Date: August 28, 3002
Location: Maldive
Title: Unlimited Honor
Author: Michael A. Stackpole
Type: Novella (HBS BattleTech)
Synopsis: In Rivergaard, the Proctor Martial and First Proctor discuss the lack of evidence of fighting in South Riding and West March, as well as suspicious artifacts in the holovid feed. The Proctor Martial suspects that the Rivergaard Rangers have merged with the Andrich Uhlans to form an undamaged reinforced regiment that has reinforced its positions and set traps for Collective forces. He proposes striking at Richland and, after Andrich's surrender, folding his forces into the Collective's for an attack on the Rangers. The First Proctor anticipates that none of the lesser houses will move to support Oglethorpe, especially after the finale of The Mystery, scheduled to air that night. They mutually acknowledge that the entire "Revolution" is a facade aimed at putting them in power by getting the masses to buy into an ascetic philosophy of self abnegation and subservience, endorsed.
At Oglethorpe's HQ in Baronville, Sophia and Walter discuss future plans. She tells him she doesn't just see him as a mercenary doing a job, just as she doesn't see herself as the same person she was when the Collective attacked. She feels that she was able to grow into a new self on Solaris, with Walter's help, and doesn't want to change back. They declare their love for each other and reminisce about how their relationship began at Golden Prosperity.
In Rivergaard, Proctor Steadfast Court sets up a Holovision deck to watch the showing of The Mystery, using a set provided by Weldon Ryther, along with limited edition Aniki and Mystery Mercenary dolls. The setting reminds her of her life as Bethany, and she tries to smother the emotions that link her to that purposeless existence. She looks forward to seeing Aniki and the Mystery Mercenary delivering her lines about loyalty, self-sacrifice, courage, and compassion, all in service to the Collective.
The dolls announce it is time for the show to start, and the HV player activates. At the key scene, Aniki asks why the Mystery Mercenary is leaving her to return to Maldive. However, instead of putting on the proctor's robe and declaring his loyalty to the Collective, the Mystery Mercenary tears it in half and removes his mask to reveal himself as Ivan Litzau, who sworn to free his people. The Aniki doll confirms the holo-Ivan's statement, and says she is coming as well, and the Ivan doll calls on the viewers to rise up and overthrow the Collective.
Terrified, Steadfast puts on a coat and goes to the roof, seeing people already beginning to gather in the streets. A Collective Locust marches towards them, blaring warnings to return home and firing warning shots from the machine guns, but the crowd instead charges the 'Mech, swarming up the legs and attacking the joints. The panicked pilot begins to back away. She sees the Revolutionary Guards pouring from their garrison led by the Proctor Martial's Crusader, which opens fire on the civilians in the streets. Shimmying down a fire escape, Steadfast races to the Barringtons' studio to shut down the transmissions, but finds the studio already on fire when she arrives, surrounded by chanting crowds. Redirecting her steps to Collective Center, she reassures herself that the First Proctor will have a plan.
At the former Litzau Enterprises building, Walter's two mercenary companies detect incoming contacts, and they move to keep the Collective forces from escaping. The quickly smash the first wave, but Bozeman then reports that the entire Collective regiment is headed their way, trying for a breakout.
At Collective Center, Steadfast is shocked to find the First Proctor in civilian clothes loading valuables into a bag. Steadfast says they can still save the revolution, but the First Proctor admits that the revolution was a sham designed to give dispossessed Dhivi families their rightful share of the world's resources, and that the revolution would have collapsed in another six months at most. The shattering of Abigail's mind was just to get revenge on the Litzaus, rather than to bind the revolutionaries together. When Steadfast begs her to stay, the First Proctor draws a flechette pistol and shoots her, saying she needs to get on a DropShip and depart.
At Walter's position, the Revolutionary Guards, led by the Proctor Martial in what Walter recognizes as Hake Angleton's former Crusader, engages the containment force. Walter engages the larger 'Mech to draw its attention while his troops pick off the Proctor Martial's escorts. Despite heavily damaging the Crusader, Walter's Blackjack suffers a critical gyroscope hit, and crashes to the ground, unable to move.
At the Rivergaard Spaceport, the First Proctor tries to pass for a refugee hoping for a berth on a DropShip. She remains surprised how dedicated the people of Rivergaard are to the duties assigned them by the Collective - noting that the pre-Revolution elitist society hadn't allowed the common people to matter, so they held onto any responsibility given them, no matter the source. Unfortunately, the notes, that includes the security guards checking papers at the port perimeter. At the checkpoint, she identifies herself as Miranda Buera, bound for Itrom. The guard tells her to proceed to another man, who will take care of her. She presents her documents to the other man, and is stunned when he reveals himself as Calvin Galarza and places her under arrest. He notes that they tracked her movements via the action figure that was given to her.
In his Blackjack cockpit, Walter waits to die, but before the Crusader can fire its lasers into his cockpit, it comes under fire from Ivan's Trebuchet and Aniki's Catapult. Their combined fire sends the Crusader crashing to the ground, while the Rivergaard Rangers continue to grind down the Revolutionary Guards, eventually finishing them off.
Dismounting, Walter and Ivan note that the Final Vetting started right at that spot, and wonders what his mother would think of his adventure. Walter tells Ivan she'd be proud, and welcomes Ivan home as Chairman Litzau.
Notes: The origins of the Collective begin to be revealed, as the First Proctor mentions that she has a grandchild on Itrom, a war-scarred (radioactive in portions) world that was one of the founders of the Aurigan Coalition - making another slight tie-in to the HBS game. Earlier hints that the upper echelons weren't as committed as Steadfast now pay off with the reveal that disaffected and impressionable people like Steadfast have been duped into committing atrocities in the name of a philosophy that serves as a smokescreen for con-artists seeking to loot the world.
The ideals of the Collective seem fairly general-purpose, though we haven't seen much evidence of Compassion in its true-believers, unless their sadism has allowed them to convince themselves that their victims will arrive at a better state of existence through their ministrations.
The twist with the holo-production company and the dolls was solidly telegraphed from earlier setups, and so doesn't feel as unearned as the Andrich Uhlans deception. The First Proctor's taking the time to explain to Steadfast the full details and background of the plot felt very forced, and unlikely as the actions of someone in a hurry to get out of town in a hurry, however. Why bother telling her that the revolution was a sham if she was just going to shoot Steadfast in any event? Had her earnest fervor annoyed the First Proctor enough that she wanted to see the look in her eyes when she learned the Revolution was a lie?
I'm not clear on what the Proctor Martial's plan was. If there were DropShips departing the world mid-battle, why weren't the Revolutionary Guards heading that way? If they managed to get out of Rivergaard, where would they go? Perhaps they could take over another settlement or scatter to the wilderness, but they won't have the same popular support or technical resources, so they'd just be delaying their destruction. A better plan would have been to converge on the spaceport, slaughter any Litzau loyalists there, and use the 'Mechs to hold the perimeter long enough for the Collective elites to get on board. Galarza would've had a hard time arresting a regiment of Revolutionary Guards.