Best short stories in Battletech

[SteelRaven]

So in my humble opinion, some of the best Battletech fiction are the short stories. There are great novels, don't get me wrong but those books are also tasked with the duties of world building and providing a backdrop for the players game. Most short stories tend to be more personal and somewhat more accessible as it's a much more contained tail.

So, keeping ones personal taste in mind, what are some of your favorite short stories? What would you recommend to a friend and/or someone new to the BTU?

[Mendrugo]

"Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight" by Randall Bills - features some great Age of War worldbuilding for the Draconis Combine

"The Spider Dances" by Jason Schmetzer - a well written caper with two opposed intelligence teams trying various gambits and counters

"Three White Roses" by Craig Reed - A rollicking kick-off to the original Davion Civil War

"Last Stop" by Chris Hussey - A final clash between die hard Rim Worlders and the SLDF as it leaves on the Exodus

"Kentares Massacre Journal" - Uncredited - A brutal account of people struggling to survive during the Kentares massacre.  Serialized in the news channel of BattleCorps - no author named.  I'd love to give credit where due.

"Swords of Light and Darkness" by Travis Heermann - The Kentares Massacre told in reverse chronological order by one of the Kurita warriors who took part.

"Whispering Death" by Phillip Lee - A great early look at the Dark Caste and the Nova Cats

"Godt Bytte" by Kevin Killiany - To my knowledge, the only fiction featuring Jarnfolk, as they work a trade deal between Periphery worlds.

"Seven Years' Bad Luck" by Phillip Lee - A great Steel Viper tale of nearly identical twins and the righting of a historical wrong

"Making a Name" by Jason Schmetzer - introduces Zeta Battalion as the Dragoons' penal dumping ground (before the Black Widow Company existed for that purpose) and covers the origin of the Waco Death Oath.

"Irreplaceable" by Jason Hansa - Hands down the best Hanse Davion story ever told.

"Hector" by Jason Schmetzer - Another great Zeta Battalion story as the Dragoons try to be the first to take Hesperus II

"Dispatch" by Liz Danforth and Michael Stackpole - A hilarious set of short communiques chronicling Marik forces getting their shorts pulled up over their heads by Snord's Irregulars.

"Straw Man" by James Swallow - A fascinating look at a Lyran world in the late stages of technological collapse at the nadir of the Third Succession War, ravaged by FWL Liberation Unit attacks, and making do with bluff and bluster when the tech runs out.

"Think Like a Liao" by Susan Putney - One of the few stories featuring Tormano Liao as the POV character, and a great look at internal Liao and Maskirovka power dynamics.

"Johnny Mace, 'Mech Ace" by Edward Smith - A humorous presentation of Johnny Bravo as a MechWarrior.  Dumb as rocks and extremely confident.  Does a great "Who's on First" routine with "A Place" "Anywhere" and "Here"

"Unholy Union" by Chris Hussey - The tale of how Redjack Ryan and Maria Morgraine finally tied the knot and formed the Greater Valkyriate.

"Commerce is All" by Steve Mohan Jr. - A glimpse into espionage operations aboard a Canopian Pleasure Circus.

"Foolproof" by James Bixby - Thomas Hogarth in all his corrupt, blundering glory.

"Superior" by Steve Mohan Jr. - A good look into the mindset of the Smoke Jaguars during the Clan invasion, and how that hubris brought them low.

"Three Points of Pride" by Jason Hansa - Spheroids play a football game against Ghost Bear Elementals, for the fate of a planet.

"Once You Go Traitor" by Chris Hussey - A nice delve into the assimilation process in the Jade Falcon OZ

"A Cold Collaboration" by Jason Hansa - A different look into life post-conquest in the Jade Falcon OZ.  Much of my writing about the assimilation process for Clans comes from these two stories.

"Of War and Peace and Cherry Trees" by Steve Mohan Jr. - A nice setup for Ghost Bear/Combine conflict.

"Darkness" by Randall Bills - Apocryphal, as it was a piece written in an hour during the GenCon "Iron Writer" challenge, but it shows where Randall's head was at re: the Ebon Magistrate and the Minnesota Tribe. 

"Poison" by Jason Hardy - An accomplice of the master assassin who killed Omi Kurita desperately tries to find someone to surrender to in the middle of a warzone.

"Fragments of History" by Phillip Lee - A Goliath Scorpion Seeker finds more than he bargained for in the ruins of the old Rim Worlds Republic.

"Ambrosia" by Steve Mohan Jr. - simply one of the funniest BattleTech stories ever written - do NOT get on the wrong side of the Hanseatic bureaucracy.

"A Soldier Without Hope" by Steve Mohan Jr. - A well written portrayal of one of the last survivors of ComStar's failed CASE WHITE invasion of Terra.

"Sackcloth and Sand" by David Razil - A nice start to a post-apocalyptic adventure by a Clan warrior crashed on a Mad Max-style technologically regressed world.

"Marauder" by Lance Scarinci

"Kindred Soul" by Lance Scarinci

"Ravager" by Lance Scarinci - Marauder, Kindred Soul, and Ravager together launched the story of the "demon Marauder" - a supposedly haunted machine that drinks blood and drives its pilots to madness and murder.  BattleTech's best "ghost story"

"The Running Man" by Chris Purnell - Hunting renegade Blakists through the neosaur-infested jungles of Caph

"Hell's Highway" by James Hauser - A fun Hell's Horses drag race through enemy territory - for honor and glory

"Redemption and Malice" by Blaine Pardoe - Another tantalizing hint at Wolverine remnants poking around in the Periphery

[tassa_kay]

As a Spirit fan, I really enjoyed Randall Bills' "Tears of Blood". It was also the first time we got to see the ProtoMech experience from the POV of hooking into one. I also enjoyed "From the Highest Spire" a lot, as it's the only non-sourcebook fiction that dives into the Thuggees. Most recently, I thought the Snow Raven story in Shrapnel gave some great insight into the Raven way of thinking and their reasoning for some of their actions in the Dark Age.

[Natasha Kerensky]

A few of the stories from the original Shrapnel anthology, specifically:

The Race Is Not To The Swift (Bear Peters)

Judas Blind (Mike Stackpole)

Painting the Town (Mark O’Green)

IMO, they’re the grittiest, most realistic, and most gripping depictions of mobile armored combat, personal infatuation, and anti-mech combat (respectively) in the entire universe.  Not to sound like a grognard, but everything since pales in comparison.

FWIW…

[Frabby]

So many good stories...

I can definitely second Irreplaceable. It just puts the finishing touch on Hanse Davion, the "Victor of Halstead Station".

Also, Of War and Peace and Cherry Trees. I can't put my finger on why but this story is very elegant, and probably was the impetus for me to sign up for BattleCorps. (It was one of the free promotional stories on the BattleCorps site.)

Another notable story is Zero Signal as it perfectly sums up the feel of the Blackout and Dark Age era.

But these are probably all tied for "best short story" with a whole bunch of others.
Think like a Liao
Starfire
Vole
Intentions
A Keystone Arch
Salvage
The Totalitarian Mind
Marauder
...the list goes on.

[Giovanni Blasini]

“The Last Full Measure” by Kevin Killiany

[heist08]

"Darkness" by Randall Bills - Apocryphal, as it was a piece written in an hour during the GenCon "Iron Writer" challenge, but it shows where Randall's head was at re: the Ebon Magistrate and the Minnesota Tribe. 

Interesting. I haven’t heard of this one. Is it available somewhere?

Heist08

[Mendrugo]

Alas, when BattleCorps went down, Iron Writer vanished with it.

In short - an Ebon Magistrate agent strips nude and walks out into the freezing cold of a moon in a remote system in the Rimward Deep Periphery.  A ship lands and scans her for anything like tracers, recording devices, etc.  Once satisfied she's clean, their hatch opens and someone comes out.  They trade - the Magistrate giving data on events in the Inner Sphere and the mysterious stranger handing over a data core containing advanced medical technology.  The visitor tells the Magistrate operative "Well bargained" and departs.

To me, this implies that the Magistrate's leap forward in tech came from these strangers, and that the strangers are descendants of the Minnesota Tribe.

However, all Iron Writer stories were expressly stated to be non-canon, due to the lack of editorial review prior to publication.

[trboturtle]

I also enjoyed "From the Highest Spire" a lot, as it's the only non-sourcebook fiction that dives into the Thuggees.

There's a Thugee story in the latest issue of Shrapnel, called "Riding the Tiger"

Craig

[tassa_kay]

There's a Thugee story in the latest issue of Shrapnel, called "Riding the Tiger"

Yay, now I have a reason to buy it. Thank you.

[Arkansas Warrior]

Anything that involves Schmetzer writing mercenaries.  That includes, but is surely not limited to, the following:


Pack Hunters
Sniper/Panzer
The Edge of the Storm (omnibus, includes The Gulf of Reason, Sound and Fury, Monster, and Toil and Trouble)
Hector (4 part series)
Eclipse (4 part series)
Good Fighters
Redemption Rift (4 part series)

[Dubble_g]

Quite keen on Inverted, Undefeated, Reversal of Fortunes and the Alexandria Job myself. Not that I'm biased or anything.

[Karasu]

There's a story in Shrapnel: Fragments from the Inner sphere that is presented as a series of letters and orders involving a raid by Cranston Snord's Irregulars on the Free Worlds League.  I really enjoyed the way it was presented back when it came out in the late 80s and the fact that it has stuck with me almost 25 years later implies that it was quite good.

[Mendrugo]

There's a story in Shrapnel: Fragments from the Inner sphere that is presented as a series of letters and orders involving a raid by Cranston Snord's Irregulars on the Free Worlds League.  I really enjoyed the way it was presented back when it came out in the late 80s and the fact that it has stuck with me almost 25 years later implies that it was quite good.

Dispatch.  Made my list, too.