What happens, you ask, if I don't WANT to defect from Confed? The
apocryphal answer is below, in reality as virtually true as can be
imagined. The legendary "7th CD" carried out this path: perhaps someone
somewhere lucky enough to have this rare disk can upload it to the net
for your retrieval: I saw it once on talk.bermuda.triangle, but my
connection went down after I'd gotten only 457 meg of the file.
Of course you must hunt down Eisen and the Intrepid. Having escaped you
in Silenos, the Lexington follows the Intrepid through the jumppoint
into Orestes. You must fight through Hawk and Panther, each of whom
challenges you, the "Heart of the Tiger" over the comm, then as you
approach the Intrepid Maniac switches sides again, helping you and
Seether destroy the Intrepid as Eisen broadcasts desperate pleas for
assistance. Back on the Lexington, Paulsen congratulates you with all
his special charm, and remarks it looks like you'll soon have the
chance to finish with an old foe. Seether, meanwhile, gives Maniac a
thumping, coldly mocking the cringing double-turncoat for his cowardice.
He tells Paulsen not to punish Maniac for his initial defection: "He'll be more useful out there as a target for the Border Worlds scum to waste their shots on" Afterwards a chastened, battered and bleeding Maniac tells
you that as soon as he'd landed on the Intrepid with Eisen he realized
he'd made a huge mistake. "The captain was dead, most of the crew was
breathing vacuum, the ship was a total wreck. No way the Maniac
wasn't gonna bail that scrap yard first chance!"
Your next mission brief is to fly against the Kilrathi base in
Pasqual: this time you get to hear Melek bitterly denouncing you for your
treachery and inconstancy as you toast him and his furry comrades
inside their exploding base, which was defended by a mix of Kilrathi Dralthi
and BW fighters. Admiral Tolwyn comes aboard the Lexington, bringing
you reinforcements in the form of the new Dragon fighters, and he
praises you for your destruction of Eisen and Melek and urges you to
work closely with Seether, saying 'unimaginable' rewards are available
for loyal service. Its a bit unclear if he means service to Confed,
or to him personally. He cuts short your qualms about flying in unmarked
fighters (the Dragons): clearly you have blown it once again with the
prickly Admiral, who tells you to "wise up, Colonel, you only get so
many chances to play for the winning team"
Next you fly in the Telamon system, defending the jumppoints from
incoming BW forces as planet FT-957 is dusted with the Gen-Select
weapon. From now on, all your missions will include an offer from BW
forces for you to defect, doing so (after killing Seether & any other
wingmen) will go to the losing endgame described below.
You land amidst a scene of chaos and carnage, burning and bodies and
wrecked equipment. A harried woman identifying herself as Lt. Sosa
greets you. "We could have used your help, Colonel...when it would
have made a difference"
"The things I've seen..." you reply, "I have to stop those bastards!
They don't care who they kill!"
"It's too late," Sosa replies, "We just sent out our surrender.
There's no-one left to fight for."
There is a brief trial scene. You are shown nobly defending the
values of freedom and the strength of the human spirit from the stand, vowing
to "fight on until simple decency and the true honor of the warrior
prevail." The final scene shows your corpse, entangled in barbed
wire, dusty swirls of wind tugging at your hair as bored guards are heard
discussing your fate, only their jackboots and the muzzles of their
rifles visible. "Another worthless mutt trying to break out...saves
us the trouble of feeding his useless mouth." "A flyer from the looks of
those clothes." "Die in the sky, die in the dirt," the first guard
replies, "the weak have to be taught their place sooner or later."
However, its still possible to win on this path. Tolwyn arrives with
the Vesuvius, announcing that the main BW fleet has been run to
ground, and you will lead the assault on Vice-Admiral Wilford's "pathetic"
force of criminal insurgents. Its clear though that the Admiral favors
Seether over you, and you understand that Seether's job is to see that
you carry out Tolwyn's orders to the letter. First you must open a
jumppoint, destroying 3 cap ships and some 24 fighters in 6 waves.
The next mission sees you through into Circe for the climactic battle,
destroying the assembled BW cruisers and carriers: you fly with a
loadout including two flashpaks. Afterwards, Seether orders you to
destroy two fleeing transports, one of which has Sosa pleading for
mercy over the comm, the other transport has Pliers cursing and reviling
you. "Heart of the Tiger," he sneers, "at least the damn Pussys bothered to
eat what they killed" Maniac goes crazy and begins firing wildly at
all around him, shouting incoherently about murderers, and Seether
quickly flames his ship, then deliberately blasts Maniac's escape pod,
laughing and telling you he'll do the same to you if you don't follow
his orders. Its possible to fight Seether at this point, and even
kill him, but endless waves of fighters launch from the Vesuvius until you
die, or eject, in which case you get an abbreviated version of the
losing scenes. Should you go ahead and destroy the refugee
transports, however, you go to this path's winning ending.
A guard is reporting to you, "Commandant Blair, Re-education Camp 34
detainee Transport reporting as ordered, sir. 200 prisoners died in
transit, 75 prisoners are too sick to work and require "special"
treatment." "Acknowledged" you reply, signing off on a proffered
form. You watch the two files of dejected, slumping prisoners in torn and
filthy clothing slowly shuffle through the gates of your camp. You
see some faces...is that Rollins? Could that woman with the hacking cough
be Rachel? Fadeout.
Oh well. At least it beats blowing up planets-full of sentient
beings.
Copyright 1996, Craig A. Lambert
All Rights reserved, revered and redundant
