Author Topic: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars  (Read 480638 times)

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #930 on: 02 January 2015, 12:03:44 »
----- Ten Days Later -----

Date: June 5, 3025

Location: N/A

Title: Technical Readout: 3025

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe, Boy F. Petersen, Jr., Anthony Pryor, Dale L. Kemper, and Shaun Duncan

Type: Sourcebook

Synopsis: This sourcebook is introduced in an “in-universe” fashion as “the latest in a series of reference books describing the equipment and material of war in the Inner Sphere.”  It covers 55 different ‘Mech classes, as well as LAMs, AeroSpace Fighters, DropShips, and a few vehicles.  Every entry contains an Overview, giving the design’s purpose and history, a rundown of the design’s Capabilities, a Battle History detailing notable actions in which the design was involved, a brief description of Variants, and profies of notable ‘Mechs and MechWarriors.

Notes: The introduction doesn’t state outright who the authors are, but later TROs imply that this is a ComStar publication.  Interestingly, the editors go out of their way to excuse any errors or contradictions, citing the deteriorating level of technology, Successor State secrecy, biased sources, and outright lies and fabrications.

The mention of this as the “latest in a series of reference books” implies there were many other TROs prior to 3025.  We certainly know the later ones (all the way up to the forthcoming XTRO Most Wanted), but it would be interesting to see what they were putting into TRO: 3000, or TRO: 2850.  (We’ve seen some of the designs that would have been featured with the Succession Wars and Primitives-themed TROs in recent years, of course.)

This volume, of course, relied heavily on designs that later became "Unseen," necessitating revised editions later on.  The PDF issued on BattleCorps has the forbidden images painted out, which is actually preferable to alternatives - such as versions that just cut them altogether, shortening the book, or introduced nerfed low-tech versions of select TRO:2750 designs to fill the slots.

I personally think the format was absolute genius.  Not only did it provide FASA an opportunity to introduce a wide range of ‘Mechs beyond the original 16 from the 2nd Edition Boxed Set, but it let them do a substantial amount of universe building through the thumbnail descriptions of battles on a hundred worlds, and protrayals of various heroes and villains of the Succession Wars.  The beginning of each section also provided new players with an overview of each class, and its general role on the battlefield.

Today we have official rules for “Quirks,” but TRO: 3025 went into such detail that it was possible to envision rules variants for various designs based on the fluff text.  Dragon Magazine #166 even contained an article by Mike Speca giving unofficial guidelines for each design’s quirks.  (D2j targeting systems were treated more or less weight-free targeting computers.)  So many of BattleTech's core modern elements stem from concepts first floated herein. 

Since this was one of the earliest sourcebooks, the dates therein have frequently been contradicted by subsequent source material.  However, the caveat from the introduction suffices to explain any irregularities – such as the claim that Redjack Ryan attacked Alkalurops in 2801, roughly 100 years before his birth.  (Most of the histories and notable warriors are from factions featured in the MechWarrior 1st Edition rulebook, meaning Redjack Ryan played an outsized role in the book, given his relatively minor importance in the overall Succession Wars.)

This was one of the books that first attracted me to BattleTech.  I grew up in a small town in New Mexico, and usually twice a month we’d drive to Albuquerque (bright lights, big city) to shop at specialty stores – an artifact of the pre-Internet era.  Later on, I’d get my gaming fix at Wargames West on Central (which several times hosted book signings by Mike Stackpole and Liz Danforth), but around the time TRO:3025 came out, we’d go to the mall and split up, with instructions to meet back up in two hours.  Having little pocket money and less interest in most mall offerings, I always gravitated to the mall’s Waldenbooks, which had a gaming section, and would while away many a happy hour leafing through TRO: 3025, TRO: 3026, TRO: 2750, and several of the Renegade Legion equivalents.  The various Renegade Legion gravtanks and space fighters were interesting enough, but the visuals of the giant robots drew me in far more, prompting me to buy the TROs even before I had a rulebook for the game.  I’m not exaggerating too much when I credit this book as being my gateway into 30 years of fun.

More than anything, this TRO demonstrated that the BattleTech universe has a deep, rich history, and the potential for nearly unlimited stories within the setting.  Heroes and villains, ancient rivalries, bureaucratic incompetence, poor decisions, tragedies, triumphs…and above all, character.  Rather than just collections of stats, each unit ended up having a personality - whether by reputation, association with storied individuals, or by being absolutely quirky and adorkable (lookin' at you, UrbanMech).
« Last Edit: 02 January 2015, 14:04:14 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 #931 on: 02 January 2015, 14:56:35 »
 [applause]  Thank you for that insightful look into one of our games most storied sourcebooks!

Are you planning look at individual pieces of history in the book?  The Battle History sections are pretty remarkable.
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #932 on: 02 January 2015, 21:48:33 »
[applause]  Thank you for that insightful look into one of our games most storied sourcebooks!

Are you planning look at individual pieces of history in the book?  The Battle History sections are pretty remarkable.

Probably not in this thread, since I still have thousands of full fiction pieces to cover. 
"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 #933 on: 02 January 2015, 23:18:57 »
Perhaps something (relatively) silly, like doing a single post chronological review of the unit histories for that book only?  It'd be a cool way to compare the 'Mechs therein and their contribution to the universe's fiction on their own and how they stack up with their contemporaries.
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #934 on: 03 January 2015, 13:13:20 »
----- Two Days Later -----

Date: June 7, 3025 [See Notes]

Location: Tharkad

Title: The Sword and the Dagger

Author: Ardath Mayhar

Type: Novel

Synopsis: Katrina Steiner informs Melissa that Hanse has unilaterally severed all treaties between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth.  She is now convinced that Ardan and Melissa were correct, and that Hanse has been doubled.  Melissa urges her mother to send help to Argyle to liberate the real Hanse, but Katrina says it would take too long for Lyran troops to reach Argyle, and says she has faith in Ardan Sortek’s ability to handle the situation. 

Katrina tells Melissa she will instead send help for Hanse to New Avalon.  She says she will tell Lyran Ambassador Efflinger to use his local information networks to find evidence that Hanse is an imposter.  If her Ambassador finds any evidence, the Commonwealth will be able to force “Hanse” to submit to exhaustive testing.  Katrina worries that, if these efforts fail, the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns will be plunged into war.

Melissa tells Katrina that, if things go wrong, she wants to meet up with the duplicate Hanse one day.  Katrina responds with a noncommittal “We’ll see.”

Notes: It’s not expressly stated, but my interpretation of Melissa’s desire to meet the false Hanse is that she hopes to kill him, if she had the opportunity.  It seems that she fell hard for him, and is already planning a vendetta.

If the Lyran Embassy on New Avalon works anything like a modern Embassy, it will be staffed with career diplomats who maintain wide networks of contacts in various political, economic, and military spheres according to their specialties (which would, of course, include a full complement of LIC operatives).  They could certainly gather a fair amount of information.  However, based on my understanding of “The Plan,” an ultimatum from the Lyran Commonwealth would play right into the conspirator’s hands.  The false Hanse would be able to refuse the ultimatum, and use it as a justification for further worsening the relations between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, benefiting all the Kapteyn Accord signatories.

Melissa’s instinctive urge to assassinate the imposter would also help the Kapteyn conspirators, and would immediately plunge the Commonwealth and the Suns into war.  I wonder if Karns was providing psychological profiles to the conspirators, and helped them anticipate this urge.

The false Hanse’s decree that “all treaties with the Commonwealth” are void seems like an intentionally broad statement intended to wipe out any secret agreements of which the conspirators may have been unaware.

To send a message to the Lyran embassy on New Avalon, Katrina types it into a dedicated ComStar terminal, which sends it to the Adept on duty.  Presumably, that Adept will then jump onto their high-speed ComCycle and race to the Tharkad City HPG to encode the message for transmission.  In other scenes with HPGs, we've seen them having multiple entrances for people from rival houses to enter and type their message into terminals inside the facility.  All other communiques seem to be given to couriers and delivered in person to the HPG station.  I wonder if global communication networks are considered too insecure for sending messages from remote sites to the HPG station.  There would certainly be motive and method to read communiques being transmitted over a network.
"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 #935 on: 04 January 2015, 12:33:49 »
----- Two Weeks Later -----

Date: June 20, 3025

Location: Stein’s Folly

Title: The Sword and the Dagger

Author: Ardath Mayhar

Type: Novel

Synopsis: Ardan’s lancemates Sep, Jarlik, and Ref grow weary of maintaining the façade of spending R&R on Stein’s Folly, and resolve to follow their leader to Argyle.  However, they are unable to get clearance to travel to that system, and are told that no military JumpShips are scheduled to travel there.  Even the Command Circuit is offline.  No commercial freighters are scheduled for another month.

Ref suggests bribery and corruption.  He says one of his sources told him garrison commander Sallek Atrion has orchestrated the delay, and rumors are swirling about Liao bribes, a Steiner double-cross, and Duke Michael Hasek-Davion’s involvement.  Atrion has also recently come into a substantial amount of money.  Ref suggests that anyone who can be bribed to keep them on Stein’s Folly can be bribed again to let them leave.

Sep suggests hijacking transports to travel from Stein’s Folly to Dragon’s Field, Hamlin, Ral, and Argyle, bribing or raiding at each transfer.  Ref, despite it having been his suggestion in the fist place, moans that they’ll end up in prison for the rest of their lives.

Notes: So, there’s no command circuit in place between Stein’s Folly and Argyle, yet the team is planning to transfer from ship to ship to ship along the route.  That sounds a lot like a command circuit, especially since the worlds (Hamlin, Ral, Dragon’s Field) are outpost worlds on the AFFS’ express travel conduits, so civilian merchant traffic would be somewhat rare (outposts require deliveries moreso than pickups).

Plus, if the three of them alone are trying to hijack an entire JumpShip, they’d need some way to overwhelm each ship’s standard marine complement in the event they chose to fight back.  Even an 18-crew Scout-class JumpShip musters 6 Marine Points (per the BattleSpace ruleset), whereas Sep, Ref, and Jarlik would have 1.5 (3 if you were feeling generous).  An Invader has 9 Marine Points.  It’s one thing when you have a situation as portrayed in the Periphery sourcebook, where Redjack Ryan’s brigands use ship-to-ship weapons to breach the hull and vent the bridge, then swarm aboard and overwhelm the few marines and hastily armed passengers, but it would be a fair trick for Sep, Ref, and Jarlik to pull off anything similar.  Having it work once would be a miracle.  Having it work 5+ times would be utterly unthinkable without complicity by the crews or author fiat.
« Last Edit: 05 January 2015, 01:54:31 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 #936 on: 05 January 2015, 14:40:38 »
----- Three Days Earlier (whoops) -----

Date: June 17, 3025

Location: Dixie

Title: The Heart of Dixie

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story

Synopsis: The FWLS Hawk's Shadow burns towards Dixie on an assault vector, carrying a reinforced battalion of the Fusiliers of Oriente's Fourth Brigade under the command of Colonel Eve Hansi.  After establishing communications with Lyran Governor Vonderholf, she demands he surrender Dixie to the FWL.  He vows that the Dixie Militia will bathe her landing zone in blood.

Meanwhile, down on the planet, Fletcher has been monitoring his friend, Randolph, and is aware of the incoming Marik forces.  He frets that his intellectual curiosity to solve the mystery of the hidden Castle Brian has now placed his homeworld in danger.  He ponders telling the Lyran authorities or the FWL commander there's nothing of value in the cache, but concludes they wouldn't believe him.

In the Dixie Militia tactical operations room, Colonel Fritz Volger discusses the relative strengths of the opposing forces.  Hauptmann Angela Dickerson worries that the two companies of infantry and tanks will be both outgunned and outnumbered by the frontline FWL battalion.  He attempts to reassure his staff by telling them he's sent to Archon Katrina Steiner for reinforcements.  He views the coming battle as a chance to prove himself and earn promotion.  Rather than dig in at a fortification (which they wouldn't be able to hold against the superior FWL force), he tells his troops to prepare for a mobile fight to stop the FWL forces from finding whatever they're looking for.

A courier brings in a note, and Volger tells his aide, Lt. Oak, that the League objective must be the recently discovered Castle Brian, which the note (from Fletcher, of course) says is an empty ruin.  Volger begins plotting how to use this information against the Fusiliers.

Notes:  Blaine's writing excellently crafts character vignettes from brief exposition.  Volger is the perfect Lyran officer - attempting to overcome his lack of skill with his brown nosing and eye for self promotion. 

One wonders, though, why the militia is so understrength in 3025.  As recently as 3016, the world was a major supply depot for the FWL front and had multiple combined-arms regiments guarding billions of kroner worth of supplies.  They even gave Wolf's Dragoons a hard fight.  It's not as though there had been a major change on the FWL front or in Lyran strategy (Concentrated Weakness ended in 3006).  Perhaps the partial success of the Dragoon raid convinced the Lyran high command that Dixie was too exposed to serve as a forward supply base, and established an alternate depot elsewhere, transferring the main garrison at the same time.
"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 #937 on: 06 January 2015, 09:53:33 »
----- Five Days Later -----

Date: June 22, 3025

Location: Dixie

Title: The Heart of Dixie

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story

Synopsis: On approach to Dixie in the FWLS Hawk’s Shadow, two days from touchdown, Colonel Eve Hansi is frustrated by the failure of her aerial reconnaissance to discover the location of the hidden Castle Brian.  Her crew fears her wrath, due to her background as a SAFE agent in charge of finding and purging disloyal personnel in the unit.

In the militia tactical operations center, Volger monitors the FWL recon flights and correctly surmises the FWL raiders are searching for the cache. 

Out on the plains (far from the cache), Banner Anderson of Fogerty Construction uses a ConstructionMech to plow up a trench, working alongside other WorkMechs and construction vehicles.  He questions his boss why they are being paid top kroner not to build anything.

Notes:  Again, there is a strong parallel between the situations on Dixie and Galtor III.  On Galtor, the AFFS tried to sucker the DCMS into a trap by mocking up an excavation site over a fake Star League cache, only to discover a real one nearby after having attracted the Combine’s attention.  Here on Dixie, Volger is reversing the sequence of events – faking an excavation site after having discovered a real cache.

Field Manual: Free Worlds League says in the years immediately preceding the 4th Succession War, SAFE operatives uncovered a plot against Captain-General Janos Marik among key unit officers, possibly with the backing of Duncan Marik.  On Janos' orders, SAFE took command of the unit and purged large numbers of its personnel.  SAFE's heavy handed tactics alienated innocent personnel and contributed to anti-Marik sentiments.  Thus, Colonel Hansi's reinforced battalion may actually be all that remains of the normally regimental-strength Brigade post-purge. 
« Last Edit: 06 January 2015, 10:04:21 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 #938 on: 07 January 2015, 14:05:48 »
----- Two Days Later -----

Date: June 24, 3025

Location: Dixie

Title: The Heart of Dixie

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story

Synopsis: Aboard the FWLS Hawk’s Shadow, a technician informs Colonel Hansi scanners have detected a construction site where the tents have electronic filtering gear to block sensors.  Hansi looks and notices the tell-tale silhouette of a Centurion’s arm sticking out from a copse of trees.  She gloats that they’ve found the site, and orders her flotilla to lay in an approach vector.

On the ground, Leutenant Hollister Raven, the commander of Rainbow Company, receives word from Colonel Vogel that the Leaguers have taken the bait, and their ETA is in 40 hours.  She orders her troops to evacuate the civilian construction workers and prepare to fight a delaying action against the Fusiliers.

Notes: Hansi is weightless on the Hawk’s Shadow, implying that the ship had been holding station while the combat air patrols swept the planet for signs of the Castle Brian.  Presumably, the Dixie Militia doesn’t have any aerospace assets to intercept the Leaguer scouts. 

However, if Volger’s goal was simply to buy time, one wonders if the better option would have been to let the Leaguers search fruitlessly while waiting for reinforcements from an LCAF line regiment.

The Third Succession War technology zenith is evident here.  Lt. Raven’s Centurion is said to be a 300-year old family heirloom, and one of her primary worries is becoming Dispossessed.
"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 #939 on: 08 January 2015, 13:53:28 »
----- Two Days Later -----

Date: June 26, 3025

Location: Dixie

Title: The Heart of Dixie

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story

Synopsis:  Colonel Hansi is strapped into her Atlas’ cockpit as the FWLS Hawk’s Shadow makes its atmospheric insertion.  Once the ship lands, she marches her 100-ton ‘Mech off the ship into the excavation site.  As Third Company attempts to form a perimeter, an explosion takes out the leg of Sergeant Sharpe’s Vindicator when it blunders into a minefield. 

Colonel Hansi orders the Fusiliers to deploy sappers to clear the minefield.  As they move out, fresh explosions erupt around a 4th Brigade Quickdraw as artillery rounds slam in.  Hansi orders her troops to push through the minefield regardless of the damage, and focus on taking out the artillery.

Lt. Raven observes as the Fusiliers deploy and begin to push their perimeter through the minefield.  She orders Rainbow Company’s Sweep Lance to engage, sending in a Pegasus, a Packrat, a Galleon, and a Savannah Master.  The Fusiliers’ ‘Mechs blast the light vehicles, and Raven orders the survivors to fall back.  She reports to Colonel Vogel that she has engaged, and is in full retreat, as per the plan.

Notes:  One wonders, given the demonstrated existence of FWL aerospace assets, why they were not assigned the task of wiping out the Dixie Militia artillery batteries.

The presence of a Savannah Master in Sweep Lance appears to be something of an anachronism.  The MUL lists the Savannah Master’s introduction date as 3025, while TRO: 3026 says not enough have yet been deployed (in 3026) for there to be any notable pilots.  Having one of these brand new units trickle down all the way to a militia unit seems possible (depending on when in 3025 it debuted), but highly improbable.

I’m unclear about the FWL troop composition.  In an earlier chapter, Hansi referred to her “ships,” and to her “reinforced battalion.”  No single 3025-era DropShip can carry a reinforced battalion (the Excalibur can, technically, but only a combined arms force, not a reinforced 'Mech battalion.  The Hawk’s Shadow appears to be an Overlord, since she deploys three 'Mech companies.  I wonder, through, where the rest of her reinforced battalion and the other DropShip is. 

Also, it appears that the Death Commandos are truly better than the average unit of the 3025-era.  When their Overlord was surrounded by a minefield on Kathil, they just used the ship’s missile launchers to rapidly clear the fields, greatly impressing the Kathil Uhlans.  The same tactic doesn’t occur to Colonel Hansi. 

The tactical errors the Fusiliers commit (not using aerospace for artillery suppression, and not using the DropShip’s batteries for mine clearing), could be explained by having had a large number of disloyal personnel recently purged, and command given to someone who came up through SAFE, rather than the regular FWLM.
"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 #940 on: 09 January 2015, 14:53:34 »
----- Three Days Later -----

Date: June 29, 3025

Location: Dixie

Title: The Heart of Dixie

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story

Synopsis:  Colonel Hansi is fuming at her situation.  The Dixie Militia has kept up a steady stream of harassment raids on the excavation site, hitting and fading.  So far, her losses have been light, but Hansi is at the edge of her patience when a message comes in on a scrambled SAFE frequency.

Operative Satin Sheet (Francis Hollander, the purported arms merchant who first reported the Star League cache to the FWL) informs Hansi she’s been duped.  He transmits the actual coordinates of the cache, which he obtained after torturing Randolph Falconi to death.

Hansi thanks Hollander for the information, says she will pass a commendation to his superiors, and orders her troops to board their DropShips and prepare to move to the actual site, near the city of New Wichita. 

As the Marik troops load the ships, Leutenant Raven observes through binoculars, wishing her militia force had the kind of equipment the Leaguer line unit has deployed.  She reports to Colonel Volger the he should expect company shortly, then orders her surviving troops to move out to rendezvous with sea barges for the trip back to the northern continent.

Notes: The narrative says Hansi has been onworld for five days, but the June 24 scene said the Marik forces would make planetfall in 40 hours, implying Hansi has only been onworld three days.  It’s entirely possible there was a typo and Blaine intended “4 hours,” but unless we get clarification, I’ll keep the chronology as written.

The terrain around the dig site must be fairly rough, for Rainbow Company to be able to successfully break contact and lose the Fusiliers, especially since they have air superiority and fast scout ‘Mechs.  The Rainbow Company units that were caught were slow, including a Hunchback and a Catapult, so perhaps the rest were faster.

Raven’s grousing that Militia troops never get new equipment makes it even less likely that Rainbow Company should be fielding a Savannah Master, which not only is barely out of prototype stage at this point, but also managed to singlehandedly take out a Locust during the field trials. 

I’m curious as to what method Hollander used to contact Hansi.  He says she was a hard person to locate, implying he was using a directional broadcast on a SAFE frequency.  If he’s spent the last two weeks (since Randolph disappeared on June 17) torturing Randolph for information, presumably in Vanceburg on the Northern Continent, is he using a communications satellite to bounce the signal to her location? 
"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 #941 on: 10 January 2015, 21:27:51 »
----- That Same Day -----

Date: June 29, 3025

Location: Argyle

Title: The Sword and the Dagger

Author: Ardath Mayhar

Type: Novel

Synopsis: Nine days since we last checked in with Jarlik, Sep, and Ref, they’ve made it to Argyle.  They found an Invader captain named Dahl on Stein’s Folly who held a grudge against garrison commander Sallek Atrion, and was happy to smuggle them offworld to Dragon’s Field.  From there, Dahl hooked them up with a friend who took them to Hamlin.  There, Jarlik found an idle JumpShip and booked passage to a non-Argyle destination, then strongarmed him into changing course to Ral.  At Ral, they repeated the maneuver to get to Vincent, and again to reach Argyle, spreading C-Bills liberally to assuage bruised feelings (and actual bruises).

In the early morning, the team lands its DropShip in a meadow outside Stirling and stashes their ‘Mechs in the woods.  Their clearances, confirmed by retinal scans, are still valid, and they are able to enter the palace to perform reconnaissance.  Heading towards the barracks, Sep sees her unit XO, Denek.  He tells her he’s getting ready to move the unit back to New Avalon, and getting it ready for action in case the Federated Suns goes to war with the Lyran Commonwealth, since Hanse severed ties with Lyrans after meeting with Katrina on Terra a week earlier.

Sep tells Denek everything she knows, and says Ardan had holographic evidence that the Hanse who recently departed for New Avalon is an imposter.  Denek tells her to stay on Argyle and learn what she can, and to find him on New Avalon if she finds anything.  He says he’ll take care of the paperwork for her group to come through New Avalon security, and says “Old Sarnov” will pilot a ship for her in case of emergencies.

Sep, Ref, and Jarlik meet up and compare notes, concluding that Ardan must be in the dungeons under the palace.  Ref says that, with the false Hanse gone, only a skeleton security detail remains.  They plan to have Ref destroy a nearby fuel depot to distract the guards, while Sep and Jarlik enter the palace grounds in their ‘Mechs using their access priviliges, and release Ardan and the real Hanse from the dungeons.

That night, the three mount up in their ‘Mechs, and Jarlik and Sep pass through the palace’s automatic defenses without a problem.  The night sky lights up as the fuel depot goes up in a fireball.  They advance, but are intercepted by a Wasp that did not go to investigate the explosion.  They dispatch it quickly by disintegrating its right leg, but not before the pilot sent out a warning.

They reach a ventilation grid that leads to the dungeons, and Jarlik’s Crusader smashes it open.  Sep uses her Warhammer’s laser to widen the opening, then dismounts and drops down the hole, leaving Jarlik to stand watch.  She calls for Ardan and follows his voice to his cell, which she lasers open.  Ardan and Hanse – bearded and starved – stumble out.  She gives them fresh water and leads them to the dungeon’s newly made exit. 

Hanse joins Jarlik in the Crusader, while Ardan sits with Sep in the Warhammer.  They flee for the port, where they’d agreed to rendezvous with Ref.  Lights come on all over the Summer Palace, and red bursts of laser fire light up the night as the panicked guards fire on each other.

With horror, Sep realizes she forgot to factor in the need to collect “Old Sarnov” to pilot the escape ship.  Jarlik responds that it’s not a problem, since Hanse is rated to fly it.

Notes:  Wow.  The security procedures at the Summer Palace are almost criminally lax.  There’s no response whatsoever to an unregistered DropShip landing, not at the port, but in a meadow adjacent to the Palace.  That sort of arrival should usually trigger a planetwide “pirate raid” alarm. 

Another question is the IFF transponders on the ‘Mechs.  Sep and Jarlik apparently have them on their Warhammer and Crusader, because that’s how they get through the automatic defenses without getting fried.  However, why would the palace guards be shooting at each other if they also have IFF transponders, which would make friendly fire pretty hard to justify.

Plus, the Wasp only lost a leg.  Its pilot should have been able to communicate to the rest of the security forces the exact models of the ‘Mechs that took him down.  If his computer recorded it, he should also have had their IFF transponder readings, and should have transmitted it to central control so those codes could be locked out of the automatic defenses’ “friend” list.

This deep in the Federated Suns, on one of the most prosperous worlds in the realm, raids are unheard of, the enemy hasn’t been close since the darkest days of the First Succession War, and the mindset has gotten lazy, complacent, and soft.  Presumably the impostor took all the best guards with him back to New Avalon, leaving the dregs on “night watchman at the rutabaga silo” duty.

Despite the lack of an official Command Circuit between Stein’s Folly and Argyle, Sep and company manage to pull one together through bribery, fast talking, and intimidation, making it to their destination in record time.  If Feddie captains are so generally spineless, it would seem that a Maskirovka, Death Commando, or DEST unit could use the same tactics to get up close and personal with a FedRat target.
« Last Edit: 11 January 2015, 12:10:29 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 #942 on: 11 January 2015, 10:52:55 »
----- Two Days Later -----

Date: July 1, 3025

Location: Le Blanc

Title: The Bounty Hunter

Author: Richard Meyer

Type: Scenario

Synopsis:  Natasha and the Black Widows came to Le Blanc at the invitation of Duke Michael Hasek-Davion.  Michael offered the services of a pair of skilled technicians (seized from the Capellan Confederation a month earlier) if the Widows leave the Draconis Combine and enter his service.  Natasha strode into the room with the rest of the Widows at her back and flatly rejected Michael’s offer.  The following morning, the Widows launched an assault on Hasek-Davion’s mansion, intending to seize the technicians for herself.

Michael anticipated such an attempt, however, and has the famed Bounty Hunter lying in ambush.  As the Widows approach, the Bounty Hunter’s forces rise out of decorative pools and emerge from fake grain silos. 

The full Widow company consists of Natasha’s Warhammer, a Marauder, a Crusader, a Griffin, two Archers, a Wasp, three Stingers, a Phoenix Hawk, and a Rifleman (590 tons).  The Bounty Hunter is piloting Natasha’s old Marauder (stolen from her when they last fought in the FWL during Anton’s rebellion), a Wasp, a Stinger, two Phoenix Hawks, two Shadow Hawks, two Riflemen, a Crusader, and a Warhammer (570 tons). 

The palace occupies a 3x5 hex zone.  The Widows can search a hex by moving into it at a walk (costing 2 MP) and spending three MP to search. 

The Hunters score one point for every Widow ‘Mech they destroy above the number of Hunters destroyed.  The Widows get one point for each technician they exit off the edge, while the Hunters get one point for each unit carrying a technician that is destroyed.  The Widows get a bonus point for destroying the Bounty Hunter.

Notes: This is a straight up fight between the two companies, though the Widows have a slight edge in numbers and weight.  The ambushing Bounty Hunters start out scattered, surrounding the Widows.  The Widows should immediately charge en-masse in one direction and maximize their numbers advantage.  I wouldn’t recommend sending any units to search the palace.  The Bounty Hunters get bonus points for taking down any Widow unit carrying a technician, so if you refuse to search, you can deny them that point opportunity.  With luck, you can get a decisive numbers and firepower advantage in the opening rounds before the Hunters can consolidate, and proceed to steamroll Duke Hasek-Davion’s forces.

Since, at most, the Widows can score three points (1 per technician, and 1 for killing the Bounty Hunter’s Marauder), the Hunters should spend the first round aggressively targeting the Widow recon ‘Mechs.  A few solid hits will drop the Wasp and Stingers in their tracks.  If you can take out the entire Recon Lance in the opening volley without losing any of your own troops, you’ll be 4 points up on the Widows, and can then simply withdraw and win on points.  Pull back any of your own troops that get heavily damaged, to deny the Widows the kill, and keep your kill ratio in your favor.

The story about the technicians seems odd.  First off, what was the Eridani Light Horse doing raiding Sax, a Capellan World on the FWL/Canopian border?  Second, how did these technicians get all the way from Sax to New Avalon for debriefing, and thence to Le Blanc (on the Combine border) in one month?  That has to have been one heck of a Command Circuit. 

I set the date based on the Eridani Light Horse’s date for return to active duty as laid out in the Mercenary’s Handbook, since the scenario says they are the ones who grabbed the techs.  Interestingly, given the chronology, this implies the imposter Hanse was the one who debriefed them.  This may go a long way towards explaining why Hanse would simply let his Starscream-esque brother-in-law have such valuable commodities, since all signs point to Michael being in on the Operation DOPPLEGANGER conspiracy. 

It’s also interesting that Michael has a mansion on Le Blanc, and another on Dragon’s Field, plus at least two on New Syrtis.  If he’s spending so much time visiting his various vacation homes, including one way up on the Combine border, when does he clock in as the Marshal of the Capellan March?  I guess since he’s come to an understanding with Maximillian to largely have minimal activity on the Capellan border while he schemes against Hanse, he has plenty of time to meddle in Aaron Sandoval’s turf.
« Last Edit: 11 January 2015, 23:43:21 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 #943 on: 11 January 2015, 16:57:43 »
There was novel named The Bounty Hunter?!?!?!  :o

I looked around, didn't find anything like that being published.   Where did you find this?
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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #944 on: 11 January 2015, 17:00:08 »
No there wasn't. It was a scenario in the Black Widow book. Or maybe in The Spider and the Wolf. I forget which.
« Last Edit: 11 January 2015, 17:01:48 by roosterboy »

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #945 on: 11 January 2015, 17:07:03 »
No there wasn't. It was a scenario in the Black Widow book. Or maybe in The Spider and the Wolf. I forget which.

That clears it up, it read like a scenario when Mendrugo posted but he must forgot to change the Type: Scenario verse novel.

Thanks for clearing that up, roosterboy. Its been since I read the old scenario books.  I don't believe its from the Spider and Wolf though.
"Men, fetch the Urbanmechs.  We have an interrogation to attend to." - jklantern
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #946 on: 11 January 2015, 19:00:47 »
Caught me copy/pasting the header template.  It's a scenario from Tales of the Black Widow Company.
"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 #947 on: 12 January 2015, 14:31:20 »
----- That Same Day -----

Date: July 1, 3025

Location: Ningxia [See Notes]

Title: …And Then There Was the Time…

Author: Mark O’Green

Type: Short Story

Synopsis:  A DCMS Slayer pilot is in the process of boring a geisha to death, recounting how he survived an encounter with the famed AFFS Stuka pilot Karl Stephens, using tactics taught to him by Wolf’s Dragoons pilot James Doogan.  During his lengthy diatribe, his companion wishes she’d swapped companions with her friend Su-Lin, and mentally mocks the pilot’s re-enactment of his aerial battle as being similar to the Lovers’ Goldfish geisha dance.  She ends up taking pity on him, and decides to try something to get him to stop talking and start paying attention to her.

Notes: There’s no clue in the story about where it’s set, other than that it probably isn’t in the Galedon Military District, since the pilot takes care to specify he was on patrol there, implying that “here” isn’t in the GMD.  Looking through the House Kurita sourcebook, the writeup on Ningxia says it hosts what is largely regarded as the best ukiyo in the Combine.  If a hotshot Combine pilot wanted to get away for some well-earned R&R, he could do worse than Ningxia.  Plus, the geisha in the story seems to be fairly experienced, as are her friends, which would make sense at a large, high quality ukiyo.

In a nice bit of continuity, Karl Stephens is profiled in the Stuka entry from TRO: 3025, which notes that he’s scored more than 50 combat kills in Karl’s Krusher while attached to the 1st Ceti Hussars.  Doogan is also written up in the Notable Pilot section of the Slayer entry, although his skill is described as only middling.  Given Mark O’Green’s penchant for mining TRO: 3025 for characters, I can’t help but wonder if the pilot in this story is Hans Horshaw, a 2nd Benjamin Regulars pilot from the Slayer entry.  (He exclaims “Uff da” at one point, which would fit Hans Horshaw, assuming his name is an indicator of Rasalhagian descent.)

This is one of BattleTech’s funnier stories, with the geisha providing hilarious counterpoint to the pilot’s obsessively technical description of his battle.  (The best line is where she wonders what the heck are these "Wolfster Goons" the pilot keeps talking about.)   In the accompanying illustration, the pilot looks (to me) uncannily like Starbuck from the original Battlestar Galactica, right down to the cigar.

I wonder how the stories for Shrapnel were assigned.  Did they have a collection of art, and ask authors to make up a story to go along with the pictures, or did they commission art to go along with the stories?
« Last Edit: 13 January 2015, 05:34:41 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 #948 on: 12 January 2015, 16:21:18 »
I wonder how the stories for Shrapnel were assigned.  Did they have a collection of art, and ask authors to make up a story to go along with the pictures, or did they commission art to go along with the stories?

Considering the art all came from existing products, I'd say it's definitely the former. Same way the 25th Anniversary book fiction was done.

IIRC the pic that accompanied this particular story, it came from HKSB.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #949 on: 13 January 2015, 09:12:49 »
I’m unclear about the FWL troop composition.  In an earlier chapter, Hansi referred to her “ships,” and to her “reinforced battalion.”  No single 3025-era DropShip can carry a reinforced battalion (the Excalibur can, technically, but only a combined arms force, not a reinforced 'Mech battalion.  The Hawk’s Shadow appears to be an Overlord, since she deploys three 'Mech companies.  I wonder, through, where the rest of her reinforced battalion and the other DropShip is.
We know the Hawk's Shadow isn't Hansi's only DropShip so we have no clue as to its type. The wording isn't clear with regards to her first deployment; we aren't explicitly told if she dropped or not. It would seem an unneccessary risk. In any case, nowhere does it say the three companies were dropped only from the Hawk's Shadow. I see no indication that it might be any particular class.

At a later point (p. 33) "her three DropShips" are mentioned, but those are the combat vessels up front. Since Hansi was hoping to loot a Castle Brian, it's hard to imagine she didn't bring a big cargo dropper or ten.
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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #950 on: 13 January 2015, 20:36:29 »
----- That Same Day -----

Date: July 1, 3025

Location: N/A

Title: Camo Specs - A Guide to Regimental Paint Schemes

Author: Karl Hiesterman

Type: Sourcebook

Synopsis:  This is a fairly unique product from BattleTech's early days, one that ultimately led to the creation of the CamoSpecs website.  The 50-page booklet features forty-four one-page profiles of assorted military units - including line regiments from each faction and a smattering of mercenary commands.  Each profile is accompanied by a picture of a BattleMech or tank painted in that unit's parade color scheme, a profile of that vehicle (a condensed version of the information from TRO: 3025 or TRO: 3026), and the unit insignia.

Notes: This supplement played a variety of roles in the early days of BattleTech - a source of inspiration for how to paint one's miniatures, a stripped-down TRO giving players some idea of how to use their 'Mechs, and giving the 'Mechs themselves more character, and a vehicle for fleshing out some of the units that weren't getting scenario packs or novels.  It's the direct ancestor of the Field Manual series (which also include color plates with units in regimental colors), with a bit of Technical Readout fluff thrown in for good measure.

The Night Stalkers field a Shadow Hawk in the blue/light gray Dougram paint scheme - clearly an homage to the design's visual origin.  In a nice bit of continuity, this corresponds with their preferred color scheme of "blacks, grays, and dark blues" listed in the unit's Field Manual - Draconis Combine write-up.  (The grays and dark blues, anyways).  Interestingly, while most of the units are drawn in their TRO:3025 poses and colorized, the Griffin is off model, holding a Wolverine-style gun and with a slightly elongated snout on the cockpit dome more in line with the Dougram design than the TRO art.

The Liao Reserves entry describes the JagerMech as "a better Rifleman" and "a first-rate 'Mech."  This is in sharp contrast to what we saw in "Not the Way the Smart Money Bets," in which a JagerMech was unfavorably compared to a Blackjack

The Team Banzai entry mentions that Dr. Banzai and Jaime Wolf are good friends.  One would imagine Jaime cultivated that friendship during the Dragoons' tour of duty with the Federated Suns, with an eye towards getting an inside track on intel about Successor State technical capabilities. 

The Zeus is profiled in the colors of a unit called the Tamar Jagers, which is described as a four-regiment brigade formed at the beginning of the Third Succession War with personnel recruited mostly from Tamar.  The insignia is a hand holding a mace on a black-bordered red field.  This unit was not written up in the House Steiner sourcebook, but does appear as one of the Lyran units in the Succession Wars board game.  Presumably it was meant to be the Tamar Pact's counterpart to the Skye Rangers, but was cut at some point.  I can't help but wonder if this unit's title inspired the creation of the Lyran Alliance's Jager formations.
« Last Edit: 13 January 2015, 22:26:31 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 #951 on: 14 January 2015, 14:42:13 »
----- That Same Day -----

Date: July 1, 3025

Location: Verthandi

Title: Mercenary's Star

Author: William H. Keith

Type: Novel

Synopsis:  The residents of the village of Mountain Vista flee in terror as Valdis Kevlavic blazes a trail of destruction through their hamlet with his Marauder.  A few attempt to fight back, but their rifles have no effect on the 'Mech's thick armor.  Kevlavic is under orders from Regis Central to destroy the village, which has reportedly been used as a staging area and refuge for rebels.  The settlement's destruction will, he hopes, dissuade other villages from supporting the anti-Combine rebels.

A young sniper wearing military camouflage hits the Marauder's cockpit from his vantage point in a church steeple, but his soft lead bullet smears uselessly against the armored plastic cockpit window.  Kevlavic orders the youth to surrender and climb onto the Marauder's arm, then proceeds to reduce the church to rubble.  Finally, he uses the Marauder's other arm to brush the youth off, dropping him eight meters to the ground where he breaks his back, then steps on him.  Terror needs an audience.

Notes: There have been numerous interpretations of BattleMech cockpits over the years.  Mercenary's Star takes the tack that it's a small, tough transparent plastic viewport surrounded by an armored frame.  Later fiction mostly refers to "ferroglass," though at least one account attempts to claim pilots use electronic viewscreens tied to external sensors, while the "cockpit windows" are purely cosmetic, and are just as armored as the rest of the 'Mech.

For anyone new to the setting (which most readers were, when it was published), this establishing scene leaves no doubt that the "Governor-General of Verthandi and the military forces of the Draconis Combine" are the Bad Guys.  Whereas other works are more charitable towards the Combine (particuarly Heir to the Dragon, and even The Price of Glory, which allows Ricol to do the Legion a solid), Mercenary's Star goes the straight-up black-and-white good vs. evil route.  It's effective in getting the reader to start rooting for the rebels, even before the Gray Death Legion signs on with them.

As another example of "early installment weirdness," the Marauder is described as a 70-tonner, rather than the standard 75. 
« Last Edit: 15 January 2015, 03:27:00 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.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #952 on: 14 January 2015, 15:35:10 »
Thank you for the review, if they wanted to establish whom was truly bad, Mr. Keith  made it clear. Splat. ouch.  :o

I loved that Rampage image of the Quickdraw, looks like Quickdraw is pulling an Incredible Hulk move being Angrrrrrry.  :D
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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #953 on: 15 January 2015, 13:34:18 »
----- That Same Day -----

Date: July 1, 3025 [See notes]

Location: Kawabe

Title: Where Lies the Honor

Author: William H. Keith, Jr.

Type: Short Story

Synopsis:  This story is told in the first person from the point of view of Corpsman Yancey, a Draconis Combine Civilian Guidance Corps trooper in the small Kawanashi Enterprises company town of Marakani (pop. 20,000) on Kawabe.  As the story opens, Lord Prefect Vander Hassan orders Yancey and his partner Okabi to arrest Gunnar Holmes for peddling his wares on the streets without a license.  They rough him up and drag him away to the public cages to await his trial.

That afternoon, Yancey brings Holmes to the Judgement Hall, where Hassan awaits in his red robe of judgement.  Holmes is charged with selling tonics and luck charms.  At Hassan's orders, Yancey testifies that Hassan had ordered Holmes to cease peddling his wares in Marakani the previous week.  Holmes begs for mercy, saying his family is starving.  Hassan condemns Holmes to death, but says Kawanashi Enterprises will care for his family.  Yancey returns Homes to his cage, and hands the key to Executioner Orloff, who says he'll give Holmes the night to think about it, and start skinning him alive first thing in the morning so his hide can be mounted on the drying racks in front of the Prefect's headquarters.

Yancey notes that Holmes' "crime" is due to Kawanashi Enterprises desire for absolute control over all aspects of life in Marakani, viewing unlicensed peddlers like Holmes as unwanted competition for their company stores.  Holmes couldn't get a license because he'd been fired by the company years earlier for falling behind on his rent, and couldn't find any other work in the company town.  The final straw came when Prefect Hassan decided to crack down on independent merchants in the last few weeks.  Yancey rationalizes that everything is being carried out according to the law, and yet he can't help but feel that his personal honor has been soiled by this case.

Yancey and Okabi resume their foot patrol in the markets.  Okabi sees a suspicious looking agroworker and suggests searching him, but Yancey refuses, and the two argue.  Okabi says they're bound by honor to obey the Prefect.  Yancey responds that they have an honor-bond to serve the people of Marakani as well, and says he hopes that the agroworker gets away with whatever he was up to.  Okabi argues that, as Civilian Guidance Corps officers, theirs is the way of bushido, which binds them to their master - Prefect Hassan.  Yancey can tell Okabi is as torn by the conflict between his oath of duty and loyalty to his master, and the hatred of what the Shaul Khalian foreigner is doing to their city.

Notes:  Yancey, at one point, mentions that his father had been a MechWarrior until the fighting on Mallory's World (3013 - 3016), but had returned home Dispossessed.  Ten years is enough time for Yancey the boy to have grown to adulthood and become a CGC trooper, so mid-3025 seems appropriate for this undated story's setting.

It is mentioned in passing that the locals suspect Hassan of being a member of the Saurimat, a predatory secret society of mercenary assassins native to neighboring Shaul Khala, who earned his position as Prefect as reward for his role in putting down a workers' revolt in the city of Eibo.  In "Jihad Conspiracies," Reginald Starling clarifies that the Saurimat are not assassins, but are instead a sect of temple guardians active throughout Azami space.  He explains that the Shaul Khala Saurimat assassin sect was founded by breakaway Saurimat member Muntasir Surur in 2989, who established a secluded fortress and invited Azami true believers to join him in running a mercenary assassin business.  Starling's account says that on December 15, 3010, mainstream Saurimat commandos (temple guards from other Azami worlds) attacked Surur's fortress and wiped out the sect, except for young initiate Hassan Ali Khaled, who was exiled into the deserts (and eventually into the Gray Death Legion) as a living memorial to Surur's perversion of the Saurimat code.  Assuming Starling's account is accurate, there's no way Vander Hassan could be a Shaul Khalian Saurimat assassin, but he probably enjoys the reputation (or perhaps not, given what happened to the cult at the hands of the real Saurimat).

Several sources have described the dominance of politically connected megacorps in Combine space - running cities as their private fiefdoms, with company executives playing the role of feudal lords.  (Certainly not out of place in the Successor States.)  The visuals that accompany this story look positively medieval, aside from the combat shotguns and the candy-striped CGC uniforms.  Keith positively excelled at worldbuilding, and does an effective job of portraying the oppressiveness of corporate Combine society, and further pushing the Combine into the 3025-era's "Team BadGuy" role.  In fact, I think it's fair to say that the only major difference in the portrayal of the Combine vs. the Capellan Confederation at this juncture was the theme of "honor" permeating the Combine, whereas the Confederation was portrayed as more "scheming and treacherous," without any of the Combine's hangups about ninjo vs. giri.
« Last Edit: 16 January 2015, 00:07:09 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.

Wrangler

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #954 on: 15 January 2015, 21:06:15 »
Yikes, that horrible setting to live in.  I can see why there was a lot of crush the Combine mentality out there.
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #955 on: 17 January 2015, 01:56:20 »
----- The Next Day -----

Date: July 2, 3025

Location: Kawabe

Title: Where Lies the Honor

Author: William H. Keith, Jr.

Type: Short Story

Synopsis:  The following day, Corpsman Yancey serves as part of Lord Hassan's personal guard as the Prefect holds court.  The first item on Hassan's agenda is to resolve Holmes' outstanding debt to Kawanashi Enterprises.  He sentences Holmes' wife to two years of indentured servitude on a company official's estate, and sentences his son to three years of indenture in the Ginoyama mines. 

Leering, Prefect Hassan declares that he has a "very special" fate for Homes' daughter, a radiantly beautiful slender girl in her early teens.  He orders a guard to bring her forward, and commands her to undress and "display her charms."

A shout interrupts Hassan's entertainment.  Okabi, Yancey's partner, strides into the hall with his wakizashi held aloft.  He kneels ten paces before the Prefect's dais, and in protest of the Prefect's honorless perversions, prepares to commit seppuku - dying to preserve his personal honor.  Yancey realizes Okabi must have felt trapped between his obligation to his lord and his own sense of right and wrong.

Hassan orders Yancey to take his sword before he hurts himself.  Yancey ponders at what point a master's lack of honor makes the rites of obligation nothing but empty ritual, and instead walks to Hassan's side and places the muzzle of his shotgun against the Prefect's head.  Yancey threatens to kill Hassan if any of the guards makes a move, and tells Okabi his life can be more meaningful than his death.  He tells Okabi to take Holmes' family and get them to safety. 

Okabi and the civilians flee, and minutes later, Yancey receives confirmation from Okabi, via communicator, that they've made it clear of the palace.  Hassan begs for his life, and Yancey realizes the stories of him being a member of the Saurimat must have been lies.  Hassan offers money, but Yancey recalls what his father said when he returned from Mallory's World, Dispossessed.  "A man without honor is not a man."  Yancey's father died (presumably via seppuku) at sunrise the morning after his return.  Yancey muses that, with Hassan as hostage, he could make it outside, lose himself in the crowds, and join the underground, but that would leave Hassan in charge.  In the end, he chooses honor, and decapitates the corrupt Prefect with a blast from his shotgun.  He has time to tell the corpse "Honor" before he is gunned down by Hassan's bodyguards.

Notes:  Having a society obsessed with bushido (thanks to the cultural reformation launched by Coordinator Urizen II) often run by corrupt officials seems to be one of the main things holding the Combine back during the Succession Wars.  The best (most honorable) troopers seem inevitably to be driven to seppuku by the inherent contradictions of the Combine power structure.  Looking at the upper echelons of the Combine power structure, bushido doesn't enter into many of their decisions.  Takashi ruthlessly manipulates everyone around him to ensure his survival and that of his line.  ISF director Subhash Indrahar has no qualms about running operations expressly counter to Lord Takashi's wishes.  All of the Warlords plot and scheme for advantage, and the few that try to adhere to bushido get chewed up and spat out (sorry Warlord Yoriyoshi).  Looking back at Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight, the leader of DEST One, who obtained BattleMech technology for the Combine while Coordinator von Rohrs' plan with DEST Two failed, had to commit seppuku to atone for his success.  As we'll see later, Minobu Tetsuhara will be driven to seppuku when his superiors' schemes (Samsonov) and mania (Takashi) force him to make war on his friend, Jaime Wolf.

Not only does the Combine keep losing its true believers this way, but a succession of corrupt leaders at all levels engenders the formation of underground rebel groups - not just ethno-cultural ones like the Rasalhagians, but home-grown ones rebelling against local injustices.  Their existence must not only sap a significant amount of the ISF's resources, but also provides the LIC and MIIO with ample opportunities to recruit local support for information gathering, sabotage, assassination, and invasion, with the promise of ending the injustices under a new administration.
"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 #956 on: 17 January 2015, 12:28:43 »
----- The Next Day -----

Date: July 3, 3025

Location: Dixie

Title: The Heart of Dixie

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Short Story

Synopsis:   While Leutenant Raven and Rainbow Company delayed the League forces, Colonel Volger and the rest of the Dixie Militia turned the dilapidated Castle Brian into a defensible position.  He reminds himself that his goal is not to destroy the enemy, though he'd surely like to do that, but to defend Dixie.  He expects Colonel Hansi to avoid her previous mistake of dropping right on top of the site, and will instead likely land nearby and attack from multiple directions.  He hopes his preparations will blunt her assault.

Notes: Volger must have started his structural reinforcement of the Castle Brian after her DropShips landed at the fake excavation site.  Otherwise, her orbital surveillance would have noted the frantic work at the Castle Brian site.  One wonders what Hansi's aerospace forces were doing during the fighting at the false excavation.  Presumably, a wise commander would use air superiority to either locate the local raiders, or to keep tabs on the main militia body so it doesn't strike them unexpectedly from the flank. 
« Last Edit: 24 January 2015, 04:44:35 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 #957 on: 18 January 2015, 13:33:32 »
----- Two Days Later -----

Date: July 5, 3025

Location: New Avalon

Title: The Sword and the Dagger

Author: Ardath Mayhar

Type: Novel

Synopsis:  Lyran Ambassador to New Avalon Maylor Efflinger receives a report that four men and a woman have taken lodging at the House of the Six Stars, having arrived in Avalon City on foot the previous evening.  One has the build of Hanse Davion.  Given the Archon's recent directive to find any evidence corroborating the existence of a double, he sets his son, well known socialite and womanizer Kolek Efflinger, to work on ferreting out the truth.  He rationalizes that his son is such a renowned carouser and wastrel, that the DMI and MIIO have long since stopped assigning agents to keep tabs on him, writing it off as a waste of manpower.

Kolek returns later that night, faking being in a drunken stupor.  As soon as his father has rewarded the Avalon City police officers who escorted Kolek home and paid the requisite fines, they depart and Kolek (suddenly sober) informs his father that the man at the inn is Hanse Davion, and that he's had them move to an apartment above the tavern on Wine Street.  Maylor decides to use his diplomatic credentials to present the real Hanse at court and blow the lid off the conspiracy, demanding both men be tested to see which is the real one, and which the imposter.

Notes: This entry repeatedly uses the term "lazy" to describe Ambassador Efflinger and his son.  Given the way the Lyran system works, House Efflinger must have very strong social connections, and it seems that the problem of "social generals" isn't limited to the battlefield.  Efflinger also feels free to regard Katrina's orders as being ludicrous - like something out of an ancient novel or operetta - but follows Katrina's orders to look into it "because he knows on which side his bread is buttered."  Disrespect from far flung Lyran officials towards the Archon isn't new - but may indicate a worrisome trend circa 3025 that the Lyran bureaucracy has low regard for their Archon.  Whether this is due to a sense that her rule is illegitimate because she rose to power by deposing Alessandro, or a feeling that her Peace Proposal was a sign of weakness, or a sense that the conditions of her ascension meant her attention was focused exclusively on securing control on Tharkad, letting regional officials get away with administrative excess, massive corruption (as seen on Galatea in "Not the Way the Smart Money Bets") or sheer laziness.

Of course, MIIO and DMI also get some demerits for laziness.  If the LIC's network managed to pick up, in a city of millions, the appearance of exactly the right group of strangers based entirely on the party's composition and the height of one of their members, why didn't Davion intelligence notice them?  If there was a big announcement coming, it might have made sense to set up roadblocks and checkpoints at the city perimeter.  Instead, they get scooped by a father/son team whose primary defining characteristic is sloth.  They also get dinged for not assigning a permanent minder to the Ambassador's son. 

I took a course on surveillance some years back which included numerous anecdotes of cold-war (and more recent) incidents of host nations keeping tabs on foreign diplomats.  In one case, the Ambassador sent his shoes out for repair and they came back with a microphone and radio transmitter in the heel.  In another case, a diplomat stopped at an intersection in Moscow was carjacked.  Before the perpetrator could get the car started again, four black sedans surrounded it and KGB agents poured out, dragged the carjacker out of the car, told the diplomat to get back in and drive away, and proceeded to beat the carjacker senseless.

In an era with presumably far more sophisticated bugging techniques, it's inconceivable that the Davion intel office in Avalon City would have given up surveillance because the son was a lush.  Such an individual would almost certainly have a shadow detail following because he's a lush, since the last thing MIIO would want would be for the son to get rolled in an alley, knifed in a bar brawl, or shot by a jealous husband and create an unfortunate diplomatic incident between the FedSuns and LyrCom in the run-up to the Prince's wedding.
"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 #958 on: 19 January 2015, 00:14:35 »
----- The Following Day -----

Date: July 6, 3025

Location: New Avalon

Title: The Sword and the Dagger

Author: Ardath Mayhar

Type: Novel

Synopsis:  Sep returns to the group's room at the inn on wine street with news that the false Hanse plans a big announcement, and rumors of war with House Steiner are on everyone's lips.  Public unrest is running high.  Hanse cautions that they cannot organize a popular revolt against the false Hanse, and will have to trust in Efflinger's efforts. 

That afternoon, Kolek Efflinger returns with news that his current paramour (and probable future wife) is out buying new clothing for them so they can be presentable at the "Great Revelation" at the palace tomorrow.  Hanse tells him to look him up, later, if he needs a job - he always has a use for sneaky people.

That evening, boxes arrive with a gold and white gown for Sep, who is horrified at the thought of exchanging her MechWarrior kit for such frippery, but Hanse approves it as a way of drawing attention so the rest can get into the palace without too much inspection.  The men receive formal uniforms with campaign clusters and full medals.  They deem themselves ready to attend The Announcement at the palace the following day.

Notes:  Hanse is always in recruiting mode for sneaky individuals.  It's only a short time from now that Hanse recruits Justin Xiang-Allard for his Capellan infiltration mission. 

AFFS medals seem to be available in bulk from street corner merchants.  Not only did Ardan's 'just in case' spare set of uniforms on Argyle have his full medal set, but Kolek's girlfriend is able to get campaign clusters, medals, etc. in just a matter of hours.  (Granted, she doesn't get any character development, and could well be a master of the black market, but odds are there are shops where such things can be obtained without having to get far off the tourist circuit.  AFFS Surplus shops, perhaps.)

Security seems to be ludicrously underplayed in The Sword and the Dagger, since apparently anyone wearing nice enough clothes can enter the palace without invitations or identification.  It's almost like someone wants the false Hanse to be assassinated.  (Note Hanse's comments about growing unrest and anti-Hanse talk in the streets.)  This may actually have been the original plan - replace Hanse long enough to screw up the FedCom alliance, and then let him be assassinated naturally by horking off a large chunk of the populace and skimping on his security measures.  Lessee - who's in line to succeed Hanse if he croaks?  Michael Hasek-Davion - the same guy who insisted on sticking to the original Stein's Folly invasion plan and ordered the blockage of outgoing traffic to Argyle.  (This may not have been Max's plan, but it certainly seems to have been Michael's.)

If my cobbled together chronology is anywhere close to accurate, Natasha Kerensky may actually have indirectly helped save Hanse.  Given the date for "The Bounty Hunter," (which internally says it's a month after the techs were grabbed by the Eridani Light Horse, and the ELH having returned to duty in June 3025 per the Mercenary's Handbook), Michael was futzing around on Le Blanc trying to tempt the Black Widows to join his personal service rather than overseeing "The Announcement" on New Avalon.  (Granted - he had no idea Hanse would get rescued, probably didn't want to be anywhere near when false Hanse got assassinated so he would have plausible deniability, and hoped to have the Black Widows and the Bounty Hunter guarding his back when he moved to consolidate power as Hanse's heir.)
« Last Edit: 19 January 2015, 00:20:52 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.

trboturtle

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #959 on: 19 January 2015, 01:36:00 »
He could have also been in the Draconis March to establish relationships with March's movers and shakers. After all, if there's going to be a trouble spot once Michael is in charge, it's going to come from there. Sohe goes and gets some face time with a few people, feeling them out, and deciding who can he use and who might have to meet with an "accident" after taking the throne.

Craig
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