Deals in Shadows
| The following information has not been confirmed by Volition and is therefore not canon for the FreeSpace universe. |
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MISSION 13
ACT 2, MISSION 06
Fighter squadron: Not given.
Description: Simms and Laporte help the White Guard escort a Federation Elder to secret negotiations with the Vasudans.
Background
Simms and Laporte have joined up with two Knights of the White Guard -- Sir Andrej Leatt and Sir Rishi Razali -- to escort the UET Reshadiye, carrying Elder Lin Taudigani, to secret negotiations with Admiral Recamai of the Vasudan Medjai. The ships jumped out, arriving at their destination -- Eris Station, a UEF installation abandoned by the Jovians early in the war. And the Vasudans are late.
Walkthrough
You arrive in the vicinity of Eris Station, and the Vasudans are nowhere in sight. There is about a minute of dialogue here, and then an unauthorized transmission is detected from the Reshadiye. Not long after, the local intrasystem gate goes into shutdown, a pocket nuke goes off in the transport's engine room, and the comm bands are blanketed with jamming.
And then two wings of Gef Scimitars show up. This is your cue; start taking them out. Prioritize Sagittarius wing, as they're loaded with Warhammer torpedos. If any fighters from Pisces try to follow you, the speed of the Kent will give you time to destroy Sagittarius entirely before destroying your pursuers. Splash Sagittarius, destroy warheads, and mop up Pisces; between you and the White Guard, they won't last long.
After the bandits are splashed, there's a minute or so of dialogue, and then an unidentified hostile blip appears in your radar. Put power to engines and burn over to it. 8 klicks later you'll see a GTVA AWACS vessel, the Spectre; however, it will jump out as soon as it enters your weapons range. Double-time it back to the Reshadiye, where the UET Erin and Templar wing will show up to retrieve the Elder and take them to a secondary negotiation site. The Elder's shuttle is launched, and there is some more dialogue between you and the Elder. In the midst of that, Sir Andrej will broadcast a warning about stealth fighters...right before 6 Pegasi, armed with Maxim cannons, utterly disintegrate the Elder's shuttle -- and, incidentally, the Elder. The Pegs will try for some more kills for another 30 seconds or so, then jump out. There's nothing you can do to save the Elder's shuttle; there are 6 of them, they fire from maximum range, and they're invisible to radar. So don't feel bad.
More dialogue follows, mostly people reeling and Laporte raging at the Tevs. Then Admiral Recamai shows up...in the Shepseskaf. Most unusual. Dialogue follows, then Gef Scimitars, led by Sergei Gwilym, show up to attack the ship "for the Buntu". The Shepseskaf fires up her secondary drive and jumps out. The Gefs, meanwhile, turn their attention to you. Sir Andrej you to jump out and take the evidence of the incident back to Command. You can stay and fight, but there's a huge gauntlet of them, and there are no checkpoints in the mission; if you die, you will have to restart the entire mission again.
Notes
- This mission has a fairly extensive Gaian Effort gauntlet -- part of a hidden primary objective -- after you are told to "Jump out Immediately."
- The Elder's shuttle seems to be modeled on the GTA's Hermes-class escape pod. Why an Elder would be transported in that is beyond the scope of this article.
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