Since social media these days is mostly just people identifying different kinds of tanks I got to thinking... I can do that, too! Here's a thread of tanks and other military ground vehicles from the Wing Commander universe.
The first tank we actually fight shows up in the ground missions in Wing Commander III. You're called to pick off these angular, quadruple-treaded Kilrathi tanks which have a dual mount laser turret.
The games' files also include a version which carries a missile launcher instead of a turret... unfortunately, NPC missile launchers were bugged and not fixed in time for the game to ship (this also killed a Confederation frigate).
The novel End Run describes an amphibious assault against the Kilrathi and mentions three fighting vehicles: the Confederation “M-77 light ground assault vehicle” (carried two to a landing craft), the Kilrathi “medium assault tank” and Confederation heavy armor so described: “heavy weapons landers touched down, disgorging their massive ‘walkers’ which could traverse any terrain and carried as much armaments as a light corvette.” Picture is an unrelated franchise’s vehicle which surely didn’t inspire this.
Wing Commander IV introduces us to a tank battle between Confederation-backed mercenaries and the Border Worlds in the Circe system. The cutscene has a hover tank being used by both sides:
Here's the tank battle cutscene itself, which is as perfect as 1995 video game CG can be.
The same series has a tank killing ground attack mission with an in-engine battle going on. This design, which looks a bit like a Tarsus, is the Union of Border Worlds tank.
The mercenaries (... Hammer?!) get hover tanks that don't match the ones in the cutscenes at all. There's a version with a laser turret and a missile version! The team managed to get the missile launchers working between releases. (Or not, they're extremely annoying because the missiles in the game are deadly and they carry unlimited rounds!)
And we can't forget Wing Commander's best known tank: straight out of Cobra's playbook, this Kilrathi drill tank appears in a flashback scene in episode 5 of Wing Commander Academy (Word of Honor) that shows trench warfare on Repleetah. The turret can be locked under the drill for greater protection.
Also yes Grunt does seem to blow one of them up using a TOS tricorder.
Also honorable mention for this Kilrathi army hover-platform from Wing Commander I. You know they didn't steal this one from Star Wars since it's almost entirely handrails! It reminds me a lot of the little skiff the apes fly at the start of Space Quest II, too.
That is all the Wing Commander tanks I can think of tonight but if you're interested in seeing this thread continued vote below and I'll add more about TRACTORS tomorrow!
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