Wingnuts Help Themselves Out of a Jam Share on Bluesky Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

This week Crius.net posters blazed through the Pasqual and Peleus Systems in their community replay of Wing Commander 4. Battle hardened Wingnuts fought alongside the Kilrathi and took out the jammer that was crippling Border Worlds communications. Here's DaveO with some recollections and screenshots.
Peleus 1: Three Border Worlds Banshees are flying in the Peleus system on patrol when their ship systems get disrupted. A pair of Excaliburs comes from behind the Banshees, and one Banshee is quickly eliminated. A Banshee pilot manages to get a missile lock on an enemy Excalibur, but the missile takes out a fellow pilot’s Banshee. One of the Excaliburs swoops in and finishes off the final Banshee.

On the Intrepid, Sosa relays a communication from Wilford to me. The Vice Admiral tells me that there are ships being lost in Peleus without evidence of an enemy behind it. Due to the importance of Peleus to provide fuel for our forces as well as its strategic location, we are to investigate the area. I tell the navigator to jump to Peleus, and we get a surprise. All of our ship systems go offline, and even emergency systems are useless. The Intrepid just got a big bull’s eye painted on it since we’re sitting ducks. Maniac points out the obvious about having to fly blind without way of knowing what is waiting for us. I point out that we’re not entirely blind, but we’ve already found out why ships are being lost in this area. Something is interfering with ship systems including our fighters, so we need to find the cause of this disruption quickly or risk an attack we’ll have little chances to fend off. Maniac wants a refund for this little tour of Peleus, and I’m sure there will be opportunities for paybacks on both sides. We manage to pull to the edge of this jamming ‘black hole’, but it does not help matters much. The only choice left is to do a search and destroy. Due to the missile guidance issues, dumb fire missiles will be the only options. I talk to Pliers before I take off, and he recommends increased power to engines since the armor for the fighters has been increased. I go with his recommendation, and pick an Avenger due to its durability.

Turbo and I take off, and instantly the Avenger is a life saver. An enemy fighter runs right into my rear while I’m trying to shake him off at the first nav point. The second nav point is clear, so we head on to the third. There are multiple enemy fighters here, but it’s hard to sight them and keep them in view with the sluggish Avenger. I manage to get lucky after doing evasive maneuvers and see an enemy Bearcat heavy fighter. I get on its tail, and destroy it with several direct hit blasts. I don’t see any other fighters, so we go onwards to the fourth nav point. This area is also empty, so we head to a fifth nav point area. More Bearcats are here, and I sight one and engage it. It’s destroyed by multiple shots, but my Avenger is critically damaged. I can’t afford to take many more hits. I’m doing some evasive swerving in an attempt to see the other Bearcat, but Turbo pitches in and destroys the fighter. At the next nav point, Sosa manages to make communication to tell me about enemy forces approaching the Intrepid’s position. Turbo and I head for that area, and there are two Excaliburs here. I decide to try my luck, and I get one of the enemy fighters with a dumb fire missile. I get behind the other one, and finish him off with my guns. The pilot ejects, and Decker comes on the communication line thinking the pilot may know something to help us find the source of our ship system troubles. I pull the ejection pod of the pilot into my ship with the tractor beam, and head back to the Intrepid. Sosa tells me that we’ll be questioning the pilot as soon as I land.


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