Escort Transports to El-Ariash

[Mr Noseybonk]

That mission is just bugged and doomed to fail.....

When I get to the New Jerusalem 3 portal, the FTU just start whining "Hey! That's not on the route! You trying to lead us into a trap! Contract cancelled"..... mission failed!
But then they still start whining for help when they come under attack anway..... and any ships that I do leave at the spot where the transports are waiting just blow up..... mind you so many choices along the way in this mission - I'm betting that MSF agent shafts you up the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥!

[Echoco]

I remember doing this mission. There was some tweek or something that had to be done to get this mission to work. I don't remember what ti was but might have been you need to talk to someone at specific point to move the mission along.

[Mr Noseybonk]

Yep Echoco, it's just buggy scripting. Kind of a curse with 1C Company games. They have nice game ideas but don't seem to bugfix or test them very well. Still, you can get around this particular glitch so it don't stop to game.

[MinenSpecht]

Just a quick necro to answer the question:

1. Go to Argon portal & enter. (The dialogue with Ternie will give you
your next objectives, e.g. the Beta Lethera one.)

2. Save two FTU ships from a sizeable pirate attack. Accept their
profitable escorting deal (Promised 100k, it will grow to a 1M payout if
you follow this guide. USS rewards its benefactors well. Do not worry
about escorting the FTU Walruses as they will follow you pretty well to
wherever you go.) Go to Aurora portal & enter.

3. Clear the pirates coming your way and loot any space junk.

4. Do your thing with Corrino portal.

5. MSF will tell you that you are late. No pirate presence here. Insert
yourself into Tira portal.

6. -> New Jerusalem 1 portal.

7. You will be confronted by a "USS agent." You are now in the most
devious part of the whole game. That agent has the right security codes,
though his actual goal is to make your convoy go BOOM. (*cough a pirate
cough*) To get 1M instead of 0.5M, you need to bait this dude into
attacking you. Agree to recon first AND choose to require that your convoy
ships stay with you at all times and to advance together. (The recon
option is a bit of a time-waster and leaving the ships at his care will
plot-explode them and fail the escort mission). This will make him attack
- a couple minutes of work for that 0.5M. (ËASIEST MONEY IN THE GAME.) You
are left with the task of reporting him to the convoy staff and USS. (Did
I mention USS pays handsomely for escorting its assets and reporting its
traitors? There are plenty of USS ships there. Follow the money.) You
should be waypointed towards the convoy gathering point at New Jerusalem
2. -> New Jerusalem 2 portal.

8. -> Telle Avi Station (Gotta love Russian typos.) -> New Jerusalem 3
portal.

9. -> Prien portal.

10. Opt to defend the convoy. Get your fighters out with CTRL+Z and put
them to escort. Maintain a position a little in front of the rest of the
convoy. Expect a big pirate attack, so do not wander off too far. Your
goal here is to take the fire and to tank damage for the much worse
equipped convoy ships. (By staying somewhat close to the convoy ships you
can count on them to take advantage of your tanking and to destroy some
pirate scum for you. If you position yourself right, you will have teams
of three (3) lvl 2 fighters such as Hammerheads spawn very clos around you
and you will draw their fire. Some Stormcrows spawn close to the
transports, so I suggest going to dispose those things before you do
anything else. USS and MSF enforcers will help you, so it is not a hard
fight.) Collect the space junk and go to Cadi portal. (That will plot-jump
you straight to Al-Ariash).

11. Save and go to Al-Ariash Main Trade Station and see what USS thinks
about you protecting its assets. Dock to the station to once again up your
pilots' Pilot Grades. It is recommended to not waste on any upgrades as
the money is most useful at buying end-game Gunslinger T's in Charon.
(There will be two two-pirate teams confronting you on your way to the
station. Give them the usual viking burial. Very soon after leaving the
station, a massive plot-jump comes available that you definitely do not
want to miss. Otherwise you will be adding upwards hours of repetitious
portal jumping and pirate fighting to your game time.)

12. Agree to the plot-jump to get to Jerusalem 3.

[Ruinous]

Step 7 is unclear, I choose the recon option 2 and my partner goes off to recon baiting the agent into attacking. Fine. I clear the pirates, get the option to turn over the transports to Tri for 500k with the agent wanting me to send the transports through the portal first. Or, I can refuse him and go to 8 (200k). If I accept his 500k offer but refuse to let the transports go first, 200k 'double' reward at step 11. Letting the transports go first results in failing the mission entirely as you get tricked.

What is missing in order to trigger the 1mil reward?

[hal2003]

When you meet USS representaive go to alternate route, but not send Ternie to the portal to look for pirates. When you will be attacked by pirates shoot them down and pick up the pod with agent. Meeet the conwoy and when at abmbush choose to go to look for ambush. If you are strong destroy the pirates if not scram back and let MSF and Patrol to destroy them. If you make this you will get from USS at normal 1,25m

[Vigil]

Apologies for the necro, but I can confirm that what hal2003 (poster before me) says works and pays out 1.25 mil.
At first I chose to go with the USS "agent", chose recon when USS agent asked, joined MSF convoy and attack together with the larger convoy ambush. That paid out 400k.
Loaded, followed hal's instructions (don't recon with USS agent, but at larger convoy ambush do recon). The only noteworthy differences in events is that now the agent attacks without Ternie being absent, and at the larger ambush I got MSF/Patrol reinforcements instead of USS reinforcements. Payout 1.25 mil, he commented on the "decisive actions taken to ensure convoy safety". Not sure whether that was the first or second different choice, but still, it worked.