History of the War

[frostytheplebe]

Specifically, what started the war exactly? This seems to be a question I've had a hard time answering. When did Confed first encounter the Kilrathi? I'm willing to bet that the first to encounter the Kilrathi were killed, but do we know the ship name and/or type? Were thier peace envoys? Was there any Pilgrim instigation?

 

[McGruff]

Per Claw Marks....

Exploration and colonization ships of the Terran Confederation increase their penetration into Vega Sector.
On 2629.105 (3/15/2629 Terran reckoning), the exploration ship Iason encounters a spacecraft of unknown origin. Iason commander Jedora Andropolos beams the standard wideband non-verbal greeting designed by the Committee for Interaction with Alien Intelligences.
Captain Andropolos keeps Iason motionless for twenty-two minutes standard while the alien vessel waits. Finally, the alien vessel opens up with all guns, utterly destroying Iason and all hands.

On 2634.186, war is formally declared by the Terran Confederation on the Empire of Kilrah for countless acts of piracy and unwarranted assault.

 

[Dundradal]

Third Entry

From the old Encyclopedia timeline. This event is showcased in many different sources. The AS treatment of it is interesting because it happens during the events of the book.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

The 'historic' first contact with the Kilrathi occured on 2629.105, when a ship exploring the Vega Sector encountered a Kilrathi warship and attempted to communicate with it. The Kilrathi respond by opening fire and destroying the explorer.

... but the Kilrathi already knew about Earth. As early as 2628 contact between the two species was becoming more common on the frontier. Pirates, mercenaries and the like from both sides were running into eachother. In that same year the Empire located and captured an entire human colony ship on Fawcett's World. It had just landed and was beginning to colonize the planet when the Kilrathi found it. They were already preparing to launch their war and the discovery was a major coup - the mission (one of hundreds) was presumed lost by Earth (jumps were dangerous, at the time) and the Kilrathi gained a massive source of information. Military prisoners were shipped to Kilrah for interrogation and the colony was them maintained by the Ki'ra clan in order to study how humans think. When war came, the cats were ready.

The Kilrathi began a five year plan of study and harassment, with the plans of launching a 'Jak Ta' strike which would eliminate the Confederation in a single blow. After the formal first contact, Kilrathi ships began engaging in piracy, assault, kidnapping, etc. at increasingly great rates. The Confederation eventually declared war on the Empire, on 2634.186, after a particularly gruesome attack. It was fought as a 'limited war', designed to punish individual warlords in a particular area of space without offending the Emperor and the royal court... but that came to naught on Confederation Day later that year when the Empire finally launched their massive attack.

It was centered around the McAuliffe Ambush, with other major offensives above and below the map (near Etruria and the Landreich.) The Confederation 7th Fleet was wiped out and 30% of human space was enslaved in a single blow... but the Confederation held its ground and Kilrathi plans to march straight to Earth were abandoned.

(Facto: In fact, the earliest known contact with the Kilrathi happened in 2621 - when a human researcher discovered the Sivar-Eshrad ceremony being held on Ghorah Khar. He was captured and executed.)

Space Point

 

[Wedge009]

Was that information all compiled from the novels? Why does Fawcett's World sound familiar - is it to do with the Pilgrims? Also, 30% of Terran space? That sounds like an awful lot.

Also, the Sivar-Eshrad witness, was that from the WC1 copy-protection question/answer? Can't believe I missed that implication.

 

[MannPower]

Edit: N/m

 

[Dundradal]

Was that information all compiled from the novels? Why does Fawcett's World sound familiar - is it to do with the Pilgrims? Also, 30% of Terran space? That sounds like an awful lot.

Also, the Sivar-Eshrad witness, was that from the WC1 copy-protection question/answer? Can't believe I missed that implication.

Most of what LOAF said is pulled from Action Stations with support from the manual timelines.

Fawcett's World does not have to do with Pilgrims. They seem to be your typical colonizers. The scenes on Fawcett's are some of the best as well. It does a nice job of developing Jukaga's character.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Was that information all compiled from the novels? Why does Fawcett's World sound familiar - is it to do with the Pilgrims? Also, 30% of Terran space? That sounds like an awful lot.

Also, the Sivar-Eshrad witness, was that from the WC1 copy-protection question/answer? Can't believe I missed that implication.

That's *almost* all from Action Stations - so, nothing to do with the Pilgrims. The rest comes from Claw Marks and Victory Streak.

That *was* from the SM1 copy-protection.

 

[BrynS]

I was reading Victory Streak yesterday to check some points for a little project and was surprised by the gap between at least one of the entries, especially in light of Action Stations. Particularly the 2639.033 entry. A summarised lead up to it is as follows:

2634.186: Anna Magdelena attack ; official TC declaration of war.

2634.228: Ches M. Penny decodes Kilrathi strike plans against McAuliffe. Confed HQ to deploy counter-offensive 2x anticipated Kilrathi fleet size.

2634.235: Confed rushes to McAuliffe, establishes "formidable" defensive perimeter. Kilrathi fleet that arrives is 4x expected size; several days of heavy fighting "all but obliterate" the defensive forces.

2639.033: (Now, nearly five years later) Kilrathi occupation forces land on McAuliffe... etc. The entry goes on to describe an action resulting in the relief of McAuliffe, which (with a couple of variations) sounds rather similar to the Richards/Dayan (Concordia/Ark Royal) counter-attack in Action Stations.

Were these two separate McAuliffe attacks, i.e. the one described in AS in 2634 and a later subsequent one in 2639 as outlined in VS or the same event that wasn't handled well in AS by building off the established continuity? Just focusing on the timeline as it appears in VS in isolation though, the near five year gap between the Kilrathi establishing superiority at McAullife in 2634.235 to landing occupation forces in 2639.033 does seem odd if it is supposed to stem from the same action.

It's been a while since I've read AS in full, but just skimming through portions of it earlier today, there doesn't appear to be any mention of the Ches M. Penny decode or the lead up to McAuliffe either -- as sparingly as they both appear in the game literature -- i.e. despatching a fleet twice the anticipated size, etc. Indeed, Action Stations presents quite a different story. Now, I enjoyed AS and wouldn't normally expect an author to follow and include every reference and bit of continuity, but was wondering why the gist of AS is notably different to the very light framework established in (the literature of) multiple games in the year's preceding it's publication?

 

[Dundradal]

They are two separate events. The Kilrathi aren't able to land with significant force during AS and have to pull back.

In 2639, we have Tolwyn lead the famous Raptor mining mission that allows for Confed reinforcements to jump in.

 

[Haesslich]

IIRC, they landed forces on McAuliffe AND Enyo the second time (the Enyo Engagement)... but it was Captain Tolwyn's mine-dropping gambit which cleared a jump point for a counterattack. The first time, Lieutenant Tolwyn and company (in Wildcats) shot down a whole parcel full of Imperial Marines along with the fighters from Ark Royal during the action leading up to the retreat from McAuliffe by Seventh Fleet.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I was reading Victory Streak yesterday to check some points for a little project and was surprised by the gap between at least one of the entries, especially in light of Action Stations. Particularly the 2639.033 entry. A summarised lead up to it is as follows:

I can explain this one... these two events where originally the *McAuliffe Ambush* (2634) and the *Enyo Engagement* (2639). They're both listed in the original Claw Marks ('20 Years Ago' and '15 Years Ago')

Then, somewhere along the line, a mistake was made - and 'Enyo' was switched to McAuliffe. The exact same events with the invasion, the hostages and the Raptor plan (plus a backstory involving Tolwyn) was printed in Voices of War and Victory Streak with McAuliffe instead of Enyo.

Then we complained about it for twelve years... and Star*Soldier updated the Victory Streak timeline to clarify that the Kilrathi launched attacks at *both* Enyo and McAuliffe in 2639. Messy solution, but I'll take it as a win.

Note that there's another (attempted) attack on McAuliffe - in Wing Commander I. The actual story to WC1 is hard to piece together by simply playing through, but the 'significant' history of the first half is that the Kilrathi are massing for an invasion of McAuliffe and that the Confederation forces them back and then takes the fight to their planets in the Vega Sector. The Super Wing Commander manual clarifies somewhat that McAuliffe is the target...

The two events are separate - it's clear in the original documentation that the Kilrathi are forced back in 2634 and that they're 'trying again' in 2639.

 

[BrynS]

Thanks for clarification, guys.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but what's the word on the deviation in Action Stations from the outline of the "McAuliffe Ambush" as it appeared in Claw Marks et al?

 

[Haesslich]

Thanks for clarification, guys.

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but what's the word on the deviation in Action Stations from the outline of the "McAuliffe Ambush" as it appeared in Claw Marks et al?

On Page 8 of Claw Marks, we have this sidebar:

--------- 20 Years Ago ---------
On 2634.186, war is formally declared by the Terran Confederation on the Empire of Kilrah for countless acts of piracy and unwarranted assault.

On 2634.228, Confederation cryptographer Ches M. Penney partially decodes the current Kilrathi cipher. The intercepted message refers to a punitive strike being launched against the Confederation, starting with the colony on McAuliffe and the space station Alexandria in orbit around it. Confederation High Command launches a couter-offensive twice the size of the anticipated enemy fleet; it is to reach McAuliffe first and ambush the attackers.

On 2634.235, the Kilrathi fleet reaches McAuliffe. It is four times the predicted size; the incomplete translation of the intercepted message had underestimated the size of the Kilrathi offensive. So begins the McAuliffe Ambush engagement.
In several days of bloody combat, the Terran fleet is all but obliterated, leaving a still-sizeable force of fuctional Kilrathi spacecraft. But the Kilrathi, momentarily daunted by the ferocity of the Terran resistance, turn back to regroup and repair. The first large-scale Terran-Kilrathi engagement ends with the Kilrathi spearhead momentarily broken.

The problem was that Admiral Dayan's task force was basically her carrier (Ark Royal) plus escorting frigates and destroyers... which, had Seventh Fleet been mobilized instead of locked into the docking ports on Alexandria, would have been able to take care of a minor Kilrathi incursion. However, Bainbridge and the others were expecting the Kilrathi to spread their attack out a bit, instead of sending five carriers (four after one was lost to a misjump), and all those battleships to McAuliffe, nor did they expect Admirals Long and Nagamo to not get word about the need to mobilize... which meant that every other carrier but Concordia, and almost all the battleships, were still in dock when the Kilrathi bombers hit Alexandria and the base below with their nuke-equipped torpedoes. Worse yet, most of the carriers were basically non-functional due to lack of parts, which meant that the notional strength of Seventh Fleet was probably double of what it truly was.

Action Stations basically complies with the outline, but elaborates on why Confed was unprepared for the attack, as well as drawing more explicit parallels between World War 2 and Wing Commander (this was the Pearl Harbor moment for the Confederation, which had up till now considered the Kilrathi to be a non-issue), and set the stage for the later parts of the war. The reason Confed was doing so poorly at the start of the war was because they'd lost a major fleet, nearly lost a major base, DID lose a few hundred systems and were underequipped for most of the war.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I'm sure this has been discussed before, but what's the word on the deviation in Action Stations from the outline of the "McAuliffe Ambush" as it appeared in Claw Marks et al?

Hmmm, I'm not entirely sure what you mean - can you think of a specific issue? Action Stations is the events from Tolwyn and company's perspective, Claw Marks is more how you would see it on a global (galactic, I guess) scale. Action Stations incorporates all the individual facts from the entry and then expands them in various dramatic ways (involving Tolwyn, making ".235" the Space 4th of July, etc.) If you focus on the chapter that mentions Ches M. Penney, that gives you a good idea of how it's based on but from a different perspetive as the Claw Marks blurb.

 

[BrynS]

Hmmm, I'm not entirely sure what you mean - can you think of a specific issue? Action Stations is the events from Tolwyn and company's perspective, Claw Marks is more how you would see it on a global (galactic, I guess) scale. Action Stations incorporates all the individual facts from the entry and then expands them in various dramatic ways (involving Tolwyn, making ".235" the Space 4th of July, etc.) If you focus on the chapter that mentions Ches M. Penney, that gives you a good idea of how it's based on but from a different perspetive as the Claw Marks blurb.

Sure. Apologies for the belated reply though, I thought I'd refresh my memory of Action Stations by starting a complete read through of it today. As you say, the time line entries in Claw Marks, Victory Streak, etc are describing the events from a "big picture" perspective rather than the individual exposition of events unfolding around the various characters in AS.

Having just finished AS again, I still seem to read at least one notable deviation from the big picture situation during the "McAuliffe Ambush" as revealed in AS and as outlined in the time line. I'll go through the minor one (2634.228) first. Admittedly, I don't have so much of a problem with there being any deviation between AS and the time line entry here, rather the way it is handled in AS. The scant portion (chapter 10, pp 209-213) in AS that mentions Penney decoding the cypher and Banbridge's consequent bolstering of Confed forces in McAuliffe by directing Ark Royal and her escorts there, is fine. Similarly, I'll take Banbridge's stated belief that Confed should outnumber the Kilrathi in 'battlewagons' by more than 2 to 1 based on the information he had, as fulfilling the "counter-offensive twice the size of the anticipated [Kilrathi] fleet" line.

However, my impression of this sequence is that it was rather clumsily inserted for compliance with the established time line rather than integrated in to the rest of the story. Sure, there's the Speedwell thread running through the book about Confed Intel not having much luck gathering signal intelligence and losing a bunch of intel teams (cue repetitive iron curtain analogies) which provides scope and motive for Turner's op and the whole Mos Eisley thing at Gar's, but I felt the cypher aspect (and not just for the Penney reference) could have been woven in much more effectively. Apart from a couple of issues I've got with the writing, I did quite enjoy the fleshing out of the frontier in this time period, particularly the little bit of privateering and Gar's Emporium. A little less of the Landreich in favour of another bordering frontier region would have been preferred, but I can see why Forstchen included it. This section is a key focus of the book building up to the "McAuliffe Ambush" itself and the aftermath, but both suggest to me that Forstchen was driven by a very specific story that he wanted to tell, i.e. bringing most of the Fleet Action characters back full-circle in the lead up to 'Pearl Harbour-in-space' and the established time line was accommodated around that, c.f. shoehorning the Penney reference in as a minor supporting comment after Turner and co had already got the evidence.

Anyway, these criticisms are probably better suited to a different thread, but I'd thought I'd mention them as they influenced my perception of the gist of Action Stations, which to me does differ slightly in general from the basic outline in the various time lines, while quite considerably in one instance, if the deviation below can not be resolved.

So, here's the main deviation appearing in the second time line entry (2634.235), which I can't resolve. The offending sentence ("After a tense rush to McAullife, the Confederation fleet establishes a formidable defensive position around the planet.") appears in Victory Streak, and the Kilrathi Saga Manual, but not in Claw Marks or Voices of War and clearly doesn't happen in Action Stations. Yes, once fully operational, Seventh Fleet is apparently a formidable force -- even with the emphasised vintage of various craft, cutbacks, etc -- and together with the base defences, marine contingent and shield system would make McAuliffe a very tough nut even if outnumbered and with shield-busting torpedoes, however they're simply not in that (disadvantaged, but reasonably prepared) position when the hammer falls, as that particular line in Victory Streak suggests. Through repeated lapses, the priority courier message from Banbridge doesn't reach Admirals Long or Nagumo in time, while the burst transmission from HQ came in too late and they were pretty much caught on the hop rather than having "established a formidable defensive position around the planet" which strongly implies a completely different situation, i.e. a co-ordinated defence, knowing of and prepared for the imminent incoming attack, even if outnumbered. Since that line only appears in Victory Streak and the derivative Kilrathi Saga Manual, perhaps it was a slip that wasn't part of the guidance/bible that Fortschen used?

It's understandable if that specific sentence mentioned above in the timeline was a slip up, but if not I'd be interested to hear how it could be explained?

 

[Pip]

The offending sentence ("After a tense rush to McAullife, the Confederation fleet establishes a formidable defensive position around the planet.") appears in Victory Streak, and the Kilrathi Saga Manual, but not in Claw Marks or Voices of War and clearly doesn't happen in Action Stations.

...

It's understandable if that specific sentence mentioned above in the timeline was a slip up, but if not I'd be interested to hear how it could be explained?

One COULD, if one were of a mind, argue that since Victory Streak and its ilk were written specifically as "point-of-view" pieces, that the Confederation didn't exactly want to admit that they were caught with their pants about their ankles, especially in the later period of the war, when morale was already ebbing?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

Since that line only appears in Victory Streak and the derivative Kilrathi Saga Manual, perhaps it was a slip that wasn't part of the guidance/bible that Fortschen used?

That's true - we know that he used only the original 1991 bible and that he didn't play the games (so probably wouldn't have seen Victory Streak.)

As for how to read the additional line *now*, it's possible that we're taking "around" too literally and imagining a literal cordon in orbit... where it could just be that a defensive force was established nearby (which is, essentially, what happened - perhaps referring to parts of the 7th Fleet and Task Force 21 meeting up to stop the landing craft.)

Now, to throw a small wrench into our machine: Star*Soldier actually adds another entry about the McAuliffe Ambush... this one translated from the Super Famicom version of Wing Commander I's manual: "2634.239 - The McAuliffe Ambush ends. Though the Confederation fleet is completely annihilated it manages to destroy the enemy flagship, causing a disruption in the Kilrathi chain of command and forcing a retreat."

One COULD, if one were of a mind, argue that since Victory Streak and its ilk were written specifically as "point-of-view" pieces, that the Confederation didn't exactly want to admit that they were caught with their pants about their ankles, especially in the later period of the war, when morale was already ebbing?

Yeah - this isn't even much of a stretch, since we see the same timeline pointedly written from opposing perspectives in Voices of War. The Kilrathi returned from McAuliffe victorious!

However, my impression of this sequence is that it was rather clumsily inserted for compliance with the established time line rather than integrated in to the rest of the story.

I agree from some sort of lit-crit perspective (I definately alter my critical eye for dealing with WC novels...), but I think the thing that impresses me is that it was the author who did the awkward inserting instead of anyone else. I did continuity editing on a couple of WC novels (not Action Stations)... and I can guarantee you that the other people in the process weren't interested enough to force such an addition. (Doomsday was named 'Andre Dumas' in the last-step-before-print version of False Colors...)

A little less of the Landreich in favour of another bordering frontier region would have been preferred, but I can see why Forstchen included it. This section is a key focus of the book building up to the "McAuliffe Ambush" itself and the aftermath, but both suggest to me that Forstchen was driven by a very specific story that he wanted to tell, i.e. bringing most of the Fleet Action characters back full-circle in the lead up to 'Pearl Harbour-in-space' and the established time line was accommodated around that, c.f. shoehorning the Penney reference in as a minor supporting comment after Turner and co had already got the evidence.

The fascinating thing is that the germ for Action Stations was planted allll the way back in Fleet Action. Jukaga says to Thrakhath: "Remember I warned your father and uncle of this back when the war started and they so foolishly decided to open with a surprise attack." There's also a reference to Thrakhath's uncle's death in the first days of the war. Now, this obviously doesn't match up exactly with the specifics of Action Stations... but it seems clear that there's a connection and that the basis of the story was in Dr. Forstchen's head very very early on.

... which is, frankly, truly amazing for a writer who can't remember his characters names from book to book.

 

[BrynS]

One COULD, if one were of a mind, argue that since Victory Streak and its ilk were written specifically as "point-of-view" pieces, that the Confederation didn't exactly want to admit that they were caught with their pants about their ankles, especially in the later period of the war, when morale was already ebbing?

I'd agree that it's certainly one way of smoothing this out, although given what LOAF said about Forstchen using the original 1991 bible I'm happy to let it slide, especially as it only popped up in subsequent publications of the time line.

The only potential wrench to Confed cooking the books in this instance could be this passage:

[...]
"I then want a burst signal sent out to Banbridge. Update on the battle, all the ships' video records, transmissions sent and received. The hell with encoding, send it in the clear."
"In the clear?"
"If the news vids pick it up, that's fine with me, " Turner said grimly. "No one's going to cover this shit up any longer. I want the truth out there for a change."
[...]

There's no comeback on this later in the AS or any of the other novels as far as I know, but presumably if it was picked up it would be pretty difficult for Confed to spin as anything other than a surprise attack.

That's true - we know that he used only the original 1991 bible and that he didn't play the games (so probably wouldn't have seen Victory Streak.)

Yeah, if that's the case then it's understandable. The only slightly disappointing thing is that if it was decided around '93/'94 to spruce up the McAullife particulars from Victory Streak onwards, that a revised bible (along with the other updates, such as the Voices of War counterpoint entries) either wasn't forwarded to Forstchen or it wasn't caught in editing, given the book was probably being written sometime in 1997. However, just saying this is easy, doing it during the 90's with a whole bunch of Wing Commander games, ports, acadamy tv series, other novels, movie development, etc on the go, must have been a whole other kettle of fish! On the whole, I think Origin did very well and I'm glad they weren't perfect; we wouldn't have quite as much to talk about without the odd continuity issue here and there.

As for how to read the additional line *now*, it's possible that we're taking "around" too literally and imagining a literal cordon in orbit... where it could just be that a defensive force was established nearby (which is, essentially, what happened - perhaps referring to parts of the 7th Fleet and Task Force 21 meeting up to stop the landing craft.)

Hmm... I know what you're saying, but it's too much of a stretch for me to reconcile the general action that this additional line describes with what actually happens (rather than what should have happened if the various communications had been received on time) in AS. I'd say its workable if you consider some level of embellishment as Pip put forward, but I think this particular instance is tricky because of Turner's quote above and I suppose a general qualifier on when and how this filter is applied, i.e. only when sources are not complimentary? There's a passage in Fleet Action after the battle in Sirius in which one of the Hakaga's is heavily damaged by torpedo bombers but not destroyed, where Grecko tells Tolwyn (paraphrased) that they're counting it as dead and were spreading the news thus (presumably via the vid services to bolster Earth morale). Similarly, it's heavily implied in WC3 that official Confed news output engages in muchos 'creative reporting' of the war effort. The tendency for it to increase when things are going badly is understandable, but clearly things were desperate during the Battle for Earth.

I'm not a stickler on "around" -- for me, the line could be satisfied by 7th Fleet in and around the station or dispersed/dispersing elsewhere or a bunch of other combinations that show that there was a mad rush, but they (whether just 7th Fleet with Task Force 21 still on the way or 7th Fleet and Task Force 21 together having recently joined up) were aware of and prepared in that moment (they could still have been ultimately caught on the hop with say, only 15, 20, 45 minutes or whatever to spare before the lead attack rained down) to defend McAuliffe (whether near a jump point, in orbit above the base, in/around Alexandria station, in open space or elsewhere) as the line suggests.

Anyway, I think your confirmation that Forstchen wrote AS from the 1991 bible puts this issue to rest.

Yeah - this isn't even much of a stretch, since we see the same timeline pointedly written from opposing perspectives in Voices of War. The Kilrathi returned from McAuliffe victorious!

Heh, it is a neat addition together with the other Kilrathi log entries.

The fascinating thing is that the germ for Action Stations was planted allll the way back in Fleet Action. Jukaga says to Thrakhath: "Remember I warned your father and uncle of this back when the war started and they so foolishly decided to open with a surprise attack."

Yes, credit to Forstchen for quite effectively retrieving these threads and bringing back his key characters on his own terms. I'm a bit rusty on that particular Jukaga passage from Fleet Action, but I think Vakka leads most of the cautionary talk in AS; Jukaga has some interaction with Admiral Nargth where I think he makes a comment along those lines, but yeah I know what you mean.

... which is, frankly, truly amazing for a writer who can't remember his characters names from book to book.

The Hans/Max Kruger thing? It's cleared up in False Colors though, isn't it?

 

[Bandit LOAF]

There's no comeback on this later in the AS or any of the other novels as far as I know, but presumably if it was picked up it would be pretty difficult for Confed to spin as anything other than a surprise attack.

Well, you know what they say - time heals all facts. Look at how historians are starting to revise their thoughts on World War II and Vietnam today... (In this particular case it's not hard to imagine the media practicing self-censorship... Wing Commander's model is World War II, where that was common.)

Yeah, if that's the case then it's understandable. The only slightly disappointing thing is that if it was decided around '93/'94 to spruce up the McAullife particulars from Victory Streak onwards, that a revised bible (along with the other updates, such as the Voices of War counterpoint entries) either wasn't forwarded to Forstchen or it wasn't caught in editing, given the book was probably being written sometime in 1997.

Well, I think it's a few things:

* I'm not convinced that there *was* another bible ever made for distribution. The one we have scanned seems to be a kind of catch-all/work-in-progress that was being done in someones sare time at Origin. It's big clods of various sources pasted together *around* the 1991 writers bible - but it was never finished and smoothed together as a licensing device.

* Even if that happened, it's hard to imagine anyone noticing the difference. The extra line was probably inserted to Victory Streak to fill some white space or to add a tiny bit of dramatic tension to the entry with the Claw Marks 'shape' altered... its hard to imagine anyone going back, noticing it and realizing or deciding that it was important.

The Hans/Max Kruger thing? It's cleared up in False Colors though, isn't it?

No, False Colors just calls him Max again. It's something that's common to *all* of Forstchen's pulp books - from licensed stuff like WC to his original Lost Regiment books. The man just isn't good with names. It happens several times in WC - another example is Banbridge. He's Wayne in one book and Spencer in another. Dr. Forstchen also reuses his tuckerizations awkwardly - "Lyford Beverage" is both a career enlisted man in End Run and the commander of a cruiser squadron in Fleet Action.

(Star*Soldier does call the Landreich President 'H. Maximillian Kruger', though, so that one did get 'fixed'...)