Part 79: Locanda System, Epsilon Sector, Mission 1 (Story)

Jason Bernard does indeed do a good job with Eisen. Most of the cast actually turns in a pretty decent performance; Vaquero and Cobra aren't exactly great but then you hardly see them all that much, and Ginger Lynn never really does anything to suggest Rachel has any depth to her, but then I think that's how she was supposed to come across. At the other end of the scale of course there's Malcolm McDowell, whose Tolwyn is exactly how everyone (well, everyone I've ever talked to anyway) always imagined Tolwyn to be. I also really like Jennifer McDonald in a lot of her scenes (though I'm not always that enthused by how Flint's written), like the one coming up now.

Locanda System, Epsilon Sector
Bridge, KIS Hvar'kann

The Victory is ordered to the Locanda system, where a large Kilrathi raiding group is reported to be massing, though it has not taken any positive action yet. Why not? Well, it turns out that Kilrathi high command is preoccupied by working out how to cultivate a moustache to twirl when your entire body is covered in hair...



: Tell me this system continues to be worth raiding. I fail to see it.
: The natural resources are utterly depleted. It remains a source of slave labour, but the population has never been particularly malleable.
: Slaves we have no shortage of. The Terrans want this system? they shall have it.
: Nevertheless, my liege, I bristle at the thought of... They will call it... What is that strange word they have?
: Surrender. No, it is not that. This system shall serve as a message to the apes. Since it is no longer of use to us, we shall render it useless to them as well.
: As always, my liege, a wise choice.

Back on the Victory, Flash is making good on his bet to transfer to our flight wing permanently, and requests to join our cadre of wingmen. He even manages to stop being a jerk...almost. His Excalibur, by the way, has apparently gone back to R&D or something since we're not going to see one again until much later.



: Colonel. I'd like to apologise for some of the things I said.
: Some?
: Well... I still think I could have beat you two out of three.
: Care to go at it again?
: No. From now on, I'll prove it to you out there. That is if you think I'm good enough to be your wingman.
: You're on the roster. You'll get your shot, same as everyone.
: Thank you.

Rec Room

Here's the new killboard after I lost the savegames and had to replay to get back to where we were. Same number of kills for me (plus the one ace - that's Flash, though I personally think he's more of a knave at best), a fair few more for the rest of the flight wing though.



Barracks
Cobra shares a rumour she's heard about the Kilrathi's purpose in this system. This will actually be a running theme throughout the game - everyone seems to know more about what's going on than Blair does, especially his subordinates. I guess he never reads his briefing papers or something. It does get slightly irritating after a while. I can see that if you're developing the plot exclusively through conversations with other people and not through giving the player e-mails to read or similar, this is in danger of happening, but having Blair bring up the new element occasionally wouldn't hurt, surely?



: Colonel. You know the Kilrathi may be using bio-weapons here?
: First I've heard of it.
: Kilrathi's been preparing these kinds of weapons for years. If they're not deployed here, they will be somewhere else.
: Do you mind telling me how it is you know so much about the Kilrathi?
: It doesn't matter if you believe me.

That's not exactly a positive thing for someone to be saying to a superior officer, so Blair's response and our overall attitude towards Cobra is our choice for this update. Is Blair more curious about what Cobra's not saying or irritated that she's keeping things from her commanding officer?

Gunnery Control

We encounter Flint staring out at the stars as usual, though this time she's looking at a familiar sight, and remembering. I'm really impressed by how well Jennifer Macdonald does wistfulness in this scene; less so with the clumsy change of topic tacked on the end of it to give you a conversation choice. I'm not going to throw this one open to the thread, though, because a) Blair expresses the same thought no matter which option you pick, just in a different way and b) we've already established that we're going to be accomodating of Flint's insecurity.



: I flew here once. A lot of places to hide in this system. This your first time?
: This is my home system. My father taught me everything he knew about flying here. He'd been planning to pass it all on to my brother, but the Kilrathi had other plans.
: I'm sorry.
: That's all right. Everyone's lost someone, right? They don't give you medals for it.
: You haven't been back since?
: <shakes head>
: Which one was home?
: [pointing] That one.
: It was a beautiful world. Dark purple nights and burnt moons that chased each other across the sky. The insects would sing - different serenades, depending on how close the moons were. My brother and I would stay up, listening. Do you remember the time before the war?
: I don't let myself.
: Sir, I have scores to settle here. I can't be on the sidelines for these engagements. I need to be part of what goes down.
: Flint... when you fly, are you gonna be my wingman, or your brother's wingman?

It's unlikely Flint would remember the time before the war in a literal sense. Humanity's first contact with the Kilrathi was in 2629, the Terran Confederation officially declared war on the Empire of Kilrah in 2634, and it's now 2669. Flint is described as "just one side or the other of 30" by the shooting script, and I believe in the novel her age is indirectly given as 28, so she was born after the war started. But for a native of someone like Locanda which is a front-line world now but hasn't always been, the question would make sense as meaning something like "before the war came to where I lived".

Mission Briefing
Briefing Room

Eisen explains that he has no real idea what the Kilrathi are planning to do, but on general principles it's probably best to try and force them away from the inhabited regions of the system.


I am rather rapidly running out of bits of this scene to capture for this shot without repeating myself. Fortunately Blair and Eisen shake things up a bit this time by exchanging salutes.

: Let's get down to business, shall we?
: I'm ready, sir.
: The Kilrathi intentions in this area remain unclear. While we continue to gather intelligence, your task will be to corral the cats wherever possible. We wish, particularly, to shut off their access to the populated planets and this asteroid field. Let's try to put these Kilrathi raiders out of business permanently.
: Ready to go, sir.
: I like that enthusiasm. Dismissed.

Choose your own Blair!

The conversation choice relates to Cobra's unwillingness to explain...well, pretty much anything really. Is Blair more curious or irritated by this? As for wingmen, I believe we've yet to fly with Vaquero, Cobra and, of course, Flash. Anybody with a preference as to which of those three to take should feel free to express it. I was planning to take the Thunderbolt out for a spin since it's quite a while since we've done that, and fuck the Hellcat (also, there's a Kilrathi destroyer on our route).