Author Topic: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars  (Read 480663 times)

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #60 on: 07 April 2013, 07:43:58 »
----- 1 Month Later -----

Date: February 15, 2801

Location: Eden

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Per General Kerensky’s orders, Andery is back in the field as a Major at the helm of his Exterminator.  In a bivouac area, he encounters Major General Carson, freshly exonerated of involvement in the looting of the Brian Cache, thanks to Andrey’s role as a character witness.  Carson informs him that his brother (now a Major General himself) wants to see him.

Nicholas gives Andery a frosty reception, though the younger Kerensky manages to avoid his usual emotional collapse, and confronts Nicholas about the role he played in the riots.  Nicholas’ response is anger, rather than denial, and he answers that he “did what needed doing,” but that he hadn’t repeated his Prinz Eugen gambit because the results could be messy and unpredictable in circumstances where the civilians aren’t trapped aboard ships.  Instead, he’s had “more important things to deal with.”

Andery questions what this means, and Nicholas warns him that military units are starting to smuggle arms out of the Brian Caches and beginning to take sides with various civilian factions.  Nicholas shares his worldview with Andery, saying that the Star League’s attempt at peace failed utterly, and that the Star League-in-exile has the same existential problems.  He would prefer to form a society that would embrace mankind’s warlike nature.  In Nicholas’ view, war will come, even without Nicholas’ manipulations, and it’s time to start preparing to save what they can.

Convinced by Nicholas’ arguments, Andery decides to stop challenging his brother and support him as they head into a time of crisis together.

Notes:  The Kerensky men seem incapable of breaking out of their habituated patterns.  Aleksandr focuses on the tactical situations while ignoring the underlying causal societal problems and bigger picture issues until events blow up in his face, quoting Russian philosophers all the while.  Nicholas cynically plots in an effort to address issues created by his father’s perceived softness and manipulates those around him, particularly Andery.  And Andery himself resolves to stand as his own man, then demonstrates a spine primarily composed of overcooked spaghetti and dances to Nicholas’ tune.

As a Major, Andery is a battalion commander (per Star League ranks), while Major General Nicholas commands a Division (the 146th) .  The 146th was a Royal unit – the George S. Patton Division.  The 146th was one of the most battle-hardened units in the SLDF even before the Civil War.  This was the unit that young “Kolya” watched spearhead the liberation of Moscow as the first large-scale unit to get planetside, so it’s very appropriate that he would have formed an emotional attachment to it and end up leading it years later.

Nicholas’ claims that various factions are stealing Brian Cache weapons to prepare for a civil war don’t match the Historical: Operation KLONDIKE account, which says that the rebellion flashpoint took place on May 5, 2801, when Capellan nationals declared independence and seized a Brian Cache (Castle Brian IV) to back their claims.  Stephan Cage writes about the rebels starting to loot other Brian Caches in late May, but there’s no mention of active-duty SLDF military units pulling out previously smuggled weapons and joining the fray.  The SLDF was unified until General Aleksandr Kerensky died, and the rival top staff simply used the active duty divisions under their commands to take control of those Brian Caches not yet looted by rebel groups.  To me, this indicates that Nicholas is continuing to manipulate Andery by lying about the smuggling – Nicholas’ Division is the only group involved in stealing weaponry. 
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 17:39:12 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #61 on: 07 April 2013, 07:58:34 »
I'll give Nicholas Kerensky this: he may have been a cold-blooded cynic, but he did at least seem to understand the root problems that underlie both the old Star League and the SL-in-Exile. Aleksandr and Andery both seem content to treat the symptoms but not the disease. Now whether Nicholas' creation of the Clans was a good solution to this problem is of course debatable, but I can certainly see how he managed to gather his initial followers.


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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #62 on: 07 April 2013, 09:05:12 »
Based on what I've read, the key problem faced by the original Star League is that the leaders of the member states never fully accepted the idea of subordinating their sovereignty to a central authority.  The various Great House leaders caused the Third Hidden War (the pirate war) in an attempt to gain advantage over each other, but Simon Cameron's public relations trip succeeded in rebuilding overwhelming popular support for the Star League among the people of the Free Worlds League and Lyran Commonwealth.  Had he not died on New Silesia, he could well have repeated that success in the other three.

The other issue was the reliance on heredity for determining rulership.  Had there been a democratically elected First Lord or even a bicameral parliament (say, one house with one rep per planet, and another where each planet gets reps based on its population), that would have averted succession crises.  The FWL's parliament historically was fairly ineffective, but only because it was paired with a supreme executive who was largely able to rule by decree during the (centuries-long) "emergency period."  The Capellan Commonality's experiment with interstellar democracy failed because of rampant interference from outside parties - the Free Worlds League and Federated Suns.  If the system had been applied to the whole Star League, there wouldn't have been "outside parties" to muck with things.

I think the Star-League-in-Exile could have survived as such if the decommissioned SLDF troopers (who may have been suffering en-masse from post traumatic stress disorder) had been thrown into large scale terraforming and colonization efforts in the Kerensky cluster - keeping them too busy with purposeful work "building the future" to think about wanting to form militias.  Sure, this would have greatly slowed the level of development on the Pentagon worlds due to labor shortages, but it the slowdown would have given the colonies time to let the psychological issues of a generation of SLDF veterans fade into history.  Also, historical studies have shown that societal unrest comes most often, not during times of privation - when everyone's too busy just surviving to think about anti-authoritarianism.  It's when things start to get better that people can look beyond their next meal and start to entertain more ambition.

Likewise, Aleksandr seems to have been planning to continue running things as a hereditary military Governorship, with rule passing down to Nicholas and his heirs.  However, implementing democratic reforms could have allowed the rival factions to compete in elections, rather than rioting against each other. 

Granted, this is BattleTech, not SimColony, so as always, failure is the only option.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #63 on: 07 April 2013, 23:55:53 »
----- 3 Months Later -----

Date: May 5-14, 2801

Location: Eden

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Andery’s command lance provides security for a Cinco De Mayo parade in a Federated Suns-aligned neighborhood of Novy Moscva.  Despite a reduction in riots over the last few weeks, they’re worried that the Capellan-aligned citizens are planning to disrupt the Feddies’ Cinco De Mayo parade in retaliation for an attack on Little Cathay during its Chinese New Year celebrations.

The shoe drops as the Little Cathay nationalists go well beyond simply breaking up a Davionist parade, and declare full independence with the formation of the New Capellan Hegemony.  Word comes from SLDF command that all forces are ordered to return to base.

A week later, Andery attends his father at the main command post.  The General has returned to command the suppression of the New Capellan Hegemony, which has seized Castle Brian IV.  The command staff follows the battle via radio reports from General Aaron DeChavilier.  Contact is cut off amidst a storm of explosions, and Major Bolson reports that the general’s ‘Mech was annihilated by a storm of Arrow IV artillery, which also took out most of the command company.

Shaken from his malaise by the death of his oldest still-living friend, General Kerensky angrily declares that his attempt to govern his new Star League in a kind and gentle fashion has failed.  He recalls that he’s watched one Star League torn apart, and resolves to take any actions necessary to save this one.  He orders full mobilization of all SLDF forces, and commands the isolation of the territory claimed by the New Capellan Hegemony and the eradication of all reisistance.

Despite his pleasure at the return of his father’s spirit, Andery is horrified by the orders to attack Little Cathay’s civilian populace, and objects, warning that it will lead to more rioting and unrest.  The General has Andery arrested for insubordination.

Notes:  There are five separate accounts of this event, using two different spellings for the General’s name (DeChevilier in “Fall From Glory,” Warriors of Kerensky and the Wolf Clan Sourcebook, and DeChavilier in Jade Falcon Sourcebook, Field Manual:SLDF, Historical: Liberation of Terra I & II, and Historical: Operation KLONDIKE).  DeChavilier appears to be the current canon spelling.

In “Fall From Glory,” DeChavilier is implied to have been piloting a Warhammer  (well, technically Bolson says “the general’s Hammer,” but since the FWL partner to the Anvil won’t be around until the 3050s, I think we’re safe in assuming author Randall Bills intended him to be in a Warhammer) that was TAGged and blasted into oblivion by Arrow IV barrages.  This account is, however, based on a panicked radio communique from Major Bolson, one of DeChavilier’s battalion commanders.

Historical: Operation KLONDIKE says DeChavilier was in an Atlas that fell into an oil-filled pit, was hit by incendiary missiles, overheated and suffered an ammunition explosion.  The General punched out, but was torn apart by heavy weapons fire as his parachute descended.  The accompanying illustration shows an oil-soaked Atlas getting pummeled.  The story "Hard Justice," from Historical: Liberation of Terra II, confirms DeChavilier’s ride as an Atlas.

The Clan Jade Falcon sourcebook says that the ambush took place in the dense Pokill jungle.  DeChavilier’s ‘Mech, already dragging a mangled right leg, fell into a concealed oil-filled pit, but continued firing as his command company established a perimeter and continued firing.  Hand-held inferno missile fire erupted from the jungle perimeter, setting both DeChavilier’s ‘Mech and the oil pool aflame.  The General ejected, but was hit by another missile on the way up, turning into a fireball of flame, smoke and debris.

The Clan Wolf sourcebook says that General Chevelier’s ‘Mech was taken out by a lucky shot from a handheld missile launcher.  The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky simply says DeChavilier died in an ambush.  FM: SLDF incorrectly notes DeChavilier’s death on May 15, 2801, one day late.

Per Catalyst protocols, the most recent account (Historical: Operation KLONDIKE) takes precedence.  Since the Jade Falcon version comes from a fictionalized account called “The Falcon Vision,” in which Elizabeth Hazen has a conversation with Turkina, a talking fade falcon, its description of an SRM-infantry platoon ambush can be easily discounted as revisionist history, though the oil-filled pit appears to have been accurate.  The Wolf Clan sourcebook, which relies on some neo-Capellan grunt scoring a “golden BB” floating crit on an Atlas, also rings somewhat false.  There may certainly have been incoming SRM salvoes from infantry in the jungle, but the ammo cookoff sounds most plausible.

To reconcile “Fall From Glory” and Historical: Operation KLONDIKE, we can assume that DeChavilier was piloting an Atlas (or an Atlas II) that was named “Hammer” (just as Justin Allard’s Centurion was named “Yen Lo Wang”).  It’s possible that the Arrow IV bombardment described by Major Bolson had inferno loads, designed to ignite the concealed oil pits.  In the mass of smoke and explosions, Bolson wouldn’t have known that DeChavilier’s ammo cooked off, wrongly attributing the Atlas’ destruction to the missile salvo.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 17:48:12 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #64 on: 09 April 2013, 00:42:20 »
----- 3 Weeks Later -----

Date: June 11, 2801

Location: Eden

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Andery rides out the “DeChavilier Massacre” in a stockade near Novy Moscva.  News filters into the prison about military casualties, razed settlements, full-fledged war on all five Pentagon Worlds, civilian uprisings and a rising tide of defections.

He is stunned when Jes Cole comes to extract him.  Various emotions wash over him, from his memories of adolescent infatuation with her, to anger from her betrayal aboard the fleet.  He refuses to come with her, accusing Jes of being Nicholas’ catspaw.  She admits to having manipulated him, justifying it as a necessary measure done in order to survive Aleksandr’s fiasco.  She says it was easy, because he was so weak, though she gives him respect for standing up to Aleksandr (admitting, in the process, that she’s been undercover in Kerensky’s command staff).

When Andery again refuses to come, she informs him that Aleksandr is dead, having suffered a heart attack at noon.  Andery is overwhelmed by self-loathing, for having defied his father instead of standing by him and remaining in a position where he could possibly have restrained his father’s vengeance and averted the DeChavilier Massacre in Cathay.  He exits his cell, and asks Jes “Where to?”

Notes:  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE gives more details of the “DeChavilier Massacre,” as the police action against the New Capellan Hegemony in its capital city of Cathay.  Mobs of rebel civilians launched human wave attacks against SLDF troops, and Kerensky’s forces destroyed most of the settlement, killing nearly 20,000 colonists.  Instead of restoring order, the massacre triggered a wave of revolts throughout the Pentagon worlds.  Various ethnic militias stole equipment from Brian Caches before SLDF loyalists could secure them all, giving the rebels roughly a regiment of strength on each world.  However, they wasted much of their firepower fighting each other, and Kerensky’s SLDF was making headway, and preparing for a massive campaign to crush all the rebel cells and end the uprising. 

And then Kerensky died, leaving the SLDF with a significant leadership gap.  Focht, in his Clan Wolf sourcebook, notes that the General was over 100 years old, and was only kept alive by pushing the limits of Star League medical technology.  In point of fact, he died at age 101, seven years below the average Star League era lifespan of 108, per the back cover of the Star League sourcebook.  It’s possible that his childhood heart condition (surgically corrected at age three) and the stress of the Exodus and leadership significantly shortened his life, even with the cutting edge medical technology of the SLDF’s Medical Command.  (The main point is that being 101 years old shouldn’t have been remarkable, in terms of health issues, for someone without massive stress or other pre-existing conditions.  The fact that Precentor Martial Focht thinks it was remarkable just shows how far medical technology has regressed by the 3050s.)
 
This scene shows that the organization, and the citizens of the Exodus fleet, had become firmly entrenched in a cult of personality around Aleksandr Kerensky, and that his legendary aura as the hero of the Star League Civil War was the only thing keeping things together, even tenuously.  Nicholas might have been able to step in and take up the mantle…if he hadn’t been actively plotting to undermine his father and hasten society’s collapse in a “controlled” fashion that would allow him to seize the advantage.

It’s clear that Nicholas’ carefully laid plans are even now swinging into action.  Less than twelve hours after his father’s death, he’s already dispatched Jes to extract Andery.  The future ilKhan definitely believes in adhering to his father’s principles of command (per the SLDF’s “A Primer to Tactics and Strategy,” edited by Aleksandr Kerensky).  Specifically, #2: “When given the chance, attack and remain on the offensive for as long as possible” and #7: “The element of surprise effectively doubles your force.”

If Jes is also "Jill," who was arrested in connection with the murder of a guard at Brian Cache IV, one of the "more important things" Nicholas was "taking care of" earlier must have been busting her out and giving her yet another fake identity on Aleksandr's staff.  ("Okay, we've used Jess and Jill, we're saving Jennifer for later, so this time you're Jeherezad.")  If Jes was on Aleksandr's staff, she would have been well positioned to pass information on the SLDF's battle plans to the New Capellan Hegemony.  My guess is that she enabled Nicholas to covertly pass information to the Capellans at Castle Brian IV that allowed them to set up the ambush and specifically target General DeChavilier.  In order for his own plans to succeed, Nicholas couldn't let Aleksandr's military suppression of the NCH go smoothly. 
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 17:50:00 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Dragon Cat

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #65 on: 09 April 2013, 15:21:27 »
Just another reason the Widowmakers should have been applauded for capping Nicholas
My three main Alternate Timeline with Thanks fan-fiction threads are in the links below. I'm always open to suggestions or additions to be incorporated so if you feel you wish to add something feel free. There's non-canon units, equipment, people, events, erm... Solar Systems spread throughout so please enjoy

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,20515.0.html - Part 1

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,52013.0.html - Part 2

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,79196.0.html - Part 3

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #66 on: 09 April 2013, 19:38:33 »
Just another reason the Widowmakers should have been applauded for capping Nicholas

If Widowmaker Khan Kinete had remained in the Pentagon worlds, my guess is he would have ended up as a warlord of a faction that was overly enamored of betrayal and lobbing nukes around.  The Widowmakers are portrayed as such over-the-top nefarious villains in "Betrayal of Ideals" that I had to doublecheck the bloodname roster to make sure that "Whiplash, Snidely" wasn't one of their twenty founders.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

FedSunsBorn

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #67 on: 09 April 2013, 19:46:50 »
Maybe Nicholas figured out a way to make sure a lot of undesirables were put into the genetic legacies of the Widowmakers and the Wolverines? He already seems to be playing the long game with just about everyone so doing to his own Clan touman makes some sense imo.
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #68 on: 10 April 2013, 05:36:50 »
----- 1 Week Later -----

Date: June 18, 2801

Location: Eden

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Andery is back in his Exterminator, commanding a battalion as it protects a stream of refugees trying to escape offworld through the main Novy Moscva DropPort.  Rebel armor and infantry forces are encroaching on the port’s perimeter, and Andery has continued to fall back and avoid engagement.  The streets and buildings bear the scars of intense street-fighting from the New Capellan Hegemony uprising and the battles with the new rebel warlords that arose after the DeChavilier Massacre. 

A fanatic with a child strapped to his back begins firing into the crowd, and attempts to stop him result in further deaths among the refugees, sowing panic.  Andery worries that such incidents will cause the SLDF to lose the hearts and minds of the civilians as they fight to contain the rampaging ethnic warlords.  He comes to the realization that his father’s dream of a Star League-in-exile has died.

Notes:  The impression given by “Fall From Glory” is that Cathay is a sector of Novy Moscva, whereas Historical:OK describes it as a separate city.  The Clan Wolf sourcebook says that “several Liao settlements led the fighting” and that after DeChavilier’s death, “whole settlements were razed and their remaining populations dispersed.”  Though Andery refers to the “Cathay sector” of Novy Moscva in this section, he’d earlier referred to it as “Little Cathay.”  Perhaps there was a separate city of Cathay in Novy Moscva’s suburbs as well as a Cathay district (known colloquially as “Little Cathay” to avoid confusion) within Novy Moscva itself.  Since the Clan Wolf sourcebook says multiple settlements were wiped out, SLDF forces probably hit both Cathay and Little Cathay in the same police action.

The refugees Andery is protecting don’t appear to be part of Nicholas’ Second Exodus – but are early movers trying to get out of the combat zone – probably to the relative safety of the Kerensky Cluster.

The actions of the fanatic are pure madness.  He's attacking people trying to get out of the line of fire and has a child strapped to his back as a human shield.  If your faction wants security and/or territorial control, what is the sense in trying to hinder the departure of potential rivals?  This smacks as the act of someone who probably lost people and things he was close to during the DeChavilier Massacre and simply wants to strike back at those he blames for the catastrophe before they can get away, inflicting as much harm as possible in an act of bloody-minded revenge.  This is a strong argument for the pervasiveness of PTSD among the Exodus population.  They lived through more than a decade of intense fighting against the Periphery rebels and then Amaris, and saw their shining civilization collapse around their ears.  This is guaranteed to result in a population afflicted with serious long-term psychological issues, which are now coming to the fore as factional fighting heats up on the Pentagon Worlds. 

The Amaris forces on Terra are (deservedly) painted as monsters for penning up tens of thousands of Terran civilians in mines along with psychotic murderers liberated from prisons, then sitting back and watching the fun.  However, that's somewhat comparable, in practical terms, to the situation that evolved on the Pentagon Worlds - a large proportion of the SLDF veterans who lived through such horrors may be bombs ready to go off under the pressures of PTSD, scarce resources, factional clashes, and Nicholas' manipulations.  And these individuals are in the process of getting their hands on the Brian Caches, which include everything up to nuclear warheads.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 17:54:38 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #69 on: 10 April 2013, 06:04:54 »
Maybe Nicholas figured out a way to make sure a lot of undesirables were put into the genetic legacies of the Widowmakers and the Wolverines? He already seems to be playing the long game with just about everyone so doing to his own Clan touman makes some sense imo.

Well, just as the Widowmakers are portrayed as twisted and malicious (seriously, who names a WarShip the Egg Sac?), the Wolverine founder list should include "Doright, Dudley" based on their portrayal in "Betrayal of Ideals".
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Decoy

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #70 on: 10 April 2013, 06:26:07 »
Actually, I thought the name of  their Potemkin, Egg Sac was kind of apt, given that their totem is a spider.



Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #71 on: 10 April 2013, 10:44:54 »
Actually, I thought the name of  their Potemkin, Egg Sac was kind of apt, given that their totem is a spider.

True enough.  It just doesn't conjure an air of majesty, history, or menace for me, like most BattleTech ship names aspire to do.
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Nerroth

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #72 on: 10 April 2013, 11:53:27 »
True enough.  It just doesn't conjure an air of majesty, history, or menace for me, like most BattleTech ship names aspire to do.

On that note, I wonder what the Fidelis were trying to evoke with the naming of their own WarShip...

Decoy

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #73 on: 10 April 2013, 14:54:29 »
True enough.  It just doesn't conjure an air of majesty, history, or menace for me, like most BattleTech ship names aspire to do.
Well, Potemkins are Corn Cob Cruisers. They've never really gotten respect. My pet theory about the Egg Sac is that she became the Full Moon. I leave that to you to judge if that's an upgrade in her name stature or not.


On that note, I wonder what the Fidelis were trying to evoke with the naming of their own WarShip...

Probably that they're old cats that get gastronomical problems and should *Maybe* be put down.

*shrugs* Just my read.
« Last Edit: 10 April 2013, 14:58:10 by Decoy »

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #74 on: 11 April 2013, 05:34:37 »
----- 3 Months Later -----

Date: September 1, 2801

Location: Eden

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  The SLDF high command meets to discuss a succession plan.  Nicholas Kerensky was Aleksandr’s designated successor, but now that the Great General is gone, other division commanders have different ideas.  Major General Tillam, the senior division commander, dismisses Nicholas as being too young and inexperienced.  Tillam’s reputation rests on his battlefield success against rebel groups, while Nicholas’ commands have been evacuating refugees.   Tillam walks out of the staff meeting, and his supporters file out behind him.

Major General Carson points out that the rest of the division commanders are just focusing on racking up the highest rebel body counts, whereas Nicholas has actually focused on protecting and evacuating civilians.  Carson tells Andery that he’ll throw in with Nicholas, despite his flaws, because he actually seems to have a plan, and because Andery is following him – he trusts Andery’s judgement.  McKenna concurs, putting both Carson’s 149th Division and most of the navy at Nicholas’ disposal.

Notes:  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE includes a journal entry from Lt. General Antonius Zalman, describing Major General Mathieu Tillam as a politician, rather than a soldier, whose personal ambition led him to rally other officers to oppose those commanders who could have succeeded Kerensky.  Tillam goes on to found the Levic Ascendancy, which seizes control of large tracts of Eden, including Novy Moscva, as the most technologically advanced and combat ready bandit kingdom on the planet.

Interestingly, despite Nicholas’ endless plotting and scheming, in the end it all comes down to Andery’s basic goodness and humanity that pulls in the 149th and (most critically) the navy for the Second Exodus.  Without Andery, the Clan Homeworlds could have ended up on roughly the same level as the Chainlane Isles – technologically regressed enclaves constantly waging low-level warfare against each other.

The meeting in Aleksandr’s command bunker has clear parallels to the final meeting of the Star League Council on Terra.  In the face of a developing crisis, each potential successor refused to recognize the claims of other candidates and stormed out, convinced that the position of leader would be theirs after a mere show of force.  Meanwhile, the Kerensky with perhaps the best claim to the mantle of leadership elects to pack up his allies and key support personnel and run away.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 17:55:18 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #75 on: 12 April 2013, 05:19:15 »
----- 3 Months Later -----

Date: December 31, 2801

Location: Eden

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  In the Banlan Woods, near the city of Vesta, Andery watches a massive forest fire sweep towards him – the result of a firefight between Kerensky’s forces and local bandits.  Nicholas’ Second Exodus is launching from the Vesta spaceport, and Andery’s battalion is the rear guard.  However, it looks like enemy forces will overrun their position in strength before the transports can lift.  Andery reflects that his forces are low on ammunition because the focus has been on evacuating civilians, rather than seizing Brian Caches.

Through a desperate holding action (during which Andery’s Exterminator gets the worst of a duel against an enemy Highlander until a friendly Excalibur intervenes and decapitates the assault machine) Andery’s battalion buys enough time for the transports to lift off.  Over the comm, Andery tells Nicholas that the mission was successful, but that his battalion is going to die.  Nicholas tells him that he still needs Andery to hold, since otherwise the enemy could punch through to the 146th’s command center at Castle Brian V, then orders the SLS Minotaur to provide orbital fire support, which vaporizes the bulk of the enemy column.
 
Notes:  We’ve seen the SLS Minotaur before – waaaaay back in "The Theseus Knot," when it was battling Taurian ships and saboteurs.  It doesn’t appear in the Clan Toumans in the 3050s+, so it was either renamed or destroyed between the Second Exodus and Operation REBIRTH.  The area hit by the bombardment suffers enough damage that it is called “The Minotaur Shatters” during Operation KLONDIKE.

The SLDF division attacking the Vesta LZ isn’t necessarily Tillam’s.  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE reports that the region had ended up as a balkanized collection of feuding FWL, Lyran and Hegemony-aligned city-states, rather than being under the dominion of the Levic Ascendancy.

Nicholas’ statement about needing Andery could be read any number of ways.  In the short term, he needed Andery as a barrier between his HQ and the enemy column.  In a more meta-sense, Nicholas may have realized the truth of what McKenna and Carson said earlier – that their loyalties to Nicholas are only due to Andery’s humanizing factor.  Without Andery, Nicholas’ support base becomes shaky.  You could also interpret it as a statement of familial/emotional closeness and affection, but hey, this is Nicholas Kerensky we’re talking about here.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 17:57:43 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #76 on: 12 April 2013, 23:30:43 »
----- 1 Month Later -----

Date: January 29, 2802

Location: Eden

Title: Fall From Glory

Author: Randall N. Bills

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  The Second Exodus is nearly complete.  DropShips continue to load and launch with armed escorts.  (Andery notes that this measure was implemented after warlord forces shot down the SLS Trafal, despite knowing it was packed with civilians.)  A skeleton crew works frantically to dismantle portable portions of Castle Brian V and scuttle what is being left behind to deny it to rebel forces.  Once again, Andery has rear-guard duties, and even his Union is almost fully loaded and ready to depart.

Nicholas arrives by shuttle, and greets Andery.  Nicholas tells his brother that he had to be the last to depart.  While Nicholas surveys the soon-to-be-abandoned base, Andery notices the Excalibur pilot who saved him during the battle for Vesta – Sarah McEvedy.  He’s attracted to her, despite memories of Dana Kufahl (who’s been out surveying the Kerensky cluster all this time).  Then, without warning, Dana herself emerges from Nicholas’ shuttle, and all thoughts of McEvedy are forgotten.  Andery asks Nicholas why he took the effort to reunite the two.  Nicholas answers merely “stockade,” implying that Andery’s decision to stand up to Aleksandr earned respect even from Nicholas.

Nicholas tells the empty, blasted landing field “I will return,” and then the group departs for distant Strana Mechty.

Within three weeks, all five Pentagon worlds would be embroiled in the Exodus Civil War.

Notes:  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE notes that Nicholas’ forces rescued roughly one million civilians, as well as dismantling and transporting offworld sufficient technological and industrial resources to rebuild on Strana Mechty.  Nicholas’ 2+ divisions of ground troops were scattered among the five Pentagon worlds securing embarkation points for the civilians.
 
The Clan Wolf SB estimates that the Second Exodus was comprised of nearly 25% of the civilian population, including most of the scientific community.  That would imply that the total population of the Star League-in-exile at the time of Aleksandr Kerensky’s death was roughly four million.  By comparison, H:OK places the number of personnel in the original Exodus at six million (two million troops, four million civilians).  The Wolf SB’s estimate of 25% apparently ignores the fact that 1.5 million (75%) of the SLDF soldiers were demobilized through the testing process, swelling the civilian population.  Of course, these demobilized troops would have formed the core of the ethnic rebel groups, so perhaps the Wolf report was counting them as soldiers again.  The Exodus colonies’ population can’t have shrunk through mass die-offs.  Warriors of Kerensky estimates that only 60,000 died during the settlement process.

Nicholas' blatant "McArthur Moment" is interesting, both for its positive historical parallels (the venerated war leader that departs as things fall apart and eventually returns at the head of a mighty army of liberation) and negative ones (the man departing is the one whose decisions were key in the series of events that caused things to fall apart in the first place).

This brings Randall Bills' "Fall From Glory" to a close.  It sets up a major character arc for Andery, but since the rest of the trilogy was never put out in English, we won't get to see it.  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE lays out his role as Nicholas' conscience and humanizing factor - described as the only one who could restrain Nicholas' wilder impulses.  Sarah McEvedy (who goes on to helm the Wolverine Clan) clearly has an emotional connection with Andery, and in "Betrayal of Ideals" repeatedly thinks of her lost friend, and suspects that Nicholas may have had him killed.  H:OK hints that a number of people who spoke out against Nicholas on Strana Mechty died in suspicious circumstances.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:00:50 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #77 on: 13 April 2013, 00:01:18 »
Hopefully this comes out as an ePub at some point all in one I'd love to read the book
My three main Alternate Timeline with Thanks fan-fiction threads are in the links below. I'm always open to suggestions or additions to be incorporated so if you feel you wish to add something feel free. There's non-canon units, equipment, people, events, erm... Solar Systems spread throughout so please enjoy

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,20515.0.html - Part 1

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,52013.0.html - Part 2

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php/topic,79196.0.html - Part 3

FedSunsBorn

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #78 on: 13 April 2013, 01:03:41 »
same here.
Made by HikageMaru

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #79 on: 13 April 2013, 23:23:55 »
----- 9 Months Later -----

Date: October 8, 2802

Location: Arcadia

Title: Hide and Seek

Author: Chris Hartford

Type: Scenario (BattleSpace)

Synopsis:  McKenna reported that most of the navy would support Nicholas.  However, some ships whose commanders had strong factionalist loyalties remained and pledged their services to various warlords.  Among these were the Capellan-aligned Commodore Amanda Noskeau, commanding the Congress-class Long March and Noble House, and Davionist Admiral William Hopcroft, commanding the Black Lion-class Michael Norman.

A major objective of any faction with space assets was to claim mothballed WarShips from the asteroid-field caches in order to gain strategic superiority.  Both the Capellans and Federated Suns’ factions tried for Arcadia’s cache simultaneously.  In the ensuing battle, all three ships were crippled and destroyed by asteroid collisions. 

Notes:  The Michael Norman may have been aligned with the Davionist Helgren County faction.  The Long March and Noble House are probably tied to either the Democratic Republic of Rand or the Kingdom of Surev.  Odds are that it’s Rand, since the ship names reflect Rand’s focus on the Capellan Confederation's Asian history moreso than that of the the Tikonov/Slavic Surev faction.  Of course, this is still early in the war, and they could have come from any number of factions that didn’t survive to see Nicholas’ Clans return in KLONDIKE.

The Congress has 70+ armor on each facing, and can kick out 20 damage from its forward and broadside batteries, compared to a massive 50-60 from its rear batteries.  It’s seemingly designed to be chased (possibly due to its stated role as a convoy escort – maneuvering to keep its rear arc between the enemy and its fleeing charges).  It’s described as nimble, but only has a Thrust rating of 3.  The Black Lion has slightly more than twice the armor and the same speed as the Congress class.  Its firepower is also vastly superior – mounting 120 in the nose and forward arcs, 160 on the broadsides and aft quarters, and 180 out the rear. 

From a practical standpoint, this means that the Black Lion needs to hit a Congress just once to breach its armor and mangle the internal systems, while a Congress would need to smack the Black Lion three times with its heaviest batteries in order to do the same.  Assuming that the dice rolls are equivalent, after the first pass, the armor on the Michael Norman would be battered, while one of the Congresses would be hulled and venting atmosphere.  The second pass could result in a mutual kill if the remaining Congress managed to land a solid hit in the same quarter where the first two landed.  This appears to have been the historical result.  However, the edge clearly lies with the Black Lion, which just has to get lucky once to make the battle a clean sweep.

Whereas this scenario says that the remaining Arcadia cache vessels remained undisturbed until the Clans retook the Pentagon Cluster, Historical: Operation KLONDIKE recounts that independent spacers (loyal to no particular faction) had moved into the abandoned cache and reactivated systems on six of the mothballed ships.  They were dealt with by Clan forces in an engagement lasting roughly fifteen minutes.

The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky states that cached WarShips were much sought after and became the focus of several pitched naval battles.  Few ships were reactivated: those that were soon fell victim to their sister ships controlled by opposing factions.  By 2806, the rebel navies had virtually annihilated each other.  Operation KLONDIKE records that only two WarShips were still in Arcadian space by the time the Clans returned.  The Texas-class Perth was barely functional and surrendered quickly after the Clans fired warning shots.  The Riga-class Admiral Schone first attempted deceit and then engaged the Clan fleets, destroying a DropShip and scoring several hits before being crippled and plunging into Arcadia’s atmosphere.  These two ships appear to have been linked to the Nation of Hastur (Hegemony) and the Ilkasur Shogunate (Combine).
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:01:56 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #80 on: 14 April 2013, 17:30:09 »
This was a AT2/Battlespace scenario?   When was it published, is it considered canon? 
Was this part of H:OK publishing efforts?
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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #81 on: 14 April 2013, 17:46:15 »
It was in the Battlespace rulesbox.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #82 on: 14 April 2013, 17:48:42 »
It was in the Battlespace rulesbox.
I used to have that, i wish i knew where heck it went to.   I guess chances of it being still canon are 50/50 since its so old.
"Men, fetch the Urbanmechs.  We have an interrogation to attend to." - jklantern
"How do you defeat a Dragau? Shoot the damn thing. Lots." - Jellico 
"No, it's a "Most Awesome Blues Brothers scene Reenactment EVER" waiting to happen." VotW Destrier - Weirdo  
"It's 200 LY to Sian, we got a full load of shells, a half a platoon of Grenadiers, it's exploding outside, and we're wearing flak jackets." VoTW Destrier - Misterpants
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #83 on: 14 April 2013, 18:07:34 »
Age doesn't really play a factor in how canon a scenario is.  The relatively recent "An Age of War" scenario in the RS 3075 book features the highly anachronistic Sabaku Kaze about 70 years early.

For this scenario, there's nothing that contradicts any other canon sources.  An estimated 100+ WarShips bit the dust during the Exodus Civil War (mostly in the apocalyptic furball around the Dagda shipyard/cache, which destroyed the yards and most of the cached vessels) and the Arcadia cache was indeed un-looted when the Clans returned (not counting squatters).  I'd say it is 100% canon.
« Last Edit: 14 April 2013, 18:16:02 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #84 on: 15 April 2013, 03:10:35 »
----- 2 Years Later -----

Date: May 6, 2804

Location: Procyon

Title: Desertion

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Twenty-eight years after the Star League’s liberation of Procyon from Republican forces, the children (half-siblings) of the MechWarrior saved by Private Nebfer (the Terran Hegemony citizen conscripted into Amaris' forces during the battle for Procyon, who let their mother escape rather than escorting her to a firing squad) visit the memorial to the victims of the battles for Hills 215 and 219.  They talk about how their mother regularly visited the memorial park, though it wasn’t clear that Nebfer was actually buried there, since many records were lost during the war.  (As a satchel charge went off about six inches from his head, there may not have been much left to bury.)  The older sister tells her younger half-brother that she’s continuing her mother’s tradition of honoring the man who’d saved her life, and the sacrifice he made.

Notes:  This takes place around with the 1st Succession War still raging, by which time the Free Worlds League has conquered the world.  It was noted as having been “nuked, gassed, and smashed by the marauding armies of the Great Houses.”  Thus, the pastoral scene circa 2804 seems somewhat out of place…though I suppose it can’t have been all death and destruction all the time everywhere during the First Succession War.  Looking more closely, the House Marik sourcebook notes that the FWL embarked on “the Procyon campaign of 2789,” and succeeded in taking the world, along with Pollux, Graham IV and Sirius, by 2793.  (So that's what the FWLM was off doing when the LCAF hit Wyatt in "A Soldier's Privilege" in 2791.) If the fighting has been over on Procyon for 11 years, then the relatively tranquil scene fits.

It’s clear that plenty of records were indeed lost during the fighting.  Not only is the date on the memorial 2775 (a year before the SLDF invasion took place), but Nebfer’s unit is named the 504th Penal Battalion of the 88th Republican Guard, rather than the 405th Penal Battalion (as established earlier in the story).
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:04:00 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #85 on: 15 April 2013, 22:59:19 »
----- 2 Years Later -----

Date: August 17, 2806

Location: Kentares IV

Title: A Light in the Dark Night

Author: Christopher Purnell

Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Father Jerome Aguillar (formerly known as Father Jerome Zubalicarragui), who thought he’d seen the depths of mankind’s depravity during the Amaris occupation of the Phillipines, has come to Kentares IV five years after its liberation by AFFS forces to visit the ruins of Saint Anthony’s cathedral in the city of Gould.  His counterpart from the New Avalon Catholic Church, Father Eduardo Esteban, reports that the Sword of Light paid special attention to hunting and torturing clergymen.

Father Jerome’s mission is to investigate reports of a ghostly apparition.  A survivor of the Kentares Massacre, Mary Reynolds, tells him that she and other survivors had been hiding in the church when a DCMS officer beheaded one of his own soldiers.  According to Mary, a shimmering, distorted apparition of a motherly-looking woman wrapped in ancient robes appeared.  She believes that the Virgin Mary interceded to save the refugees’ lives.

Father Jerome discounts her story, as he continues to grapple with his crisis of faith.  He recalls that his fellow Filipinos believed that God would protect them when they staged a protest march against the imprisonment of Pope Clement XXVII, and were brutally slaughtered, nonetheless.  Whereas Mary and Father Esteban strongly believe that a miracle has taken place, Jerome remains cynical.  He notes that his presence here is the result of Church politics – an olive branch extended to the New Avalon schismatics who had gone so far as to strike centuries’ of Terran Hegemony Popes from the rosters.  (Father Esteban tells Jerome that “The Lord has uniquely blessed our realm [the Federated Suns]” and that the mainstream Catholic authorities in the Vatican are “cloistered fools.”)

The group drives through the shattered town to a recently-excavated cave system nearby where more victims were recovered, dropping Mary off at a refugee camp en route.  Before they get to the caves, they get a request from a camp hospital, where a dying DCMS trooper has requested last rites.  In the hospital, Father Esteban refuses to grant last rites to Private Nakamura, causing Father Jerome to rebuke him.  “I don’t care what your so-called Pope has decreed, the Church ministers to all of humanity, not to a chosen few.”  Jerome goes on to voice his rejection of Esteban’s idea of a pro-Davion deity in the face of so much massive suffering – where was such a God when the Kentares Massacre, the Amaris Coup, the dissolution of the Star League, and unrestrained nuclear bombings and biological warfare took place?  Despite no longer feeling it in his heart, he gives the rote answer that God forgives all crimes, no matter how horrible, because He must.

Jerome sits with Nakamura, who admits having played a role in the massacre.  He says that he was an Unproductive who was drafted into the DCMS as an infantry trooper.  He grew suicidal after the killings, but was talked out of it by a Christian squadmate.  That squadmate was the DCMS trooper killed by an ISF officer outside the church.  Nakamura says he sensed a presence at the execution, and that it scared the ISF officer away.  Afterwards, the squad took to the hills, and half committed seppuku.  Jerome performs last rites and, after having heard Nakamura’s story, Father Esteban offers communion.

Jerome remains unwilling to declare the incident in Gould an official miracle (due largely to Church politics – not wanting to antagonize the New Avalon Catholic Church by claiming a divine intercession on behalf of a DCMS trooper, or the Draconis Combine by reporting that one of their traitorous troopers was Christian).  However, he remarks that having convinced Father Esteban to perform rites for a DCMS soldier is a miracle in and of itself.

Notes:  Father Jerome appears to have changed his name since the Huk massacre in the Phillipines.  Perhaps in the 29th century, Jesuit priests change their names after a life-changing experience.  The title of this work indicates that Jerome may have undergone such a transformation, pairing with that of Purnell’s earlier work: “The Dark Night of the Soul” -> “A Light in the Dark Night.”

Handbook: House Davion states that AFFS forces reclaimed Kentares IV in 2801.  Yet, five years later there are still refugee camps, wounded DCMS troopers, etc.  There must have been a substantial DCMS guerrilla force left behind after the regulars were driven offworld.  Nakamura says he’s been working as a POW laborer at the camp for three years, implying that he was captured two years after the AFFS retook the world.

The mention of bodies found in caves is likely a reference to the “Kentares Massacre Journal” series on BattleCorps, which was uncredited, but I’m guessing was also Mr. Purnell’s work.  (The journal mentions the city of Gould, and ends with the trapped refugees committing mass suicide as their air runs out.)

At one point, Jerome references the nuclear bombardment of Sarna by the AFFS, slapping down an attempt by Father Esteban to claim the moral high ground for the Federated Suns.  This must have been some sort of deep raid early in the war – possibly even during the timeframe of the pre-war Towne Debacle, when CCAF, AFFS and DCMS troops all fought over Hegemony worlds.  The timeline in Handbook: House Liao shows that the CCAF took advantage of the Davion preoccupation with the Combine to seize a number of Chesterton worlds and worlds in the Terran corridor.  Davion attacks against the Confederation largely took place between 2809 and 2821 (in the years after this story), once the DCMS threat had been beaten back and Paul Davion had violently rejected Ilsa Liao’s peace proposal.

Father Esteban’s claim that Sword of Light troops viciously persecuted priests may have been the result of the events of “Broken Sword, Wounded Dragon,” in which a priest was intentionally spared by DCMS forces in order to provide confessional services to Christian troops (mostly Rasalhagians).  The DCMS commander on the scene blamed the priest’s moralizing for his troops’ morale issues and the resulting degradation of their performance in the field, and then was killed by the priest after discovering civilians hiding in the church’s crypts.  Presumably, the murder of a DCMS officer by a priest he’d earlier spared spurred other DCMS officers to seek revenge on any remaining priests in their sectors.

At this point, the New Avalon Catholic Church is headed by Pope Clement XX.  Since the Catholic Church was headed by Clement XXVII when Amaris took over, that implies that the New Avalon schismatics unilaterally decided to strike a large number of previous Popes from their historical record (annulling at least the previous eight Clements, and possibly every other Pope appointed after the independence of New Avalon).  When asked in a BattleChat whether this was simply a typo in the House Davion sourcebook, Line Developer Herbert Beas declared it to be a result of the schism.

As with many of Christopher Purnell’s works, this story delves into matters of faith and belief in the BattleTech Universe.  In “A Veiled Betrayal,” he spotlighted the culture clash between Eleusis’ strict Islamic faith and the Hellenic polytheism (Diana and Athena worship) being promulgated by Canopian missionaries.  In “The Dark Night of The Soul,” he examined the social and theological fallout from the massacre of devout Phillipinos who believed that their deity would shield them from the Usurper’s forces.  It’s an area of the BattleTech universe that isn’t often explored on a personal level (with most of the page-time dealing with faith focusing on Blakist fanaticism), and Mr. Purnell gives it an excellent treatment.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:10:18 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #86 on: 17 April 2013, 05:36:48 »
----- 15 Years Later -----

Date: June 2, 2821

Location: Babylon

Title: Dreams of Babylon

Author: Chris Hartford, Christoffer “Bones” Trossen, and David L. McCulloch

Type: Sourcebook Fiction (Historical: Operation KLONDIKE)

Synopsis:  At the helm of her Black Knight, Coyote Khan Dana Kufahl leads her touman through the Snaefell Mountains on Babylon, overlooking the five small desert settlements where she spent her youth, prior to meeting Andery Kerensky at the Eden Academy.   

She muses on how her life has changed in those twenty years.  The Great Father, Aleksandr Kerensky, died, and the Dana Kufahl that believed in the dream of rebuilding the Star League died with him.  Dana has come to believe that Nicholas Kerensky is both the savior of Humanity and her personal savior.  Reborn as a Khan, Dana feels renewed with responsibility and a sense of purpose – the goal of saving humanity from itself.  She’s also grateful to Nicholas for having given her Andery – his brother, her lover.

Dana and her MechWarriors crush the militia that controlled one of the desert settlements, and Dana feels pride at having liberated its citizenry and hope for the future.  She is determined to follow Nicholas’ directive of “Fight with honor” to the letter.  However, Khan Khalasa of the Sea Foxes has his own interpretation of Nicholas’ directive, and has engaged in indiscriminate attacks of massed fire and saturation bombing during his siege of the city of Camlann.  She resolves not to aid the Foxes, the better to educate them as to the folly of their ways.

Mid-battle, Dana is struck by one of her frequent visions.  In the vision the Coyotes hold a ceremony to honor their fallen warriors.  She’s joined by someone (it’s not specified who), and has a premonition of great sadness as she views three graves.  She notes that she’s been having the visions since joining a North American tribe in her youth, and often finds them prescient or inspirational.  Snapping back to reality, Dana finds her command under attack, and leads the charge – personally dueling a rebel Orion, but falling victim to an autocannon strike on her cockpit that knocks her unconscious. 

Upon awakening, she seeks meaning in her vision.  She recalls that she last felt such sadness when Aleksandr Kerensky died.  She’d loved him, and worries that the vision presages the death of her current favorite Kerensky, Andery.  Nonetheless, she resolves to continue to fight for Nicholas’ dream, no matter the cost.

Notes:  Dana mentions that she hasn’t set foot on Babylon for more than twenty years.  We know that she joined McKenna’s survey mission to the Kerensky Cluster prior to 2800, so the chronology fits – probably one last visit to her adopted home before she took off around 2799, after early graduation from Eden Academy.  Her biological family died on Terra when their anti-Amaris resistance cell was wiped out.

Dana’s gratitude to Nicholas for “giving” her his brother, Andery, as the love of her life is somewhat twisted, since they met and fell in love at the Academy without Nicholas being in the mix.  However, I suppose Andery was only at the Academy because of Nicholas’ manipulations, and he did bring Dana back on the last evacuation shuttle to reunite the two.

Dana was noted for facing down Nicholas and disagreeing with him in "Fall From Glory."  Cleary, she drank the kool-aid during Nicholas’ reforms on Strana Mechty and became a true-believer in his cult of personality.  Andery does, in fact, die during the final stages of Eden’s pacification, and a heartbroken Dana suffers a mental collapse and goes into a period of self-exile.  I have a theory (admittedly with no evidence whatsoever) that Dana ends up being manipulated by Nicholas into killing Andery as KLONDIKE draws to a close.  She started out in “Fall From Glory” telling Andery to stand up to Nicholas, but her bio states that during the 20 years on Strana Mechty, she became one of Nicholas’ most ardent supporters (at the same time as Andery was getting a reputation for being the only one who could stand up to Nicholas), and argued in Nicholas' favor against Andery.  In this scene, she feels extremely grateful to Nicholas, and expresses a willingness to fight for the ilKhan's dream, no matter the cost. 

To me, such comments foreshadow a dramatic turn in which Dana’s love for Andery is tested against her loyalty to Nicholas, and she ends up either killing Andery or failing to save him, and has a mental breakdown and goes into self-exile as a result.  In “Betrayal of Ideals,” Sarah McEvedy of the Wolverines makes several references to her personal suspicions that Nicholas had something to do with Andery’s death.  I can certainly see Dana's vision in this scene as being foreshadowing for her playing a role in Andery's death, though the chronology is dicey, since the Coyotes were still engaged on Babylon when Andery died on Eden, and it's doubtful that their Khan would leave while combat operations were still underway.  The true details of Andery’s death on Eden lie only in Randall’s notes (since, as far as I know, the third volume of the ClanGrunder trilogy hasn’t been written in either German or English), but It's likely that the authors of Historical: Operation KLONDIKE and “Betrayal of Ideals” were working from his outline.

Dana is the epitome of the honor-before-sense mentality that dominates the Clans during Operation REVIVAL (albeit without such a technological edge), and it’s easy to see why Khan Khalasa is so frustrated with her antics.  H:OK states that she broadcast a challenge to the defenders of Camlann, giving the militia time to mobilize, call up reinforcements, and begin ranging the Clan forces for a punishing artillery bombardment.  When Khalasa ordered his troops to concentrate fire on weak points in the Camlann defenses, Dana rebuked them for dishonorable tactics, and decided to simply sit out the rest of the battle for the city, causing the Foxes to lose half their ‘Mechs and seven of their MechWarriors, including Khan David Khalasa.  Sea Fox aerospace commander Karen Nagasawa later refers to Kufahl as “the embodiment of all that could possibly be wrong with a Clan warrior – stubborn and misguided.”
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:13:55 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #87 on: 18 April 2013, 05:46:49 »
----- 2 Months Later -----

Date: August 2-4, 2821

Location: Dagda

Title: To Lead and Serve

Author: Jason Schmetzer

Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  In the aftermath of the fall of the McMillan Collective’s stronghold at Firebase Delta, Goliath Scorpion Star Captain Kami Sword pursues the Collective’s remnants, which have scattered into Dagda’s badlands in hopes of buying time to regroup and counterattack.  Nearly a quarter of the Goliath Scorpion MechWarrior touman (the rest of Kami’s Binary) has already been killed fighting the Collective’s forces, and Kami’s detachment is on its own, with no possibility of reinforcement.

Kami, who pilots a PPC-packing Phoenix Hawk, is somewhat disdainful of the Goliath Scorpion auxiliaries under her command (tank crews and infantry).  She feels that their failure to qualify for one of the 40 Bloodnamed slots in the Clan touman, and their relegation to a supporting role, indicates their mental and social inferiority.  She doesn’t question their devotion, just their skill.

Across the battle lines, Storm-Captain Aldous Raine of the McMillan Collective commands a Burke, and leads a Collective combat element consisting of a Crab, a Champion, another Burke, a pair of Furys, two Beagles, and a gaggle of APCs.  He’s trying to get his troops to the small town of Castleton, hoping to link up with the rest of the Collective’s forces – particularly the battlegroup under Collector James McMillan.  Still outwardly confident despite the loss of the firebase, Raine plans to ambush Kami’s battlegroup.

Kami has to fall back before the Collective column’s superior firepower, as she waits for her own auxiliaries to join the fray.  When her own tanks take out Collective vehicles, she denigrates their skills while claiming to admire their fighting spirit.  She singlehandedly engages the Collective forces to give her auxiliaries time to reach the largely abandoned village of Beasley where they plan to set up an ambush.

More experienced than his fairly green troops, Raine recognizes that Kami is trying to lead him into an ambush.  Despite this, he is determined to go on the offensive against the Goliath Scorpions.  Collective tactical doctrine had been based on the ability to fall back to the supposedly impregnable Firebase Delta, but that’s already been overrun by the Clan.

Kami’s duel with Raine turns into a game of cat and mouse through ash-laden volcanic canyons.  The Clanner is forced to choose between continuing a risky battle against the Collective that hinges on her superior mobility, gunnery, and luck, or drawing the Collective troops into an ambush set by her auxiliaries, and letting the non-Bloodnamed troops claim her kills.  Despite being sorely tempted to seek personal glory, prudence wins out and she elects to let the auxiliaries have their shot.

The ambush traps Raine’s column between the Goliath Scorpion heavy tanks and Kami’s Phoenix Hawk, while infantry and hovercraft seal off the flanks.  The Collective forces are shattered, but killing one of the Burkes leaves Kami exposed to the triple-PPCs of its mate.  At the last minute, an auxiliary Zephyr rockets between the two, sacrificing itself (and its crew) to save Kami’s life.  The rest of the auxiliaries finish off the last Burke, earning Kami’s respect at last.  In the aftermath of the Collective’s defeat, she advocates for promotion of the best auxiliary troops to replace losses in the Clan’s BattleMech touman.

Notes:  Interestingly, the Collective has, in the span of twenty years, already developed the concept of MechWarrior families, where ‘Mechs are handed down from generation to generation.  Unfortunately for them, skills aren’t always inherited along with the ‘Mech.  It’s odd that the crews are so green, though, since the Pentagon Civil War has been raging for twenty years.  Perhaps the protection afforded by Firebase Delta, one of the few surviving SDS batteries in the Pentagon, allowed their ground forces to grow soft.  H:OK gives McMillan Collective troops combat bonuses when they’re defending a position, reinforcing the idea that they relied heavily on Firebase Delta.

Historical: Operation KLONDIKE elaborates that the Collective originated as an “ends justifies the means” Terran Hegemony militia, and had retained a significant amount of advanced equipment.  Three days prior to this story, the Scorpions dropped the saKhan’s Binary right on top of Firebase Delta, crippling the Collective’s communications and preventing them from mounting organized resistance during the hours it took for the Goliath Scorpion touman to drive the Collective from the stronghold, though McMillan’s men took out Kami’s binary by triggering a trap that dropped the Clanners into a pit of molten lava.  The Collective’s combat forces were destroyed in detail by August 4th.

Author Jason Schmetzer does a good job of showing the conflict from both sides.  The scenes from the Collective’s POV demonstrate how badly they’d underestimated the “insects” that drove them from their firebase.  From H:OK, they were by far the dominant power in their portion of Dagda by 2821, and probably hadn’t had a significant challenge since much earlier in the fighting.  Kami’s attitude, of course, is meant to presage the evolving social stratification between the Clan MechWarriors and the conventional forces.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:15:30 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #88 on: 18 April 2013, 23:43:23 »
----- 2 Months Later -----

Date: October 3, 2821

Location: Arcadia

Title: A Turn of the Wheel

Author: Lance Scarinci

Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  An elderly hermit named Kong Jing-Xin, who scratches out a meager existence in the territory of the Democratic Republic of Rand, receives a visit from Star Commander Dale Keller of Clan Blood Spirit.  Jing views Keller’s respectfulness and friendliness with suspicion, since such traits are rare on war torn Arcadia.  Though Jing half expects this to be an attempt at levying taxes or committing robbery, he is surprised when Keller simply asks for directions, having gotten lost after a firefight with a Rand combined-arms company.

Jing gives Keller directions and grudgingly offers rabbit stew when the Blood Spirit warrior asks if he has food to spare.  He warns Keller not to take his battered Wyvern into Tian-to, but the Clanner responds that he’s not too worried.  (Not surprising, since Tian-to was the first Rand stronghold to fall, and is now a Clan base of operations.)  Jing tells Keller that he was an engineer before the wars, but had to abandon his trade when he fled the fighting.  He makes a living by trading his exquisitely detailed woodcarvings to supplement his subsistence farming. 

During dinner, Jing tells Keller that he was studying civil engineering when the Amaris Coup took place, and that he enlisted in the SLDF as a combat engineer with the 129th Mechanized Infantry Division.  He spent the war working out ways to undermine Castles Brian.  On Arcadia, he was the primary architect of Rivera, and intended it as a masterpiece of urban planning.  He bemoans the loss of his city, which was despoiled and ruined by war, tyranny, fear and neglect.  Jing posits that the SLDF personnel who comprised the Exodus colonies were suffering en-masse from PTSD, which left them emotionally and spiritually damaged – thus the brutality of the Pentagon Civil War.

Keller recounts that he was still a toddler when the Exodus Fleet arrived in the Pentagon worlds, but acknowledges that his demobilized ex-SLDF parents fought often, and beat him regularly.  He grew up with the impression that nastiness was the normal state of being, and he treated others accordingly until growing out of it.  Jing tells Keller that he fought with his own son, Wu, who wanted them all to leave with Nicholas’ Second Exodus.  At the time, Jing told Wu that he’d already followed one Kerensky to disaster and wouldn’t do it again, and that if Wu left, he would have no family to return to.
 
Keller takes his leave, but not before inviting Jing to return to Tian-to and join in the process of rebuilding not just the city, but a better society for all of Arcadia’s inhabitants.  Over the following months, Jing visits the city twice and sees concrete proof of Keller’s promise of a better life.  One day, as Jing is working on woodcarvings of the Steel Viper and Blood Spirit emblems, he is visited by Keller and a Steel Viper comrade.  Keller introduces Jing to his son, Wu (now Wu Callaghan, who changed his name to match his wife’s after their marriage on Strana Mechty).  They celebrate, and Jing pledges to help the Steel Vipers build a new city on Arcadia.

Notes:  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE records Rivera as Arcadia’s original planetary capital, which has by this point become Tian-to - the capital of the ethnic-Capellan Democratic Republic of Rand, a belligerent autocracy that was the largest and most powerful of the factions in East Arcadia.  Based on Jing’s recollections, the Democratic Republic of Rand may have used several nukes to establish their dominion over this portion of East Arcadia.  Rivera probably wasn’t hit directly, but there was probably substantial street-to-street fighting at one point, since high-rises crumbled – taking most of Jing’s family with them.  The Warriors of Kerensky writeup for Arcadia notes that “The ruins of cities and military enclosures dot the Arcadian countryside. The planetary capital of Rivera was spared such destruction, and today serves as neutral ground for the four Clans present on Arcadia. Administrative and mercantile facilities occupy most of Rivera, along with the Hall of Arcadia. Made of local iron-rich red granite, it serves as a meeting hall and houses the command mechanisms for the planetary SDS system.”

Interestingly, Jing is familiar with all the major militant factions on Arcadia and many from the other Pentagon worlds.  To me, this implies that there was interplanetary news being broadcast for a number of years following the start of the fighting, since many of the factions wouldn’t have coalesced until the initial winners and losers were sorted out.  One would suppose that Jing’s homestead wouldn’t get a large amount of traffic passing through to exchange gossip and rumors.  Or perhaps Jing used to make the 30 kilometer trip to Tian-to more often when he was younger.

Wu tells Jing that he’s had children.  What role would freeborn offspring of Clan warriors have in Clan society once the trueborns start decanting from iron wombs?  One wonders if Wu Callaghan was a talented architect like his father.  Perhaps a Callaghan was involved in the creation of the Steel Vipers’ Mercer Tower on New Kent.

Jing states that “the decency inherent in the human soul died with Richard Cameron.”  Egad.  :o  He clearly didn’t know much about Richard, since there wasn’t much decency inherent in the First Lord’s blackened soul.  Jing does make a good point that perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea to base an isolated society on a population where at least a third of its members had serious PTSD issues on top of factional divisions along Great House lines.

Author Lance Scarini, though Keller, takes pains to showcase the original Blood Spirits’ legendary friendliness, camaraderie and focus on relationship-building.  This is a far cry from the embittered, isolationist Clan that we see in the 3050s-3080s.
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:16:26 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #89 on: 20 April 2013, 05:16:04 »
----- Three Weeks Later -----

Date: October 23, 2821

Location: Eden

Title: Family Ties

Author: Craig A. Reed, Jr.

Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Star Commander Michael Kisiel, of Clan Wolf, brings his Marauder back in from patrol, returning to the Clan’s Novy Moscva operating base in the ruins of the Eden Military Academy (Andery and Dana’s old stomping grounds).  His ride has seen heavy damage in battle against the Levic Ascendancy.  Michael tells his comrade, Carlos, that his family died before the Second Exodus.  He keeps his sister’s teddy bear as a reminder.

However, unbeknownst to Michael, his sister Janette survived the fighting and the two decades of warfare on Eden to become a Captain in the Ascendancy Martial Foundation (the armed forces of the Levic Ascendancy), where she pilots a Black Knight named after her lost teddy bear.  She’s been in the thick of the fighting against Smoke Jaguar forces.  Her fiance/CO, Major Lee Hastings, assigns her some armed IndustrialMechs and civilian vehicles with ad-hoc weaponry as support, and sends her back out into the battle, despite increasingly hopeless odds.  Janette notes that the Jaguar equipment is better than the Ascendancy’s and their warriors are better trained.

Notes:  Carlos and Michael discuss the brutality of Clan Smoke Jaguar, whose Khan reportedly wanted to level the entire city of Novy Moscva, rather than digging the Levic forces out street by street.  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE records that a four-Clan strikeforce (Wolf, Jaguar, Horse, Falcon)  went up against the Ascendancy in Novy Moscva, with the assault beginning on October 15 (roughly a week prior to this story).  The city itself was heavily damaged during the wars as the Ascendancy fought to secure it against other factions, including the Sarbat Khanate – one of which managed to briefly bombard the city before the city’s SDS slapped the enemy WarShip out of orbit.  The Ascendancy itself had been harassing the Clan advance for two months.  By October 23rd, the Wolves have seized Eden Academy and Nicholas has transferred his flag to Aleksandr Kerensky’s old command bunker.  As this story takes place, the Clans are sending out aggressive patrols, hunting for the elusive AMF High Command.

It’s interesting that both the Clans and the AMF refer to the Levic Ascendancy’s civilian vehicles retrofitted to carry weapons as “technicals.”  As I understand it, the term originated in 1990s Somalia, where bandit gangs mounting heavy weapons on jeeps and pickup trucks would routinely shake down aid agencies for funds.  The aid agencies began listing payments given to the bandits (either to go away or to provide security for NGO operations) as “technical assistance grants” in their accounting reports, leading to the term “technicals” being applied to the bandits’ makeshift weapons platforms.  It’s surprising that the term survived to the 31st century (though it may have had alternate origins in the BattleTech chronology, since the Soviet Union didn’t fall apart until Premier Tikonov was assassinated in the early 21st century, and the rise in banditry in Somalia has been attributed to the end of Cold War-era support from both sides, once the country’s strategic significance diminished).
« Last Edit: 30 April 2013, 18:17:54 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

 

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