The best space sim so far

Well, to be honest, I can't tell you all the stuff you'd like to know, because I only played the demo. But I can tell you the basics. The storyline is that there has been a war between the Terran and Vasudan species for a long time. However, an unidentified race that they name "Shivans" begins to massacre both sides' ships for no apparent reason. The Vasudans and Terrans make an uneasy truce for the time being to fend off these ships, which are very resistant to the lasers because of their special shielding. You start out in training. You have a couple of training missions, where you learn how to fly the ship and use the weapons. Then, you gradually move on to piloting positions of more importance in the space navy (forgot the name). Soon, you encounter Shivans and the truce is born. Then, your main objective is to fight the Shivans. In the demo, you use in all 3 different types of spacecraft, but are able to see many more. One is the Apollo class ship. It is a multi-role space superiority fighter with average speed and weapons payload (not only do you have lasers, but also your choice of a mass of dumb missiles or significantly less heatseeking missiles). The Valkyrie is built more as a speedy interceptor fighter with less ammo, but can use the afterburner for longer periods of time. There are no fuel limitations, though, so on many missions you can take your time. On the last level of the demo, you use the Athena bomber to disable a Shivan craft. You have shields, and there is also no limit to your lasers. There are conventional lasers, disabling (disruptor) lasers, and Avenger lasers. You can refit your ship with different payloads and guns, but the disruptors and Avengers come later in the game. Learning how to play is fairly easy, the instructor walks you through each training mission. Then, as the levels get increasingly harder, you can hone your skills. The difficulty levels are Very Easy, Easy (which seems like medium to me), Medium, Hard, and Very Hard (they mean impossible). You have a heads up display, complete with something like radar, speed measurement, afterburner scale (Afterburners can only be used for a limited time. After you have used them up, you must wait until they recharge.), communications screen, shield display, and a device that lets you divert more power either to the engines, weapons, or shields by taking power from one system and giving it to another. All in all, a very good sim. I strongly recommend it for all you space people.
I hope this helped, and do write a comment if you feel like it. Shark