Catching Up With Saga: Day 1 - Demonic Textures

We've done you all a great disservice by failing to report on some of the great work that the Wing Commander Saga mod team has been announcing - so we're going to catch up with their updates in a series of four posts! Below are two of their retextured ships, which are designed to "capture the general emotional feel of this period of the war: gritty and battleworn." For those who aren't so good with their silhouettes, that's a mercenary Demon (from Privateer) and a pirate Talon (from Wing Commander IV).

Time to Bag a Plasma Gun

T’lan Meth 10 After the emotional high of rescuing Commodore Blair, I go into the briefing room pumped for my next mission. The bugs have brought in a significant portion of their fleet assaulting E’loy to try to pin the Midway against an asteroid belt. The Midway has detected multiple bogies closing on its position at attack speed. Although we did receive a reply from Confed that they are sending reinforcements to our area, it’s highly unlikely they will reach us in time to provide assistance. The wing of Panthers I’ll be with are assigned to a specific intercept zone to destroy all ships in that zone. Just before taking off on this mission, the CAG asks for a bit of my time. She tells me that the Midway has been getting communications from the Kilrathi on E’loy about my ‘hairless’ clan. I explain that Hawk and I were instrumental in helping the Kilrathi out on the fifth mission in this system. She then says that Kilrathi would likely use this opportunity to provide assistance for this mission against the bugs. I admit that the experience of having the cats help out would feel a bit strange, and the CAG says that it can be a strange world.

Maestro and I launch in Panther fighters and proceed to the intercept zone. More Mantas and Morays to deal with here. I engage and destroy the closest Manta, and the next nearest ship is a Moray. The Kilrathi come into this area, and say that they’re here to help out with Vaktoth fighters. I destroy two of the Moray fighters, and one of the Kilrathi Vaktoths is destroyed. Maestro and I make a Moray sorry that it ever tried to attack us. Half a dozen hits to the rear end of another Moray destroy that ship. I shake a Manta from trying its heavy guns on us, and finish off that fighter before it can attempt any more damage. I destroy a Manta, and then have to make multiple hits permanently discourage another from using its full firepower. Two of the alien fighters are dealt with by the other fighters in our group. The Midway comes on the communication line, and tells us all to return since they are under attack.