Weapons of the marines/army

Wulf

Vice Admiral
I got curious all of a sudden about the weapons of the ground forces involved in the WC Universe.

I remember seeing an artist's conception of a soldier on the cover of Action Stations, various blades that the Kilrathi had (swords and claw-activated weapons) from in-game cinematics and the movie, vaguely remember the WC4 energy rifles, and the Pilgrim Cross.

Does anybody have a compilation of the weaponry and armors of ground troops? It'd make some great reading material when it's slow at work :)
 
There's a part in End Run where Bear walks past some marines and it names some of the guns they had. The only one I can remember off the top of my head was something like a mass driver mini gun thing.
 
From "End Run":
M47 semiauto laser gun
Neutron mini gun (1000 bursts a minute)
Mass driver scatter gun (500 naillike flechettes in a single burst)
Stenton Drakon scoped sniper rifle
Matter/anti matter mine
Land vehicles: M-77 Light ground assault vehicle (personnel carrier), Walker (massive, armed like light corvette)
 
Sweet! It makes me wonder what else I missed in the novels, because there were times I'd read for so long, I'd start to drift into dreamland.
 
Wing Commander Academy shows us some good footage of marines fighting the Kilrathi at the beginning of episode....4 (maybe it was 5). It would appear they have some sort of laser rifle along with a heavy laser cannon that looks like the equivalent of a rocket launcher. As always, I'm sure Loaf can better instruct on these matters.
 
Small arms in the Wing Commander Universe is something that gets a lot of mention but hasn't really been catalogued properly yet. So... lets do it here!

I don't have Wing 3 or 4 with me, so someone else will have to go through those videos for the guns that appear. Here's what we see in Wing Commander Academy:

wca-marinesidearm.jpg


Several marines (including the Sergeant and Paz) have these sidearms in the Repleetah scene. They're never used, so we don't know exactly what they are - just that, based on the grip, they're different from the "Space Forces" sidearm seen throughout most of the series. They may be the same as the 'Navy Sidearm 2' (explained below).

wca-marinerifle.jpg


This is the weapon that most of the marines use in the Repleetah scene. It's also the "souvenir of the corps" that Paz keeps in his fighter, and when the Space Viking is under heavy guard this is the weapon shipboard security uses. They fire an energy blast, presumably a laser. The Kilrathi use a very similar gun at some points later in the series.

Edit - Paz actually calls this a laser rifle.

wca-marinecharge.jpg


Satchel charge! Paz uses one to blow up a Kilrathi tank.

wca-marinebazooka.jpg


One of the marines in the Repleetah sequence uses this to blow a Kilrathi tank in half. Fires an energy discharge of some sort.

wca-navyrifle.jpg


This is the rifle used by shipboard security on the Tiger's Claw in all instances other than when the Space Viking is being guarded. The security guards who try to subdue Maverick et. al. in Most Delicate Instrument are carrying these, and they're also the type of weapon used to subdue the Space Viking when he first arrives. They fire some sort of energy which stuns the victim.

wca-navysemi.jpg


This semi-automatic looking gun is seen very briefly in the first episode; the security guard at the Flight School is holding one.

wca-navysidearm.jpg


This is the standard Navy sidearm. It shows up in several episodes -- Burroughs uses it to disarm (kill?) a Marine in Red & Blue and the heroes carry them in all the 'ground' episodes.

wca-huntingrifle.jpg


This is the 'sniper rifle' which Paz carries with him in Lords of the Sky. It fires a laser and also has a powerful sniper scope. It also shows up, carried by both Maverick and Paz, in the last episode during their covert mission.

wca-navysidearm2.jpg


Here's the odd man out: in 'On Both Your Houses', Maverick, Archer and Maniac jump out of their fighters and draw these weapons... and then later in the episode they're carrying the square 'Navy sidearm' seen above. These could be the marine sidearms mentioned earlier in this post.

So... next, lets look at the Kilrathi weapons from Academy, and then maybe the movie guns?
 
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Allright, here's the cat weapons from WCA.

wca-catrifle.jpg


This is the most prevalent of three Kilrathi rifle designs on the show. Fires an energy burst.


wca-catsidearm.jpg


This Kilrathi sidearm shows up time and again - from Gharal threatening Blair with it in the second episode to Blair being given one by the defector in Price of Glory.

wca-cattank.jpg


The less said about the drill tanks the better, I think. The turret fires lasers.

wca-catrifle2.jpg


Here's a second Kilrathi rifle that only shows up in Walking Wounded. The Kilrathi boarding party uses these weapons, and they never fire.

wca-catrifle3.jpg


This is the second most popular Kilrathi rifle, which looks surprisingly similar to the human marine laser rifle. It shows up alone in some episodes and also mixed with the larger rifle type one on occasion. Fires lasers.
 
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End Run lists a small description of Confed Marine weaponry after Sparks and Bear solve the problem of where to store the Marine landers. (I don't have the book with me, I'll post the page number when I get home)
 
Dominator ran down the End Run guns earlier in the thread.

Movie: From the Confed Handbook, we know about various projectile weapons for shipboard operations: namely, the C-47 Assault Rifle and the C-244 Pistol. It also names the marine satchel charge the C-643.

The Kilrathi laser rifle in the movie is the Dor-Chak, which is said to be the equivalent of the Confed M-47.

I believe another weapon is named in the TPOF novelization. I'll thumb through that now.
 
Found it: "M-42 Machine Pistol", the sidearm carried by one of the marines who secures the Lexington's flight deck before Seether arrives.
 
Ah, here's something. These are the Marine rifles seen in Wing Commander 2:

wc2marine.gif

wc2marine2.gif


There's also the classic sidearm seen in Wing Commander 2 cutscenes, but I don't have a picture of that. Anybody?
 
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Thanks guys! Now I have a broader perspective of WCU...it makes me wish that Unreal Tournament mod got finished.

Also, I hope for the Kilrathi's sake that the laser/drill tank and their dental plan are unrelated :eek:
 
Hehe, oh, boy, oh, boy the drill tanks. You should have seen the Chat Zone threads we had back in 1996 when those showed up...
 
Here's a thing or two -- marines in the original game. I've got to say, I personally prefer the romantic red beret/special ops look over the super-armored space men in later products...

wc1brimstone.jpg

wc1firekka.jpg

wc1firekka2.jpg

wc1funeral.jpg

wc1rostov.jpg
 
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I know what you mean. The original look just seems natural in the way the cinematics are done. The armored ones look too much like Judge Dredd.
 
Don't forget the Marscorp MPR-27 mag-pulse guns which which fire projectiles at 'varying' speeds to avoid doing serious damage to equipment or hulls from False Colors - even if these are Landreich Marines using them, these weapons may also be 'standard issue' in Confederation boarding actions.
 
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