Sylvester
Vice Admiral
Note to the reader: I am writing these stories using characters known and loved in the Wing Commander universe. Please do not take offense with my portrayals, as I am trying to show them the best way that I can. Chronicles of the Claw #1 - The Unseen Truth, takes place just after the events of Secret Missions 2 have concluded. This places the date at approximately 2655.300 (October 6th) for the beginning of the story. From the data I have collected, the Tiger’s Claw was destroyed on 2656.056 (February 25th). I plan to advance the storyline up to the point of the Claw’s destruction. Once I am there, I will have to make a decision. Either end the series, or, branch into an alternative timeline where the Claw survives. But we will meet that fork when we get to it. For now, enjoy the first installment of Chronicles of the Claw. Special thanks to Wedge009 and his site, and wcnews, for the resources I used.
Wing Commander - Chronicles of the Claw
Part 1 - The Unseen Truth
by Joshua Dworkin
Chapter 1 - Back to Business
Dateline 2655.300
0642 Hours
Colonel Halcyon’s Office
TCS Tiger’s Claw CV-07
Vega Sector - McDaniel’s World System
"Ah, Blair, come in." Peter Halcyon said from his desk. "I have some good news for you Colonel. We’ve received intelligence reports from the Firekka, indicating that they were able to put up substantial enough resistance to force the Kilrathi to leave the planet."
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Blair, who went by the callsign Maverick, took a seat in front of Halcyon’s desk. The wing commander of the Tiger’s Claw, Halcyon had recently received a promotion nod and soon would be transferring to Confederation Tactical Command. But in the meantime, Chris was glad that Colonel Halcyon was remaining onboard. They would need him for the upcoming campaign. "That’s outstanding news sir. We can use all the allies we can get right now."
"Very true Maverick. Unfortunately, the haste at which the Kilrathi have been sending ships back into the Vega sector to make up for the systems they abandoned to chase us down in Antares means that many systems are flooded with Kilrathi ships. We’re here in McDaniel’s World because Confleet Intel believes that the Kilrathi might have a Snakeir class carrier in the system. They want the Claw to take her out. I’m transferring you over to Star Slayer Squadron, you’ll be flying Raptors for the upcoming missions." Halcyon explained.
"I understand sir. How much longer can we expect the Claw to be on the front?" Blair asked.
"No way to tell Blair, but I have been pressing High Command to send us to a system where some of the crew can take shore leave." The Colonel replied . Blair had to admire how Halycon kept up with the stress. As well as being the Wing Commander, Halcyon had also served as the Claw's commanding officer for a short time, before Captain Thorn had taken command when the ship was reassigned to the Diplomatic Corps.
"As long as we aren’t assigned as Diplomatic Corps Honor Guard again. That did not go well." Chris replied.
"You’re telling me Blair." Halcyon glanced at the chronometer on his desk. "Well, its almost time to being the briefing. Get your gear together and I’ll see you in the briefing room." Halcyon said.
"Aye sir." Blair rose from his seat and walked back into the corridor. He turned left, heading for the lift back down to the flight control level. He wished he could swing by Shotglass and get a good stiff drink but it wouldn’t look good on his fitness report if he was inebriated showing up to the briefing.
The lift ride was brief, descending down through the Tiger’s Claw’s conning tower and into the heart of the ship. He stepped off the lift and headed for the berths. As he strolled down the corridor, Maverick could take note of just how much punishment the Claw had received over the past year. The old carrier was looking in a more dilapidated state then she normally did. Wires were hanging from the ceiling, corridor lighting was out in some places and scuff marks littered the old wall panels, which probably hadn’t been replaced since Custer’s Carnival. Certain sections of the ship were still closed off, a testament to the battle damage the carrier had taken hauling ass out of Antares.
Chris walked through the doors into the pilot berthing area of the Claw. It was a long rectangular room with rows of bunks attached to a central ‘rail’ of sorts. Each bunk was adorned with a red matress, many of them had torn corners or had suffered puncture wounds from all the years of pilots sleeping in their flight gear, the zippers slowly abrading the material. Above the racks, the flourescent bulbs flickered, old cable hang through gaps in the cieling panel and a constant drip of water from a leaking coolant pipe splashed into a well placed bucket. It was a Claw tradition that the most junior pilot in the particular berthing area would have to empty and clean the bucket every morning.
Therail was a long storage unit, with a rack of shelves that would rise up from behind the bed. Along the wall to his right was a row of lockers. There were twenty two lockers on the wall, each belonging to one of the pilots. This berthing area was one of five just like it scattered about the flight control deck. As Blair moved towards his locker, a high pitched voice called to him from the opposite door. "Hey Maverick, how ya doing?"
"Hello Maniac…" Blair said, observing Second Lieutenant Todd "Maniac" Marshall jogging over. Marshall’s red hair almost seemed to complement his bloodshot eyes, a testament to just how crazy it had gotten for the young pilot.
"Did ya hear the news? I’ve finally been restored to permanent flight status." Over the last six months, since the beginning of the Goddard campaign, Maniac had been in and out of sickbay, periodically taken off the flight roster for his almost, well, manic behavior. He started having dreams of flying his fighter into the Kilrathi dreadnought that destroyed Goddard. During the Firekka operation, Maniac had tried getting into a Raptor with just his pajamas on and the flight surgeon, Major Lowe, had immediately put him in the ship’s high security medical ward. He had flown briefly during the pullout through Charon but that was only because the Claw needed every available pilot, sane or otherwise. After five days out of the action, the doctors had apparently found evidence that he was well in the head enough to return to duty. "Maybe I’ll get to be you wingman eh?"
"Maybe…" Blair replied, removing his flight suit from his locker. No pilot with his senses about him ever wanted to fly with Maniac, but he had to go somewhere, and more often then not, it was flying wingman for Iceman. Major Michael Casey was the wearer of that cold moniker, and it seemed to Blair that it must of taken superhuman self control to have stopped Casey from simply lighting Maniac up with a Javelin and ending it there. "I assume your glad to be away from heavy combat for a week?" He asked.
"Yeah…" Maniac grinned sheepishly. "I’m sorry if I scared you guys there. I was a little nuts for a while."
"I understand, just try and keep from pissing Iceman off too much today. There’s going to be a point where his patience runs out." Blair replied. At that point, two short klaxon bursts sounded, indicating all pilots should report to the briefing room. Maverick finished putting on his flight suit. It consisted of a brown flight jacket, which seemed to hail from the days of Earth’s Second World War, complemented by denim colored pressure pants that locked into the shoes of the pilot. He grabbed his helmet from the locker, closed it, and walked with Maniac through two large double doors into the briefing room.
Colonel Halcyon was already at the podium. Blair moved down to the front row and took his usual spot between Iceman and Joseph Khumalo, who went by the callsign of Knight and had recently been promoted to Major. Maniac sat in the row behind them, between Captain Tanaka "Spirit" Mariko and 1st Lieutenant Hector "Grunt" Paz, a fiery hispanic and former Repleetah marine who Blair had served with in the command academy program some years back.
"Everyone present?" Halcyon asked, and nods greeted him. "Allright, let’s begin." The Colonel flipped a switch on his podium which changed the lighting in the briefing room to a low red. Behind him, a large viewscreen twelve feet across and about six feet high came to life. It displayed a navigation map indicating the Tiger’s Claw, and then four boxes which indicated navigation points. Areas outlined with gray and red lines indicated asteroid and mine fields on the chart. Off to the right hand side of the map listed basic mission details. This was Alpha Wing. "Allright, first to go is Alpha. That’s going to be Hunter and Skeleton. Your wing will sweep through these four nav points and report back to the Claw on what you find. Be advised that the Kilrathi may have more of their newer Hriss class heavy fighters operating in the system, so stay on watch for those ships. Any questions?"
"Aye Colonel." Captain Ian "Hunter" St. John began, his gruff Australian accent filling the briefing room. "If we encounter any bleedin’ Kilrathi capital ships, what should we do with them.
"I’d recommend engaging anything up to a Ralari in size if you have the ordinance to do so, but if you encounter that Snakier, back off, and we’ll send a Broadsword wing to deal with it." Hunter nodded, and Halcyon proceeded through the briefing. As he was detailing Bravo wings assignment, Blair caught the eye of Major Jeanette "Angel" Deveraux sitting a few seats down. Angel and Maverick had been spending some time together in the rec room over the past month, especially after the death of Kien Chen. It was the most emotional anyone had ever seen Angel, given her always professional attitude. At the conclusion of that operation, Angel had been promoted, and in a short while, she would be leaving the Claw to take over as squadron commander on the TCS Austin, a Gettysburg class battlecruiser and the personal flagship of Rear Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, who was Halcyon’s nominal superior.
Blair and Tolwyn had clashed a bit when Tolwyn had been a commodore instructing at command school but Blair had come out of it with respect for the man. Angel smiled, but then looked back at the screen, which made Blair retune into the briefing. The Colonel went through Beta, Gamma and Delta wings quickly enough, mostly patrol and interdiction missions.
"Next up is Epsilon Wing. That’s going to be Maniac and Iceman." Halcyon began. Beside him, Blair could see Iceman tightly grasp the armrests. Maverick didn’t know what would crack first, Casey or the plastic. But through it all, Iceman retained a straight face. "You two are going to escort a Drayman heading out system carrying wounded marines from the Firekka operation and some other transferring personnel. Make sure it reaches the jump point for Beacon intact."
"You got it sir." Iceman replied, puzzled, as was Blair, as why Maniac didn’t have a smart-ass comment as he always did during the briefing.
"Oh, in addition, you two also get to do a operational test of one of our new light fighters, the Epee. Its fast and has good shields for a ship its size. Armament consists of two laser cannons and four missiles." Casey nodded in approval. It was well known that Iceman liked fast maneuverable ships, which is why he had been overly elated when the Scimitar had been retired last month.
"Okay, Theta wing. That is going to be Maverick and Knight." Blair smiled slightly, most pilots enjoyed drawing Knight as their wingman, and Chris was no exception. "I want you to fly a three point patrol terminating at the Blytheheart jump point. It’s the only jump leading into this system from the direction of the Kilrathi advance, so if the Kilrathi have brought capital ships into the system, that is where they should be." Halcyon looked back up at the rest of the pilots. "I will repeat what I said earlier - do not engage the Snakeir if you find her. I don’t want to lose any more pilots who want a Silver Star for gunning down a fleet carrier. Take recon data and call the Claw so we can send in a flight of Broadswords. The rest of you are in hot chairs for rotating CAP assignment. Dismissed."
The lighting returned to normal tones and Blair rose from his seat. He looked over at Iceman. "Don’t worry Ice, maybe the docs have it right this time. Maybe Todd really is okay now." Blair said sounding hopeful.
"Yeah…" Casey began as he saw Maniac move towards him smiling. "And maybe Knight will be selected as Miss Vega Quadrant at our next stop in McAullife."
Knight smiled. "Hey, you never know, I am quite the charmer." He grinned, walking back with Maverick to the briefing room door. Casey groaned softly and began lecturing Maniac for the hundredth time on why its a good idea to let your wingleader know what you are doing.
As the pilots headed for the flight deck, Grunt jogged up to Maverick and Knight. "I got fifty that Ice kills him before they even clear the ship." Blair grinned and turned back towards Paz.
"I’ll take that."
- End of Chapter
Wing Commander - Chronicles of the Claw
Part 1 - The Unseen Truth
by Joshua Dworkin
Chapter 1 - Back to Business
Dateline 2655.300
0642 Hours
Colonel Halcyon’s Office
TCS Tiger’s Claw CV-07
Vega Sector - McDaniel’s World System
"Ah, Blair, come in." Peter Halcyon said from his desk. "I have some good news for you Colonel. We’ve received intelligence reports from the Firekka, indicating that they were able to put up substantial enough resistance to force the Kilrathi to leave the planet."
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Blair, who went by the callsign Maverick, took a seat in front of Halcyon’s desk. The wing commander of the Tiger’s Claw, Halcyon had recently received a promotion nod and soon would be transferring to Confederation Tactical Command. But in the meantime, Chris was glad that Colonel Halcyon was remaining onboard. They would need him for the upcoming campaign. "That’s outstanding news sir. We can use all the allies we can get right now."
"Very true Maverick. Unfortunately, the haste at which the Kilrathi have been sending ships back into the Vega sector to make up for the systems they abandoned to chase us down in Antares means that many systems are flooded with Kilrathi ships. We’re here in McDaniel’s World because Confleet Intel believes that the Kilrathi might have a Snakeir class carrier in the system. They want the Claw to take her out. I’m transferring you over to Star Slayer Squadron, you’ll be flying Raptors for the upcoming missions." Halcyon explained.
"I understand sir. How much longer can we expect the Claw to be on the front?" Blair asked.
"No way to tell Blair, but I have been pressing High Command to send us to a system where some of the crew can take shore leave." The Colonel replied . Blair had to admire how Halycon kept up with the stress. As well as being the Wing Commander, Halcyon had also served as the Claw's commanding officer for a short time, before Captain Thorn had taken command when the ship was reassigned to the Diplomatic Corps.
"As long as we aren’t assigned as Diplomatic Corps Honor Guard again. That did not go well." Chris replied.
"You’re telling me Blair." Halcyon glanced at the chronometer on his desk. "Well, its almost time to being the briefing. Get your gear together and I’ll see you in the briefing room." Halcyon said.
"Aye sir." Blair rose from his seat and walked back into the corridor. He turned left, heading for the lift back down to the flight control level. He wished he could swing by Shotglass and get a good stiff drink but it wouldn’t look good on his fitness report if he was inebriated showing up to the briefing.
The lift ride was brief, descending down through the Tiger’s Claw’s conning tower and into the heart of the ship. He stepped off the lift and headed for the berths. As he strolled down the corridor, Maverick could take note of just how much punishment the Claw had received over the past year. The old carrier was looking in a more dilapidated state then she normally did. Wires were hanging from the ceiling, corridor lighting was out in some places and scuff marks littered the old wall panels, which probably hadn’t been replaced since Custer’s Carnival. Certain sections of the ship were still closed off, a testament to the battle damage the carrier had taken hauling ass out of Antares.
Chris walked through the doors into the pilot berthing area of the Claw. It was a long rectangular room with rows of bunks attached to a central ‘rail’ of sorts. Each bunk was adorned with a red matress, many of them had torn corners or had suffered puncture wounds from all the years of pilots sleeping in their flight gear, the zippers slowly abrading the material. Above the racks, the flourescent bulbs flickered, old cable hang through gaps in the cieling panel and a constant drip of water from a leaking coolant pipe splashed into a well placed bucket. It was a Claw tradition that the most junior pilot in the particular berthing area would have to empty and clean the bucket every morning.
Therail was a long storage unit, with a rack of shelves that would rise up from behind the bed. Along the wall to his right was a row of lockers. There were twenty two lockers on the wall, each belonging to one of the pilots. This berthing area was one of five just like it scattered about the flight control deck. As Blair moved towards his locker, a high pitched voice called to him from the opposite door. "Hey Maverick, how ya doing?"
"Hello Maniac…" Blair said, observing Second Lieutenant Todd "Maniac" Marshall jogging over. Marshall’s red hair almost seemed to complement his bloodshot eyes, a testament to just how crazy it had gotten for the young pilot.
"Did ya hear the news? I’ve finally been restored to permanent flight status." Over the last six months, since the beginning of the Goddard campaign, Maniac had been in and out of sickbay, periodically taken off the flight roster for his almost, well, manic behavior. He started having dreams of flying his fighter into the Kilrathi dreadnought that destroyed Goddard. During the Firekka operation, Maniac had tried getting into a Raptor with just his pajamas on and the flight surgeon, Major Lowe, had immediately put him in the ship’s high security medical ward. He had flown briefly during the pullout through Charon but that was only because the Claw needed every available pilot, sane or otherwise. After five days out of the action, the doctors had apparently found evidence that he was well in the head enough to return to duty. "Maybe I’ll get to be you wingman eh?"
"Maybe…" Blair replied, removing his flight suit from his locker. No pilot with his senses about him ever wanted to fly with Maniac, but he had to go somewhere, and more often then not, it was flying wingman for Iceman. Major Michael Casey was the wearer of that cold moniker, and it seemed to Blair that it must of taken superhuman self control to have stopped Casey from simply lighting Maniac up with a Javelin and ending it there. "I assume your glad to be away from heavy combat for a week?" He asked.
"Yeah…" Maniac grinned sheepishly. "I’m sorry if I scared you guys there. I was a little nuts for a while."
"I understand, just try and keep from pissing Iceman off too much today. There’s going to be a point where his patience runs out." Blair replied. At that point, two short klaxon bursts sounded, indicating all pilots should report to the briefing room. Maverick finished putting on his flight suit. It consisted of a brown flight jacket, which seemed to hail from the days of Earth’s Second World War, complemented by denim colored pressure pants that locked into the shoes of the pilot. He grabbed his helmet from the locker, closed it, and walked with Maniac through two large double doors into the briefing room.
Colonel Halcyon was already at the podium. Blair moved down to the front row and took his usual spot between Iceman and Joseph Khumalo, who went by the callsign of Knight and had recently been promoted to Major. Maniac sat in the row behind them, between Captain Tanaka "Spirit" Mariko and 1st Lieutenant Hector "Grunt" Paz, a fiery hispanic and former Repleetah marine who Blair had served with in the command academy program some years back.
"Everyone present?" Halcyon asked, and nods greeted him. "Allright, let’s begin." The Colonel flipped a switch on his podium which changed the lighting in the briefing room to a low red. Behind him, a large viewscreen twelve feet across and about six feet high came to life. It displayed a navigation map indicating the Tiger’s Claw, and then four boxes which indicated navigation points. Areas outlined with gray and red lines indicated asteroid and mine fields on the chart. Off to the right hand side of the map listed basic mission details. This was Alpha Wing. "Allright, first to go is Alpha. That’s going to be Hunter and Skeleton. Your wing will sweep through these four nav points and report back to the Claw on what you find. Be advised that the Kilrathi may have more of their newer Hriss class heavy fighters operating in the system, so stay on watch for those ships. Any questions?"
"Aye Colonel." Captain Ian "Hunter" St. John began, his gruff Australian accent filling the briefing room. "If we encounter any bleedin’ Kilrathi capital ships, what should we do with them.
"I’d recommend engaging anything up to a Ralari in size if you have the ordinance to do so, but if you encounter that Snakier, back off, and we’ll send a Broadsword wing to deal with it." Hunter nodded, and Halcyon proceeded through the briefing. As he was detailing Bravo wings assignment, Blair caught the eye of Major Jeanette "Angel" Deveraux sitting a few seats down. Angel and Maverick had been spending some time together in the rec room over the past month, especially after the death of Kien Chen. It was the most emotional anyone had ever seen Angel, given her always professional attitude. At the conclusion of that operation, Angel had been promoted, and in a short while, she would be leaving the Claw to take over as squadron commander on the TCS Austin, a Gettysburg class battlecruiser and the personal flagship of Rear Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, who was Halcyon’s nominal superior.
Blair and Tolwyn had clashed a bit when Tolwyn had been a commodore instructing at command school but Blair had come out of it with respect for the man. Angel smiled, but then looked back at the screen, which made Blair retune into the briefing. The Colonel went through Beta, Gamma and Delta wings quickly enough, mostly patrol and interdiction missions.
"Next up is Epsilon Wing. That’s going to be Maniac and Iceman." Halcyon began. Beside him, Blair could see Iceman tightly grasp the armrests. Maverick didn’t know what would crack first, Casey or the plastic. But through it all, Iceman retained a straight face. "You two are going to escort a Drayman heading out system carrying wounded marines from the Firekka operation and some other transferring personnel. Make sure it reaches the jump point for Beacon intact."
"You got it sir." Iceman replied, puzzled, as was Blair, as why Maniac didn’t have a smart-ass comment as he always did during the briefing.
"Oh, in addition, you two also get to do a operational test of one of our new light fighters, the Epee. Its fast and has good shields for a ship its size. Armament consists of two laser cannons and four missiles." Casey nodded in approval. It was well known that Iceman liked fast maneuverable ships, which is why he had been overly elated when the Scimitar had been retired last month.
"Okay, Theta wing. That is going to be Maverick and Knight." Blair smiled slightly, most pilots enjoyed drawing Knight as their wingman, and Chris was no exception. "I want you to fly a three point patrol terminating at the Blytheheart jump point. It’s the only jump leading into this system from the direction of the Kilrathi advance, so if the Kilrathi have brought capital ships into the system, that is where they should be." Halcyon looked back up at the rest of the pilots. "I will repeat what I said earlier - do not engage the Snakeir if you find her. I don’t want to lose any more pilots who want a Silver Star for gunning down a fleet carrier. Take recon data and call the Claw so we can send in a flight of Broadswords. The rest of you are in hot chairs for rotating CAP assignment. Dismissed."
The lighting returned to normal tones and Blair rose from his seat. He looked over at Iceman. "Don’t worry Ice, maybe the docs have it right this time. Maybe Todd really is okay now." Blair said sounding hopeful.
"Yeah…" Casey began as he saw Maniac move towards him smiling. "And maybe Knight will be selected as Miss Vega Quadrant at our next stop in McAullife."
Knight smiled. "Hey, you never know, I am quite the charmer." He grinned, walking back with Maverick to the briefing room door. Casey groaned softly and began lecturing Maniac for the hundredth time on why its a good idea to let your wingleader know what you are doing.
As the pilots headed for the flight deck, Grunt jogged up to Maverick and Knight. "I got fifty that Ice kills him before they even clear the ship." Blair grinned and turned back towards Paz.
"I’ll take that."
- End of Chapter