Soften

Briefing

Military invaders have taken control of your colony islands. Your aircraft carrier is the first to reach the small South Island.

In this mission you must cause as much devastation as possible to the invading forces who have set up camp on top of the coastal cliffs.

The camps are weakly defended by slow prop-driven planes, armed with cannon. Take them out too if you can.

Guide

The objectives in this mission are basically to destroy as much enemy hardware as possible. All of the objects you see (except the trees, your Harrier and your aircraft carrier of course), both on the ground and in the air are enemy targets.

There should be plenty of fuel onboard for you to easily complete this mission.

On the first attempt the only weapons available are bombs and wire-guided air-to-air missiles, and it makes sense to use bombs against the ground targets and the WG missiles against the planes.

With no secondary fire available yet, you must swap between weapons on the primary fire button ('Space bar' by default). This is most easily achieved by using the weapon select key ('M' by default), but you may use the mouse on the weapon panel next and previous weapon buttons if you prefer.

Take-off

Press the up key ('Q' by default) to take off. Once the console comes up, select bombs as your primary weapon.

Stay fairly low to the sea and as you approach the enemy gunboat, just before the cliffs, drop a bomb to destroy it. Hitting it is quite difficult, but quite satisfying if you manage it.

By this time the gunboat will have launched a ground to air wire-guided missile at you, increase speed ('N' by default) to out-run it, press up ('Q' by default) to take you over the cliff tops. If you do manage to destroy the gunboat, then the source of the missiles guidance will have been eliminated and the missile will just fall away.

Destroying the enemy aircraft

Once over the cliffs, slow down to the minimum speed by holding down the slower key ('B' by default) and switch your primary weapon to wire-guided air-to-air missiles, the first LED on the primary targetting array will flash cyan.

Enemy aircraft will approach you from in front. These aircraft are armed with cannon, and they have to be quite lucky to damage you, so for the purposes of this mission it is easiest to disregard their gun-fire. The main danger from these planes is that you will crash into them, the problem is that you need to be flying at the same height as them to get a target lock with your missiles.

As you fly slowly along, maintain your height above ground needle (bottom left dial) between 4 and 6, and keep half an eye on the primary targetting array of the weapon panel. The first sign that an aircraft is approaching will be the targetting array LEDs illuminating as your missile gains its targetting lock. The enemy plane will probably fire on you as it approaches, but ignore that and when the targetting arrays 'SHOOT' LED lights, launch your missile. With the wire-guided air-to-air missile you must maintain the target lock (ie the 'SHOOT' LED must remain lit) while the missile is in the air, it is not a fire-and-forget missile, so keep flying level. If you do this successfully then the enemy plane is almost certain to be hit and destroyed.

As you get very close to the plane fly up to avoid a collision, either with the plane itself, or with destroyed fragments. If you collide with the enemy plane then maximum damage is immediately caused to your Harrier and you are in a very vulnerable position. One more collision, or lucky hit from an enemy cannon will destroy your plane completely. In later missions you may win the 'Console Repair' skill, which allows you to repair this damage while in flight, but you don't have that yet.

Destroying the enemy camps

As you fly over South Island you will see the enemy camps on the ground.

As you approach a camp switch your primary weapon to bombs and as you fly over the camp drop bombs as rapidly as the weapon system will allow. Don't fly too low as your Harrier may get caught in the bomb blasts.

Keep an eye out for enemy planes, you don't want to crash into them while you're distracted.

Once past the camp switch your primary weapon back to WG missiles and stay vigilant for more enemy aircraft.

There are four camps along your flightpath, each one gets progressively larger. The larger camps have targets that are not directly under your flightpath and are impossible to bomb without some of the skills that you will win in later missions. Don't worry about these targets, it is still possible to destroy the 50% necessary to meet all of your objectives.

Landing

Objectives and awards

If you have managed to land safely, the next mission, 'Repel', is unlocked for you to play.

If you have managed to destroy at least two targets then you will be offered at least one award. To choose your award(s) select the top menu item 'Objectives and Awards' from the 'Game Over' menu.

The three awards on offer are 'Radar', 'Secondary fire' and 'Ejection Seat'. For this mission the most useful awards are 'Radar' and 'Secondary fire'. The 'Ejection Seat' can be useful in other missions, and in one West Island mission, 'Infiltrate', it is essential. the radar is useful in this mission for seeing what lies ahead, it will show approaching aircraft and enemy camps. The secondary fire is very useful in this mission because you no longer need to keep swapping between bombs and missiles on the primary fire. It makes it possible to destroy planes and bomb camps simultaneously.