Jeannette Devereaux
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Jeanette Devereaux (2626-2669) is a character of the computer game series Wing Commander. A native of Belgium, she was a starfighter pilot in the Terran Confederation Space Force, flying under the callsign of Angel. She took part to the "Vega Sector" and "Enigma Sector" campaigns and worked also in the Special Operations division during the period of the Kilrathi War, as depicted in the first three games of the series: Wing Commander, Wing Commander II - Vengeance of the Kilrathi and Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger.
[edit] Personal Biography
Jeanette Devereaux was born in 2626 in Brussels on Earth. She is usually described as a cool, rational person who regarded her role as a fighter pilot as an honor and lived to fight the good fight. Angel took particular interest in the statistical aspects of fighter combat, and could often be heard conversing on such while off-duty. Many pilots found it practical to know that the Kilrathi Salthi light fighter tended to break to one side more frequently than the other (due to the arrangement of its ducts), but this information and more like it (a great deal more) gave Angel a reputation as a bit of an egghead.
In 2654, already promoted to Captain, Angel flew off the Confederation strike carrier TCS Tiger's Claw during the Vega Sector campaign. During this period Angel was assigned either to the "Killer Bees" squadron, equipped with Hornet light fighters, or the "Star Slayer" squadron and its Raptor heavy fighters. In the Star Slayer squadron Angel also had the chance to test the Confederation's newest and hottest hardware, the Rapier medium fighter, in real combat mission in the Gimle star system. Her wingman on this mission was a quiet, unassuming rookie named Christopher Blair; that the two of them, relatively inexperienced, were given the opportunity to fly such a high-profile mission, was a foreshadowing of the enormous roles both would play in the Terran-Kilrathi War.
In 2655, after the Confederation successfully repelled the Kilrathi from the Vega sector, the Tiger's Claw and her crew were sent in to destroy the Kilrathi HQ in the Enigma Sector at K'tithrak Mang. Devereaux was one of the few pilots to survive the destruction of the Claw when the ship was ambushed by a squadron of the then-unknown Kilrathi "Strakha" stealth fighters and lost with (almost) all hands.
By 2665, Devereaux had risen through the ranks up to Colonel and was serving as Wing Commander onboard Geoffrey Tolwyn's flagship, the TCS Concordia. The ship was in the Enigma sector, attempting to subdue enemy presence there. When Capt. Christopher "Maverick" Blair, the "Coward of the K'tithrak Mang," was assigned to the Concordia by a grudging Tolwyn, Angel was one of his staunchest supporters, even flying on his wing to demonstrate her confidence in him. In 2666, after the tragic death of their common friend and fellow Claw survivor Mariko "Spirit" Tanaka, the two of them started a romantic relationship that would last until Angel's death. Devereaux was still aboard and in the Wing Commander role when Blair personally destroyed the K'tithrak Mang on a daring solo mission.
Following the Enigma Sector campaign, details on Deveraux's career become a little hazy. However, it is known that by 2668 she had transferred to the Special Operations division ran by another Claw veteran, Gen. James "Paladin" Taggart, leaving control of the Concordia flight group to Blair. In 2669, after the Battle of Earth, Angel embarked on a Special Operations mission, aimed to secretly penetrate into Kilrathi territory. Flying a captured Kilrathi transport ship, Devereaux and her crew reached Kilrah, the enemy home planet, and conducted a geological survey, confirming that the planet was, from a seismic standpoint, ready to fall apart at the seams. They then set up three secret asteroid bases within the Kilrathi star system for use in a future Temblor Bomb strike.
Unfortunately, after setting up all the depots, Devereaux and her crew were captured by the Kilrathi and imprisoned. During a Kilrathi council held by the Emperor himself, the Special Operatives were bodily disintegrated. Angel, the only exception, was personally disemboweled by Crown Prince Thrakhath nar Kiranka, a sort of backhanded honor bestowed on powerful enemies. A holographic recording of the event was later used against Col. Blair, who eventually led and delivered the Temblor Bomb, thus following through on his lair-mate's work.
[edit] Notes
In the Wing Commander III - Heart of the Tiger Full Motion Video cutscenes Jeanette Devereaux was played by Yolanda Jilot, while in the 1999 Wing Commander movie Saffron Burrows was cast for her role.
