FROM: Captain Sphynx, CINCWEAPONSDIVISION
DATE: 2005.07.12

The cold vacuum of space has erupted into absolute chaos. Klaxons echo stridently across the flight deck, announcing the unexpected arrival of a Kilrathi strike force. The FORCAP fighters have already engaged the Kats and are taking losses, and enemy bombers have broken through the defensive line and are nearly within strike range. Time is of the essence. Footsteps ring against the deck, mingled with the urgent shouts of technicians making desperate final checks of the fighters.

The canopy of your Hellcat V slides into position and seals itself shut. Your VDU crackles, and the image of the comm officer clears you for takeoff. You jam your throttle forward and feel the acceleration slam you hard against your headrest. Your Hellcat streaks out of the fighter bay and you peel off towards the oncoming attackers.

It comes in a moment, suddenly: the moment of contact. Friendly and enemy ships swarm around you in a deadly dance to the death. Space is pierced by thousands of bright energy pulses, eerily beautiful as they go about the business of dealing death.

Your pulse pounds as your radar screen shows a red blip in the 6 o’clock position. In an instant, you punch the afterburners and bank hard to starboard. Glancing over your shoulder, you catch the unmistakable acrid gleam of plasma bolts streaking out towards you from the Vaktoth that has taken advantage of the confusion and pounced on you from behind. Your VDU shield display flickers and fades as several of the plasma bolts find their mark, and sparks spray over you from shorting wires.

You slam into an Immelman, followed by an afterburner slide and find yourself coming up low and behind the enemy Vaktoth. Emerald meson bolts lance towards you from the Kat's tail guns, and you throw your Hellcat into a tight velocity roll to avoid the oncoming firestorm. Your guns rake the tail of the Vaktoth, and it hits its burners and begins to pull away, but not before you hear the tone of an IR locking on. You depress the missile trigger, and watch as the IR tracks right up the tail pipe of the Vaktoth, reducing it to flaming debris. This was one small victory, but the fight is far from over. Your carrier calls for more support, and you bank hard in pursuit of the Kilrathi bombers…

Moments like these are what draw fans into the Wing Commander series and make us feel at home inside the cockpits of our favorite WC fighters. It is from the memories of these adventures that WC Saga’s gevatter Lars has utilized his impressive 3D skills to bring us this compelling render of a battlefield view from a Hellcat V cockpit. Notice the artistic allusions to such familiar works as the End Run cover and the box art of Wing Commander I.

-Sphynx