User:Juval/List of allusions in the SC Universe

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Prefixes
Ships like P-52 Merlin, M50 Interceptor or F8 Lightning showing often a combination of (two) Letter(s) and a number.

IRL, aircraft companies often name their project after itself. An typical example is the Douglas Series, D-1, D-2, D-3, D-4, ...D-10. The number is the project or design number.

This classification system used by the US / British airforce used a similar styling, but denoting a aircraft based on their type. Logically the military variant of the D-10 is KC-10 (K for Tanker, C for Cargo).

For the three examples above: F stands i.e. for "Fighter", P for "Patrol". "M" stands for Multi mission.

Prefixes like the P5G Gladius or F7C-R Hornet are very similar to the system which using the US Navy for his aircrafts.: -, the only exception is that the UEE Navy does mentioning the Manufacturer. This is not a concidence. According to the Lore, the Gladius was commonly used by the UEE Navy.

Historically, US military ships are classified with another combination, mostly a combination of letters to denote the type (like CV for "Carrier" or DD for "Destroyer"). The UEE Navy is using a very similar system for his ships.

Weapons

 * Gladius (lat. / pl. Gladii), roman short sword type. In use from 3th Century BC until 3th Century AD.
 * Sabre, a straight single-edged curved blade of the 18th Century, based on the Szabla. Originally used by turks, mongols and tatars. Cavalry weapon.
 * Cutlass, a short sabre with a broad edge. Commonly used to board ships in the 15 - 19th Century.
 * Javelin, a spear. Ranged weapon.
 * Blade, very ambiguous. Can refer to sharp metallic edge of an axe, sword or knife.


 * Scythe, originally a agricultural tool to reaping crops. In fantasy games often stereotypical used as a weapon - associated with the Reaper, Death). IRL completly useless as weapon conscribed peasants often used it as modified polearm, like the Guisarme.

Animals

 * Dragonfly, an insect.
 * Bengal, probably the Bengal tiger / or the Bengal cat. Bengal is also the name of today's Bangladesh.
 * Hornet, an insect (wasp). The Hornet is a often used name for aircrafts (i.e. F/A-18 Hornet aircraft). USS Hornet was also a US Carrier.
 * Mustang, a wild horse. Also the name of the North American P-51. A 2nd WW single seat fighter.
 * Terrapin, refers to the design of the ship. (Turtle panzer)

Pirates (Yarr!)

 * Buccaneer, a privateer.

Other

 * Pytheas, greek carthographer and explorer
 * Reliant, probably a reference to the USS Reliant (Star Trek franchise).
 * Vanguard, probably a reference to the 2nd WW aircraft Vultee P-66 Vanguard
 * Merlin, a sourcerer or wizard in legends from the middle ages. He is commonly known for his appearance in the legend of king Arthur/Artur.
 * Gladiator, probably a reference to the Gloster Gladiator, a british biplane fighter (1930s-1950s). A Gladiator (lat.) was in ancient rome a show fighter.
 * Polaris, the North Star. (In the Lore: Eponym of Adm. Hester Polaris)
 * Kingship. A wordplay with King and ship. Kingship can refer to the monarchic rule and also to King+ship (a very large ship, because Kingships are the biggest ships of the Vanduul Clans.)
 * Mauler, (very informal) someone's hand or a thug/basher.
 * Stinger, a toxic sting (of an animal).
 * Void, the attribut of Emptiness/Nothingness. Space between Galaxies or other astronomic objects.
 * Driller, a reamer or borer. (Outsch!)
 * Freelancer, a game which is often associated with Chris & Erin Roberts / Erik Peterson which left Origin and founded Digital Anvil. Anvil was the Developing studio of Freelancer (the name of the Studio appears in the name Anvil Aerospace).
 * Hull, a generic term. All Hull Variants share the same name with an size attribut: A,B,C,D,E
 * Idris, In-Lore named after the Battle of Idris IV (Idris is probrably from the arab. form of Enoch, a figure in the Bible and Quran), also the name of an ancient welsh king.

Constellation

 * Constellation-Class variants:
 * Phoenix
 * Andromeda
 * Aquila and
 * Taurus ... are real star constellations.

Task

 * M50 Interceptor
 * Crucible, very fancy name for a Repairship.
 * Harvester, vanduul-tech harvesting and recycling vehicle.
 * Prospector, another fancy term for a salvage ship.
 * Herald, a news reporter of the middle ages . Basically a messenger sent by a nobles to convey messages or proclamations. (Wikipedia.) They also had a representative function and worked as diplomats. The herald is often depicted as someone who announced the fresh news from the court. Yo.
 * Endeavor, the name appeared IRL as ship of famous Discoverer James Cook and as a vessel of the Apollo 15 mission.
 * The Hope "class"/module is a hospital.
 * the Biodome module is named Olympic (Seat of the greek olympian gods)
 * another module is named Orthos (?), from greek mythology - a dog with two heads, brother of the "famous" Cerberus.
 * Mechantman. The Banu love trading.
 * Khartu-al:

Word Pairs

 * Prospector - Reclaimer - Redeemer.
 * Retaliator and Avenger, someone who seeks for Retribution. Avenger is also the name of a 2nd WW Torpedo-Bomber.

Mythology

 * Pegasus, from greek mythology. A divine stallion with wings.
 * Orion, from greek mythology. A giant hunter. Zeus placed him among the stars as the constellation of Orion.
 * Argo, from greek mythological. A (ultrafast) ship of Iason and 49 heroes (Argonauts). Placed as Argo Navis among the stars and later divided into Puppis, Carina and Vela.

Atmospheric phenomenon / Weather

 * F8 Lightning, a thunderbolt or flash, probably a reference to the Lockheed P-38 Lightning (2nd WW aircraft).
 * Aurora, roman godess and personification of Dawn. Can refer to the dawn or Aurora borealis / australis.

Story of Adm. Bishop
At some point of Squadron 42, Bishop experienced the death of his daughter Rachel as she dies before his eyes. Admiral Bishop and his Task Force are missed later.

The Player's mission in Squadron 42 is to find him. "You go behind enemy lines, trying to find out where Bishop is, and you see things that have happened along the way (...), Has he lost his mind?" At the end of the game, there's a final battle and the player get back into human space while Bishop stays 'Behind Enemy Lines' and continues his fight. In the meantime, the UEE collapsed into two entities: Terra and Earth, which are analogueto the Eastern Roman Empire (Constantinople = Terra) and the Western Roman Empire ("Rome" = Earth, however the capital of the WRE was Medialonum and later Ravenna, while the nearly powerless roman senate stayed in Rome).

Robert's claimed that Bishop is inspired by  'Heart of Darkness', Commander Cain (from Battlestar Galactica) and the  'Ninth Legion'. The Ninth Legion was a roman legion, dissolved in the 2nd century in Britannia. This inspired fiction writers sometimes connect the Artus tale with the mysterious faith of the Ninth Legion (The Last Legion, Lady of Avalon, Red Shift).  Especially the Last Legion seems to have inspired subtitle of the capitel and plot 'Behind Enemy Lines', because the fictional story claims that the Ninth Legion escorted the last western roman emperor, Romulus (Augustus) through the 'devasted' Italy and Gallia into Britannia, where he erected a new kingdom as King Pendragon (father of Artus).

Heart of Darkness is a novel written by Joseph Conrad. It tells the story of a expedition up the congo river in the late 19th century. The expedition founds deep in jungle the ivory-trader Kurtz, which is worshipped by the native congolese people as a god. Despite his god complex, Kurtz is a 'controlled' and 'cilivized' person, he paints pictures admires music and writing, but later degenerated into insanity.