William Fortchen - Action Stations

In the eight years since the ending of the Kilrathi War much has been written about the conflict, but there is one topic that few have felt comfortable about approaching. To even attempt to discuss him in a balanced manner is now all but impossible, for of all the men, women and alien allies who served in the fleet, none was more controversial than Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn, VC, MOH, DSC, KCB.

No one, not even his most partisan of foes, can deny that Tolwyn's brilliant defense of Earth against Lord Thrakhath's great offensive will stand for centuries as a classic example of military prowess in the face of overwhelming odds. If he had died in that battle, his name would be forever enshrined in history. Unfortunately, his subsequent political actions will forever place his name in the ranks of the dishonored. One must go far back in history, to Alcibiades during the Peloponnesian Wars, Benedict Arnold in the War of American Independence, or Sun Wan Lu in the Faraday Rebellion, to find a military leader so gifted, and yet so controversial and doomed by his own brilliance to a final, irrevocable downfall.

This author briefly served on Admiral Tolwyn's staff during the Earth Defense Campaign, and I can attest to the fanatical devotion of nearly everyone who served under him. Neither can I deny that, at the same time, I was troubled by a sense that, after more than thirty years of conflict, Admiral Tolwyn had become an entity that lived solely for war.

For those reasons, and others, I felt it to be essential to set the record straight regarding one little-studied aspect of Tolwyn's life, his first military operation at the start of the war, now more than forty years past. Perhaps in studying the beginning of his story we might better understand the tragic ending.

Recently declassified documents from the Kilrathi Imperial Archives and the kind assistance of Baron Vakka nar Jukaga, the son of the highly controversial Baron Jukaga, have been instrumental in helping us to see, perhaps for the first time, some of the motivations for the Kilrathi decision to seek war. Vakka nar Jukaga's monumental work, Kilrah Tugaga Jak-Ta Haganaska duka McAuliffe, has provided us on the other side with a remarkable case study of the intrigues within the Imperial Court, the planning for their opening campaign and the first five years of the struggle. This book is worthy of serious consideration in spite of its detractors in the realm of academia and postwar Kilrathi apologists.

Granted, mysteries about the Kilrathi side of the conflict still abound, especially regarding their infamous "lost war orders," an incident which Tolwyn played a part in. I hope that in the near future the truth about the lost orders will finally be revealed, for it is a mystery that has fascinated historians on both sides of the conflict.

I'd like to think that Vakka nar Jukagas study, and this humble work, will at least be a start towards finding out the truth regarding the origins of a war that claimed more than thirty billion lives on both sides. It will be at least a generation or more before all records from the Kilrathi and Confederation archives are fully declassified, so I am willing to admit that there are many aspects of this study of the early days of the war which are open to debate.

This novel is a companion piece to my yet to be completed study of the beginning of the war. I have decided to take this format for a variety of reasons, the main one being the flexibility that it offers. I hope that the readers will forgive me this straying from standard historical form, but it is perhaps the only way we might be able to gain insight into the stresses, assumptions, and misassumptions on both sides that led our two societies into the greatest conflict in our histories.

I would like to thank Admiral Vance Richards, MOH, DSC, FC (ret.) for invaluable access to declassified records from his thirty-nine years with the fleet, along with his own, as yet unpublished memoirs, Point and Counterpoint-Intelligence and Counterintelligence in the War Against the Kilrathi; Commodore Kevin Tolwyn for his frank conversations regarding his uncle; Rear Admiral Jason «Bear» Bonderevsky for memories Admiral Tolwyn had shared with him regarding his early days with the fleet; Pilot of the Imperial Claw Haga Kaligara for his personal diary and flight logs of the opening strike of the war; Barbara Banbridge, daughter of the famous admiral, for her personal recollections of her father; and Margaret Kruger, former wife of President Hans Kruger of the Landreich for her frank, though at times troubling discussions regarding that famous renegade leader. Without their help this study would not have been possible.

I believe that I can finally admit here, for the first time, that, during the court martial of Admiral Tolwyn, I was granted access to him in my capacity as Historian of the Fleet and was able to interview him on three separate occasions prior to his suicide. For one who had seen him at his moment of greatest triumph, it was a trying experience. On the night of his suicide I arrived at the military prison only minutes after the discovery of his death and was admitted to his cell after his body had been removed. Neatly arranged on his bunk there were three items-a photograph of his wife and children, lost in the war, and beside the photograph were the wings and ensign's bars issued to him on the day he graduated from the Academy… troubled soul, may you rest in peace.

Col. Wilhelm Schwarzmont Department of Military History Confederation Fleet Academy

Confederation standard date 2634.89

TO: CICCONFEDFLT FROM: CONFEDFLTINT SUBJECT: INTEL UPDATE KILRATHI MILITARY\POLITICAL INTENTIONS

COPY NUMBER ONE OF ONE. FOR EYES OF CICCONFEDFLT ONLY

Admiral, as per your orders 2634-98,1 have provided a full update on the current internal political and military situation within the Kilrathi Empire. The report, as requested, is attached along with full evaluations of all known Kilrathi military assets, ships, bases, and industrial capability. You will notice that the report, to say the least, is slim. As I have already reported to you in our last conversation, we are looking at a mystery wrapped inside an enigma. No official of the Confederation has ever been allowed access into the Empire, and those border worlds where individuals living outside the law might come into contact with Kilrathi personnel are beyond our ability to adequately infiltrate. What resources ConFedFlt does have are, as you know, barely adequate to patrol the rapidly expanding frontiers, of which our sector bordering on the Kilrathi Empire is but one small part. Though this is outside my realm, I only wish the powers that be to whom we answer would devote more resources to this one sector which, I believe, poses the most serious threat to the Confederation since its creation. What little data my division has been able to obtain has been through remote sensing, extensive interviews with border world merchants who trade outside the realm of legal intercourse, and one covert op team, which filed a report of less than a thousand words and half a dozen holo images, of what we believe were Kilrathi capital ships, before disappearing.

In the five years since we've first had contact with the Kilrathi Empire, our base of knowledge is, in reality, no greater than what we had already heard from the Varni refugees who fled into our space after their disastrous war with the Empire. The numerous skirmishes on the frontier have yet to result in our acquiring any real, hard information as to their political intentions or their true military assets. In short, sir, I must frankly confess that we are in the dark. Those few vessels we've been able to get data on, I suspect are antiquated models that were already in service during their war with the Varni and are now assigned to patrol their side of the border so that we will not know their current capability. Sir, my attached report will go into greater detail regarding all these aspects, but there is something the report can not present as hard fact. Just call it the gut feeling of an old Intel officer who's been watching the «Cats» ever since we first bumped into them… There will be War. They are a predatory society; their definition of existence, both individually and societally, is predicated upon conquest, upon the clear establishment of superior and inferior. The stasis of peace, without the clear resolution of who is superior, is anathema to them. Those who believe otherwise live in a dream world, but this report is not the place to discuss that point.