Part 128: Freya System, Vega Sector, Mission 2 (Story)

Freya System, Vega Sector
TCS Victory

After taking out Kilrathi space forces in Freya, the Victory closes in on the inhabited planet of Freya II to neutralise ground-based defences.

Flight Deck



Rachel's happy that she finally gets to work on a wing of Excaliburs (presumably, in between rebuilding the Thunderbolt I brought back last mission)...or at least that's where the conversation starts out (if it isn't obvious, the fighter behind her is an Excalibur), though it becomes apparent that the Chief's tired of hinting and has now decided to adopt the blatant approach.

: Finally I get to show what I can do.
: Oh, I don't know, Chief - I've been pretty impressed from the start.
: Yeah, well you haven't seen everything. Not by a long shot.
[she pauses, takes a deep breath, and continues]: You know, maybe we should get together and I'll show you the rest? You know, sooner or later, you and I have to let go of these ghosts. See if the parts fit anywhere else.
: And you think our parts might mesh?
: You never know until you take a test run.

Berths



(Jennifer MacDonald has mastered the art of looking good in still frames here - it's to stay more or less completely still for a few frames, so that the video compression doesn't blur all your features together. She and Mark Hamill seem to be the only two who ever do this. Not that having good still frames to screenshot was probably particularly high on Chris Roberts' priority list in 1994.)

News travels fast on a small light carrier like the Victory, it seems. Or maybe it's just a coincidence that Flint appears to be trying to nerve herself up for something as Blair walks in here:

: Going somewhere?
: No (laughs). Cleaning this out helps me clear my head sometimes.
: Been doing a little of that myself...[sigh]...Letting go of, I don't know, certain memories.
: That's good to hear. [long pause]
[hesitantly]: I haven't... wanted to pursue it while you were still hoping to find Angel, and I'm probably way out of line here, um, but... [she trails off]
: But...
: ...
: ...it seems like maybe... there's something between you and me?
: Perhaps it’s that way with all the female crew members on-board.
: Well, believe it or not, Flint, I'm not in the habit of flirting with every woman on-board.
: Well, sir, I'm not in the habit of flirting with every man on-board.
: But you do make exceptions?
: I have, yeah.

It's not as important a scene as some of the others (I don't have a problem with the romance subplot being in the game, but it doesn't seem to be an integral part of any of the characters involved), but Hamill and MacDonald do a really good job of this scene in lots of little ways, one of the best of which is Hamill subtly checking MacDonald out as she turns away from him at the end of the dialogue.

Rec Room

Blair checks the news, to see if there's an announcment about ConFleet brass having officially declared "flirt with your commanding officer" week, but the only bulletin is that the population of the Granita system is monumentally retarded:


Video (Youtube)

: Revolution in the Granita System tops our InfoBurst. Ad-hoc government officials in that system are preparing to withdraw from the Confederation and offer negotiated terms to the Kilrathi. "Coexistence, not conflict", is the new Granitan policy, according to a spokesman. Confederation officials are now meeting with the Granitans to dissuade them of this new approach, arguing that there is no evidence the Kilrathi have ever honored a negotiated peace.

I like to think this is actually a cunning piece of PsyOps propaganda aimed at holding the Confederation together in the face of military reverses, and that no revolution has actually happened. We're still less than a year out from the False Armistice, so the idea that the Kilrathi could be trusted to hold to a peace treaty is pretty much obvious nonsense.

Meanwhile, here's the killboard. Flint maintains her slim lead over Maniac as best of the rest, while Blair goes past the 300 kills mark:



Bridge

Four wingmen isn't really enough, is it? Especially when two of them are Flash and Maniac. Besides, we told Rollins we'd talk with Eisen about getting Vagabond released, and there's no time like the present. So here goes...



: Colonel? Something on your mind?
: Captain. The brig is no place for a pilot of Vagabond's skills.
: Oh, I agree. But the brig is a place for someone as undisciplined as he.

Well, that's a good start, maybe. Anyway, the conversation choice here is a matter of tactics. The game offers you the options try the hard sell and try the soft touch...I could be more descriptive, but I wouldn't want you to miss out on a pretty much blind choice that actually has consequences now, would I? It's all part of the true Wing Commander experience!

Mission Briefing
Briefing Room



Following our successful action last time out, Kilrathi opposition in Freya has been downgraded from a "slight problem" to a "glitch". Any more victories and Eisen will probably decide they can be defeated just by resetting his computer.

: Ah. No rest for the weary, Colonel. Let's get to it.
: As you wish, Captain.
: We've run into another glitch with this jump point to Kilrah: it's shielded. The shield generator is based on Freya II. Here's where we see how good these Excaliburs are in taking the fight to the ground. Colonel, I want you to lead the ground assault - destroy that generator. Good luck, Colonel.

Choose your own Blair!
Fighter is compulsory Excalibur, as it always is in planetary strike missions, and wingman is still compulsory nobody for reasons I don't even pretend to understand - it can't be that we don't have more than one Excalibur because the game would happily have let us deploy two F-103s last time out. I can think of another possible reason, but it gives away future plot a bit so I'll not discuss it right now. So that means the only choice is whether to go with the hard sell or the soft touch in our attempts to persuade a skeptical Eisen that Vagabond should be released from the brig.