Display MoreWhen it comes to science fiction, sandworms are everywhere. We largely owe that to the enduring popularity of Dune. Its desert planet is defined by impossibly huge worms which play a major role in the story.. and that has led to decades of sandworms in fiction, from Beetlejuice to a Star Citizen demo. And Wing Commander is technically no exception! We don't ever get a visual of sandworms in the Wing Commander universe but we do know of at least THREE planets that are home to such creatures! Let's take a quick tour of the universe…
Brimstone II: In the Wing Commander I & II Ultimate Strategy Guide, veteran Carl LaFong recounts his first days at the Terran Confederation Space Naval Academy. He includes a note given to him on arrival from the senior class as part of the hazing of new students. It mentions, among other things, that they are "lower than a sand worm in the Brimstone System." Here's the whole list:
As a Plebe, you represent the lowest form of life at the TCSNA. You are lower than a sand worms [sic] in the Brimstone System, lower than the bilge in an ancient frigate, lower than a hairball in a Kilrathi's innards. Until the end of your first year, you will be known as "youngsters," and as such, you will cater to the whims of those who arrived at the academy before you. The members of the 3rd, 2nd and 1st classes of the academy look forward to your imminent arrival."Brimstone is a Kilrathi-held system which the Confederation fails to capture during the original Wing Commander. It's seen in one of the original game's cutscenes in which Confed commandos either succeed or fail to sabotage a major Kilrathi base on Brimstone II. No worms are visible there, though! Origin's 1990 internal description for the system reads:
Volcanic world.Kilrathi military installation, population unknown.
Rocked by volcanic eruptions and violent earthquakes, Brimstone is a hostile and forbidding environment. Because of its strategic location, the Kilrathi have built a military base on the planet; the extent of Kilrathi settlement of the planet is not clear.
Isis VII: In Wing Commander IV, Maniac has a line that again shows there's a great deal of disrespect for sandworms in the Wing Commander universe. In response to learning that the Intrepid has lost internal power because of the jamming ship in the Peleus System, Maniac exclaims: "Oh, this is great. Now, we gotta fly blind! Groping around like some pathetic sandworm on Isis VII!". The Isis system is not mentioned anywhere else, though Wing Commander Prophecy does have the ICIS system!
Rigel: Wing Commander Arena's Star Soldier manual makes an oblique reference to sandworms in its travel guide review of the Midgard system: "Those seeking massive sandworms and powerful dust storms had best head for Rigel". Rigel is a real star, one of the brightest in the night sky. It is located about 850 light-years from Earth. It's seen in Special Operations 1 as the location of the Confederation supply depot taken over by the pirate faction of the Gettysburg mutineers.
