FIRST BATTLE OF MCAULIFFE
TCN cryptographer Ches M. Penney intercepts and decodes a stray Kilrathi cipher implying that a strike will soon be launched against the planet McAuliffe and its orbiting space station, Alexandria. Confederation High Command orders a counteroffensive twice the size of the anticipated fleet, hoping to reach McAuliffe first and ambush the attackers.

After a tense rush to McAuliffe, the Confederation fleet establishes a formidable defensive position around the planet. When the Kilrathi fleet arrives, however, it is quadruple the expected size. Several days of bloody fighting all but obliterate the Confederation's defensive forces.

[ An alternative viewpoint of McAuliffe is chronicled in the novel Action Stations ]

A NEW CLASS OF CARRIER
The Confederation military command, determining that a need exists for a heavy space carrier, authorizes design of the Bengal-class carrier line. Trojan Four Spaceyards wins the assignment to build the new line of carriers.

MAIDEN VOYAGE OF THE TIGER'S CLAW
The newly-launched TCS Tiger's Claw, on its shakedown cruise, carrying a minimal spacecrew and an under-experienced command, finds itself in the path of a surprise Kilrathi invasion force. The ship's unexpected presence along the Kilrathi flight plan, clever tactics on the part of the command crew, and performance above and beyond the call of duty by spacecrews, rout the superior Kilrathi force. Shortly thereafter, the Tiger's Claw is given permanent assignment in Vega Sector.

MORE CARRIER SUPPORT
The second Bengal-class space carrier, the TCS Kipling, is launched. Owing to design modifications, the Kipling and all subsequent Bengals are 10 meters shorter and several tonnes less massive than the Tiger's Claw, making the Tiger's Claw the biggest space carrier in its class.

CUSTER'S CARNIVAL
Terran ground forces launch an attack on a fortified Kilrathi colony, only to be routed by unexpected Kilrathi fighter support. The new Bengal-class carrier Tiger's Claw is detached from its previous station and assigned to intercept the pursuing fighters in a delaying action eventually known as Custer's Carnival. Swarmed and badly damaged by Kilrathi fighters, the carrier distracts Kilrathi forces long enough for the Terran fleet to reach safety.

Despite the fact that three-fourths of its engines are destroyed and half its pilots are listed as casualties, the heroic efforts of the Tiger's Claw's crew allows the carrier to make it back into Terran space. Two Gold Stars (one to a young pilot by the name of James "Paladin" Taggert) and numerous other medals - many of them posthumous - are awarded to the ship's personnel. The carrier itself spends six months in spacedock for repairs and refitting.

BATTLE FOR REPLEETAH UNFOLDS
Following failed attempts by Terran scientists to garner peaceful co-existence with the Kilrathi scientific detachment on the small research planet of Repleetah, the Kilrathi devastate the planet in a surprise attack with biological weapons. The Terran Confederation reinforces the planet with Marines. Fought mostly on planet-side, though a single bombardment from space could end the battle, the Battle of Repleetah becomes the most sustained land-based fighting of the entire war. In trench warfare reminiscent of Earth's ancient World War I, each side fights with dogged determination and in full bio-resistant suits. The bloodshed continues unabated for years.

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