Mission 03 - Bear Rock

### Aftermath

Decisive Federation Victory* Surrender of Salamon Zamor and remaining present Black Swan.
* Black Swan threat in Caribou System neutralized.

## Belligerents

* United Federation

* Black Swan

## Commanders

* Benjamin Colburne

* Salamon Zamor

## Forces

* Orca Corvettes.
* Pasteur-class support vessel.
* Recovered Trinity-class frigate.
* UFN Trinity.

* Looted Hurricanes, Orcas, Gunboats and modified Icarii.
* Bear Rock automated defenses, including Barricade Sats.
* Khan-class Battleship *Black Caesar*.

## Objectives

* Reach and occupy the Bear Rock asteroid base.
* Aprehend or eliminate all defending enemy forces.

* Defend the Bear Rock asteroid base.

## Casualties and losses

Minimal
Substantial

## Involved Characters

* Benjamin Colburne
* Greg Leskovski
* Vera Vargas
* Salamon Zamor

*Bear Rock* (titled after the asteroid base of the same name) is the third mission in Chapter 01 - Hostile Visitors in the Five Nations campaign.

## Setting

Following the reclamation of the UX22A and 22B facilities from the Black Swan, Vera Vargas is summoned by Benjamin Colburne and Greg Leskovski and inquired on the true nature of Unicorp's facilities and activities in the system, with Colburne pointing out that the Black Swan isn't merely a pirate group which loots resources and Leskovski pointing out that the Fusion Reactors and KEIKO Sentry Pods previously guarding the site were advanced military technology, developed by the Federation's top secret research organization, the EIRA Institute, making it very suspicious to the 'planted in the middle of nowhere'.  Vargas replied by claiming she had no clues concerning the Black Swan's intents, citing her predecessor Edvin McClain's close-to-the-chest policy regarding UX22's true nature, but was still willing to cooperate with Colburne and Leskovski by delivering full access to Unicorp's waybills and cargo lists.

However, the UFN Trinity's onboard AIDA interrupted the inquiry, having intercepted an encrypted Black Swan transmission.  The transmission was from a Black Swan commander, Salamon Zamor, recalling all Black Swan vessels to a rendezvous point, in an asteroid base codenamed Bear Rock.  Leskovski readily pointed the transmission as bait for a trap, citing the poor state of the encryption.  While agreeing, Colburne still decided to take the bait, looking for answers, taking a small force to investigate the coordinates where the transmission was sent.  Colburne ordered Leskovski to remain behind with Vera and the remaining forces to guard the UX22 complex, anticipating the trap might also be a ruse to lure away Colburne and his escort from the facility, and ordered AIDA to investigate Unicorp's waybills and cargo lists, filtering out any suspicious items.

## Deep in the Asteroid Field

Arriving with his escorts into the asteroid field, Colburne was reported by AIDA that they've lost all communications with UX22 due to the radiations from the nearby gas giant Eridu.  Regardless, Colburne's fleet advanced carefully, fighting from maximum range of their weapons' systems and using the repair abilities of the Pasteur support vessel they took with them.  Along the way they met a substantial amount of Black Swan forces as well as some abandoned Orca vessels, a Trinity frigate and even a Pasteur vessel that Colburne's group commandeered, taking them along with the strike force.

In a certain point of the asteroid field, past a stellar cloud field, Colburne is contacted by Zamor, which attempts to make an offer to Colburne, demanding the travel plans for an Icarus cargo ship codenamed Daedalus, which possessed some mysterious material found by Unicorp at UX22B.  Colburne, however, shunned Zamor's offer and pressed on the advance, informing Zamor was in no condition to negotiate.  Amidst the way, AIDA investigated the Daedalus on Colburne's instructions, discovering that the Daedalus cargo holds were mostly empty and, while it's destination was Earth, it instead headed to the uninhabited Thalassa sector, rather than towards the Federation's sole jump gate between Caribou and Sol systems, the Bifrost Gate.

As Colburne's attack force advanced into the asteroid, Zamor himself appeared aboard the Black Caesar - A Khan-class Battleship from the DEMA War - to attempt a final counterattack and take the information by force.  However, Colburne's fleet strategy proved superior, and thus overpowered the Black Caesar, on which Zamor rapidly contacted Colburne and requested to surrender, in exchange for the lives of the remaining Black Swan members.

As Zamor and his crewmembers were imprisoned, the Trinity's AIDA received a weak transmission from the UX22 that managed to break through the glass cloud.  In it, Leskovski informed Colburne that all of the 12th Fleet (Colburne and Leskovski included) were being recalled by Admiral Sterling Buckner to help protect the Bifrost Gate, as Point Custer was under attack from unknown invaders...

## Walkthrough

The player starts in command of the UFN Trinity, a group of Orcas and a Pasteur support vessel.  It's definitely recommended (and even a Steam achievement) that the Pasteur is protected by all means from a fatal fate, as it's the player's sole source of repairs and cannot replace any losses.  The player's direction is to the northwest, always taking the Trinity and Orcas ahead, with the Pasteur following shortly after, where the player will come across a crossing.  Besides further ahead to the northwest, which continues the mission, to the southeast is a small blockade of a few Hurricanes and a Barricade Sat, which the player can destroy and venture further to rescue a couple of abandoned Orcas, and to the northeast is a small group of Hurricanes and Gunboats just waiting to attack the player's forces at the rear by the time the player tries going to the northwest first.  Thus, it's better the player takes the initiative and strikes first, using the Trinity's Flechette missile to maximum effect.

Further northwest the player will encounter additional defenders, firstly some Gunboats and then a pair of Barricade Sats which, with proper micromanagement (especially retreating badly wounded Orcas to the back), can be dealt with easily.  The player will come across a stellar cloud field to the north of a small group consisting of a modified Icarus and some Gunboats, which leads to a Black Swan outpost with defenses and an attack group of Hurricanes and Gunboats that also must be attacked and dealt with, else it'll attack the player's group at the back while traversing the stellar cloud to the east.

Past the eastern stellar cloud, which the player will identify by a small Tachyon asteroid field, is another group of Gunboats and an Orca, which then to the north will encounter the pair of Barricade Sats guarding the Bear Rock asteroid base.  However, instead of directly attacking, the player should instead take the Trinity and Orcas to the east where they'll come across some small asteroids, which can be destroyed to then rescue the abandoned Trinity frigate and Pasteur available there.  From there, the player will soon be attacked by advancing Orcas and Gunboats from the Bear Rock entrance, which can then be repelled, and the player can charge forward and destroy the Barricade Sats.

As the Barricade Sats are attacked, the Black Caesar will move in and strike.  Immediately the player should have the Trinity (Colburne's) forward to block incoming fire with it's shields, as it's Barbette Cannons are definitely devastating against Hull and will destroy the Orcas, the Trinity frigate and the Pasteurs in seconds.  If the player has enough Power at the UFN Trinity, then the EMP burst should be definitely used at the Black Ceasar and all units ordered to attack the battleship non-stop.

When the player manages to cause enough damage to the Black Caesar (making it unnecessary to destroy it), it will then surrender and the mission is finished in victory.