~ -X-4- MISSION 04 ~

Build maximum pulsar corvettes and bombers. Do not build any other units until the very end. Retire existing units if RU's are needed. Send any flak frigates or HMF's to the front of your MS.

Proceed to the first hyperspace inhibitor area on the left. Destroy the minelayer corvettes and begin attacking the inhibitors with your fighters and corvettes. Upon seeing the gate, you will receive a warning about incoming reinforcements. Send your fighters and corvettes to attack these reinforcements. Use your bombers exclusively against capital ships (frigates or carriers) and protect them from enemy fighters and corvettes. You will face a carrier, fighters, corvettes, bombers, and some HMF's and assault frigates. Destroy these enemies and send a capture frigate into the area. Endless reinforcements will arrive at the first hyperspace inhibitor area until the inhibitors are destroyed. Eliminate these reinforcements quickly. Reinforcements will cease once all units in the general area are destroyed.

After clearing the first area, send a capture frigate to capture the hyperspace gate. Use your pulsars and bombers to defend this operation. It is advisable to bring your new carrier to the first area but keep it behind your offensive ships. After completing an area, dock all your ships for a quick resource unit (RU) top-up.

Once the gate is captured, move to the middle area and repeat the process. The AI will stop attacking gates once all units in an area are destroyed. Be aware that two carriers wander in the middle area and may attack captured hyperspace gates. After clearing an area, send the capture frigate back to your carrier for safety. Infantry frigates cannot be built; they must be captured. Losing an infantry frigate will require replacing it with a less valuable marine frigate.

Send all fighters, corvettes, and bombers with normal drives to the location of any of the three captured hyperspace gates. This area contains a cluster of three gates, three carriers (each with a facility), and one destroyer. Ignore the destroyer until the three carriers and any incoming fighters, corvettes, assault frigates, and HMF's are destroyed.

After destroying the carriers, take out the resourcing operation behind them. Then, send a carrier with conventional drives to the destroyer's location. Take your capture frigate and hyperspace it to the destroyer, but do not initiate capture yet. Move the capture frigate as close as possible to the destroyer using the [Shift] key for vertical movement.

Initiate a feint attack on the destroyer with your fighters, then begin a waypoint (a marker on your map you've manually placed as a destination) circle around it to keep it occupied. Wait for 1-2 minutes, then tell the capture frigate to capture the destroyer. Keep your fighters, corvettes, and bombers away from the destroyer and set them to evasive (F2).

Order your resourcers to harvest wreckage around the destroyer. Wait for your carrier to arrive and begin harvesting resources. Use your flak frigates to destroy any incoming fighters targeting your Mothership (MS). Destroy any enemy resourcers with your pulsars.

Move your pulsars, bombers, and the captured destroyer to the asteroid in the middle of the map. A carrier should be present there.

Use your flak frigates to destroy the remaining inhibitors. You will then be hyperspaced to the staging area. If not, check the destroyer's former location for any remaining units. The command station will be at half health; destroy it completely. The command station is guarded by HMF's, assault frigates, and fighters. Use pulsars to destroy fighters, then concentrate on assault frigates. Once those are destroyed, use bombers to eliminate the HMF's. Locate the shipyard behind the station in the top left using the minimap (the small circular map in the bottom-left corner of your screen) ping. Destroy the shipyard, grab the resources, and search the map for any remaining units (a ping will appear in the sensor manager). Finally, destroy the command station.