has been systematically fractured; SOC units have launched attacks on Kostadin Cell in reprisal for their "complicity" in the Bellwether incident. Between more moderate cells breaking ties and SOC's extermination campaign, Kostadin Cell and its leader, Reverend Iain MacDuff, have their backs against the wall.

As such, MacDuff has activated his cell's end-stage contingency, a way to force humanity to become Cometary Man. He has set the Kostadin Cell's asteroid habitat on a collision course with Earth; within hours, it will jump to a prearranged location in Earth orbit and smash into the planet, causing an extinction-level event.

While a fleet action to stop this menace would be ideal, the asteroid's distance from any large gravity wells makes plotting safe subspace routes difficult and time-consuming, and the Gefs have activated gravity generators to confound attempts to do so. Instead, Laporte will take a modified Custos-class cruiser, the UEC Vindicator, to the asteroid to clear the way for the UET Andex to board the habitat and abort the jump sequence. If that way proves too difficult, flying into the asteroid may reveal an alternative way of stopping the jump, but no intelligence exists on the habitat's interior.

Either way, when she arrives, she has 10 minutes to stop the jump from happening, or Earth will be transformed into a cinder.

Controls

The controls for the Vindicator are much the same as the controls for the Katana in The Blade Itself. There are a few differences, however.

First, the missile launchers on Vindicator can fire either Warhammer torpedoes for anti-capital work or Dart missiles for anti-fighter cover. Pressing Alt/Option-X will switch what kind of missile is loaded in the tubes.

Second, you can designate targets for the Point Defense Turrets, which works like designating targets for the missiles.

Third, you have direct control over the spinal mount gauss cannon and the other weapon you mounted (either the UX Accelerator or the Gattler). Selecting and firing these weapons is exactly like firing the primary weapons on a fighter.

Finally, your special abilites are somewhat different:

• The Shield Booster will provide a large boost to shields every second for a short period of time.
• Damage Control works much like on the Katana, except the charge time is 30 seconds and the healing time is 15 seconds.
• The CM Swarm will launch a barrage of countermeasures to distract enemy torpedoes and missiles. This lasts for 10 seconds.
• The MHD Overdrive will maxmize your afterburner ("MHD") meter once per second for 20 seconds. After this, there will be a cooldown of 5 seconds.

Walkthrough

After some dialogue, you will jump to the asteroid. There you will find the Reverend's destroyer, the Morena MacDuff, 2 Ancamna-class cruisers, and several sentry guns on the approaches to the habitat.

There are two options for completing the mission successfully:

1. Clear the way for the Andex to board the habitat by destroying all of the Gef ships and turrets orbiting the asteroid, or
2. Enter and destroy the asteroid.

Capture Option

The clock is ticking, so start moving toward your targets; an MHD boost right at the start should get you close enough to start sniping at the destroyer's weapons with your gauss cannon. Eventually, the destroyer will open up with her torpedoes; wait for them to close to about 2000m, then deploy countermeasures.

After the destroyer's first salvo, a wing of Scimitar fighters (Aquarius), led by Ivan Gwilym, will converge on you. Let your Point Defense Turrets do the work and switch to Darts in the missile launcher. When the fighters are destroyed, switch back to your Warhammers and concentrate fire on the destroyer and the two cruisers. Try not to get to close to the cruisers; their turrets will eat you for breakfast.

The destroyer is heavily armored, and will not take much damage; after you hit it enough, your tactical officer finds that the overworked Orion reactor at the heart of the destroyer is lightly armored. Target the reactor casings with your subsystem targeting and start pounding away. When the reactor is sufficiently exposed, hit it with your gauss cannon a few times and watch the MacDuff go boom (from a safe distance, of course; it is a destroyer). You may have to reposition in order to hit it effectively.

At some point after you kill Aquarius wing, Sergei Gwilym will show up with a few escorts and a wing of Medusa bombers (Leo). Do what you did before; switch the missile launcher to Darts, get some distance, and launch countermeasures. Eventually, Sergei will die, sputtering and flaming as his ship blows up. Ah, fun times.

The ideal conditions for deploying the Andex are when you have destroyed all of the Gef capships and fighters, with at least five minutes remaining on the clock; they take between four and five minutes to land and breach the colony. While they're on approach, take out the sentry guns surrounding the colony towers. As they get closer, safe your missile launchers and PDTs so you don't accidentally engage the Andex and destroy her.

After the sentry guns are down, stand by and let your Marines dock and they will do the rest of the work. Close call or not, you can breathe a sigh of relief and warp out.

Destruction Option

Not long after you enter the asteroid system, a nav buoy will be added to your escort list marking the entry point into the asteroid. Aim for it and pour on the speed; don't worry about engaging the capital ships. When you get inside, you find a subspace gate built right into the asteroid, the reactor for the subspace gate, and an Oculus-class AWACS as lookout (and boy, one can wonder how they got their hands on one of those).

Your target is the reactor. Use your missile and gauss cannons to destroy it while your PDTs handle the spacesuits that will get launched at you in a desperate move to stop you. Eventually you will get an exit point nav buoy added to your escort list; start moving toward that while you attack the reactor.

Once you kill the reactor -- which starts happening around 10% or less -- run. You need to get at least 5000 meters away from the asteroid before it detonates completely. Use your MHD Overdrive and put the hammer down on the afterburner key to clear the area. Once you do so, you can watch the fireworks. Be aware of the Morena MacDuff, however; she will stay behind to kill you while the cruisers jump out. You can take her out (see the capture option for how) or jump out, your call. Either way, the asteroid is now a mass grave. Congratulations, you saved humanity. You monster.

Notes

• This plan probably explains why Kostadin Cell attacked the UEFr Nauticus, as she was carrying n-space oscillators needed to make subspace drives.

Total number of forces

Forces involved
Belligerents
UEF	Gaian Effort	GTVA
Ships
1 UEC Custos-X Vindicator 1 UET Corsair Andex (&)	Morena MacDuff 2 GEC Ancamna Ancamna (2) (*) 1 UEA Oculus Gaian Effort Oculus
Strikecraft
	3 Scimitar Aquarius 1 Ivan Gwilym Aquarius 2 Aquarius 3 3 GTB Medusa Leo (3) (&) 1 GTF Ulysses Sergei Gwilym (&)	8 GTF Pegasus Auriga (4) (&) Borealis (4) (&)
Casualties
0-1 UET Corsair Andex (&)	Morena MacDuff (#) 0-2 GEC Ancamna Ancamna (2) (*) 0-3 Scimitar Aquarius 1 Ivan Gwilym Aquarius 2 Aquarius 3 0-3 GTB Medusa Leo (3) (&) 0-1 GTF Ulysses Sergei Gwilym (&)	0-8 GTF Pegasus Auriga (4) (&) Borealis (4) (&)

(*) Appears only if you let the Gef pilots go free in Nothing Is True
(&) Appearance dependent on mission conditions
(#) May be killed off screen