One More Won't Hurt

This week, the Victory moves into Alcor and Hyperion. The WC3 replay group will face a difficult choice as Hobbes makes a run for it. Also, don't miss the opportunity to fly drunk! It's a unique experience. Here are Lorien's notes from Loki and Alcor:

Most of the Victory is celebrating the test firing but there's one noticable exception. I find Hobbes stargazing in the Gunnery Deck. I imagine he's in two minds about the Behemoth and try to reassure him that he won't be alone after the war is done, but Hobbes disagrees with me. He seems torn up inside but I'm glad to know that my friendship has helped him get through.

Hobbes and I launch in Arrows to defend the Behemoth as we jump to the Kilrah system. We arrive to find the Behemoth intact but under attack by Paktahns. Hobbes and I afterburn to its assistance and keep the first wave from causing any damage. As we're finishing off the last bomber, however, any wing of Paktahns must have snuck in close and delivered their torpedoes to the weak spots on the Behemoth, destroying the Confederation's last hope. As the Behemoth detonates a new blip appears on my radar. It's Prince Thrakhath and he has a message for me. He relates Angel's last moments to me. Her capture and presentation before the Imperial Court and his eventual execution of her with his own claws. He then taunts me by challenging me to a duel, but Rollins informs me that the Victory will be jumping out of the system in 90 seconds. Torn between revenge and survival, I opt for both, launching the Arrow's entire formidable complement of missiles at Thrakhath before turning for the Victory. I'm gratified to hear the Prince's speech cut-off mid sentence as my missiles impact on his fighter and force him to eject. I just wish I could turn around and put some laser bolts into his ejection pod but I manage to make it to the Victory before the jump. At least I got some manner of revenge for Angel.

It's a very glum Admiral Tolwyn who leaves the Victory in Alcor. He transfers command back to Eisen but tells him that he thinks the Victory is a leaky ship. I turn away, worried that I know who the leak is but not wanting to let anything slip out to betray a shipmate. Eisen is at least covered in this disaster by not being command of the Victory at the time. Tolwyn departs from the flight deck with a warning that the fight is only going to get harder from here.

• Community Replay - General Discussion
• WC1 Week 1 - Enyo, McAuliffe, Gimle, Gateway, Cheng-du
• WC1 Week 2 - Brimstone, Dakota, Kurasawa, Rostov, Port Hedland, Hubble's Star
• WC1 Week 3 - Venice, Hell's Kitchen, Alternate Paths
• Secret Missions Week 1 - Goddard, Border Zone, Midgard
• Secret Missions Week 2 - Jotunheim, Bifrost
• Secret Missions Week 3 - Valgard, Vigrid
• SM2: Crusade Week 1 - Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 2 - Corsair, Near Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 3 - Corsair, Charon
• WC2 Week 1 - Gwenydd, Niven
• WC2 Week 2 - Niven, Ghorah Khar
• WC2 Week 3 - Novaya Kiev, Heaven's Gate
• WC2 Week 4 - Heaven's Gate, Tesla
• WC2 Week 5 - Enigma
• WC2 Week 6 - K'tithrak Mang
• SO1 Week 1 - Pembroke
• SO1 Week 2 - Rigel
• SO1 Week 3 - Ghorah Khar 1
• SO1 Week 4 - Ghorah Khar 2
• SO2 Week 1 - Canewdon 1
• SO2 Week 2 - Canewdon 2
• SO2 Week 3 - Canewdon 3
• SO2 Week 4 - Ayer's Rock
• WC3 Week 1 - Orsini
• WC3 Week 2 - Tamayo, Locanda
• WC3 Week 3 - Blackmane, Ariel/Delius
• WC3 Week 4 - Caliban, Torgo
• WC3 Week 5 - Loki, Alcor
• WC3 Week 6 - Freya, Hyperion

Star*Soldier Gloss: Page 14

This is the Star*Soldier gloss for the second pilots page:

CONCEPT: See the previous post!

REFERENCES-

• "Kyle 'Sandman' Travers" - Travers was the male replacement for Kyra Hunter(discussed on the previous page), The story discussed here (General Drakas, Steltek weapon, Nephilim relics) are all elements of his cancelled game.
• "Merc, Inc." - A 'Privateer Online' concept proposal. Merc, Inc. was the 'lesser' mercenary group which would provide cheap AI wingmen for the player.
• "Anthony 'Hard-Luck' Yee" - Here's a case where I pre-emptively pussed out with regards to artwork. Hard-Luck is one of the Wing Commander CCG redshirts and instead of using his card artwork (which I have to assume belongs to Mag Force 7 or the artist) I used a Wing Commander II background shot. Wouldn't it have been cool to see a CCG image in here, though? Oh well; at least it got a nice reference. The back story refers to the somewhat problematic theory that the 'extra' pilots in the CCG all flew off the Victory (confidential to fans who want a 'new' fighter design to play with - check out the background of 'Wizard's card...).
• "Jenna 'Havoc' Hathaway" - Hah! The Privateer pleasure planet bartender clone! I was originally just going to use her image and then... well, time makes fools of us all. The name comes from the absolutely horrible direct-to-video movie Havoc, starring Anne Hathaway.
• "Qhargha 'Baron Sihkag' nar nar Sihkag" - The Kilrathi pilots were more of a pain given the lack of surviving characters and third-tier players to borrow from. Furthermore, there aren't many 'unnamed' pieces of Kilrathi artwork... so I had to go with VDUs instead of talking heads. Still, I am pleased that they let me provide some background regarding the current state of the (former) Empire. When I did the list of AI names I included 'Baron {Clan}' for each of the noble clans, as it was a reference Wing fans could recognize (again, not so many familiar Kilrathi callsigns to borrow from). This let me explain what that meant (in all honesty I had no idea at the tmie). Qhargha is the clan leader of the Sihkag clan, lowest of the eight most noble from Fleet Action. He's a new character, apparently replacing Buktag'ka who held the position in that book. His image is the Kilrathi capital ship VDU from Wing Commander II.
• "Dakhath 'Deathstroke' nar Caxki" - Deathstroke was a Kilrathi ace from Wing Commander III (you can only encounter him in the 3DO version, though he's listed in all the manuals). This is my attempt to explain why he had a very similar name and biography as Dakhath "Deathstroke" nar Sihkag from the original Wing Commander (ie, shooting down ejected pilots).
• "Sihkag Warrior" - Dakhath nar Sihkag, from the original Wing Commander.
• "Vega Campaign" - That's Wing Commander I.