Part 65: Prologue

Right then, time to get going. I'm back, and with a new thread title too (thanks, slowbeef).

August 2669, Kilrah System, Kilrah Sector; Vespus System, Enigma Sector; Sol System, Sol Sector; and Orsini System, Epsilon Sector
Prologue

Title, Credits and Introduction video (Youtube) with subtitles (also Youtube)

Kilrah, Kilrah System


: The enemy has struck at the heart of our Empire. A puny contingent of their soldiers has been captured here on Kilrah.



: This incursion was an act of desperation. The hairless apes now flail about, knowing that they are beaten.
: They have failed their race utterly.
: There will be no interrogation.
: Do what you will with them.
: Disintegration.
: Silence. My brethren, they are not warriors, but maggots.

[a certain amount of disintegration does indeed occur at this point]

: Only one among them is worthy of being treated as a warrior. The one they call Angel.



: Still defiant, Colonel Devereaux? If we were to offer co-existence with your kind. would you not accept it?
: The Kilrathi do not co-exist.
: No. And now that the tide has turned in this war, your defiance is a pathetic and useless gesture.
: You bore me, monsieur. Disintegrate me so I might join my comrades.
: Disintegration is not for you...your fate will be different.
spits in Thrakhath's face
: The human cannot appreciate the honor that I am about to bestow her. She is not only a great warrior...
: But her lair-mate is The Heart of the Tiger.

Vespus, Vespus System



: May they rest in peace.
(bitter): Peace... have we ever known anything like that, Paladin?
: Not for a long time. laddie.
: First the Tiger's Claw, now this.
: Enough! You were not to blame for either.
: Some would disagree.
[into comlink]: This is Colonel Christopher Blair. Report to Admiral Tolwyn.
: The wreckage of the Concordia has been located on Vespus off the Mistral Coast.
: Evaluation...Total loss.
: You can't live your life for the approval of one man.
: Any word from Angel?
: None.
: Is that the official line?
: I know how much she means to you, laddie.

Jupiter Station, Sol System



: ...Excuse me. sir. Did you say...the Victory?
: Is there something wrong with your hearing, Colonel?
: No, sir. It's just that I...
: The TCS Victory is a fine carrier with a long history of service to the Confederation.
: Yes, sir. A *very* long history, sir.
: Ship assignments aren't open to debate, Colonel. Of course. I realize that the accommodations may not be what you're quite used to.
: Well, sir I didn't mean to suggest that -
: The Victory will benefit greatly from having a wing commander of your stature and experience.
: Thank you, sir. But can`t we at least discuss the...



: Now that we have the Kilrathi on the run in both the Gardel and Morpheus systems, I can afford to shift you to the Victory in Orsini.
: What I am trying to tell you, Colonel, is that things are looking up. The Confederation has been making some very positive strides. Dismissed!
: Sir, uh, about my request-
(frowns): Yes, that came as a bit of a surprise to me. As you know, Colonel Devereaux's status is on a need-to-know-basis.
: Your shuttle is waiting.
(angrily): Yes, sir. *salutes, leaves*

Orsini System

Confederation Shuttlecraft



Newsreader: Despite recent losses in several densely-populated sectors, Confederation spokespeople insist that Humanity maintains the upper hand in its galactic struggle with the Kilrathi. However, our sources document a consistent underreporting of Kilrathi incursions, as well as civilian and industrial losses. There are even reports of Confed plans for a 'doomsday' evacuation of Earth, replanting the seeds of humanity in a distant galaxy. The question is - who would go? Who would be left behind? And, most importantly, who is making these decisions?

TCS Victory





: Welcome to the TCS Victory. Colonel.
: Thank you, Captain.
: Better known as "Tin Can Sally."



: It warms my heart to see you again. Colonel.
: But I must excuse myself now, as your duty here takes precedence over our catching up on old times.
: Thank you, Hobbes. We'll talk later.
: Yes. I know what you're thinking: She's no Concordia.
: Well. Neither is the Concordia, any more.
: Yeah, terrible loss. My sympathies. However, you're in my home now, and I'll expect you to wipe your feet every time you come in.
: I've been with the Victory most of my career. I was communications officer during her maiden voyage.
: Well. sir, I'll admit I wasn't looking forward to the assignment. But now that I see you have a pilot as fine as Ralgha nar Hhallas on your crew -
: Hobbes? Yes, he's my second-in-command.
(surprised): He's not flying?
: At his request... I know all about his exploits with, you, Colonel. But here no one will fly with a Kilrathi on his wing.
: What about his exemplary record? That must stand for something?
: It was his request.
: Captain Eisen, I'm not going to tell you how to run your ship. but I am going to insist that Hobbes is reinstated to the flight roster immediately.
: Well, that's admirable, Colonel, but who...
: I will, sir. I'll fly with him. He's the best wingman I`ve ever had.

We're now out of the intro and actually have control of Christopher Blair (though it's extremely rare anybody calls him anything other than "Colonel" throughout the game) on the Victory's hangar deck. For this bit I'm switching to screenshots only, and the video will come once you've made this session's choice. Before I do that, though, I sense that somebody has a question...

Hey! What happened to the Concordia?

It's never been entirely cleared up. We know from Fleet Action is that the Concordia was badly damaged at the battle for Earth, and Star*Soldier, the manual for Wing Commander: Arena, implies that stealth fighters had something to do with the loss. So the best guess is that the Concordia, harrying Kilrathi forces retreating from Sol after the battle of Earth, ran into a Strakha/Shok'lar ambush in the Vespus system, which, no longer in as good a shape as she had been during the Enigma sector campaigns, she was unable to fight off; a torpedo to her engines presumably caused the dreadnought to become trapped by Vespus' gravity well, which proved to be terminal.

Right, back to the show. As I was saying, we're on the Victory's flight deck, which looks like this: (that's our shuttle in the background - in general, that space is taken up by whatever ship you flew in last)



Right now the only real option we've got is to head up to flight control, where we catch up with our old buddy Hobbes (I'm planning to do character bios with the mission update - but if you want to know who Hobbes is, he's an old friend of Blair's from the Concordia days, and a prominent character in WC2, so check that LP out):



From here we've got a variety of options - we can head straight for our first mission briefing by clicking on the door below where it says "CV 40 VICTORY", save/load the game by clicking on the computers above Hobbes's head, run a simulator mission by clicking in the corner between Hobbes and the door, or of course talk to Hobbes by clicking on him. In the latter case:

: Welcome aboard, old friend. You're looking fine and fit. Does this war agree with you?
(chuckles): Yeah, like a pair of busted wing-flaps. But it's great to see you, buddy.
: Ah... and how is the fine pilot and comrade Angel?
: I don't have a clue. I haven't heard from her in a while. She's on some damn covert op for Tolwyn.
: But hey. I got good news for you. I put you back on the flight roster.
: But I requested...
: Never mind that. I want you with me on my first mission.
: Colonel... there are many brave and noble pilots here.
: Yeah, but when my life's on the line, I want a wingman I can trust.
: I shall try not to disappoint you, old friend.

(this conversation doesn't have a choice in it, so I could do the video now, but I want to keep them all together, so both choice and non-choice conversations will appear in video form after the thread has chosen Blair's attitude here).

Now, we could plunge straight into our first mission here, but let's check out the Victory instead. There's nothing else on this deck, so let's head for the lift and see what else we can find. Entering the lift brings us into contact with this gentleman (we can also see that the Victory has three accessible decks each of which have two rooms in; we're currently on the ground floor):



We can click on each deck to go to it, the lift doors to exit at the deck we're on, or we can talk to anybody who happens to be sharing a lift with us. We haven't met this guy yet, so let's allow him to introduce himself.

: Lieutenant Rollins, Comm Exec. Welcome aboard. You, uh, get the pep talk from the Captain yet?
: Something like that.
: Well, the good news is it won't take too long to shower off the bullshit around here.
: Captain Eisen seems to believe in his ship *and* his crew. That kind of attitude's good for morale.
: Yeah, well you haven't been monitoring transmissions like I have. If you did, you'd jump sector in a nano.

Blair ponders his response to that, and we've got the game's first choice. This is a recurring theme of the early part of Wing Commander III; the disassociation that can occur between front-line units and sector and theater commands a long way removed from this particular part of the action. So the question I have for you in this update is: does Christopher Blair trust High Command, or is he skeptical of their motives and therefore the information he gets from them?

Maybe a drink would help you think that over. Let's head for the bar, on the middle deck. Blair arrives just in time to see somebody who, if he's read his briefing notes, he'll recognise as Lieutenant Laurel Buckley, callsign "Cobra", slam down her glass and leave as Hobbes enters, glaring at both him and Blair as she does so. Hobbes is not happy about this; another of the Victory's air wing takes a shot at cheering him up (or taking advantage while he's down, one or the other):

: Hey, Hobbes, how 'bout goin' a round with me?
: Bet you a week's pay on one hand.
: Thank you, no.

After that we get a look at the bar:



The only person we can talk to here is the guy with the cards in the foreground (he's Lieutenant Winston Chang, "Vagabond"), though we've also got the options of checking out the killboard in the back-right corner of the bar or heading to the berths just to Vagabond's right. There's nobody to talk to in there right now, so I'll cover that some other time. The killboard hasn't carried over kills from other assignments, so the numbers are pretty low right now:



Time to say hi to Vagabond:
: Welcome aboard, sir. Wanna play a hand? Since you're the rookie on this boat, I'll let you call the game.
: Not much for protocol, are you?
: (shrugs) Formalities tend to be forgotten when you spend most of your time just tryin' to survive.
: What little spare time we do have, we fill up with other things besides practicing our salutes.
: Well, I guess you have to adapt to your surroundings.
: Don't I know that. It's an art, really.
: No wonder they call you Vagabond.
: Been doing your homework, I see. Yeah, I've knocked around some.
: And yet your combat file is... surprisingly brief. What's with the big gaps in your bio?
: Can I help it if Confed decides to blank my data?

And once again, Blair is invited to ponder what he thinks of the Confederation's motives regarding information it does (or does not) make available to him - so two conversations here, but it's pretty much the same choice. For now, it's time to check out the Bridge, and also increase the brightness so that we can see anything on it:



We can save the game here using the console in the mid-right, or check out gunnery control (which I have never seen control any guns but seems to fill the role of an observation deck most of the time in the plot) by going through the door on the left. But hey, who's that harrassing the bridge crew down in the bottom left corner? Why, it's our old "buddy" Maniac!

(to female comm officer, who shows no interest): No, I don't have anything better to do, OK?
: So I pulled into a tight loop, locked on to that cat's tail.
: Fired off a heat seeker... boom. Turned him into kitty litter.
: It was a...alright.
: Well, well, if it isn't the "Colonel". Uh-huh. I'm sorry I couldn't make your welcoming party.
: Well, I guess you had more pressing maneuvers to undertake, Maniac?
: When duty calls, I'm there. Women like the smell of success.
: Huh. You know, I'm surprised you haven't been blown out out the sky by now, Maniac...by friendly fire.
: Some people appreciate my flying style. I do what's necessary to win, OK? I suppose you still fly with one eye on the regs manual?
: I don't take stupid risks.
: Yeah, speaking of stupid, I also heard you put Hobbes back on the flight roster.
: My, my, word travels fast on this tub.
: Never understood what you saw in that cat.
: Simple. I need a wingman I can count on.
: You can't trust someone who'll kill their own kind.
: Who I choose as my wingman is my prerogative. It's a... privilege of rank.
(bitter): I'll bet you stay up late nights just polishing it.
: No, as a matter of fact. I have majors who do that for me.
: The difference in our rank is a formality. We both know who's better in the cockpit.
: Yeah. We do.
(turns back to the comm officer, who is still ignoring him): Let me tell you that story again. So...

Gunnery Control has a nice view of the stars but not much else:



We can save our game here, using the computer terminals on the lower right; and we can try to talk to the pilot, but when we do, this happens:

(voiceover): Colonel Blair, report to the briefing room immediately. Colonel Blair, report to the briefing room immediately.

Guess I'd better go there, then. But since there's no fighter or wingman choice for this mission (that is, none in the game - I couldn't give you one even if I wanted to), the briefing will be in the mission update. Before then, I need your opinions on the first choice - as a reminder, that's does Blair trust the information he gets from Confed or is he skeptical of their motives and suspects they are hiding things from him?