Price of Freedom covers quite well the Lance detachments "testing Kilrathi technology" on the Lexington and the Princeton. I can't say I recall what exactly those detachments were up to. Were they the ones doing all the commerce raiding that incited the Border Worlds- Confed tensions? How about the Gen-Select strikes?
Both.
Initially, the detachment on the Lexington was simply studying captured Kilrathi technology (think a future equivalent of Operation Lusty). There were fifteen-odd Kilrathi fighters and a squadron of Hellcat and Thunderbolt testbeds.
The commerce raiding was originally being done by a "pirate" frigate modified to carry a fighter complement... which Blair and the Lexington destroyed in the Hellespont system. After this, a group of raiders (lead by Seether) were assigned to the Lexington to conduct raids from there.
The detachment on the Princeton was to be ferried to Axius, but it was flying combat missions in the interim (including, possibly, the gen-select attack on Telamon).
We saw in the instance of the Princeton's capture that she was carrying Dragons, but that she was ferrying them to the Vesuvius. I don't think it was ever mentioned, but would the above-mentioned detachments actually make use of the Dragon? Or would the matte-black Hellcat be their fighter of choice?
I don't think Seether's squadron had Lances on the Lexington; they arrived via shuttle and flew Black Hellcats (in the novelization).
Do you think the two aforementioned fleet carriers would be the only Confed ships where the Lance usurped facilities and resources, or could there have been others outside Adm. Petranova's fleet?
After the Lexington is destroyed, Seether notes that the Project has lost its "main portable platform. Their remote base would have to pick up the slack, lengthening mission times and increasing the risks of detection until they could get another asset like the Lexington under their control." Presumably they went after the Princeton as the replacement -- which was part of some other fleet (the Lexington was Admiral Petranova's only carrier).
From what I understand the only Kilrathi technology the black lance used was the clock. They were responsible for the confed/ boarder worlds tensions and they were involved with the Gen-Select strikes on the edge of the boarder worlds territory. But for any ship the black lance used other then the dragon they left it in its faction colors to instigate the tensions with confed and the boarder worlds.
They were studying a variety of Kilrathi technologies. One that's mentioned is a device in the wing root of a Dralthi that channels energy directly from the ships drives to its weapons. They did have 'Black Hellcats', which were a sort of precursor to the Lances (but of course the matte black paint schemes *were* Confederation colors...).
Didn't the Black Lance have a transport and a carrier of independent designs, that looked nothing like a normal Confed vessel? What were their names?
There was a transport used to ferry Lances, which Arena later named Evansville-class:
https://www.wcnews.com/ships2/images/4views/wc4blacklancetransport.png
It does seem to be a Project-exclusive design; Admiral Wilford gets strangely overcome about what an evil ship it is (I don't see it, personally...).
The carrier you're thinking of didn't appear in the actual game; it was built but ultimately removed - fans later found it dredging the codebase. That's a logical decision, since if the Project had its own type of carrier then it wouldn't have needed the Lexington or Princeton (or Vesuvius).
My understanding from multiple readings of the novel is that there was some legitimate raiding going on by pirates and the like, but far below the acceptable levels that would call for a civil war, and Black Lance units manipulated the situation through raids of their own to give the apperance of a much more serious series of events in order to spark the result they wanted
I'm sure there were ordinary pirates (as would be anyone who flew in the Gemini Sector...), but the ones we see in Wing Commander IV (with the possible exception of the two Razors at the very start of the game) are Project-funded/inspired.
Now, they weren't necessarily GE pilots -- but Seether was going around hiring mercenaries and the like to stir up trouble (remember the pilot at the bar on Nepehele who you run into later flying an Excalibur).
My guess/assumption would be that the developments that made the Dragon such an effective fighter were derived from experimentation with the black Hellcats, which would then no longer be needed.
They seem to still be flying Black Hellcats at the end of the novel (defending the Vesuvius).
