BattleTech FanFiction Tribble Emporium

[TheBrokenLance]

Tribble 575

The worst part about extended space travel is being cooped up onboard a dropship for weeks at a time, breathing the same stale air, drinking the same recycled water, and constantly banging your head, elbows, and shins on inconvenient bulkheads.  After all, when you're coming up with plans for a machine that can hurl itself plus several hundred tons of cargo out of even the deepest planetary gravity well atop giant pillars of nuclear fire, as well as sustain life in the harsh vacuum of outer space, there isn't much room to build in comfort.

So it was no surprise that, during the months-long trip from his posting at the Cappellan front back to New Avalon, First Prince-designate Hanse Davion demanded that his personal dropship be the one to make a needed supply run to the main drop-port of the planet Emerson.  Bad enough that his brother had been killed in battle.  Bad enough that Hanse suddenly had the throne thrust upon him with no warning, months away from the capital.  Bad enough war with Kurita and Liao was squeezing the AFFS on all fronts.  Dealing with those things without fresh air, real gravity, or room to stretch out was simply intolerable.

Unfortunately, as Hanse walked down the gangway, enjoying the breeze and warm sun, an unseen assassin bored a hole straight through his left temple with a hi-powered laser rifle.  The prince was dead before he even knew he'd been shot.

Several hundred light years away, Michael Hasek-Davion sat in his darkened office and smiled a shark's grin. 

[consequences]

The really hilarious thing would be if this actually managed to result in functionally zero macro scale changes to the timeline. The really hilarious thing would be if the whole hearted support of Michael Hasek for crushing the Cap Con resulted in an even bigger stomping than OTL 4SW.

[drakensis]

Tribble 576

During the Davion Civil War, a mother and daughter taking shelter on New Avalon were among the casualties of the fighting. As Alexander Davion forced his aunt Laura to retreat from the Crucis March, Mica Liao and her eight year old daughter fell prey to one of the many crossfires.

The true consequences of this became clear two years later in 2530 when Chancellor Kalvin Liao was assassinated. With his exiled sister Mica dead, Kalvin had no clear heir and it was the Capellan Confederation's turn to face civil war between rival branches of their ruling House.

Seeing that Alexander was focused on fighting Laura first, the Prince of the Capellan March, David Varney chose to try to strengthen his position by seizing vulnerable Capellan worlds and marrying his son and heir to one of the Liao claimants. By the time the First Prince had subdued his aunt and managed to hammer some co-operation from the Terran March prince, the Varnays had secured the rimwards region of the Confederation including Sian, establishing the Liao-Varnays as Prince-Chancellors and too strong for Alexander to crush.

After further indecisive battling, a grudging truce was agreed, leaving a shrunken Federated Suns under Alexander (lacking the Capellan March and the UHC worlds that never had cause to join Alexander) and a Capellan Confederation that barely holds Capella itself bordering the new realm. Wary of these borders, the Varneys wisely retain good relations with their other borders by formally confirming the Free Worlds League's right to Andurien and patching up relations with the Taurian Concordat...

A generation later, conflicts between the Federated Suns and Capellan Confederation were ended by the shrewd negotiation of Ian Cameron, laying the foundation of his proposed Star League...

[TheBrokenLance]

The really hilarious thing would be if this actually managed to result in functionally zero macro scale changes to the timeline. The really hilarious thing would be if the whole hearted support of Michael Hasek for crushing the Cap Con resulted in an even bigger stomping than OTL 4SW.

Well, you'd need to posit that MSD would have been willing to respond positively to Katrina Steiner's 3020 peace proposal, and that Katrina wouldn't have twigged him as the untrustworthy slimeball he seems to have been.  I don't think it's a controversial thought that the 4SW beatdown of the CapCon wouldn't really have been possible without the FedCom alliance.

Tribble 576 . . .

Oh man, this is wild.  Even in canon the FS nearly folded during both the War of the Davion Succession and in the 1st Succession War...if either of those conflicts still happen - or if the DCMS has any reason to make an all-out grab for New Avalon - I'm not sure a reduced Suns could hold them.  A Succession War scenario where Liao and Kurita race to grab as much as they can from a dying FS while Marik and Steiner look on in uneasy approbation that the Dragons will be turning on them next...yikes!

[consequences]

Well, you'd need to posit that MSD would have been willing to respond positively to Katrina Steiner's 3020 peace proposal, and that Katrina wouldn't have twigged him as the untrustworthy slimeball he seems to have been.  I don't think it's a controversial thought that the 4SW beatdown of the CapCon wouldn't really have been possible without the FedCom alliance.

It's certainly a disputable thought.  Using a 2.4 to one numerical advantage to achieve crushing local superiority while actively hobbled by having to work around the top man on the border isn't exactly something that required Lyran intervention. With Michael actively plotting against the CC, that adds more units, assets, and transport to the table, and without him selling out troop movements to make Hanse look bad the 5th Crucis are less likely to lose their mech regiment, the Kestrel Grenadiers might not get chewed up, and assorted other reverses might not happen. The only real impediment would be a potential lack of vision keeping him from running the numbers on shipping availability and realizing he can simultaneously crush about a quarter of the CCAF as his opening move while seizing up to six of the ten or so critical industrial targets.

With regards to Katrina, as seen by her using Freddie's message to Allessandro as delivered by Ryan, she is completely willing to make use of slimeballs, and if Michael manages to restrain himself from demanding that she kiss his feet while making Melissa his concubine, he will still be far and away the least awful option.

[drakensis]

Chances are fair to middling that Michael Hasek-Davion responds to the peace proposal the same way as Janos and Maximilian: "Sure, just marry your daughter to my heir."

Being fair, Morgan would probably be a decent candidate for that, but Katrina would be unlikely to take it any more seriously than she did the other responses.

[TheBrokenLance]

It's certainly a disputable thought.  Using a 2.4 to one numerical advantage to achieve crushing local superiority while actively hobbled by having to work around the top man on the border isn't exactly something that required Lyran intervention. With Michael actively plotting against the CC, that adds more units, assets, and transport to the table, and without him selling out troop movements to make Hanse look bad the 5th Crucis are less likely to lose their mech regiment, the Kestrel Grenadiers might not get chewed up, and assorted other reverses might not happen. The only real impediment would be a potential lack of vision keeping him from running the numbers on shipping availability and realizing he can simultaneously crush about a quarter of the CCAF as his opening move while seizing up to six of the ten or so critical industrial targets.

I'm certainly no expert, but it was my understanding that there were two considerations in play: first, the ability of the FedSuns economy to support a massed military offensive (especially with regards to transport assets), and second, the concern that diversion of too much force from the Draconis March would leave the door open for a DCMS strike.  In canon, I thought that Lyran money and jumpships led to increased development in the FedSuns, while the large-scale, broad-front offensive by the LCAF into Combine space during the opening moves of the 4SW diverted the DCMS from really laying into the Draconis March the way they could have (to say nothing of Wolf's Dragoons gutting the better part of an entire Military District's worth of line troops by themselves).

This isn't to say that MHD couldn't do real damage to the Cappellans.  Ridzik is still a slimeball, the CCAF is still (comparatively) tiny and poorly equipped, and the AFFS's RCTs (when not suffering from Mechwarrior Cabal-itis and fully brought to bear) are bigger, better equipped, and more doctrinally flexible than most of what the CCAF has.   Still, the Warrior Houses are very tough combined-arms elite units, the Cappellans love their dirty tricks, and if you squint a bit it kinda looks like the battalion-based organizational structure that the pre-4SW CCAF adopted had the seeds of a good combined arms doctrine in miniature.  I don't think they're a pushover unless you can bring absolutely overwhelming force to bear (which is what happened in canon).  Also I don't think it's possible to overestimate the value of having Justin Allard on the inside.  I'm not sure that still happens the same way if MSD is running the show.

Also, I agree that I don't think MHD is in the same league as Hanse when it comes to strategic vision.

Maybe an alt-universe Operation:RAT would involve a strike to take and hold the St. Andre-Tsitang-Second Try line, and possibly the Poznan-Pleione-Gan Singh line as well, thus cutting off Tikonov (while notably isolating Senior Col. Ridzik's own holding on Styk).  Then dig in and dare the CCAF to come and take the worlds back in the teeth of multiple full RCTs, all the while tempting Ridzik with leadership over a reborn Tikonov Grand Union.  That still cripples the Cappellans without being a full 4SW steamroll-stomp.  Also makes the Terran corridor really fun.

With regards to Katrina, as seen by her using Freddie's message to Allessandro as delivered by Ryan, she is completely willing to make use of slimeballs, and if Michael manages to restrain himself from demanding that she kiss his feet while making Melissa his concubine, he will still be far and away the least awful option.

I agree that Katrina can use slimeballs.  But using one isn't the same as jumping into bed with one.

[TheBrokenLance]

#577 

The Free Worlds League has always been a fractious place, where germanium is easier to come by than genuine trust.  As a result, when SAFE finally induced a Lyran engineer to defect with the specifications for Battlemechs in 2462, a wild debate immediately flared up behind the closed doors of the League Defense Ministry and in the supervising Parliamentary committees.   Each member-state desperately wanted the technology for itself, wanted to prevent their rivals or competitors from getting their hands on it, and was terrified of letting the federal government and power-hungry Captain-General monopolize it.

The debate raged for weeks, with increasingly extreme rhetoric and espionage swirling, until finally an Oriente representative, displaying the trademark Allison diplomatic tact, suggested a compromise: (1) each province would be provided a copy of the schematics and allowed to make full use of them, and (2) in order to allay fears of overweening federal military might, the federal government would be forbidden from raising federal 'mech units. 

The Captain-General was, of course, furious with this proposal, but other members of the family pointed out to him that the Marik Commonwealth could raise all the 'mech units it wanted, and could do with them as it wished, without having to answer to Oriente, Regulus, or any of the other member-states.  Also, regiments and divisions of 'mechs were expensive, and the League's pride and joy was the Navy.

Opposition from the executive aside, the proposal was instantly popular.  It only became moreso as the smaller members were gradually bought off with promises of subsidies to bootstrap their own self-defense 'mech units.

As a result, while the LCAF, DCMS, AFFS, and CCAF all succumbed to varying degree to the "cult of the 'mechwarrior," in the FWLM, the humble infantryman and hot-shot fighter jock remained the dominant service branches, retaining the lion's share of the defense budget.  Power Armor becomes a heavily-invested in area, and rapidly becomes the most advanced outside of the Terran Hegemony.  By the time 3025 rolls around, huge swathes of the Free Worlds League might as well be the Periphery in terms of the number and quality of 'mechs available, and though a few provincial units are better most FWL 'mechs are something of a joke.  Instead, it's the humble grunts and tankers who win Marik's victories for them, with combat exoskeletons and even rudimentary powered armor.   

[VhenRa]

It's certainly a disputable thought.  Using a 2.4 to one numerical advantage to achieve crushing local superiority while actively hobbled by having to work around the top man on the border isn't exactly something that required Lyran intervention. With Michael actively plotting against the CC, that adds more units, assets, and transport to the table, and without him selling out troop movements to make Hanse look bad the 5th Crucis are less likely to lose their mech regiment, the Kestrel Grenadiers might not get chewed up, and assorted other reverses might not happen. The only real impediment would be a potential lack of vision keeping him from running the numbers on shipping availability and realizing he can simultaneously crush about a quarter of the CCAF as his opening move while seizing up to six of the ten or so critical industrial targets.

With regards to Katrina, as seen by her using Freddie's message to Allessandro as delivered by Ryan, she is completely willing to make use of slimeballs, and if Michael manages to restrain himself from demanding that she kiss his feet while making Melissa his concubine, he will still be far and away the least awful option.

I'll point out, according to intelligence operations handbook, that assassination that just "Hanse, in the spaceport, with a laser rifle" was supported by the Cappies. MHD had been turned already.

[Trace Coburn]

  I recently recalled reading one of Cannonshop’s Ngo-verse fics where a Kowloonese cadet’s atypical performance in an exercise led inspectors to realise that the Nagelring was, and had been for decades, rigging exercises and skewing evaluations in what was functionally a grades-for-sale scheme, artificially inflating the performance of noble scions while unconnected cadets with actual skills and instincts (it was a nigh-Dark Age fic, so Phelan Kell was raised as an example) were either sandbagged-to-hell or just plain forced out in favour of their ‘betters’.  I think it was even hinted that this went as far back at the twenty-seventh century, and that a certain A.S. Kerensky might have benefited from such ‘over-polished’ evaluations.

  Leading me to Tribble #578:

  At some point in the Succession Wars, perhaps just after 1SW tapers off, the LC leadership take a good, long, hard look at the way the DCMS (and to a slightly lesser extent the FWLM) have repeated beaten the LCAF like a government mule and realise that Something Must Be Done about the state of the Lyran military.  (Much like the débâcle of Kasserine Pass made it clear that walking monuments to ineptitude like Lloyd Fredendall could not be tolerated in combat posts in time of war.)  The Archon, or a trusted agent thereof, puts together a handpicked working group, chosen explicitly for their competence and loyalty rather than noble rank or respect therefore, who proceed to take a chainsaw and a fusion-flamer to the deadwood in the LCAF.  The Nagelring program and the instructors are found to be hopelessly inept and/or corrupt and are either purged ruthlessly and replaced with honest and skilled educators, or completely disestablished in favour of institutions that teach actual military competence instead of being a glorified prep-school.  All officers are re-evaluated, and those promoted past their competence are demoted back to where their talents lie, if not outright cashiered or court-martialed for crimes committed in uniform (peculation being rampant, for instance); better to have their regiments led by brevet-Kommandants with energy and brains than by Colonels with wine-cellars and ‘the right kind of name(s)’.

  If nothing else, witnessing the glorious carnage of such a bureaucratic bloodletting would be cathartic to many a Lyran fan, as well as those who’ve ever had to deal with those kinds of people.

  (For the record, I was going to have throwaway references to something like this happening in the LC in later installments of The Virginia War, but even if I ever actually reach that point in those fics, it’s not directly relevant to events in the Cavaretta Expanse.)

[Intermittent_Coherence]

  (it was a nigh-Dark Age fic, so Phelan Kell was raised as an example)

Even if it was feasible for the Nagelring to be corrupt as hell(and I can certainly see it) I am unsure if Phelan Kell makes for a valid example of having been forced out in favor of better connected noble scions. Unconnected Phelan is not.

On a side note, I would be interested to know more about what the heck is going on in the Cavaretta.

[Dave Talley]

and Phelan is an arrogant jackass, who in his families regiment wasnt even a lance commander

[gladius]

  I recently recalled reading one of Cannonshop’s Ngo-verse fics where a Kowloonese cadet’s atypical performance in an exercise led inspectors to realise that the Nagelring was, and had been for decades, rigging exercises and skewing evaluations in what was functionally a grades-for-sale scheme, artificially inflating the performance of noble scions while unconnected cadets with actual skills and instincts (it was a nigh-Dark Age fic, so Phelan Kell was raised as an example) were either sandbagged-to-hell or just plain forced out in favour of their ‘betters’.  I think it was even hinted that this went as far back at the twenty-seventh century, and that a certain A.S. Kerensky might have benefited from such ‘over-polished’ evaluations.

A similar subplot showed up in the Bruce Quest, with a Dukes people screwing with Nagalring applications, failing low class people who actually passed, and demanding bribes to ‘retest’.

[Trace Coburn]

Even if it was feasible for the Nagelring to be corrupt as hell (and I can certainly see it) I am unsure if Phelan Kell makes for a valid example of having been forced out in favor of better connected noble scions. Unconnected Phelan is not.

and Phelan is an arrogant jackass, who in his families regiment wasnt even a lance commander

  I’m still trying to find the story in question to confirm, but IIRC, Cannonshop’s ‘Word of Author’ on the matter was that at a remove of a century or so, the details had gotten a little blurred; Phelan’s actual history and tale-of-woe had been pop-culture-distilled down to “A guy with enough chops to become Khan of Clan Wolf got turfed out of the Nagelring to go merc because the faculty Did Not Like His Style”.

[Takiro]

Just some real life lessons I've learned the hard way which impacts your wonderful Nagelring purge twist. The 'Betters' will fight back anyway they can and after the reform Archon is gone these establishment types and their kin will be back. I'm not saying they will violently resist mind you but using their strengths (connections, wealth, etc.) to make life difficult for the Archon's new pets and weather the storm. Remember they are good at doing nothing and sitting bye watching time go bye. Purging them completely from the Lyran state means you'd fundamentally have to alter it at it's very foundations.

Incidentally one of my favorite movies is In Harm's Way which is another John Wayne wins WW2 piece. Way dated nowadays the theme of said pic could be very helpful to your concept Trace. Basically an inept prewar Admiral ain't getting the job done but he has powerful connections that the higher ups realize can't simply be overcome. Their solution is to basically keep him in his position as strategic commander but place Wayne's character in full tactical command. I won't ruin the movie for you if your interested (I know the battle are toy boats, it's a black and white, etc.) but suffice it to say things work out. I've always thought the them plays out in real life as corruption is tolerated in peacetime but when stuff hits the fan well it's time to get someone in here who can do the job no matter how gruff they are.

Of course with my alternate loving self and Battletech I did create a setting were a Steiner Warlord created a far different nation rather than suffer Lyran military ineptitude any further. The Teutonic Domians was essentially the Protectorate of Donegal that went hardcore militarist inspired by historic examples of the distant past. Think Prussia and WW1 era German Empire. A rump Skye Commonwealth remained however with much of the wealth, culture, and industry of the Lyran state intact.

[consequences]

I'll point out, according to intelligence operations handbook, that assassination that just "Hanse, in the spaceport, with a laser rifle" was supported by the Cappies. MHD had been turned already.

And he was planning to turn on them at the opportune moment for at least as long. Concentrating effort in the Combine initially costs him little to nothing and lulls Max into a false sense of security, and as seen in OTL the staging areas for a thrust to seize Dieron work just fine for carving Tikonov up like a roast.

In the long term I don't see it working out great for the FS due to Michael lacking inspirational vision, but in the short term without the focus on research and Outback uplifting there would be more resources to throw at the war.

[drakensis]

#579

As the Succession Wars raged on, the Periphery States continued their laborious rebuilding from the Uprising and received a sudden but unsettling influx of refugees from the wars. After the first few raids they quickly learn that showing any prosperity draws unwelcome attention from the still mighty Successor States and new development quickly shifts to worlds well away from (and preferably unknown to) the Successor States. This habit is quickly picked up on by other smaller states. While there are persistent reports that some hidden developments are going on, the Successor States assume it's relatively minor. They couldn't be more wrong.

In 3004, Katrina Steiner flees into the periphery and blunders into the truth - the Inner Sphere is in fact a tiny backwater compared to several large and sprawling Periphery states that enjoy technology on par with the Star League. And unlike many men and women who found this out and were silenced (or just made new homes their away from the madness), Katrina manages to return to the Inner Sphere.

Her later Peace Proposal had very little to do with ending the Succession Wars and everything to do with trying to achieve some sort of reconciliation with the mighty neighbours who are increasingly aware that the Inner Sphere has no way of oppressing them again.

[Trace Coburn]

Just some real life lessons I've learned the hard way which impacts your wonderful Nagelring purge twist. The 'Betters' will fight back anyway they can and after the reform Archon is gone these establishment types and their kin will be back. I'm not saying they will violently resist mind you but using their strengths (connections, wealth, etc.) to make life difficult for the Archon's new pets and weather the storm. Remember they are good at doing nothing and sitting bye watching time go bye. Purging them completely from the Lyran state means you'd fundamentally have to alter it at [its] very foundations.

  Oh, I don’t doubt there’d be all kinds of passive resistance and active pushback.  Would it get to Black Dragon levels of subversion or even open rebellion by the nobility?  We’d have to write/play it out and see, I guess.  Hell, it might even spark a full-blown popular uprising and overthrow of the established aristocracy, in the style of the French Revolution or the English Civil War....

Incidentally one of my favorite movies is In Harm's Way which is another John Wayne wins WW2 piece. Way dated nowadays the theme of said pic could be very helpful to your concept Trace. Basically an inept prewar Admiral ain't getting the job done but he has powerful connections that the higher ups realize can't simply be overcome. Their solution is to basically keep him in his position as strategic commander but place Wayne's character in full tactical command. I won't ruin the movie for you if your interested (I know the battle are toy boats, it's a black and white, etc.) but suffice it to say things work out. I've always thought the them plays out in real life as corruption is tolerated in peacetime but when stuff hits the fan well it's time to get someone in here who can do the job no matter how gruff they are.

  I remember seeing parts of that movie as a kid, though I was too young to understand the full context and was mainly there for stuff blowing up.  I’ve actually been trying to find a copy on DVD that won’t kill me with the shipping costs/exchange rate/Region-locks.  :-\

Of course with my alternate loving self and Battletech I did create a setting were a Steiner Warlord created a far different nation rather than suffer Lyran military ineptitude any further. The Teutonic [Domains] was essentially the Protectorate of Donegal that went hardcore militarist inspired by historic examples of the distant past. Think Prussia and WW1 era German Empire. A rump Skye Commonwealth remained however with much of the wealth, culture, and industry of the Lyran state intact.

  Sounds like something worth reading — did it ever get posted anywhere?


EDIT: drakensis... shut up and take my C-bills!

[Intermittent_Coherence]

  Oh, I don’t doubt there’d be all kinds of passive resistance and active pushback.  Would it get to Black Dragon levels of subversion or even open rebellion by the nobility?  We’d have to write/play it out and see, I guess.  Hell, it might even spark a full-blown popular uprising and overthrow of the established aristocracy, in the style of the French Revolution or the English Civil War....
 

Oh it would very much take a conflagaration resembling those two to make such reforms stick. The Black Dragon after all waited a generation to make their move. This aristocracy has been entrenched for far longer. Their means of accumulating and exerting influence deeply ingrained into Lyran society. I can easily see them splitting between reformist and traditionalist lines. With several families including possibly the Steiners themselves likely splitting as well, thus creating a Wars of the Roses scenario as well.

#579
Her later Peace Proposal had very little to do with ending the Succession Wars and everything to do with trying to achieve some sort of reconciliation with the mighty neighbours who are increasingly aware that the Inner Sphere has no way of oppressing them again.

Cue the Dracs trying magic bushido hands. And hilarity ensued.

And yes, gonna echo Trace here. Take my C-bills and write it!

[wolfcannon]

i have the Movie.  DVD came in a 3 movie pack of John Wayne.   Donovan's Reef, Hatari, In Harms Way

[TheBrokenLance]

drakensis... shut up and take my C-bills!

SECONDED!  Hordes of Angry Space Amish Fighter-Aces When?!?!?

[Takiro]

Of course with my alternate loving self and Battletech I did create a setting were a Steiner Warlord created a far different nation rather than suffer Lyran military ineptitude any further. The Teutonic Domains was essentially the Protectorate of Donegal that went hardcore militarist inspired by historic examples of the distant past. Think Prussia and WW1 era German Empire. A rump Skye Commonwealth remained however with much of the wealth, culture, and industry of the Lyran state intact.

  Sounds like something worth reading — did it ever get posted anywhere?

No, I have not previously but let me layout my third massive BattleTech setting which I call Revisionaries (or Splinters if you prefer).

The survival of Charles Sinclair as the cyborg hero of ComStar on Tukayyid creates a nemesis for the “Master” Thomas Marik. Events between them escalate to the Battle of Terra were ComStar aided by a mercenary coalition defeat the Blakist Operation Odysseus. This gives birth to the Terran Union which is essentially a reborn Hegemony at the center of the InnerSphere backed by ComStar. Its expansion fostered by mercenary defections and popular uprising against the Great Houses leads to a far different Whitting Conference.

Instead of a united Star League a divided InnerSphere is the result with the Word of Blake, Lyran Alliance, and Free Worlds League all pledging to crush the Terran Union. They are joined by hardliners from the Draconis Combine and Federated Suns but as war descended some realized the Clan threat had to be dealt with. [The location of the Clan Homeworlds are never discovered] This Heroic Coalition led of course by Victor Ian Steiner Davion and Focht vows to eject the Invading Clans from the InnerSphere no matter the cost.

With two major wars going on at the same a lot is happening but the results are a wholesale reshaping of the InnerSphere. The Terran Union survives as the Capellan Confederation grows but the rest of the Houses are almost unrecognizable. The Clans are effectively split with the Wardens (Ghost Bear as part of the Rasalhague Dominion, Wolf as part of the Arc Royal Defense Concord, Nova Cat as the Alshain Holdfast, Snow Raven as the United Outworlds, Diamond Shark as the Rim Protectorate, Steel Viper as the Finmark Stronghold) absorbed by the InnerSphere. The Crusaders are forced to retreat to retreat and of course vow revenge.

The Free Worlds League is sundered into four different states - the Marik League, Orand Alliance (Oriente and Andurien - anti-Liao), Regulan States, and the Tamarind District - after Thomas the Imposter is exposed. The Lyran Alliance is similarly destroyed by revelations that Katherine murdered here parents and tried to sabotage the anti-Clan force. John Dinesen Steiner one of those heroes and illegimate son of Frederick Steiner founds the new Teutonic Domains as the Arc Royal Concord goes its own way along with the Skye Commonwealth.

The St. Ives Compact is still lingering around and I was even thinking about a partnership with the Hell's Horses instigated by the great Kai Allard Liao. Like the Capellan Confederation it grows at the expense of a reduced Federated Suns which is devastated by the death Victor Ian Steiner-Davion. The Edgeward Coalition is born as a result of internal upheavals based on Filtvelt. The Draconis Combine is not spared either as even Uncle Chandy's leadership is not enough to prevent the Arkab League from breaking away.

I know a lot of broad strokes but it is in development....

[Daryk]

Re: #579:

So, Drakensis… is the title of this one "Chapterhouse: Tharkad"?  ^-^

[drakensis]

Something like that!

[Daryk]

Sweet... I'd read that one in a heartbeat...  :thumbsup:

[SulliMike23]

#580

As the debate over who would be First Lord of the Star League bogged down, and the First Succession War ended, one man from a neutral party arrived on Terra and said, “ENOUGH!!! If one of you wants to be First Lord of the Star League then why don’t the lot of you fight it out and leave the rest of the Inner Sphere out of it!” With that, the man stormed out of the conference leaving everyone in the room balking at the sheer audacity he had displayed.

Later, that same man apologized for his words but gave a suggestion to, possibly, bring about a more peaceful solution rather than allow the Inner Sphere fall into another war; he called it the Star League Fight of Succession. He proposed that representatives from the Successor States and Periphery Realms send their best MechWarriors to Solaris 7 and fight until one was left standing. The winner’s nation would win the right to claim the title First Lord of the Star League for a period of 5 years before the next fight began. Surprisingly, even ComStar was invited to compete in it.

The House Lords salivated at the idea and, with great reluctance, agreed to it. Thus the Star League Succession Fights began with each nation having at least won the right at least once each. Even ComStar won the right a couple of times

When Wolf’s Dragoons arrive to the Inner Sphere to take their first contract, they are surprised and how these fights were similar to the Trials the Clans participated in and reported it back to the Homeworlds. Now the Clans have a dilemma; should they allow this competition to continue, should they invade, or should they send representatives from each of their clans to participate?

[Intermittent_Coherence]

#580

I saw this plot in a movie somewhere. One on one mech combat in place of large generational conflicts.
On the plus side, without the wholesale destruction of infrastructure, they may well match and possibly even surpass Clan tech.

[SulliMike23]

I got the idea from Robot Jox and G Gundam.

[Greatclub]

Not so much a tribble, but for some reason I want to see a story with the federated suns going over the line of righteous and well into the territory of self-righteous

[TheBrokenLance]

Not so much a tribble, but for some reason I want to see a story with the federated suns going over the line of righteous and well into the territory of self-righteous

You may like the Darius Davion stories, if you haven't already read them.  Even if they're not quite what you're thinking of, they're also very funny.