News categories list

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Archon Delaine has rejected Prime Minister Mahon's warning over an alleged attempt to gain control of systems in the California Nebula.
"Wake up, Old Man Mahon!" Delaine said in a public broadcast. "The Kumo Crew migrated into the nebula with help from some mutual friends of ours… people you now consider allies. You like to portray us as criminals lusting for power and influence, but the real crooks are much closer to home. Rather than watching us, you should try looking over your shoulder."
Independent journalist Flint 'Firemaker' Lafosse published his observations via the Rewired network:
"Watching two of Sirius Corporation's business partners openly fight like this must be making Li Yong Rui cringe as much as his poker face allows. What's that? You never heard of the most powerful megacorp in history dealing with pirates? Surely not!"
"Delaine is clearly referring to 3307, when he somehow

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Here's a recent discovery of mine regarding the unused hologram character Merlin in the Wing Commander movie. The film was shot to include all his scenes and his deletion had a knock-on effect for nearly all other elements of the film.

Merlin was Blair's PPC (Personal Portable Computer), a futuristic version of a Siri-ChatGTP crossbred with a holographic avatar. He would banter with Blair, make observations, and be a bit of comic relief. Here are a few early concepts of what he might have looked like:

Blair also would discuss things with Merlin while in the cockpit of his Rapier. When the decision was made to remove the character, they changed some of Merlin's in-flight dialogue to be from the Rapier Computer. We often speculated about what Blair's PPC unit (holo emitter base) looked like. Surely we must be able to see Merlin's base somewhere in the final movie. At the time, the obvious conclusion

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

We've leveraged our new News Collections feature to organize all of the memorials we've put together over the years. It's surprising how many there've been actually, but that's what the decades will do. But far from being a depressing subject, we wanted to highlight this as a celebration of all the great folks who've come and gone and had a positive influence on the CIC. There are some pretty interesting linkages that connect these influential people to us, each other and the Wing Commander series. Check them out in five categories below:

• Developers and Artists
• Authors and Publishers
• Cast Members
• Studios and Websites
• General Science and Sci-Fi

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

This is the Kobayashi Maru... nineteen periods out of Altair Six. We have struck a gravitic mine and have lost all power...our hull is penetrated and we have sustained many casualties. Prepare to face the most infamous Starfleet challenge! The Kobayashi Maru, the “original no-win scenario,” returns to Star Trek Online as a limited-time test of character. How long can you hold out against ambushing enemy ships? Can you keep cool under pressure as you place yourself between the Kobayashi Maru and death? What would Spock do? The Kobayashi Maru event will come in two forms: timed and untimed. In each case, you fight to keep the freighter intact while destroying successive rounds of enemies who will become more and more dangerous as the simulation continues. The longer you last, the greater your rewards! Once everyone on your team is defeated at the same time – or when the timer runs out, if

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Temporal Anomalies have opened a hole to an alternate universe, one with a fantastic sale, Captains. But this Flash Sale will only be available for a limited time – from 12pm-12am PST today only, on all three platforms. Hurry and grab yourself some items at a one of our largest discounts ever, before the portal shuts and it’s all lost. Today’s Flash Sale is: 30% OFF EVERYTHING IN THE "DUTY OFFICERS" AND "PERSONNEL" TABS IN THE C-STORE! Don’t wait! The Flash Sale Anomaly can be gone before you know it! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(d7afaaa14e96d0d973f76157ae31ec5b1466398539.png) no-repeat 0 0; opacity: .5; display: inline-block; height: 60px; width: 60px; padding: 0; border: 1px solid transparent; -webkit-transition: opacity .3s; transition: opacity .3s; } .share-footer .TI { background-position: 0 20%; } .share-footer

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

We’re headed back to the fabulous Rio Hotel for 2019’s Star Trek Las Vegas! Join the developers of Star Trek Online and some of your favorite cast members from Star Trek: Discovery for panels, meet and greets and giveaways! This year, Star Trek Online will be featured in a few different panels, which we’ll have more information on soon, along with some special events: Live Interview with Priority One and Rekha Sharma When: Friday, August 2nd at 12:00 pm Where: Roddenberry Entertainment Island The dev team will sit down with the hosts of Priority One: A Roddenberry Star Trek Podcast at the Roddenberry Entertainment Island for a live interview right on the show floor, with special guest Rekha Sharma from Star Trek: Discovery! Join us for this special event to meet the developers from Cryptic Studios, lock down this year’s STLV-exclusive Landry and Lorca Holographic Bridge Officers, and

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Five new patrols are coming to Star Trek Online, bringing new challenges and story to the universe. J’Ula, sister of T’Kuvma, is on the march once again. She is seeking the spores of prototaxites stellaviatori to fuel her devastating new superweapon. With the aid of Lt. Commander Paul Stamets and Captain Kuumaarke, captains can stand tall in the fight against the dangerous matriarch of House Mo’Kai. We’ll be revealing the new patrols one at a time in the lead up to Awakening – check back with Startrekonline.com for more! Sentinels A research facility on a small moon in the Donatu System is studying prototaxites stellaviatori. Deploy defense satellites to protect the unarmed facility from raiders. You will first be able to access these new Patrols from your mission journal after completing the episode “Beneath the Skin.” If you are on a Patrol mission from the journal, have completed it, or

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Starfleet Engineers, in conjunction with the finest minds in singularity technology of the Romulan Republic, have finally made a breakthrough in investigating the incursions from the Galaxy of Great Sales, which occasionally merges with our own to set off the anomaly known as the “Flash Sale.” This newfound research has allowed Starfleet to create not one, not two, but three major sales over the next week! Keep checking back for more information on the great deals to come. It’s time for the second sale, and it’s a doozy for all of you Antimatter-Heads out there. From November 25th at 10am to November 27th at 10am PT, you can save 30% on all ships in the Zen Store! Had your eye on a ship, like the brand new Earhart on PC or the newly released Somerville on Console? Now’s the time to take command! .share-footer a { margin: 20px 10px 10px 0; background: url(

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

For seven years, Captain Jean-Luc Picard commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise on our television screens, bringing to life some of the greatest stories in Trek canon. Now, later this month, Patrick Stewart returns to the role he made famous, in the brand new series, Star Trek: Picard. To celebrate this amazing moment in Trek fandom, we’re releasing a brand new bundle for Star Trek Online, coming on January 16th for 12000 Zen! Buying this bundle together gets you a deep discount on some items that were very important in Picard’s life, and includes a ship that’s never been offered for direct purchase before! Here’s the full breakdown of everything in the bundle: T6 Ship: Miradorn Raider T5 Ship: Galaxy Exploration Cruiser Retrofit T3 Ship: Constellation Class Heavy Cruiser Bridge Environment: Galaxy Class Ship Interior 1 T5 Ship Upgrade Token Ground Weapon: Replica Thompson Submachine

Quote from Star Trek Online News-Bot

Dear Players, Many of you have asked about the impact of current events on Cryptic Studios, so we wanted to provide an update: We are actively taking preventive measures to protect the health of our employees and their families. Plans are in place to ensure Star Trek Online, Neverwinter, and Champions Online remain operational and Magic: Legends continues active development. Meanwhile, our teams will continue to work remotely in accordance with recent “shelter in home” orders enacted by our local county. We appreciate your understanding while we adapt to both ensure a positive play experience for all of you and keep our studio family safe. —Cryptic Studios

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Peony is doing a fan art promotion where people can commission fun little character sketches. The money will go towards bail bond funds associated with recent protests. One of her first drawings is a super charming Captain Eisen! It's a warm and confident take on the captain, and the framing does a good job of capturing the iconic WC3 style uniform too. If you're interesting in supporting the effort (and potentially generating some more WC goodness!) visit her Ko-fi page.

Headshot Commission - CHARITY FANART

CHARITY COMMISSION - all proceeds from these commissions will go towards BLM related bail bond funds/charities. **For simplicity, please leave these commissions to generic fanart or character requests as opposed to original characters.**

Lineart - $10, Colored - $15

For more information of where these donations will be going and if you'd like to contribute more, see the following link. Thank you

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

ODVS has something new and a little different on the video enhancement front. He's put together a quick test cut of the Academy intro transformed into 1080p. He stresses that this isn't a carefully curated version to maximize quality, but even the quick and dirty experiment is pretty slick. He won't be able to actually remaster the show due to copyright considerations, so it's not worth the effort to painstakingly clean this up much further. Nonetheless, it's very cool! Note the embedded view below is sharpened, but still low resolution. Grab the actual 1080p file here (16 meg mp4). You can right click to download, but many browsers will play it natively as well. You can buy the show on Amazon for $8 or watch it streaming on Peacock. Maybe someday one of the official NBC Universal-authorized sources will go HD!

I've actually got several Wing Commander projects on the go at the moment, but I

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Bonkus_Maximus ran a very successful playthrough of the original Wing Commander to celebrate the series' 30th birthday recently, and he's been posting some fun highlight clips since. A particularly noteworthy mission is his attempt to save the Ralari in Kurasawa 2, which he finished on just his second try! That's the best attempt I've seen performed live since LOAF nailed it on his first attempt way back in 2015.

Fellow wingnuts:I once again wanted to thank those who could make it to the playthrough last week. I will be continuing the playthrough on Twitch (Tuesdays, 8pm - 12am Eastern). However, since we did finish the winning track, I did want to share a highlight showing both tries at Kurse-a-sawa 2. I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

As a reminder, we'll be holding our own annual online event, the CIC Birthday Party, this Saturday afternoon! Join us in #Wingnut on Discord by 7:00 pm EDT

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Parallel campaigns in the Empire and the Federation to provide commodities for building new capital ships have ended.
The Federal Navy's construction programme was boosted by deliveries of building fabricators, microbial furnaces and energy grid assemblies. Contributing pilots can now collect their rewards at Schweickart City in the Parutis system.
As a result, 5 newly completed Farragut-class Battle Cruisers will become operational within a matter of days. They are expected to be patrolling in several Federal systems including Atropos, Iman Caber, LHS 142, LFT 367 and Wolf 25.
The Imperial Navy is also rewarding all traders who delivered building fabricators, microbial furnaces and energy grid assemblies for use in its shipyards. Payments can be collected from Miyasaka Orbital in the Mandh system.
It has been confirmed that 4 new Majestic-class Interdictors will

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The purchase of shipbuilding company Lakon Spaceways by Core Dynamics is in doubt after allegations of illegal business practices.
Irfan Karim reported on the recent developments for The Alliance Tribune:
"The Independent Commission for Market Equality has confirmed that several Lakon shareholders sold their stock to shell companies, which were covertly established by departments within Core Dynamics. Furthermore, two serious accusations of blackmail have been referred to Alliance Interpol."
"Trent Delaney, Lakon's newly installed chairperson, has dismissed these claims. But coupled with serious rumblings from the Council of Admirals over losing a military supplier, this hostile takeover now looks less certain."
In the Federation, the newsfeed Sol Today ran an editorial piece on the situation:
"Acquiring Lakon is another bold triumph for manufacturing colossus Core Dynamics. It's a shame that

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

Political fallout has been intense after the NMLA simultaneously bombed nine starports in the Alliance, Empire and Federation.
The targeted stations are in the Achenar, Alioth, Eotienses, Gateway, Kamadhenu, Lave, Nanomam, Rhea and Sol systems. These were referred to by NMLA propaganda as the 'Nine Martyrs', a reference to the attack against Kepler Orbital last November.
All three superpowers are treating this as a major emergency. Top-level discussions have taken place between their chiefs of security, using communication protocols recently established at the Galactic Summit.
However, mainstream media has also reported on internal political tensions.
The Imperial Herald: "Senator Patreus proposed that all known Marlinists be arrested immediately as NMLA collaborators. He received a direct rebuke from Chancellor Blaine, who said 'Her Majesty views your blunt tactics as having been

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots Federation ALERT*
Commanders in the Chukchan and Perseus Dark Region KC-V c2-2 systems have reported being contacted by 'Salvation'.
The anonymous individual is known to have an interest in the Adamastor and the Hesperus, the 'ghost ships' within those systems. Both of the derelict megaships were operated 200 years ago by Azimuth Biochemicals.
Commander Tyler Thorsen told Vox Galactica:
"I was taking some sightseers on a trip round the Hesperus, and getting as close as I dared to the Scriveners Clan dredger. I scanned the tourist beacon for them, and suddenly received a direct message from this 'Salvation' guy."
"He asked me to track down some old signal beacons, which are listening posts configured to retransmit long-range comms. Apparently these could help locate the survivors from the megaship. But the Hesperus is ancient history. Surely there can't be anything or anyone left to

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

Sad to learn that Paul Alexander passed away last month. Mr. Alexander was a prolific science fiction artist who was responsible for, among many things, the four wonderful cover paintings for Baen’s initial package of Wing Commander novels.

Artist Paul Alexander, 83, died June 14, 2021 at the Brethren Retirement Community in Greenville OH.

Paul R. Alexander was born September 3, 1937, in Richmond IN, the son of the late Fred and Ora Olive Alexander. After graduation from Wittenberg University in 1959, and then the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, he found work in the art field with architectural firms, and then moved into advertising, concentrating mostly on still-life and “men and machines” subject matter.

In 1976 he began working with an art representative in New York who brought his work to the attention of Ace Books. Impressed by his command of hardware and machinery illustration, Ace

Quote from Wing Commander News-Bot

There's even more Rapier news to report in addition to the massive rundown of LOAF's research. AD pointed out that we have a more recent bead on the whereabouts of an existing Rapier fighter. It seems that one of them - potentially the Planet Hollywood craft - apparently made its way to an automotive junkyard at some point in the last two decades. The owners didn't know what it was, so there it sat until The MIXX Radio came across it. It's missing the wings, rotary neutron gun and a few things, but it could be much worse. We're looking forward to seeing where it goes from here!

This is a reply to a many year old tweet, but I believe I have the whereabouts of the US Rapier that was in Planet Hollywood. It will soon be in my possession. Here is a pic from today. It’s missing some pieces. I hope to get some of it back to a Rapier state. I’m going to try and copy all your info on the background. I

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Aegis board of inquiry's initial findings have been leaked to journalists, with several problems within the anti-xeno organisation detailed in the files.
Vox Galactica journalist Alexei Keel reported on its contents:
"The independent inquiry into Aegis is in its early stages, making this disclosure of delicate information all the more embarrassing. Although only a summary, it highlights shortcomings that were immediately apparent to the investigators."
"The leaked files outline a pattern of poor internal organisation and negligence. One claim is that Aegis accepted its heavy reliance on independent pilots entering combat situations against the Thargoids."
"A lack of technological breakthroughs since the first generation of AX weaponry is also criticised. Professor Tesreau, who has since resigned, is singled out for prioritising communication with the Thargoids rather than developing