Christopher Blair
Commodore Christopher Blair was one of the greatest heroes of the Terran-Kilrathi War, and was essential in averting all out war during the around the time of the Border Worlds secession and the Black Lance Affair. He was also key in the intitial days of the Nephilim conflict where he helped push back the initial incursion before himself being lost and presumed dead during the destruction of the alien wormhole gate in the Kilrah system.
| Christopher Blair | |
|---|---|
| 2630.168 - 2681.061 | |
| Place of birth | Nephele II |
| Place of death | (presumably) Nephilim wormhole gate tower, Kilrah System |
| Allegiance | Terran Confederation |
| Rank | Commodore |
Formative Years
About On 2630.168 Christopher Blair, well known as the Savior of the Confederation, was born to a farmer of Pilgrim origin on the remote planet of Nephele II. However his natural parents, Arnold Blair and Devi Soulsong, were killed at Peron during Arnold's attempt to save Devi from the Pilgrim massacre of the same name. Young Christopher lived with his paternal aunt, Jennifer Blair, and her husband until his stepfather was killed in a farm accident. Jennifer went off world to find work and remarry, while Chris was left to be raised by his maternal grandparents.
As he started high school, Blair decided he wanted to be a pilot. He took up wrestling to qualify as extracurricular activities for his Academy appointment. There he qualified for all-sector and took planetary champion in his weight class. Nephele was allowed just one at-large Academy appointee every three years, so this helped him get noticed and accepted into the 2650-plebe class at the Academy. He went on to get straight A's after a B average his freshman year. The plan was to originally serve the six-year Academy obligation, and use his experience to become a crop duster. He earned his callsign, Maverick, as an ironic reference to his by-the-book approach.
Early Career
During the end of his regular Academy career he served off the Exeter class TCS Formidable in 2653 and then graduated with an honors electronic engineering degree. After a quick tour on the TCS Gilgamesh he then went on to Flight School at Sirius finished on the TCS Tiger's Claw under the supervision of Geoffrey Tolwyn and James Taggart in 2654. It was around this time he began to explore his latent Pilgrim powers. Often the source of discrimination and ridicule based on his mother’s genes; Blair struggled to come to grips with his uncanny cockpit intuition and extrasensory perception. Not long after his posting to the Claw, the young pilot helped to stop an insurrection incited by malcontented Pilgrims within the Confederation itself.
His participation in the Vega Campaign brought victory for the Confederation. Shortly thereafter, the Tiger's Claw responded to a distress call from the Goddard colony. Unfortunately the Tiger's Claw arrived too late, and the colony had been destroyed by a Kilrathi superweapon. Blair and the rest of the Claw pilots pursued the enemy ship into Kilrathi space and destroyed it and the shipyards that created it.
Blair was also key in protecting Confed's interests in the Firekka system, as well as the Firekkan people from genocide at the hand of the Kilrathi Cult of Sivar by volunteering to fly a captured Dralthi fighter in order to infiltrate the nearby Kilrathi space patrols.
Tragedy
Tragedy struck when Kilrathi Stealth Strakha destroyed the TCS Tiger’s Claw on its attack approach to the K'Tithrak Mang starbase in the Enigma Sector. A small number of pilots on patrol survived, and Blair was the only survivor in the immediate vicinity. His missing flight recorder disc and stories of invisible stealth fighters earned him the scorn of Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn. He was convicted of negligence and relegated to the backwater Caernarvon Station in the Gwenydd System for some nine years. In 2657 Janet Williamson wrote "A Treacherous Hero" about his supposed betrayal of the Tiger's Claw. It remained on bestseller lists for over a year. Later The Digital Holovid Company from New Las Vegas, Earth created a dramatized holovid of the story.
Vindication
On 2665.110 a fluke attack forced him to come to the aid of the flagship TCS Concordia under the command Geoffrey Tolwyn, the officer who court martialed him previously. Desperate circumstances and Wing Commander Jeannette Devereaux helped Blair stay aboard where he was able to vindicate himself by proving Zach Colson framed him for the Claw's destruction. With Blair's help, the Concordia won the Enigma Sector by destroying the base at K'Tithrak Mang, although it was later revealed that was a strategic move on the part of the Kilrathi to take Confederation Deneb Sector HQ.
Working with James Taggart aboard the specially refitted Bonnie Heather, Blair transferred to the Special Operations division and was instrumental in consolidating gains in Enigma and helping Kilrathi worlds to rebel. While working with Maniac’s Wild Eagles Squadron in testing the new Morningstar fighter, a Mandarin plot was revealed. Mandarin saboteurs sprung Zach Colson from a prison ship and compromised the test squadron. Blair and Maniac were able to destroy the pirate base at Ayers Rock, and Blair outdueled Jazz to the death.
In the time that followed aboard the Concordia he averaged a whopping 400 kills per year. Some three years as Wing Commander on the Concordia resulted in a dangerous run to the Battle of Earth with a temp job on the Tarawa in between. During the great Battle his ship took a missile and he was grounded for six months. During that time the Concordia went down on Vespus where Blair and Angel once took a week's leave together. Normally Blair would have been aboard the Concordia, but now he was part of the survey team that found her wreckage.
Victory
On 2669.203 Blair took command of the fighter wing aboard the old TCS Victory. Little did he know this was part of a larger plan by Admiral Tolwyn to position a crack team to escort the Behemoth superweapon to Kilrah. Blair was bitter over the move, and the holo transmission of Angel he received from Rollins was the first communication between them in months. He has no intention to retire or take himself off the front lines, but after complaints about his exclusive flying with Hobbes and occasional mistakes, he wonders if he should command the wing from a desk like the previous commanders had. Ultimately Tolwyn plans were revealed, and although Blair was against such weapons he took their mission to heart. After the catastrophic destruction of the Behemoth, Prince Thrakhath transmitted a shocking video of Angel’s death, and Blair nearly lost it. He felt confined on the Victory and Rachel Coriolis was one of the few people on the ship he'd felt comfortable with. In the mean time long time ally Ralgha nar Hhallas was reverted to an underlying identity loyal to the Kilrathi crown prince. Hobbes attempted to escape but Blair was forced to track him down and destroy his fighter.
When hope was all but lost, James Taggart returned with a last-ditch plan to destroy Kilrah using much of the infrastructure laid out by Angel’s mission. Blair was able to drop a tectonic frequency weapon known as the Temblor Bomb and shatter Kilrah from the core. Thrakhath’s aid Melek surrendered to Blair personally on behalf of the Empire thus ending the forty-year war. Unbeknownst to many at the time, a secret organization known as the Belisarius Group planned a military coup, which was averted by the war’s end. The civilian government wary of such groups quickly downsized military forces as a preventative measure.
Post-war
With the end of the War, Blair was considered the 11th greatest ace of the conflict on the basis of sheer kills alone. He was the number one all time record holder for Kilrathi ace kills and the most decorated officer. This is actually a significant revelation considering only two pilots, Blair and Todd Marshall, entered service after Custer's Carnival in 2644. All 38 other top Confed pilots were from the first half of the war when Kilrathi defensive technology was very bad and they were more prone to throwing numbers at their enemy. Some Kilrathi even saw him as something of a prophet. He'd saved them from themselves; the long war against the Confederation had made them corrupt, and with Kilrah destroyed they had a chance to start over.
After a short stint in the diplomatic corps, Blair married Rachel Coriolis and became a farmer in the southern regions of Nephele II to fulfill his original simpler farmer/crop duster ambitions. The marriage ended poorly. The farm was never a success and Blair was on the verge of bankruptcy despite getting half pay for remaining in the Space Force Reserves and royalties from the “Treacherous Hero” holovid. On 2673.218 he had a meeting with Todd Marshall at the Nephele II starport who recalled him to active service under Emergency Decree 394A.
On Battle Station Orion Tolwyn explained the new situation to Blair and dispatched him to the TCS Lexington under Captain Eisen. The missions they flew had odd discrepancies and Eisen was mysteriously removed from command. The new captain and accompanying crew that came forced Blair to join defecting Captain Eisen in fledging Union or Border Worlds on 2673.220. With nightmares of the Temblor Bomb run on his mind, Blair worked to uncover a new plot unraveling the Confederation. Blair was given command of the BWS Intrepid when Captain Eisen left to seek help from a few remaining friends in Confederation High Command. Ultimately Blair infiltrated a secret organization instigating war between the Confederation and Border Worlds under the direction of Admiral Tolwyn. Black Lance Genetically Enhanced pilots perpetuating the attacks were actually patterned off of Blair's DNA, making Blair a "first generation" GE soldier. With the help of Eisen’s friends in the Confederation, they were able to uncover Tolwyn’s illegal bioweapons and manipulations to stop the staged war from happening.
After the Border Worlds Affair Blair was promoted to Brigadier General and commanded the Confederation fleet mopping up rogue Black Lance in the Border Worlds area. Then he spent a few years teaching at the Academy and authored some simulation missions, among other things. Taggart, as chairman of the Confed Senate's Armed Forces Committee, asked Blair to act as Senior Operational Consultant for the new Megacarrier program. Blair's commission was transferred from Space Forces to Navy with a promotion to Commodore and he played a significant role in the new ship's design.
During her maiden voyage, the new megacarrier TCS Midway encountered a new alien threat emanating from a wormhole gate in the Kilrah System. As the only carrier in the area, the Midway was dispatched to render the Kilrathi aid. After young pilot Lance Casey's wingman died, Blair volunteered to fly his wing for an important mission in the T'lan Meth System. He was captured aboard the Dula 7 Starbase, but apparently alive and held captive for some sort of interrogation. Marines from the Midway later stormed the captured base and rescued him back. His interrogation dredged up memories of Telamon, Tolwyn, Kilrah, Angel and other tragedies. The Nephilim were apparently interested in the human ability to kill without pity and remorse, and they allowed the marines to find Blair. The flight surgeon and Captain Wilford cleared him to fly again, but CAG Drake refused. An emergency forced him to fly out to the Wormhole Gate, and he was unable to return from the stabilizing tower when it collapsed.
Though no remains were recovered, a memorial service was held in Sol in New York City and Nephele Prime at Hightower Flats, with his favorite group, tHE lOVE aNIMALS, performing. Live testimonials were heard from as far as Repleetah and the Avalon System. His farm on Nephele was to become a historical site with a "Heart of the Tiger" memorial and museum of military history. On 2681.061 Sol Sector Governor Cavazos delivers to the public the news that Commodore Blair, the Savior of the Confederation, was officially missing in action and presumed dead.
Alternate History (The real world)
Christopher Blair, is the main player character in the first four Wing Commander Games, and their expansions. He is also central to the WC: Academy animated TV show and The WC: Movie. He has a small role in Wing Commander Prophecy, and apears in the game and movie novelizations.
Originally, Blair was an unnamed character that the player can name himself. The Origin development team designated the player character as 'Bluehair', perhaps due to the blue coloring of his hair. In the Super Wing Commander (a modern remake of the first WC game, made for Macintosh and 3DO), the character is named Jason Armstrong. In the first PC game, after the opening arcade scene the player has the freedom to choose the character's surname and callsign. In WC2, the freedom to choose his first name was added. In WC3, his surname was Blair (perhaps a shortening of Bluehair) and his first name became Christopher (after Chris Roberts, the series' creator). In WC3, the player still has the freedom to choose his callsign. Blair's canonical callsign was eventually revealed to be Maverick in the Wing Commander 3 novelization, and is used as such in Wing Commander Academy (TV), and Wing Commander Prophecy. The WC4 loadout terminal also defaults to the callsign Maverick unless you enter a new one at the start of the game.
