Hugh Paulson

Hugh Paulson is a fictional character in the Wing Commander game series. His only appearance is in Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1996).

Biography
Paulson was a captain in the Terran Confederation during the year 2673. He presumably had been serving with the Confed Space Navy for many years. Paulson was a ruthless military commander with great ambitions and wealth. He looked down on those of lower ranks and had little patience for failure. He used his wealth and military prowess to further his goals. He was also bureaucratic.

Very little else is known about his backstory because he shows up very suddenly in the game and it does not go deep into his past life.

During the year 2673, the Black Lance Conspiracy was at its peak and threatened to break the peace between the Terran Confederation with its former allies, the Union of Border Worlds. The Border Worlds were seeking independence from Confed and in previous months, unmarked ships that were known to be in use with the Border Worlds were harassing Confed vessels, prompting major tensions. Captain William Eisen and Colonel Christopher Blair, who served together on the TCS Victory during the Kilrathi War in 2669, were deployed to investigate Border Worlds activity on the Concordia class fleet carrier TCS Lexington. However, while in the Tyr System, Captain Paulson arrived on the TCS Lexington, having just come from the Third Fleet. Paulson took over for Captain Eisen for fears that Eisen had Border Worlds sympathies and was therefore spying for them. Paulson took firm command of the vessel, leaving Eisen to face an unanticipated reassignment.

Paulson took the Lexington to the Masa System, where he led an assault on a Confed Space Lab invaded by Border Worlds forces. He had Blair and a marine force liberate the station. Afterwards, Paulson attacked two Border Worlds cruisers that trespassed into Confed space. Their crews claimed that Paulson attacked what was actually a Border Worlds Space Lab, but Paulson pressed the attack. With Blair's help, they forced the cruiser force to back off. Blair and his comrades grew suspicious of Paulson, and Paulson knew that they had to be kept quiet. Unbeknownst to the pilots, a man named Seether was on the Lexington, and he clearly had some evil intentions he shared with Paulson. Finally, Captain Eisen and Major Todd Marshall betrayed Confed and fled on a shuttle, with Lieutenant Winston Chang, Christopher Blair, and Lieutenant Troy Carter serving as escorts. They fled on the BWS Intrepid to the Silenos System, prompting Paulson and his allies to pursue them.

Paulson turned out to be a wealthy backer of the Black Lance forces, who were instigating the conflict between Confed and the Border Worlds by harassing vessels on both sides with unmarked ships coming from both fleets. Seether was one of its pilots and as commander of Black Lance combat operations, he was Paulson's superior. The two of them pursued the Intrepid and caused massive damage and casualties to the crew and the vessel. They were trying to recover data that Eisen had stolen from them. However, things did not work out in Paulson's favor. Blair and his wingmen disabled the TCS Lexington and the Intrepid  fled to friendly space, leaving the Lexington in the dust. Seether criticized Paulson for failing to kill Blair sooner, and told the captain that he was to be "reassigned." In reality, Seether decided to execute him for his failure, so he slit Paulson's throat open with a laser knife. Paulson was killed within seconds. Seether then threw his body out of the airlock, and then he took command of Paulson's men.

Behind the scenes
Hugh Paulson was played in the FMVs by actor John Spencer, an actor from The West Wing who died on December 16, 2005.