Part 70: Orsini System, Epsilon Sector, Mission 3 (Story)

Sort of, but you get more or less the same effect just by holding down the fire button since the T-bolt depletes its gun bank pretty rapidly and after that full guns will just fire whatever you have enough energy left to use. And trying to cycle guns while actually aiming at stuff (even if you have the G key mapped onto your joystick) would get tiring, I think.


I never played WC3 until some years after it came out, on I think probably a Pentium II, so people complaining about the load times in this game always makes me do a bit of a doubletake before remembering that I was fairly late arriving to most of the WC series.

Anyway, time for a story update, such as it is. Not a whole lot happens between these two missions.
Orsini System, Epsilon Sector
Rec Room, TCS Victory

As always, the bar is the place to be after a successful mission.



From here, we can sit back and admire our progress up the killboard (in a metaphorical sort of sense, anyway, the actual physical order isn't going to change):



Fourth place, not bad after two missions. I can't quite remember how long it takes to get to the top of the killboard in WC3, but I don't think it's a particularly long time.

And, of course, chat to Rachel. Blair's always got on well with mechanics, after all.



: Hey, Colonel.
: Hey!
: Pull up a chair.
: Thanks, Chief.
: Let me know if I'm out of line here, but the word is there's a test pilot flying in on one of the new Excaliburs. Is that true?
: Oh, Command doesn't tell me everything.
: I hope it's true. I can't wait to get my hands dirty with one of those pups.
: You really like your job, don't you?
: I just hope the test pilot's not some priss who won't let me touch his equipment.
: I gotta give it to you, you really get to the point.
: Well, I never really cared much for grey areas. That's why I do what I do. Either an engine part works or it doesn't.
: Machines don't lie.
: Not as much as people do, anyway.
: Aren't you being a little hard on people?
: They gotta pass inspection. Same as anything else. 'course, I got certain hours for that.
: And do we keep this schedule posted, Chief?
: Only for a select few, sir.

The Excalibur, huh? Well, given that most Confed fighters have a naming theme of medieval weapons, that would be an appropriate name for the best one ever, wouldn't it? Of course so far, Wing Commander superships haven't really lived up to their advance billing. Well, the Morningstar just about managed to be the best ship going, but it was hardly super. We'll wait and see on this new one, I guess.

There's no other conversations this update, so it's time for the

Mission Briefing
Briefing Room


: Ready to get down to business?
: Yes, sir.
: Confed has a cargo ship loaded with med supplies that must be escorted to this jump point.
: Unfortunately, news of this shipment somehow leaked out and you will undoubtedly come under Kilrathi attack.
: Good Luck, Colonel.

New Cast Member
Chief Rachel Coriolis

Callsign: Not a pilot. Usually just "Chief".
Played by: Ginger Lynn Allen (vaguely if your workplace objects to you reading lists of adult films, which is basically what Ginger Lynn's IMDB page is)
Current role: Chief Tech, 36th Fighter Wing, TCS Victory
Previously: Unknown

Apparently Chris Roberts liked the character of Sparks so much from WC2 that he decided to do it again. Young, female, chief mechanic and part-time counsellor. There's a bit more background to Rachel than we had with Sparks, simply because there's a bit more room for character development in WC3 than there was in WC2. But they are functionally identical - one almost might wonder if Christopher Blair makes sure that his flight wings always have young, female mechanics assigned to them. Rachel serves as someone for Blair to talk to who isn't a pilot, and to add a certain amount of irreverence and distaste for the rigid military hierarchy to the storyline - she's got a lot of respect for Blair for what he's done, but not much based on who he is.

For Rachel, the war is mostly dealt with by ignoring it. It causes fighters to need fixing; that's about as far as she tries to let it affect her. There's a reason for that, of course, but we'll get there when we get there. She's not a particularly complicated character - like she says, she's not much for grey areas, and that includes the influence of the past on the present. Things that happened, well, happened.


Choose your own Blair!
No conversation choices to be made, and I want to round out the fighters by picking the Arrow for this mission, so all you've really got left to pick is my wingman (I'd do missile loadout, but the Arrow can only carry HS and IR, which isn't much to choose from - a real pity, because an Arrow with DFs would be awesome, presumably why it isn't allowed). I don't fly with the same pilot twice in a row, so the options are Hobbes, Vaquero, Cobra, and Maniac.