Now, the 2022 addendum:
As Phil mentioned in Shrapnel 10's intro, he received it in 2017, but there was simply nowhere to put it until the double-sized issue. When he reread it, he immediately saw some flaws in how I'd written the Clans: this was YEARS ago, and I didn't know Clans as well as i do now. Simple mistakes, but annoying ones.
MORE importantly, when I wrote the EI system, his note came back "this reads like mini-battlemechs. Reread the section in the sourcebook and make it different." and I only had about a week. ;-P
I pounded my head into the desk for a few days- I had the rest revised, but how to tweak the EI escaped me until I decided to go all in, and really sci-fi it up.
Battletech is ACTUALLY light on "speculative" sci-fi elements. Seriously- I know that sounds funny in a universe full of mechs and jumpships and such, but those are just the TOOLS. Speculative sci-fi is that WILD stuff, the stuff that looks at that "indistinguishable from magic" border between tech and understanding in its rear-view mirror, and Battletech is actually pretty light on that.
So, i went all in, figuring if I go to far, someone would real me back in. And they didn't, so, I'm super happy that Protomech pilots are now REALLY unique, they stand apart in fiction from even other Clanners, like Elementals or MechWarriors, who might have EI.
Hmm, what else? i tweaked a few of the names to make them Kickstarter names - I tossed back and forth on adding Wendigo because we (writers) want to give you (the fans) your money's worth: when you see YOUR KS Character come up, we hope we do you proud. Sure, a name check gets you into the universe, but we (writers) want to do right by you. So, killing wendigo- was I doing right by the backer? I think so and hope so: it was the right character for this story, and, hey, not many backers will go out taking out an Overlord by themselves! :-)
let's see- Phil also asked that I flesh out the paragraph about the Jihad, since many shrapnel readers are new to the universe and might not know the lore; he asked I kinda close out Amanda's story (he ALSO dug up the term "coregn" from the old FM: CC/WC books, which is AWESOME!) and Kendra and Bethany: i did Amanda's, but NOT Kendra's love life because I left a few nuggets in here for a sequel: after tinkering with this story for over a decade, i know EXACTLY what happens to the 3rd Cole Harbour Support Battalion, and I hope to park my butt and write it "soon." ;-P
Deep cuts in here include the Bowman (which, i'm not sure has ever been name checked) and the PO:HV, which are the weird tanks that ambush Epsilon, and that Amanda is assigned. Check Sarna or your print copy of TRO:Prototypes for that! Also, and this is SUPER ESOTERIC, when tanks take damage, different fluids burn with different smoke: a well trained (or experienced) mechanic can see what color smoke a tank is billowing and know exactly what's wrong with it.
When Kendra comes up to the top of the hill and various things are burning different colors: yes, it's COOL, but old M1 mechanics can also tell you what's wrong with them. ;)
Overall, I hope everyone likes the story as much as I enjoyed writing it, and, if you're a new -or thinking of becoming- writer and you take NOTHING else away from my posts, take the timeline to heart: TWELVE. YEARS.
It took twelve years and, essentially, multiple full-on revisions to get the story right and then get it into print. but if -IIII- can, so can you. believe in your work, put your butt in the seat, and just TYPE.
Sometimes, you'll just get lucky. :)