Mission 05 - Convoys to Salvation

## 05 - Convoys to Salvation

Colburne's forces set up and activate the Bifrost Gate.

## Belligerents

* 12th Fleet Remnants

* Unknown Invaders

## Commanders

* Benjamin Colburne

* Unknown Praetor

## Forces

* Point Custer defenses, including KEIKO Sentries and Barricade Sats.
* Relief force, including Hurricane Fighters, Orca Corvettes and Hailstorm Frigates.
* Pasteur-class support vessels and Kutuzov Command Ships.
* Cormoran civilian carriers and escorts.
* UFN Trinity and UFN Ulysses.

* Basic Drone vessels, including Spears and Twinblades.
* Assault Drones including Glooms, Shades and Arsons.
* Caldrons and Leech Mines.
* Automated defenses including Aegises and Pillboxes.

## Objectives

* Hold and protect the Bifrost Gate until evacuation is completed.
* Evacuate with the remainder of refugees.

* Eliminate all Human forces (including Bifrost Gate).
* Prevent total evacuation of Human forces *(accidentally achieved)*.

## Casualties and losses

Substantial
Severe

## Involved Characters

* Benjamin Colburne
* Greg Leskovski
* Vera Vargas

*Convoys to Salvation* is the fifth mission in Chapter 01 - Hostile Visitors in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

After the reclamation of Point Custer, Benjamin Colburne and Greg Leskovski wasted little time in ensuring the repairs to the power sources of the Bifrost Gate and securing the immediate area around it, which was already surrounded by two other major active complexes belonging to the unknown invaders whom destroyed the 12th Fleet. While it was initially believed by Leskovski this was but an inconvenience to deal with, given that when the alien attack forces arrived they'd be received by nuclear detonators by the time evacuation of Colburne's forces and Unicorp's employees was completed, the UFN Trinity's AIDA informed of four civilian convoys still on their way to Point Custer, which Vera Vargas concluded had to be from the Albumasar colony, the farthest colony in the sector, and would be destroyed if left behind. While Colburne was annoyed on this revelation - given he believed the evacuation of the Caribou System was practically completed when the colonies in Nova Terra were evacuated, and he wasn't aware of any colonies in Albumasar - he still decided to remain and hold the invaders off until the convoys arrived.

## Preparations and Setbacks

Colburne's forces started fortifying the defenses at Point Custer and preparing an attack force to secure the routes which the convoys of refugees, loaded into heavy Cormoran transports, would traverse through to the Bifrost Gate, a total of four according to AIDA. The routes themselves happened to be fortified and crawling with the stations and ships of the unknown invaders, including destructive magnetic mines with stealth technology. To counter this, Colburne relied to the deployment of Hailstorm attack Cruisers equipped with sophisticated sensor systems as his forces cleared the path for the convoys. To further assist with the operation, Colburne handed over command of the UFN Trinity to Leskovski and assumed command of a Hailstorm frigate, the UFN Ulysses, which possessed a stockpile of Moored Mines at it's disposal, besides it's standard arsenal of ASR and Brimstone Missiles.

The unknown invaders that surrounded the Bifrost Gate, whose manufacturing complexes were activated, reacted to the clean-up efforts with a fierce counterattack, utilizing an array of weapons until then unknown to Colburne's forces, including heavier cruisers with potent energy artillery batteries, cruisers adapted with stealth technology, even when firing their weapons, and drone mobile platforms that could deploy to assemble and fire potent sub-atomic discharges across a straight path.

Further complications had arisen as Fusion Reactor B reported a malfunction, due to it's relays overheating from sped up particle acceleration, risking an overcharge. AIDA offered to half the speed of the nuclei fusion processes to reduce the risk of a meltdown, but the suggestion was immediately refused by both Colburne and Leskovski after learning this would increase the charging time of the Bifrost Gate to three days, rather than in a few minutes.

## Messy Evacuation

Eventually the first convoys arrived, with some few escorting ships and Icarus cargo ships besides the Cormorans, though they did not come alone, having been under the pursuit of the invaders, forcing Colburne to send groups to intervene and escort the convoys to the Gate, which was active and an Einstein-Rosen bridge to the Sol System was established, though an unreliable one due to the Reactor's malfunction. While the first two convoys came from specific directions, both last convoys had come at once, both under fire, spreading Colburne's forces thin amidst a chaotic battle.

The convoys arrived barely safe to the Gate and crossed through to Sol. However, at the same time Fusion Reactor B detonated and the Bifrost Gate became unstable, a fifth convoy was detected as well, still on it's way. AIDA informed the gate would collapse should an attempt to rescue it be made, but Colburne was adamant in rescuing them, to the point of ordering both Leskovski and Vera to evacuate with the remaining forces. Both refused to depart - Leskovski out of loyalty for Colburne and Vargas on the belief the members of the fifth convoy could be UniCorp employees, making it her responsibility to escort them safely.

Both the Ulysses, Trinity and a few of Colburne's forces became stranded as the gate shut down.

## Walkthrough

The player will already start at the command of a large base, but very few starting Engineer Shuttles. The player thus should build more Engineer Shuttles to mine the Metal and Helium-3 asteroids to be able to rapidly build a fleet of ships, especially as the player will be given 10 minutes before the first convoy arrives. The player will have enough supplies and Solar Stations to produce a reasonable enough energy output, so fielding workers and units should be the priority. A squadron of Hurricanes should be on stand by at the Metal asteroids, as the red Sylon base will attempt harassment with Spears, and a few units stationed at the northwestern and southern entrances to receive attack waves from both red and purple Sylon bases.

The player will also have command of two hero units, the UFN Trinity, now under Leskovski, and the UFN Ulysses under Colburne. The Ulysses, while as devoid of abilities as the Trinity is, is still a capable fighting ship and a detector, being a Hailstorm class ship, so it should be definitely taken in early engaments until further Hailstorm cruisers can be amassed. The Ulysses Moored Mines, though they won't see much utility, can be useful for fending off the enemy attack waves at the Northwest.

The ship of choice for this mission is the Hailstorm cruiser, as it possesses, aside from a strong hull and shield count, multiple attacks that pooled together are arguably stronger than the Orca. Plus, it's projectiles totally ignore obstacles, and it possesses detection, which is a much needed thing here, as the player will find numerous Leech Mines in the mission, as well as attacks from Glooms. Hailstorms require an Astro Telescope and researching it's upgrades are worth it, as they increase the vision and attack range of Hailstorms, allowing it to outrange Aegises and shoot down Leech Mines safely. Hailstorms cannot target fighters, however, hence Orcas are still necessary, if only for an escort duty.

The Sylons will also have a new unit in this mission, the Arson, which is particularly dangerous as it's attack causes splash damage along a straight line, and can devastate entire careless battlegroups. Orcas are a definite necessity here, especially in enough numbers (preferably five or six) to instantly shoot it down before it can deploy and unleash it's Nova Cannon. Else, to counter it, the best idea is to draw it's fire with a fast unit - the Hurricane with it's Whirlwind Thruster upgrade isn't a bad option here - and keep it moving as other attackers outflank it and gun it down.

The convoys will arrive at both the southwest and southeastern corners, and both their paths are riddled with defenses, especially Aegises and Leech Mines, so the player will need to amass a modest force of Hailstorms, Orcas and Pasteurs for repair duties to clear the paths, the first being the southeastern one, as the first convoy will come from there. The second convoy will come from the southwest. If any Cormorans are destroyed, the mission is failed.

After the second convoy passes through, the third convoy will arrive from the southwest, but then the fourth and final one will arrive from the southeast and bring with it a wave of Sylon Spears and Caldrons. The player must have a small force of Orcas and Hailstorms ready to intercept it, as Caldrons, while with an apparently weak attack, fire fast enough to cause serious damage over time. Another Sylon wave will come from the west, but will rather charge the base than intercept the southwestern Cormoran, so the player can handle this without much trouble.

Though the player can circumvent the purple Sylon base south, to the southwestern route, it's heavily recommended the player destroys this base to both minimize enemy attack waves and secure both routes at once. For this, the player should have a force of Hailstorms, Orcas and Pasteurs assembled and take the UFN Trinity along, using it's Flechette missile to strike at the front entrance and then pull back, using the Flechette again to damage Sylon units that group up. The guarding Arsons will also follow along due to the attack, and this will be ideal for the Orcas and Hailstorms to shoot them down. When the Arsons and most attackers are destroyed, the player can move in and demolish the base. If done fast enough, and using about the same strategy, the player can even demolish the red Sylon base to the northwest.

When the fourth Cormoran passes through the Bifrost Gate, the mission is won.

## Notes

By clicking allied Cormorans, the player can see a cargo priority list on them, akin to when selecting the Icarus. It's unknown if the Cormoran was meant to be a late game resource carrier or not.

### Known Bugs

The Offensive Server at the purple Sylon base, while it still can be targeted, will never be attacked by units, even with manual targeting.