Part 83: Blackmane System, Vega Sector, Mission 1 (Story)

Locanda System, Epsilon Sector
Flight Deck, TCS Victory

Flint (by her own admission) kind of sucks at saying thank you. Also, the writers kind of suck at explaining her motivations. Jennifer Macdonald does a decent job putting a lot of bitterness across, but Blair doesn't appear to care why she went rogue and even prevents Flint attempting to explain. What the hell? Character development wasn't a priority here? I mean, even if the reasons are obvious enough it's the sort of thing you want to hear in her own words.



: You might have died out there, chasing after me.
: I might have.
: Well, I guess the Captain ordered you?
: No. That was my call to make.
: Then I guess I should be impressed. [pauses, laughs] I've never been very good at saying thank you.
: Hey, you're welcome.
: I want you to understand...
: We don't fly suicide missions. We fight this war to live, not to die. You've got to fly with your head, Flint. Not your heart.
: You've never done that, sir? Fly with your heart?
: The day I do that, I expect a stiff dressing-down, mister. That's an order.
: Sir? My father didn't read his children bedtime stories, he read to us from the regs manuals. I know there are certain actions necessary...

That line always made me wonder if, in some never-seen first draft, Flint was Admiral Tolwyn's daughter. This would have contradicted a whole ton of things about the Admiral which I think had already been stated in the novels, but would have been totally awesome (though it would necessitate a bit of a rewrite for the later sections). Also, that's pretty terrible parenting, though I guess it's an imaginative way to get a kid to go to sleep. Anyway, regs do require "certain actions" when someone decides to conduct the war off their own bat, but we're the CAG and it's our call, so the question for this update is ground Flint or give her a break?

Obviously enough, if we ground Flint she won't be available to fly as a wingman (until the option comes up to reinstate her, anyway).

Either way, the Victory's job in Locanda is done, and so we're ordered to the Blackmane system, where a Confederation base is under Kilrathi attack.


Blackmane System, Vega Sector
TCS Victory, Flight Operations

Rollins auditions for the post of morale officer. Blair tells him to stick to the day job.


(voiceover news broadcast): ...a blitzkrieg Kilrathi assault has taken the lives of thousands...
: Still buying the fantasy that we're winning the war?
: Why the hard-on for the opposite take?
: Because you'd have to be blind not to see that things are going bad, and getting worse.
: Excuse me?
: Fact: We haven't had shore leave in months. Fact: All we do is move from one defensive mission to another. Fact: Our entire force is constantly in retreat. Now is that just my imagination? Or is the entire war effort unravelling before our eyes?
: Fact: We have a communications officer aboard with far too much time on his hands - dangerously spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt throughout the ship. From now on, mister, you spout your theories to anyone, I'll have you reassigned to waste recycling.

Rec Room

No conversations here, but I thought I'd just show the killboard with its vastly inflated kill total for me (and everyone else as a result). If you check the previous mission, I had 55 regular kills and an ace. There were 3 missiles, 2 Strakhas and 8 Darkets in the last mission, and I got all of them, so that's 13 and it should say 68 kills and an ace, not 78. However:


Bridge

Blair drops in for a chat with the Captain while he's changing the lightbulbs on the Victory's bridge. Well, not really, but I can't think of any other reason why it would be this dark. This scene finally made me gave up and increase the game's gamma correction. The problem is, although I can actually see shit at this level of gamma correction, Blair leaves a afterimage behind him when he moves in some of the cutscenes, and I don't think he's actually the fastest man in Vega, so the videos at least are staying dark, but I think from now on I'll use this gamma setting for the screenshots. No, there aren't any intermediate options.



: I don't know whether to thank you or curse you for winning us Flash on a permanent basis.
: <chuckles> Little of both, I guess.
: I wish I had more pilots like you, Colonel. Might make the war end sooner. I'm especially glad that you haven't let the Victory cramp your style.
: Thank you, sir.

Mission Briefing
Briefing Room

This is much simpler than Locanda. The Kilrathi are attacking Blackmane base, so we're defending it.



: Let's get started, Colonel.
: Yes, sir.
: We've got a simple job ahead of us. We've got control of the sector base and jump point. The Kilrathi want that control. Let's keep them at bay, gentlemen. We can't give up ground here. Give it your best, Colonel. Dismissed.


Choose your own Blair!

The choice for this update is whether to ground Flint or give her another chance. Any opinions on which fighter I should fly (usual three choices) in the next mission in will be listened to; obviously I'm going to pick Vaquero as wingman since he's the only one we've not flown with yet. Additionally, I'd like to hear what people think about the changed brightness level for the screenshots.