2656.289: The Lost Date (The Secret Missions SNES)

[Baggins]

Now here is an obscure date, I don't think any source has 'picked' up anywhere? We know in WC1 that it had a set starting date given as 2654.110 that appears in Claw Marks and if you start any campaign in the game the main campaign (starting with Enyo) or if you start with either of the Secret Missions... This has to do with the fact that the original Wing Commander has a random date generator that randomly chooses a few days or weeks and bumps up the number based on off that initial 2654.110 date. So the number is raised sometime between missions and other times between locations. If you were to continue your 'career' from your Vega Campaign your personal end date would then be used by the Secret Missions and continue to be 'added' upon further.

This random date generator is the bane of any fan timeline, and there are many timelines on the interwebs that have arbitrarily used the dates given in their own game play through without realizing they were using a random number, that is going to be different from any other date other players receive as they play through their own games.

But as mentioned the default date is 2654.110 so any new game started from any expansion pack will default to that number...

This is where it gets interesting... On the SNES they released Vega Campaign by itself and there is no way to export your save to the no existing Secret Missions... But later they released The Secret Missions by itself... This is where it gets surprising... This game offers a number of new materials as a 'stand-alone' game not seen in the original Secret Missions including some new cutscenes, its own title screen, some extra material in the manual (IIRC). Perhaps some censorship as well (removing any references to liquor products)...

Among these changes and additions, is a new specific date for the beginning of the The Secret Missions... 2655.289... While some sources have taken advantage of added material from the Wing Commander SNES manuals (in particular the Japanese version of the game IIRC).

As far as I know no source before or sense has ever made reference to this date, if its been overlooked, forgotten, intentionally ignored who knows...

Most published timelines though (many of which were released later) place events of Secret Missions one as starting at 2654.326 and all secret missions ending around 2655...

2654.326 Shortly after intelligence reports indicate that Kilrathi engineers have developed a new super weapon to use against inhabited planets, all radio contact is lost with the Goddard Colony. Fighter wings from the Tiger’s Claw rush to Goddard and forge a path for transports and corvettes, only to discover that a quarter-million human lives have already been sacrificed by the Kilrathi. Deeply angered by the tragedy, the crew of the Tiger’s Claw pursues the Kilrathi strike force into enemy territory, where they are ambushed by a captured Confederation Exeter-class ship. Reconnaissance ships eventually locate the dreadnought ship suspected of carrying the prototype weapon. The Claw follows, and in a stunning display of deep space logistics and fighting skill, eliminates this Sivar dreadnought.

2655 The Tiger’s Claw again travels behind

enemy lines, this time as part of a battle group charged with destroying the laboratories and shipyards which produced the Sivar weapon. Using captured enemy fighters to sneak behind fortified enemy lines, the carrier’s pilots cripple the Kilrathi bases in the Jakarta System.

2653-2655 The Confederation pledges to protect a newly discovered bird-like race called the Firekkans, who plan to unite with the Terran alliance. In the interim, a huge Kilrathi battle fleet commanded by Prince Thrakhath and his Drakhai (Kilrathi Imperial Guard) moves into the Firekkan system. The fleet’s intent is unknown until the Kilrathi defector Ralgha nar Hhallas exposes a plan to use Firekka for a religious ritual in which warriors rededicate themselves to Sivar, the Kilrathi god of war. The Confederation decides to disrupt the religious ceremony in hopes of breaking enemy morale. Marine troopships jump into the system and stage an assault on the Kilrathi priestesses. The mission is successful, and the Claw retreats to Terran-controlled space under heavy Kilrathi pursuit. In short order, Firekkan natives revolt and force the remaining Kilrathi forces to withdraw. Another crisis has been averted. Meanwhile, the Battle of Repleetah grinds into its third year, with neither side gaining a significant advantage. Despite heavy losses on both sides and the tolls taken by the extraordinarily bitter weather of the research outpost, Kilrathi and Terran Marines refuse to yield.

So that makes this obscure and lost date rather interesting...

I've mentioned in another thread a reference in the WC4 Guide puts "six months" between McAuliffe and end of the Vega Campaign (November, .325) which would place McAuliffe and perhaps Enyo roughly around June rather than April of that year, and largely clear of the end of the Wing Commander Novels trilogy which end on .163 more or less (which coincidently is in the middle of June), but leave Paladin in limbo as he faces court martial on the Concordia in an unspecified period of days/weeks/month later, before he can return to/be assigned to the Tiger's Claw for his 'first appearance' on the Tiger's Claw before Enyo I in the game.

So, ya the WC4 Guide more or less either ignores that 1654.110 'default' date in the original WC1 game, or other timelines have ignored the 2654.110 date or overlooked the WC4 Guide in their timings... Whatever the case one of these sources has become 'obscured' and lost, forgotten over time as well...

It's not the first time that the 2654.110 date may have been 'ignored' by some of the writers/designers... In the Wing Commander Bible, is a timeline based on LaFong character from WC1&2USG which places Enyo at .084 long before the "default" .110 date, and places McAuliffe at .121-124 or so... It has last mission of the end of the Vega Campaign and destruction of the secret Kilrathi base on 2654.315.

We can consider most of these specific dates for each part of the WC1 experience from the Wing Commander Bible to be ignored, forgotten, and all around unused, and even retconned/contradicted by later sources.

Are there are any other obscure and lost dates made in any other obscure releases of Wing Commander games, or materials, that have been long overlooked, lost, ignored, or retconned over?