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The Recipe

Eliminate Fighters

After numerous cut screens, you'll finally arrive at the outpost to a raucous welcome courtesy of the Coalition. Destroy all the fighters first. Your work will be interrupted by the failure of Gamma to destroy the outpost and your own commander's attempts to get you to start work on the outpost's laser turrets. IGNORE THIS! CONCENTRATE ON THE FIGHTERS! If the ion cannon locks on, cloak immediately to break the lock!

To easily get rid of the Basilisks that torment you by cloaking in and out, use the Shroud's cloaking ability and let them have a taste of their own medicine. Once you cloak, they'll uncloak and start flying in a manner befitting the term 'sitting duck'. Line up with primary weapons and let loose. Nothing compares to the satisfaction of a Basilisk pilot's death throes.

Destroy the Krugens

Once you get rid of the fighters, even those which are far away and being entertained by your squadron mates, you should focus on destroying the two Krugens. You can enlist the help of your squadron mates by pressing F5 multiple times. The more times you press, the more mates you can rouse from their AI slumber.

Care should be exercised when tangling with them though as they fly close to the Yamato and the outpost and a hit from flak guns of either party will mean instant death.

Get the turrets

With the Krugens out of the way, it is time to eliminate the laser turrets on the outpost. It helps to cloak on the approach to maintain the element of surprise. And reduce the number of hits from the turrets.

Hug the surface of the outpost and destroy the turrets, clicking on the sub-target key to scroll through the turrets. Once a number of turrets have been destroyed, your commander requests Alpha 5 to scan the outpost for any vulnerabilities. Alpha 5 raises the attention of a cracked outer shell and a flight of Rippers carrying explosives jumps in. Protect these Rippers at all cost! You'll need 4 of them to successfully unload their payload and destroy the crack. 

Protect the Rippers

Your target indicator will immediately show a squadron of Sabres. Cloak and afterburn to them. You'll see them flying in formation on an intercept towards the Rippers. Now, sneak up behind them and let loose with your Solomons. Follow up on the survivors with primary weapons.

More flights of enemy fighters will jump in. Afterburn towards them and destroy them using the same cloaked manner you employed against the Sabres. Saving some Solomons for this purpose will help.

Keep a close watch on the Rippers and destroy the fighters who harass them. It helps to employ the cloak and strike technique as it makes dispatching them so much easier. Keep an eye on the cloak energy indicator though as you need some reserve to avoid the attention of the ion cannon.

Now, command will request you to detonate the explosives. Fly to the explosives and keep a respectable distance. Do not go to close or you'll get a rude shock when they blow up in your face. Not let loose with the primaries.

Prevent Kulov from escaping

The ensuing explosion destroys the ion cannon, but a section of the outpost breaks off and attempts to jump out.  Fly to the shield generator and wait for Klaus Steiner to ram it with his ship. This exposes the core. Aim at the core from a distance of at least 70k and fire the Raptors. They'll home in on the exposed energy source. Follow up with your primaries for good measure.

Protect Steiner and scalp Ivan's hide

The warp ship explodes, taking Kulov along with it. This raises the ire of the Black Guards, commandeered by Ivan Petrov. He'll dove straight for Steiner's escape pod. Scroll through your list of targets and lock onto Petrov's ship. Do not let him out of your sight. Cloak and sneak up as he goes for Steiner. Open fire from 30K and do not let up until his ship blows up. Destroy his wingman as well as any other stragglers. Once this is done, sit back and enjoy the cut screens. 

Now that wasn't too hard, was it?

3 December 2000