(See Prelude to War first.)

Years before the start of the Terran/Kilrathi War, probably as early as 2629, the kilrathi had obtained records of the Panama System war-games of 2622, —a secret Confed military exercise which showed that, should there be a type of missile capable of penetrating phase shields, then a fast, early launch carrier-based attack would win against the battlewagon-centered tactics of standard doctrine. The kilrathi did have such a weapon, and decided to use this Confed research against them. Their war plan, in 2634, was to enter McAuliffe, carriers first, at high velocity, and to launch fighters and bombers immediately. It was put into motion that same year, and, for good measure, all carrier-launched craft were augmented with booster rockets, to make their transit time to the planet take less than one hour.

The plan called for this fast, first strike contingent of fighters and bombers to

1. nuke the power plants that supplied electric power to the shields that protected Johnson Island base and the sky-hook
2. nuke the McAuliffe skyhook itself, where almost the entire Confed fleet was docked
3. destroy any ships trying to get away
4. destroy ground defenses
5. bomb ground forces to soften them up

By then, the slower troop carriers should arrive in the theater and launch assault landing craft, to land the Imperial ground forces who would then just mop up and take the planet.

Their plan was a jak-tu (surprise attack), which depended upon catching the enemy unprepared.

Things were going to plan through points 1, 2 and most of 3: They nuked the power plants and the sky hook, they destroyed most of the ships there, and they even managed to kill about half of the ground forces on the planet by orbital bombardment; but, other than that, just about everything “went wrong” for them…

First thing to go wrong was that the Imperial war orders were leaked. Unfortunately for the Terran Confederation, the leak did not happen in time to mobilize the McAuliffe base. Winston Turner arrived in McAuliffe with the news about an hour or two before the arrival of the kilrathi fleet. (See also the Lost War Orders mystery.) However, the fact that any information at all was leaked to the Terran side affected kilrathi descisions at the end of the McAuliffe Battle and probably long afterwards. Gone was the illusion that tight secrecy could be guaranteed.

Second thing to go wrong was the loss of one of the five carriers (standard kilrathi carrier in 2634, class unnamed) due to speeding through the jump points. The lost fifth carrier would have provided about eight squadrons of fighters, some for fleet defense, while the crafts from the first four carriers attacked the planet. The fifth carrier also was carrying one of the only two ships that would have provided trans-light communication services between the attacking fighters and bombers, and the slower main force. The only one other of the two ships with this capability suffered engine malfunctions on take-off. Thus, communications between fleet command and the forward forces took as much as 20 minutes.

Third thing to go wrong was disagreements between General Nargth and Crown Prince Gilkarg. Nargth, for instance, insisted that the battleships advance in proper formation. That implied them lagging far behind, as some were faster than others, and generally slower than the carriers. Nargth also never bought into Gilkarg's carrier-based strategy, and all through the battle showed more concern for targeting enemy battleships, whereas Gilkarg was more concerned about Terran carriers, leading to poor results on both fronts.

Fourth thing to go wrong was underestimating terran tactics. At one point the kilrathis are so sure that all ground defenses have been suppressed that, to save time, instead of transferring their imperial troops to shuttles for their landing, they decide to send the big transports down to the surface directly. Terrans had been abstaining from using some of their ground defenses, to keep them hidden from attack, but then used them for the first time to destroy those approaching transports, costing the kilrathi the loss of an entire legion.

Fifth thing to go wrong was that some of their torpedoes would routinely fail to explode, due presumably to sabotage by the slaves who manufactured them. The Confeds took some unexploded warheads and would eventually learn about the technology that allowed them to penetrate phasing shields at high speeds, possibly negating the kilrathi a “second chance” use of that advantage.

Sixth thing to go wrong was the rigid Imperial orders. They were to take the base first, and pursue enemy ships later. This implied that Nargth, who was commanding the actions above base McAuliffe, had first priority with regards to committing of ships, —anything from fighters to battlecruisers; thus leaving Gilkarg, who was in command of the carrier fleet, vulnerable to “defeat in detail”. Gilkark seemed to be unaware of this gross strategic error, and compounded it by first sending an insufficient force of fighters and bombers to attack the Concordia, and later by sending a wing of destroyers (standard kilrathi destroyer in 2634, class unnamed) to block Concordia's path, —which destroyers end up being destroyed. (More on this later.)

Seventh thing to go wrong was the Emperor remotely micromanaging the battle from Kilrah, based on premature reports by a demoralized Admiral Nargth. It was the Emperor who recalled the fleet, after hearing too many bad news, even though the campaign had been for the most part successful, and McAuliffe could have been taken.

[Numbers in brackets are page numbers in Action Stations.]

As the kilrathi fleet are entering the McAuliffe system [p.241], Admirals Nagomo and Long are arguing with each other about what to do [p.243]. Unable to convince them to disperse the fleet, and at Ensign Geoffrey Tolwyn's suggestion [p.244], Winston Turner decides to leave McAuliffe aboard the Lazarus [p.245] and fly up to the Concordia. With him is Vance Richards as pilot, Geoff Tolwyn as copilot, and ten other pilots without a ride whom they pick up at Johnson Island's tarmac [p.246].

Aboard the Concordia, Lieutenant Commander Valerie Olson informs Turner that Rear Admiral Naomi Dayan has sent an encrypted message: carrier TCS Ark Royal, under her command, with two battleships plus other escorts, are approaching jump point Delta [p.254]. However, it will still take about 10 hours before Concordia and Ark Royal can rendezvous.

At Turner's inquiry, Valery Olson reveals she had also recognized the attack strategy as being like the Panama war game exercise, and reached the same conclusion: The cats must think they have a weapon that can penetrate shields. She gladly ”surrenders command to a superior officer (Turner) during an emergency” (Fleet Regulation Seventeen); and she also informs Turner that there are about 300 kilrathi fighters and bombers in-bound, ; and that about only 40% of the regular crew and pilots are aboard the Concordia [p.255].

Turner, now in command of the Concordia, announces to the crew that they will fight, in spite of the odds [p.256]. Ensign Geoffrey Tolwyn had no experience flying Wildcat interceptors, other than training on simulators, but decides he wants to help fight the cats anyhow [p.257].

In the meantime, kilrathi Crown Prince Gilkarg, with the carrier task force, is regretting the loss of the fifth carrier, which represents the loss of a fifth of the strike force, causing a logistic jam trying to reassign targets —specially with the loss of translight communications with the strike force; and fumes at the fact that Nargth, with the rest of the battleships, is lagging far behind for the sake of keeping proper formation [p.259].

The first wave of bombers enter McAuliffe's atmosphere and begin launching nuclear warhead missiles at the nuclear reactor power plants to the North of the base [p.264]. Javelin missiles streak up and many bombers are downed but not in time to save the reactors. Base command realize then, for the first time, that the missiles the kilrathi possess are able to penetrate defensive phasing shields at Mach 10.

Next, a bomber targets the base of the (20,000 mile high) sky-hook tower, hitting it with a 60 kiloton nuclear warhead. The explosion only tore out half of the outer armor layer, but set off a weave traveling along the tower that caused sections to come apart [p.265]. The tower began to collapse, but the collapsing wave would still take some time to reach the space docks at the top [p.266].

Turner orders departure from the McAuliffe space-hook/port and to sail away, maximum thrust [p.268], —saving the Concordia from sure destruction from the falling of the tower that is yet to arrive. As soon as they depart, they are hailed by the Ark Royal [p.269]. Rear Admiral Naomi Dayan disregards her own higher rank and, instead, defers to Winston Turner, on the basis of his better knowledge of the tactical situation. (Contrast this to the kilrathi, who are limited and bound by uninformed orders issued by the Emperor all the way from Kilrah.)

Carrier TCS Coral Sea is destroyed at anchor; battleship Belarus had just disconnected but gets nocked by the tower as it falls, and explodes. Some smaller vessels that were able to warm up the engines faster were now darting away, but the vast majority of ships, including four carriers, are destroyed as the tower collapses [p.270].

Turner sends an unencrypted hail to all remaining vessels to follow the Concordia to a rendezvous with Ark Royal, at maximum speed; —unencrypted in the hopes that the news services will pick it up. He then sees Battleship Malta being destroyed [p.272]. Thirty kilrathi fighters and bombers veer off to attack the Concordia; Turner orders a magnum launch [p.273].

Ensign Geoffrey Tolwyn is flying a Wildcat for the first time. He has trouble steering, often overshooting and bobbing up and down [p.275]. Ironically, his unsteady hand will cause prince Ratha a lot of trouble trying to target his plane [p.279]. Vance Richards is Tolwyn's Wing Commander, and he instructs Geoff to stick to him like glue, and to target the kilrathi bombers first. Three bombers destroyed [p.278].

Ratha opens fire on Geoff's Wildcat, from behind, switching from lasers to mass drivers, and is surprised at the strength of the shields. Another bomber is destroyed, and Ratha is momentarily distracted, losing track of Geoff, who at the same time breaks into a loop but fails to find his tormentor [p.279].

Concordia radios for help, saying the remaining bombers are within range and getting ready to launch torpedoes. Tolwyn sees a bomber launching, and tries to target the torpedoes but fails at first. His shots hit the Concordia instead. Concordia's guns are also trying to target the torpedo and hit Geoff's Wildcat instead, severely damaging it, and starting a fire in the cockpit [p.281]. Geoff finally manages to destroy the torpedo. After turning he sees another torpedo, but immediately another fighter passes by him and flies into the torpedo, destroying it. A third torpedo gets through Concordia's shields and impacts amidships, causing massive damage. A fourth torpedo then penetrates the Concordia through the hole left by the previous torpedo, but fails to detonate [p.282].

Having run out of torpedoes, Prince Ratha orders all remaining fighters to attack the Concordia, and is about to fly kamikaze, himself, but orders come from Gilkarg to return to their carrier, which he obeys reluctantly while cursing his father. The remaining two kilrathi bombers and 10 fighters head back to their carrier, trailed by three Confed fighters still inflicting damage on them [p.284].

Geoff manages an emergency landing back on Concordia. The upper aft section of his fighter is missing. His legs have second degree burns and pieces of durasteel lodged in them. He's sent to surgery [p.288].

Concordia's suffered the loss of about 100 personnel, a fire is still raging in one deck, and the whole ship is smoky, —air filters having been overwhelmed. Kilrathi carriers head away from McAuliffe and towards Concordia. Turner informs Valerie Olson that all that remains of the fleet that was stationed at McAuliffe, besides Concordia, is 3 frigates, 2 destroyers and 1 light cruiser. The rest —over 80 ships— have been destroyed [p.292]. Turners points out the cat's blunder: They should have thrown all their forces at the Concordia before it could join up with Ark Royal, but instead chose to stay in orbit around McAuliffe [p.293].

Hidden ground batteries destroy Kilrathi transports before they land. Kilrathi carrier fleet send a squadron of faster destroyers to shadow the Concordia. Naomi agrees with Turner's plan. Concordia turns around as Ark Royal approaches, the two now en-route to a head-on confrontation with the Kilrathi [p.295]. Gilkarg presumes this to be a suicidal move on the part of the Terran carriers, saying to Nargth “We outnumber them in total firepower by better than six to one, now. … Madness.” [p.297]

While Tolwyn is still resting, recovering from surgery, Vance Richards and other pilots have been flying about six missions, which missions gradually destroyed the kilrathi destroyers shadowing Concordia, clearing the way for the attack plan [p.298].

As per Turner's plan, 23 pilots take off from Concordia flying Wildcats exclusively. A second strike force will follow from Ark Royal, which will include bombers. The second wave, from Ark Royal, will strike at the closest kilrathi carrier, whereas the fighters from Concordia will pretend to be coming to attack the kilrathi fleet, but break off at the last moment and proceed at maximum acceleration, scoops closed, towards McAuliffe, sling shot around the planet, and fire volleys of missiles at preprogrammed targets on the far side: the new wave of kilrathi assault landing craft [p.299]. Meanwhile, the second wave of fighters and bombers from Ark Royal will hopefully take out one carrier, maybe two. Frigates Massada and Heremes' crews volunteer to ram their targets [p.301]. “Battleships Yorkshire and North Carolina and the cruiser squadrons will be providing support…” [p.302]. Gilkarg has four carriers, four battleships and escorts. Nargth requests Gilkarg to send more fighters to cover the landings; Gilkarg refuses. Gilkarg requests some of the Battleships Nargth has over McAuliffe; but Nargth refuses [p.305]. (NOTE: Apparently Nargth has left McAuliffe orbit to come and join the carrier fleet, as, starting from page 306, Nargth is aboard a battleship engaged with Yorkshire.) Turner's gambit is brilliant in more than one way: Many kilrathi fighters had been recalled from McAuliffe, by now, to help battle the Terran fleet, leaving McAuliffe's bombers and landing shuttles un-covered. Additionally, many of the returning craft have not yet been refueled and rearmed. This catches Gilkarg with less than his full fighter forces available, and leaves him one of three choices: 1) Let the Terran fighters through and concentrate on the second strike wave, facing the loss of the landers in McAuliffe, 2) Order his fighters to follow the strike force to McAuliffe and be defenseless against the second strike force approaching, or 3) split his forces and face defeat in detail. Probably the third choice is the worst one to make, and the one he makes.

Confed: 80 fighters, some bombers, 4 frigates, 2 battleships.
Kilrathi: possibly some 150 fighters, some bombers, many frigates, 4 battleships and battle-cruisers.

Note: 80 fighters (as counted by the kilrathi) minus 23 fighters from Concordia, equals 57 from Ark Royal. Considering that Ark Royal has also launched bombers, we could conclude that about 60% to 70% of Ark Royal's compliment participates in this attack. The rest presumably stay aboard the carrier for fleet defense.

Vance and Geoff, with the first strike force from Concordia, are covering their frigates; but then Vance spots kilrathi bombers and they go to attack them at full afterburner. They destroy one bomber each, and as frigate Hermes was being lost, they break off to go on their second mission [p.308]. Battleships Yorkshire and North Carolina break off their fight against kilrathi battleships and retreat [p.309]. As the race to McAuliffe develops, two fighters from Ark Royal and then frigate Massada plunge kamikaze in turn, into kilrathi carrier Tukgah, which, ironically or by design, was the carrier whose fighters and bombers had not lauched yet (Gilkarg had ordered them to wait out the battle, to make up the counterstrike force [p.310]).

Vance, Geoff, and the rest of the Concordia strike force, under the command of Hawkins, head for McAuliffe's North Pole; —scoops closed, full afterburner. They are followed by a compliment of kilrathi fighters all the way, who can't close in on them, and who are, in turn, followed by some of the bombers from Ark Royal. Hawkins' computer does the target assignment for the entire strike force; each fighter gets its own list of (typically five) targets, with their computers controlling missile launches automatically. The 24 craft (of 40, as 16 were lost in the first engagement) successfully destroy the majority of landing craft. Vance and Geoff also manually engage and destroy a transport which carried the Third and Seventh Brigades of the Imperial Claw. Then they continue their slingshot around the South pole of McAuliffe, and head back towards Concordia. 14 fighters from Concordia (and half the bombers from Ark Royal) have been lost during this second mission, leaving 10 fighters coming back to Concordia, as reported by battleship Yorkshire [p.315]. They are still being followed by kilrathi fighters. It is not clear if 30 kilrathi fighters and bombers are pursuing them, or whether the 30 are a separate strike force sent to attack Concordia.

Meanwhile, during the engagement between the two fleets, Ark Royal gets hit by two torpedoes. The first one fails to detonate; but the second causes massive damage, the loss of about half the personnel, and the loss of launching capabilities; but her engines are still operational [p.316]. Turner tells Naomi to head for the jump point first, and that Concordia and the North Carolina (plus another frigate mentioned later [p.321]) will bring up the rear after recovering the fighters [p.317].

Yorkshire was still engaged against three kilrathi battleships. She is destroyed, but seconds after its destruction, one of the kilrathi battleships, a Gamorgin class, explodes [p.318], and another one (the one under the command of Nargth, apparently) is breached and on fire [p.319].

As Geoff is approaching Concordia, he sees the Concordia followed by battleship North Carolina and another frigate never mentioned by name (the Hermes and Massada were lost earlier so it's neither of those) engaged in long range fire exchange with several kilrathi destroyers. Concordia broadcasts that all recovery operations are on hold due to a crash landing [p.321]. Hawkins instructs remaining pilots to engage the approaching kilrathi strike force (5 kilrathi bombers and 25 fighters) [p.322].

During the fight, two of the bombers turn to engage the North Carolina. (One can only assume this was due to miscommunication, as Gilkarg considered the Concordia to be the primary target.) It is not clear where the other three bombers go, but apparently two get taken out early in the engagement. The third launches one torpedo which hits Concordia [p.323].

Hawkins kamikazes into the bomber before it has a chance to launch its second torpedo. Ratha is again on Tolwyn's tail. Geoff hits the brakes, Ratha shoots past, Tolwyn fires until energy for the guns drains; then Vance shows up and finishes Ratha's fighter [p.324]. With 90 seconds left before jump, they head back to land on Concordia. Tolwyn sees Ratha's life-pod and salutes the pilot [p.325]. Ratha interprets that as a mocking gesture and later commits suicide [p.327], —leaving his younger sibling, Thrakhath, as Gilkarg's only heir.

Concordia jumps.

Concordia is still rocked by explosions. Valerie informs Turner that Concordia will be lost in about 6 to 8 hours. Turner orders fighters to prepare for another launch, expecting the kilrathi to pursue. As Geoff is about to go to sick bay, battleship North Carolina (and another escort; —presumably the frigate Geoff saw earlier) emerge through the jump point. North Carolina's front and bottom are on fire, but the ship is still flying and in one piece [p.329].

Dayan sends a ship through the jump point back to McAuliffe to deploy a signal simulator to bluff the cats that a big strike force is emerging from the jump point [p.330].

In the meantime, Nargth had sent a translight dispatch to the Emperor, detailing casualties and the story of the Terran counterstrike. The Emperor sent back an order for the fleet to withdraw and return to Kilrah. Operations were underway to try to evacuate surviving kilrathi ground forces from the planet's surface [p.331].

Gilkarg is informed that his son, Ratha, was found dead. Gilkarg seems to know what's coming to him, as he muses that his younger son, Thrakhath, will be the heir in the years to come [p.333].

After a few hours, Turner sends a scout frigate through the jump point, and it reports that the entire kilrathi fleet is withdrawing. Personnel and fighters from the Concordia transfer to Ark Royal. Concordia explodes. Ark Royal, North Carolina and the other frigate jump back and head over to base McAuliffe, then Tolwyn and Turner take off on the Lazarus and land at Johnson Island [p.338].