The Great Hunt (Inferno)
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ACT 3 - MISSION 41
Fighter squadron: 74th Templars
Description: Fly the Jotun superbomber to disable and destroy a Lucifer.
Location: De Vass and Jericho, Delta Serpentis
Background
The attempts to hunt down the two Lucifer superdestroyers with capital ships has failed - the Lucifer-class is just more maneuverable in subspace than its GTVA counterparts. The Allies are now trying a different tack: disable the Lucifers with bombers and artillery cruisers, then call in the big guns to finish the job.
Walkthrough
In this mission you fly the Jotun superbomber, which has a cloaking device, a SMARTBOMB defensive pellet launcher, and a CRUISE device, which dramatically increases your speed at the expense of maneuverability and disabling your weapons. When not using the CRUISE device, the Jotun is slow and incredibly unmaneuverable. The Jotun also allows you to swap the first missile bank your choice of missiles and the TAG-C. Alpha 2, 3, and 4 are flying GTB Surt stealth bombers, Beta and Gamma wings are flying escort in GTF Alves fighters, and Crux wing is flying EAF Kestros interceptors.
The plan goes wrong from the start: as soon as you arrive, the Lucifer pair split up, and two of their escort corvettes and some fighters stay behind to fight. This first stage of the mission is effectively a tutorial on how to use the Jotun bomber. The Jotun is like an even heavier version of the Ursa. Rely on SPELLS when enemy fighters get close - use SMARTBOMB to destroy the enemies or the cloaking device to evade it.
Destroying the corvettes with Executioners should be straightforward, provided you play it like a Freespace 2 bombing missions in an Ursa. Once the corvettes are destroyed, rearm - Command has gotten a trace on the SSD Agrat, and it's heading straight for Jericho, which you defended last in The Walls of Jericho.
Once you arrive at Jericho, Karpinsky uses ETAK on the Agrat so it doesn't flee - and instead it lowers its shields and decides to bombard the planet from orbit. Now you're in a race against time to disable it before the Lucifer inflicts too much damage on the planet. Ignore the Shivan fighters and let your escorts handle them.
Use your CRUISE to get super close to the Agrat and use double-fired Executioners to disable its engines. The Agrat has two engines: one at the very back of the ship, and one engine at the bottom. If you get very close to the Agrat, you're mostly safe from its anti-fighter guns. After the Agrat is disabled, go for the bombardment beam with HPAC and Executioner fire. Do not attack the bombardment beam until the engines are destroyed. If you take out the bombardment beam before you disable the engines, the Agrat begins to charge its subspace drive, and you're going to have a hard time disabling it before it escapes.
Once the bombardment beam and engines are destroyed, three destroyers (the Washington, Basileus and Ctesiphon) jump in and shred the Agrat with beam fire. You can either stand back and watch the fireworks or try to get a secondary objective by destroying the remaining Shivan cruisers.
Once all the Shivans are destroyed, return to base.
Notes
- If the Agrat fires at the planet seven times or less, you unlock the GTF Keres superfighter.