Battletech CYOA – Ghostrider Revenants
This work of fiction is based on Fitzgerald’s CYOA but with some changes like the initial locations because I get ones already show in other works, and some small details to turn this a bit more interesting.
The hardware was selected using Sarna.net, TRO 3028 (yes, I know is not cannon) and some others.
This universe also include parts of the locations, people and actions / history of the HBS game Battletech – Restoration.
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Waking up with a tremendous headache even if I didn’t remember drinking a lot last night, I turned up the lights I before finding out that I wasn’t in my bedroom. What the Hell ? Looking in the mirror, I see a complete stranger looking at me, a guy of about twenties, blond, taller than I ever was and very muscular. Not at all,my usual 56 year old body that nobody says is in good shape these days.
My heart started racing before my head deciding to make a sense of everything. The last things I remember was that just a few hours back I got home from another day of boring work, repairing damaged computers and remotely assisting the few corporate clients that I still have. After dinner, I played some computer games to distract my mind from the boring life of a divorced 56 older computer programmer / technician with bad health and no close relatives or many friends. And now here I am but where am I?
Then I was hit by a series of memories that were clearly not mine - memories of another life. I’m a 20 year old male (thank God no change of sex ), named Jean-Luc Bassot, single, living in New Vandenberg, recently expelled from the Taurian Defense Force because of a scandal with the daughter of the major and therefore unemployed and to add another cliche to this list orphan. A kick look to what looks like a calendar in this house tells me that the date is January the 1st 3015.
It must be a dream – a strange one for sure. Normally my dreams don’t put me in a life of someone with so low perspectives, I am usually a king, a spy or … Someone must have a wicked sense of humor. I just hope that I wake up fast in order for me to return to my boring life.
Thankfully this loser still has a minimal bank account, so I just spend the next days wandering around the city and waiting for this really crappy dream to end.
At least I know this universe rather well – thank God my dream didn’t send me in one of the few horror or medieval movies that I sometimes saw. But if I had to be in the Battletech universe, why didn’t I dream I was in one of the big capitals, like Tharkad – forget that, too cold - or New Avalon and was a healthy noble? Not even in my dreams am I lucky, just perfect.
As the days go by – while the money fades away and depression comes – without me awakening or returning to my normal life, I get a little suspicion that this might not really be a dream but that somehow a very ‘funny’ BROB (Bored Random Omniscient Bastard / Being) send me to this body to have this crappy life. At least I don’t have to share this body with another mind – I ‘only’ got the body, the physical capabilities and the memories of Jean-Luc. The body is very fit, and in a manly way, good looking. The minus is that he isn’t a very educated person and that might be an understatement, so I don’t get many information about this new world.
I or rather this other guy – Jean-Luc Bassot – don’t have great professional capabilities and having been expelled from the military doesn’t help, as I quickly find out , after trying to get employed in five or six companies. After the incident (that’s how he refers to it), he has no friend left. And, as could be expected, my 21st century skills with computers and programming are useless (and I have no money or access to re-train in ‘up-to-date’ systems), and all the info on the Battletech lore I have can’t be used when one is a poor unemployed, without contacts, in other words, a nobody in the Periphery.
Apparently, it is very difficult in this era to get access to an education in computer programming – only the military (thanks for failing in that area, dude), a few companies or very few high level university provides it.
I finally got a job – operating heavy machinery or unloading ships by hand at the sea port. The best I can say about it is that it pays the bills but barely.
My only distractions, apart from writing everything I remember of the extensive Battletech lore (just to keep my mind sane), are hitting the local gym club, a dojo (this guy is a decent martial artist) and read everything I can put my hands on regarding history and science. I need to learn things about this universe other than the bits and pieces from the books written in another universe as there seems to be small differences between both “universes”. For example, one day, hearing in the news a tidbit about a small neighborhood nation, I discovered that the Aurigan Coalition exist in this universe and is ruled by House Arano. To most people here and then, it wouldn’t mean much but to me it just shows that it is not exactly a lore rigid universe and I wonder what other deviations might exist?
Another day, maybe three months after my “arrival” (it is amazing how one can forget how many days have passed), just after getting up from bed, I heard the phone ringing.
“Yes?”
"Mister Jean-Luc Bassot?”
“Yes, I’m Jean-Luc Bassot. Who’s speaking?”
This is the secretary of Victor Blaise from the Law Office of Blaise, Thiers & Chevotet. Hold on please."
Great – lawyers in the morning, the perfect start for a normal day.
“Mister Bassot, good morning, we are the executors of the will of the late Edward Jeremy, from the Jeremy’s Consortium."
“The Magnate?”
"Yes, sir. Because you are included in is will. We hope you can visit our office to discuss these maters in more detail."
I get a chance after all!!! Wait, is this that kind of situation? I have read and played several adventures that started like this – all in this universe after all.
The address provided is in the same city, so after breakfast – looking to the calendar, now is April the 3rd – and changing in the only decent outfit I have, I went to said location.
The offices of B, T & C are huge, they occupy an entire impressive building in the richest area of New Vandenberg (the capital and the planet). As soon as I say my name at the reception, I’m led to the personal office of one of the senior partners, in this case Victor Blaise itself.
I’m greeted by a distinguished old man, slender with white air.
“Mr Bassot,it is a pleasure to finally met you. I’m Victor Blaise, one of the senior partners oft his company and a close friend of you late father. Your military medical record confirms that you are related to our late client, and we received very clear instructions about you.”
My late ‘mother’ never told me the name of my father, and because she never married, I didn’t have any way, until now, to know who he was. I still unsure about all this but managing to gain access to a military medical record shows how powerful or well introduced he is/was or they are.
“My condolences for your loss. As you might know, your late father was a very successful investor, with shares in all the big Concordat companies. What very few people know, however, is that his hobby was searching, restoring and collecting old military hardware everywhere he could find them.He decided to let you as inheritance the company that he used for that, his collection and a substantial amount of cash.”
“And the catch? There is always one.”
“Indeed. You can’t initiate contact with you father ‘legal’ family. You don’t tell them anything about this. And you rescind any rights on the rest of you father heritage.”
“Is that all?”
“Well, no. You still have the benefit of our services for life, your late father included that in our contract and he was one of our best clients, provided that it is not against his family – in that case, we would have to move away because of the conflict of interest.”
“I have no problem with that. Would you have by chance a detailed list of what I become?”
“Of course, it is in this data-chip. There is also a private message to you from your late father. Now, if everything is clear, and after you read the exact detail of what you get, we will have to deal with the “small” matters of you underwriting the documents….”
“Can I see the message from my father before we continue?”
“But of course. I will leave you alone. Call me when you are done with it.”
Placing the disk in the reader I pushed the play button and a hologram of someone, that looks like an older version of this new body, my late father I guess appeared.
“Hello Jean-Luc. If you are seeing this, it means that I'm dead. By now, you have already been informed that I'm you father. My name is Edward Jeremy and I loved very much your mother, but because I was already engaged when I met her I couldn’t do what I should have done. Reason has its reasons that the heart must sometimes ignore.... Your mother was a very proud woman and she never accepted my help when we discovered that she was pregnant. While she broke all contacts with me, I still maintained a discreet surveillance on you, never interfering with your lifelike she desired. When you were six years old, one of my companies discovered a relic Liberty Jumpship with an DroST IIb Dropship still attached, both loaded with military hardware from the Reunification War times. Normally I would have sold all of it but at that time, the latest report I got on you were saying that you had started playing mercenary games and I thought “Why not?” and decided to use these to form the core of something that I could later give you as a gift.
Because I didn’t want to register them as a mercenary unit, after all, I was a respected businessman with no real interest in going in this new market, I had to find a way around as even for me it would have been difficult to create a hidden military force as all the governments tend to dislike people going around with big toys, I convinced my contacts that I would keep the obsolete BattleMechs for my private collection while selling them every “modern” or usable items I found.
And so, I created V4RU – Vandenberg Recover, Rebuild, Repair and Refit Unlimited – with a group of capable and dedicated people with the mission to find, obtain and restore old military hardware in order to give them to you when the time would come. They also repair and refit modern military hardware for the Taurian Defense Force and several mercenary outfits.
They are very good people indeed and they found several more modern wreckage that were sold to the government or to some selected companies. In the end, you will have a decent if only small force to play with if you still want to play mercenary. If not, you can sell them and use the money to increase your other gift, my private account, that no one knows about. I can’t tell you the value right now, because I don’t know when I will die but there is enough to sustain you and your force should you want to go this way. From the unknown father that loved you, I bid you farewell my son.”
And with these last words, the hologram dissolved.
Let me see. Vandenberg Recover, Rebuild, Repair and Refit Unlimited – a recover and repair company with a security unit on top of it, not bad… and the ‘toys’: 1 Jumpship, 4 Dropships along with some old ‘Mechs and vehicles. All very old models, some barely useful even in the Periphery. Oh, and 280 ****** million C-Bills in a Comstar bank account!.
I’m rich, very rich. It is tempting – oh so tempting. Hundreds of millions of C-Bills and living in a nation that – if nothing changes from what I know – will stay in a state of peace for more than 50 years, up to the Jihad times. But I don’t believe that the ‘dear’ BROB that sent me here will let me escape so easily.
Well if this is not a standard setup for an adventure, I missed the memo. From what I see, our dear BROB is obviously lacking in originality. But that simplifies my life for a while, as the initial moves are easy to make having been discussed over and over in all the BT related forums in my world.
After signaling that I have ended reading the data my ‘late father’ left to me, Mr. Blaise re-enter the room.
‘So, Mr. Bassot, have you any questions?’
“For starters, I need to visit V4RU and see what they have in terms of people and assets. Only after that can I make a proper decision. Right now, I don’t know what I will do. Just not enough information, I hope you understand.”
“That is perfectly comprehensible. When you have made your mind, please contact me back.”
“Also, I think that I'm going to need some kind of protection.’’
“For your security, I would recommend you to contact Smith Securities, they have an office in this city and they are very good and discreet.”
After carefully reading all the documents, and signing the necessary ones, I exited the B, T & C building to start a new life.
My fist move after that was to go to Smith Securities and after showing them a black credit card – AKA (almost) unlimited funds, one of the things that I got just after signing all the papers in the law firm- I received the full VIP treatment with personal assistant and access to the very best merchandise.
It is stupid I know, but for once, I let free my inner bad boy, rationalizing that now, I need a bit of protection. I ended buying a comfortable black outfit with incorporated ballistic armor, boot blades, shoulder holster, one Serrek 7875D auto-pistol with several clips and a box of ammo. In other words, the XXXI century Taurian version, of John Wick clothing, for short.
I also contracted, for the duration of my stay on New Vandenberg, two bodyguards.
After that, I felt better and went on doing first things, first. For example, bolstering my ego by telling my ex-boss that I quit, obviously in a very graphic way. Next, I stopped at the local computer store, and bought the best noteputer they had, several high-capacity data-chips and a portable scanner. After the boring but necessary task of digitizing all my notes, I now had to think about the future and I needed to seriously think about what I wanted to do next.
