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All About the Fralthra
You saw Marc's Fralthra the other day... now you can play with it yourself! Marc was kind enough to send along the 3D model in several formats, which you can download here (726k). Here's some background on the Fralthra for those unfamiliar with the ship!
Measuring by gross tonnage, the Fralthra-class is Kilrah's second heaviest cruiser... measuring by force projection alone, they have no equal. Sporting a 40-fighter complement and an array of anti-matter guns, the Fralthra was second only to a true Kilrathi carrier in offensive power. In fact, Fralthra formed the nuclei of the five carrier groups which attacked Ghorah Khar in Special Operations. At the same time, they exist in much smaller numbers than their counterparts. While the Empire produced Fralthi by the thousands, a quote in Fleet Action indicates there were only twenty heavy cruisers in service in at the Battle of Earth.
Several Fralthra appear during the course of Wing Commander II, including two during the game's initial Gwynedd series. The player isn't allowed to kill them, though: because your Ferret lacks torpedoes, you must instead protect the Concordia and her bombers while they destroy the Fralthra. An interesting surprise after being able to gun down the entire Kilrathi Navy yourself in Wing Commander I! The Fralthra's rounded appearance was anathema to the 'irregular blade' look established for Kilrathi ships in Wing Commander Armada and beyond, so it has fallen somewhat by the wayside in terms of canonical appearances. Still, it does boast one unusual sighting: a stylized Fralthra is seen launching a Jalkehi heavy fighter on the cover of the FM Towns port of Wing Commander 2 (seen below).
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It's Not Easy Being Green
... but wait, there's more! Remember Marc's WC2-style Coventry-type Destroyer (details here) and Victory-type Light Carrier (details here)? Well, they've been joined by the obvious third: a WC2-style Ajax-type Cruiser! Check it out below. You can also find a spinning animation of his Ranger here. Awesome stuff!
[LOAF] [# 6938] [Discuss]
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