Author Topic: Chronological BattleTech Fiction Review - The Succession Wars - Part II  (Read 205631 times)

skiltao

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The homages to the battle of Hoth (Melissa's command center, the "Echo" level) are amusing.

It's also somewhat surprising that a Combine JumpShip shows up in this system within three hours of the Cucamulus' arrival.  That would mean that the Combine got the word out to Dieron, and Dieron had sufficient fully-charged JumpShips to dispatch to every system within jump range of Pacifica (including the ones deeper into Lyran space).  The claim of Dieron's ability to do this argues strongly against the kinds of numbers put out in DropShips & JumpShips, and recalls the "Snord's Irregulars" claim that House Marik had sufficient fleet assets to completely blockade the Lyran border.

The DropShips & JumpShips book, written by ComStar, makes numerous references to quick charging - both in the context of using onboard fusion reactors or getting microwave energy beamed from a recharging station.  Since the report was declassified in May 3025, one wonders why Patrick Kell believes it's just an unproven NAIS theory.

There may be hundreds of stars within 30LY of Pacifica, but that doesn't mean Dieron needs hundreds of ships.
  • Whoever decided the ISF should go to Styx could have anticipated nearby Lyran regiments coming to Melissa's relief, and predicted that--for the Kell Hounds--star A2341 would be the most logical path.
  • Patrick believes that "Janos' knowledge of non-standard jump points" is enough for the Kuritans to follow them from Styx at any moment--how, exactly, isn't said. It could be that pirate points put peculiar limits on KF navigation; it could be that the Cucamulus is an old Kurita ship and the Kuritans therefore know the limits of his starcharts.
  • The Cucamulus didn't arrive at star A2341's optimal charging point, which suggests their navigational knowledge of uninhabited systems is limited. If they're relying on observations they made themselves from Chara, the Kuritans only need to check whatever subset of stars can be adequately (whatever level of detail that might entail) observed from Chara.
  • A ship's emergence and departure signatures may hold enough clues for a clever navigator to estimate the path of the jump. (As when the Dragoons appeared in 3005, for instance.)
(It's an intriguing passage; thanks for calling it out.)

Rereading the chapter, I think Patrick is referring only to the *molecular damage* as an unproven NAIS theory. The fact Janos can estimate chances of failure for charging at different rates seems to indicate practical knowledge of the process; stories of success or failure may be coming from the Lyran spacer community rather than the NAIS.

I'm surprised that the Genyosha pilots are exhibiting Minnesota Tribe-style suicide-before-capture maneuvers.  Especially since they're supposedly some of the most skilled MechWarriors in the Combine, killing themselves by ejecting into vacuum deprives the Combine of valuable assets.  (Also, in terms of force multipliers, why put your best MechWarriors in your faction's weakest 'Mechs?)
<snip>
The setup with the Genyosha just twiddling their thumbs while the Manannan MacLir makes away with Melissa doesn't seem in-character to me.  Wouldn't the Combine ships notice the Mac coming in and then booking for the Cucamulus?  Y'know - following that thar ion trail?  And wouldn't they have alerted the Genyosha and ISF team of this fact?

I didn't reread far enough to see if the Kuritan ships are positioned to see the Manannan MacLir, so I can't speak to that point; but I will point out that Yorinaga's peculiar honor (with regard to the Kell Hounds) and his willingness to die are central to his character, that he hand-picked the Genyosha pilots, and that the Genyosha do not seem keen to cooperate with the ISF.

As for the Panthers, well, it's not like they're Stingers or Locusts. Even if all fifty Genyosha piloted Panthers, fifty should be a fair enough match for a medium battalion like the Kell Hounds.
Blog: currently working on BattleMech manufacturing rates. (Faction Intros project will resume eventually.)
History of BattleTech: Handy chart for returning players. (last updated end of 2012)

VhenRa

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Something that just occured to me.

Fox's Teeth says Drac Agents convinced a Captain in the Davion Guards to turn traitor on Hanse in 3013, shortly after he got back after hearing of Ian's death. Specifically, an assassination attempt.
House Davion says Michael Hasek-Davion made a similar assassination plot, in 3013, under similar circumstances.

Now it occurs to me.. was Hanse Davion even ever on New Avalon after Ian's death in 3013? Because he left for Halstead Station campaign shortly there after.

And did House Kurita AND Michael Hasek-Davion both kick off an assassination plot at the same time?

Just an idle thought.

Mendrugo

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Ian dies on October 21.  Hanse appears to arrive on Addicks as First Prince on November 12.  23 days is pretty tight, but Hanse could have been recalled from being military governor of New Aragon, coronated, and sent back out to Addicks using command circuits. 
"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.

VhenRa

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Yeah... so my suspicion is the plot the Fox's Teeth took out... was actually MHD's Plot that no one figured out yet.

Mendrugo

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Date: 2788
 
Location: Tyrfing

Title: It's A Party in the Valley and Everyone's Invited!

Author: Herbert A. Beas II
 
Type: Adventure Seed (Touring the Stars: Tyrfing)

Synopsis: Four of the five Successor States (all except the Combine) tried to claim the strategically valuable world of Tyrfing during the First Succession War, battling with each other, as well as native Tyrfing citizens armed from old HAF caches.  The Free Worlds League claimed it first, but both Lyran and Capellan forces heavily raided it, and Davion sent troops as well, leading to a months-long battle that stretched from July 2788 to February 2789, wrecking the world in the process. The fight culminated in a massive multi-sided battle in the Great Crystal Valley, which involved eleven regiments fighting for six days in what had been a pristine nature preserve.

Notes: The planet had already been heavily damaged during the Star League civil war due to nuclear and chemical weapon deployment, and firebombing of industrial centers.  Reconstruction was hampered by lack of resources and growing storm activity due to the damage to the terraforming infrastructure.

The Adventure Seed can be used for a wide variety of conflict scenarios - alliances of convenience between rival factions, covert operations to disrupt enemy alliances, and efforts to either stop the foe from deploying weapons of mass destruction, or efforts to successfully deploy your own. 

Historically, Tyrfing was so wrecked during the fighting it dropped off the maps, leaving only primitive villages of survivors huddled up in the mountain peaks, where the de-terraformed air was still breathable.
"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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Date: 2788
 
Location: Old Kentucky

Title: The Bomber Comes at Midnight

Author: Michael Miller
 
Type: Adventure Seed (Touring the Stars: Old Kentucky)

Synopsis: Having dropped a 200-gigaton nuclear weapon on Old Kentucky in 2787, the Free Worlds League returned in 2788 with DropShips painted to resemble bombers, hoping to intimidate the planetary defenders and seize the world through conventional means. 

Players running the FWLM invasion force have to contend with extreme weather conditions, CCAF forces discovering the ruse and mounting an effective response, and/or dealing with CCAF garrison forces fighting a determined rear-guard action to allow valuable germanium supplies to be evacuated.

Notes: Old Kentucky has been previously detailed (slightly) in the original Hot Spots contract book - mostly involving organized crime groups (the Rostakov Tong) and special forces in the jungles. 

Historically, the FWLM bluff worked flawlessly, and the CCAF forces scattered, and the world was ruled by the League until 2888.  The size of the 2787 "mega bomb" is a trifle extreme - 200 gigatons.  By way of comparison, the Peacemaker-class warhead is 500 megatons (0.25% of the yield of the megabomb).  And yet, only a few dozen people died, and a field of wind turbines was destroyed, slightly inconveniencing the industrial facilities they powered.  (Granted - the Chicxulub meteor impact that caused dinosaur extinction had an estimated force of 10 million gigatons, so perhaps I shouldn't have expected a crater visible from space from just 200.)

I'm surprised that the FWL used DropShips as bombers.  I guess this warhead would have been too large for any standard capital missile to carry from a warhead, so the alternative would be to carry it in a DropShip cargo bay and pitch it out over iron sights (at 200 gigatons, the need for pinpoint accuracy is somewhat reduced). 

If we extrapolate from the Betrayal of Ideals scene showing two men carrying a Peacemaker-class warhead to indicate that it weighs around 250 lbs, that works out to half a pound per megaton.  That would suggest that the 200 gigaton warhead would weigh 100,000 lbs, or 50 tons.  Seems like it'd fit in a 'Mech drop capsule just fine and be able to be spat out from orbit.  (The Russian Tsar Bomba, at 100 megatons, weighed about 55 tons, but we're presuming that FLWM researchers have somewhat superior materials and manufacturing techniques to show for seven centuries). 
"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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Date: October 1, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 1

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The unnamed narrator reports that he and a group of refugees - 87 adults and 69 children - have taken shelter in an abandoned mine outside of the city of Harwell, hiding their one BattleMech, a Javelin with no missiles left, under a rock pile.  The leader is referred to as "Old Man Fuller," who killed a DCMS solider and took his katana, but lost his son, Zach, during the fight.

The author notes that the Seventh Crucis Lancers pulled out after they killed Minoru, learning this information from some deserters, just before the DCMS forces descended on Kentares IV en masse.

Notes: The journal - unearthed from a collapsed mine on Kentares IV in 3073, during the Jihad, was published to give the people of the Federated Suns hope during the Blakist siege of New Avalon. 

The Journal is undated, but the massacre is said to have started in September 2796.  With Minoru Kurita having just died at New Snowfield on September 14, 2796, and the massacre not having started until Jinjiro arrived onworld to give the order, travel time factored in places the start of the killing to late September, so I'm placing the start of this journal at October 1.  The amount of time between each entry also isn't specified, but the chronology works out pretty well assuming one entry per week, so I'll go with that.

The journal was posted serially in the BattleCorps news feed, but wasn't given author credit.  If anyone associated with BattleCorps knows who wrote it, I'd love to update the attribution.

There were 52 million people living on Kentares IV at the start of the Massacre.  Only a few thousand by the end.  Those who survived did so by hiding (or being hidden by sympathetic DCMS personnel).
« Last Edit: 30 August 2017, 10:28:50 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Date: October 8, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 2

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: Several dozen infantry from the militia, escorting 100 women and children, join the author at the mine.  They are still shell-shocked from the destruction of Harwell over the past few days.  They report that the Combine attacked with light tanks and infantry with laser rifles, overrunning militia positions, and began burning buildings down, shooting any who attempted to leave.  Any military personnel who tried to surrender or negotiate were summarily executed.

Notes: Looking at the Master Unit List, the Combine doesn't have a wide variety of known light tanks circa 2796.  What they do have includes the Harasser and the Chi-Ha.  Since they have infantry attached to the tanks, it makes the most sense that the light tanks would be Chi-Ha Infantry Combat Vehicles, though they are fairly primitive by post-Star League standards.

The DCMS actions towards the militia officers are entirely consistent with the mandates of the Dictum Honorium - "If they try to surrender, kill 'em for cowardice." 

Reading this, I got a very strong Battlestar Galactica vibe - scattered civilians with military escorts meeting up at random while fleeing annihilation.  Except there's nowhere to go.  This story could have been set on Caprica, during the fall (except Jinjiro wanted the personal touch, so didn't authorize the Ghost Rain protocol.) 
"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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Date: October 15, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 3

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The militia troops, led by Sergeant Owens, left en masse the previous night, going out on a raid into the burning ruins of Harwell, and failed to return.  Old Man Fuller tried to talk them out of going, but Owens said they had to try to help.

Fuller noticed the author with a pistol one of the militia troops gave him, and asked if he knew how to use it.  The author decided it was time to learn.

Notes: One of the hardest things for the survivors to deal with, at least once they've found a hiding place, is the loss of agency, and the knowledge that they have weapons, but are hiding while their fellows are being carved into sushi.  After a week of sitting, with their civilian charges in a defensible, hidden location, the psychological toll became too great, and Owens felt compelled to return to the fight.

At least they got respect from the Dracs before getting lasered into ash, for going out facing the enemy on their feet and fighting.  To carry the Galactica parallels further, the militia are equivalent to the Pegasus - leaving their civilians behind in the effort to get back into the fight. 

The prolonged era of peace under the Star League shows, here.  While the Civil War was ruinous, it really only affected Terran Hegemony worlds.  Kentares IV hadn't been at war since the Age of War, and had enjoyed generations of peace.  Thus, the author has no idea how to use a firearm.  Circa 3025, it's unlikely you'd find any citizen over the age of 10 on a border world who doesn't know basic firearm usage, barring the odd pacifist sect here and there.
"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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Date: October 22, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 4

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The author records having seen planes fly overhead towards the city of Winton, and hearing tremendously loud detonations.  Sharing the watch with a man named Hakama, they discussed their thoughts on mortality. 

Hakama morosely observed that they're going to die here.  When the author responded that he didn't ever plan on dying anywhere else, though he'd thought it would be of old age, Hakama clarified that he's focused on the fact that the DCMS troops are going to kill them.  The two stared at the trees and rocks, lost in their own thoughts.

Notes: They've had ten years by this point to get used to the idea that the Draconis Combine wants to rule over the Federated Suns by force, but the Massacre is something new - prior to Minoru's death, it didn't feel like the DCMS wanted to personally kill the civilians - just overthrow their government and destroy their military.  (Of course, this just means that stories about the Combine's use of the "Ghost Rain" protocol on Helm and other worlds either weren't widely disseminated, or weren't believed.)

Despite the rhetoric about the troops being ordered to use swords to kill the civilians, at this point the DCMS is still carrying out bombing campaigns against remaining population centers.  Even if they brought in dozens of regiments, swords would be far too slow  to kill 52 million on the Combine's timetable. 
"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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Date: October 29, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 5

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The author reports that the refugees at the copper mine are running out of food, having run through the pre-packaged supplies the militia brought from its armories.  The leftover stew is rapidly approaching hot water with scraps of color. 

Richie, the Javelin pilot, has become sick, and the author worries what will happen if he gets too weak to drive.

Old Man Fuller suggests sending out hunting parties, but the refugees don't have any bows, and worry that rifle shots would attract attention from DCMS patrols.

Notes: Despite the disappearance of the militia troops, it's clear that the presence of the hidden BattleMech has given the refugees a sense of security - an ability to unleash armored death on any Combine troops that might attack.  Suddenly having their only MechWarrior fall ill rips that comfort away from the author. 

The initial mass assaults probably killed off more than half the planet's population in the major cities, perhaps up to 75%.  The rest of the Massacre was a protracted mopping up operation, trying to cover every square inch of ground to find hiding places.

Per the chronology of "Broken Sword, Wounded Dragon," this is the week when that main character's DCMS unit conducted the mass execution of the population of a small, isolated mountain village.  Once all those are gone, they'll begin beating the bushes, and laying traps.

The real world parallels of guerrilla war (think trying to find Bin Laden in Tora Bora) demonstrate the difficulty in finding groups hiding in deep cave networks, concealed basements, ruins, etc.  Thus, there would have been a lull in the killing at this point, until successfully hidden refugee bands began to deplete cached supplies, and were forced to venture out to scavenge or hunt. 
« Last Edit: 27 August 2017, 07:27:50 by Mendrugo »
"We have made of New Avalon a towering funeral pyre and wiped the Davion scourge from the universe.  Tikonov, Chesterton and Andurien are ours once more, and the cheers of the Capellan people nearly drown out the gnashing of our foes' teeth as they throw down their weapons in despair.  Now I am made First Lord of the Star League, and all shall bow down to me and pay homa...oooooo! Shiny thing!" - Maximillian Liao, "My Triumph", audio dictation, 3030.  Unpublished.

Mendrugo

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Date: November 5, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 6

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The narrator prepares scouting with Hakama and some others to find food at hunting cabins, armed with an assault rifle.  He plans to practice in a makeshift firing range in a side-tunnel. 

The narrator wonders if the confident-seeming Hakama is as scared as he is. 

Notes: Despite their fear, the refugees are dealing with necessities, and making plans for the future.  They haven't lost hope as yet. 

The narrator's rifle is interesting - with a 25-bullet ammo clip, but the ability to fire 190 rounds a minute, the thing seems designed for either spray-and-pray or to be able to be rigged as a belt-fed pintle-mounted full-auto weapon.  Looking at the Tech Manual tables, there are no listed rifles with a 25-bullet magazine, so this sucker is definitely LosTech by 3073.
"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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Date: November 12, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 7

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: One week out in the field, and the scouts have surveyed the ruins of Harwell, Winton, Edgars, and New Isaacson, finding them to have been completely wiped out.  The narrator says he understands why the militia troops moved out so soon - now that he's seen the mass graves, and the bombed schools and hospitals. 

Combine DropShips move across the sky constantly, watching over infantry patrols and columns of DCMS vehicles.  He wants to kill the Combine troops, but only has 90 bullets.  He wonders how many bullets the DCMS troops have, compared to Kentares' 52 million citizens.

Notes: Cut off in the abandoned copper mine, the refugees knew intellectually what was going on, but beyond the carnage of the opening days, the narrator missed the full brutality.  This scout trip is bringing home the reality of the genocide being perpetrated.

Other sources have indicated that bombing the schools and hospitals last was to ensure that as many refugees sought shelter in those buildings before they were destroyed, economizing on the use of ordnance. 

Matching this up against the two BattleCorps stories set during the Massacre, this is a week or two after the Combine troops have started to evidence discipline and morale issues.  In the early days, they were fighting militia troops and armed civilian bands, experiencing some risk while exacting righteous vengeance for the death of their beloved Coordinator. 

But by now, all the militia groups with fight in them have been sent to dine with their ancestors, and the mass killings (carpet bombings of densely populated areas) have been completed.  The killing is now much more up close and personal - tracking and killing small groups and lone survivors.  When a Draconis Combine Admiralty pilot unloads a pallet of inferno bombs on a hospital, he/she doesn't see the carnage below - just reports mission completion.  It's different, even for the hard-bitten Combine troops, when you're decapitating your hundredth unarmed child of the week.

There's no longer any hint of glory or righteous vengeance in this operation - just sheer, bloody minded slaughter.  The toll this took on the honor-obsessed DCMS troops, as much as the hatred-fueled fighting spirit it engendered in the AFFS, is what led to the Combine's collapse of the FedSuns front in the latter years of the First Succession War.
"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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Date: November 19, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 8

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: Another week of scouting has taken the group to New Derry and Gould, again without any sign of survivors.  More than 100,000 citizens had lived in Gould - all were dead - left to rot in the streets.  The narrator notes that the holovid dramas have showcased the horrors of war, but even HV is nothing like seeing it in person.

The narrator worries that Hakama's sanity is fraying, noting his compulsive bullet-counting and rifle-cleaning.  They've been avoiding DCMS patrols by following behind those they encounter - assuming that another patrol won't cover the same ground so shortly after the first passes through.  Using this technique, they came across a recently burned church - further damaging Hakama's sanity.

The group has decided to head back to the copper mine.

Notes: Based on what they've seen, all these Kentares Massacre survivors have serious cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.  Hakama's tough talk impressed the narrator back at the mine, but it's clear that Hakama's rhetoric concealed a more fragile psyche than the narrator's. 

The Stackpole books portrayed Omi and Victor as star-crossed lovers.  Since Victor was the protagonist, the readers rooted for him to find happiness with his li'l Omi-kun, and booed at the bigoted FedCom characters who opposed their happiness. 

Those characters, of course, were holding things like the Kentares Massacre front and center in their minds when considering the family tree of the First Prince's beloved.

Kentares seems to have been a pretty sparsely populated world.  52 million, spread out around a globe, is pretty thin on the ground.  The narrator is awed by the size of a city 100,00 people, so presumably pre-war Kentares was more about farming than bright-lights/big city livin'. 
"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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Date: November 26, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 9

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The narrator records that there's a DCMS patrol, about 20 in number, camped between Harwell and Gould - directly between the scouts and the copper mine, with an armed half-track. 

Hakama advocates killing the DCMS troops, but they realize that six scouts aren't a match for three Combine infantry squads, and they decide that revenge isn't worth dying for.  Besides, they found rations in an armory in Gould to carry back to the mine.

Notes: It's interesting that the narrator reports the scouts had been using vehicles to move around - scavenging abandoned rides and using them until the gas runs out.  Even at the peak of the Star League era, fusion engines hadn't displaced internal combustion for civilian vehicles, evidently. 

The DCMS half-track is probably a four-ton Limpet, produced by Buda Imperial Vehicles.  Functionally identical to the Taurian Rock Rover, the Limpet mounts an SRM launcher instead of the Rock Rover's support laser.

It's interesting that none of the DropShips flying overhead noticed (or, at least, cared to investigate) a civilian vehicle traveling on the roads.  More than two months in, does the DCMS just assume that any vehicle traveling openly is in Combine hands?

At this point, the refugees' plan is to scavenge enough food to wait out the Combine occupation - hoping that the DCMS troops will leave when they can't find any more Kentareans to kill.
« Last Edit: 30 August 2017, 11:11:47 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.

Mendrugo

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Date: December 3, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 10

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The narrator reports the grim news that the rations they took from the armory had been poisoned by the DCMS.  Hakama, Dulles and Riley died within three hours of eating, leaving only three survivors in the patrol. 

The leave the food (being unwilling to risk the smoke plume from burning it) and hike back towards the mine, the narrator taking Hakama's rifle.  He notes that Hakama never got to kill any Dracs, and vows to try to make it up to his friend by using his rifle to kill as many as possible.

Notes: While the Combine may have a great line of rhetoric about bravely facing an armed enemy and engaging in the rituals of honorable combat, we've seen time and time again that setting traps at supply dumps is a standard Combine operating procedure. 

The Combine forces on Verthandi set up ambushes at supply depots for both Frances Marion's Swamp Fox and for Grayson Carlyle's Gray Death Legion.  Heck, the Combine even designed a variant of the Mobile HQ where the sides fold down and AC/20s come out, designed to ambush enemies who think they're capturing a valuable DCMS battlefield asset.  Here on Kentares, they're putting out poisoned food caches to passively eliminate scavengers that the DCMS patrols have been unable to winkle out. 

To be fair, this is standard practice for occupation forces in the BattleTech universe.  When Kai Allard-Liao was trapped behind enemy lines on Falcon-occupied Alyina, he notices new supply caches popping up, and presumes they're bait set out by the Falcons to lure surviving FedCom MechWarriors into a trap.  (Not clear, though, whether that was a Clan tactic, or one pioneered by Clan-employed local bounty hunters like Harry Truper.)

Had the Combine forces wanted to be really fancy, though, they could have put locator beacons in the ration packs, and monitored them to see if they start moving.  That would get them both the scavengers and the location of their home base. 
« Last Edit: 27 August 2017, 18:34:19 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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Date: December 10, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 11

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The narrator reports that the three remaining scouts took a DCMS patrol by surprise as it ransacked a hunting cabin six miles from the refugees' copper mine, and killed them all, taking their equipment, including a pair of radios, though he acknowledges they'll be of limited use if they can't understand Japanese.

Notes: This action gives the narrator his his friends their chance at payback - the best they've had so far - they have the element of surprise and they know the terrain.

However, what they don't consider is that the disappearance of the DCMS patrol will alert local commanders that there are still Kentareans living in the vicinity of the copper mine - the cabin is only six miles from their home base. 

The killing may have been satisfying (though the narrator's reaction is more pragmatic than gleeful), but has put the entire group of refugees in mortal peril.  When the militia shooters went out in week two, there was so much activity going on that their suicide run was just background noise.  Nearly three months in, this will stand out like a floodlight.

There are clearly no more population centers to attack - all remaining Kentareans have gone to ground.  Patrols are hitting isolated cabins, and getting bored and sloppy without their daily ration of FedRats to bayonet.
"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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Date: December 17, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 12

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis:  When the patrol returns to the copper mine, they learn that half of the refugees (primarily the children) there have died in the month the scouts have been out, mostly from dysentery after the water purification chemicals ran out and the purifiers got clogged. 

They distribute the food (having buried the poisoned rations) they've found and report what they saw.  Fuller begins to make plans to send out another foraging party to get more food.

The narrator begins to have hope that they can make it through the Combine occupation alive.

Notes: The narrator is shocked by the idea that dysentery could be a problem "in this day and age."  After a life lived with Star League-era medical technology and infrastructure, with a life expectancy of 107 (on average), the thought of being vulnerable to diseases from contaminated water hadn't even crossed his mind - especially after a month being primarily focused on the threat of death from guns or other human-guided agents of death.

Despite the losses, the narrator seems to feel that he's finding his groove in this new reality.  He's killed his first Drac, evaded patrols, and brought food back for his people. 
"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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Date: December 24, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 13

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The narrator reports that the refugees' sole MechWarrior, Richie, recovered from his dysentery.  After he briefs Richie on what the patrol saw, the Javelin pilot opens up about his feelings of inadequacy - positing that he could use his 'Mech to crush every DCMS infantry patrol within sixty kilometers.

The narrator refrains from telling Richie that the Javelin has no missiles for its launchers, and that there are still five 'Mech regiments on Kentares.  He doesn't have to - Richie already knows. 

Notes: A running theme of the Kentares Massacre is that many of those involved (on both sides) feel powerless, and that they should be doing something.  Even if that action is suicidal - they feel they have to do whatever they can, despite the personal consequences.  Locally, this has resulted in the deaths of the militia troops in week two, the death of half the foragers, and Richie's feeling that he should be out using his AFFS training to kill Dracs, rather than lying in a cave, being a burden.

Individually, of course, these impulses are self-destructive.  The optimal recourse would be to hide, scavenge, and hope to make it through unnoticed.  However, these vignettes are intended to reflect the national espirit that arose in the people of the Federated Suns in response to the Massacre.  Whereas a string of massive military defeats had left the AFFS broken in spirit and crippled with defeatism, the urge for vengeance led troops - individuals, then squads, then entire regiments - to load up and vector for the front without orders and, once there, to fight with resolve and determination unseen in the first decade of the war.  Without organized logistics, or proper support, many surely gave their lives in futile attacks, but they kept coming (helped, no doubt, by the vast fleets of JumpShips that still existed at this stage), and began to drive the DCMS troops back by sheer weight of numbers.

By contrast, on the Combine side, the shame of the genocide being waged on Kentares warred with all the deeply ingrained cultural teachings about honor.  Despite their feelings of duty to Coordinator Jinjiro, the soldiers of the DCMS were less willing to engage in a suicidal charge for glory and honor - what honor could such a charge bring, when Jinjiro had already asked his warriors to surrender their honor in service of his cruel vengeance?  (We even see Combine troops acting directly contrary to orders and taking actions to protect small pockets of civilians on Kentares IV).

In truth, it is this sort of drive to resist that the publisher of the work hopes to elicit in 3073, during the Word of Blake's siege of New Avalon.  The message is not "hope."  That would be counter productive - as we'll see, the refugees begin to feel hope and plan for the future, and die anyways.  The message is "Resist!"  If all Federated Suns citizens were to rise up and hurl themselves at the Word of Blake, heedless of the personal cost, then the Blakists would be engulfed by the sheer numbers and ferocity of the Suns, and victory could be achieved. 

How Capellan of them...  >:D
"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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Date: December 31, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 14

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The narrator reports that they're running out food, and Richie volunteers to join the next foraging group, using his Javelin and a stolen Skimmer.  Fuller doesn't think it's a good idea to take the 'Mech out, but he's so sick he's only occasionally coherent.  The narrator told Richie where the caches were located, and hopes he can make it back with more food and medicine.  Out of the original 256 civilians that sought refuge in the copper mine, only thirty are left.

The narrator has elected not to join the scouts.  The image of the dead DCMS soldier he shot haunts his dreams.

Notes:  88.28% casualties is pretty stiff for a three month period without combat.  Looking up real-world mortality rates on persistent dysentery combined with malnutrition, studies have found rates around 14%.  Most likely, the polluted air (they mentioned not having been able to vent smoke from cookfires) and the post traumatic stress disorder and other psychological factors stemming from the Massacre also contributed.  Real world studies on populations that have suffered genocide suggest an 11% increase in suicidal tendencies.  It could also be that the mine's water had other contaminants - such as acid remaining in the water table as a side-effect of earlier mining activities (they note that the filters have gotten clogged and the purification chemicals have run out).

This also suggests that the population of the Federated Suns and the rest of the Inner Sphere were utterly unprepared for the horrors of the First Succession War.  Handling a weapon was a foreign concept, and killing someone - even an enemy soldier - remains traumatic.  The catastrophes visited on the Terran Hegemony during the Star League civil war was just something that happened to other people on the holovid news. 
« Last Edit: 29 August 2017, 14:37:21 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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Date: January 7, 2796
 
Location: Kentares IV

Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 15

Author: Uncredited
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)

Synopsis: The narrator reports that he was on guard duty at the mouth of the mine shaft when a 'Mech walked out of the forest.  Thinking it was Richie, the narrator stood up and waved at it, only afterwards realizing it wasn't a Javelin.

The 'Mech blasted the mine entrance with its arm cannon, collapsing the tunnel for a dozen meters, trapping the remaining 24 refugees inside.  With no way out, and the air growing thick, they ate the last of the food and drank all the alcohol (which they'd been saving as a disinfectant).

The narrator writes that he doesn't want to suffocate.  He counts his remaining bullets - 98 rounds - and assumes it should be enough.

Notes: A dark ending for the Kentares Massacre Journal.  Had the narrator been more alert, or less visible, there's a chance that this group might have made it - the Combine occupation ended a month later.  Of course, the presence of a Panther right at the mine entrance may not have been a coincidence.  It would have been easy to backtrack the traces left by the Javelin to the mine - especially if the foragers got caught.

This journal was published by a Federated Suns news service explicitly to boost morale during the early years of the Blakist Jihad, when New Avalon was besieged.  The utter lack of a happy ending would seem to belie this goal, however. 

As I alluded to before, though, the real message may be to emulate the militia shooters and the Javelin pilot.  It doesn't matter if you're massively outgunned and outnumbered.  Hiding and waiting only crushes morale and gets you just as dead, when your food, medicine, and air run out.  If you hit the enemy with whatever you have, you'll probably end up taking a few of them with you, and that will make it easier for the next group of resisters to take them on, eventually wearing them down to the point where they'll lose.

Mass resistance by civilian populations isn't a new thing for the BattleTech universe.  The Taurian populace engaged in several instances of mass resistance to the Star League during the middle stages of the Reunification War - human wave attacks against 'Mechs, armed with nothing more than improvised satchel charges.  Clogging the streets of major cities with civilian volunteers to trap 'Mechs in intersections that had been pre-plotted for artillery strikes.  Of course, these tactics were only effective up until the SLDF commanders resorted to orbital bombardments. 

I'm reminded of one of the lines from Babylon 5's "In the Beginning" movie:  "When they ran out of ships, they used guns. When they ran out of guns, they used knives, and sticks, and bare hands. They were magnificent. I only hope that when it is my time, I may die with half as much dignity as I saw in their eyes at the end."

With AFFS command and control decapitated, and the Haseks and Sandovals playing their own games and fighting their own wars, the news organization hopes to inspire the same sort of reaction that saved the Federated Suns at the midpoint of the First Succession War - rekindling the drive to fight, to resist, even without sufficient firepower, hoping to win through by dint of numbers and determination.

This was one of my favorite pieces to come out of the now-defunct BattleCorps site's news section.  I only wish the author had been credited - their writing really brought the tragedy and emotional impact of the Kentares Massacre to life - whereas before it had just been covered in history-textbook fashion in sourcebooks, or from the DCMS viewpoint in a pair of BattleCorps stories.
"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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Date: 2807
 
Location: Mizar

Title: The Bar Tab

Author: Michael Miller
 
Type: Adventure Seed (Touring the Stars: Mizar)

Synopsis: During the First Succession War, tourism dropped precipitously, crushing Mizar's economy.  Only the ultra-wealthy could afford to regularly visit the paradise world.  In 2807, one of those visitors was Duc Savallo, Earl of New Lundun on Tamarind, who arrived expecting that his status and wealth would lead to his every need being catered to.

Unfortunately, his party plans were thwarted due to his lack of documentation, and various other complications, stranding him at the spaceport hotel with his entourage and his Assault 'Mech, creating a delicate (and potentially explosive) situation when local authorities arrived to arrest him after he trashed the hotel.

Notes: This Adventure Seed provides a far lighter reprieve from the grim mega-destruction of the First Succession War.  Players could either take the role of the noble's household guard come to bust him out (fighting the capable Mizar militia), or play Mizarian security forces trying to rein in the Earl and keep him from destroying the bank where his debts are recorded, without creating an interstellar incident that gets Mizar added to Kenyon Marik's target list.  There are even options for AeroTech engagements as Mizar's space forces try to interdict the arrival of the Earl's guards.

A lot of fun options to showcase the rich and famous of the Inner Sphere behaving badly.

Given the ongoing total war between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Free Worlds League, though, why would a League noble feel like he could drop in on a Lyran resort world?  Especially when the League offers equivalent hospitality services on Kyeinnisan (the "Gambler's World" - home of Four Card Drax and the feared "Holy Rollers" security force).
"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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Glad you're back to doing these again :)

Mendrugo

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Date: August, 2810
 
Location: Snowdon

Title: Flight of the Raven

Author: Øystein Tvedten
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps Iron Writer)

Synopsis: The RWS Raven, a JumpShip carrying refugees from the world of Snowdon, prepares to execute an emergency jump from the nadir jump point as pirates close in.  Aboard the ship, a crewman named Helmut buckles up, noting that these must be the same pirates that sacked and destroyed Snowdon and other worlds of the Far Rim Coalition.

The ship jumps out before the pirates reach them, but still two hours ahead of optimal charge time, risking a misjump.

Notes: Øystein Tvedten has long been know as BattleTech's map guru, so this story gave him a chance to use some of the worlds he'd added to the maps when crafting the Rim Worlds Republic maps for Handbook: Major Periphery States.

Helmut's musings essentially serve as a brief sourcebook entry for the five-world Far Rim Coalition (FRC).  Mao provided food, Snowdon and Heidelburg provided raw materials, and Hirtshals and Boara had heavy industry to convert the raw materials into finished goods.

However, with the forced relocation of millions of people from the outer worlds by the SLDF, the destruction or dismantling of all industry capable of being retooled for military production, and the annexation of most of the more developed worlds by the Lyran Commonwealth, backwater systems like those of the FRC were left defenseless and lacking self-sufficiency. 

Hirtshals succumbed to economic collapse as the volume of imported raw materials proved insufficient to keep its factories running.  Mao succumbed to plagues brought by refugees from other Rim Worlds Republic worlds.  Boara, Heidlburg, and Snowdon were hit by pirates that systematically stripped worlds of advanced terraforming technology, leaving the inhabitants to die as the environment became inhospitable.

Two hours isn't much when it comes to jumping out early.  The risk of a misjump is close to 0%, and the table for misjumps shows a tiny risk of a failed jump and losing a small percentage of the accumulated charge.  (Granted - not optimal if pirates will be on you and blowing in your airlocks before then, but not too much of a technical risk.)

We have anecdotal accounts of a number of Rim Worlds Republic worlds trying to reform into political entities.  In "Starfire" from the 25 Years of Art and Fiction book, the world of Rosetta is noted as the core of the short-lived Ptolemean Province.  The Rim Collection (centered on Slewis) is one of the few that achieved stability, along with the Oberon Confederation and Greater Valkyriate.  The Circinus Federation could also be considered a successful RWR remnant, at least up until 3080.  It would have been fun if Handbook: Major Periphery States had devoted a few pages to charting the rise and fall of various multi-world proto-states in the Rim Worlds wreckage.
"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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Glad you're back to doing these again :)

Been doing an insane amount of work travel this year - made it hard to keep up with the fun stuff.  (So far this year - Paraguay, Malaysia, France, Thailand (twice), Mexico, Denmark, and Vietnam; with upcoming trips to Argentina, France, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea.)
"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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Been doing an insane amount of work travel this year - made it hard to keep up with the fun stuff.  (So far this year - Paraguay, Malaysia, France, Thailand (twice), Mexico, Denmark, and Vietnam; with upcoming trips to Argentina, France, Thailand, and Papua New Guinea.)

Wow, almost as much travel as my cousin (currently in South Africa)......

Craig
Author of 32 Battletech short stories including "The Lance Killer," "Hikagemono," "Negotiation," "The Clawing," "Salvage," "The Promise," "Reap What You Sow," "Family Ties," "The Blood of Man," "End of Message," "Heroes' Bridge," "Kurodenkou," "Thirteen," "My Father's Sword," "Evacuation," "Operation Red Lion," "A Matter of Honor," "State of Grace," "Operation Blue Tiger," "A Warrior's Fear," "Shadow Angels," "Murphy's Method," "End of the Road," (IAMTW 2019 Scribe Award nominee!), "Tales of the Cracked Canopy: Blind Arrogance," "Laws Are Silent," "No Tears," "Tales of the Cracked Canopy: Shadows of the Past," and "Three White Roses."
Novels -- Icons of War, Elements of Treason series, "Vengence Games." Upcoming: "In the Shadow of Dragons" and "Poisoned Honor" (WoR #1)

My Blogs!
Battletech:  http://thebattletechstate.blogspot.com/
Other writings: http://trboturtleswritings.blogspot.com/

Mendrugo

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Date: August, 2810
 
Location: The Rift, Survey Site 3187-A

Title: Flight of the Raven

Author: Øystein Tvedten
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps Iron Writer)

Synopsis: Following the jump, Helmut unbuckles and proceeds to the bridge, where the Raven's captain is being harangued by the captains of the DropShips being carried by the JumpShip.  The captain tells them not to worry, then has Helmut (identified as head of security) and his second clear the bridge. 

Helmut asks the captain what happened, and the response is that pirates had been waiting at the jump point in ambush.  Due to the lack of a complete charge, he jumped into the Rift.

Helmut is stunned, noting that the Rift is dead space, with no colonies, and stories that nobody ever comes out after going in.

The captain says that it's the perfect place to recharge safely, hoping to quick charge and be gone before the pirates come looking for them. 

Notes: "The Rift" is probably the genesis for what later became the "Aquila Rift" in Interstellar Players 3 - a region noted as "a dark interstellar cloud made up of molecular dust clouds dense enough to obscure the stars that lie beyond it from astronomical observations."

The jump mechanics seem a bit non-standard (befitting an Iron Writer story, where detailed K-F rule research would cut into writing time).  There's no reason that the Raven should have needed to jump into the rift instead of towards its intended destination.  It's not as though the pirates were blocking their vector - with K-F, a ship simply disappears one place and reappears another.  Anything too close gets fried. 

Perhaps the captain was worried there was an ambush party waiting at the jump points of the inhabited worlds nearby - like Zanbasa, Salisberg, or Windhoek.  Still, why not jump to an uninhabited system further rimward, rather than making an anti-spinward jump into the rift?
"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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Date: September, 2810
 
Location: The Rift, Survey Site 3187-A

Title: Flight of the Raven

Author: Øystein Tvedten
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps Iron Writer)

Synopsis: A month after the RWS Raven jumped into the Rift, it remains stranded there due to a fault in the K-F drive.  The extended stay in space has been hard on the refugees.  Survivors of the plagues on Mao, aboard the RWS Conwy, started a fire during religious services, leading to a small riot when security forces intervened.  Rationing led to increased tension, and the potential for more onboard violence.

Security Chief Helmut discusses the situation with the captain, noting that with 20,000 refugees aboard, they have two months of food and four months of water left. 

The chief engineer enters the bridge, excitedly claiming his team has completed repairs, and quadruple checked the systems.  He pronounces the ship ready to jump.  The captain shares the news with the passengers and crew later that afternoon, informing him of his plan to jump to the Mao system at 7:00 AM the following morning.

Notes: So, with 20,000 passengers, at 7 tons/month/passenger, the RWS Raven looks like it started out hauling about 400,000 tons of consumables.  I'm not sure how they cram all that in.  The class of the Raven isn't given, but the JumpShip captain is shown being harangued by six other individuals, implied to be the DropShip captains.  That would imply it has a capacity of at least 6, suggesting Star Lord class.  Mammoths were only first manufactured two years earlier, so the most likely cargo DropShips they can be carrying are the older Mule, with a capacity of 8,500 tons each in their cargo bays.  Filling those with consumables would leave them short of supplies for a three month haul by 90%.  One possibility is that the JumpShip is a Monolith with three Behemoths (each taking two hard points) and three Mules attached.  That would still only provide 238,000 tons of cargo space (as well as calling into question how the refugees got into orbit to board the Behemoths, which can't enter planetary gravity).

So, the implication is that even with an optimal loadout of cargo ships, crowding is intense and food is scarce (reaching a three month supply only with very tight rationing).
"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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Date: September, 2810
 
Location: The Rift, Survey Site 3187-A

Title: Flight of the Raven

Author: Øystein Tvedten
 
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps Iron Writer)

Synopsis:  The Raven gives the one-minute warning for the jump to the Mao system.

Notes:  The 3047 epilogue shows an Explorer Corps vessel surveying the Mao system, and noting the wreckage of a civilian JumpShip with six DropShips attached powerless and adrift.

Clearly, the repairs were insufficient - either blowing again more permanently and leaving the ship stranded in the Mao system while food riots tore it apart from the inside out, or creating a K-F field instability that caused a misjump that skragged the fusion engine, making everyone suffocate when life support backup batteries eventually failed.

Presumably, the Raven was the last bus out of the doomed Far Rim Coalition, so there wasn't anyone left alive down on Mao to answer any calls for help, and no merchants scheduled to stop in for the next two hundred years.
« Last Edit: 31 August 2017, 15:25:20 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.

Mendrugo

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Date: May 15, 2819
 
Location: Terra

Title: Intentions

Author: Paul Sjardin
 
Type: Sourcebook Fiction (The Second Succession War)

Synopsis: Conrad Toyama joins the dying Jerome Blake at a cabin in the Green Mountains, going in for last words after Michelle Dupreas (Head of ROM) and Herman Schwepps (Toyama's chief rival to succeed Blake).  The two men make small talk while Toyama neutralizes all the cameras and listening devices in the room.

Conrad confesses to Jerome that he doesn't feel ready to take over ComStar, and worries that the Houses may target Terra when the next round of fighting flares up - each seeking a technological advantage.  They speculate that, had ComStar Precentor Mordiki not publicized the Kentares Massacre, the Federated Suns would have collapsed, and the Combine would have conquered the entire Inner Sphere.  Blake tells Toyama that mankind needs to experience the full horror of war so it can burn the desire for it out of its collective soul.

When Toyama inquires about the prospect of Kerensky's return to reforge the Star League, Blake says that Kerensky didn't plan to return for centuries, if ever.

Blake proposes to let mankind burn civilization down, but for ComStar to retain the lost knowledge as a secure repository, to make the rebuilding process much faster.  He says Mordiki acted too openly - that direct involvement in Inner Sphere politics would only make ComStar appear a threat, and invite attack.  He advises Toyama to take the long view - a five-hundred year plan.

Toyama worries that such a long-range plan won't be able to survive intact beyond the lifespans of its architects.  Blake says he has a solution - create a religion to ensure the endurance of the plan.  Get people to put faith in ComStar as the only hope of preserving the future of human beings in the Inner Sphere.  All it needs is a saint.

Toyama is horrified, and refuses to turn his friend into a symbol.  Blake counters that he's been a symbol for most of his life, and says that one final sacrifice will serve to be useful for the cause.  Blake gives Toyama two noteputers - one with his real journals, and one with a new version that will support the religion plan with a prophetic flavor. 

Blake advises Toyama to gain Dupreas' support, and to make an example of Schwepps, who views ComStar from the perspective of a businessman and a politician.  He also cautions that Toyama will have to be careful in the selection of his successor, so as not to create zealots and touch off a religious war.

A few hours later, Jerome Blake has passed on.  Toyama looks at the noteputers, and takes one, along with the sealed order naming him as sole successor, then goes outside to confront Schwepps and the rest of the First Circuit, and introduce them to Toyama the tyrant.

Notes: Wow.  Simply...wow.  The original ComStar sourcebook strongly suggested that Conrad Toyama was a religious zealot who probably smothered Blake in his deathbed and then took ComStar down a religious rabbit-hole that Jerome never intended. 

"Intentions" turns all of that on its ear with a far more nuanced look at what Blake was actually trying to do, and what he intended.  It almost seems like he was channeling Hari Seldon - trying to set up the Foundation to speed the technological recovery after the fall of the Empire.

Blake was quite prophetic in his warning about the dangers of creating a religion and the importance of choosing a successor.  Toyama was succeeded by Raymond Karpov, whose brutal reign pushed the Order deep into zealot territory. 

This scene has a lot of nice tie-ins with established lore.  The "original journals" of Jerome Blake found by Anastasius Focht in 3052 make their debut appearance here.  Blake mentions a secret operation by ComStar at Gabriel (revealed during the Jihad to be a secret WarShip repository and refitting station in the Odessa system). 
« Last Edit: 01 September 2017, 08:56:45 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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