Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Star League Era

[Wrangler]

Dates on the SoL are all over the place.  FM: DCMS says they were all formed during Kerensky's regency period, so the 5th should definitely have been around for Operation BROKEN BLADE. 

Moreover, the House Kurita SB says that one of the Sword of Light regiments fielded the Combine's first 'Mechs on Nox in 2475 (so much for them all being formed during the Regency).  A HKSB sidebar notes that there have been twelve Sword of Light regiments over the course of history, and that there are currently (circa 3025) five. 

Given the pasting the Combine forces took during Operation BROKEN BLADE, it's entirely conceivable that the SoL regiments there were so mangled they were disbanded, and then the modern 5th SoL was reformed in 2796.

One last wringle, if you read TRO:3025, Revised version, and TRO:3039..the Stuka.  A very depleted elements 15th Sword of Light was finished off by squadron of ambushing Stukas while descending on to the Quentin.  So there were likely more, the 15th was noted being ancient regiment.   Perhaps left over regular Sword of Light? Who to guess.  FR 2765: will hope clear things up. Hopefully.

[Mendrugo]

Doing the research, I came across one more anachronism in "Infestation."  It has the AFFS fielding RFL-3N Rifleman models in 2766, yet Kallon didn't roll those out until 2770, four years later.  To be accurate, they should be downgraded to RFL-2Ns.  (Wheee - even more overheating problems!)  The JagerMechs are also problematic, not debuting until 2774.  Those should be turned into RFL-2Ns as well.

[Mendrugo]

----- 10 Months Later -----

Date: December 27, 2766

Location: Terra

Title: Rise of the Animal

Author: Christoffer “Bones” Trossen

Type: Sourcebook Fiction (Historical: Liberation of Terra – Volume I)

Synopsis:  Major General Albert Kannenberg ponders the logistics of suppressing the Periphery Uprising – sending most of his command offworld and replacing them with Rim Worlders “augmentees.”  Unexpectedly, Colonel Kulich Otolo, commander of the 39th Amaris Legionnaires, barges into his office.  Otolo brings a “holiday greeting” that First Consul Amaris has extended to every SLDF base commander.  He’s come to deliver it personally.  Precisely at 15:00 Sao Paolo time Otolo pulls out his laser pistol and shoots Kannenberg in the head. 

At home with his family, 3843rd SLDF reserve battalion commander Antonius “Tony” Zalman watches a tri-vid game and grades history exams.  Suddenly, a newsfeed cuts into the game showing mushroom clouds rising over Sverdlovsk, Curitiba and Unity City (that last one would be Fort Cameron and most of the Black Watch going bye-bye).  Zalman’s com-link buzzes, and he joins a conference call with his regimental commander, who orders him to mobilize his men.  Mid-conversation, the regimental commander, Colonel George Loc, is taken out by Rim Worlders.  His exec, Major Logan Dietz, takes command and orders him to mobilize and rendezvous in two hours.

One of his company commanders is incommunicado, but the rest agree to muster at the Alfonso Franco Preparatory Academy, where Zalman is an instructor.  Tony gets his family ready to evacuate and calls his friend, Kalli Andrushka, a former jump infantry sergeant who lives in the neighborhood.  Minutes later, while his family is still packing, Andrushka says that his team has mobilized, but warns Zalman that two RWR transports have just pulled up in the street outside.  The SLDF troops catch the Rimmers in a cross-fire – identifying the would-be assassins as mostly local criminals under the command of an Amaris loyalist.

As Zalman and his people drive off for the rendezvous with his battalion, he gets an automated comm-link message from high command, informing him to mobilize.
 
Notes:  It looks like Amaris is one of those people who gets the same gift for everyone. 

The SLDF base scene demonstrates exactly why the coup was so successful in its early stages.  The blind trust Richard placed in Amaris and his Rim Worlders had been mirrored by the SLDF high command as well, which enabled RWR forces to be perfectly positioned to backstab their “allies” and seize control of key bases, depots, and C&C nodes before the SLDF knew what was going on.

Zalman obviously makes it through the fighting on Terra, since he ends up as a founder of Clan Steel Viper and its first saKhan.  His resistance group was apparently reduced to less than a battalion, but it managed to fight the Amaris forces on a number of fronts.  Zalman was eventually promoted to Lt. General and put in charge of the battle to liberate Unity City.  There’re some odd bits in his bio – the entry for Zalman in Historical: Operation KLONDIKE indicates that he traveled with his resistance cell to the planet of York to rescue civilians from the Amaris forces who were using them as human shields against Kerensky’s invading forces.  York, for reference, is a Lyran world close to Alarion, further from Terra than Tharkad.
 
My guess is that Dr. Andrea Paliwoda (in-universe author of H:OK) confused the planet of York with the Terran city of New York, where taking human shields would have been par for the course for Gunthar “Vampire” von Strang, Amaris’ administrator for the Eastern seaboard.  Von Strang got ganked trying to extract offworld through La Guardia spaceport as the North American landings were underway, though apparently his offspring were doing fine back in RWR space, since they went on to found a hardcore pro-Amaris colony on Von Strang’s World.

The delay in getting the mobilization orders out must have been a critical factor in Amaris’ success – most SLDF units probably weren’t as crazy-prepared as Zalman and the Sao Paolo contingent, meaning they were already approaching room temperature by the time the warning arrived.  The automated message is reminiscent of the one in the Battlestar Galactica reboot that appointed Laura Roslin president upon the death of the rest of the Colonial government.

[SCC]

Mendrugo do you have any insight into how the SLDF was structured? From what I understand BT uses the British Commonwealth Regimental structure across the board which wouldn't be handing out numbers to battalions (I think)

[Mendrugo]

Mendrugo do you have any insight into how the SLDF was structured? From what I understand BT uses the British Commonwealth Regimental structure across the board which wouldn't be handing out numbers to battalions (I think)

That's the number given in the story.  Neither FM: SLDF nor the Star League sourcebook go into the designation conventions for reserve units.

[Decoy]

If we draw from the example of the ELH, Battalions also had numbers as well. If it helps, the Star League wasn't the Houses.

[Kit deSummersville]

Well, we'll know for certain if Crucis Lancers were accidently retroconned into existence prematurely when the Field Report 2765: Federated Suns comes out.  I hope scenario that you reviewed was fluke/typo on arthur's part.  I'd hate see another part Battletech history throw out because someone forgot to read about the unit's background.  This already happed with the Sword of Light regiments in one of BattleCorp's story of a regiment hadn't existed yet attacking Hesperus II.

It was the "arthur's" first scenario and lacked any fact checking support.

[Mendrugo]

It was the "arthur's" first scenario and lacked any fact checking support.

No worries, Kit.  When you wrote it in 2009, we didn't have things like FM:SLDF, Historical: Liberation of Terra, and other resources for the era.  As mentioned previously, the objective in pointing out anachronisms in this thread is not to rake the authors over the coals, but to give guidance for any players that want to be historically accurate to the details in the new reference books, now that such information is available.

In my own 2nd Succession War scenario, I managed to get the name of the fortress wrong, mixing up its name with that of the state it was in, and I certainly can't blame that on a lack of data.

[Mendrugo]

----- Meanwhile, in the Pacific Northwest… -----

Date: December 27, 2766

Location: Terra

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Scenario (Northwind Highlanders)

Synopsis: While an ambush eliminated most of the Royal Black Watch regiment, nearly a company fought its way free and raced to protect the First Lord, not knowing he was already dead.  A nuke took out 2/3 of the Black Watch while they were still mobilizing at Fort Cameron, leaving only the one battalion on active patrol to try to secure Unity City.  On Gorst Flats, a company of that battalion faced off against two companies of the 4th Amaris Dragoons (the other two companies of the Black Watch faced an elite RWR battalion in Unity City itself).  Despite being massively outnumbered, the Black Watch company destroyed their foes, forcing the RWR forces to resort to dropping a nuke on their positions.

The 4th Amaris Dragoons is tasked with eliminating the Black Watch by the end of turn 19 without taking catastrophic damage themselves, with significant bonus points for completing the job before the end of turn 15.  It’s a night fight, and the average Dragoon gunnery is 3.83, while the Black Watch averages 0.55 (they’re all Gunslinger graduates), giving the SLDF troops a significant advantage in accuracy.  The Black Watch goal is to survive as long as possible, while taking down as many Dragoons as they can.  The battlefield is a 2x2, with the Black Watch setting up in the River Delta/Drainage Basin and/or Desert Hills, while the Dragoons enter into the Lake Area and open plains maps.   Night combat penalties apply.
 
Notes:  At the time this scenario was written, the exact time of the coup hadn’t been stated – just the date.  However, Historical: Liberation of Terra – Volume I places it at precisely 9:00 AM in Unity City (in the pacific northwest).  Sunrise on December 27 in the Seattle area is 7:57 AM, so the sun had been up for an hour already.  Therefore, if you want to be historically accurate, the Black Watch has to lose one of its key advantages and fight without the cover of darkness.

As the elite bodyguards of the First Lord, the Black Watch probably should have had the best equipment possible.  (FM:SLDF says that the Black Watch can select any ‘Mech or tank from the Royal tables.)  Now that TRO:3075, TRO:3050U and Historical: Operation KLONDIKE have given stats to the Royal variants, the Black Watch roster should probably be updated as follows:

AS7-S Atlas -> AS7-D-H Atlas II
HGN-732 Highlander -> HGN-732b Highlander
HGN-732 Highlander -> HGN-732b Highlander
THG-11E Thug -> THG-11Eb Thug
BL-6-KT Black Knight -> BL-6b-KNT Black Knight
CRK-5003-1 Crockett -> CRK-5003-1b Crockett
CRK-5003-1 Crockett -> CRK-5003-1b Crockett

The rest (Guillotine and Flashman) remain in their TRO:2750 models, since they lack known Royal upgrades.

On the 4th Amaris Dragoons side, as was common in the NWH scenarios, models from TRO:3050 are used, creating anachronisms.  Based on the RWR RAT in Historical: Liberation of Terra, the following substitutions are recommended for those wishing to be historically accurate:

1st Company

MAD-5D Marauder -> MAD-1R Marauder
CP-11-A Cyclops -> CP-10-Z Cyclops
GRF-3M Griffin -> GRF-2N Griffin
ON1-M Orion -> ON1-K Orion
STK-4M Stalker -> STK-3H Stalker
TDR-7M Thunderbolt -> TDR-5S Thunderbolt
WHM-7M Warhammer -> WHM-6R Warhammer
OSR-2D Ostroc -> OSR-2C Ostroc
CLNT-2-3U Clint -> PX-3R Phoenix (Clints don’t appear on the RWR RAT in any form)
COM-5S Commando -> MON-66 Mongoose (likewise, Commandos don’t appear on the RWR RAT)
COM-5S Commando -> MON-66 Mongoose (the 25-ton Jackrabbit also appears on the RWR RAT, but that unit’s description in the Nexus writeup indicates that Amaris only started issuing them to his troops en masse after the coup, so they’re not appropriate for this scenario)

2nd Company

FSN-S Firestarter -> FS9-H Firestarter
VTR-9K Victor -> VTR-9B Victor
RFL-5M Rifleman -> LNC25-01 Lancelot (the RWR RAT doesn’t include a Rifleman)
ZEU-9S Zeus -> RMP-5G Rampage (no Zeus, either)
HBK-5M Hunchback -> HBK-4G Hunchback
ARC-4M Archer -> ARC-2R Archer
DV-7D Dervish -> DV-6M Dervish
DV-7D Dervish -> DV-6M Dervish
ARC-5W Archer -> ARC-2R Archer
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk -> SHD-2H Shadow Hawk
OTL-4M Ostsol -> OTL-4D Ostsol
CLNT-2-3U Clint -> PX-3R Phoenix (No Clints on the RWR RAT)
SDR-7M Spider -> SDR-5V Spider

Having the Black Watch get Royal upgrades while the Dragoons get mostly lower-tech models helps to somewhat offset the loss of the night combat modifiers.

The optimal strategy for the Black Watch would be to stick together, but run as fast/far as they can each turn and get into the best cover possible, ramping up the modifiers to the point where the RWR to-hit numbers become nigh unreachable, while their crazy-good gunnery allows them to pile on the damage.  Concentrate fire so that any units that come into range go down for the count in a single volley.  If using the night combat rules, priority targets should be the Marauder, Shadow Hawk and Warhammer, since they have searchlights and could greatly increase the accuracy of Dragoon fire by lighting up the Watch’s units.  Since the Black Watch MechWarriors also have great piloting skills, any opportunity to close with the foes and deliver assault-‘Mech kicks would likely result in a crippled, legless Dragoon.  The Black Watch Guillotine has a search light as well, but it should be used sparingly, since the dark is your friend, and switching on the lamp will make it easy meat for the Dragoon swarms.

The Drainage Basin should be avoided, because it severely limits mobility, and the Black Watch needs to stay on the move.  The Desert Hills offer the best opportunity for keeping screened from the bulk of Dragoon attacks while concentrating fire on and obliterating any that enter the mix.  Point-wise, each Black Watch 'Mech needs to take out three Dragoons to maintain points-parity.

For the Dragoons, the key is to remember that you’re in a hurry, but there’s no need to panic.  Avoid the temptation to charge in at top speed.  Feeding your scout units into the Black Watch positions piecemeal denies you your numbers advantage and plays to the Black Watch’s strengths, allowing them to destroy your whole force in detail.  If you keep together and take 7-8 turns working your way up the Lake Area map, using the woods and hills to screen you from Black Watch fire as much as possible, you should be in good shape to swarm the Black Watch.  Despite the night fighting penalties (if used), getting into close range should allow enough of your attacks to connect to start to bring down even the mighty Royal equipment – especially if you use one of your four searchlight-equipped units to light up one target and mass your shots on that unit.

Of course, even if the Black Watch wins the battle, Colonel Armstrong Duket (CO of the Fourth Dragoons) calls in a nuclear strike at 0932, wiping out Hanni’s company.  The only survivors of the Black Watch were Captain Elizabeth Hazen and five of her comrades who escaped the devastation of Fort Cameron and took to the wilds to regroup and plan counterattacks, becoming famous as the Ghosts of the Black Watch.  (Note that Hazen’s group actually has no connection to the Northwind Highlanders’ Black Watch – the two groups shared a close relationship and had warriors serving in both organizations during the Star League era, but the NWH Black Watch had its own selection process.)

[Kojak]

Just FYI, there is a Royal Crockett, the CRK-5003-1b, which debuted in 2752.

[Decoy]

BL-6b-KNT came out a year before. It's in Operation: Klondike, IIRC

[Mendrugo]

Thanks.  I'd just been going of the TRO:3075 list.  I actually couldn't find the formal ref for the Black Knight.  OP: Klondike just has the Crockett, and Sarna.net lists its source for the Black Knight as the MUL.  Can anyone track down a source on the Knight?

[Kit deSummersville]

BL-6b-KNT came out a year before. It's in Operation: Klondike, IIRC

TRO 3050U.

[Mendrugo]

Awesome!  Thanks, Kit!

[Mendrugo]

----- 2 Years Later -----

Date: February 22, 2774

Location: Terra

Title: Star Lord

Author: Donald G. Phillips

Type: Novel

Synopsis:  Emperor Amaris sits uneasily upon the throne, in a chamber long since purged of all reminders of House Cameron.  He contemplates a holomap of his empire, glowering at the “occupied” status of the Rim Worlds Republic systems and a ring of Hegemony worlds retaken by Kerensky’s SLDF, encircling the Terran core.  Still, he knows that victory will be his, in the end.

He is joined by General Legos, commander of the Greenhaven Gestapo and one of the chief co-architects of the coup.  He hopes that Legos brings good news, as many of his other advisors have had to be tortured to death after bearing bad tidings.  Unfortunately for Legos, the news is that the city of Millilo on Saffel has fallen to Kerensky.  Amaris orders the Saffel garrison commander returned to Terra for punishment, and to have aerospace forces obliterate the city to deny it to the enemy.

Legos also updates Amaris on the hunt for his wayward mistress, noting that his agents expect to run her to ground on Slocum shortly, despite the ongoing invasion by the 159th Royal BattleMech Division.  Amaris rages at the news that his mistress gave birth to a boy on Altair in January, and orders their immediate destruction, worrying that his future heirs might be threatened by any illegitimate offspring or their descendants.

Notes:  This throne is noted as being made of smooth, deep brown wood.  This is the wormwood throne referenced in the Rhonda’s Irregulars scenario pack, which Amaris shipped from Apollo to Terra after the coup.

It’s interesting to see Amaris’ confidence level so high at this point, with Kerensky’s encirclement of the Hegemony nearly complete and only three years remaining before the SLDF’s landings on Terra itself.

Legos’ intel seems faulty.  He reports that the 159th Royal BattleMech Division is assaulting Slocum.  However, Historical: Liberation of Terra I reports that 10th Army was in charge of the Slocum assault, and FM:SLDF says that the 159th BattleMech Division is in 2nd Army, and isn’t a Royal unit.  There’s a 159th Royal Mechanized Infantry Division in 3rd Army, and a 159th Jump Infantry Division in 14th Army, but neither was on Slocum.  My best guess is that RWR intel (AsRoc? Krypteia? - See below) misidentified 10th Army’s 21st Royal BattleMech Division as the 159th.  It's understandable that fog of war and the efforts of what's left of SLDF intel would confuse things, but given Stefan's tendency to order the execution of anyone that he thinks is lying to him, perhaps double and triple-checking would be necessary.

Additionally, H:LoT2 notes that the XXXIV Corps (Ninth Army) didn't land on Saffel until April, 2775.  It states that the world possessed few standing defenses and just a brigade of defenders.  The SLDF quickly pushed the Amaris forces out of the cities, despite the Rimmers unleashing nuclear and chemical weapon attacks.  This was one of the few worlds where the Amaris forces surrendered or committed suicide rather than fighting to the death.  Given the weak defenses, the February 2774 assault on Millilo could have been a resistance operation mistakenly attributed to Kerensky's troops, and the mass surrenders might have been due to the garrison commander's withdrawal, leaving the garrison brigade in even less capable hands.

One point of interest is that Historical: Liberation of Terra (I&II) describes Amaris’ intel service/secret police as a group called the Krypteia.  No mention is made of the Rim Worlds Republic’s intelligence service, AsRoc, which is named in the original Periphery sourcebook and mentioned in the BattleCorps story "The Dark Night of the Soul."  Since "The Dark Night of the Soul" mentions AsRoc being active in the Phillipines during the Amaris occupation, AsRoc and the Krypteia must co-exist somehow.  Perhaps one is subordinate to the other in the 2770s, or else one is Military Intelligence and the other is State Intelligence (like the DMI/MIIO split in the Federated Suns).

[Mendrugo]

----- Meanwhile -----

Date: February 22, 2774

Location: Slocum

Title: Star Lord

Author: Donald G. Phillips

Type: Novel

Synopsis: Shera Moray is on the run with her infant son, Andrew, hoping to escape from the Amaris Empire before her son’s father catches them.  The father, by the way, is Emperor Stefan Amaris, who impregnated Shera while she was a servant at the Court of the Star League.  Upon learning that she was pregnant, she fled from Terra and managed to elude pursuit by jumping a cargo ship from New Earth to Altair, and now (four jumps later) is on Slocum - one of the front lines of the Star League Civil War.

She pays a local peasant woman a handsome fee to exchange identity documents.  The other woman bears a vague resemblance to her, and has a child of roughly the same age.  The native remarks that swapping documents is better than starving, and walks off, but is detained on the street by Amaris’ soldiers almost immediately.  As the woman tries to run away with her son, the soldiers gun them both down.  The thoroughly beaten-down populace makes no move to interfere.

Shera faces her brush with death with relief, and then swears that her descendants will one day right the wrongs of Stefan Amaris.

Notes:  Technological regression seems to have happened very quickly in the Amaris Empire.  Paper identification documents are used in place of digital ones.  It’s possible that there’re some special anti-fraud elements in the small brown paper documents, but it’s doubtful.  Verigraph technology survived even to the late Succession Wars and would make swapping papers pointless, as the fingerprint key on a verigraph would fail to activate for the wrong person.   (This could be a local thing, since Slocum was experiencing unprecedented solar flare activity at this point in history, jamming communications and whipping up storm activity, so it could have been interfering with electronic document readers.)

The INN writeup notes that Slocum suffered under Amaris, with 50% of the population dying of starvation and the ravages of war.  The food shortages are referenced by the other woman’s comment about starvation, but it doesn’t seem to synch with Shera pausing to inspect a fruit stand on the sidewalk.  With a massive famine in progress, one would expect all food to be under lock and key at heavily guarded distribution centers.

If (per Legos’ report) the SLDF is actively assaulting Slocum (H:LoT1 indicates that landings took place between July-August 2772), Shera is probably trying to get out of the Amaris-controlled sector and into the SLDF beachhead.  Given that context, the troops may have been looking for Shera, or may have been just patrolling for anyone with the wrong ID documents, hoping to sniff out SLDF scouts.

If the world has been under SLDF siege for 18 months at this point, with the Amaris forces holed up in the two Castle Brians that remained intact after the Coup, this raises some questions: 

1. How did Shera get from Altair to Slocum?  Was the SLDF allowing merchant traffic through if their fleet controlled the orbital lanes and jump points?  Why would the SLDF have allowed a merchant vessel to land in Amaris Empire-controlled territory?  We can assume that if Shera's DropShip had landed within an area controlled by the SLDF, she would have immediately gone over to them. 

2.  Where on the planet was Shera if Amaris troops were patrolling the streets and checking IDs, rather than holed up in a Castle Brian?   Perhaps Amaris forces retained control over outlying non-strategic provinces with just infantry and secret police forces, while the SLDF focused primarily on the main combat forces in the Castles, and Shera was in one of the sectors still under Amaris Empire administrative control.

[Mendrugo]

----- 6 Years Later -----

Date: November 18, 2772 [See Notes]

Location: Milton

Title: Tactics of Betrayal

Author: David L. McCulloch

Type: Short Story (25 Years of Art and Fiction)

Synopsis: Captain Paul Rice leads a ‘Mech company in 2nd Battalion of the 18th Volunteer Regiment against Republican lines in the third month of the Milton campaign, trying to push through towards the capital of Paradise Foundation.  The regiment is one of 36 attached to the 413th BattleMech Division.  [See Notes for the continuity issues this raises]

Rice is a native of New Earth – a world yet to be liberated by the SLDF.  He’s distracted throughout the battle, a fact commented on by his XO, Brian Mahone, as well as by another acquaintance, Benedict Clancy, back at the base camp.  Rice’s internal monologue reveals that he feels a strong sense of comradeship with the other volunteer troops, but the time has come to betray them.

The division’s tactical genius, Brother Anthony Block of Gibraltar’s “Brotherhood of the Rock” (warrior monks), briefs the troops on the plan to take Paradise Foundation.  The 18th is assigned the task of supporting an assault against the eastern heights of Paradise Foundation.  After the briefing, Block puts Rice on watch at the command tent, where he compiles all the data on the planned assault and thinks about his brother, Peter – a civilian on New Earth.  Three weeks previously, he’d received the photo of his family and a demand that he gather information and transmit it to the Republicans, or else his family would be killed.  He prepares to send the data, but then halts and considers his duty to the SLDF, and decides not to send the data.  Before he can log off from the communicator, somebody knocks him out with a blow to the head.

He awakens a few minutes later to find Clancy standing over him.  The transmission window has closed, and he now has to worry about who knocked him out, and for what purpose.  He checks the logs and sees that the transmission went out while he was unconscious.

During the assault, Rice expects to walk into a trap and be killed, but is stunned when the Republican forces maneuver poorly and end up badly out of position.  Artillery strikes and a ‘Mech charge allow the SLDF forces to carry the day with minimal losses.  Afterwards, Block tells Rice that he’s the one who knocked him out and sent the data, having deduced that Rice was being pressured to pass info to the  RWR.  The entire briefing was staged to put fake data in the RWR’s hands, via Rice.  Block acknowledges that Rice made the decision not to transmit (forcing Block to knock him out and send it anyways), and promises to task assets inside the Amaris Empire with getting his family to safety.  The story ends with Block proposing a plan to ferret out the RWR agent in the camp.

Notes: The accompanying planetary writeup notes that Amaris’ troops ransacked Milton’s industrial centers as part of a scorched earth policy, hoping to deny them to Loyalist forces.
 
Of note, the SLDF troops and volunteers use “Sharks” as a shorthand for Republican forces, just as “Snakes” is used for the Draconis Combine.

This story’s facts were perfectly fine when it was published, but there are a number of discrepancies between its timeline and the units involved compared to that presented in the Historical: Liberation of Terra series.  The official Catalyst policy in such cases is that the newer products supercede the old one, so let’s see where the problems lie, and how we can reconcile them with the H:LoT accounts:

There’s a chronological discrepancy between the datestamp of this story and the timeline in Historical: Liberation of Terra I.  HLoT1 states that 20th Army was responsible for Milton, and notes that it faced a relatively small garrison of mercenary and “Patriot” forces, rather than Republican regulars, and had little difficulty routing and eliminating the Republicans, throwing two divisions the planet.  The maps in HLoT1 show that Milton was hit in July-August 2772.

However, “Tactics of Betrayal” dates the beginning of the Milton campaign to August 2774.  The chronology works fine if we take the datestamp as a typo and have the story take place on November 18, 2772.  (Rice mentions he’s been through seven years of hard fighting, with only six years having passed since the coup, but he could be including one year of fighting in the Periphery Uprising before that.)  This means that this actually takes place prior to the Star Lord prologue chapters just posted.

This still raises the question of a three-month campaign being considered one of “little difficulty,” but perhaps the SLDF divisions were taking things slowly to avoid blunders like Admiral Braso’s suicidal strike into the occupied Hegemony shortly after the coup.  Perhaps the Volunteers were sent in to establish a bridgehead and contain the RWR garrison in a perimeter while awaiting the two divisions of SLDF regulars that would be able to squash them quickly, with the delay largely attributable to the fact that the divisions doing so were transferred in from the Nusakan/Zebebelgenubi theater.

FM:SLDF notes that the 413th BattleMech Division was originally part of 11th Army’s XXVII Corps, and was noted for having a dedication to steampunk culture.  However, HLoT1 places the XXVII Corps in the 15th Army Group, rather than the 2nd, with 11th Army assigned to the Zebebelgenubi/Nusakan operational area.  Looking at the details of the Nusakan battle (where XXVII forces took part) most of the fighting seems to have been done by WarShips and aerospace fighters – major fleet engagements, airstrikes with nukes to drive the Republicans into their Castles Brian, etc.  I suppose it’s possible that the 413th BattleMech division was temporarily seconded to Milton to oversee the volunteers as they fought the weak Amaris garrison, while their WarShips and other escorts were securing the Nusakan system.  (Sending ground troops in before enemy space assets had been degraded proved costly – HLoT 1 notes that XXVII Corps lost 15 regiments of ground troops when their transports were destroyed en route to the planet.  Perhaps High Command didn’t want to risk the ‘Mechs, and held them back until orbital insertion paths could be secured.)

In addition, H:LoT1 says only a small collection of mercenaries and Patriot forces were on Milton, but this story pits the SLDF against the 23rd Republican Division, which was split between Alioth (14th Amaris Dragoons & 23rd Battle Regiment) and Milton (43rd Amaris Hussars, 22nd Amaris Dragoons, 212th Amaris Cuirassiers – with supporting artillery and mechanized infantry, plus enough air cover to be able to deny the SLDF air superiority).

One “Hail Mary” to square the continuity issues would be to assume that Block was orchestrating an epic deception – falsifying unit numbers, orders, logistics records, etc. to bamboozle the Krypteia/AsRoc, and some of his tinkering may have led Victor Steiner-Davion and his research team down some false paths as they compiled H:LoT I & II, at least in areas where Block was active.  Or, as part of the deception on Milton, Block had Rice and the other Volunteer Regiment troops so totally in the dark that they were misled about the identity of which army group they were part of, what divisions supported them, and which foes they faced…or even what year it was ;)

[It’s clear that this story, predating the Liberation of Terra Historicals, and tucked away in the massive “25 Years of Art and Fiction” anthology, was overlooked or disregarded by the Historical authors, leading to continuity issues.  However, I generally try to figure out a way that the events depicted in the fiction could square with the sourcebook accounts, even if dates and the like need to be adjusted.  Better suggestions for reconciliation of the accounts are welcomed.] 

[Mendrugo]

----- 2 Years Later -----

Date: July 6, 2776 [See Notes]

Location: Procyon

Title: Desertion

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Private Ernest Nebfer is a Hegemony citizen drafted into the Republican Guards.  He was dragged out of his home at gunpoint, put through basic training in four weeks, and then sent to the front lines.  At some point during the battle for Procyon, he is put in charge of escorting a MechWarrior deserter to her execution.  His conscience gets the better of him, and he lets her escape.  As a consequence, he is assigned to the 405th Penal Battalion for 30 days – essentially a death sentence, since average lifespan in the unit is measured in hours.

Nebfer finds himself assigned to take Hill 215 from SLDF infantry.  He and his fellow suicide troops are given a rifle, grenade, combat knife and satchel charge.  Such human wave tactics have been steadily failing (at great cost in life) for two weeks.  They’re given a mandate – “win or die” – as retreat is not an option.  They’ll either be killed by the SLDF going forward, or killed by RWR regulars (The 88th Division – The Scythe of Amaris) if they try to run.

Nebfer charges up the hill, hoping to make it to the top and somehow stay alive.  His comrades are massacred all around him, but he makes it to a wrecked ‘Mech leg, and prepares to throw his satchel charge into the SLDF trench, hoping that victory will mean life.  He’s hit by incoming fire and falls to the ground.  His last sight is the armed satchel charge lying in the dirt next to his head.

Notes:  The datestamp on this story is November 6, 2775, which is too early, per H:LoT2’s timeline.  H:LoT2 states that Procyon was invaded on in late February/early March 2776.  It’s stated in the story that the battle for Hill 215 takes place around the time of the final SLDF assault, which the SLDF Fifth Army managed to wrap up by mid-summer 2776.  Nebfer remarks that entire cities have been wiped out in the fighting, placing this after the main body of the 88th Republican Guards Division buttoned up in their Castle Brians and started lobbing WMDs via cruise missile.  Pushing the date forward eight months takes care of the continuity issues.

It’s not clear what sort of strategic purpose is accomplished by sending penal units out as cannon fodder.  Possibly just to put pressure on the SLDF units besieging the Castle Brians by making them defend their siege lines from human wave assaults, rather than focusing on degrading the Castle’s defenses.  H:LoT2 says that once the SLDF’s 16th Fleet had orbital control, they blasted any RWR unit that wandered out of its fortifications with orbital bombardments, but perhaps this wasn’t possible in the immediate perimeter of the Castle Brians.  (They may have still had active SDS surface-to-orbit batteries to prevent the Castles from being smashed from orbit.)

Nebfer observes that the Rim Worlders in command of the defense feel desperate and are resorting to ever more draconian measures.  With Kerensky’s troops in charge of the Rim Worlds Republic, they have nowhere to go if they lose.  It’s notable that information control seems to have been a hallmark of the Amaris regime.  Despite having held a Hegemony-wide referendum (albeit a rigged one), Nebfer remarks that he’s heard only rumors about how Amaris became First Lord and about what happened to the Camerons.

Other sources (WizKids INN) on Procyon note that the Castle Brian near the planetary capital of Guilded Halls was reduced to ruins by orbital bombardment.  If the Castles were, in fact, clobbered by orbital bombardments, the SLDF infantry on Hill 215 and other positions may have just been maintaining a perimeter, keeping the RWR forces penned up inside the kill zone while the 16th fleet slowly reduced the Castle Brian’s protective structures.  The human wave attacks may have been an attempt to break out, which would allow the Scythe of Amaris regular troops to get off the bullseye and try to hide among the civilian populace.

The garrison commander tells Nebfer that the MechWarrior he let escape had information that she could pass to the SLDF to help them.  Perhaps that info was something that allowed the SLDF to disable the Castle Brian’s orbital defenses, allowing the WarShips to begin the final bombardment.

[Mendrugo]

----- 1 Month Later -----

Date: July 31, 2776  [See Notes]

Location: New Earth

Title: Organic Ice

Author: Ken' Horner

Type: Scenario (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  SLDF forces have begun infiltrating the New Earth system.  On October 5, 2775, an SLDF fleet jumped into the system and disgorged small strike-teams to infiltrate the system and lay the groundwork for the coming assault.  One of the targets was New Ganymede, a moon orbiting the gas giant Zeus.  New Ganymede’s rivers of naturally occurring organic solvents are a strategic asset that the SLDF sees as a necessary asset prior to the main assault.  A small SLDF combat group is sent to take the moon’s RWR defenders by surprise.

The SLDF team consists of one Heavy ‘Mech company, with an average gunnery of 2.75 (Veteran), and faces a Medium/Heavy company of the 12th Republican Guards with an average gunnery of 2.92 (Veteran).  It’s a slugfest between two fairly evenly matched forces.  The main twist of the scenario is the conditions – methane atmosphere, flammable rivers, low gravity, and low temperatures.  The side that adapts best to the terrain will likely be victorious.

The “Aftermath” section notes that the RWR forces were defeated, but that the survivors managed to retreat offworld to New Earth, where they awaited the main assault.

Notes: While a fine scenario in its own right, it’s problematic to fit this into the timeline for the invasion of New Earth presented by Historical: Liberation of Terra II.

HLoT2 states that the invasion of New Earth took place on July 26, 2776, but that infiltration efforts had begun earlier in the year with the goal of covertly seizing control of the New Earth HPG station before the main invasion fleet arrived, thereby preventing Terra from learning about it and sending reinforcements.  A strike team hitting nine months earlier and taking the moon to prepare for the eventual planetary invasion, and letting the RWR garrison get back to New Earth on top of that, just doesn’t fit into that narrative.  This is hardly a covert insertion if they let the garrison extract.   If they had hit that early, and then settled in to wait for the rest of the fleet for nine months, there’d be ample time for the Republican troops onboard the nearest Pavise to vector a few dozen Caspars over to New Ganymede to initiate aggressive urban renewal operations from orbit.

Plus, the scenario implies that General Kerensky personally commanded the New Earth invasion fleet, when that honor went to Ninth Fleet Admiral Dmitrios Rummolo.  HLoT2 says that the 11th Army (rebuilt after the punishing campaigns on Nusakan and Zebebelgenubi) was assigned to crack New Earth, so the “ad hoc” company seen here is probably part of their TO&E, likely assembled by cherry-picking the MechWarriors with the most microgravity combat experience from a number of regiments.

One solution to the continuity problem would be to reclassify this operation as an objective raid to keep the RWR forces on the defensive and destroy the New Ganymede refineries to deny them to the enemy.  That would imply that the company went in on some sort of stealthed DropShip to get past the Caspars, hit the RWR garrison, and then extracted after scuttling the refineries.  However, H:LoT doesn’t mention any such stealth capabilities – at least not ones that were effective against the Caspars. 

Another option (my preferred choice) would be to reset the date of the scenario to July 31, 2776, and cast it as a sideshow to the larger New Earth invasion.  Re: Kerensky – the scenario doesn’t outright state that he’s leading the invasion – it just quotes a message from Kerensky to the invasion fleet and refers to them as Kerensky’s troops.

[Wrangler]

Interesting stuff, Mendrugo!  You write as if your one of the staff, thank you for continuing do these fastnating reviews!

Is possible to include the publish date/year of the scenario as part of your boilerplate for the review?

[Mendrugo]

I'm only peripherally "staff" as one of the volunteers on the fact-checking team.  I used to be a FanPro Commando demo agent, but had to resign once I left the U.S. and started working in countries like Ukraine, Jamaica and Tajikistan that don't really have gaming culture.

The date of publication is listed on Sarna.net's list.  Since the focus in this thread is on the in-universe chronology, I'd rather not clutter up the header further.  Whenever a continuity issue arises due to later sourcebooks contradicting earlier stories, I'll address it in the notes.

[Nerroth]

I'm surprised at how many of the stories set during the Amaris Coup seem to be at odds with the published data in the two Liberation of Terra volumes. Were these works not used as reference points when the sourcebooks were being put together, or are these disrepancies simply falling through the cracks left open by attempting to tackle such an ambitious project?

[Mendrugo]

I wasn't part of the fact-checking or development processes for H:LoT2, so I can't speak as to what led to the discrepancies.  My guess is that the mandate for the H:LoT writers was to create a believable, internally consistent progression for Kerensky's campaign to liberate the Terran Hegemony.  It's entirely possible that they looked at the previous fiction and decided that going by those dates would leave certain systems "behind the lines" still in Amaris hands, and others liberated too early.  It's for cases like this that Catalyst's policy is that newer products supercede older ones when conflicts arise.

I'm certain the H:LoT writers were aware of at least some of these sources.  General Legos of the Greenhaven Gestapo is named in the prologue chapters of Star Lord, and he plays a major role in the H:LoT books.  It's deliciously ironic that the story with the most conflicts with H:LoT, "Tactics of Betrayal," revolves around purposeful dissemination of misinformation.

I'm loathe to simply throw anything out, so when conflicts arise, I'll see what I can propose (with the requisite level of "handwavium") to reconcile the accounts.  Keeping in mind that my suggestions are just that, and in no way official or canon.

[Mendrugo]

----- 8 Months Later -----

Date: February 14, 2777

Location: Terra

Title: Hard Justice

Author: Chris Hartford

Type: Sourcebook Fiction (Historical: Liberation of Terra – Volume II)

Synopsis:  Megan Cole talks to her niece, Jess, during the SLDF liberation of Moscow.  Jess has blood on her face, but says it wasn’t hers.  She tells her aunt that she was watching the BattleMechs down by the river with Kolya – they wanted to see General Kerensky.  Megan worries about keeping Jess safe, since she knows that “Kolya” has a connection to General Kerensky, and that such connections might endanger Jess, whose mother Helena had to give her up 12 years earlier into Megan’s care. 

Notes:  Kolya is the Russian diminuitive for Nicholas, so the “ragged boy” playing with Jess is almost certainly Nicholas Kerensky, who lived under an assumed name in Amaris-occupied Moscow.  The identity of Jess is more of a mystery.  She was given up by a woman named Helena in 2765, and Megan has been dodging assassins since 2767.  Simon Cameron’s third child, Helena, was born in 2749, and would have been 16 in 2765.  Richard Cameron’s bio in H:LoT1 notes that he despised Helena and that there were rumors that he began to abuse his sisters in his teens. 

So, it would appear that Jess is the child-by-incest/rape of Richard Cameron and his younger sister Helena.  The birth was covered up and the child passed off to Megan Cole.  There’s no hard data on what happened to “Jess” afterwards, but Historical: Operation KLONDIKE notes that Nicholas’ wife, Jennifer Winson, is a cipher.  There’s no record of her life in the Inner Sphere and only minimal information on her pre-Clan life in the Pentagon.  The bio notes that it’s almost as if Nicholas and her brother Jerome deliberately sought to obfuscate the records, and mentions that there are theories that Jennifer is an assumed name and that she is, in truth, a descendant of the Cameron family.   Her brother Jerome is noted as a native of Gallery, and was the officer who rescued Katyusha Kerensky and her sons from Moscow, though his bio raises questions about whether he was really her brother.

This would seem to add a lot of additional circumstantial evidence to the theory that “Jennifer Winson” = “Jessica Cameron,” rather than Richard’s legitimate daughter, Amanda, as some have speculated.  From this story, we can speculate that when Jerome Winson reached Moscow to extract Katyusha, Nicholas and Andery, Megan Cole got him to extract Jessica as well.  The early Jess-Kolya friendship eventually turned to marriage between “Jennifer” and Nicholas. 

One of the characters in “Fall From Glory,” who serves as Nicholas' agent in triggering the Prinz Eugen mutiny within Kerensky’s Exodus Fleet, is named Major Jes Cole.  Since “Jess” was being raised by “aunt” Megan Cole, it seems plausible that Jessica Cameron -> Jess Cole -> Major Jes Cole -> Jennifer Winson.  (An awesome “blink and you missed it” Easter Egg that they’ve been laying the groundwork for since Historical: Operation KLONDIKE)

One wonders how this fits in with the story that Jerome’s wife, also named Jessica, opted to stay behind on Alarion (and, per the legend, turned into a tree) rather than joining her husband on the Exodus.  Coincidence, or something more? 

[FedSunsBorn]

Just read Op Klondike the other day and I remember the part about Jennifer Winson being a Cipher and a possible Cameron. I also remember the story in the Liberation of Terra II Historical but I never connected the two....wow, that does make some sense.....crazy but cool as well.

[Mendrugo]

----- 5 Days Later -----

Date: February 19, 2777

Location: Terra

Title: Hard Justice

Author: Chris Hartford

Type: Sourcebook Fiction (Historical: Liberation of Terra – Volume II)

Synopsis:  Two Amaris loyalists – a merc and a bureaucrat - are holed up in the Hegemony Congress building in Geneva, both having failed to escape Europe before the SLDF took control.  The civilian is busily burning documents – tax returns, he says.  He tells the merc that he was in media, in a “behind the scenes” capacity.  After the merc leaves to sweep the perimeter, the bureaucrat returns to destroying documents – including those that reveal him to be Samir Njari, Chairman of Krypteia Operations.

Notes:  The rats are trying to go to ground with the SLDF closing in and preparing to unleash some vengeance.  Samir’s bio in H:LoT2 notes that his attempt to conceal his identity failed, and he was arrested when the Hegemony Congress fell in June 2777.  He committed suicide in prison in 2781.  Of note, he was trying to change his appearance in addition to burning his identity documents.  His picture in the official bio shows a slender, handsome man with stubble, while the man described in this scene is “short, fat and clean-shaven.”

[Mendrugo]

----- 6 Months Later -----

Date: August 14, 2777

Location: Terra

Title: Hard Justice

Author: Chris Hartford

Type: Sourcebook Fiction (Historical: Liberation of Terra – Volume II)

Synopsis:  Roger Calvinson, a major player in the Hegemony financial markets, looks out over London and reflects on how things have come to pass.  He recalls that he and other bankers, blinded by greed, financially backed Stefan Amaris’ schemes, and then came to realize that they wouldn’t ever get their trillions of Star League dollars back unless Amaris won, trapping them into further financing the Star League Civil War.  Now, with the SLDF on Terra, an Amaris victory is a vanishingly small possibility, and Calvinson senses his financial ruin.  In time honored tradition, he plans to end his career by jumping off a ledge 16 stories up.
 
Notes:  This scene lays the groundwork to explain why the massively powerful economy of the Terran Hegemony collapsed after the war.  So much capital had been poured into the Amaris war machine, creating nothing but ruined BattleMechs, burned-out cities, and mountains of debt.  Since the Hegemony lay at the core of the Inner Sphere's economy as a whole, its ruin created massive recessions in the economies of the other member states.

H:LoT2’s “Crack in the World” sidebar recounts how Hegemony business leaders bought Amaris’ line that his goal was to build the greatest economy in the Inner Sphere.  He removed all controls from corporate activities, and the businessmen threw themselves into the goal of reaching new heights of production quotas.  The author of the sidebar, Anderford Howe Wakeman, says he took the word of the Amaris government that any reports of pillaging were isolated incidents, and would be prosecuted.  He also says he and the other tycoons never realized that millions of Hegemony factory workers were sent to forced labor gulags.  Since Wakeman’s account is published in 2785, we can assume he didn’t join his colleague Calvinson on a ledge.

[Mendrugo]

----- 2 Months Later -----

Date: October 11, 2777

Location: Terra

Title: Hard Justice

Author: Chris Hartford

Type: Sourcebook Fiction (Historical: Liberation of Terra - Volume II)

Synopsis:  After six months on the run, Hans Mikkelsen, a member of the infamous Greenhaven Gestapo, is apprehended in the back alleys of Rome, where he and his fellow mercs spent the occupation looting the Vatican and savaging the Catholic hierarchy and citizens of Rome.  While Hans doesn’t have a nifty handle like his comrades Bernard “Ogre” Critchley or Alexis “Succubus” Adley, he apparently did sufficiently dirty deeds to have Lyrans, Davions, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a killing rage.

Notes:  The Star League SB tells that the Gestapo, after an attempt to extort money and riches from the already-stripped Rome and Vatican City, killed Pope Clement XXVII and many cardinals and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in 2770.  The Davion SB adds that they ransacked the churches for priceless art objects and historical artifacts, which they either carried off or shot up just for the fun of it.  When Clement XXVII was put on trial by the mercenaries, the Vatican managed to broadcast a short message to ranking church members throughout the Inner Sphere, saying that the Holy Father was setting aside the mantle of the Church for the duration of the emergency, and gave cardinals in the capitals of the five member-states powers needed to carry on the workings of the Church.

Egocentric Cardinal Kinsey de Medici of New Avalon got a garbled version of the message, and believed he’d been given full control of the Inner Sphere’s Catholic Church, declaring himself Pope Thomas X. Interestingly, an NACC Pope named Clement XX is running the show by 2796 (per “The Purge” sidebar).  So not only did New Avalon break with the rest of the Catholic Church in the Inner Sphere over a garbled HPG transmission, but they decided that the last eight Clements (and perhaps any number of other Popes in between) didn’t count, and reset the numbering.

Interstellar Expeditions has a slightly different account of events in the Vatican.  It states that the Vatican entrusted most of its historical artifacts, texts, and portable treasures to the Swiss Guard, which then smuggled them offworld and fled to St. Andreas.  Furious with the loss of the books, Amaris ordered the destruction of the Sistine Chapel and the execution of the College of Cardinals and the Pope. 

Jihad Conspiracies also touches on these events.  It includes an excerpt from a Dan Brown-style book, Dark Periphery, circa 2768 in which Vatican guards bribe Gestapo troopers to sneak shipments out through Rome’s Julius Caesar Spaceport, chortling over having managed to get the Vatican’s most precious artifacts away.  A second scene indicates they were entombed on Randis IV, and the construction workers who made the cache were killed to preserve secrecy.  Author Clive Cutler claims his works are based on historical research.  The Jihad Conspiracies account blames the Gestapo for a 2768 massacre of six hundred Pauline Fathers who had been protesting the treatment of the Vatican by the Usurper’s forces.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the modern name for the Catholic Church’s Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition.  A group not inclined to grant much clemency to anyone involved in the murder of their Pope.  “No one expects the Inquisition!  Among our weapons are…”

[Mendrugo]

----- 2 Years Later -----

Date: April 18, 2779

Location: Terra

Title: The Dark Night of the Soul

Author: Christopher Purnell

Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Father Jerome Zubalicarragui, a Jesuit priest, lived through the horrors of the Amaris occupation in the Phillipines.  In 2770, anti-Amaris rebels led a protest march on Manilia hoping to convince the Amaris government to release Pope Clement (then the focus of a mock trial by the Greenhaven Gestapo in Rome).  Hundreds of thousands of Phillipinos were subsequently massacred by a detachment of Ignis terror tanks in the Quezon Circle district.  Even now, months after SLDF troops liberated the islands, Jerome still has nightmares about the Manila massacre to such an extent that he’s suffering a crisis of faith.

Following the massacre, Jerome went into hiding while AsRoc kill squads and local collaborators hunted unsuccessfully.  His skill in evading sweeps earned him the nickname “ghost padre,” a nickname Jerome detests.  He has what he feels is an undeserved reputation as a “hero of the resistance,” saying that he “made a few speeches” while others died.

Manila still bears the scars of street-by-street fighting between Republican and SLDF forces, though SLDF combat engineers have been working to restore the infrastructure.  Fort Santiago, a former tourist trap, has become the Star League’s administrative headquarters for the region.  Violence is still threatened by Amaris commandos, Rim Worlds diehards left behind, and Huk guerillas who assisted the SLDF, but have refused to disarm.

Jerome goes to the fort as an observer for Catholic relief agencies.  Detainees (Republicans and local collaborators) and their families will be traveling by bus from the old stone fort to a more secure compound at San Fernando, out in the countryside.  Jerome is worried that the Huk guerillas may try to take revenge on the detainees as they travel through the Pampanga region, rather than waiting for due process.

He speaks with Emily Wuerzel, a press photographer who was stranded in Manila en-route to the China front, then meets with the fort’s commandant, Captain Jules Marchand.  The SLDF officer tells Jerome that he expects the Huks to attempt to intercept the lightly guarded convoy, but that with little weaponry on-hand (everything combat-worthy was sent to the still-active fronts in China) and with the Huks in possession of significant anti-armor arsenals looted from overrun Republican armories, he will have to rely on diplomacy, rather than firepower.

Twenty buses depart, crammed with accused collaborators along with their families, including young children.  Jerome rides along with Emily Wuerzel, and the two discuss the socio-economic problems of the Phillipines, which remained severe even during the “golden age” of the Terran Hegemony.  As the convoy enters the New City, it runs into a Huk roadblock.  Jerome’s attempts to negotiate with the Huks come to naught, and a raging gun battle erupts.  The Huks slaughter the SLDF escorts and kill the detainees and their families, burning them in their buses and hanging their corpses from lamp posts.

Jerome and Emily both survive, and the horror-stricken priest pours out his soul to the hard-bitten war correspondent.  He tells her he didn’t organize the protest march…he tried to stop it.  While the protest leaders believed that God would stop the Pope’s execution and protect them, Jerome hadn’t shared their faith.  The massacre of the detainees causes him to again question how God could allow such a thing to happen.  Emily responds that people do such things across all of human space.  Yet, as a practicing Jew, she still has faith that the God who kept her people alive for four thousand years exists.

Notes: H:LoT2 dates the SLDF invasion of the Phillipines to January 2779, with special attention paid to taking out the SDS surface-to-orbit battery on Luzon.  Six weeks of fighting by 20th Army sufficed to silence the battery and eliminate the Republican garrison, so Luzon became a rear-area liberated zone by late February.

Interestingly, despite secret police duties being handled by the Krypteia in H:LoT I & II, AsRoc (given as the name of the RWR intel service in the Periphery sourcebook) is mentioned here as being the local arm of the secret police.  As I’ve speculated before, perhaps AsRoc served as military intelligence, while the Krypteia was a civilian agency, similar to the DMI/MIIO split in the Federated Suns.  Or, perhaps AsRoc is a special-operations branch of the Krypteia (as the LIC has the Bondians, Loki, Lohengrin, etc.).

The timing meshes perfectly with the HLoT timeline.  The China front was still active until the capture of Shanghai on May 29, 2779, and the T’ienchen Castle Brian remained under siege for an additional four months.

[Nerroth]

Between BattleTech and Shadowrun, the Philippines can't seem to catch a break from Catalyst/Topps/old-FASA...


To clarify, who are the Huks?

And does the info on the country in the fiction piece (or in LoT2) state whether or not there is still a substantial Muslim population on the island of Mindanao, or does it focus more on events as they transpired on the island of Luzon?