The cutscene at the start of episode 5 shows a ship looking very much like the Vesuvius getting blown up by a large alien force.

Each of these episodes always seems to have a nice easy start with something of a warmup mission. This is no different as we head out in our Wasps to clear the immediate area. There is some chat about the aliens amassing their forces but then just sitting there and not attacking Sol.

Mission 2 is yet another patrol.

We are in Vampires for the first time in Secret Ops. If we had these all along why werent we using them? These appear to have their original weapons from WCP unlike every other ship I’ve flown in this game. We meet a few Barracudas in this mission but its nothing we can’t cope with.

Mission 3 looks a bit more interesting and has us flying out to defend the Luyten outpost from a capship.

I have to take out a load of capship missiles to keep the base alive. These things move pretty quick and I miss them first time around. The alien ship jumps off before it can be destroyed.

Mission 4 has us attempting to track down an alien convoy and destroy it.

This is the most transports I’ve ever seen in one place. The transports in Secret Ops are really good at shooting down torpedos so I have to close to point blank range to take them out.

In mission 5 we are hunting for the alien cruiser that escaped before.

It isn’t where we expect it and is having another go at the station.

We head over to the station and I have to take out a load more capship missiles again in what is almost a replay of the earlier mission. This time we have bombers to destroy the cruiser though.

The final mission has us clearing out the last remaining aliens on our way out of system.

There is a load of chatter at the start of the mission about the alien technology all being infected with some sort of flesh eating organism.

The battles in Secret Ops just keep getting bigger and bigger. This final mission has a whole fleet of us going up against a load of capships and fighters in the single largest battles I’ve ever seen in a Wing Commander game.

We clear out all these ships and its next stop Krieger.