Wing Commander Action Stations

Wing Commander: Action Stations
English language cover, Baen Books.
Author(s)	William R. Forstchen
Cover Artist	Paul Alexander
Language(s)	English German Czech
Publisher	Baen Books
Publication Date	January 1998
Pages	345 pp
ISBN	0-671-878559-X
Retail Price	$5.99 U.S. $7.99 CAN

Novel by William R. Forstchen, published in early 1998 by Baen Books.

The book covers the early career of Geoffrey Tolwyn, under the guise of being a Confederation Fleet historian's fictionalized novelization published four years after Tolwyn's death; it is a "novel-within-a-novel". The plot centers around the McAuliffe Ambush at the very start of the Terran-Kilrathi War, an event first described in Claw Marks; thus, except for the fictional author's foreword, the events in it predate every other Wing Commander game, book, film, or television series.

Cover Copy

THEY PLANNED ON A NICE WAR . . .

 There had been a century of peace, and the politicians of

Earth and its colonies were running on platforms of cutting

“wasteful” military spending―all while Earth's military tried to

keep aging and obsolete ships flying and battle-ready. And

while the swords rusted, war clouds gathered on the horizon. . . .

 Contact had been made with the Kilrathi―a warrior race

feline in appearance and deadly in combat. Yet, even though

they had annihilated or enslaved scores of other races

throughout the galaxy, and had attacked human colonies on

the border worlds, the government was not taking them

seriously, thinking that the Fleet could handle them with ease.

Commander Winston Turner knew that the government was

moving toward a declaration of war against the Kilrathi in

response to demands from the border worlds. He also knew

that the Fleet would be forced to operate under Plan Orange

Five: limited action and punitive responses only. He only hoped

that mankind would recognize its mistake before it was too

late.

Chapters

• Forward
• Chapter One
• Chapter Two
• Chapter Three
• Chapter Four
• Chapter Five
• Chapter Six
• Chapter Seven
• Chapter Eight
• Chapter Nine
• Chapter Ten
• Chapter Eleven
• Chapter Twelve
• Chapter Thirteen
• Chapter Fourteen
• Chapter Fifteen

Translations

Czech

The German language edition, Wing Commander: Die Bedrohung, was published by Bastei Lubbe Verlag in 2000. The alternate cover artwork manages to outdo even its American equivalent for 'What the heck?' factor. As of this writing, this was the last Wing Commander book ever published in any language.

German language cover.

Czech language cover, Poutnik Knihy.

Ships

Confederation

• Corsair (fighter)
• Falcon
• Gladiator
• Gotha
• Hawk
• Hummer
• Hurricane (fighter)
• Minotaur
• Thor
• Trident
• Wildcat