Does this wording mean that the Kilrathi pilot is still alive?

[EmuMusicFan]

It means I like your fan fiction scenario!

Something else for your fan fiction - the name "Haga Kaligara" itself is telling. No honorifics - not even nar. Probably unintentional, but it would suggest a kilra'hra pilot.

OK, I've attempted to write an outline.

Firstly, I should say I'm not good at making up stories, let alone translating them into a non-native language, and I basically write wherever I think of it. So, considering my lack of military and flight-related knowledge, there could be a lot of problems. There hasn't been any careful consideration of the plausibility of the plot. Criticisms are welcome. 😅

Secondly, I would like to make up a plot for general audience. So, based on a friend's suggestion, I've non-violentized that part of the threat to a Varni slave since the friend said the threat of violence against even an alien species child is unacceptable plot design. 😭

• Haga Kaligara is a former pilot of Imperial Claw who was on the McAuliffe Ambush and survived more than 35 years to see the end of the war. He has his willingness to be thanked for providing his personal diary and flight logs to Terran historical circles. He accepted a request from a documentary film crew and is now talking to these crew members at home about his younger days.
  
  
• He speaks to the film crew and recalls his first major mission after graduating from the Imperial Flight University: Live-fire testing of the new fighter.
  
  
• At that time (sometime of Terran calendar late 2620s), as a commoner born pilot, Haga Kaligara felt very honored to take part in such a mission as a test pilot.
  
  
• He was excited to come to a fighter development facility of the Ki'ra clan. He first needed to take a photo with the new model fighter in the final preparation.
  
  
• On a whim, he wanted to sit in the cockpit and pose for a photo, but he was told that because the ejection system was still in the final commissioning process, he could not do so.
  
  
• The disappointed pilot grabbed a technician slave and asked when the ejection system could be completed. The panicked slave replied that the system engineer knew the specific situation, and she was just here, probably in the lounge.
  
  
• A slave deserves rest? Haga Kaligara escapes the entourage and angrily headed straight for the lounge, where he found that the system engineer was a Varni woman who was looking after her own unborn child in the egg.
  
  
• Haga Kaligara was about to discipline the system engineer for what he perceived to be laziness, when the accompanying staff in charge arrived and informed that the systems engineer was important and should not be harmed.
  
  
• Haga Kaligara turned to threaten the system engineer by holding the egg as a hostage. The system engineer became emotionally disturbed and the scene came close to spiraling out of control.
  
  
• At this point, Harga, the renowned old warrior of the Ki'ra clan, appeared and stopped Haga Kaligara in time.
  
  
• Seeing the famous warrior Harga, who was also not of noble birth, Haga Kaligara entered big fan mode immediately, and explained that he was just following the rules to "eliminate all interference in the development of the Empire's gears". Harga scornfully stated this kind of disruption that Haga Kaligara just did was the real interference. What if the systems engineer got injured and causing a schedule delay? Haga Kaligara whispered, could there be someone else take over? Amused and vexed Harga asked rhetorically, how about Haga Kaligara being the engineer, with severe penalties for overstaying? Haga Kaligara replies that the Empire flight school has not scheduled any courses in this field.
  
  
• The situation was very embarrassing.
  
  
• Then suddenly word came that Baron Vakka of the Ki'ra clan was arriving.
  
  
• Harga informed Haga Kaligara that that was where the matter stopped and they were just getting ready for the photo shoot.
  
  
• Baron Vakka made a few courtesy compliments to Haga Kaligara. Haga Kaligara almost fainted with excitement at being confronted by the Baron of the noblest clan.
  
  
• In the days leading up to the test, Haga Kaligara had been trying to check out the fighter again in his spare time, but was overwhelmed with activities.
  
  
• On the day of the test, Haga Kaligara flew the fighter, excitedly demonstrating the maneuverability of the new fighter and his superior evasive techniques.
  
  
• The pressure of test was mounting, and Haga Kaligara insisted on completing all the test items in one go.
  
  
• Finally, while striking the last set of automatic turrets, the fighter was hit. Fortunately, the improved ejection system allowed Haga Kaligara to escape safely in time. All test items completed.
  
  
• Back from the memories. Haga Kaligara says that this is where his "legend of immortality" as a professional pilot began. At this point, the interviewee of the Ki'ra clan of the documentary, Harga's apprentice, states that Haga Kaligara's recollection is accurate, but there is actually another context to this story.
  
  
• The personnel and specific test procedures for that live-fire test were assigned by the Imperial court, so Baron Vakka sent his most loyal retainer and oldest friend Harga kept the situation under control and prevented accidents from happening. That's why Haga Kaligara's reckless actions had no real consequences.
  
  
• Baron Vakka showed up as a mediator and pretended to be unaware of the matter so that the issue was resolved smoothly and decently.
  
  
• After that, in a private conversation between Baron Vakka and Harga, Harga said he would stop this frosty cub from causing troubles before the coming test. Baron Vakka told him to find some ways that Haga Kaligara was willing to accept.
  
  
• Harga sighed, though over the years the cubs the Empire had educated had grown more simple-minded and more brutal in their behavior, and he was used to seeing this, but he was surprised to see such a questionable "goofball" as a test pilot. Baron Vakka said it was not that simple.
  
  
• According to the file, Haga Kaligara was indeed a genius, and actually had an top grade in the common born students, only to be artificially ostracized for having an “unpleasant” personality and coming from a family that managing commercial slaves. But the happy-go-lucky Haga Kaligara didn't care.
  
  
• What Haga Kaligara did not know was that the live-fire test planned by the Imperial court was an extreme test. It was supposed to go to the step of the fighter being shot down and the pilot activating the ejection system.
  
  
• Hearing all this, Harga said coldly, when did the Empire become so care about ejection system? Baron Vakka laughed and said Prince Ratha, the Emperor's grandson and the Crown Prince's eldest son, would soon be enrolled in the Noble Flight Academy for training.
  
  
• So, if the extreme pressure test could be passed, then it was certainly preliminary evidence that the improved ejection system had better reliability; otherwise, if the test failed, the Emperor's family could use it to put pressure on the Ki'ra clan.
  
  
• Harga listened in silence for a long time and slowly sighed, then this cub would be nothing more than an abandoned child. Baron Vakka realized that Harga was remembering something from almost five of eight years ago. During the Battle of Karing of that time, Harga lost all his own cubs.
  
  
• Baron Vakka asked Harga to call in the system engineer with good words of reassurance. The rest went well.
  
  
• Hearing this, old Haga Kaligara goes speechless for a moment, then saying to the film crew: “My military university friends, then my battlefield comrades, then my military university students... Yes, today, I am the only one still alive. You tiny apes also understand this feeling, right? “

 

[capi3101]

Not bad. Couple of points:

1. Which fighter is being tested? I'll refer to Freedom Flight here; apparently the Dralthi-II didn't have ejection seats (as Hunter found out), and that was set twenty years after the scene here. In WCRPG, I myself only put ejection seats on the Hhriss (a later design) and the Jalthi (because I knew at least one member of the family Redclaw flew one); the other WC1 era-craft don't have them in game.

2. I find it unlikely that a Varni female would have an egg exposed in a workplace as potentially dangerous as a shipworks, but I'll concede this one.

3. Freedom Flight establishes that hostage-taking is seen as a dishonorable act; Kirha is particularly disturbed when he hears the news that Thrakhath has taken Rikik and company hostage, IIRC. It's possible that this attitude doesn't extend to slaves, and then again it might - a Varni egg will someday become a Varni slave and all that...

 

[EmuMusicFan]

1. Which fighter is being tested?

2. I find it unlikely that a Varni female would have an egg exposed in a workplace as potentially dangerous as a shipworks, but I'll concede this one.

3. Freedom Flight establishes that hostage-taking is seen as a dishonorable act;

Thanks so much!

1. You hit the point.

Actually I'm not sure right now. In my idea, I hid the message that ejection systems have long been underappreciated in the Kilrathi fighter designs. However, this improved ejection system was actually developped for the high nobility, or rather, the Emperor's family. This could be a prototype, or even a sub-model developed specifically for specific nobel pilots. Do you have any good ideas?

In McAuliffe ambush, there was at least one ejection system worked.

"As if watching in slow motion he saw the Cat turning, throwing on reverse thrust, lining up for the killing shot. Another fighter swept past Geoff, firing a concentrated salvo straight into the enemy fighter, shearing off a wing. The Kilrathi fighter broke up, the pilot ejecting."

Action Stations, Chapter 14

(That was Prince Ratha.)


2. I was thinking of it this way: This R&D center was a very high end facility, so the Varnis here were actually sort of, say, "privileged" among the slaves. So they had facilities such as high quality lounges. Even without discussing things like compassion, Baron Vakka had the ideas exactly how to improve the effectiveness of R&D. Ki'ra should have many advanced ways of maintaining certain aspects of their superiority, so that the Emperor's clan could not easily weaken them. I even made an extended scenario that during the war of 2590, Ki'ra protected a group of Varni, a captured group of technology development specialists, as important private property.

3. I do need advice and guidance here.

I actually hadn't noticed the character of Haga Kaligara when I first conceived of this scenario. So originally the character here was a common barbaric imperial pilot with no particular setting, and he was preparing to "eliminate" the “interference” -- maybe a Varni baby.

But since the character here has been replaced with Haga Kaligara, and it is a plot for general audience, I should change the design: a baby to an egg, "eliminating" to hostage. This is a temporary adjustment and I think I need guidance and advice.

On the other hand, I agree with your speculation. From what I've read, many of them are adopting completely different moral standards within themselves and other species. For instance, Jak-tu is a normal ambush strategy, but assassination is seen as unethical, not even officially named. And there are lots of implicit rules at least in the high ranking aristocracies. For instance:

“Cubs, even those of royalty, were expected to do their duty, to draw blood and win their own honors. Granted, once blooded they could easily step aside and let others take the more dangerous risks, but this rite of passage was expected.”

Action Stations, Chapter 4

Also, I design the Haga Kaligara comes form a family managing commercial slaves to explain why his ideas are more flexible and not as dogmatic as the soliders of military families. And it's one of the reasons he survived more than 35 years to see the end of the war and accept Terrans.

 

[ChrisReid]

Actually I'm not sure right now. In my idea, I hid the message that ejection systems have long been underappreciated in the Kilrathi fighter designs. However, this improved ejection system was actually developped for the high nobility, or rather, the Emperor's family. This could be a prototype, or even a sub-model developed specifically for specific nobel pilots. Do you have any good ideas?

In McAuliffe ambush, there was at least one ejection system worked.

"As if watching in slow motion he saw the Cat turning, throwing on reverse thrust, lining up for the killing shot. Another fighter swept past Geoff, firing a concentrated salvo straight into the enemy fighter, shearing off a wing. The Kilrathi fighter broke up, the pilot ejecting." Action Stations, Chapter 14

(That was Prince Ratha.)

I think it might be good not to oversell the point about Kilrathi ships lacking ejection systems. They do bring up the Dralthi II's lack of ejection seat over and over, but the fact is that we see Kilrathi eject quite a few times throughout the series. Many do happen to be the high ranking Kilrathi, but that's because the high ranking Kilrathi are the ones the narrative is following.

 

[EmuMusicFan]

I think it might be good not to oversell the point about Kilrathi ships lacking ejection systems.

Got it. So I described it as an ejection system improvement rather than the implementation for the first time.