At this point, I’d killed enough Ralari class destroyers to know they were reasonably tough ships. Maybe not quite as formidable as our Exeter class boats, but still nothing to sneeze at. They had the typical Kilrathi design approach that favored firepower over armor, but still, these were capital ships we were talking about here. So why, oh why was it so damn difficult to keep a captured one intact?
Bossman and I scrambled on a priority mission to escort a captured Ralari loaded with Confed Marines into the system. Seems the cats weren’t too keen on us getting away with one of their ships, and were in hot pursuit. They threw a few obstacles our way as well, in the form of a wing of Salthi hiding out in the asteroid field that Bossman and I had to traverse to make it to the Ralari on schedule. No big deal there, but the Salthi had the speed to chase us down, so we couldn’t just burn away. That dogfight cost us some precious time.
By the time we made it to the Ralari, she was already under attack by a quartet of Gratha. I sent Bossman after one enemy, and hoped that the Ralari’s remaining core escort could contribute as well. I dumped both my Iffies and hoped they’d hit something useful.
The dogfight was a swirling, twisting mess. At full throttle, I think I actually rammed a couple of the enemy fighters, with the Rapier’s massive shields turning the fighter into an effective battering ram. Somehow we made it through. The Ralari was pretty damaged, but still going.
[Writer’s note: This is definitely the most difficult mission in the first Wing Commander game. It’s arguably the most difficult mission in any Wing Commander game. It took me a lot of runs to get this one right. The “trick” is to just be as aggressive as possible. Shoot missiles like you’re getting fined for bringing them back, don’t be afraid to ram a few enemies, and hope you get lucky. Optimizing your game settings by following the guide linked below can be helpful too, because sometimes framerate and particle limitations can cause problems.