Action stations questions

RogueBanshee

Rear Admiral
I just finished reading it and I was wondering if there was any explaination for why some of the stories diverge from what was stated in earlier books that were set later. Particularly Kruger's story, but also the story of what Richards was doing and thus rendering the explanation of how he ended up in Intel null and void.
 
I'm not sure how the story of his winding up in Intel (Kruger hijacking the San Jacinto and taking it behind enemy lines) is at all hurt by what happens in AS. Kruger was serving under Confed control when he took off in the SJ. His commanding officer was Richards who had been moved off the flight line and into command ranks.

Kruger's name is really the only thing that jumps out at me (been a while...) but why couldn't he have just used say his middle name later on? I seem to recall we did work this all out once a while back...I'll see if I can dig up the thread later on...
 
1 :Vance Richards wasn't commander of a Destroyer flotilla at the time of the First Battle of the Hell Hole he was a fighter pilot and wasn't assigned to Landreich. He was loaned to Intel and passed through there. The mission didn't even use a Confed ship it used a civilian vessel owned by Kruger and he loaned it to the members of the mission so they could warn McAuliffe.

2 :Kruger was never part of the Confed military and didn't hijack a Confed destroyer for the battle. He captained an improvised frigate the Landreich created by installing heavy weapons on an old transport and that was the ship he took behind Kilrathi lines and lost.
 
I remember reading somewhere that Action Stations was supposed to be the first in a trilogy that was suppose to describe the early stages of the war, and that all the "missing" plot points you mentioned were supposed to be discussed in the squeals, including how Kruger managed to get of the kilrathi planet he crashed on (the final chapter in Action Stations), how Richards commanded a destroyer flottila and ended up in intel, and what happaned with Tolwyn...
 
1 :Vance Richards wasn't commander of a Destroyer flotilla at the time of the First Battle of the Hell Hole he was a fighter pilot and wasn't assigned to Landreich. He was loaned to Intel and passed through there. The mission didn't even use a Confed ship it used a civilian vessel owned by Kruger and he loaned it to the members of the mission so they could warn McAuliffe.

2 :Kruger was never part of the Confed military and didn't hijack a Confed destroyer for the battle. He captained an improvised frigate the Landreich created by installing heavy weapons on an old transport and that was the ship he took behind Kilrathi lines and lost.

This is actually cleared in in False Colors, which lays out the entire early history of the Landreich early on and includes history from both Action Stations and Fleet Action (it's at the start, when Bear is reading about the history of the region).

In short, Action Stations tells the story of the very first battle of the war (well, duh). The Landreich, still a part of the Confederation at the time, puts together a makeshift fleet and fends off the Kilrathi. Freshly minted Lt. Commander Kruger commands a 'frigate' during the battle. The Landreich fleet defeats the Kilrathi (with heavy losses and severe damage to their outer worlds).

Shortly after that, Kruger takes his frigate two jumps behind enemy lines to raid a Kilrathi base, which turns out to be Fawcett's World (the captured human colony no one knew was missing, now home to a Kilrathi ground division). He destroys the base with the frigate but also manages to crash land (end of Action Stations). He conducts commando raids and eventually captures an enemy frigate which he brings back to the Landreich, returning as a hero.

This is *not* what Fleet Action is talking about.

That comes four years later, when the Kilrathi attempt to invade the Landreich again. The Confederation dispatches a heavy cruiser (the San Jacinto) commanded by Richards to organize the militia into a fighting force. Long story short, Richards is ordered to abandon the plan and return home... and Kruger, commanding a destroyer in the newly formed squadron, organizes a mutiny that sends him home without a ship. Kruger then leads the fleet to stop the Kilrathi atack (the 'Battle of the Hell Hole', as it's fought in the Hell Hole System rather than the Landreich System as was the previous event). He wins and chases the Kilrathi twelve jumps behind their lines until he finally loses his destroyer.

He's then stuck on a planet for three years conducting commando raids again, eventually completely halting Kilrathi interest in the Landreich. He's rescued by a freelancer around 2641. He comes home and finds that he's been tried in absentia and convicted of capital crimes... but that he's also the hero of the Landreich. He's elected President and made immune from prosecution as a member of the Senate.

... but he and his surviving crew escape to the Kilrathi that has been coordinating the efforts in the sector, where they conduct commando raids for three years This actually stops the Kilrathi interest in the Landreich. He's rescued *three years* later by a feelancer (so, ~2641) and returned to the Landreich. He learns that the Confederation has tried him in absentia and convicted him of capital crimes (mutiny, hijacking of a warship). He's the greatest hero the Landreich has ever seen, though, and they elect him system President within the year--making him a member of the Senate and theoretically immune to arrest and trial (I bet the US Senate wishes this were a real thing).

I remember reading somewhere that Action Stations was supposed to be the first in a trilogy that was suppose to describe the early stages of the war, and that all the "missing" plot points you mentioned were supposed to be discussed in the squeals, including how Kruger managed to get of the kilrathi planet he crashed on (the final chapter in Action Stations), how Richards commanded a destroyer flottila and ended up in intel, and what happaned with Tolwyn...

You may be confusing Action Stations and False Colors. Andrew Keith planned a pair of potential sequels to False Colors and spoke of those plans before he died... but Dr. Forstchen has said he didn't plan further 'prequel' books.

Action Stations certainly leaves Kruger at a cliffhanger, but I think the reader is likely supposed to know what happens next from Fleet Action and False Colors rather than think he is going to see an Adventures of Young Kruger novel.

Note that no further books were actually contracted/packaged/etc.--so anything else would have been in the idea stage. (That said, Fleet Action was the end of a book package and there's no doubt from some of the reference-hooks that Action Stations was in Dr. Forstchen's head way back then...)
 
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