Apocalypse

Previous Mission	Campaign Walkthrough

This article is about the mission from the main campaign. For the weapon from Blue Planet, see Apocalypse (torpedo).

ACT 3, MISSION 10

Fighter squadron: 70th Blue Lions

Description: The 70th Blue Lions are now assigned to defend the last transports fleeing Capella.

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Background

With the collapse of the Epsilon Pegasi-Capella jump node, the 70th Blue Lions are now assigned to defend the last three convoys of transports fleeing Capella through the Vega jump node.

Walkthrough

There are two ways to beat this mission:

1. Jump out right away. The sole mission goal becomes true when Alpha 1 departs. You will get no mission debrief ("no debriefing available for mission sm3-10"), although the campaign will be officially over (you cannot go into the ready room and continue the campaign);
2. Be a man and fight.

In this mission, you have to protect as many ships as possible. Alternatively, you can sit inside the node until Command says there is a supernova. If you want to play it the way the mission was designed, you will be facing multiple wings of Shivan fighters and bombers, along with the SC Thanatos, a Rakshasa-class cruiser, and the Cain-class cruisers Bane and Melchom. On the Alliance's end, you have half of Gamma wing, the surviving members of Alpha and Beta wings, and Theta wing (consisting of four GVF Serapis fighters) under your command. Furthermore, the surviving Aeolus cruisers from the previous mission will be present, and each convoy will arrive on the scene with their own complement of escort cruisers. To add to this, the Lemnos, a Deimos-class corvette, guards the Vega node and actively engages the Thanatos.

Note that this is a Red Alert scenario, so your loadout for the previous mission, Clash of the Titans II, will carry over. A loadout that you can try in the previous mission is a GTF Perseus armed with the GTW UD-8 Kayser and GTM Trebuchet. The Perseus' speed and agility will allow you to take out bombers quickly and get you to the Vega node as quickly as possible.

By default (see the Supernova note below), the Capella sun goes supernova at about 11 minutes and 50 seconds, so just like Into the Lions' Den, you have to keep track of the mission timer if you want to escape the supernova. Interplay's recommendation is to drop everything and make your way to the Vega node at 11 minutes. If you stray for more than ten seconds, you may not be able to make it.

Objectives

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

• Primary Objectives:
  • Provide fighter cover for convoys evacuating Capella

Notable ships present

• GTCv Lemnos
• SC Thanatos
• SC Bane
• SC Melchom

Notes

Containers

There are some unscanned containers in the second wave. Just hit the "U" button when the second convoy arrives. There's hidden stuff like "Dravis' Diary" you can scan on those cargoes (these are easter eggs for Volition's next game, Summoner).

Supernova

The Capella sun goes supernova in this mission. The supernova itself is shown towards the end of the mission and in the ending cutscene. From a FREDding perspective, the supernova is triggered by all of the following conditions:

1. 21 seconds after the departure or destruction of both the PVFr Resheph and PVFr Sesmu;
2. the arrival of Libra wing; and
3. after 710 seconds, or 11 minutes and 50 seconds, of mission time.

Libra wing is scripted to jump in 5 seconds after the destruction of either the SC Bane or SC Melchom. Hence, if both Shivan cruisers are disabled for the entire mission, rather than destroyed, Libra wing will never jump in, and the supernova will not occur.

Timing

If the GTM Herophilus survives, it will jump out at nearly the last possible second before the supernova hits it. It can be a good way to time your approach to the node, rather than calculating from the mission clock.

Scoring

The SC Thanatos has a value of 10,000 points, so be sure to get the kill for it. You won't hear about it in the debriefing, but it may be just enough to get you promoted one last rank.

The reason for this is probably due to the fact that in retail FRED, score values did not change when the ship class was changed. Volition probably added a Sathanas and then later changed it to a Rakshasa.

FREDding Oversights

All 3 of the Aeolus cruisers from the previous mission are set to appear in this level if they survive the previous mission, but have a destroy-before-mission stat set upon them. Only the Malta has the appropriate SEXP on it that prevents the destroy-before-mission stat from being true.

Every non-fighter (except for the Deimos corvette) in this mission gives off a message from Command when they depart in the node, even if they don't normally make it in an unmodified mission. Through delaying the supernova (see above), it is possible for them to make it.

Technical information

Apocalypse
File name:	sm3-10.fs2
File size:	99.3 KB
Author:	James Agay
Total number of objects:	86 (+8 waypoints)
Total number of wings:	11
Number of mission events:	51
Number of messages:	37
Event music:	2: Exodus
Briefing music:	None1

Notes

¹Brief1 is set in FRED, but this is a red-alert mission.