Hopefully, the briefing for the mission should be enough to get a person started, but I thought, since it may take me awhile to get the next few missions finished, that some introductory material would be appropriate.

Basic Background

This mission takes place only a few weeks after the end of the First Vasudan War campaign, with the poor GTA stranded in the Sol system due to the Lucifer's messy death in subspace. The GTA then receives a transmission from one of the larger fragments of the now-disintegrating Vasudan empire, a tranmission that offers hope that subspace can be re-opened. Plans are transmitted which allow the GTA scientists to fill specially prepared cargo boxes with this new gate technology, and plans are made for a rendezvous with special Vasudan ships that can power these new cargo boxes.

There is one static-filled tranmission indicating that the Shivans are in pursuit of the small Vasudan fleet, and to be ready, since once the Vasudans jump into the Sol system, there is no way back out for them, either, except with a functioning gate.

Plans

I have the basic layout for a 20-25 mission campaign done, with basic plot elements, etc. I would like to do more work on this, but of course it depends upon response and the time I have available (class + work).

I hope to add sound, if I can figure out what might be the problem with my poor sound card (besides age and shabby treatment).

Feel free to comment about the mission to me, or drop me a note about bug fixes: rcrocomb@asu.edu. I experienced no crashes in two dozen full play-throughs after my debugging. I am worried, though, that the mission may be a bit hard on less-powerful CPUs. I experienced small periods of slowness on a Celeron @ 266/66, but my K6's power supply crapped out, so no go there. Other missions should be less strenuous.

Final Thoughts

I think the mission is mildly challenging, if you just play to complete the primary and secondary objectives, and somewhat more challenging if you go for the bonus objectives. I am interested in feedback on the level of difficulty, because I'm not sure how hard it is objectively.

That is all. Fight well.

Robert "Merlin" Crocombe
rcrocomb@asu.edu