Proving Grounds

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ACT 2, MISSION 3

Fighter squadron: 134th Barracudas

Description: The 134th evaluates the capabilities of the new GTF Pegasus.

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Background

The 134th will test the new Pegasus-class stealth fighter. Alpha wing will protect the GTC Oberon, a decommissioned Fenris cruiser, using conventional fighters, while Delta wing, flying the Pegasus, attacks. Engineers on board the GTD Aquitaine will monitor the exercise and gather test data as the evaluation is carried out.

Walkthrough

You have to test the new Pegasus-class stealth fighter in this mission. You will be flying against Delta wing, who will be flying the stealth fighters. For the duration of the exercise, all fighters are invulnerable (or, as Command puts it, "Your weapons will be switched to training mode for this exercise."), so don't worry about accidentally killing anyone. If you equip one primary bank with the GTW Morning Star, you stand a good chance of decently defending the Oberon on Medium difficulty or easier for two minutes.

When the two minutes have passed, and Command is about to begin the second test, a wing of Nahemas are detected jumping in, so the exercise is aborted. As Delta wing departs and your weapons are re-armed (hence removing invulnerability), the Shivan bombers attack the Oberon and Aquitaine. The Oberon is likely to get destroyed by the Shivans no matter what you do, and its loss will not affect your performance for this mission. Destroy that wing as quickly as possible and then fly back to the Aquitaine. A wing of Nephilim-class bombers will jump in shortly after, so engage and destroy them. At this point, Commands announces the arrival of the Tiamat, a Moloch-class corvette. If you want to have any chance of destroying the corvette, fly close to it so that the Aquitaine can hit it with its beams. Take out its beam turrets and if you are planning on pounding it with Tempests or Hornets, destroy the flak guns as well.

On lower difficulty settings, the Aquitaine won't do enough damage to the Moloch to destroy it. The solution to this problem is to either equip a bank of GTM EMP Adv. or play this mission on Medium difficulty or higher. On the other hand, the Oberon is extremely difficult to defend from Delta wing on Hard or Insane difficulty.

Objectives

• Primary Objectives:
  • Escort the Aquitaine to the jump node
• Secondary Objectives:
  • Destroy the Tiamat
  • Destroy Shivan fighters and bombers
  • Protect the Oberon for 2 minutes

Medals

You will obtain an Order of Galatea for keeping the Aquitaine above 50% Hull Integrity.

Tips

• An interesting way to defend the Oberon is to load one of your secondary banks with EMP missiles and fire a salvo of them at the Oberon every time Delta wing attacks the cruiser. Your HUD will mess up momentarily, but Delta will be far worse off. Eventually they will get annoyed and start shooting at you, but since you are marked invulnerable for the duration of the exercise, you will come out unscathed. Be warned, however, that this tactic may also cause them to open fire on the non-invulnerable Aquitaine on occasion.
• Despite its low damage values, the EMP Adv. also has the "big damage" weapon flag, so it does its tabled damage rates against ships with the "huge" flag, such as the Moloch corvette. As none of your other available weapons have the "big damage", their damage done to the Tiamat will decrease as hull integrity approaches critical, until they do absolutely no damage whatsoever. This means the EMP Adv. is the only weapon you can use that can outright destroy the Tiamat without the Aquitaine's assistance.

Notes

• The mission goal text for the "Protect Aquitaine" objective is titled "Protect Orion".
• The Aquitaine must warp out with at least 50% hull integrity for the Order of Galatea medal to be awarded.

Notable ships present

• GTD Aquitaine
• GTC Oberon
• SCv Tiamat

Technical information

Proving Grounds
File name:	SM2-03.fs2
File size:	60.2 KB
Author:	Brad Johnson
Total number of objects:	33 (+2 waypoints)
Total number of wings:	9
Number of mission events:	60
Number of messages:	33
Event music:	3: Leviticus
Briefing music:	Brief3