In this quick and small mission you land within China's borders to secure the prototype super jet 'Iron Dragon'. Capture the super jet and evacuate.
Iron Dragon: Lost Alpha Build 98 Mission - SW Edition
Background
This mission was ported from Rise of the Reds.
'Iron Dragon' was an early Alpha Mission in Generals, dating back to Alpha Build 98. Interestingly it's one of the very few missions from the Alpha Build 98 that has a fully voiced briefing.
While the vocalization was done, the mission itself was not fully completed. However, at some point, it was done, as you can see in these screenshots: [1], [2], [3], [4].
At first, I just tried to convert the map just like in my vanilla conversion mods, but I quickly realized it would be easier to just redo this mission from the ground up, mainly due to the state it can be found in the Alpha Build 98.
Now with the help of the alpha screenshots and the original unfinished map, I recreated this Mission, while have it as close to the original as possible.
Regarding lore, there is nothing much, the only source that presumably mention this Mission is this:
"Relations between China and the United States had been on the decline,
especially after a covert American anti-terrorist operation resulted in the destruction of a Chinese prototype fighter." from gamepedia.
To fill in the gaps I added some of my own headcanon.
Story
China, with the help of the "Modern Way" program, granting civil liberties and opening to trade, is now no longer an out-of-touch communist behemoth of yesterday.
This caused a power shift not everyone in the Politburo agrees with.
With China's rise as a World Power, rivaling the USA, China started to bolster its Army with multiple projects, amongst a super jet, codenamed 'Iron Dragon', capable of travel over Mach-3 and carrying nuclear ordinances.
However, now with China's Elites in disagreements, a sub-faction arose from inside the PLA, named "Khans". Hardliners inside the Khans plan to use the 'Iron Dragon' project as a bargaining chip to bolster their position - little they know, others have picked up interest in the secretive Project.
The USA, seizing the opportunity and to ensure its air dominance, started a high risk Black Operation within China's borders deep in the Khans territory, to secure the prototype jet.
Installation
1. Unpack „Iron Dragon - Alpha Build 98 Mission - SW Edition v.1.00.7z“
2. Copy and Paste "Iron Dragon - Alpha Build 98 Mission_SW" into "Documents\Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data\Maps"
3. Copy and Paste "data" in your Shockwave folder (where your "ShockWaveLauncher.exe" file is).
I think you meant to refer to this pic
Media.moddb.com
Not only this one, the screenshot I linked also relates to Alpha IR.
Yeah but you should've linked the picture of the mission itself
agree
Btw, I can't see the screenshots, says cncnz.com does not allow hotlinking
Fixed