Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 59

This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the recruitment page:

CONCEPT: This page was something I always wanted to see but done on the cheap. I'd love to see a beautiful painted World War 2 style recruiting poster someday... but, time and budget. Although those are near and dear to my heart, this is actually based on a more modern army advertisement -- those "look what a great time soldiers have!" sort of things. I don't think it needs much discussion -- it has all the cliches: see the galaxy, serve your country, etc.

REFERENCES-

• The image is a piece of Privateer 3-turned-Privateer Online concept art. It actually shows a Border Worlds fighter attacking a freighter... but I fudged the description a bit (I kept the fighter name, though!). I don't know if anyone remembers, but the image element of the freighter was the first thing from Privateer 3 we ever saw... way back in 1995. It appeared online as a result of some 3D rendering conference and was labeled 'Origin Systems'.
• "Goddard System" - Goddard was home to the planet destroyed by the Sivar weapon in The Secret Missions.
• "419th Fighter Wing" - Part of my 'higher numbers please' concept for fighter organization - also, WCNews.com's LOAF's birthday!
• "Stelkta" - Stelkta was Goddard's moon and home to the berths which launched the TCS Lexington in Wing Commander Armada. I chose both it and Goddard for this vingette because there was an elaborately included moon in the reused concept art.
• "Crusader" - The Crusader was a Border Worlds design for Privateer Online. I didn't want to contradict the concept art (which, honestly, wasn't originally supposed to be a Crusader - it was repurposed from a previous project by the Privateer Online team for their pitch to EA) so I just kept that name. After all, there are American squadrons that fly British Harriers...
• "Landreich probe" - I took the idea of defining a freighter as a probe from Wing Commander IV. There's no actual war between these powers, but relations must be frosty. They did come into open conflict some years back, though, as explained in the timeline section (a story Andrew Keith never got to tell).
• "country" - I really like the idea of referring to the Confederation as one's country. It's something these giant space Federation settings rarely do.
• "citizenship" - Honestly not a StarShip Troopers reference -- more of a French Foreign Legion sort of a thing because I liked the idea that there were now Kilrathi serving with the Confederation military. It's a changing galaxy...
• "holodisc action scenario" - Oooh, metagame. Will the Space Force send you a copy of Wing Commander? (Largely a reference to that United States Army recruiting game from a few years back... but also a nod to the fact that Wing Commander I & II are actual games in the Wing Commander universe, per the Ultimate Strategy Guide.
• "Vega and Epsilon" - This was added at the request of the Producer, who didn't want to imply that the Confederation had any control over the area seen in Arena. I thought about cutting the whole ad, but it was something I wanted to see too much to do that.
• "Long Live the Confederation" - The 'corny' expression from Action Stations, akin to "God bless America".