The Lost Ships of Wing Commander II

While researching the uniquely named Clydesdale and Free Trader-class transports in Wing Commander II, I happened to make another set of discoveries that I thought I should preserve with an update: no less than thirteen unique ships that are mentioned in Wing Commander II missions but which do not appear in the final game! The majority of these are likely ships that were at one time intended for missions but which, for whatever reason, ended up being cut… though several of them may have been the victim of a bug in Special Operations 1!

Every Wing Commander II mission has a 'cast' which defines which ships can be used in that scenario. Often, mission designers would remove ships from the mission itself but not drop them from the cast. This leaves behind a trace that can tell us the name of the cut ship, who was intended to pilot it and where it was originally to have been used! As with the transports, we'll look at them one at a time…

Wing Commander II

Agamemnon
Class: Unknown
Comm: Male Comm Officer
Missions: Novaya Kiev C
Notes: Referenced in the mission where you escort the thematically-connected TCS Hector to attack Kilrathi capital ships; the fact that it's a comm officer rather than a freighter pilot implies it might have been a ship of the line

Belox
Class: Sabre
Comm: Male Pilot
Missions: Novaya Kiev L C
Notes: Potentially intended to be a named CAP pilot

Chepstow
Class: Human Star Base
Comm: Male Comm Officer
Missions: Ghorah Khar L A & B
Notes: Chepstow is a castle in Wales, much like Caernarvon; this suggests the Ghorah Khar (L) missions were originally going to occur in a different star system that would've had this base instead of Olympus

Cobra 1 & 2
Class: Ferrets
Comm: Female Pilot (Coba 1), Male Pilot (Cobra 2)
Missions: Ghorah Khar L A
Notes: Potentially intended as named CAP for Chepstow Star Base; a similar duo, Viper 1 and 2, do appear in some missions of Wing Commander II flying Ferrets or Rapiers

Dorkith D'Krah
Class: Kilrathi Supply Depot
Comm: Kilrathi Comm Officer
Missions: Heaven's Gate D
Notes: May have been an earlier take on the Heaven's Gate starbase before it was changed to a captured human one

Go For Broke
Class: Free Trader
Comm: Male Freighter Pilot
Missions: Tesla L A & D
Notes: May have been an earlier name for the Bonnie Heather

Yankee Pride
Class: Unknown
Comm: Female Freighter Pilot
Missions: Tesla A

Special Operations 1

Avatar
Class: Sabre
Missions: Second Chance C
Notes: Intended to appear as one of your wingmen. Avatar is called by the mission and it isn't clear why they don't appear. This would've been another interesting Ultima cameo!

Crossboy
Class: Crossbow
Missions: Ghorah Khar 1 B & 2 B
Notes: Intended to appear as one of your wingmen. Crossbow is called by the missions and it isn't clear why they don't appear.

Unidentified 7
Class: Crossbow
Comm: Pirate
Missions: Second Chance B
Notes: Unknown is the normal title for the Gettysburg pilots; this may have been intended to represent the Crossbow that escapes with essential characters

Zoe
Class: Sabre
Comm: Female Pilot
Missions: Second Chance A
Notes: Intended to appear as one of your wingmen. Zoe is called by the mission and it isn't clear why they don't appear. There is an NPC wingman named Zoea in another mission.

Special Operations 1

Daystar
Class: Unknown
Comm: Drakhai
Missions: Canewdon 2 A
Notes: Appears as a blank dummy several other times; may not have been intended to be an actual encounter