Story Idea

maestro876

Spaceman
Hello, I'm kinda new here, but I've been into WC for a long, long time. All the games and the books. I like the books a great deal because they really flesh out the universe and backdrop of the war, as well as the political climate. They also allow for a lot more character development.

Anyways, I was thinking about an idea for a story that I've been kicking around for a while. Do you think it would be interesting to read a WC story not about space combat, or the characters we know really well, but focus on a different aspect of the war? I've always been interested in teh world of intelligence, and I thought a sort of detective story concerning counterintelligence activies on Earth during the war would be very interesting. Any thoughts on this?
 
I think it would be interesting. See, I'm almost finished reading Post Captain and my favorite parts of the story have been when they are on land doing things such as intelligence and spying as opposed to always being on sea and doing battle. It's good to see many different aspects to a story. And it would be cool I think to read a good WC book that maybe had a completely different set of characters and different backdrop.
 
So basically something to do with the mandarins or some other group or person sympathetic to the kilrathi (or say someone with a son being held in order for her to provide intelligence and almost destroy the human race)

Only thing I would have to say is that any story would almost certainly have to involve one of my favorite novel characters, Vance Richards
 
Actually, I've already got a sort of outline fleshed out in my head, and Dundradal got it sorta. (Again, props to Shipgate for the O'Brien reference!)

The story would be a detective-type thing, starring a normal homicide detective and a military intelligence officer.

The whole thing would start with a murder of someone working in the Foreign Ministry whom MI suspected was involved in espionage activities somehow. This would occur just before the truce, say a few days, maybe a week. The homicide detective (whom I envision as female) would catch the case, and would meet the MI officer (whom I envision to be male) heading the investigation into the dead guy's suspicious activities.

Most of the story occurs during the truce.

They slowly start to unravel a whole spy ring (with requisite action scenes, drama, etc.). I envision a scene of great drama in which they have a suspect in custody, who somehow tips them off to the bombing, and the two racing to the site to try and stop it, only to arrive minutes late.

Unfortunately they can't work with Vance Richards, cause he's off with Jason and Kruger having fun of his own.

Somehow they gather evidence concerning the Foreign Minister and begin to suspect her (this happens before the bombing). They take it to the MI higher ups, who take them to brief the President in private. He's obviously hostile to the whole thing, orders them to stay away from the Foreign Ministry. Of course, our daring duo will have none of this, and they continue to investigate and gather evidence, all the while conflicting with their superiors who have ordered them off the case. There could also be some fun instances where the confron the Foreign Minister directly (anyone know her name?), but lacking evidence, they can't do anything. Of course, she alerts her Kilrathi handlers, who then try to have the duo killed. Much potential for action and drama here.

Finally, they get enough evidence and take their case to Duke (just after the bombing). He believes them, again goes to the President. There's the scene in Fleet Action where he shows the President the holos of the secret fleet, and later on the President says that he had been told about her possibly being compromised months ago. That was the results of our heros' investigation.

I'm not sure what the climax would be. Just arresting her after she refuses to resign seems a bit anticlimactic. I want more action. Perhaps she could attempt to escape the planet, but she doesn't seem like the type to try and fight her way off. Looking at Fleet Action now, after that last meeting, Jamison storms off, Tolwyn, Grecko, and the President talk some more, then the President leaves, I think he said "to take care of Jamison". Perhaps outside the meeting room he meets our two heros, apologizes or something, tells them to go arrest Jamison. But that still leaves us with no action at the end.

Hmm, I'll have to think on this one a bit more. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?
 
Shoot her! ehehe. The heroes might uncover that her son is dead, and she then realises what she made and kills herself. Or maybe she gets into a escape ship of some sort and a kat kills her (hard to believe, though).
 
I'd be VERY interested in something like that! You don't see many intelligence stories in the Wing Commander universe. This would be fantastic!
 
Edfilho said:
There are at least two books that revolve around intel missions...


You mean the 'Milk Run' story in End Run, and half of Fleet Action? :D Or Freedom Flight's latter half? How about half of Action Stations?
 
Action stations focus on Richards' and Tolwyn's intel op. Of course, there's more to it, but the meat of the action for both protagonists is the mission. And in Fleet Action the heroes spend most of the time trying to get some intel on the false truce.

Now that I mentioned it, both books are VERY similar in plot =)
i.e: the kats prepare a big phreaking invasion of confed space, the politicians help the kats (knowingly or not) and the heroes try to dig up evidence that cames too late. Then a big defensive action ensues, and thousands die (forstchen is really evil to the characters, go read his prophet of ice books, they're gruesome), while confed manages to fend off the kat offensive at a great cost.

And we learn that all civilians are evil greedy lazy peacemongers, and only old-fashined military commanders can save the human race. :D
 
I still feel a really cool story would be a sci-fi version of Pale Rider, and you could even set that in the Wing Commander universe.

At any rate, you should write a draft guy, you've got nothing to lose. Time maybe.
 
And we learn that all civilians are evil greedy lazy peacemongers, and only old-fashined military commanders can save the human race.

To be fair, Fleet Action specifically and directly states that this isn't what it's trying to say.
 
I agree with Shipgate, you should write a draft, it sounds interesting and you don't want to wait so long that you lose interest in it. Also, who is Vance Richards? I remember his name but nothing else.
 
Vance Richards was a big intelligence guy, a main character in Fleet Action, and one of the stars of False Colors.

Speaking of False Colors, Vance dies, correct? Yet, I specifically remember him being referred to in Price of Freedom as being very much alive, and Price of Freedom comes after False Colors. Any thoughts on this?

I'm gonna see if I can start it, I'll be sure to let everyone know if I make significant progress or hit any snags.
 
maestro876 said:
Vance Richards was a big intelligence guy, a main character in Fleet Action, and one of the stars of False Colors.

Speaking of False Colors, Vance dies, correct? Yet, I specifically remember him being referred to in Price of Freedom as being very much alive, and Price of Freedom comes after False Colors. Any thoughts on this?

I'm gonna see if I can start it, I'll be sure to let everyone know if I make significant progress or hit any snags.

Vance is in AS, FA, FC, and I want to say he is mentioned as being part of the UBW military structure.

Andrew Keith planned two books to follow false colors, one about Murragh's struggle with his imperial heritage and what was going to come of that, and the other about Bondarevsky commanding a fleet of escort carriers in the landreich against Ragark and what was left of his fleet after the battle of baka kar.

Vance was orginally a fighter pilot at the start of the war then went on to command a destroyer squadron I think but not sure, during which Kruger served under him as a skipper on one of the ships (The San Jancinto I think).He took his ship off in pursuit of kilrathi raiders, Vance always blamed Kruger that because of his mutiny he got thrown into the intelligence services. Vance served with confed intel until the false truce when he was on the free corps missions into kilrathi space with DSS-5. Next time we hear about him is in FC when he's out with Kruger in the Landreich recruiting people for their fleet. The events of FC unfold and at the end we are lead to believe that he is dead (both Tolwyn and Bondarevsky talk about losing their old friend). However, in one of the two books Keith planned on writing before his death, he was to explain how Vance survived and ended up being in TPoF.
 
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