[jg18]

First, yes, I am still around. I've been continuing my work on enhanced in-mission sound.


I've been meaning to ask these for a long time, so here goes:


(1) How did the NTF Iceni get its name?

The debriefing for the mission where you discover it (Act 1, Mission 2, "The Place of Chariots") says

Command has issued no official explanation for Admiral Bosch's presence in the Deneb system. The hidden base and the shielded cargo units only compound the mystery of the admiral's agenda. Under the circumstances, there was nothing you could have done to stop the escape of Bosch's command frigate, designated the NTF Iceni.

And in Bosch's first monologue cutscene, we see a ship model of the Iceni labeled as "NTF Iceni".

But which came first? Did the GTVA pick the name and Bosch like it so much that he took it? Or did Bosch announce it somehow and the GTVA accepted the name? Is there a nameplate on the retail model?


(2) Who is the Allied Command character, anyway?

What position does he hold? He obviously can't be all of Allied Command. I'd always  imagined him to be Allied Command's liaison to the 3rd Fleet, but I have no idea if there's canon support for that.  Or maybe he's one such liaison? Is there someone from Allied Command monitoring every last GTVA mission? Or maybe Command only monitors crucial missions, which naturally include everything in the FS2 main campaign?

Thanks! Hopingto finally get these resolved.

[General Battuta]

Dude! How are you?

The Iceni is named after a British tribe that rebelled against the Roman Empire. The in-universe explanation is up to us but I personally favor the notion that Bosch chose the name for symbolic reasons. He clearly has an appreciation for history and the power of symbols.

We are talking about #2 over here http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=169.0

[jg18]

Dude! How are you?

The short answer is "not good, but subject to change." The full answer is more than I'd like to discuss on the boards. Thanks for asking.

The Iceni is named after a British tribe that rebelled against the Roman Empire. The in-universe explanation is up to us but I personally favor the notion that Bosch chose the name for symbolic reasons. He clearly has an appreciation for history and the power of symbols.

Yeah, agreed that Bosch probably chose the name. But how did he communicate it to the GTVA? How did the GTVA know it in time for the Mission 2 debriefing? Or is that detail not important?

We are talking about #2 over here http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=169.0

I assume you mean this thread? http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=89459.0
I'll have to look there. Thanks!

[The E]

I think the assumption is that the Iceni itself dates back to the days before the rebellion, that it maybe was a project under Bosch's supervision.

[Flipside]

I got that impression too, wherever Admiral Bosch was placed in the GTVA, he had access to information that was privy to only a tiny number of people judging by his decisions and speeches. I always thought the Iceni was a ship he was allocated to perform a mission of some kind, and then he either stole it and renamed it, or was operating under plausible deniability, but that's a different discussion.

[General Battuta]

Yeah, agreed that Bosch probably chose the name. But how did he communicate it to the GTVA? How did the GTVA know it in time for the Mission 2 debriefing? Or is that detail not important?

The NTF was riddled with GTVA spies (and vice versa, I'm sure). Command understood Bosch's intentions well enough to know about ETAK before 'The Romans Blunder'. They probably found out what he was calling the ship via the same avenues.

[Mongoose]

Or else you can just punch the ship name into your own hostile IFF broadcast like a "Hello my name is..." nametag at a party.