Farbourne
Rear Admiral
I haven't read Fleet Action (yet), so maybe this is explained there, but I was looking at the Wing Commander Universe map, and for the life of me I can't figure out why any kind of major engagement takes place in Warsaw.
Since the Kilrathi's objective with their suprise attack was to crush Earth, it's not at all clear why their fleet would have been moving through Warsaw. The most direct path from Kilrah to Earth is Kilrah-Munro-Proxima-Sol (kind of scary it's only a 3-jump trip!) Given that the heaviest Confed defenses were probably on that route, or perhaps their fleet was coming from a different location, I could see a different approach, perhaps (Freya-Alcor-Vega-Proxima-Sol), but the only reason I could see for the cats coming through Warsaw would be if they were coming down from the "north" so to speak (i.e. Trik'Kha-Planck's Star-Warsaw-Vega-Proxima-Sol). But I find it really odd that they would do that. Why not take the most direct path to Earth? Were they worried about Terran spies picking up their surprise fleet if the came from an obvious approach?
A second but more minor question is why bother with Sirius. Coming from Warsaw, they must have come through Vega and Proxima, and once in Proxima, you have a direct jump to Sol (as the Cats would use at the end of WC3 on the losing path). Why even bother with attacking Sirius, unless they wanted to take our the colony there, too, or were worried about the Terran fleet left unfought on their flank?
Since the Kilrathi's objective with their suprise attack was to crush Earth, it's not at all clear why their fleet would have been moving through Warsaw. The most direct path from Kilrah to Earth is Kilrah-Munro-Proxima-Sol (kind of scary it's only a 3-jump trip!) Given that the heaviest Confed defenses were probably on that route, or perhaps their fleet was coming from a different location, I could see a different approach, perhaps (Freya-Alcor-Vega-Proxima-Sol), but the only reason I could see for the cats coming through Warsaw would be if they were coming down from the "north" so to speak (i.e. Trik'Kha-Planck's Star-Warsaw-Vega-Proxima-Sol). But I find it really odd that they would do that. Why not take the most direct path to Earth? Were they worried about Terran spies picking up their surprise fleet if the came from an obvious approach?
A second but more minor question is why bother with Sirius. Coming from Warsaw, they must have come through Vega and Proxima, and once in Proxima, you have a direct jump to Sol (as the Cats would use at the end of WC3 on the losing path). Why even bother with attacking Sirius, unless they wanted to take our the colony there, too, or were worried about the Terran fleet left unfought on their flank?