The Aeos Affair

General Info

Author: Derek "PickelHead" Pickering
Missions: 10
Mods included: None

Story

Long ago, the Ancients built an outpost here on this icy world. A maze of tunnels and chambers have been mined into the ice and rock. Not much is left except for blasted artifacts and frozen debris. We came here looking for answers that might help us survive this war. After some time, a small outpost of our own developed; Aeos Base. We have a goldmine here, but it will take years to discover what secrets are held by this cold rubble.

Elsewhere, the war is going well. The NTF has been defeated. The Shivans are threatening Capella, but the Colossus is on station there. There are rumors of a massive Shivan invasion force looming beyond GTVA system, but rumors are a dime a dozen in this place. Altair is about as far away from the front lines of the war as you can get. We have no significant military presence here. All of our fighting ships are on the front or elsewhere where they are needed more. We have only a token force of patrol fighters and various civilian support ships. But that's alright with us. Nothing ever happens out here. We expect to continue our work here in peace.

Not much is out this far. Only a jump node to unexplored territory is of any additional interest in this system. It's a perfect setting for a surprise Shivan incursion. Nobody would know they were here until it was too late. Who would suspect the Shivans to establish a foothold on the far side of the galaxy, leapfrogging us entirely?

But we were here. We were too close for comfort for the Shivans. A GTVA base in this system could not be tolerated. The Shivans know that in order to keep their presence a secret they must not allow us to escape. We have monitored a fleet of vessels taking up encircling positions around our base. They have cut us off from all help or rescue. We thought we were safe from bombardment within our warren, but the Shivans have launched what we can only assume are troop transports for a planetary assault. They will be coming for us soon...

We don't have the men, weapons or equipment to fight a war out here. All our resources are tied up on the front lines on the other side of the galaxy. How can we hopeto fight off an entire invasion with a handful of garrison fighters? We are lost...Unless a miracle occurs.

From the campaign website:
This is a series of ten missions based on the 5 star mission "Exodus of Force".

No Mods! Everyone can use it! However, it includes new tech like:

Minelayers

Artificial jump gates (NOT a Knossos)

New AI behaviors

Many other surprises…

These missions were designed to be much more difficult than standard Freespace 2 missions. These missions are meant to be hard, but not impossible.

These missions were created to challenge elite players. The recommended difficulty setting is "Easy". Crazy people with suicidal tendencies may attempt the missions at higher levels, but be advised that your chances are slim. Note that all of the missions have been tested and all are winnable. On the "Very Easy" level, all objectives of all missions can be completed. Are you good enough?

Player comments

This is generally considered one of the hardest campaigns released for FreeSpace. Although only ten missions long, it is meant to be difficult enough to take more than just a weekend to complete. It has a decent storyline and interesting missions. This is a relatively BoE-ish campaign, and you can earn plenty of capital ship kills.

However, anyone who has completed the main FS2 campaign on Insane should have the common sense to complete this one easily. The winning strategy is to kill all enemy fighters with Trebuchet, then have your wingmen (loaded as bombers) dogpile onto each enemy capital ship. However, players who are used to playing on the lower difficulty levels will likely be frustrated, as this campaign requires competent use of your wingmen more than anything else.