Scramble! Radar’s got incoming bogeys closing fast. Looks like the cats picked a good opportunity with the heavy squadrons out on other missions. That leaves the Hornets of the Killer Bees to defend the Claw.
Really, this mission isn’t that difficult. Just two flights of four Dralthi. Technically the Claw can be destroyed, but against Dralthi, you’d have to aggressively fail to make that happen. Don’t aggressively fail. Probably the most interesting thing about this mission is the briefing, where Colonel Halcyon name-checks a pair of pilots we don’t ever hear about before or after. Dragon and Redbird are apparently two other members of the Killer Bees. What happened to them? We have no idea.
For comparison sake, McAuliffe Mission 2 is a strike mission that has you going after a Ralari escorted by a pair of Krants, plus a quartet of Dralthi along the way.