Wingnuts Hold on to Pembroke

K'Tithrak Mang 4: Tensions are running high at today's briefing. We all know what we're about to hear: That this is the mission to take out K'Tithrak Mang. Angel will be leading the main strike force going in. She assigns me to run a forward to patrol to keep the Concordia safe. Apparently, the Admiral personally requested that. Well, to hell with the Patrol and to hell with Tolwyn. If he's going to court-martial me then it might as well be for something big. I order Sparks to refit my ship with Torpedoes and boy does she comply, loading me down with six. Hopefully that will be enough to take the starbase down.

Some Stealth fighters are waiting in the asteroids for me, but they represent no problem on my way to K'Tithrak Mang. I arrive at the station to find no defenders except for a single ship that I recognise as a Bloodfang, Prince Thrakhath's private fighter. He challenges me to a dogfight and the battle begins. Frankly, Jazz could stand to take some lessons from him and probably would have had he escaped. After a lot of twisting and shooting the Bloodfang finally explodes, I think I saw the flash of an escape pod but I don't have time to check as Thrakhath's 4 Drakhai wingmen decide to avenge his death. I spend a lot of time on afterburners dodging Neutron fire as I gradually work them away from the group one-by-one and take them out. Finally, nothing stands before me but the station. Same tactics here as against the Ralatha, but I release the torpedoes earlier as the flak gets extraordinarily thick close in. The station finally detonates after the second torpedo hits and I set course for the Concordia.

There's quite the reception committee when I land back on deck. Angel congratulates me on being magnificent and in my best Tri-D impersonation I reply "That's my job". The Admiral interrupts our kiss and I steel myself to face him, ready for the worst. He certainly doesn't disappoint with the list of crimes I've committed but lets me off the hook with a "Well done" and a promotion back to my original rank. Angel orders me to her quarters with champagne as the Admiral personally leads the cheers for me.

After the celebrations, I try to think back on the dogfight and work out if we've since the last of Prince Thrakhath.

• Community Replay - General Discussion
• WC1 Week 1 - Enyo, McAuliffe, Gimle, Gateway, Cheng-du
• WC1 Week 2 - Brimstone, Dakota, Kurasawa, Rostov, Port Hedland, Hubble's Star
• WC1 Week 3 - Venice, Hell's Kitchen, Alternate Paths
• Secret Missions Week 1 - Goddard, Border Zone, Midgard
• Secret Missions Week 2 - Jotunheim, Bifrost
• Secret Missions Week 3 - Valgard, Vigrid
• SM2: Crusade Week 1 - Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 2 - Corsair, Near Firekka
• SM2: Crusade Week 3 - Corsair, Charon
• WC2 Week 1 - Gwenydd, Niven
• WC2 Week 2 - Niven, Ghorah Khar
• WC2 Week 3 - Novaya Kiev, Heaven's Gate
• WC2 Week 4 - Heaven's Gate, Tesla
• WC2 Week 5 - Enigma
• WC2 Week 6 - K'tithrak Mang
• SO1 Week 1 - Pembroke

Making the Game - Part 14

The plot thickens! On May 31, 1996 the project is in the very earliest stages of development and plans are focusing on things like the makeup of the team, sharing resources with other projects and who will be contracted to write and direct the game's story elements.

There's a lot to read here - it confirms, for instance, that "Maniac Missions" was still a serious project with a planned development team at this point, and that Origin had some involvement in the Wing Commander Academy animated series. There is also a timeline attached, which shows individual deadlines for each element of the project's development. The most surprising thing is that final testing is, at this early date, scheduled to go until April 28, 1998 - some five months after the game ultimately shipped.

Wing Commander V Component Manager Meeting Agenda Download (4.3 MB) Date: May 31, 1996 Project: Wing Commander Prophecy Donated By: Billy Cain Pages: 9