Cloaking Station?

[AD]

After a bit of thought, something occured to me about the Peleus sequence in WC4. When the cloaking capship that is the source of the sensor jamming is destroyed, the space station Tolwyn is seen leaving decloaks.

Does Tolwyn essentially turn out the lights on his way out (realizing the Peleus operation is a bust) and decloak the station? (which is maybe a Black Lance base being abandoned?)

Or is the cloak of the station connected to the Jammer ship? The movie is shot in a way that implies this, but technologicaly doesnt seem feasable. I dont remember what the novel says, but would a ship that is broadcasting a signal significantly strong enough to disrupt major electrical systems in quite a large area also be able to remotely power a cloak large enough to shroud a station?

I just don't see the ship as being able to physicaly cloak the station itself.

 

[Jason_Ryock]

Signal cloaking wouldn't make the station invisible to the naked eye. That jammer ship was always my favorite vessel in the WC Universe, despite that I can't find pictures or data on it anywhere.

But then, of course I'd love it. I'm an SWACs Fanboy.

 

[AD]

would a ship that is broadcasting a signal significantly strong enough to disrupt major electrical systems in quite a large area also be able to remotely power a cloak large enough to shroud a station?

What I meant to ask was if you thought it would be feasable to have acloak on the station, but be (microwaves maybe?) transmitting the power to run the cloak to the station.

I'm happy to chalk up the incident as a coincidence however.

Edit: In the attached images you can see the basic structure is a regular transport but it has the three "fins" with the antenae on them.

 

[Dyret]

That jammer ship was always my favorite vessel in the WC Universe, despite that I can't find pictures or data on it anywhere.

What about this?

No data though...

 

[Edfilho]

maybe the station simply had it's own cloack generator.

 

[powell99]

I'm an SWACs Fanboy.

You and me both. Nothin like the Seahawk I screwed around with WCP so I could fly it.

 

[Edfilho]

But why? it's not like you can do SWACS things on WCP

 

[AD]

maybe the station simply had it's own cloack generator.

It would be the most logical explanation for having a cloaking station. It's not really the problem. Consider, though, that as soon as you destroy the jammer ship, the base decloaks. Is this Part of tolwyns plan? Not that he can be trusted at this point, but he claims the base is empty no less (who decloaked it and why would tolwyn leave it cloaked if he only sort of just found it?). If this is all some ploy to make Blair believe Tolwyn, it certainly doesn't do the job. Why not leave unnanounced in a cloked dragon? Why decloak the station at all if it has a separated cloak? Why would tolwyn be in a hurry to leave?

 

[powell99]

But why? it's not like you can do SWACS things on WCP

I dunno, I think I liked the way it looked. Pherhaps we will never ever ever know.

 

[Delance]

The station was hidden under the blanket of the transport jamming device. That doesn't make it invisible, just undetectable.

 

[Ptarmigan]

From what I remembered, the Intrepid stumbled upon that research station in Peleus after the jammer ship was destroyed. That's when they caught Tolwyn.

 

[AD]

From what I remembered, the Intrepid stumbled upon that research station in Peleus after the jammer ship was destroyed. That's when they caught Tolwyn.

And?

That doesn't make it invisible, just undetectable.

So the view screen on the intrepid is some kind of sensor reading interpretation now? The station that "decloaks" isnt decloaking?

Besides, the quote from SC_2080A is "two visual targets dead ahead" not 'scanners picking up two targets'. If it was only a sensor jam, they would have seen it visualy before the jammer ship was destroyed. If I had to decide, I would suggest that it isnt even a view screen but rather a window. (although it could be a screen and the room could be in the middle of the ship) I would still like to know how the novel deals with this scene. In the FMV in the game, there is no doubt that it is decloaking.

Oh, and none of the cloaking ships in the FMV of wc4 are truely invisible. This is really obvious in the way the light is projected "through" the Lance (dragon) when Pliers cloaks it on the flight deck, In the intro to the game you can see the silhouet of the fighter in the shot that looks past the pilot out the rear of the cockpit just before it decloaks and fires.

 

[Dahan]

Ah the wonders of the cloaking device. We see it Star Trek, we see it in Star Wars (only in the novels), we see it Starlancer and other games and now we see it Wing Commander....

 

[Nomad Terror]

But it's been in Wing Commander since Wing Commander 2...

 

[Delance]

Well the fact is that once the jammer ship was down the station was visible, so one probably caused the other.

 

[Edfilho]

83,45% of all Scifi universes have cloacking ships.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

From the script: "The jamming obviously worked on a visual spectrum as well, because now we see a confed spacelab... and fleeing from it, a fleet-officer shuttle..."

 

[Jason_Ryock]

Interesting.

 

[AD]

From the script: "The jamming obviously worked on a visual spectrum as well, because now we see a confed spacelab... and fleeing from it, a fleet-officer shuttle..."

Hmm... So can we assume that they are able to focus the "cloaking" aspect of the jamming?

For starters, there really isnt any indication in the movies that the banshees in sc_1901a have any problem seeing the attacking excaliburs. Neither is there any harship visualy spotting fighters in-flight while flying missions in the affected area. The only ship that this happens to is understandably the jammer ship, yet even it needs to decloak to fire it's engines (power usage?). With the frequency with which it decloaks would suggest that the "projected" cloak is not realated to the instrument jamming and not connected to the generator cloaking the jammer ship itself.

For a fun side note for anyone interested in actual goofs and oversights, the line in SC_2080A: when the helm girl says "two visual targets dead ahead," it is said before the helm girl could possibly have seen two targets... She is looking out the window/ view screen and sees the station decloak and speaks the line to alert everyone to action, yet its more than a couple of moments untill the shuttle is actualy visible, seen leaving the station.

 

[Delance]

Maybe the visual jamming is aimed at specific targets, like the station, but not the fighters.