Originally posted by Dougie
Is it not more likely that Forstchen made a mistake by overlooking this passage? The alternative being that it was a different 'St. John' who served on the Tiger's Claw round about the time of WC1 who was a close personal friend of K'Kai.
Unlikely, the guy's name was listed as Ian "Hunter" St. John. It's him alright.
Or perhaps more likely, that voices of war can be disregarded as being overriden by Forstchen's novels, considering how brilliant they are and how nearly totally ignored Armada is. I'd place novel fiction above armada random writer who thought the Claw even survived K'Tithrak Mang fiction. But that's just me.
As a rule, documentation is supposed to override any books. Armada seems to cover some things that Fleet Action did not actually. Such as the Concordia persuing the remaining Hakagas.
All 5 hakagas were not supposed to be blown up at Sol. I think it was 3 of 5. Concordia persued the last one or two.
Thinking about it, there are so many places unexplored in the Wing Commander timeline that can be explored by perhaps the unknown enemy team. The whole Blair's side of fighting and being crippled in the battle of earth, and the concordia's last few months as a piece-of-crap carrier as opposed to its usual status as flagship of the fleet.
The Concordia was only "a piece of crap" as you say because it got the sh*t pounded out of it on numerous occasions.
To give you an idea...
1.) 2661: CVS-65, TCS-Concordia commissioned, second or third ship of Confederation-Class. (No Damage)
2.) 2661-2665: Probably some damage, but not officially mentioned (this is pure speculation, not canon).
3.) 2665: Concordia battlegroup ambushed by Kilrathi forces forcing them to retreat to Gwenydd for assistance from Caernavon Starbase. Escort Destroyer Beowulf destroyed; Concordia one torpedo hit from being destroyed.
4.) 2665: Concordia hangar bay damaged by a time-delay explosive which was initially believed to be a fuel-line explosion. Detonation causes heavy damage to flight-bay, sending blastwave out both flight-decks. Flight-operations temporarily halted while damage was repaired. Subsequent investigation revealed explosion to be the result of sabotage.
5.) 2665-2667: Some damage probably.
6.) 2667-2668: Concordia said to look like gashed-up boxer after years of abuse and no time to repair.
7.) 2668: Concordia takes three direct torpedo hits, and probably numerous smaller hits forcing her to retreat.
8.) 2668: Concordia persues the remaining Hakaga(s) engaging in battle. Hakaga(s) is(are) destroyed. Concordia takes additional damage in engagements.
9.) 2668: Despite all the patchwork done by her damage-control teams, the damage Concordia has sustained over the past 7-years (predominantly the last 3) begins to catch up with her. CVS-65 is forced off the front lines because she's practically falling apart at the seams, but still unable to return to base because of Confeds lack of Fleet Carriers.
Comment Inserted HereSure, the ship ended up as a piece of crap, but look how much poundings it took! That thing got bombed, torpedoed, sabotaged, shot at, and probably rammed (by a fighter). I think the Kilrathi even threw one of their Kitchen sinks at it (bounced off the phase-shielding).
For the most part BTW, the Confederation Class (the type of ship Concordia was) was regarded as the most powerful ship in the fleet. To make it even better, she also possessed an excellent crew with special mention to Admiral Tolwyn and extraordinary pilots, namely Colonel Blair.
-Concordia