This is the second and last mission pack for Wing Commander 2. It starts out with a new intro sequence recapping the capturing of Jazz from the end of WC2.

This then switches into a courtroom with another full speech scene. If you thought the acting in the original Wing Commander was bad believe me this is worse. The court is court-marshalling Jazz and finds him guilty.

Jazz chipes in about how history will judge him and history will be written by the Kilrathi.

We then cut to some other anonymous traitor discussing the Morningstar project with the Kilrathi.

The first mission starts with my leave being interupted to escort Jazz’s prison ship to his execution.

Before I get there the ship gets hijacked by traitors and in the ensuing battle escapes. The first thing to note is the game runs much more smoothly than any of its predecessors. The annoying autopilot lag has gone also. I can hike the speed up in Dosbox and it translates into smoother rather than faster gameplay so there were clearly some engine improvements in this pack.

Jazz escapes and sends me a personal message. He wasn’t really the best villain and I’m unconvinced it was worth bringing him back but he looks like he will be the baddie for this set of missions.

Amid rumours about a new confed fighter Maniac shows up for the first time since SM2. He’s now in charge of a test group called the Wild Eagles of pilots he has taught to fly like him. They are here to test out the new fighter called the Morningstar.

There are still problems with the morningstar jump drive and I have to go and rescue one of the pilots, Captain Grimaldi (Minx).  

We get a brief introduction after I rescue her.

I get my first look at the morningstar in the next mission, just watching Maniac test jump. It looks very much like a typical jet fighter.

Paladin shows up again with some news of the Mandarins leaking the morningstar details to the Kilrathi.

The Mandarins have a base called Ayers Rock which we are trying to track down.

I get introduced to the rest of the Wild Eagles. There is just Maniac, the guy above (whos name I forget!) who speaks Kilrathi, Minx & a maniac clone called Crossbones.

Next mission, there is a booby trap at the final nav point. I have to turn round and afterburn out to avoid being blown to bits.

While I was gone, the Mandarins broadcast some propaganda showing Jazz hijacking some freighters.

Everyone seems to blame me for letting Jazz go except for Minx who seizes the opportunity.

She does, however, leave Angel alone in space and the next mission I have to go and help her get back again.

A trade is set up with the Mandarins, 3 of their prisoners in return for the crews of the freighters. I fly escort for this mission.

While I’m gone another bomb goes off on the flight deck and Minx disappears with the Morningstar.

Next mission I get to fly the morningstar for myself at last as we go out to try to get Minx back again.

It has the most unusual weapon to date (a tactical nuke). I’ve not found too much use for this yet. It doesn’t lock on and travels very very slowly. You can set it off with cannons however. It seems like it will be most use against cap ships.

The broadsword is pretty must the best fighter of the game at any rate. It has 3 particle cannons mounted very close together in the middle so you can hit with all 3 at once + very strong shields. The armor is useless on the downside.

We don’t track Minx down as she got lucky and her jump drive worked. Paladin has located Ayers rock however and I’m finally back in Special Ops again.

Crossbones died in the bomb blast + Talon was injured. With Minx gone also Maniacs squadron is gone and he is recruited to join the Special Ops alongside me and Paladin.

We fly out to join Paladin in his new ship. It has some sort of cloaking to hide the morningstars. The overall mission is basically to get to Ayers Rock and blow it up. I got this far and the next mission we have to jump into position nearer Ayers rock but I got blown up and called it a night.

I’m about 3/4 of the way through this game and that was the first mission which I haven’t completed on my first attempt. I expect its going to get harder for the last few missions but its just been far too easy up to now. Anyone who completed SM1 will breeze through this in no time.  Even the mission I failed was more down to bad luck and I don’t expect any problems with it next time. It only took around an hour to get this far and if it doesn’t get harder I’ll need about another 20-30 mins to finish.