Bisbos.com

This extraordinary warship came as a complete surprise to the Alpha Centaurians and Terran Military authorities and demonstrated that Proximan technology had reached an unexpectedly advanced level.

The first that was known of these ships was their interception of a patrol of our Partisans heading off a convoy of enemy supply ships. The following extract from a flight recorder salvaged later gives a vivid impression of our first contact with the Shark.

Navigator: There are low-mass objects on the screen, sir, vector beta 229 to 230 approaching very fast.
Captain: Ships?
Navigator: Closing too fast. They're hot though (emitting radiation).
Intership Communicator: Flight disperse, let them through.
Navigator: Bit big for that mass rating. They could...
Intership Communicator: Stand by to evade unidentified objects vector 228 and 9.
Captain: There they are. That's odd.
Navigator: What?
Captain: (Shout) Max shield! I think... (end).

One crew survived that action but their report did not contain enough information to identify the nature of the attacking ship. All that was obvious was that the Proximans had suddenly acquired a very fast and manoeuverable weapon.

These sleek warships began appearing in considerable numbers from early 2056 onwards and the characteristic flare of light from their plasma drive system became an all too familiar sight to our hard pressed crews. Although the system of accelerating hydrogen plasma through an electro magnetic field was not unusual, the Proximans had obviously found a way of generating considerably more thrust than was thought to be possible with this type of propulsion.

The ship itself was extremely light, armour being minimised in favour of performance, which at least made them easy to destroy if they could be hit. The first Sharks suffered from lack of range as their fuel capacity was limited, but this was improved in later versions by the addition of two hydrogen collectors extending backwards from their 'wings'. Although these devices could not replace the gas at the same rate as it was consumed, they were able to extend their range by about 30%. The armament carried was effective against our Partisan, but later proved to be inadequate once the Hornet had reached our battle squadrons.

A feature of these remarkable ships was the curious array of fins and projections which gave rise to their codename and which formed part of one of the most sophisticated navigation and direction systems of the War. Invariably, the Shark was able to to take the initiative before being spotted by our crews and it was not until we were able to establish a chain of front-line surveillance stations that this situation was reversed.
Incidentally, the illustration here also shows one of the eight strategic command stations through which Proxima co-ordinated all their military operations.