Also, when was that handwritten note in KS dated? I dont have KS...
It's not dated, it's just in the WC2 section. The note references Blair's exile (and the events of Freedom Flight.)
Actually Fleet Action says he left on a two week leave the day before the Tiger's Claw was destroyed. Since at the end of Freedom Flight the Tiger's Claw is still intact logically they have to be two different leaves.
I believe these are the same leaves - he just doesn't learn that the Tiger's Claw has been destroyed until after he gets back from Ghorah Khar (it wasn't common knowledge - the loss was kept from the public for almost a year.) Hunter's visit to Earth is 'several months' after Bossman's death, which pushes it right up (if not past) the destruction of the Tiger's Claw...
Oh, and I totally missed the date earlier, LOAF.... but not being familiar with our own timeline, let alone WC's, does that exclude a death occurring during the 10 intervening years?
Yeah, Hunter dies a little over a year after the end of Wing Commander 2. It's probably just a matter of Blair thinking he had died (by Wing Commander II.) There's actually a scene that's parodying this exact discussion in Fleet Action (the book where Hunter dies): Hunter meets another Tiger's Claw pilot and it turns out both thought that the other had died.
This is interesting, because it implies that Blair's court martial and transfer to ISS on Caernarvon must have taken at least place several months after the Claw's loss as well. After all, Hawk states in Prophecy that Blair was the one that brought Iceman's pod in, after the Cats had cut him up, and I doubt that Blair could have come all the way from Caernarvon to B'Shriss to do that!
Which in turn implies that Iceman probably died before Ghorar Khar turned, since before that Khasra is telling Thrakhath that Blair will never fly a fighter again...
Or am I reading way too much into a simple statement by Hawk?
I think you're onto something - I believe we can prove that Blair was still on the Austin when Iceman was killed... which is something we hadn't thought about before.
We can work out roughly when Iceman died, from information given to us in a few places. As a baseline, remember that the Tiger's Claw was destroyed three months (97 days) after Firekka. Iceman took leave just after Firekka, where he met (and knocked up) Lance's mom. He found out she was pregnant three months later and took an emergency one-week leave to marry her. This would have been pretty much exactly when the Tiger's Claw was destroyed - which happened three months and one week (97 days) after Firekka. Giving Iceman time between Firekka and when he left on his first leave plus time for the leave itself, his marriage must have happened shortly *after* the Tiger's Claw went down (we know he was present that day). Then we know he was killed in action six weeks after he was married - so at least seven weeks after the 'Claw was destroyed (six weeks plus his week long emergency leave).
As for Blair... we know that he was served with court martial papers the day after the Tiger's Claw was destroyed (2656.056) - but the Kilrathi Saga manual says that the actual court martial wasn't scheduled until later in the year (2656.329). The Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide says that he was on the Austin when he was convicted - which means he was there for Iceman's death. You can imagine the scenario, with Blair defying his house arrest order to go searching for his friend's body.
Iceman certainly died before Ghorah Khar, though, since Thrakhath withdrew six weeks after Blair's conviction (it would have been early 2656.)
But did the Claw KNOW where the starbase was? (I mean within the system). She certainly seemed to, but in WC2 they didn't seem to know exactly where it was--hence the need for the mission where you have to tail Kilrathi ships to find the main Kilrathi base. I'm wondering if the Cats relocated the base sometime in the ten years, or if it naturally drifts or moves over time and Confed lost their fix.
You may be confusing the final missions of Wing Commander I and II... in the former's Venice series you spend time searching for the exact location of the base, but in Wing Commander II you just track a Ralatha through a new jump point (it's the difference between fighting to serieses of islands in the Pacific and simply covertly sailing an aircraft carrier within range of bombing Tokyo.) Concordia does know where the station is - the first missions in K'tithrak Mang are Angel dispatching patrols and strikes to cover the approach.
Interesting, because in the animation they decloak and immediately fire their missiles. How does the Claw's black box track what way they approached from?
The guide says that the actual battle was longer (it also involved more Strakha) - we only see the final hits in the intro.