<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Shane:
Well they did give him the Wild Eagles to command in SO2, which I thought made sense. He may have been attached to R&D for a while as a test pilot which doesn't have as many restrictions as combat.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
He was, actually. According to the WCP strategy guide (on P. 19) Maniac, after WC3, alternated between roles as a combat pilot and test pilot, though preferring the latter due to the peacetime mentality of Confed (quite understandable, though, after 35 years of warfare with the Kats).
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A natural flyer, like Maniac, is not much good to the military if he doesn't follow orders, though. He may not get killed but he gets other people killed. Or leads them in to trouble, like Catscratch. I think he happened to be in the right place at the right time a couple times in his career and that's what has kept him in Confed. The story about his destruction of a couple Kilarthi Cap ships is what kept him around until SO2. Being a part of the Run on Kilrah is the only reason, imho, that he survived the RIF cuts after the war. It could be, too, that it was always his problem with Blair, and since we were Blair we always got the worst of it. He may have followed other peoples orders, he just resented Blair and so to prove something he rarely paid attention. I do recall the WC3 novilization mentioned that with Hobbes moving off the wing Maniac was going to be WC for the Victory until Blair came along. That would also account for his attitude in that game.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
You recall corectly, for the most part. Blair's predecessor handed the WC mantle directly to Blair, but Maniac was in line for being the wing's XO, before Hobbes was put in that position by Blair.
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In Prophecy he seems to have learned something of a lesson from WCIV (I'd like to think the Catscratch thing finally got through to him) and as the Squadron Commander he doesn't seem to bad, just a bit of an asshole, though somewhat respected by his squad-mates. They at least seem to think he is sometimes funny and they listen to his stories.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
For a while, as of the end of the WC4 novelization Marshall was a full Colonel, given command of the escort carrier Kiev (or maybe just its air wing... I forget) to patrol Confed space (further supported, if indirectly, by the WCP guide: "He did manage over the course of several years to add several dozen Kilrathi to his lifetime kill total, thanks to increasingly fracticious pirates, smugglers and rebels within the shards of the old empire." [also on P. 19]).
Being "the Maniac," though, it's not too hard to imagine that he did something stupid, and got busted back down to major, leading to his situation at the beginning of WCP
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Still, when he flew with me, he was often a liabilty instead of an asset.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
As were most AI wingmen, if you'll recall...
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SubCrid Death
Official Net.Nazi,
LOAF's Merry Guild