Games - Wing Commander: End Run

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	Games - Wing Commander: End Run

Wing Commander: End Run, by Christopher Stasheff and William R. Forstchen, is the second spin-off novel published for Chris Roberts' Wing Commander science-fiction flight simulator franchise of computer games, produced by Origin Systems.

Published in 1993 and set after the events of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, the majority of End Run centers on a minor pilot from that game, Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky, recently assigned to the Wake-class escort carrier TCS Tarawa as her flight group's Wing Commander.

Story

Part 1: Milk Run

The first part of the novel, written by Stasheff, centers on the TCS Johnny Greene, a Venture-class corvette assigned to picket duty on the front lines, a guard against Kilrathi raiders. Aside from stops at base to pick up more perishables, the Greene has been on station for two years, and has picked up a number of unconventional modifications, such as two extra engines salvaged from a Kilrathi ship. In the opening scene, the ship's oxygen regeneration plant is damaged, and Captain Macmillan Harcourt orders a return-to-base.

Unexpectedly, the Greene is diverted, from the provocatively-named Xanadu Base to an unknown backwater called Hilo. Here, Harcourt and his crew are recruited for a reconnaissance mission on a Kilrathi dustball called "Vukar Tag." So far as anyone can tell (explains the recruiter, Captain Tor Ripley), there's nothing special about Vukar Tag: no ore deposits, no natural resources, no nothing. So why is there a cruiser and several wings of fighters in the system? Harcourt happens to be curious enough to find out.

There will also be a mission specialist, Lieutenant Commander Ramona Chekhova, who will be in charge of the cameras and surveillance equipment. Aboard his own ship, the captain (Harcourt) is the only reigning monarch, but because of disparities in Navy and Space Force ranks, Ramona technically outranks him, and attempts to exert her influence over him and the Greene's crew as soon as possible—which leads only to public humiliation.

At Vukar Tag, though, there is no time for petty power struggles. Hiding in a local asteroid belt, the crew attempts desperately to figure out how to elude the system's defenses, make a single orbit of the planet, and get out again. The main problem is that if anything approaches the planet, the Kilrathi are apt to shoot it down first and ask questions later... A fact proven by the discovery of a wrecked Venture-class corvette in the asteroid belt. The Greene is the third reconnaissance mission sent to the Vukar Tag system, a fact Ramona knows but Harcourt did not.

But it's the wreck of that corvette, the John Bunyan, that saves their mission. Ramona will use it for her fly-by, while the Greene attacks a passing supply convoy as a distraction. Hopefully, the Kilrathi won't notice Ramona until her slingshot orbit sends her back to the asteroid belt, but she'll send them the pictures by radio if she has to—the most important thing is that the Greene return to Confed space with the data. If necessary, she orders Harcourt, the Johnny Greene will leave her behind.

Which is, in the end, what happens. The Greene proves a marvelously successful distraction, but at least one Kilrathi is clear-headed enough to notice the John Bunyan, and Ramona is taken out. But not before she manages to send all the data she's collected up until then... And not before she finds what is undoubtedly the reason for all the security around Vukar Tag: a beautiful fairy-tale castle, all alabaster spires and minarets. This data safely in hand, the Johnny Greene returns to Confederation space... And the waiting war.

Part II: End Run

Part II, written by Forstchen, concerns Captain Jason "Bear" Bondarevsky, late of the TCS Concordia, who has just been transferred. At the ripe old age of 25, he is now a Wing Commander, in charge of the 36 planes and 44 pilots aboard a brand-new escort carrier, the TCS Tarawa CVE-08. ...Which was constructed by stapling a flight deck to a medium transport. Its captain, Thaddeus O'Brian, got the position because he helped design the ship; he was transferred out of military command years ago when he dinged his destroyer during docking. With the sole exception of two dozen or so Concordia veterans, including pilots Etienne "Doomsday" Montclair and Janice "Starlight" Parker, every crewmember on the ship is straight out of the Academy. And finally, the CVE class, cheap and easy to build, is the perfect throwaway ship, designed as an expendable shield for the much more valuable fleet carriers. All in all, Jason isn't expecting this assignment to be fun.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Wing Commander: End Run ]

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