Wedge Defense Force Veritech Fighter Squadron 261
"Eight-Ball Squadron"

No fighter squadron is more closely identified with the Golden Age WDF in the public consciousness than Eight-Ball Squadron. Led by SDF-17 executive officer Commander Benjamin D. "Gryphon" Hutchins and staffed by pilots he personally hand-picked, VVF-261 was intended to be the WDF's - and the galaxy's - pre-eminent VF-1 squadron from the word go, and over the 297 years between its founding and the original WDF's fall, the squadron delivered time and time again.

When first formed, Eight-Ball Squadron had only four pilots. The WDF in its earliest days was a tiny organization functioning within the framework of a much larger one, and the constitution of VVF-261 reflected this. For its second engagement, the Battle of Worcester, the squadron had increased to six, but lost one pilot during the battle. Not until several months later, when the Royal Salusian Marine Corps' 101st FTL Cavalry was seconded into the WDF by order of Princess Asrial, did the squadron reach full strength (10 pilots).

The squadron's membership changed a few times during the course of the Golden Age, as pilots changed assignments, took vacations, and so forth, but the "core" membership of VVF-261 was unusually stable for much of its pre-Sonfall lifespan. Unconcerned about advancement, the lower-ranked pilots in the squadron were either content to play their roles until such time as the WDF underwent its long-planned but long-deferred expansion (which didn't end up happening until the force was reformed starting in 2380) or simply lacked aspirations to higher status. They were pilots because they loved to be pilots, and in some cases actively shunned any advancement that might cut into their flying time.

Though actually based aboard the spacecraft carrier WDF Prometheus (CVS-101), the squadron was always officially identified as belonging to the force flagship, WDF Wayward Son (SDF-17), and its members were listed as part of the flagship's crew. Prometheus and the SDF-17's other companion vessel, the assault carrier WDF Daedalus (SLV-111), were not considered commands at the time, as they almost never operated independently of the flagship. Instead, assignment to Prometheus or Daedalus was officially considered a duty station aboard SDF-17. For the whole of the Golden Age, VVF-261 operated out of Prometheus Fighter Section 7G, which was affectionately known throughout the WDF as "the Corner Pocket". They almost always launched from the carrier's bow catapults.

The five-ship formation most people think of when they think of the Eight-Ball Squadron was in fact the squadron's lead element, usually known as Black Flight. The second element, White Flight, operated semi-independently of Black Flight during most battles, occasionally remaining aboard Prometheus as a reserve or standby force.

In addition to combat operations, the Eight-Balls often performed precision flight demonstrations on the WDF's behalf at aerospace shows throughout the galaxy. The usual demonstration team consisted of four members of Black Flight operating as the classic "diamond" formation, two members of White Flight peforming as soloists, and the rest carrying out public relations functions on the ground. (Usual demonstration team roles are noted in the roster below.)

The most common pilot roster for VVF-261 during the WDF's Golden Age was as follows.

Gryphon
CDR Benjamin D. Hutchins
Squadron commander
Comm designation: Eight-Ball One (also Eight-Ball Lead, Black Leader)
Demonstration role: Leader
Spacecraft: VF-1FS Hyper Valkyrie (experimental officer's model)
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 1995

The WDF's first fighter pilot, Gryphon was the founding member who insisted that the VF-1 Valkyrie fighter be included in the WDF's front-line Veritech arsenal (the force's planners had intended to field only the VF-6/VB-9 Legios system). He went on to be one of the fighter's strongest proponents, working with the engineers at Stonewell Bellcom throughout his career to make what he considered the galaxy's greatest aerospace superiority fighter even better.

His one-of-a-kind VF-1FS, tail number 92-008, was the test bed for a multitude of improvements to the Valkyrie, some successful, some not, and carried an "EXPERIMENTAL" designation throughout its operational career. Part throttle jockey, part engineer, Gryphon approached each combat with the mindset of a test pilot - a mindset that kept him alive in more than one tight scrape, and eventually enabled him to keep his Valkyrie functional for nearly a full century without proper repair or refit facilities during his long post-Sonset exile. His skill with improvised repairs was practically legendary in the fighter pilot community.

Though there were better pilots and better gunners in the squadron, Gryphon balanced both skills with a facility few could match. Of the Valkyrie's three modes, his favorite was its pure fighter mode, though he wouldn't hesitate to put all three to good use in the heat of battle. He preferred a good, old-fashioned turn-and-burn gunfight to standoff missile fire, and often showed frustration toward enemy pilots who refused to engage with anything but missile weapons.

Gryphon maintained a current qualification with the VF-6 Alpha Legios as well, but only operated Alphas when on special missions outside VVF-261's area of responsibility.

Daver
LCDR David Ritchie
Squadron executive officer
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Two (also Black Two)
Demonstration role: Left wing
Spacecraft: VF-1S Valkyrie
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 1995

Dave Ritchie was one of the founding four, the squadron's original members during the First Battle of Zeta Cygni. Daver's specialty was knowing exactly what the VF-1 could and couldn't be asked to do, and shaping his strategy accordingly. He knew the fighter's performance limits as well as did the engineers who built it, knew how to get the very best out of all three modes, and was a master at switching between the three for absolute maximum effect. Though an excellent fighter pilot, he really shone in battroid mode, where his command over his vehicle could seem almost supernatural. His cannon accuracy was measurably superior in this mode, when his Valkyrie held its GU-11 in its hands - a configuration in which most pilots' accuracy rating goes down slightly.

As VVF-261's executive officer, Daver was responsible for much of the paperwork that goes on behind the scenes to make a fighter squadron run, though in actual practice he left most of it to Eve, the SDF-17's shipboard machine intelligence. (It should be noted that this practice was not illicit; unit commanders and XOs throughout the WDF did the same, all the way up to Captain MegaZone himself. It was one of Eve's primary functions.) He viewed his real responsibility as squadron XO as being the one in charge of arranging squadron parties and other such special activities, which occurred with considerable frequency back in the Golden Age. It was said that Daver could find a bottle of good Scotch and a pizza for every pilot aboard the Prometheus, anywhere in the galaxy, with a few hours' notice.

Saurian
SRLT Erik A. Swimm
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Three (also Black Three, RoboSwimm)
Demonstration role: Right wing
Spacecraft: VF-1J Valkyrie
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 1995

Black Flight's deadliest gunner, Erik "Saurian" Swimm could hit a Salthi in the forward viewport at 250 miles - but for most of his career he was plagued by mysterious, unexplained weapons problems. Missiles fired from Saurian's Valkyrie had a strange habit of tumbling in flight near the ends of their runs, often impacting the enemy thrusters first. This curious phenomenon - which also befell other WDF pilots, but not with anything like the frequency with which it happened to Saurian - became known as "Swimming a missile". It is, perhaps, no wonder that he preferred, like his squadron commander, to stick to gunfighting whenever possible.

Saurian also had the longest injury record of any Black Flight pilot, though mostly through no fault of his own. As a fan of cybernetic enhancement and body replacement, however, he took these injuries in stride, actually bypassing most of his Detian body's regenerative capacity on purpose so that he could install more and more bionic augmentations. Eventually he had replaced almost all of his body with robotic parts, earning himself the nickname "RoboSwimm". Fortunately, he was part of the small population of human cyborgs who are technically referred to as "perfectly balanced", and suffered no serious psychological effects from his wholesale cybernization. Indeed, he often claimed to be happier as a mostly-robot; after all, if he got an arm blown off, his deck crew could fix it at the same time they patched his fighter!

Haywire
LT Mark Luchini
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Four (also Black Four)
Demonstration role: Narrator
Spacecraft: VF-1J Valkyrie
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 1995

Few fighter pilots' callsigns are as apropos as Haywire's was during his long career as Eight-Ball Squadron's resident loose cannon. Reckless and furious, foul-mouthed and perversely cheerful on the comm, Haywire threw himself and his fighter into combat with the fervor of a Viking berserker, ignoring danger and seeming to grow stronger and fiercer as the odds against him increased. He wasn't suicidal or foolish - just very, very aggressive, and his fury gave him a sort of instinctive brilliance behind the controls. Though not the squadron's best pilot nor its best gunner, he would very often kill more of the enemy than anyone else, and however shot-up he got his Valkyrie, he always came back in one piece.

Perhaps the key to Haywire's success was his complete lack of specialization. Guns, lasers, missiles; fighter mode, GERWALK mode, battroid mode - it just didn't matter to Haywire. He threw his fighter around like an extension of himself, treating combat as a sort of extended slamdance with the enemy. Blasting, maneuvering, switching modes when his foes least expected it, he could always be counted on to do something counterintuitive, startling, and almost universally successful, and never boring. Daver's gun-camera footage of Haywire delivering a medium-range missile whose sustainer had failed to fire by hand to a Kilrathi Dralthi during the 17th Kilrathi War is still a hugely popular clip among trainee fighter pilots and old hands alike.

Terror
SRLT Patricia Currier
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Five (also Black Five)
Demonstration role: Slot
Spacecraft: VF-1J Valkyrie
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 1995

Terror didn't suit up until VVF-261's second engagement, the Battle of Worcester, but was always considered a founding Eight-Ball by the others. She joined the squadron at its formation, but a problem with her vision-correction program kept her off flight status for the First Battle of Zeta Cygni, so she didn't get behind the stick until the Battle of Worcester - where she immediately proved herself a cool-headed, capable pilot. Her careful but not timid approach to combat, always making sure she knows where everyone is and what the bigger picture of the battle looks like, was the perfect counterpart to Haywire's furious full-power onslaught. Often she quietly - or not-so-quietly - watched Haywire's back in combat, picking off enemies who, concentrating on the reckless and vulnerable Eight-Ball Four, would themselves fail to keep the rest of the battlefield in mind.

Terror was Black Flight's best missileer, capable of achieving sensor lock and delivering full seconds before some of her wingmates, and excelled at using the transition between fighter and GERWALK modes to carry out complex varying-speed maneuvers in combat. Today, as head of WDF Fighter Command and commanding officer of the modern Eight-Ball Squadron, she teaches younger pilots that the keys to survival in high-speed three-dimensional combat are situational awareness and energy management. She's also a VF-1 diehard, having transitioned her squadron back to Valkyries almost immediately after the Second Battle of Zeta Cygni and holding out even after approving the VF-11 Thunderbolt for assignment to several other front-line WDF Veritech squadrons.

Genius
LCDR Maximilian Sterling
Squadron intelligence officer; leader of White Flight
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Six (also White One, White Leader)
Demonstration role: Solo 1
Spacecraft: VF-1S Valkyrie
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 1995

Max Sterling came by his callsign honestly - with a Modified Wolfe-DeKok Intelligence Index over 200, what else could they have called him? Possessed of a photographic memory, incredible powers of concentration, and near-total command over his aerospacecraft, he was - to his own surprise as much as anyone else's - by far the best instinctive pilot of any of the original Wedge Rats. During the Zentraedi War (1996-1999) he famously infiltrated a Zentraedi warship by dressing his battroid up in a Zentraedi infantryman's uniform, and operating the camouflaged fighter so skillfully that the other Zentraedi bought it. He was just as good with the other two modes, switching between the three in combat as though his Valkyrie were thought-controlled.

Genius served as squadron intelligence officer. The other pilots sometimes joked that the title meant he, alone among them, was responsible for having any brains. In reality, it meant he was VVF-261's liaison to the WDF's Intelligence Division, responsible for compiling and presenting the information which Gryphon and Daver used to plan operations and assemble pilot briefings. Most of the time, he assisted in that planning as well. Once in combat, he was a steadying influence not only on the other Eight-Balls, but on many of the younger WDF pilots involved in the battles as well. Entire generations of young fighter pilots trained themselves to sound just like him on the comm - truly the highest compliment a senior pilot can be paid.

Megaera
SRLT Miria Fallyna Sterling
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Seven (also White Two)
Demonstration role: Solo 2
Spacecraft: VF-1S Valkyrie
Homeworld: None
Education: Zentraedi (Meltrandi) training creche; WDF Academy, Class of 2001

Miria Fallyna was the leader of the dreaded Quadrono Squadron, a force of elite Meltrandi (female Zentraedi) battle armor pilots who fought in the WDF's second major campaign, the Zentraedi War. Bested in combat several times by Max "Genius" Sterling, she volunteered to be one of the first micronized Zentraedi infiltration agents placed aboard the SDF-17. There she sought out Sterling and carried out several rather wacky attempts to assassinate him before finally cornering him and Gryphon in a Wedge City storm drain - where, to the utter astonishment of Gryphon, Sterling talked her out of finishing them off and ended up taking her home with him. Within weeks she was Mrs. Miria Sterling, being sworn in as a WDF Academy cadet, and two years later she returned to the SDF-17 as VVF-261's newest member.

Miria was a deadly and highly experienced space combatant before her WDF training, and that training only put a fine edge on her already impressive skills. Thanks to her background as a battle armor pilot, she was among the Golden Age WDF's finest battroid operators, spending more combat time in that mode than any other, and her gunnery skills were top-notch. In addition, she fought with a ferocity surpassed only by Haywire's, often protecting her wingmates or pursuing the mission's ultimate objective with seeming disregard for her own safety. At times only Max's moderating influence kept her from reverting to a full-on Meltrandi killing machine - and there were times when the best thing for him to do, tactically speaking, was not stop her.

Miss Liberty
LT Komilia D. Sterling
Squadron logistics officer
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Eight (also White Three)
Demonstration role: Public relations officer
Spacecraft: VF-1J Valkyrie
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 2025

Komilia is the eldest of Max and Miria Sterling's eight daughters. As a child she honed her logistics skills by keeping the household operating during the times when her parents were both caught up in alerts, training, or otherwise out saving the universe, and when the time came that she could go to the WDF Academy and join them in that noble - and much more entertaining - pursuit, she wasted no time. It took her a few years to work her way up through the structure of Fighter Command and into a freshly-vacated slot in White Flight, but that was all to the good. Once she arrived, she was already a proven, battle-tested pilot with a solid track record. No one could claim - not with a straight face, anyway - that she had achieved her place in the WDF's most prestigious Valkyrie squadron through nepotism (even though the WDF has never made any particular sin out of that particular activity).

In addition to her solid piloting and gunnery skills, Komilia proved a vital asset to the squadron because of her complete mastery of the ins and outs of the WDF supply system - both legitimate and not so much. Her callsign is an ironic reference to her great skill at... "liberating"... needed supplies and equipment. Need ten cases of General Hosement missiles in a hurry, and the only ones aboard ship belong to some fixed-config squadron two maint bays down? Give Miss Liberty 20 minutes and don't ask where the fork truck came from. Also, as the squadron's public relations officer, she was responsible for scheduling and coordinating the Eight-Balls' appearances as a flight demonstration team.

Accuser
SRLT Ronan O'Meara, MD
Squadron flight surgeon
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Nine (also White Four, Doc)
Demonstration role: Flight surgeon
Spacecraft: VF-1D Valkyrie
Homeworld: New Connaught
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 2039

A first-generation space colony native, Ronan O'Meara was born to two of the original colonists of New Connaught, one of Earth's first extrasolar colonies. He went to the WDF Academy because of its academic standing and intended only to become a medical officer, possibly to seek posting aboard the SDF-17 or at one of the WDF's fixed installations - but a performance by Eight-Ball Squadron during his freshman orientation kindled in him a desire to fly Valkyries that never diminished. He double majored in pre-med and flight training, passing both courses with ease, and was a fully qualified flight surgeon three years after his graduation from the Academy. He served as squadron surgeon in three other squadrons before applying for, and winning, an open slot in VVF-261.

Accuser was the only member of the squadron to fly the two-seat VF-1D, though he did not normally have a backseater. Rather, he kept the extra seat in case he needed to carry out an impromptu combat search and rescue, retrieving a wingmate or other friendly pilot whose circumstances called for more immediate pick-up than the WDF's excellent regular CSAR facilities could offer. It paid off several times over the years, and many other fighter flight surgeons with access to a two-seat model of their squadron's ride of choice adopted the practice. An excellent, well-seasoned trauma surgeon, Dr. O'Meara was a familiar and welcome sight all over the flight and hangar decks of Prometheus after a fight, seemingly everywhere as he helped his fellow pilots get the medical attention they often needed in the aftermath of combat.

Eight-Ball Ten

Though many talented pilots occupied the post of Eight-Ball Ten/White Five over the years, none ever really owned the seat the way these nine became forever identified with theirs. The squadron slot was jokingly referred to as "the Spinal Tap drummer position", though in reality most Eight-Ball Tens didn't die in action, at least not as Eight-Balls. As the junior post in the squadron, it was often used as a proving ground for young officers being considered for their own commands, or for element-lead jobs in other Valkyrie squadrons. Another common use for the slot was to host visiting members of allied forces who were on limited-time assignment to the WDF (such as Princess Lafiel of the Abh Empire, who served as Eight-Ball Ten for four years in the early 2200s before returning to her home space to take a starship command in the Imperial Forces).

Other Tens later switched to other equipment or got out of the fighter-pilot game altogether. A few failed to meet Genius and/or Gryphon's standards and washed out, but that was, like being KIA, a fairly rare fate for a Ten. Most went on to long and distinguished careers in other parts of the WDF or its allied services.

Paulheat
LT Paul Heaton
Comm designation: Eight-Ball Eleven
Spacecraft: VF-1A Valkyrie
Homeworld: Earth
Education: WDF Academy, Class of 1995

Paul Heaton, a founding WDF member from the WPI group, was placed in Eight-Ball Squadron by logistical necessity (there were not enough pilots to make up a second operational Valkyrie flight) at the absolute last minute before the squadron's second engagement, the Battle of Worcester. He holds the unfortunate distinction of being the first member of VVF-261 to be killed in action. While aggressively pursuing his fifth aerial victory, he failed to evacuate the area fast enough when the SDF-17's energy shield went critical. He and his VF-1A were vaporized instantly by the ensuing blast wave.

Though he was designated Eight-Ball Six in his only engagement, Heaton was posthumously declared "Eight-Ball Eleven" and never struck from the squadron's roll call. An empty seat was kept for him in the Corner Pocket ready room, and woe to the newbie or visitor who unknowingly sat there. The modern squadron does not continue this tradition, but his photograph is displayed on the wall in the ready room aboard Concordia and his story is told to new pilots as a cautionary tale of the importance of situational awareness. Heaton's memory is regarded with a curious mixture of honor and regret. "Paul screwed the pooch," it is said, "but he screwed it trying to do his job, and a pilot could do worse."

Johnny Cogs
CWO5 Jean-Coq Raltigue
Squadron maintenance officer/Eight-Ball One crew chief
Homeworld: Le Mond (Verne's World)
Education: WDF Advanced Technical Institute, Class of 2035

An inventor and technologist on his homeworld, Jean-Coq Raltigue was fascinated with aviation (which was in its infancy on Verne's World at the time). At the age of fifteen, he was probably the first person on that planet to construct a working heavier-than-air aircraft, and would in all likelihood have gone on to a distinguished career as one of his native civilization's fathers of aviation if the SDF-17 hadn't crashed on the planet in 2020. Instead, driven by his insatiable technical curiosity, he found himself drawn inexorably to investigate the giant flying machine that had just crashed outside Le Mond's capital. While he was aboard, the vessel completed initial repairs and lifted off again.

Raltigue bounced around the nebulous semi-civilian support community within the SDF-17 for several years before deciding to enroll in the WDF Advanced Technical Institute and train as an aerospace mechanic. After graduating with high honors and turning down a spot in officer candidate school, he entered the fleet (such as it was in those days) as a Veritechnician. Gryphon personally selected him to crew chief 92-008 after reading a paper he'd submitted to the Stonewell Bellcom Engineering Review Board about some possible improvements to the VF-1. Within a few more years, he had become the entire squadron's maintenance officer.

A wizard with Veritechnology and anything else to do with aviation, Raltigue, who became known around the Prometheus hangar deck by the affectionate nickname "Johnny Cogs", possessed the equivalent, in skill and experience, of several advanced degrees, and Gryphon offered several times to make him a commissioned officer and let him name his own price - but his price was the ability to stay at his post, doing what he loved, for as long as he cared to do so. Gryphon, who could more than related to that mindset, obliged, and Johnny Cogs was the man in charge of keeping the Eight-Balls flying for the rest of the Golden Age. He was also one of the usually-unsung heroes of the Valkyrie team, an honorary member of Stonewell Bellcom's engineering staff with access to all documentation pertaining to the VF-1 and VF-6, and worked together with the company's engineers and Gryphon on most of the 79 in-service revisions and innumerable minor upgrades that kept the VF-1 competitive into the modern era. He was also an accomplished Valkyrie pilot and was spurred into action by circumstance, though he had no formal combat credentials, several times during his career.

Where are they now?

Gryphon proved that he was not the Butcher of Musashi in 2380 and spent the next eight years re-creating the Wedge Defense Force in time to confront GENOM in the Second Battle of Zeta Cygni. Then he retired from the WDF and did it all over again, founding the International Police Organization, of which he is currently still the Chief.

Daver, now Field Marshal David Ritchie, returned to active duty as head of the WDF's tactical forces for Second Zeta Cygni, then succeeded MegaZone as Supreme Commander of the Wedge Defense Force when MegaZone retired to launch the Babylon Foundation.

Saurian retired from combat flying after Sonfall and now works as a cybertechnician and cybernetics counselor for the International Police.

Haywire served as a Veritech and fixed-configuration fighter pilot in the reconstituted WDF for several years, then retired to take up a new career as a Destroid Battlesport commentator. He can be seen every week on Avalon 17's Mobile Fighter G Gundam and Battledrome Weekly, and hosts the documentary series Superweapons on the Military Channel.

Terror is now General Patricia Currier, head of WDF Fighter Command, and is still an active combat pilot, leading the present-day incarnation of VVF-261 from her headquarters aboard WDF Concordia.

Genius rejoined the WDF in 2382 and fought in the Second Battle of Zeta Cygni. He later retired from active duty with the rank of brigadier general and now works as a test pilot for Stonewell Bellcom.

Megaera also fought in the Second Battle of Zeta Cygni. Unlike her husband, she remained in the WDF, where - under the new ranking system wherein fighter pilots hold army-style ranks - she holds the rank of colonel.

Miss Liberty spent the Exile hiding in plain sight, as a mercenary pilot hired to protect the touring rock band of which her younger sister Mylene was a member. She rejoined the WDF during the Reconstruction and led a squadron in the Second Battle of Zeta Cygni. Today she holds the rank of captain in the International Police Space Force and is in charge of organizing that agency's soon-to-be-activated starfighter assets.

Accuser left combat behind him when the WDF fell in 2288, eluding GENOM's death squads and returning to his homeworld. He served as an unpaid consultant during the re-creation of the WDF's medical service in the 2380s, and as a starship bridge medic during Second Zeta Cygni. After GENOM's defeat, he returned once more to his farm on New Connaught, where he raises sheep and produces fine wines.

Johnny Cogs escaped the destruction of the SDF-17 and had many adventures during the Exile, including a stint as Admiral of All the Seas on his native Verne's World. He declined to take part in the reconstitution of the WDF, but later joined the IPSF, in which service he now commands the Defiant-class destroyer IPS Adamant.

In a similar vein, here's the squadron flag, which was the first thing visitors to the Corner Pocket ready room tended to notice, since it was about eight feet wide and hanging on the wall above the chalkboard:

(Adding "-big" before the file extension will get you one that's 900 wide and should scale pretty cleanly, in case you want to put it to some nefarious purpose.)

Behind-the-scenes info: I remember I called Gryphon's squadron "Eight-Ball" because I wanted something with the same sort of stark, monochromatic effect as the Skull Squadron motif from Macross, but I didn't want to just rip off the look of Skull One wholesale - besides, I had already promised Fritz that he could be commander of Jolly Roger Squadron, which in UF was a Legios outfit. Also, I like the game of eight-ball, and the eight-ball itself is an iconic sort of image.

For the graphically curious: The color scheme of the Eight-Balls is described, before the Battle of Worcester in UF3, as grey, blue, and black. The basic idea was that where Skull One is white, the Eight-Balls' ships would be grey, and where it's yellow, the Eight-Balls' would be royal blue. Later, they went back to being primarily white rather than grey. Or at least Eight-Ball One did. In all the Exile material it's white with black and blue striping.

All Eight-Ball ships had black vertical tails with the winged-8 device from the middle of the squadron patch above the tail number. WDF tail numbers follow the old U.S. pattern (two-digit year, last three digits of aircraft serial number). Thus, Eight-Ball One is 92-008: S/N 00S-000008, acquired in 1992. The squadron number, 261, would have been painted just aft of the main intakes (at the point of those trim-color chevrons) in large black numerals (same font as is on the patch - I'm sure it amuses in-universe military trivia buffs that the Golden Age WDF's official number typeface was called "Pussy Galore").

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/

(I would have expected his progenitor to be a Zardon Judge, tho...)

For a while there I completely wrote off the IPSF having starfighters, it's nice too be wrong.

AARGH!!!! G, this actually raisies more questions than it answers. Well, ok, not really. It does make one wonder just how the Zentraedi war went down, since Zoner wouldnt be dumb enough to pull a Gloval, no protoculture, etc...

ah well. Just another thing to file in the "damn, it would be nice to hear about someday" file.

As to the rest... Darn nice work, as usual. Nice to see that Nadia's companion did well for himself over the years as well!

Nomenclature:
VVF: Veritech Fighter Squadron
VVB: Veritech Bomber Squadron
VVA: Veritech Attack Squadron
VVE: Veritech ELINT/AWACS Squadron
LVC: Legios Combined Squadron
VF: Fixed-Configuration Fighter Squadron
VB: Fixed-Configuration Bomber Squadron
VS: Fixed-Configuration Combat Search and Rescue Squadron
VR: Fixed-Configuration Reconnaissance Squadron
AD: Aerospace Defense Squadron (Destroid)

WDF Prometheus (CVS-101)

VVF-099 "Red Raiders" (VF-1 Valkyrie)
VVF-193 "Jolly Rogers" (VF-6 Alpha Legios)
VVF-202 "Blank Squadron" (VF-1 Valkyrie; aircraft haze grey, unmarked save for generic WDF identifiers)
VVF-261 "Eight-Ball" (VF-1 Valkyrie)
VVF-300 "Steely-Eyed Missile Men" (VF-6 Alpha Legios)
VVF-312 "The Saturn Five" (VF-1 Valkyrie; half-squadron, Titanese pilots)
VVE-100 "Eye of Sauron" (aka "The Great Lidless Eye"; VE-1 ELINT Valkyrie)
VVE-234 "Columbia Broadcasting" (VE-1 ELINT Valkyrie)
VVA-442 "Dam Busters" (VA-1 Judicator)
VVA-501 "Mack's Marauders" (VA-1 Judicator)
VVB-1080 "Hotel Detectives" (VB-9 Beta Legios)
LVC-373 "Blacklight Bandits" (VF-6D/VB-9D Shadow Legios)
LVC-919 "The Nazgûl" (Four Shadow Legios pairs plus one VF-6D Shadow Alpha; special ops squadron, often fighting under the express direction of VVE-100)

WDF Wayward Son (SDF-17)

VF-000 "squadron" (Z-95E Headhunter; all white with bar code identifier)
VF-102 "Vanguard" (Z-95E Headhunter)
VF-209 "Hannah's Homewreckers" (Queadluun-Rau Meltrandi Battle Armor)
VF-213 "Black Flag" (Z-95E-XType "Super Tuned" Headhunter)
VF-625 "Def Leppard" (SF-90E Raptor*)
VB-739 "Hobart's Funnies" (SB-17E Astrofortress**)
VS-305 "Lifeline" (SB-17G Astrofortress Rescue Variant)
VR-2265 "Gods of Velocity" (SR-71B Blackbird+)

WDF Daedalus (SLV-111)

VB-880 "The Unseen" (SB-117E Voidhawk++)
VS-250 "Rescue Rangers" (VB-9 Beta Legios)
VS-717 "Ring of Sarcasm" (SB-17G Astrofortress Rescue Variant)
AD-110 "Ironic Youth" (RX-7 Machine Weapon)
AD-203 "WPI Cop Donut Nightmare" (RX-78 Gundam)
AD-667 "Neighbors of the Beast" (RGM-79B Gunslinger+*)
AD-912 "Super-Patriots" (RFL-3N Rifleman)
AD-940 "Annie Oakley" (RFL-3N Rifleman)

NOTE: Not listed here are the various ground forces stationed aboard Daedalus, which include several companies of non-flying Destroids, conventional armor, and so forth. With the exception of Riflemen, whose primary function is aerospace defense, non-flying Destroid units are not organized as squadrons, but in the conventional ground force unit compositions of lances, companies, and so on. It is unknown why non-flying Destroids' type names are customarily italicized while the names of aerospacecraft and flying Destroids are not.

* This is the heavy fighter from Wing Commander, not the unarmed ELINT platform from Battlestar Galactica 2003.

** Essentially the Broadsword bomber from Wing Commander 2, with its name changed to befit its type number.

+ Space-capable variant. A surprisingly simple redesign!

++ Space-capable evolution of the F-117 Nighthawk, redesignated to properly reflect the fact that it's a light bomber.

+* The GM never gets any respect in the source material. I'm gonna give it a proper name (one that fits into the "Gun-" naming scheme, no less) in hopes that its pilots suffer a slightly less terrible fate in UF.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/