Ian St. John (film)

Ian St. John
Callsign	Hunter
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Terran Confederation
Rank	Captain
First	Wing commander
Actor	Richard Dillane

Ian "Hunter" St. John was a veteran human pilot one of the best in the service of the Terran Confederation during the Terran-Kilrathi War.

Biography

Ian St. John was born in Brisbane, Australia in the year 2627. He had one sister and two brothers.^[Source?] He grew up in his Grandma's farm outside Sydney where he used to raise pigeons and doves. He had a native friend from The Rocks.

His family had a long history of service with the Terran Confederation, and Ian and his brothers would all make their contribution to the war effort when the Kilrathi War broke out in 2634. His older brother Dennis St. John was with the Confederation Marines. Ian was a tech and remembered from those years an techs "selling tickets" to peek on pilots having intercourse in their fighters through the vidlinks, until Hardesty got into a garbage scow. Ater serving as a tech he signed up for Flight School. Ian entered service sometime in the 2640s and served on the TCS Gettysburg. Years before 2654, he came to the TCS Tiger's Claw.

When he was back from his first combat mission, he swore to Iceman and other fellow pilots that no Kilrathi fighter managed to approach him, although his fried engines and the burn marks were visible to anyone. After this fiasco, he learned to lie better.

In one of his Vega missions he flew with Littlehawk and were shot badly. Littlehawk failed to land on the carrier and crashed on the Flight Deck. Hunter saw the fireball as he was on final approach and aborted his landing run in time, and it took hours for the technicians to clear the debris. He spent the next days drinking.

Pilgrim Uprising

On the Claw Hunter showed phenomenal determination, practicing his reflexes and speed in the simulator for hours, cooperating well under Jeanette Deveraux. However he was noted to be unable to improve beyond a certain above-average limit; despite his practice and training, his best speed remained unpromising. Hunter "compensated" for the problem by avoiding dogfights and situations that would lead to them; he preferred to support his flight from a distance, a behavior their wingmen thought reliable. Initially belligerent to his peers, since he had started pushing his flying abilities to their limits, his behaviour was improved.

Nonetheless he racked up an impressive number of kills in the years he has been stationed there.

Hunter was patrolling around the Claw when he was contacting by the ship Diligent bringing supplies and 2 replacement pilots. After querying and receiving security clearance, he welcomed them to the Claw. It was sometime later when he met the two new pilots in the rec room, a bit annoyed by Todd Marshall's flamboyant entrance.

Meeting the nuggets

Marshall made a movement of friendship by displaying a bottle of whiskey. However everyone froze when Christopher Blair reminded them about Bossman and inquired about him. Hunter demanded to cut the discussion and Marshall stood up to his friend's support. Things got worse between them when Hunter, pulling Blair's suit, saw that he wears a Pilgrim Cross on his chest. The fight was cut by the arrival of Devereaux.

In the Wing Commander film the character is referred as "Lieutenant Hunter" and "Hunter" is typed on his name tag, suggesting that it is his actual surname, not his callsign. It seems to be that "Lt. Hunter" of the film is actually a nod/tribute to the St. John character of the original game but not necessarily himself. The Confederation Handbook as well as the novelization merge the two versions of the character, showing that his real name is Ian St. John, and Hunter is a callsign.
Also, in the original game Hunter is a far more positive and pleasant character than in the film and the accompanying material.

Hunter was sitting with Knight in the recreation room when the Claw was preparing to jump a pulsar to the Dakota system. He claimed to Marshall that he had met several Class-2 pulsars.

Baker Wing

Later he was assigned to Baker Wing as number 4, with Blair as his wingman. Hunter refused to flight with a Pilgrim and she assigned him to her wing while Hunter flew with Bishop. During the flight he was so anxious that he neglected the regulations and put an unlit cigar in his mouth.

After the engagement Marshall and Rosie Forbes disobeyed Angel's orders, resulting to the death of Forbes. When they returned to the Claw, Angel asked Hunter his C-244 Pistol in order to execute him as responsible, which he promptly did, although Blair attempted to stop them.

When the hull of the flight deck was breached, Hunter and other pilots watched nonchalantly while Blair was sucked to the vacuum, however they assisted Marshall tying himself with a wire in order to approach and save his friend.

Having heard about Blair's success during the boarding operation against the Thrakhra-class ConCom, he changed his mind about Blair's motivations as a Pilgrim, and wished him good luck before his mission to the Sol Sector.

Later Hunter led a wing against Kilrathi to protect the Claw.

Vega Campaign

Hunter during the Vega Campaign

Hunter met and flew with a number of aces during the campaign including Christopher Blair, Carl T. LaFong, and Jason Armstrong.

He and Redbird were assigned to protect the Claw from a Gratha attack in the Chengdu system.

He became a close friend and wingman to Christopher Blair and Carl T. LaFong when that pilots were assigned to the Tiger's Claw, and they flew on several high-profile missions together.

In fact, Hunter was one of the victors of the Vega Campaign. Flying alongside LaFong, Hunter fought in the Venice system, the home of the Kilrathi Sector Command for the entire Sector. The pilots destroyed dozens of fighters, a Fralthi-class Cruiser, and the Kilrathi Starbase orbiting Venice, winning the Vega Sector for the Terran Confederation.

Operation: Thor's Hammer

Following his success at Venice, Hunter cooperated in Operation: Thor's Hammer, the Terran operation to destroy the Kilrathi Armada that destroyed the human colony of Goddard. While investigating what happened to the colony, he and Blair flew as Alpha Wing; they engaged a Lumbari-class and then defended the Dilligent-class TCS Hickok and the Venture-class TCS Marciano when those two ships raced to save Goddard during the attack. Soon after they flew again as Kappa Wing to protect an attack of Krants and Grathas against the Claw and then proceeded to clean the system from Kilrathi presence, including a Lumbari and a Dorkir-class and their escort. Around that time landing parties arrived to Goddard to investigate what happened to the colony.

Operation: Crusade

After the success of Thor's Hammer, Captain Hunter joined in the human defense of Firekka, where the native Firekkans were joining the Confederation in 2655.

At one point Hunter did a two-point 'touch and go' landing instead of using the ACLS and snapped off one of his ship's laser cannons, broke three aerials, and terrified the flight deck crew, for which he was scolded by Peter Halcyon.

Hobbes' defection

During a game of a seven-card stud with Iceman, Spirit and Puma from the TCS Austin, Captain St. John won most of their money and also a blue plastic voucher for a shuttlecraft to visit the planet Firekka at 19:00. Spirit was worried abut Philip and he tried to convince her he'd do fine, and made plans about them for their first leave. With the ticket, he went down to Firekka for a shore leave of 3 days. On his way down he had fun terrifying young Ensign Jimmy Caffreli. As he arrived, a Firekkan customs officer held his bottles of Scotch. He met K'Kai in the Red Nest and had many drinks of Firekka's Finest; he spent the night with her and her crew visiting a night race and the Fire-Temples.

At dawn he slept in the Visitor's Nest but was woken up early by a Military Police officer; Halcyon recalled his leave and he made it back to the Claw. After a terrible hangover, the Medics took him and cured him with injections. Colonel Halcyon needed all pilots to patrol the system as a new entry was detected in the system; Hunter was assigned to patrol with Jazz from the TCS Austin. They found nothing, but Halcyon ordered him to fly to Spirit's aid who fell into a convoy of two Fralthi-class.

He attended Puma's funeral and tried to make Spirit feel not responsible about his death. He offered to jump over to the Austin and listen to Jazz playing music, drink and talk about it. Maniac who saw the scene accused him for trying to make time with a lady who just had lost her wingman. Bossman gave Maniac a sharp look and offered Hunter a beer. In the Rec Room, Hunter was going to sit with Bossman and Knight when the ship's intercom system called all of them to the flight deck. On 2655.271, Lord Ralgha nar Hhallas of the KIS Ras Nik'hra defected to the Confederation. They were notified that a Fralthi was efecting and pilots left in solo patrols in order to locate it.

Hunter's patrol was uneventful and boring as he followed the Autopilots course. He flicked the vidscreen controls to multi-channel to talk with other pilots only to be scolded by Halcyon. Just then Halcyon's voice crackled again, saying that the Fralthi was being boarded by the TCS Holmen but another Fralthi, the KIS Kraj'nishk was on interception course. As Hunter was several minutes away from the coordinates, he reset his Auto-Nav computer. Bossman and Spirit were also en route so he switched to Mariko's vid channel and teased her for coming once more to her help.

He saw the two cruisers firing at each other, and a Jalthi moving against the fighters. Hunter slid into the formation next to Bossman and Spirit's fighters; following Bossman's orders, he and Spirit punched in the afterburners, and dodged beneath the Jalthi just as it opened fire. He played decoy to the Fralthi's guns and firing toward its turrets as Spirit was accelerating toward the launch bay. She fired into the landing bay but her fighter was shot; seeing this, he brought his fighter around blasting the turret, and a Kilrathi cursed at him over the vid.

Being now the only target for the Fralthi, he 'burned out of range as his Rapier shook with the proximity of the shots and he had to keep it under control. He turned around for an attack run at the rear. He switched to Image Recognition and approached slowly as it locked. He fired against the main engine following with both Dumb Fire missiles. He twisted away but he was too close to the exploding ship and the blast wave hurled him forward, until the Rapier's stabilizers kicked back in.

He required permission to land on the Ras Nik'hra and Major Kristi Marks responded. He overcame his anxiety of landing for a first time into a Kilrathi cruiser, and, at the slowest possible speed, parked his Rapier some feet away from Mariko's fighter. He climbed out to the deserted depressurized deck, passed near a row of Dralthis and followed the Major's instructions to the airlock. Behind the door, the Major waited for him with Mariko, and 2 Kilrathi. Seeing that Mariko had a bruise, he kissed her exuberantly, causing her to blush, and curiousness to the Kilrathi. The Major introduced them to each other, and Kirha, the younger Kilrathi, translated the Captain's welcome and wish to meet the pilot who valiantly destroyed the Kraj'nishk; Ralgha nar Hhallas owed him a debt of honor and surrendered the ship personally to him, as well as his retainer--Kirha himself--as a gift. Hunter didn't know how to accept his oath of fealty, and as advised by the Major, he said he'd accept him as sworn warrior to avoid a diplomatic incident. At the Bridge, Ralgha and Kirha instructed him how to complete the ceremony of oath-swearing.

Once the ship formed up with the Claw, humans came to take Kirha for interrogation to his surprise. He insisted to Hunter that he was oath-sworn and possessed no secrets, but Hunter replied that humans don't understand how oaths work and he should go with them. Soon Hunter was summoned to the room where Kirha was interrogated, as Kirha would go nowhere without his orders.

Kilrathi presence increased in the system. In the following week Hunter met another Fralthi, 2 Dorkir-class, a Snakeir-class, several corvettes and lots of fighters, until Halcyon ordered more frequent and more intense patrols in 4-hour rotations. Hunter started having dreams of flying Kilrathi ships and Knight shook him and pulled his blanket off to force him go to duty. He and Knight were assigned as Epsilon Wing flying a usual defensive patrol close to the Claw. On his way to his Rapier, he met technician Janet McCullough working on it instead of Jimmy; he learned that Jimmy was assigned to work on Ras Nik'hra; he attempted to arrange a date with her before Knight's voice boomed out over the PA, telling him to hurry, embarrassing him.

They followed a boring diamond configuration patrol 5000 klicks out, broken only by wondering if he'd meet Janet again, dirty jokes with the Austin's Deck Officer over the radio once they got in range, and Knight's remarks that he should be more serious about his job.

When they returned to the Claw, Hunter pretended not to hearing the D.O.'s instructions and as him sqawking angry orders, docked into the Ras Nik'hra. On the deck he met Jimmy, who was working on a Dralthi, which was a Dralthi Mk. II. Jimmy was commenting on its technical details, and Hunter was looking for a way inside, and decided taking it for a test drive, ignoring Jimmy's protests. Without any authorization, or any knowledge of Kilrathi controls, he popped the bottom hatch and crawled up into the cockpit. He figured out the controls and drove it out.

As he was experimenting on the switches, the video monitor showed a helmeted Kilrathi face, and he realized that a Kilrathi patrol had slipped their patrols to get within transmission range; he yanked a small camera out of its place to not reveal his identity. He knew there wasn't enough time to warn his fellows and considered how to track this patrol down flying a ship of theirs. He managed to enable the long-range sensor array, and found a wing of 5 Gratha in a tight V formation starting a missile run against the Austin. He maneuvered into a high-six position behind them. He enabled the missiles and destroyed the lead Gratha; the explosion took two of the closest fighters, but the other two banked away to avoid it, aborting their missile run. Hunter had a hard time operating the Dralthi's guns and a Gratha missile broke half of his Dralthi's wings. He relied only to its superior speed and maneuvering to keep himself intact. A Rapier from the Austin disposed off the other Gratha and fired a missile against the last one. The Rapier rolled neatly and Hunter saw it was piloted by Jazz. Then he saw he couldn't control the Dralthi which was on collision course with the Austin. Desperate, he punched all com channels open and shouted for help. He sealed his suit and unfastened the exit hatch, blasting out to space. He was about to crush on the Austin when a tractor beam stopped him (crushing his nose on the helmet) and pulled him through into the Flight Deck entrance, and fell just insie the magnetic shield.

The crowd gathered around him cheering and clapping for saving their ship. Commander James Reilly and Major Nikolai Petrenkov also came to congratulate him. Petrenkov took responsibility for the Kilrati patrols that got in and offered his resignation. Hunter had lunch with Commander Reilly and the Captain and took the liberty to suggest Jeannette Devereaux as Petrenkov's replacement. He then drank some beers with Colson and his friends, and had some shots of adrenaline, before returning to the Claw aboard a shuttle carrying technicians.

The shuttle landed on a deserted deck. The Barracks were also empty except for a sleeping Maniac whom he woke up, and who told she was going to the Colonel's office. He found her alone in the Rec Room, about to relate her the good news, but then she learnt that Bossman was killed in their last mission. She burst into mourning and Hunter gave his hands so that she could hold on to something; however he told her the news about her promotion. Despite her feeling guilty for not being able to help Bossman, Hunter reminded all her qualities that would make her ideal. Although Hunter hoped for some sleep, the loudspeaker called all plots to the Briefing Room.

Hunter sat next to Spirit, who told him that a massive force arrived and that the ships are about to retreat. In the briefing, Halcyon mentioned Hunter's joyride, and that the Dralthis will be used to confuse and evade the enemy. Hunter exclaimed that he'll never fly such a ship again. Hunter knew that HC would hardly uphold a court-martial for insubordination on a pilot who had already flown back-to-back missions and narrowly escaped a crash to boot.

The Claw retreated inside an asteroid field. Hunter was out in a 2-hour patrol in a Dralthi but felt that he needed to see K'Kai and how the Firekkans fared. Instead of returning, he passed through the Kilrathi fleet all the way to Firekka. He passing unnoticed a couple of heavy troopships in orbit, and landed on the main continent at night.

Firekkans armed with heavy assault rifles landed on the shuttlecraft field and aimed at him. Then they guided him to K'Kai across a rope bridge, to the destroyed hometown. Wounded Firekkans were hiding in one of the destroyed towers where he found K'Kai and told her that the Confed had to evacuate; he warned her that the Kilrathi want to capture her planet for religious reasons, and offered to take her off-world. She refused, saying she had to stay and help her people. Hunter left, and on his way to space he saw a wing of 16 Jalthi bombers, unable to stop them, and almost cryied for the fate that awaited the Firekkans.

He navigated his way back to the asteroid field, 20 hours after his "disappearance", but saw that the Claw wasn't there. He ran a quick computer calculation on his course, triangulating his position, and saw that he made no mistake; panic engulfed him, thinking that the Claw jumped away and he was stranded there. He considered flying to the jump point and catch-up with the Claw.

With shaking hands and the air gauge going to red, he moved full speed to the out-system jump point, while searching through the Confederation comm channels. Before seeing the Claw, a woman's face on the comm screen asked him to identify; soon the Claw came, from a different Nav course, minutes before the out-system jump. Hunter head directly toward the landing bay in full speed and 'burners, slamming on the reverse-brakes; the fighter's top scraped against the ceiling of the Flight Deck, breaking off the right cannon; then bounced hard against the deck floor as the brakes strained it to slow, scattering half the wing all over the Deck as it bounced.

Jimmy was there, saying that all thought he was dead during his absence. Iceman commended his landing; Halcyon (who was certain Hunter was safe and would show up) assigned him for jump arrival patrol in Rapiers once they were back in Confederation space. Hunter was worried for the Firekkans who faced the Kilrathi on their own. He and other pilots fell asleep dreamlessly in his bunk for 3 days.

While watching a poker game where Blair won his peers, he was invited to take the chair Jazz was leaving, but on that moment a fresh fighter pilot called for Hunter as Halcyon was waiting for him on Flight Deck A-5. There was K'Kai's small old, battered freighter, and her crew enthusiastically ran to greet him in a chorus of excited squawks. The flock looked injured, distressed and agitated, and as he managed to work his way through them, he saw Halcyon trying to talk with K'Kai. He dragged Hunter and ordered him to talk with K'Kai, before leaving hastily.

The gabbling Firekkans surrounded him until he lost patience and shouted. Finally he managed to understand from K'Kai what was happening on her planet and her family; Firekkan leaders were captured and the planet was totally subjugated; under threats, the leaders left would cancel the treaty to preserve the lives of the hostages. Hunter tried to calm her down and bullied his way to Captain Thorn and left K'Kai in his office, having confidence that she will be taken to the right people.

Corsair system

Paladin and Hunter flew as Alpha Wing in preparation for their withdrawal to Corsair

While retreating to the Corsair system, Hunter stole one of the captured Dralthi Mk. II to go on a joyride to the TCS Austin. As he arrived there, he saw it was attacked by a wing of Hhriss and saved the ship. Thanks to this act of heroism, Confed HQ overruled Peter Halcyon's court-martial proceedings; after his adventure the Bridge officers of the Claw started considering if they could use the Dralthis for combat.

Several wings of Kilrathi fighters were approaching the Claw. All wings were launched imediately before the Kilrathi could confirm their position. Prankster and Hunter flew Raptors as Sigma Wing; as they took out, they protected the Claw against enemy waves and then moved against a Ralari-class and then a Snakeir-class with their escorts. On their way back, they drove off another enemy wing that was attacking the Claw.

Prankster and Hunter once more flew as Mu Wing in order to prevent 2 Dorkir-class troopships from reaching Firekka against the Confederation Marines.

Soon he learned that the base his brother was commanding was destroyed by the Kilrathi. He also knew that his 17-years old sister volunteered for the Confederation Navy.

When Maniac was released from the Sickbay, Hunter was assigned as his wingleader and decided to play a practical joke; he reprogrammed Maniac's ship's sensors to appear as he was attacked by a thousand Kilrathi, driving him crazy and attempted to self-destruct his ship, if Peter Halcyon hadn't disabled this feature. As a result, Hunter was put to restricted duty.

Mission to Ghorah Khar

The following days Hunter was on leave; he stopped on Sol Station where Paladin briefly saw him from distance. Back on Earth, he learned that his kid brother of the Marines, with whom he hadn't talked for years, went down with the assault on Firekka. He spent most of his leave in Brisbane with his family, at the memorial service. Then he stayed with his parents in Sydney and then he visited Mingxing Kien and her daughter in San Francisco for a couple of days. Waiting for the shuttle departure back to Sol Station, in the San Francisco Terminal, he joined one of the Tactical Officers from the Claw, and he learned something about a mission behind enemy lines.

Within a week, he returned to Sol Station on his way back to the Claw the next day. Paladin took him to the hoding cells. To his surprise he saw Kirha kneeling before him and Paladin started laughing. Paladin explained to him that he needs to ask Kirha about Ghorah Khar and his permission is necessary for a few days until he sets off for a special mission; in his new capacity as a Special Operatons agent, he even requested from Commodore Steward to change his orders and not ship him to the Claw until then. That night Hunter bought Paladin many drinks but couldn't learn anything more from his operations.

The other day he assisted in Kirha's questioning; when Kirha mentioned too few "people" around the Ghorah Khar spaceport, Hunter realized that Kirha thinks Paladin asks him about Terrans when asks about "people", whereas his inquires about the general population. Gwen Larson, Paladin's assistant, entered to send Paladin to the Commodore. Seeing Hunter, she smiled and introduced herself politely. From Kirha Hunter heard about the rebellion on Ghorah Khar, but Gwen interrupted Kirha, saying that politics is not any of a pilot's concerns. Seeing that she knows more about him, he proposed to bridge the gap and learn more about her over a few beers, and arranged a date on the Observation Deck at 7.

After explaining human flirting to Kirha, he tried to make him understand that he can't be his liege lord; he has lords himself and powers beyond him want them separated. Then he heard screams in the hall, and saw outside K'Kai arguing with a guard, wanting to see Paladin. Seeing Hunter, she reacted with the Firekkan feathered embrace. Hearing her plight, Hunter scolded the guard, and before he could react, he brought K'Kai inside Kirha's cell. To his surprise, he saw that she and Kirha knew each other.

K'Kai explained to him the situation she did to Thorn, that their leaders were captured, including her niece Rikik, and the Confed could not afford a rescue mission. After disabling a vid pickup behind the washbasin mirror to ensure that they aren't watched, he arranged his own covert op to rescue the Firekkan leaders; he was a top pilot who could fly to the Ghorah Khar Station, and Kirha was a Kilrathi who could get them past its guards and defenses. He forged orders saying that they are taking Kirha off to be interrogated and were armed in Ordnance.</ref>

In the year 2656, the Tiger's Claw was destroyed by the Kilrathi during its attempt to destroy the Kilrathi Sector HQ at K'tithrak Mang in the Enigma Sector. Since he was on leave, Hunter survived.

A dialogue in Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi suggests that he died along with the rest of the crew onboard the Tiger's Claw when it was destroyed in the Enigma Sector. This dialogue appears in a non-canon scenario.

In 2668, Hunter was reassigned to the TCS Concordia, the same vessel Colonel Blair and other surviving Claw pilots were on. He fought at the Battle of Munro and was among the signers of the 2668 Armistice, proposed by the Kilrathi. He retired from active service afterwards, but rejoined in Special Operations with James Taggart to determine if the Armistice was a ploy to weaken Confed's guard.

On 2669.341, Hunter died in Hari airspace while defending his comrades from Kilrathi attackers. His P-64 Ferret Light Fighter was shot down by six missiles and even though Hunter could have ejected, he chose to fight to the death.

Kirha, who had been on Ian's farm in Australia, committed Zu'kara after learning of Hunter's fate around the time of the Battle of Earth.

Personality

Hunter with Iceman, smoking his favorite cigars

He developed a liking for tobacco products and often chewed on cigars in combat. Hunter was noted for his love of cigars. He would be seen in the bar of the Claw smoking.

He loved flying for its thrills. Killing the Kilrathi was just a bonus to him. His unpredictable, spontaneous flying style baffled Kilrathi pilots.

Hunter was cheerful and kept his spirits up, but sometimes nothing mattered to him. Spirit felt he didn't know him. He liked to pull practical jokes, often on Maniac. In one instance he put a slime rat in Maniac's bunk. As a result Hunter was put to peel potatoes for weeks. Another time he re-programmed Maniac's ship's sensors driving him crazy and was grounded.

He was sometimes accused of excessive independence and a casual attitude toward regulations, believing that everything is given to push to the limit, but he'd never leave his wingleader hanging. Such a time was when he did a 'touch and go' landing damaging his fighter and terrifying the crew or when he stole a Dralthi to test it. He used to be late at briefings, causing sardonic comments by Peter Halcyon.

His attitude has brought him many times in the brig. As he hates people watching him, he always disables the small vid pickup hidden behind the mirror by pulling the wires free from the vidlink.

He considered funerals depressing; he imagined that upon his death his body should just be chucked out an airlock, and then his friends wold honor him by getting drunk in a rousing wake/party.

His experiences in Firekka, the last-moment rescue from the Dralthi, and almost missing the Claw, made him confront his own mortality closer than any other time and shook him, making him superstitious for the first time. He didn't play as much card games or flirted ladies, as before, as he felt like he used up most of his luck reserves of his lifetime.

Personnel file

As a pilot, Hunter was above average, but displayed limited reflexes, making Paul Gerald to consider having him under a complete physical examination to determine if this is because of medical reasons.

Attitude problem.

Although a supportive peer, Hunter had not abilities of a natural leader and had several interpersonal problems: He was quickly swayed by opinions of others, while he was scathing in his own opinions about his peers, and even standoffish to people he has not known long. Having a rudimentary sense of humor, picking fights with colleagues because he could not cope with their sarcasm. Gerald considered him to take CDI training; Interpersonal Conflict Resolutions and Anger Management.

Letter to Christopher Blair

As collected in Christopher Blair's scrapbook:

Chris, Hey man, how are you? I thought I’d drop you a line and make sure you haven’t dropped off the face of the galaxy. Things have been wild since you went on R & R. You’ll never guess what happened to me. Remember that Cat ship that surrendered to us a couple of months ago? Well, the captain of that ship turned over one of his subordinate cats to me as a gesture of thanks after I toasted that Fralthi that came after him. Now, this young Kilrathi thinks he’s my slave. He keeps going prostrate and calling me his “liege lord.” It’s weird, I tell you. And what I really don’t understand is that he looks so disgusted to be serving me. He’s all polite and everything, but there’s something primal about him. Kinda scary, like a mad dog that might turn on me. On top of that, he won’t do anything without my permission and keeps muttering something about some guy named “Sivar” and “losing his soul to the Great Dark.” I can’t take much more of it, to tell you the truth. Any advice, soldier? - HUNTER

Behind the scenes

"Dart"

During production of the Wing Commander I game, an early callsign for this character was "Dart". This can still be seen in the final game, as his helmet the VDU screen reads "DART".

When Hunter dies in the first game, this speech is heard in his funeral.

"We are gathered here to pay our last respects to a good friend and one of the Terran Confederation's boldest defenders. Captain Ian St. John was the maverick of the Tiger's Claw. He pushed us to look at things in new and different ways. Now that we are without him, we must remember to keep an open mind and look for unconventional responses to the Kilrathi challenge."

― Peter Halcyon

"The Rec Room won't be the same without you, Hunter. Goodbye."

― Prankster

In Operation: Thor's Hammer this becomes:

"Captain Ian St. John never let the fatigue of battle wear him down. His spirited attitude and passion for duty were without equal. Now that he's gone, you should all strive to find in yourselves the strength of character that Captain St. John possessed."

― Peter Halcyon

"I'll lift a glass to your memory, Hunter. Goodbye."

― Prankster

Appearances

• Claw Marks
• Wing Commander I
• Wing Commander: The Movie
• Pilgrim Stars
• Pilgrim Truth