- Maniac: Well, well, if it isn't the Colonel. I'm sorry I couldn't make your welcoming party.
- Blair: Well, I guess you had more "pressing" maneuvers to undertake, Maniac.
- Maniac: When duty calls, I'm there.
- [whispers]
- Maniac: Women like the smell of success.
- Blair: Uh-huh. You know I'm surprised you haven't been blown out of the sky by now, Maniac... by friendly fire.
- Maniac: Some people appreciate my flying style. I do what's necessary to win, OK? I suppose you still fly with one eye on the regs manual?
- Blair: I don't take stupid risks.
- Maniac: Speaking of stupid, I also heard you put Hobbes back on the flight roster.
- Blair: My, my. Word travels fast on this tub.
- Maniac: Never understood what you saw in that cat.
- Blair: Simple, I need a wingman I can count on.
- Maniac: You can't trust someone who will kill their own kind.
- Blair: Who I choose as my wingman is my prerogative, it's privildge of rank.
- Maniac: I'll bet you stay up late nights just polishing it, huh?
- Blair: No, as a matter of fact I have Majors who do that for me.
- Maniac: The difference in our rank is a formality. We both know who's better in the cockpit.
- Blair: Yeah. We do.
- [he walks off]
- Blair: Excuse me, sir. Did you say the Victory?
- Admiral Tolwyn: Is there something wrong with your hearing, Colonel?
- Blair: No, sir. It's just that I...
- Admiral Tolwyn: The TCS Victory is a fine carrier with a long history of service to the Confederation.
- Blair: Yes sir, a very long history, sir.
- Admiral Tolwyn: Ship assignments aren't open to debate, Colonel. Of course, I realise that the accommodations may not be what you're quite used to.
- Blair: Well, sir, I didn't mean to suggest that...
- Admiral Tolwyn: The Victory will benefit greatly from having a wing commander of your stature and experience.
- Blair: Thank you, sir. But can't we at least discuss the...
- Admiral Tolwyn: Now that we have the Kilrathi on the run in both the Gardel and Morpheus systems, I can afford to shift you to the Victory in Orsini.
- Blair: [about the Behemoth] We're heading to Kilrah with that thing aren't we?
- Admiral Tolwyn: Well, what would you aim for if you had the biggest gun in the universe?
- Blair: I've got news for you, Tolwyn had nothing with your lack of promotion, your flying style took care of that for you. Tolwyn doesn't even know you're alive.
- Maniac: That's what you think. Everybody knows about the Maniac, everybody.
- [Blair walks away]
- Maniac: How many people here know about the Maniac?
- [no one answers]
- Maniac: Oh what, nobody?
- [Angel has been captured and is brought before Prince Thrakhath in the Emperor's giant throne room, in front of crowds of Kilrathi]
- Prince Thrakhath: Still defiant, Colonel Devereaux? If we were to offer co-existance with your kind, would you not accept it?
- Angel: The Kitrathi do not co-exist.
- Prince Thrakhath: No, and now that the tide has turned in this war, your defiance is pathetic and useless gesture.
- Angel: You bore me, Monsieur. Disintegrate me so I might join my comrades.
- Prince Thrakhath: Disintegration is not for you. Your fate... will be different.
- [she spits at him and he bristles]
- Prince Thrakhath: The human cannot appreciate the honour that I am about to bestow her. She is not only a great warrior, but her lairmate... is The Heart of the Tiger.
- [Blair sits down in front of Vaquero, who is playing his guitar]
- Vaquero: [quickly putting the guitar down and saluting] Oh, uh, good day, sir.
- Blair: At ease, Lieutenant, carry on.
- Vaquero: Sorry, sir. It's Rockero from the Celeste system. You can tell a lot about a system from its music, you know? Some places, it's all minor chords, makes you just wanna run out and do a suicide mission. But this is bright, heats your blood, makes you want to live a long life.
- Blair: Yeah, are you a pilot, Lieutenant, or a musician?
- Vaquero: Oh, I'm a pilot, sir. Pretty good one, too, check my kill scores. But my family, they made guitars for many generations. I've got one that's almost two hundred years old. The sound just keeps getting richer... Someday I'm going to open a cantina and bring in the best to play that guitar, a place for old fighter jocks like you and me.
- Blair: Well, you better line up some other customers. Might not be many of us left.
- Vaquero: Oh, yeah, it'll be open to one and all. And me, I'll just sit back, gaze at the beautiful women, and listen to the music.
- Blair: It's a nice dream, Vaquero. Hang on to it.
- Vaquero: You bet, sir. Some of these guys, they actually like the killing. Me, I'll just walk away when this is all over.
- Blair: [after bringing back Flint when she goes off fighting the Kilrathi by herself] We don't fly suicide missions. We fight this war to live, not to die. You've got to fly with your head, Flint. Not your heart.
- Flint: You've never done that, sir, fly with your heart?
- Blair: The day I do that, I expect a stiff dressing-down, Mister. That's an order.
- Hobbes: [trying to explain Thrakhath's message] Kilrathi believe always that war is psychological. It is a contest of wills as much as weapons.
- Vaquero: Talking trash is all I call it.
- Hobbes: It is the politics of superiority. Not perhaps one of my race's more admirable social constructs.
- Cobra: Social constructs! A pack of animals with admirable social constructs.
- Maniac: [about Flash] They ought to shoot that kid, if you ask me. At least strap him to one of my thrusters on the next mission.
- Flint: As usual Maniac, your solution to the problem is brainless.
- Maniac: Me, any chance I get, I'm up in the air. They're gonna have to pry my dead carcass out of the cockpit.
- Flint: Oh, stop banging your chest, you're gonna bruise it. The Colonel will deal him.
- Maniac: Oh, look, the Colonel is a spineless...
- Blair: [has been standing behind Maniac the whole time] I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you... Major.
- Maniac: Uh, we were just speculating on when the new pilot might pull his own weight.
- Blair: Uh-huh. Well, one way or another we'll find out what Flash is made of. I guarantee you that.
- [he pats Maniac on the shoulder and walks off]
- Maniac: [to Flint] Does he pat you like that?
- [on completion of the game, after the end credits, an outtake of the scene with Blair, Maniac and Flint early in the game; Blair pats Maniac on the shoulder and walks off]
- Maniac: Isn't that the guy from Star Wars?
- Blair: [kicks Flash's bed] What the hell do you think you're doing?
- Flash: I'm waking up now, sir.
- Blair: Didn't you hear that scramble alarm?
- Flash: Yeah, it woke me up for a minute.
- Blair: We were under attack for Godssakes!
- Flash: My talents will not be wasted on your little skirmishes.
- Blair: Yeah, well people were dying out there, you son of a bitch!
- Flash: It's a war, people die all the time.
- Blair: You've never seen it, have you?
- Flash: Seen what?
- Blair: Never seen pilots, people you know, getting fried in their own cockpit?
- Flash: I do my part for Confed.
- Blair: I don't think I've ever seen anyone as... frightened as you.
- Flash: You think what you want. I've got my orders.
- Blair: Yeah, and you'll find refuge in that just as long as you can.
- Paladin: [at the briefing for the crucial mission of rescuing Dr. Severin, an important scientist] I know you hear this all the time, because I used to hear it all the time too, but this may be the most important mission you'll ever fly. I wish I had the reflexes I had 10 years ago, laddie, I'd be flying on your wing. It's going to take all the self-control I have not to strap myself back into the cockpit. Because if we fail here, God help humanity.
- [Paladin comes aboard the Victory shortly after Blair has discovered Angel's fate]
- Blair: You missed all the fun.
- Paladin: I wish I'd been there. I'm tired of flying a desk. I hear you had a little run-in with Thrakhath.
- Blair: Yes I did. You son of a bitch.
- Paladin: It pains me that you had to found out that way.
- Blair: Have long have you known?
- Paladin: Ahh... since the Concordia went down.
- [Blair punches Paladin hard in the jaw]
- Paladin: Well! You haven't lost your touch!
- Blair: On Vespus, you stood there and lied to me!
- Paladin: I was under orders, laddie.
- Blair: All those missions we flew together, you on my wing protecting me?
- Paladin: I was protecting you by not telling you! You just see what you nearly did when you found out! I was protecting you from yourself.
- Blair: You know how much she meant to me.
- Paladin: I do. But this is war, laddie. All of us have lost someone dear to us. That does not make you special.
- Blair: Yeah, I've heard that before.
- Rachel: Let me know if I'm out line here, but the word is there's a test pilot flying in on one of the new Excaliburs. Is that true?
- Blair: Oh, Command doesn't tell me everything.
- Rachel: I hope it's true, I can't wait to get my hands dirty with one of those pups.
- Blair: [chuckles] You really like your job, don't you?
- Rachel: I just hope the test pilot's not some priss who won't let me touch his equipment.
- Blair: [chuckles] I gotta give it to you, you really get to the point.
- Rachel: Well, I never really cared much for grey areas, that's why I do what I do. Either an engine part works or it doesn't.
- Blair: Machines don't lie.
- Rachel: Not as much as people do, anyway.
- Blair: Aren't you being a little hard on people?
- Rachel: They gotta pass inspection, same as anything else. 'Course, I got certain hours for that.
- Blair: And do we keep this schedule posted, Chief?
- Rachel: [smiling] Only for a select few, sir.
- [Flash, a hotshot young test pilot, lands on the Victory in a prototype of the Excalibur, Confed's most advanced fighter]
- Flash: [salutes] Ah, Colonel. Which way to the bridge? Confed's expecting my tech debriefing.
- Blair: I caught some of the incoming radio, Major, how long have you carried that "Flash" handle?
- Flash: Since my first day at academy. I don't think you should ever apoligise for sporting a little style.
- [to the crew members crowding around the Excalibur]
- Flash: That baby's still classified, folks.
- [to Blair]
- Flash: You think you could keep your people at bay a while, Colonel...
- Blair: Christopher Blair.
- Flash: Ah, I read about you, back when I was flying with training wheels. Is it true pilots don't get older, they just get better?
- Blair: Only the good ones. We'll see if anyone reads about you someday.
- [after clashing twice, Blair and Flash have agreed to a duel on the simulator]
- Eisen: I guess you two are itching to go at each other.
- Blair: Sir, I just got fed up...
- Eisen: As a rule, I'm not too big on these needless displays of macho crap. You're taking a big risk, morale-wise. And if you lose you won't be too popular around here, so I'm gonna give you a word of advice, Colonel... Kick the little twerp's ass.
- Blair: Yes, sir!
- [Blair agrees to Flash's challenge to a duel on the flight simulator]
- Flash: I'd ask you to shine my shoes if I win, but I like my shoes too much.
- Vagabond: Welcome aboard, sir. Want to play a hand? And since you're the rookie on this boat, I'll let you call the game.
- Blair: Not much for protocol, are you?
- Vagabond: Formalities tend to be forgotten when you spend most of your time just trying to survive. What little spare we do have, we fill up with other things besides practicing our salutes.
- Blair: Well, I guess you have to adapt to your surroundings.
- Vagabond: Don't I know that. It's an art, really.
- Blair: No wonder they call you Vagabond.
- Vagabond: Been doing your homework, I see! Yeah, I've knocked around some.
- Blair: And yet your combat file is surprisingly brief. What's with the big gaps in your bio?
- Vagabond: [defensively] Can I help it if Confed decides to blank my data?
- Blair: [deciding not to press this] Sometimes HQ is as big a mystery to me as the enemy.
- Vagabond: We've got a lot of good people here, Colonel. Even those of us with incomplete bios. Just give us a chance.
- Blair: It's time we talk, Lieutenant.
- Cobra: Ain't much to talk about, sir. You've flown with "it" and you both got the job done.
- Blair: If you're referring to Hobbes...
- Cobra: I can't fly with him, sir.
- Blair: If you stay on this ship, you'll have to, sooner or later.
- Cobra: Don't put me in a position of having to defend him. I won't do it.
- Blair: Why?
- Cobra: Let's just say I'm hard-wired that way. And nothing you do is gonna change that.
- Prince Thrakhath: Tell me this system continues to be worth raiding. I fail to see it.
- Melek: The natural resources are utterly depleted. It remains a source of slave labour, but the population has never been particularly malleable.
- Prince Thrakhath: Slaves we have no shortage of. The Terrans want this system, they shall have it.
- Melek: Nevertheless, my liege, I bristle at the thought of... they will call it... Oh, what is that strange word they have?
- Prince Thrakhath: Surrender.
- Rollins: Still buying the fantasy that we're winning the war?
- Blair: Well, why the hard-on for the opposite take?
- Rollins: Because you'd have to be blind not to see that things are going bad and getting worse.
- Blair: Excuse me?
- Rollins: Fact: We haven't had shore leave in months. Fact: All we do is move from one defensive mission to another. Fact: Our entire force is constantly in retreat. Now is that just my imagination, or is the entire war effort unravelling before our eyes?
- Blair: Fact: We have a communications officer aboard with far too much time on his hands, dangerously spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt throughout the ship. From now on, mister, you spout your theories to anyone, I'll have you reassigned to waste recycling.
- [Maniac has noticed Blair talking to Rachel, the sexy mechanic]
- Maniac: Well, if it isn't loverboy himself. I saw you putting the moves on everybody's favourite little grease monkey.
- Blair: Jealous?
- Maniac: Oh, I don't think getting into her pants requires any high-risk manoeuvring.
- Blair: Well, just the fact that it takes manoeuvring leaves you breathing my engine exhaust, doesn't it?
- [he walks off]
- Maniac: Yeah.
- [he flicks through his Playboy magazine]
- Maniac: Oh man, I've dated all you girls!
- [he tosses it down]
- Vagabond: I hear we're going after a garrison.
- Blair: I haven't been briefed.
- Vagabond: It may not seem like it, but my wheels are always turning. I fly better when I know what the real objectives are. HQ's got a bad habit of labelling every target a military installation, even when they ain't. I like to be real sure.
- Blair: Hey... we're the good guys, remember? We don't go after innocents. That's the difference between us and them.
- Vagabond: Well, it's like the cards, see, a lot of people, they never ask questions about what's dealt.
- Hobbes: Strange, that despite the skill and courage demanded in flying, a part of the Kilrathi spirit is never entirely satisfied by interstellar combat.
- Blair: You like it up close and personal?
- Hobbes: We are taught how to use these claws even before we can speak or walk. This seems... savage to you? Primitive?
- Blair: Killing is killing, hot-blooded or cold. You're one of the best pilots we've got, buddy, don't start second-guessing what you do.
- [the Kilrathi have jammed the Victory's communication systems, accompanied by a threatening video message from Prince Thrakhath]
- Prince Thrakhath: I have read your Terran Bible with its predications that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is about to be fulfilled. We will tear your tongues out, we will scoop out your brains...
- Cobra: That ain't all they'll do if they ever get their paws on us.
- Eisen: [often used phrase at the beginning of a mission briefing] Let's get down to business, shall we?
- Admiral Tolwyn: Welcome, Colonel. As you may, or may not know, we are currently enroute to the Torgo system. Where we will rendezvous with... destiny.
- [he presses a button and a hologram of a space vessel appears]
- Admiral Tolwyn: Gentlemen, I give you the Confederation's finest achievement: the Behemoth. After a decade of secret research and development, our greatest minds have created the device that will spell doom for the Kilrathi. 'Behemoth' is a series of linked super-conducting energy amplification conduits, focusing an output of 500 million gigawatts into one lancing point. Any target at the end of that point is destroyed.
- Eisen: Even a planet.
- Admiral Tolwyn: Yes, Captain. Even a planet.
- Blair: You know, I don't think I've seen anyone as anxious to waste the enemy as you.
- Cobra: Oh, I'd blast planet after planet if it would rid the galaxy of Kilrathi. There's no justification for their existence. And that includes your buddy Hobbes.
- Blair: Jesus, Lieutenant, it's like an endless loop with you.
- Cobra: You have no clue.
- Blair: So enlighten me.
- Cobra: They took me when I was 10.
- Blair: Who, the Kilrathi?
- Cobra: Slave labor camp. I escaped when I was 20.
- Blair: [shocked] Must've been...
- Cobra: You have no idea what it must have been. I saw things. The psych guys spent 2 years trying to pry things out of my head after I escaped, but you can't wipe it all. There's a little bit of Kilrathi prowling around inside of me and I can't get it out. One day there won't be any human left.
- Blair: [puts his hand on her shoulder] We're gonna get 'em. You'll see.
- Cobra: Keep telling me that, Colonel. Even if it's not true.
- [when the ship comes under attack]
- Eisen: [into the loudspeaker] Red alert, red alert, launch all fighters, launch all fighters. This is not a drill, this is NOT a drill!
- Maniac: [to a female crew member he's trying to impress with a story of him destroying a Kilrathi fighter] No, I don't have anything better to do, OK?