Part 145: Kilrah System, Kilrah Sector, Mission 3 without wingmen (featuring Jade Star as guest commentator) and Winning Ending (Story)

I figured we could just have it again when I was explaining the easiest way to lose the game by accident in the last mission, since that's where it would actually make sense to have that conversation. They might lack a bit of the surprise factor now, though...

Kilrah System, Kilrah Sector
Covert Ops Theta Class-II Depot

The remains of Lancelot flight repair and re-arm their Excaliburs, Blair's being fitted with the Temblor bomb for the final strike on Kilrah. With the Excalibur Wing's presence now known, the Kilrathi scramble all available fighters in an attempt to form an impenetrable shield around their homeworld.

Cut Content

There is another cutscene on the game CDs, but it doesn't play at this (or any other) point. It's possible that's just a game bug, or it might be a deliberate decision - Blair's words here are a bit highflown given he's talking to his girlfriend and nobody else at this point. I'd have it for you as full video, but as far as I can see the video (both on my CDs and the GoG version) doesn't have any sound, so there's not much point. I delayed the update in the hope that I could get CIC to furnish me with a working version (it doesn't seem to be on Youtube), but no luck so far. Here's the new background, though:



: I read somewhere that the darkest of times supposedly brings out the best in men. All I know is this is what we’ve been waiting for since the very beginning – the opportunity to put the Kilrathi out of business permanently. Oh, and one last thing. Should we encounter one Lord Ralgha… Hobbes… he’s mine. Good luck.

Though I love the return of "Oh, and one last thing" here, probably Blair's single most common line in the game. If Hobbes is dead, Blair says "What else can I tell you? I want you to fly with everything you've got." instead of "Oh, and one last thing...."

There's also a couple of TNC newsvids I've not done; one I'll save for the post-game wrapup post because it's practically a preview of the WC4 plot, but here's the rest (apologies for any duplicates; I don't think I've done any of these before, but my screening was just "upload all of the ones I wasn't sure about to Youtube and then not write about the ones it said were duplicates" so I'll have missed some if they went somewhere else):



: According to pilots in numerous sectors, the Kilrathi have ceased the time-honored practice of taking ejected pilots prisoner by plucking them out of space's vacuum and tractoring them aboard support ships. Instead, they have been firing on the defenseless flyers, murdering them in cold blood. (Polsy)

We've heard this old tale often enough by this point in the Wing Commander series to dismiss it as propaganda even if it actually is true (and it might be, based on Fleet Action, the Kilrathi basically declared a war of genocide after the False Armistice) - Confed's said it so many times everyone probably ignores it by now. Yes, yes, bloodthirsty savages, we get it.

: Despite Confederation denials, TNC now has independent confirmation that the population of Locanda IV has been all but wiped out -- victims of Kilrathi germ warfare... And unconfirmed reports suggest that this is not the first time the Kilrathi have unleashed bioweaponry on Confederation civilians. (Polsy)

Should be obvious why you didn't hear this one before; I didn't fail that mission, even if Blair does in canon. This doesn't play even if you get Locanda IV bio'ed; but obviously it would have done before all the Infobursts were cut.

: And now, this week's killed in action (lights dim) (Polsy)

The script shows this one was originally supposed to play after the Alcor missions; it would be accompanied by a text crawl with a variety of names on it including "Lt. Laurel Buckley" and "Col. Jeannette Deveraux" (that's Cobra and Angel, for those of you who are slow).

: And here's one for the personnel file. Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn of Confederation High Command has taken a leave of absence for what’s reported to be ‘personal reasons.’ Our sources speculate that the Admiral has of late been suffering undue stress and depression, due to recent downturns in the war effort. This is Barbara Miles, signing off for TNC. (Polsy)

After the loss of the Behemoth. I'm in favour of this one being cut; it's not Tolwyn's style at all. Enforced medical leave due to a stroke brought on by overwork, yes. This, no. It also kind of contradicts something we're going to see in the final set of videos, too.

: This is Barbara Miles with another TNC InfoBurst. Reports have surfaced that captured Confederation transports and freighters have been used by the enemy as decoys, luring in unsuspecting fighter pilots who are then ambushed by the enemy. (Polsy)

Designed to precede the mission where this happens, obviously. That was back in Tamayo, I think, before we even saw an Excalibur for the first time, and probably before I'd realised I ought to include these in the LP.

Mission Briefing
Cockpit of Blair's Excalibur



: Told you you’d be seeing this old face again. By now, the T-Bomb load-out is complete. You’re going to have to lay it in there sweet and easy. As this tape plays, the co-ordinates are being downloaded to you. It’s in your hands now, son. Send ’em all to hell.

Choose your own Blair!
Not much Blair left to choose, now. But what you can help me with is what, if anything, I do with Privateer. There's no way I could get through the entire game myself as an LP - I just don't know enough about it to come up with content for 30 or so more videos. There's a few things I could do, though. One is just to say "screw it, I was only doing it to fill in a gap, let's just move on to WC4". That gets you to WC4 fastest, obviously, for anybody who wants to see that, so if there's no real demand for Privateer I won't finish it. The next option, going up in terms of the amount of effort involved, is that I could stream it (presumably over several sessions). Well, I say I could stream it; never having done a stream before, I have no real idea how what's needed to be able to do that. But let's assume I could. Finally, I could attempt to finish the LP in the normal fashion, but this would require guest commentators who do actually know Privateer in order to actually be able to say something vaguely intelligent about the game. I was talking this over with Jade Star after our latest no-wingman video and he said he's up for that; if Olesh or anyone else who thinks they know Privateer pretty well wants to join in as well that'd probably work (three people per video being about as many as is likely to be sensible). This would likely take a very long time (I'm guessing probably around a year); there's a lot of game content left to do.