Ok I got a prom today. And right after I got the prom, I looked at my mission screen, and noticed... A DIFFERENT MISSION.

The famed assassination mission, which I had heard rumors of, but never seen.

The premise is simple, the execution a bit more complex.
Kill a station guard of each other nation.

So I took my newfound prom mk II, AGT+flares to go see what I could do. Stopped at a UIT station at the entrance to Arta Caelestis, and attempted to flare a defbot to death before the seekers could get near me. The flares didn't do quite enough damage.

So I tried again, this time with a centaur. 3 sets of dual jacks+ flares later, UIT bot was down.

then I headed halfway across the universe to get my itani kill. I jumped in, hoping that I'd be able to pull it off so smoothly again. And SUCCESS. What amazing thing have I won for killing defbots and flying across the universe:

itani standing decreased enormously (from -750 to KOS I think...)
+500 combat
serco standing increased
4500 credits recieved

Does this seem like a mediocre reward to anyone else?

Do it in an ec-88...

[Edit]

You should know, if you can catch a defbot outside the NFZ, shooting him wont trigger the seekers, he will turn and try to fight you, which is the easy bit, catching them in an ec-88 is the hard bit =D

well, the seekers come out as soon as I enter the sector. It can't be cuz I'm kos, cuz I wasn't kos in itani space till I pulled this mission.

Let me add, that up until I got the reward, this was the most fun mission I've taken. It was story-based, and a neat exercise, more fun than killin queens.

Also, the first time I tried it, I lost a prom, and when you fail the mission you lose serco standing, but only slightly.

It would be neat if this were a high risk/high reward type mission (losing at least 100 serco standing would make sense), with a badge/special reward for completing it 10 times, like with the queens. Because a nation ought to reward their best assassins.

Yoda, have you done it with an EC-88?

I will have to try.

Does it have to be a basic EC-88?

Shape, kinda, heh, not since seekers, put it that way.. =p I did try recently and found (funnily) killing the Itani defence bot is easier than the UIT =D

Ok, just tried it from an EC-88, impossible, the seekers come after you as soon as you enter the sector, there's no time to do enough damage.

Any other opinions on this from serco who have lived with this mission for some time?

(Do UIT have anything like this or the border patrol mission?)

ah the assasination mission. i found the best part of loosing to be the message sent to you for failing. :)

UIT have the assassination mission too.

The biggest problem I've had with the Assassination mission is incredibly nit-picky. Its name. It's not a freaking assassinination when you can go kill ANY station guard. Now, if it was "Go kill *Marshal Fona Pros", then it would be an assassination.

Beolach: I always reckoned assassination was murder by surprise attack :)
I've killed defbots with an ec-88 before (not stock, I totally cheated: used ammo weapon and ran like a sissy after required bots are dead)
[syn]n00b and Spider can do it in stock ec-88 without running like sissies.

--and Shape: yea, I think the award should be much greater!

At least in my mind, it's murder of a _specific person_ by surprise attack. If I just walk out in the street & shoot some random person, then it'd be murder by surprise attack, but not necessarily assassination. If I slip poison into one of the Serco Triumvirate's cups, then that's assassination. If I poison a random pop bottle in the factory, that gets shipped out to who knows where & bought from a vending machine by somebody who I have no clue who they are, then that's not. But both would be murder by surprise attack.

Most of the definitions I look up also mention that the target of an assassination would be a important or prominent person. I don't think of most station guards as being particularly prominent.

Anyway, I'm just nitpicking.

I tried to attack a UIT station guard to do the mission (and hit him in an EC 88) but got that standing warning and quit the idea. It's really not worth it.
and -750 is kill on sight to the seekers/strike forces (or should be).

I *could* do it in an ec-88 before the arena seekers were introduced, and killed one def bot (but not the other) just before arena seekers were *beefed* (ie, they used to issue on the first pop they let out, i have had an arena seeker these days go *pop, pop, pop, pop, pop ect till warp* just behind me (you know they really rocket ram right? you can see the blue dot on radar if lucky enough)

Anyways, if your starting this mission -600 you have no chance in an ec-88, the entire defence system has been updated since this mission was created, it used to be very plausable in *any* ship, not so today... ...maybe it needs an update too.

It seriuously needs a one-over.

As for the doability in a Stock Bus, Yep it is. You could do it, and get away with it. I think n00b still has some screenies of it in the RPG forum or so. :)

However, it was hard. VERY hard.

With the new aerna seekers? hmm. I doubt its possible.