Zachary Colson

Zachary "Jazz" Colson is a character from the computer games Wing Commander: The Secret Missions 2: Crusade and Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi.

Personal biography
Zachary Colson first appeared in Chris Roberts's Wing Commander, during the Secret Missions campaigns. Colson started his service life as a young, inexperienced pilot on the TCS Austin. He got his callsign "Jazz" from being a musician and was known to perform on the TCS Austin, playing the piano. Colson is later transferred temporarily to the TCS Tiger's Claw along with fellow pilot Etienne Montclair. In the Secret Missions campaign, because of Christopher Blair's actions involving the heavy losses of the Goddard Colony, Roberts would make the character into a cold and hateful person.

By Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, Over ten years would have passed. By then, Colson was assigned on the TCS Concordia. However, Roberts had made Colson into a cold and bitter person after the Secret Missions campaign in Wing Commander I. Colson had joined a rogue group of humans that working for the Kilrathi, called the Mandarins. He then began a campaign of betrayal and murder. Colson would sabotage ships, commit several murders, transmit classified information to the Kilrathi, and planted explosives on the Concordia's flight deck.

The first major incident Jazz caused on the TCS Concordia was the murder of Comms Specialist McGuffin. Jazz volunteered to watch the comms room while McGuffin took a short break, giving Jazz the chance to contact the Kilrathi with his latest intelligence. When McGuffin caught him in the act, Jazz shot him down, putting Dirk "Stingray" Wright's pilot's wings in his hand to make him look like the enemy. Afterwards, the aforementioned flight deck explosion occurred thanks to Jazz, and he blackmailed Mariko Tanaka with her long-lost fiancee's life if she refused to betray the Terran Confederation. Her future husband, Philip, had been imprisoned for ten years. When she refused, Jazz planted explosives on her starfighter. Her gunner died and she committed suicide by ramming her craft into the Heaven's Gate starbase.

Near the end of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi, Colson's betrayal is discovered by Wing Commander Jeannette Devereaux. In an attempt to escape, Colson flew from the TCS Concordia, only to be intercepted by Christopher Blair. Afterwards, Blair went to see Colson to ask why he had betrayed the Confederation. Colson believed that the Goddard colony and his brother would have been saved if the TCS Tiger's Claw hadn't detoured to attack a Kilrathi troopship. He had sworn to kill everyone who served on the Claw.

In the Secret Operations campaign of Wing Commander II: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. Colson faces several Confederation officials at his military tribunal. Colson is convicted of murder and high treason and is sentenced to death by Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn. However, Colson is rescued by members from the Mandarins. He spent a few days in hiding on Ayer's Rock station in the Ayer's System, but fled in a Morningstar when the base was destroyed by Blair. Blair eventually tracked down Colson and was able to shoot him down, which finally let Roberts end the character's life of treachery.