Author Topic: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars  (Read 480671 times)

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #180 on: 26 May 2013, 02:30:37 »
The GCS is my shorthand - not the official one.  In the text, they just call it "Grand Fleet Flagship Rough Rider."  I'd just been using GCS as a shorthand for Grand Council Service, since it was part of the Grand Fleet (which implied "Grand Council Fleet") to me.
"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  Unpublished.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 #181 on: 26 May 2013, 02:46:16 »
----- Meanwhile… -----

Date: June 27, 2824

Location: Barbados (Deep Periphery – Gamma 1551 AV)

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Wolverine Khan Franklin Hallis enjoys the sun and gravity of Barbados as his refugees work to replenish their supplies.  He’s put most of the Wolverine warriors on the surface, since they’ll be no use if a space battle erupts.  His wrist communicator chirps, and he receives a report from Star Admiral Bremman, aboard the Vincent-class Badger, that Snow Raven WarShips have appeared at the zenith jump point and crippled one of the Wolverine transports.  Another flotilla emerges at the nadir jump point moments later.

Hallis orders Bremman to have all DropShips return to their JumpShips and for transport JumpShips to jump out as soon as possible.  WarShips are ordered to provide cover for transports until their DropShips are ready to go, while Hallis oversees the evacuation of Wolverines from the surface.  Bremman requests permission to engage the enemy WarShips with his nuclear arsenal, but Hallis refuses on moral grounds.

Notes:  Up to this point, all the Clanners in the story have been ending questions with “Query Affirmative?” or “Query Negative?”  For the first time, under battle duress, Bremman shortens it to “quiaff?” and “quineg?” though it is unlikely that this new Wolverine innovation will be passed directly on to the rest of the Clans, where it will have to evolve on its own.

Hallis’ refusal to use deploy nuclear arsenal seems totally unjustifiable.  Even the Ares Conventions specifically allowed for nuclear weapons in ship-to-ship engagements in deep space.  If Hallis isn’t going to use them now, why in the world did he bring them along in the first place?

Another odd element is that Hallis is able to communicate in real-time with Bremman.  Bremman can’t be in orbit, since he’s shown engaging the Clan fleets within hours of this conversation, and the Clan fleets take about 10 days to transit from the zenith and nadir points to the surface of Barbados.  Given the distances involved, radio transmission would be impractical.  However, I suppose it is possible that the Wolverines took some field portable HPGs with them, and that Hallis is talking with the Bismark via a real-time HPG linkup, though A) I’m not sure you can do that in the same system and B) if they had such assets, why wouldn’t Trish Ebon’s flotilla have been given one, seeing that her mission was to provide advance warning of Clan WarShips.
"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 #182 on: 27 May 2013, 06:13:50 »
----- A Few Hours Later... -----

Date: June 27, 2824

Location: SRS Avalanche – Barbados (Deep Periphery – Gamma 1551 AV)

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Khan Joyce Merrell of the Snow Ravens watches as the Black Justice hammers the Vincent-class Badger and the Whirlwind-class Weasel, while saKhan Stephen McKenna coordinates the task force’s combat air patrols from the Munich.  She wrestles with the fact that this act of vengeance is a sham, since she (and the other Khans) are well aware that the destruction of Dehra Dun was the Snow Ravens’ fault, not the Wolverines’.  Out of respect for the Wolverines, she allows the Black Justice to engage the two Wolverine ships alone, rather than swarming them with her entire fleet.

Her charitable attitude changes as the Badger and Weasel thrust past the Black Justice and home in on the Avalanche, while the Wolverine flagship, the SLS Michigan, engages the Black Justice and the Jade Falcon Hunter’s Pride.

As the Michigan engages the Grand Fleet heavies, the Weasel breaks away and makes an attack run against the Egg Sac, the Widowmakers’ transport ship.  Merrell offers assistance, which is rudely rebuffed by Khan Karrige.  The shattered Badger vectors near the Avalanche, then detonates its drives, heavily damaging the Snow Raven flagship.  Merrell’s thoughts go to her former friend, Sarah McEvedy, and she hopes Sarah can forgive her.

Notes:  Rethinking my earlier comment about the Wolverines needing an HPG for real-time ship-to-planet communications, it's possible that the Badger was at a pirate point close to the planet, and then executed an in-system jump to the Zenith point.

Interestingly, Nicholas Kerensky's Rough Rider isn't mentioned at all in this battle, despite being the flagship of the fleet.  One wonders if he participated in the battle, or hung back for fear that the Wolverines might single his command vessel out for some nuclear attention.  The fact that the Snow Ravens and Widowmakers are shown not coordinating their battle plans is an indication that each Clan is fighting the Wolverines as individual flotillas, rather than as a coordinated "Grand Fleet," which would seem to indicate that there wasn't a central command flagship at Barbados.

The partial line of battle at Barbados:

Wolverines:
SLS BadgerVincent corvette
SLS WeaselWhirlwind destroyer/carrier
SLS Michigan – Unknown class of cruiser – Probably Black Lion, since it was described as launching a “wave of massive anti-ship missiles.”  Of the Star League-era cruisers, only the Black Lion has significant missile batteries, being able to launch ten (eight White Sharks, two Barracudas) against targets in its forward arc.
SLS Rickenbacker – Unknown class of WarShip
SLS Maverick – transport JumpShip – crippled when the Grand Fleet first arrived
SLS Zughoffer WeirMcKenna battleship

Snow Ravens:
Black JusticeAegis cruiser
AvalancheSovetskii Soyuz heavy cruiser
Munich - Unknown class of WarShip
? – Cameron cruiser
? – Cameron cruiser
? – unknown class of destroyer
? – unknown class of destroyer

Jade Falcons (Smoke Jaguars? – The Hunter's Pride is referenced as a Jade Falcon ship at one point, and the Jaguars were explicitly sent to Wayside, but a later reference notes how angry Khan Osis of the Jaguars became about the damage it suffered):
Hunter’s Pride –  unknown class of cruiser

Widowmakers:
Egg SacPotemkin troop cruiser

Hell’s Horses:
Mustang – unknown class of WarShip

Cloud Cobras:
Multiple WarShips - classes not specified

Ghost Bears:
Aerospace assets mentioned

Steel Vipers:
Mentioned as present, no data on assets

Ice Hellions
Mentioned as present, no data on assets
« Last Edit: 29 May 2013, 05:29:16 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 #183 on: 28 May 2013, 05:57:10 »
----- 11 Days Later -----

Date: July 7, 2824

Location: Barbados – Deep Periphery (Gamma 1551 AV)

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  The space battle is over and Nicholas’ Grand Fleet has landed its ground troops on Barbados to engage the Wolverine touman there.  The McKenna-class Zughoffer Weir and two other Wolverine ships managed to escape (with the Steel Vipers in pursuit), while the rest were either destroyed or captured.  The Khans of the Widowmakers, Wolves, Ghost Bears, and Jade Falcons begin to bid for the right to face the remaining Wolverines.  Karrige bids only three Clusters, challenging Wolf Khan Jerome Winson’s honor and pushing him to bid just seven trinaries, well below the level required to safely engage the remaining Wolverine ground forces.

Wolverine Khan Hallis leads his remaining troops in a hopeless battle against the Wolves, hoping to damage Nicholas’ troops and delay them on Barbados long enough for Trish Ebon, the other two scout flotillas, and the Zughoffer Weir’s squadron to escape.  He knows there’s no chance of living as a bondsman, and the Wolverines have resolved to go out fighting.  They give a good accounting of themselves, but the Wolves are fresher and fight with great skill.  Star Colonel Ferris Ward, whom Franklin had earlier defeated in a Trial of Possession in Clan space, challenges Hallis to a rematch.  Hallis ignores Ward and leads his command group towards his true target – ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky.

Meanwhile, the Wolverine 444th Cluster engages the Wolves in rough terrain, hoping to give their lower castes time to scatter and hide in the thick jungles of Barbados.  However, the Wolves outmaneuver the Wolverine Cluster and lure them into a trap, dooming the Wolverine civilians.

Coming upon the ilKhan’s position, he finds him surrounded by the ‘Mechs of the other Khans, including Nicholas’ custom Highlander.  He debates trying to kill Nicholas, but hesitates, feeling that such an attempt would be contradictory to McEvedy’s wishes.  Nicholas refuses to recognize Hallis as a true Khan, and Hallis responds that he is the leader of the last vestige of the Star League Defense Force.  Nicholas denies Hallis’ demands for vengeance, but then offers him a chance for “justice” instead.

Kerensky tells the assembled Khans that he has learned of another betrayal.  After talking with McEvedy, he had the nuclear blast’s radiation signature at Great Hope tested, and then reviewed Tiki Cache security monitor footage, tying the Widowmaker Khan to the destruction of the Wolverine capital.  Nicholas places exclusive blame for the Wolverine genocide on the Widowmaker Khan (since he’d only planned for it to be an Absorption, prior to the nuclear attacks).  The assembled Khans turn their backs on Karrige, and Hallis reduces him to a smoking stain with his particle cannon.  Moments later, Ferris Ward destroys Hallis’ ‘Mech and kills the Wolverine Khan, and Franklin’s last thoughts are that honor had been served.

Nicholas then addresses the remaining Khans and orders a cover up.  As far as anyone not present will ever know, Karrige died with honor, facing the Wolverines in battle.  However, his bloodline will be terminated (effectively Reaved).  The Khans assent, though Snow Raven Khan Joyce Merrell wonders exactly where Nicholas got his advice about Karrige’s scheme.

Notes:  This appears to be the true origin of the story that the bidding to Annihilate the Wolverines came down to the Wolves and Widowmakers, and that the Widowmakers deliberately abused the bidding process in order to endanger the Wolves.

This section is just about the only source of information on Clan Wolverine battle formations, most of which appear to have taken their numbering conventions from their parent SLDF regiments:

444th Cluster – noted as having “a long and illustrious history.”

1068th Cluster

205th Assault Cluster – Ancestry unclear.  Per the Star League sourcebook, the 205th BattleMech Division and the 205th Dragoon Regiment were destroyed, the 205th Heavy Assault Regiment joined the LCAF, and the 205th Light Horse Regiment was disbanded.

2nd League Lancers Cluster – Given the use of “League,” I would guess that this is an ad-hoc, post Third-Exodus formation comprised of survivors of Wolverine units too degraded to maintain cohesive formations on their own.  Once they fled Clan space, Hallis announced that they were returning to calling themselves the Star League-in-Exile.

I was surprised to see a Jenner being deployed by the Wolves in this battle, since the Jenner IIC entry in TRO:3055 states that the Jenner was a post-Exodus design and ponders how the Clans got the information about the design and decided to use it as the basis for a IIC upgrade.  “A minor mystery to Inner Sphere analysts since its first appearance in the mid-3050s, the existence and development of the Clans’ Jenner IIC has spawned numerous theories as to just how much contact the children of Kerensky had with the Inner Sphere between their disappearance in 2784 and their 3050 return.”  I initially assumed its presence in “Betrayal of Ideals” was just an anachronism that slipped through fact-checking, but looking more closely, I realized that it is a canon possibility – albeit one that requires the assumption of an unorthodox operation by the Exodus logistics division.

General speculation up to this point has been that Wolf’s Dragoons’ intel reports contained the technical specs, or that Watch operatives were skulking around the Inner Sphere during the Golden Century.  However, having a Jenner in the field on Barbados makes it apparent that the Clans actually had the design all along.  How? It turns out that the Jenner isn’t (contrary to TRO:3055’s claim) a post-Exodus design.  Looking at the chronology, the first Jenners came off the assembly lines in September 2784, while the Exodus Fleet didn’t leave until November 5, 2784.  That leaves 6-8 week-long window during which Kerensky’s logistics corps could have bought/seized a consignment of Jenners from the Diplan Mechyards facility on Ozawa and loaded them aboard the Exodus transports. The TRO:3025 entry says that they were constructed under contract to House Kurita, but I’m guessing that Kerensky was unconcerned about having to answer for such a seizure in Combine courts.  (As we’ll see, administrative matters on Ozawa appear to have been somewhat confused at the time, and nobody seems to have been looking at Diplan’s books very closely.)

Ozawa had been a Terran Hegemony world, but it was annexed by the Federated Suns in 2783.  This leads to the astounding circumstance of House Kurita successfully contracting Diplan MechYards to build Jenners on a world controlled by the Federated Suns in 2784, then having the departing SLDF steal some on their way out.  Ozawa was one of the worlds taken by the Combine in the First Succession War, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the DCMS simply brought MechWarriors to the Diplan Mechyards and launched the invasion from there, with the DCMS troops riding Jenners straight off the factory floor.  Somebody at the AFFS high command was definitely asleep at the switch.  Granted, the preceeding centuries of peace resulted in a rather rusty “planet conquering” skillset, but one might have assumed that taking control of major military manufacturers onworld and reviewing existing contracts would have been a high priority for the new planetary governor.

The Wolf Clan Jenner on Barbados launches SRMs at the Wolverine forces, so it must have been retrofitted at some point post-Exodus.  The original production run of Jenners had a Large Laser and two Medium Lasers on a centrally mounted turret.  This proved inferior due to the vulnerability of the exposed turret assembly, and was later refitted to have four Medium Lasers and an SRM-4.  In a case of parallel evolution, the Clans (or the SLDF-in-Exile) must have made the same design choices as the DCMS engineers back in the Inner Sphere.

On an additional note regarding unusual rides, Nicholas is shown piloting a customized Highlander.  Yet, in the upcoming Widowmaker/Wolf Trial of Absorption, Nicholas commands an Atlas II, while the Widowmaker Khan is in a custom Highlander.  I guess not being limited to any particular ride is a perk of being the ilKhan.  (It is good to be the ilKhan, quiaff?)
« Last Edit: 29 May 2013, 04:29:20 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.

Frabby

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #184 on: 28 May 2013, 08:35:35 »
The Wolf Clan Jenner on Barbados launches SRMs at the Wolverine forces, so it must have been retrofitted at some point post-Exodus.  The original production run of Jenners had a Large Laser and two Medium Lasers on a centrally mounted turret.  This proved inferior due to the vulnerability of the exposed turret assembly, and was later refitted to have four Medium Lasers and an SRM-4.  In a case of parallel evolution, the Clans (or the SLDF-in-Exile) must have made the same design choices as the DCMS engineers back in the Inner Sphere.
It may also have been a production variant that later became the standard variant after the large laser version was discontinued - I don't think the large laser was put into mass production without anyone noticing its drawbacks, and I believe the SRM version must have been on the drawing boards as a "Plan B" of sorts even before the first Jenners were shipped.
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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #185 on: 28 May 2013, 11:55:31 »
Couldn't the Jenner been SLDF's Quartermaster's designboards as proposed design? Company not seeing any profit selling to what was turning into a dead nation would simply produce it for someone else. 
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #186 on: 28 May 2013, 13:28:10 »
It's fluffed as having been a special order from the DCMS. 
"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 #187 on: 28 May 2013, 16:21:24 »
Mind = blown.

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #188 on: 28 May 2013, 23:00:11 »
----- 4 Days Later -----

Date: July 11, 2824

Location: Barbados – Deep Periphery (Gamma 1551 AV)

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Nicholas stands over Khan Hallis’ grave following the completion of mopping-up operations against the Wolverines.  All resistance was crushed, and no Wolverine warriors remain.  Hallis’ grave bears a stone labeled “Khan Franklin Hallis” at Nicholas’ command, granting in death the honor Kerensky had denied him in life.  Another gravestone lies adjacent – labeled Khan Sarah McEvedy. 

Though his followers rejoice in having taken as isorla the Wolverines’ Pulverizer and Mercury II BattleMechs, Nicholas laments the death of the Wolverines, who showed the promise of true greatness, but were undercut by their arrogance.  In his mind’s eye, he hears Sarah accuse him of genocide, and she promises that the Wolverines’ growl will haunt his dreams. 

Scattering a handful of dirt on Franklin’s grave, Nicholas turns and walks away, never looking back.

Notes:  I’d been wondering how the Clans got ahold of the Mercury II and Pulverizer designs (per the RAT in Era Digest: Golden Century), and this solves that conundrum, given all the efforts the Wolverines took to take their tech with them and apply scorched earth tactics to their abandoned industrial base in the Clan homeworlds.

From the description of the Coyotes being involved in the mopping up operations, it sounds like the Wolf-clan exclusivity for the Wolverine Annihilation ended as soon as the last Wolverine warrior was taken down, and then all the Clans present got in on sweeping the jungle for Wolverine survivors.
 
There’s significant foreshadowing in the fact that the ground under the “Khan Sarah McEvedy” gravestone is undisturbed, and that Nicholas isn’t sure whether the voice he hears is real or just in his head.

In the final analysis, as far as I can tell, the Wolverines were wiped out because they lacked a killer instinct.  Had they truly wanted to survive at all costs, they certainly could have done so.  However, their obsession with living up to the high-minded ideals of the Star League-in-Exile made them pull their punches, and led them to death with honor, rather than bloody, radioactive survival.  Just imagine if someone as ruthless as Malvina Hazen had been the Wolverine Khan in 2822.  Every nuclear weapon in the Tiki Cache and the Wolverine arsenal would have dropped on Widowmaker and Wolf cities, while the McKenna’s Pride would have laid waste to Katyusha with its guns, then nosedived into the smoking crater where the Hall of Khans once stood.  Moreover, the Wolverine transports would have gone off largely unescorted while the Wolverine WarShips would have scattered throughout the Kerensky cluster, wiping out as many cities as possible with orbital bombardment.  (A Malvina-esque Wolverine Watch would probably have focused on sabotaging the other Clans’ WarShips.)

Nicholas would have been a crispy critter, and with their senior leadership gutted, the Clans would have spent months furiously attempting to scourge the Wolverine fleet from existence in the Homeworlds, while the civilians and warriors escaped.  The only issue would have been that, in taking such measures to preserve their lives, they would have lowered themselves to the level of Stefan Amaris.

Author Blaine Lee Pardoe followed this chapter with an “Author’s Notes” section, explaining that his inspiration for the Wolverines came from the saga of the Knights Templar, who were wiped out at the order of the Pope and the King of France.  He notes that he wanted to portray Nicholas as cunning, devious, and both good and evil at the same time, who truly regretted destroying McEvedy, but would not have changed his mind about what he saw as his duty.

To my mind, Nicholas comes off as having unshakable dedication to realizing a specific outcome for his Clans, and justifying any means to accomplish that end.  To a large extent, he’s using his godlike authority as “Great Father” of the Clans to deal with the deep psychological damage he suffered in adolescence.  His father was always gone and his mother was, possibly, somewhat deranged – effectively leaving him without parents.  His attempt to force all children to be fostered (raised by people who aren’t their birth parents) has been portrayed as part of an effort to shatter traditional social ties so that he could reforge them as a communal society, but it could also be read as an attempt to ensure that all children have caregivers matched to their needs, rather than being stuck with absentee or unfit parents purely by random chance of birthright – in effect trying to give the Clan children the parentage he didn’t have.  Even his self proclaimed title of “Great Father” hints at serious "daddy" issues, since Aleksandr was, in retrospect, not much of a father in practice.

Nicholas doesn’t appear to be conflicted between doing good and doing evil.  He's not immoral...he's amoral - and pathologically so.  He remains convinced that his vision will result in a perfect society, and he is willing to ruthlessly expunge any potential threat to that vision’s realization.  Events went his way, but despite his claims to be the true mastermind, he was clearly being manipulated by Karrige.  In earlier manufactured crises, he’d largely been successful in shaping events to create the desired outcome and was, naturally, positioned to benefit from the expected chain of events.  However, with the Wolverines, events got away from him once another accomplished schemer (Karrige) was thrown into the mix, adding unexpected variables.  Also, had the Wolverines not been fighting back with their hands tied behind their backs by an absurdly high standard of honor (though this may be my inner Capellan speaking), it’s doubtful that Nicholas would have survived to bring his new society into being.
« Last Edit: 30 May 2013, 08:34:43 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.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #189 on: 29 May 2013, 02:31:49 »
maybe I'm wrong,,,isnt Mckenna "Khan" of the Snow Ravens,,,,not the other way around?
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #190 on: 29 May 2013, 04:27:07 »
maybe I'm wrong,,,isnt Mckenna "Khan" of the Snow Ravens,,,,not the other way around?

They keep referring to Merrell as Khan in Betrayal of Ideals, and she's the one who primarily interacts with the other Khans.  In "Betrayal of Ideals - Treachery's Stage," Khan Merrell attends a Grand Council session.  McEvedy notes that "For now, the Grand Council convened around the great round table.  The table was ornately carved and inlaid with the symbol of each of the Clans, like a giant pie designating where each of the Khans sat.  The saKhans sat along the perimeter of the room along the walls."  "The Khan of the Snow Ravens, Joyce Merrell, was friendly enough, reaching out as she passed and shaking [McEvedy's] hand."  Later "[McEvedy] cast a glance down the table, pausing only with the Snow Raven's Khan Merrell."  If Joyce is sitting at the table, that means she's the senior Khan and McKenna's the saKhan, sitting against the wall, quiaff?

"Betrayal of Ideals" is unclear on who has seniority at the Battle of Barbados.  It doesn't make any distinction between Khan and saKhan when referring to the Snow Raven leadership.  On p. 37 of Asunder, it says "Joyce Merrell, Khan of the Snow Ravens..." and then five lines later "She wished that Khan McKenna was aboard her ship."  Elsewhere in the text, people like Franklin Hallis and Trish Ebon are specifically named as saKhan.  Perhaps the Snow Raven founders worked out some sort of Khan-Khan power-sharing relationship during the battle, rather than one or the other being the saKhan.

Even though, per H:OK, McKenna was the Khan and Merrell was the saKhan, the seating arrangement at the Grand Council would seem to indicate that Nicholas' rewriting of history resulted in a poshumous demotion for Merrell.  After Joyce tells Nicholas (in an upcoming scene) that she can't live with what they did to the Wolverines, he cheerfully agrees to falsify the historical record to remove her from the events at hand (lower rank = lower level of culpability...and dead before it all happened anyways).  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE p. 75 notes that "the official histories state that Joyce Merrell died during the Circe campaign, yet at least one document has a radically different death date - bureaucratic error or evidence of a massive cover up?"
« Last Edit: 30 May 2013, 00:26:25 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 #191 on: 30 May 2013, 00:22:50 »
----- 1 Month Later -----

Date: August 20, 2824

Location: Barbados – Deep Periphery (Gamma 1551 AV)

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Trish Ebon’s flotilla arrived in Barbados at a pirate point long after the fighting ended and found debris from a space battle in orbit, while the hulks of the main Wolverine fleet litter the surface of the planet, having been deorbited by Nicholas’ Clans.  She managed to link up with one of the other two screening task forces, but the third has vanished.  The managed to recover a handful of surviors from the SLS Rickenbacker, which had retained atmosphere on two decks and been left adrift, and find a few survivors on the planet’s surface who had managed to evade the Clan sweeps through the jungles.  The Wolverine touman, as far as she knows, now totals a mere two Clusters.

Trish is mystified by the scene around Franklin’s grave.  She surmises that his death was an execution, rather than a battle, but can’t puzzle out the scorched bone fragments (Karrige) or the grave marker for McEvedy without an actual grave.  A Wolverine survivor comes out of the jungle and approaches her as she stands over Franklin’s grave and wonders what to do.  The woman is heavily scarred, and hobbled badly from her injuries.  Trish hugs the survivor and finds renewed hope.

Notes:  I would guess that the missing third picket flotilla somehow got wind of the catastrophe and, not finding any survivors, fled on their own.  That flotilla is the prime candidate for having become the Umayyad invaders in Nueva Castille.

It’s not specified in this scene, but the scarred woman is almost certainly Sarah McEvedy – last seen being treated for burns and radiation poisoning aboard Nicholas’ flagship after being recovered from the irradiated wreckage of her Overlord, the SLS Huron, at Great Hope.  Her injuries come both from living through the nuclear blast and from her defeat in the Trial of Refusal on Strana Mechty.  It appears that Nicholas abandoned her on Barbados, thinking to punish her further by making her live alone, surrounded by the corpses of her dead Clan members.  Clearly, he didn’t expect that the Zughoffer Weir would return, given the Steel Viper pursuit, and didn’t suspect that there were additional scouting fleets.
"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.

SCC

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #192 on: 30 May 2013, 01:30:25 »
You mention two screening forces, one that has meet up with Trish and one that's vanished, I'm guessing the third is the one that has been destroyed?

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #193 on: 30 May 2013, 04:55:40 »
You mention two screening forces, one that has meet up with Trish and one that's vanished, I'm guessing the third is the one that has been destroyed?

The Wolverine fleet split into a main body and three screening forces.  The main body was destroyed (except for the Zughoffer Weir and two escorts, which took off and vanished...probably to eventually hook up with ComStar).  Trish commanded one of the screening flotillas, and she managed to link up with one additional screening flotilla.  The fate of the third screening flotilla is unknown to her, though the chronology would suggest that it might have struck out on its own on a perpendicular course to the Exodus Road and eventually become the "Umayyad" invaders in Nueva Castille.
"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.

BrokenMnemonic

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #194 on: 30 May 2013, 07:52:44 »
I hadn't connected the appearance of the badly-scarred woman with McEvedy - I'd just assumed that she got thrown out of an airlock at some point once she stopped being useful. If she was picked up on Barbados, it makes the choice of the name McEvedy's Folly for a world later on rather intriguing - I wonder exactly which folly it was referring too?

It's more interesting than optimal, and therefore better. O0 - Weirdo

Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #195 on: 31 May 2013, 04:50:12 »
----- 20 Days Later -----

Date: September 9, 2824

Location: SLS Bismark – Deep Periphery (Gamma 1551 AV)

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  As the pitiful remnant of Wolverine survivors resumes their trek towards the Inner Sphere, by astounding coincidence they are joined by the SLS Yukon, crewed by the Wolverine sibko that the Ghost Bear sentry allowed to escape.  Trish Ebon welcomes them and declares that the Wolverine family is finally complete, and that they can now move forward on their mission. 

Notes:  Gamma 1551 AV must be a well-known waypoint on the Exodus Road, or else the chances of the Yukon just randomly stumbling upon the Bismark’s flotilla amidst the countless millions of stars in the vicinity would require an infinite improbability drive (preferably one powered by a really hot cup of tea) rather than a mundane Kearny-Fuchida model.  However, if the Yukon was using the Exodus Road, how did it avoid running smack into the victorious Grand Fleet as it returned to the Kerensky Cluster?

Trish’s comment about the Wolverine remnants being complete ignores the issue of the missing Zughoffer Weir and its two escorts, as well as the missing third scout detachment.  Since Trish's Wolverines are described as having done a complete survey of the wreckage and identified all the destroyed ships, they should be well aware that the Zughoffer Weir got away.

There’s an extended section of Jihad Secrets – The Blake Documents (ISP2) that purports to be a series of journal entries chronicling the Wolverine exodus to the Inner Sphere.  However, the log differs from Betrayal of Ideals in a number of respects.  It says that the Wolverines fought their way across Clan space for nine months before breaking contact with the pursuing forces (implying that the whole survivor fleet was let go by sympathetic Ghost Bears), that only 20% of the Wolverines managed to escape Clan space (rather than the 66% noted in this series), and lacking any mention of the catastrophe at Barbados. 

If we accept “Betrayal of Ideals” as the true account, I would therefore discount the journals as a clever forgery, though possibly one created by someone with some knowledge of the actual events trying to muddy the waters by putting out disinformation that the Wolverine descendants were living secretly on Mars, rather than having built a substantial baseworld out by the Magistracy of Canopus.  The ISP2 in-universe analyst reviewing the log entries notes a number of discrepancies in dates (most notably in connection with the supposed Wolverine scouting mission to Nueva Castille). 

Granted, the mention of the survival of the Zughoffer Weir seems to indicate that the journals’ author had some knowledge of what really happened, but the general level of inconsistencies indicates, to me, that the claims that the Wolverines formed a secret cabal at the heart of ComStar are as inaccurate as other Interstellar Players claims about the Genecaste, the Tanite Illuminati, and Blakist bases in hyperspace.  (For one thing, later sources on the ComStar cabal and their hidden worlds indicate that they hit upon the plan early in the First Succession War, and the Wolverines wouldn’t have returned to the Inner Sphere until after the First Succession War was over.)  There’s certainly circumstantial evidence that some Wolverines allied with ComStar’s inner cabal at some point, but I would not treat the journal entries as canon fact.  It seems more to be a clever forgery written by someone that had access to the same sort of classified reports that comprise the sourcebooks we’ve been reading.  The “Starling” guy who keeps dropping info-bombs on things like the Hidden Five into various sourcebooks, for example.

My personal theory is that the McKenna-class Zughoffer Weir and the two ships that joined it managed to elude the Steel Vipers and became the group that contacted ComStar and resettled either on Mars or Jardine, depending on which account/rumor you believe.  Meanwhile, the Texas-class Bismark, Yukon and other Wolverine picket ships become the Minnesota Tribe, raid the Combine, then work their way around past the Outworlds Alliance and Taurian Concordat before reaching McEvedy’s Folly.  The descendants of the Zughoffer Weir fleet would have been the ones that warned Primus Sims about the Clans and orchestrated the Outbound Light mission, while the Bismark fleet ended up on the world from Interstellar Expeditions and/or McEvedy’s Folly, and may have entered into some sort of relationship with the Magistracy of Canopus (explaining the “Ebon Magistrate” via Trish Ebon’s descendants, and the mysterious source of weaponry from “beyond the Periphery” referenced in MechWarrior 2nd Edition).  This raises a lot of questions about the extent of contact between the Wolverine survivors and what sort of relations they had.  [In truth, there may be as many as three Wolverine survivor bands – the Zughofferites (ComStar), the Bismarckites (Minnesota Tribe), and the scouts (Umayyads).]
« Last Edit: 31 May 2013, 13:40:34 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.

Frabby

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #196 on: 31 May 2013, 05:53:45 »
Betrayal of Ideals is the true account of what happened. It is written as (omniscient) "Story fiction" which expressly trumps the inherently unreliable "Sourcebook fiction" that is just in-universe knowledge/opinion.

The Magistracy's strange source of unspecified technology was only discovered around 3025. If it was related to the Wolverines then the Succession Wars era Magistracy must have stumbled upon a Wolverine cache, or a long-dead Wolverine colony. (Or a secret cabal within the Magistracy pulled the stings.) In any case, the Wolverines didn't straight out provide the Magistracy with new technology back in the 2800s.

Personally, I subscribe to the "three groups of survivors going their separate ways" theory. Good writeup and analysis here.
« Last Edit: 31 May 2013, 05:55:59 by Frabby »
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #197 on: 31 May 2013, 06:08:05 »
The Magistracy's strange source of unspecified technology was only discovered around 3025. If it was related to the Wolverines then the Succession Wars era Magistracy must have stumbled upon a Wolverine cache, or a long-dead Wolverine colony. (Or a secret cabal within the Magistracy pulled the stings.) In any case, the Wolverines didn't straight out provide the Magistracy with new technology back in the 2800s.

I agree that they didn't start helping in the 2800s - more likely it was around 3025.  My thought is that perhaps the Magistracy's access to Wolverine resources is a direct result of whatever took out the base discovered by IE in 3090.  If there was a Cabal/Minnesota Tribe dustup towards the tail end of the Third Succession War, perhaps the surviving Minnesotans (who still wouldn't be in contention for "most Exoduses," thanks to the Stewarts) fled to the sheltering bosom of the Magistracy and made a deal.  Covert Ops says that the Magistracy Intelligence Ministry didn't start getting crazy skilled until the 3040s, which wouldn't be explained by having found a cache or dead colony, but could be explained by getting both Wolverine tech and Wolverine Watch training.
"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 #198 on: 31 May 2013, 06:54:16 »
IIRC the Clans did some genetic testing of the Umayyads at one point and determined they were unrelated to the Wolverines—hence why they're still breathing. So if the scout group did make it to Castille space it would seem like they didn't stick around.
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #199 on: 31 May 2013, 10:25:46 »
IIRC the Clans did some genetic testing of the Umayyads at one point and determined they were unrelated to the Wolverines—hence why they're still breathing. So if the scout group did make it to Castille space it would seem like they didn't stick around.

Do you have any recollection of the source for that?  I'll check the relevant books when I get home and have access.  I agree that it would be consistent for the Clans to have checked, given the whole business in the "Bloodright" RPG module, though even so there's the possibility that whatever people they randomly checked were pureblooded descendants of native Castillians who had been conquered by, but hadn't intermarried with, the Umayyad invaders and their descendants.
"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 #200 on: 31 May 2013, 14:12:51 »
The Coyotes unleashed a scare in the Umayyid worlds after the Scorpions set up shop there. The results are unknown, but it unleashed a long series of testing on the order of which the Umayyids did NOT like. Granted, the results for failing such testing, no matter how innocent, would not endear many to that process.

Anyrate, waiting for the epilogue....unless I'm missing something.

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #201 on: 31 May 2013, 16:22:56 »
Got it - Wars of Reaving Supplemental p. 14.  Looks like the investigation really hasn't made much headway as yet, and elicited much rage when there were a couple of unauthorized instances of testing.  At present (at the time of the writing) only one Seeker group is assigned to carry out the testing.  Looks like plenty of room for undercover Wolverine descendants to dodge the testers.
"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 #202 on: 31 May 2013, 18:15:44 »
If the short-story in 3090 from IP3:IE can be believed, elements of the Manei Domini certainly knew something about the dead colony since they were the ones who squashed the IE group investigating it in the first place.    Why guard a dead secret that doesn't lead anywhere?

My only issue aside from new trumps old and IP3 is still a Canon-Rumor sourcebook, is if Betrayal of Ideas is omniscient canon fiction.   Is possible folks who wrote the later information didn't have it on tap as resource to write from?  We have alot good writers working on Battletech, however sometimes it feels like alot things get missed namely not being able cover all the sources or being unware of them under a time constrant.  Diaries could be true but need errant because they messed up on the date. *shrugs* 
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Mendrugo

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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #203 on: 31 May 2013, 18:40:13 »
If, as I suspect, the Cabalist Wolverines in ComStar/WoB were responsible for the destruction of the Tribe base seen in ISP3, then they might have been monitoring the dead world in case any Minnesotans came back.  Having been part of the Cabal, they would have had access to advanced Manei Domini equipment.  They'd also be worried that outsiders might find evidence that would lead back to the Cabalists.

I'm certain that Herb & Co. have a clear picture of the Wolverine saga and are laying hints accordingly, but in such a way that a future development team wouldn't be too constrained if they wanted to take things in a different direction, if the "big reveal" isn't done under the present creative team.
"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 #204 on: 01 June 2013, 06:36:19 »
----- 3 Months Later -----

Date: December 22, 2824

Location: Strana Mechty

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  The Grand Council convenes in temporary quarters on Strana Mechty to plan their way forward.  The Wolverines have been painted as villains in the Kerensky cluster’s media, and Nicholas and his wife have promulgated a story that McEvedy was planning to assassinate the ilKhan, while the destruction of Dehra Dun is laid at their feet.  The only remaining copy of the Wolverine Remembrance has been retrieved from an enclave on Lum, and Nicholas declares that the Wolverines shall be purged from Clan history and memory, punctuating his command by vaporizing the book with a laser pistol.

Nicholas reviews his new societal “reforms.”  New speech sanctions and guidelines have been imposed.  Enforcement of Nicholas’ laws has been stepped up, and civilians are encouraged to turn each other in for violations.

The ilKhan then questions the Nova Cat Khan, who remained silent in the debates on the Wolverine issue, did not bid to destroy the Wolverines, and did not turn her back on Karrige when Nicholas allowed Franklin Hallis to exact his vengeance.  She says that she had a dream that the Wolverines would one day cause more deaths, more suffering, more chaos than all of us know, and saw a Ghost Bear bleeding.

Notes:  It’s interesting that, with the Hall of Khans bombarded, the Council is meeting in temporary quarters until it can be rebuilt.  Yet, when Phelan sees it in 3050, the Council Chamber contains vacant seats for the Wolverines (and for the Absorbed Widowmaker and Mongoose Clans).  The space reserved for the Wolverine delegation had to have been reconstructed as well.  My guess is that Nicholas ordered it included to serve as a constant warning to the assembled Khans of the fate that awaited them if they sought to contravene his will.

Despite the Wolverines’ efforts to maintain their morals and fight the good fight, they are recorded as black-hearted rebels in Clan lore.  There’s clearly no “investigative journalism” caste in Clan society – all news seems to consist of the ilKhan’s press releases, and there isn’t much travel between enclaves, aside from the merchant caste.  Unless people were caught in the midst of a battle, they wouldn’t have known anything about it, apparently.  (Though this runs contrary to an earlier mention of pro-Wolverine graffiti on the walls of buildings in the lower caste districts – the lower castes must have heard about the Wolverine issues somehow before the Annihilation, so why are they buying the party line wholesale now?)

The symbolism of Nicholas using a laser pistol to eradicate the Wolverine Remembrance is evident.  I half expected Nicholas to follow the act by saying “clean up that mess,” as Stefan Amaris did after using a laser pistol to slay Richard Cameron.

The mention that Nicholas’ wife took part in the smear campaign against the Wolverines caught my attention.  In “Fall From Glory,” we saw that Jes Cole/Jill/Jess/Jennifer Winson/Jessica Cameron was fairly accomplished at deceit, manipulation, and assorted other black ops, so this would have been suited to her talents.  It’s notable, though, that this is only the second mention we’ve had of her in the “Betrayal of Ideals” series, which to me implies that she didn’t share the limelight with Nicholas, ruling the Clans as king/queen (or Great Father/Great Mother).  It appears she stayed in the shadows – perhaps part of Nicholas’ plan, or perhaps because that’s just how she’s learned to live after growing up in hiding, marked for death by Emperor Amaris.

The wording in the Nova Cat Khan’s prediction carefully avoids giving any hint as to the Khan’s gender.  However, if the Khan is having prophetic visions, she’s probably Isabella Devalis, whose mother, Carolina, had an intense vision that presaged the doom of the Star League in “Pulsar,” causing her to try to warn First Lord Cameron not to go to the New Silesia asteroid.  Carolina mentioned that prophetic visions ran in the family.  The Nova Cat Khan and saKhan during KLONDIKE were Phillip Drummond and Serena Delaportas, respectively, and he was followed as Khan (briefly) by his third daughter, Sandra Rosse.  Rosse encouraged deprivation- and meditation-induced visions and relied on their interpretation to set policy.  However, she was slain in a Trial of Grievance against Jerome Winson after defending Clan Wolverine, barely a year after KLONDIKE ended (probably around May – July 2823).  So the Clan’s leader in this scene is the Nova Cats’ third Khan.  Given that their vision came in a dream, rather than via Rosse’s preferred meditation or deprivation, my bet is on it being Isabella.

There has been intense speculation that the Wolverine survivors hooked up with ComStar, directly or indirectly warned Primus Sims about the threat posed by the Clans, covertly directed the CSS Outbound Light to Huntress and thereby triggered the Clan Invasion which eventually resulted in the War of Reaving, Annihilating a great many of the Clans that enthusiastically participated in the persecution of the Wolverines.  Thus, Devalis’ dream may have been foreshadowing for the period between 3050 and 3080.
"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 #205 on: 01 June 2013, 07:40:24 »
My only issue aside from new trumps old and IP3 is still a Canon-Rumor sourcebook, is if Betrayal of Ideas is omniscient canon fiction.   Is possible folks who wrote the later information didn't have it on tap as resource to write from?  We have alot good writers working on Battletech, however sometimes it feels like alot things get missed namely not being able cover all the sources or being unware of them under a time constrant.  Diaries could be true but need errant because they messed up on the date. *shrugs*

It's not just the date.  Many of the journal's assertions are highly suspect. For example, the issue of sending a scout ship off and having it come back with a report about Nueva Castille.  The problem here is that, per the charted course of the Exodus Road, it doesn't come any closer than 1,200 light years from Nueva Castille.  That's a minimum of 40 jumps each way.  The journal's credibility is completely erased by this fact, since there's no way the Wolverines would have parked and waited for 80 weeks (more than a year and a half) for the scout ship to return.
"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 #206 on: 01 June 2013, 23:00:09 »
----- Meanwhile… -----

Date: December 22, 2824

Location: Norfolk Boneyard – Strana Mechty System

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  An Ice Hellion detachment sweeps through the Norfolk Boneyard in the Strana Mechty system, systematically inspecting the 15+ ships left there by the Wolverines.  Their mission is to carry out the Grand Council’s directive to purge all records of the Exodus Road.  The explicit goal is that, by sharing out portions of the route among the various Khans, no individual Clan would be able to return to the Inner Sphere via that route without the unanimous consent of the entire Grand Council (aka Operation REBIRTH).

Notes:  “Betrayal of Ideals” author Blaine Lee Pardoe has written extensively on the American Civil War.  Thus, the name of the shuttle “Shelby Foote” is a particularly apt in-joke from him, as Mr. Foote rose to national prominence as one of the historians who provided commentary for Ken Burns’ 1990s documentary.  Mr. Foote died in 2005, and this may have been Blaine’s way of memorializing him.  Another Civil War reference is the Aegis-class General Stuart (named, presumably, for Confederate commander J.E.B. Stuart).
"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 #207 on: 03 June 2013, 05:03:38 »
Shelby Foote was one of this countrys "Leading" Historians and well published author on the Civil War(American) well before Ken Burns made his documentary,I've had the privlage of meeting him in 89' when introduced  by Artist/Author John Delhinger after a Civil war battlefield tour in the South,,the only down side was I wished we had more time to talk with him than we did.
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Re: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars
« Reply #208 on: 03 June 2013, 05:29:51 »
Shelby Foote was one of this countrys "Leading" Historians and well published author on the Civil War(American) well before Ken Burns made his documentary,I've had the privlage of meeting him in 89' when introduced  by Artist/Author John Delhinger after a Civil war battlefield tour in the South,,the only down side was I wished we had more time to talk with him than we did.

Absolutely.  I wasn't saying that the Ken Burns documentary made his reputation, but that it made him a nationally recognizable figure.
"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 #209 on: 03 June 2013, 05:37:51 »
----- 1 Month Later -----

Date: January 28, 2825

Location: Circe

Title: Betrayal of Ideals – Asunder

Author: Blaine Lee Pardoe

Type: Serialized Novel (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  Snow Raven Khans Merrell and McKenna supervise the rebuilding efforts in Dehra Dun.  While McKenna is throwing himself into the reconstruction of the Snow Raven capital, Merrell’s feelings of guilt about her role in its destruction and the resulting bloodbath make her hate the sight of it.  Merrell is joined by the ilKhan, who assures her that the city will be fully restored, better than before.

Merrell questions that assertion, since the lives lost cannot be replaced as easily as the buildings, and the cover story has done nothing to erase her personal guilt about the true events as they played out.  Nicholas answers that “there is no lie if we all believe it.”  In that context, he asserts that “Barbados never happened,” the Wolverines were entirely at fault at Dehra Dun, and that the genocide of the Wolverines was akin to a surgeon removing cancerous cells.  He tells Merrell that he isn’t twisting history, just giving Clan society a sense of meaning in the events of the Wolverine annihilation, and a feeling that their cause was right and just.  The details are irrelevant to the outcome – passing key messages and lessons to future generations and establishing their moral code.

When Merrell says that her conscience will not let her live with the changes, and the denial of what has been done, Nicholas amiably tells her that after her death, he’ll change the historical records again to purge her as having died in the Pentagon Civil Wars.  In his mind, such changes will exonerate her from culpability.  Merrell, stunned, tells the ilKhan that his methods still cannot bring back the dead.

Notes:  One of Merrell’s statements stands out essentially as Pardoe speaking to the fanbase, laying out his rationale for taking the then “firmly established” story of the Wolverine Annihilation on a severe left turn and revealing much of the Clan history as reported by Kell and Focht to be based on falsehoods promulgated by Nicholas with the consent of the assembled Khans.  In brief, the passage argues that Nicholas’ “sanitized” history attributes unbelievable motivations to the Wolverines and makes the story seductively simple, whereas the true story is far more complex.

As if there were any doubt earlier, Nicholas demonstrates the tendencies of a psychopath – twisting his interpretation of history and truly coming to believe his own lies, justifying any action in support of his end goals, and repeatedly referring to his perceived father-child relationship with the people of the Clans.  As I’ve previously postulated, Nicholas is using the Clans to work out deep-rooted psychological father issues stemming from his de facto abandonment by his own father.  Massively overcompensating, he’s trying to micromanage the lives of his “children” whereas Aleksandr played almost no role in Nicholas’ formative years.  From hints in “Hard Justice” it appears that Nicholas was able to run wild in the streets of occupied Moscow, taking part in fairly brutal resistance operations, and at some level he may have craved the kind of rigid controls and limits he’s now imposing on his “family.”  Even before his bout with the Curse of Eden brain fever, he was acting in an amoral and manipulative fashion, and contemporary accounts from Historical: Operation KLONDIKE and The Clans: Warriors of Kerensky say that he seemed to have less self control (more prone to bouts of anger) and be less emotionally connected after his recovery.
 
Merrell clearly realizes that Nicholas is insane during her discussion with him.  “He believes that this is a legitimate response.  In his mind, it changes everything.”  After all that has taken place, only now does she begin to comprehend the depths of his psychosis.  To me, this implies that all the Khans, to a large extent, fell into a hero-worship relationship with Nicholas and willfully ignored his aberrations.  Historical: Operation KLONDIKE hinted that several people who spoke out against Nicholas’ more radical reforms died under suspicious circumstances, and there was further speculation that Nicholas may have played a role in the death of Andery – purportedly the only person able to restrain Nicholas’ impulses.  At least subconsciously, the Khans may have avoided noticing Nicholas’ issues for fear of meeting a similar fate – or perhaps one of the reasons Nicholas insisted in being involved in the Khan selection process was to ensure that each Clan chose only leaders who would unquestioningly follow his commands.  Merrell, due to her guilt over the destruction of Dehra Dun, may have had her blinders taken off, but the other Khans seem content to keep their heads firmly buried in the sand. 

One other possibility is that Andery truly managed to moderate Nicholas’ behavior, so that the other Khans didn’t notice anything untoward during the years of planning and preparing on Strana Mechty, and after KLONDIKE, the Khans were too preoccupied assimilating the Pentagon survivors and establishing their Clan holdings to notice that Nicholas was going increasingly far afield following Andery’s death on Eden.  It’s possible that he may have continued to become even more radical in the years following, to the extent of provoking a new schism, if he hadn’t been killed on Ironhold during the fateful Trial between the Wolf and Widowmaker Clans.
« Last Edit: 03 June 2013, 11:08:47 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.