Mission 1
Mission 2 Briefing
It's been eerily silent for almost thirty minutes now, the sky black but for distant stars while you've traveled through empty space. Your CASKET is attached to the side of one of the dropships, and you silently watch as it warps you towards the Sedirmar Dust Cloud. It starts out as a tiny, bluish mote in the distance, dwarfed before the massive blue star nearby. It then slowly grows, and grows, until it fills your vision - and then it envelops you entirely, with bright blue swirls of dust and darkened asteroids passing by your window. As your pilot begins making gentle adjustments to avoid hitting the rocky, slumbering giants, you realize you've greatly lost velocity: you're dropping out of warp.
And then, as if on cue, SCAMPS speaks up.
All right, SCAMPS here. We've arrived. Six squads and a grand total of 30 convicts - well, if Man-goat-thing even counts. Your dropships are a few thousand kilometers out at this point, and dropping out of warp. I figured you might want me to tell you hello. I know you all missed me. ...assholes. The less retarded individuals among you probably want an update on the situation, which is well deserved. So, here you go.
One of the computer screens in front of you flashes for a moment, and then displays an image backed with an environment very similar to the one you now see out your window.
I have good news, rather than bad, which is a bizarre change, I know. And the good news is - I don't have as much bad news as usual! ...yes, I'm cruel, so fukc you. First, as we expected they might, they've shifted their location to an open area of the cloud. They're lined up single-file, with the carrier at the front and the destroyer at the back. Good old turkey shooting, right? Wrong. They're making the repairs twice as fast as we anticipated, and they'll have them done within fifteen minutes unless you send a squad in to bomb the engines. And it won't be easy, either. They really want that Dark Space artifact.
There are, as of right now, two Shieldmaiden-class corvettes protecting the science vessel, jointly covering it with a force field. You'll have to take them both out before you can even think about approaching the science vessel's hangar. Even then, they've lowered the fire doors in front of the side hangar. However you get them open is up to you, but you'll need to watch out for the ten TAVs Mimir has protecting the Shieldmaidens. Analysis suggests they have a full HAMMER squad out there - Mimir's version of a REKT platoon. That means 40 or so inmates specifically tasked with defending the convoy. They'll be better equipped than you. They'll be more skilled than you. In fact, the only thing we have going in our favor is that they're not all out there already.
This is it, then. Tell your dropship pilots where you want them to drop you off, and get yourselves in there. Remember you can keep in contact with me during the mission by asking for SCAMPS over the radio, and I'll help out if I can. Also try to remember that allies are friends. You're pretty much screwed without them. The veterans here can attest to that. Remember the objective!: Don't kill our operative, and get that artifact out in one piece! Bombs away, gentlemen. Best of luck to all of you, and if you get killed, it's your fault, not mine.
With that, SCAMPS goes silent, and the dropship pilot speaks up for the first time since you left the Tartarus. "All right, gang, this is your pilot speaking. What'll it be? Where do you want me to put your squad? I can drop you in nice and slow, at max CASKET speed, or throw you in there even faster if you don't mind having to slow down. Play nice, remember, because I'm not actually required to listen to any one of you." He allows this last sentence to hang in the air for a moment as a clear warning, and then adds, "Oh, and make it quick, because we only have about a minute until we arrive."
MISSION 2: SEDIRMAR CONVOY