This is it. The final mission of the losing path. The Terran Confederation has been defeated all across the Vega Quadrant, and is retreating to the Denab Quadrant. The Tiger’s Claw is the last capital ship in the Hell’s Kitchen system. Unfortunately, the cats aren’t just going to let a Confederate fleet carrier leave. The Claw can’t delay the jump though, so whomever volunteers to clear the path may miss the last bus out of town. Naturally we volunteer.
The mission starts off easy enough with a pair of Gratha guarding a single Ralari-class destroyer. Easy prey, even in a Scimitar. Then things get messy. The quartet of Salthi light fighters isn’t too bad, but especially without a wingman they can start picking you apart pretty easily. Then comes a group of five Dralthi. Much like the Salthi, these aren’t too bad on their own, but in a 5v1, it’s easy to start dying a death of a thousand stings. Which you very much don’t want to do, because the next group is three Jalthi.
Outmaneuvering Jalthi is easy. The trick is outmaneuvering all three of them and successfully whittling down the odds before a lucky shot shreds whatever’s left of your shield. Finally there’s a group of Krant actually attacking the Claw. Fortunately, they seem pretty focused on the big carrier in front of them, and don’t pay much attention to the beat-up, barely holding together, medium fighter rolling in behind them.
All that sounds pretty simple. In reality this took me nine tries and well over an hour to put together a successful run. Especially without a wingman, it’s very difficult to keep your ship together long enough to get to the Krants with any weaponry left. Is this mission tougher than Kurasawa 2? Probably not. It’s definitely tougher than Venice 4, however, since that final mission features very similar numbers and types of enemies, but puts you in a Rapier.