I am familiar with the works of Pablo Neruda

Wherein I salute the RedLetterMedia Guy.

2010-05-10T02:41:00.001-07:00

I'd like to take a moment and just show my deep admiration and respect for the Redlettermedia guy, the one behind the pizza rolls and youtube reviews.

It's nice to find another guy out there like myself who dislikes First Contact. I keep talking to Trek fans who opine that it's up there with TWOK, and I just get confused and wonder why. Nicholas Meyer's masterpiece, TWOK is one of my favorite films of all time, while First Contact... First Contact isn't even the Borg's finest moment in TNG. He pointed out a bunch of crappy stuff in FC that I didn't even notice.

One I was kinda hoping he would have was the excessive use of red laser pointers. Ya know what I mean, on all the fucking Borg heads. Like, in Best of Both Worlds, it was pretty much just Locutus who had it, so it was actually kinda cool and interesting when he talked into the camera and it shone intermittently. It was a nice cinematic touch, the light of the red laser flickering over the camera image. But then they put em on all the Borg in FC and it just ended up looking cheap and kinda silly. Carried over to the Voyager episodes too.

I'm actually just kinda surprised and pleased to find a voice like his on youtube, which is so full of just... videos that are funny because of their randomness. Ya know, stuff that's funny, but in a retarded sense. Really kinda lazy stuff. But I find kind of a kindred soul in those reviews. It's just like conversations I would have with my intelligent friends, about silly shit in Star Trek or some other scifi thing we're both interested in, but in video form and with really good editing. It's also the first time in a long while I've actually laughed out loud at something online multiple times, instead of a chuckle or a smile. Which is what most people do when they see something and type "lol."

One of the things that he points out in his First Contact review is the uncanny ability of the ship's computer to take a very simple and vague command like "Mid 22nd century attire" and somehow deliver exactly what the cast members need, without any further parameters. This reminded me of the absolute worst example of this phenomenon, which took place in a TNG episode called "Schisms." This episode was about interdimensional muckety mucks entering our universe and abducting Enterprise crewmembers for some weird experiments, like replacing a dude's bodily fluids with polymers or some shit.

Anyways, a few of em all gather together and decide to share their experiences so they can recollect what horrors happened to them. They go into the holodeck and ask the computer to construct stuff they remember from their abductions. This is where the shit goes crazy. They ask for stuff like metal tables or chairs, and the computer somehow knows exactly what size and model to give them. Or, they'll give out vague parameters like "table, medium height." Like... WTF? How the hell does the computer know what the fuck a medium height for a table is? Or if Riker tells it to make a "large table"... what qualifies as large? Four feet by eight? Six by six? It's just so damn silly... I was laughing all throughout this scene.

Just think how easy game development must be in the future, where all you have to do to design a holodeck level is to ask for a vague sort of environment. "Computer, trees... medium height!" "Computer, enemies, large, with guns... big guns, made out of metal of some kind."

I hate DS9: The Defiant

2010-05-10T02:40:00.002-07:00

The Defiant is the single worst part of DS9. DS9 is awful, and a big part of it is the Defiant.

Here we've got a ship that's a brick. Seriously, that's basically what it is, a brick in space. You ask me to describe the Defiant to you, that's all I can come up with. It's a turd. It's a little turd brick and that's about all I can do. The thing looks godawful. What is one of the reasons that people like Star Trek? Well, because Star Trek has beautiful ships. There's an aesthetic appeal that drew me in when I was a boy growing up. The Enterprise is probably the most iconic spaceship in pop culture, god bless Matt Jefferies for his innovation and vision. You look at the Enterprise, and while it might seem a bit impractical, the design itself is unlike anything that we had traditionally thought of as a spaceship. It is not a rocket with fins. It is not a lazy ass giant triangle. It is a saucer connected to a cylinder with a neck and long graceful warp nacelles at the back. That's ingenuity. That is something that we don't see everyday and it looked great and endured through the decades. Starfleet ships have proudly carried on that Jefferies visual aesthetic until the Defiant.

The Defiant just looks terrible. It's got this retarded looking snout up front, with the deflector dish. Only it's not even a dish, it's this weird triangular blue thingy that we've never ever seen before. But they say it's a deflector dish, so whatever. Then you've got the inconsequential warp nacelles on the sides. Except they don't look like nacelles, they're stuck on and basically part of the hull. And uh... there's not much else. You've got the weaponry, but they aren't really displayed either. I've never really seen the phaser cannon ports.

So it looks ugly. Visually, it's a disaster. There's nothing redeeming about the design. But now let's discuss the actual ship.

The actual ship itself, as written, is a fucking joke. It is a joke that is not funny. It strikes me as something that a fanfiction writer on usenet would be embarrassed to show people. This ship is tiny, about the size of four or five runabouts, but apparently is the most powerful goddamn ship in the universe. This ship possesses phase cannons that seem to rip apart battleships in one or two volleys. This tiny ship is portrayed as being as powerful as 2 or 3 Galaxy class starships, apparently. This is a fucking retarded idea. This is idiocy. There is nothing as stupid as this in television history. This is a fanfiction ship. This is something that someone would write as being the hero ship in fanfiction. There is no goddamn way that I am gonna sit and watch a show that employs an ubership that is small, fast, and more powerful then much larger battleships. I don't watch anime. I don't like to watch complete garbage. This ship is an insult to Star Trek.

Why even bother making any regular ships at all? Why do anything but make these ultra powerful pocket battleships that have phase cannons that rip through shields and oh yea... it's got ablative armor, so even if you somehow knock the shields down, there's still not much you can do? This is just retarded. The ship is insanely overpowered and completely ridiculous. Whatever happened to the beautiful Trek ships of yore? Can't we just be happy with nice curved saucers and regular phasers? Do we need phase cannons that are tiny but severely overpowered? What is this? I know it's designed to defeat the Borg, but that's no excuse for something this monstrous, this over the top, and this ugly. Plus, the Borg's greatest advantage was their ability to adapt. So even if you have phase cannons and quantum torpedoes, the Borg will just adapt to them and you're still screwed.

The Defiant is everything wrong with DS9. It is a blight on Trekdom, and I am so glad that at least JJ Abrams's reboot will wipe that eyesore from existence.

Which class to play for Mass Effect 2?

2010-05-10T02:40:00.001-07:00

The Soldier seems the best to me, because canon Shepard is a soldier. So it seems logical to do what canon Shepard does. Going canonical, so to speak. I really like writing "canon", because you see so many fucktards online spelling it "cannon" while talking about Star Trek or Star Wars, it's really annoying. So it's empowered to spell it "canon" because that's how it's supposed to be spelled. Canon.

Also, the Soldier gets to use the assault rifle, which is probably the best gun in the game. Ya know, it fires really rapidly, has a pretty good range, and looks nice. Good all-rounder.

Lastly, the Soldier from ME1 had Immunity, the best ability ever. It pretty much made you invulnerable. I really enjoyed using Immunity and soaking up tons of damage. Now there doesn't seem to be any Immunity in ME2. But I'm gonna go and find out if that is indeed the case. Maybe we're wrong and Immunity is in ME2. Or maybe it got changed into another ability and actually got an improvement. Or maybe it's gone and I'll find out and get really pissed off and write up my thoughts on its loss. So we'll see. We'll see indeed.

BTW, they showed the first 12 minutes of ME2 on Gamespot. Apparently, you'll be able to collect spaceship models to display on a wall in your ready room. Spaceship models are awesome. Cause in a tense dramatic moment, Shepard could get really pissed off and throw his assault rifle around, knocking the spaceship models to the ground. And then Miranda Lawson will reach down and pick one up and go "You broke your little ships."

DS9 and shields.

2010-05-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

Well, the thing is... DS9's big space battles never had any ships with shields. Seriously, you watch them. No shield bubbles on any of em. It's ridiculous.

I didn't see shield bubbles on any ships, at all. No shields in Star Trek? Thank you DS9, you lousy piece of shit. Ugh.

Me, I've always been a stickler for the bubble shields. Conformal shields just look boring by comparison. Mind you, I grew up watching the TNG series, so I'm very very used to the bubble shield look. It's kinda ingrained in my consciousness. When I think of shields, I think of blue bubbles. There's a majesty and a pageantry to them. You get the feeling that the bubble is protecting you from harm. They're more visually impressive. The only time we got to see shields in the original series films, Star Trek The Motion Picture, they also used bubble shields. You could just sense the power of the Enterprise's bubble shields as they held against the destructive green power of V'Ger. It was awesome. The bubble shield, not the movie. God, that movie was boring.

And ya know, while Generations was also a terrible film, I really liked the visual look of the shields. Even when they got penetrated by that Bird of Prey. You could see the blue little shield light up as the disruptor bolts pierced them. You couldn't get that with conformal shields, no siree bob. And remember when the Enterprise actually fired back at them and the phaser fire was sorta streaming in every which direction, as it dissipated against the green bubble shield of the BoP?

I really like bubble shields. Conformal shields just don't do it for me. They don't say Star Trek. There's no visual splendor there. But uh, getting back on topic there... see, the thing is... the DS9 battles don't even show conformal shields. They don't. They just don't show shields period. No shields at all.

The evidence shows that yes, Deep Space 9 itself has shields. Apparently space stations are allowed to have shields, but not the ships. If there are shields, they're invisible. Since I believe shields flare up and are not invisible, well... there aren't any shields. This sort of thing ruins my immersion. When I watch Star Trek, I have certain expectations. I expect ships with saucers and two nacelles, and shields, and some spiffy colored uniforms. I demand them, in fact. DS9 broke two of those cardinal rules.

DS9 did have spiffy colored uniforms, but uh... I thought those jumpsuits looked a bit worse then TNG's Season 3 outfits, honestly. TNG's Season 3 overhaul was one of the best in living memory, though. They kept Riker's awesome beard, gave Worf a better looking metal sash, got rid of Sonja Gomez, painted that technical looking design on the pillar behind Picard's chair, changed his armrests so you didn't have to flip them up, and gave us the second best looking uniforms in the history of Trek. The collar, a stroke of genius. No more need to see all of their exposed necks like that. And the belt added stature and poise. Might also have been responsible for the Picard Maneuver, not sure about that. But god bless Robert Blackman for crafting those new uniforms.

This is a good example of what we should've always seen in DS9:the Defiant vs Lakota battle.

Nice, visible bubble shields in that scene. This is good. This is what we deserve. This is a pretty well done scene. I approve of this.

Also, Susan Gibney is awesome and I wish we'd seen her more often.

In conclusion, I had major issues with DS9. Lack of shields being one of the more obvious ones.

I really hate the internet sometimes.

2010-05-10T01:12:00.002-07:00

So, I'm going on Youtube and come across this uh, one lady by the name of NixiePixel. She apparently likes to play video games. Now, she's also this really attractive redhead. And so... she's this attractive redhead who plays video games and uploads videos onto youtube where... she talks about video games?

Now see, this is just unfair. This is just fucking frustrating and unbelievable. Lady, I don't need this in my life. How the hell am I supposed to go on living? Why would I want to view your videos, of you being really hot and attractive and talking about video games? I don't need this distraction in my world. It's fucking painful here. I'm trying to live my life like a somewhat normal human being.

See, I've got a problem. I'm one of those guys who is instantly attracted to a gamer girl. It's really not anything I've ever really tried to hide. I don't want this. I don't need it. But, inevitably... something happens in my head somehow and I can't stop being attracted to a girl who likes to play video games. It's got a hold over me. They're kinda irresistable. So if you're a really attractive girl who plays video games, it's just murder. I can't deal with it. I have to try to avoid the siren call of this lady. Or, this girl maybe. She seems kinda young. But she's hot and she plays video games and has videos about video games. It's just not right.

Why would I want to expose myself to that sort of longing and temptation and frustration? What is in it for me? How could I continue on with that sort of unobtainium? I just can't, it's impossible. I cannot view the videos. I cannot even venture to look at her, it's like staring into the sun. You might go blind from the radiance, the beauty. It's like if you don't, your eyes might just wear out their welcome. It's a terrible situation. I can't believe I had the misfortune of finding this. It's just awful, and uh... I wouldn't wish this on anyone.

I can't do it, maybe someone else could. She apparently has over 13,000 subscribers on youtube, for obvious reasons. Me... I personally cannot fathom how it's possible to watch her videos. It's undoable to me. It'd just lead to pain and misery and a dark feeling of loss and self-loathing. There's no way. It's out of the question. You think you can tolerate anything, but then you run up against something like this. Well, this is my Olympus Mons. She's just too much. I've gotta try and get her, the very idea of her existence, out of my brain, and out of my thoughts. It's just too much to bear, I'm sorry. The world is fucked up, and I'm trying to make my little way in it as best as I can. There's no reason to go out and watch the videos of this attractive redhead gamer girl, it's just inviting a lot of frustration and no good can come of it. It's just hard. It's a hard life to lead. I guess I wanted to warn others about this problem.

It's um, it's a real crying shame.

Hey, David Jaffe looks like Jeremy Renner.

2010-05-10T01:12:00.001-07:00

Well, David Jaffe is a cool dude. Very entertaining and open about his world, his life.

And uh, he also resembles Jeremy Renner. I was watching the Hurt Locker again recently and had this odd feeling all throughout. Something peculiar was nagging at the back of my consciousness. And it just occurred to me why. Jeremy Renner, the star of The Hurt Locker, is kinda a younger, slightly thinner version of our Mr. Jaffe. It's really quite uncanny. I hoped to actually post this insight on David Jaffe's blog but he apparently turned off all comments. That's a shame. But I felt like the truth needed to be heard. This is kinda cool actually. If you don't know, Jeremy Renner was also the Marine in 28 Weeks Later, and the star of the tv series The Unusuals. But yea, you go look and David Jaffe could almost be Jeremy Renner's twin brother. That's really nifty, IMO.

Rethinking the Pegasus.

2010-05-10T01:11:00.000-07:00

I was recently thinking about the TNG episode The Pegasus again. Looking back on it, I have to say... I really don't think I can buy Picard's decision there.

Admiral Pressman wants to recover a Federation cloaking device from the Pegasus, Riker's old ship. They find it and Riker tells Picard, who knows that it's a blatant violation of the Treaty of Algernon. The cloak also works as a way to phase through matter. So they get trapped inside the asteroid with the Pegasus and have to use the cloak to escape. Picard spills the beans to the Romulans and Pressman and Starfleet Intelligence get into big trouble or something.

Maybe this makes me a bad person, but when I think about the episode now, I can't help but come to the conclusion that the power and usefulness of the cloaking device is probably worth violating the treaty. That's a huge tactical advantage that the Federation just gives up. I feel like, in the greater scheme of things, it would have been better to have reclaimed the device like Pressman wanted, instead of what Picard ended up doing.

It seems like it worked pretty well, since the Enterprise does use it and manages to escape without any disastrous consequences. There's no guarantee that there would be a war with the Romulans. They're just developing it, they aren't outfitting the entire fleet with the things. I think the tactical advantage of having interphasic cloaking devices is worth it. Think how many lives could've been saved in the Dominion War if they had had the technology and used it then.

And ya know, some have speculated that Pressman and Starfleet Intelligence were really working for Section 31. This is kinda weird, cause you'd think that such an important mission would've been handled by a ship crewed entirely by loyal Section 31 agents, instead of given to that ol' softy Picard, who's probably well known for his strict ethical code. It falls apart, doesn't it? Ah well, Section 31 was a shitty idea. Just one of numerous bad ideas from that DS9.

Technically... they were violating the treaty. But in a practical sense, they were working on something that would have been an immense boon to the Federation and its security. I guess I'm just looking at the situation from the perspective of a human in today's world, instead of a Picard with evolved morals in a utopian future.

Ya know, thinking about Starfleet admirals... it's tough to actually find a good one. From the TNG seasons, I think my favorite one is Necheyev. She was really unpleasant, but it seemed plausible that she was at least competent and working for Starfleet's best interests. Everyone else seemed to be really corrupt or under an alien influence or incompetent.

Maybe that's why Janeway got promoted to Admiral.

Army of Two the 40th Day demo impressions

2010-05-10T00:59:00.000-07:00

I just played it solo with two controllers plugged in. Kinda annoying that the people behind the demo force you to do that. I mean, they must know that most people aren't going to have a buddy sitting right next to em conveniently. So all it does is force everyone to play it using two controllers. Really retarded, if you think about.

On normal, it seemed really easy. I was just killing all the enemies by myself. Never felt much of a need for a second player. Weapons loadout menu is pretty interesting, there are a fuckton of options available for customization.

Graphics looked really nice. Seems like it'll be a good purchase even without the co-op.

Avatar the MMO

2010-05-10T00:58:00.000-07:00

If you think about it, it's pretty funny how the whole movie kinda played out like an MMO of sorts. First Jake has to grind until he can earn his mount, the banshee. Then later, he gets his epic mount, the... big red flying thing.

First Neytiri uses her regular mount, then later she gets to upgrade to an epic mount, the black jungle panther alien thingy.

Stephen Lang was sorta like a raid boss. Phase 1 has him up in his giant gunship lobbing missiles for major long range DPS. Then, once you get his health down enough, he goes into phase 2 and comes out in his AMP walker suit. Phase 3 starts when he loses his gauss cannon and starts meleeing you with his giant combat knife.

Avatar 3D the film review (spoilers)

2010-05-10T00:57:00.002-07:00

James Cameron has succeeded where George Lucas failed.

That was the one phrase that went through my head on the drive back from the theater. What I mean is, the promise of the CGI technology that Lucas sought in the prequels and failed to achieve, Cameron has gone and fulfilled it. The visuals are a hair away from being photorealistic. It never felt terrible to look at. The 3D is the best I've ever seen and really added to the experience. Absolutely worthwhile for the extra 5 dollars on the ticket, I thought.

Story and dialogue... there's some issues. It's not quite up to par with the visual technology. I'm not gonna go and say it's my favorite Cameron film, Aliens is still there. But it's not so far from that level of quality. Certainly closer then Titanic ever was. As a pure cinematic experience, it delivers.

That was the general overview. Now for the in depth stuff:

Ya know, what's most impressive might just be how Cameron's subverted his entire legacy. What do I mean by that? Well, let's see... in Aliens, he made us root for the space marines as they desperately fought against getting eaten and horribly mutilated by giant aliens. In Avatar, he's actually made us root for the giant aliens as they desperately fought to eat and horribly mutilate the space marines. A much greater feat, I think. (In case you were wondering, I was referring to the scene of the Banshees biting marines and throwing em out of the helos.)

The delivery of the story is pretty damn close to the Cameron we've all known and love. The final huge battle scene... just beautiful action setpieces and payoff. It all clicks together. We don't quite have to suffer all summer under a bunch of hacks and one guy named Michael Bay. You could call this whole December tale The Return of the King. Cameron's returned and god bless him, he's still the king of action. I know my action, Aliens is one of my 5 favorite films of all time, and he has not let us down.

That was the delivery of the story. The actual story itself... ugh. This is problematic for me. Maybe it would have helped if I'd been some sorta tree hugging hippie liberal, but despite living in San Francisco, I am not. So the story really uh... didn't work that well for me. I've never watched Dances with Wolves, but I can completely understand what they mean when they say this film is Dances with Wolves in Space. It basically is just this tale about the white man moving in and trying to take the land of the poor Indians. And how we have to fight back. Jake's whole speech before the battle there kinda nailed it. Though I found it funny how he said "They will not take our land!" Our land, Jake? Last time I checked, you were a human. You're not a native. It's not quite your land. But uh... yea, this whole story was just so cliched and predictable and the overall themes were so bluntly put... it did begin to nag at me. It was bothersome. The Naavi themselves seem to be a hybrid of Indians and Africans. When it's about taking their land, it's obviously an Indian reference. But they also have dreadlocks and they do the weird chanting and the music gives us these shrieks and moans... those remind me more of African influences. But yea, the story's about the white man being greedy and taking the land of Indian/Africans. And they have to fight back while riding horses and using bows and arrows. It's just so heavy handed and obvious.

And the fucking lame Bush references... oh my god. It's just Cameron hitting us over the fucking head over and over again. It's just not good. Lines like "We will fight terror with terror" and "Jake, they're planning some sort of shock and awe campaign." I mean, jesus christ. What were you thinking? Aliens was clearly about Vietnam in some manner, but it wasn't that obnoxious about it, was it? Those lines just killed the scenes for me. You could hear the snarky laughter in the audience. Just... ugh, cut it out. We get it dude, you didn't like Bush. We also know you don't like destroying the environment. Thanks for the hints. We should probably also save the whales, right? That's what you're about too, right? Subtlety... more subtlety please.

Okay, let's talk about that one scene... ya know, the uh, the iffy scene. I was totally with the story, going with it up to that point quite well... it was working on me, and I was along for the ride but man... that SCENE. You know the one. Where Jake and the blue cat princess finally... bump uglies. Now, I'd been going along with Cameron but that scene made me feel very very uncomfortable. Like I was watching something a furry would be getting off on. And yea, I know the Naavi don't have any fur. But still... it felt very wrong and disturbing. One of those times where you just manage to let out some nervous laughter.

Sigourney Weaver in this film was fantastic. She shows exactly why we loved her as Ripley and why Cameron brought her back. It was like having an old friend back for a new journey and that's exactly why she was brought back and it worked perfectly. Weaver gave just the right tone to her part and really sold me. When her character left us, it was sad. We didn't want to lose her, we didn't want to lose what she brought to the film.

Michelle Rodriguez obviously plays the Vasquez archetype, though I will say, she's much more likable in this film then she usually is. Michelle Rodriguez usually plays a macho bitch who nobody likes. Ya know, Ana Lucia. Much more sympathetic and understandable this time. A pleasant surprise.

Any great film needs a great villain. Stephen Lang delivers on this old movie axiom. He's the bad guy, but you can't help but enjoy how determined and just... fucking badass he is about being evil. You actually believe a guy like him, with military efficiency, could jump out of an airlock and fire off an entire assault rifle and a pistol clip while holding his breath in a poisonous atmosphere. The look of intensity in his eyes sells the character, and when we get to the final battle between him and Jake, we care about the outcome. We want to see Jake triumph over this military hardass. Again, Cameron succeeds where Lucas failed. Nobody cared about Anakin fighting Dooku or Grievous or whatever. But Stephen Lang is up to the task. Cameron's last film had a giant frozen iceberg for an antagonist. This time, we get something much better, a great menacing actor.

HEY, JAKE SULLY RAPED HIS BANSHEE:

You're probably wondering what I'm talking about. Well, it's quite clear. Jake raped his banshee. When he first tamed it. Yes, you heard me right. That was an act of rape. It's all quite clear to me. You see, Jake was on top of the poor creature, trying to assert his dominance over it. He had it bound with that rope or grass strap thingy and it was all gagged. Then he bent its neck so it was almost choking. You could see the fear and pain in its eyes. It was fighting back. It even knocked Jake off its back. It was trying to get away from Jake's domination over its form. But Jake just wouldn't take no for an answer. He got back and again mounted the banshee. Got right back on top and quickly thrust his ponytail appendage tentacles into the banshee's oozing orifice. Immediately, you could see a change as Jake telepathically took over the banshee's mind with his own through that ponytail appendage connection. The struggle ceased, Jake had conquered the weakened winged victim. That was rape right there, ladies and gentlemen. Jake Sully raped his banshee. It was even worse then Spock's mind meld rape of Valeris in Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country.

Jake didn't rape his horse, because the horse didn't put up a struggle when he tried to stick his ponytail appendage into its quivering orifice. That wasn't rape. But the banshee was different. The banshee didn't want his appendage. That's the difference, people. Jake Sully is a rapist. Does it count as bestiality? Or is it bestiality twice over, since Jake is actually a human acting through his Naavi avatar raping the Banshee? I dunno, but it was terrible. Not a movie for kids.

Now, the ending. The ending is ridiculous. Preposterous. How can anyone buy that ending? I'm not talking about Jake Sully getting transferred into his avatar, that was just expected and whatever. I'm talking about the humans getting forced offworld by the Naavi resistance with their proverbial tails between their legs. That is in no way a believable ending. Because guess what, even though Stephen Lang and his space marines got defeated, there's still the rest of Earth's military industrial complex. And they're just gonna send in a bigger spaceship, or multiple spaceships. And they're gonna be packing nukes. That's right, what's gonna happen is that the Naavi are all gonna get nuked. Think about it... we humans have learned how to travel interstellar distances, you think all we have are armed humanoid walkers with large gauss cannons and napalm missiles? Hell no, we're gonna have much better equipment. (I was about to say power armor but walkers seems more accurate, they were driven more then actually worn) So the happy ending with the humans just leaving and the Naavi living happily ever after, that's not realistic at all. The Naavi and Jake and all the trees are going to get nuked to kingdom come.

PS: Oh yea... unobtainium? WTF? They actually called it that in the film. Cmon, copying from The Core isn't something you should do.

My list of issues with Arkham Asylum

2010-05-10T00:57:00.001-07:00

1. Boss Fights Sucked.

2. Gargoyles a bit too convenient, grappling mechanic felt too automatic, no finesse involved.

3. Hollow gameplay sections: Courtyard filled with killing dozens and dozens of plant pods (that shoot plasma balls WTF?) by crouching and pressing a button to initiate the canned animation. And hopefully you enjoy that canned animation of him punching into and then ripping open the pod, splattering the fake camera with plant blood, because it's gonna be the same every single fucking time. Which is really boring after the 3rd time. Nevermind the 20th.

4. Gameplay length seems low, if you compare it to some other games released. If you compare it to Modern Warfare 2's length though, it seems pretty great. So that's really hard to say. Coming off of a run of Dragon Age or Borderlands or AC2, it's undoubtedly going to seem a bit short. You really have to judge if the quality of the experience is enough to make up the difference.

There's no real replayability though. It's not linear in the sense that it's a straight line, there are hub areas involved, so you'll have to backtrack and encounter the same areas but with different conditions. But all in all, the campaign's gonna be exactly the same. The only replayability might be in getting higher scores in the Danger Rooms. Wait, Danger Rooms are the rooms in X-Men. What are they called, hazard rooms? Challenge rooms? The challenge is in getting higher scores, but I just played em once each and had enough. It only served to remind me that these sections were taken from the campaign and that there was a lot more to do because you weren't confined inside a room.

5. Other then that, the one big aesthetic detail that I really disliked was what I had been kvetching about for the longest time... before the game, during the game, and now after the game: Batman's walking animation looks retarded. He's just walking like a stiff robot that's maybe a little bit constipated? It just looks bad, man. Seriously, fix that animation. He looks great when he's moving while crouched, but we're all too damn lazy to hold down the crouch button all the time. And when we aren't running, we have to walk. And Batman looks awful doing it. It was a bad jig to begin with, we never should have started this jig. It was a bad jig, a terrible terrible jig.

Arkham Asylum actually didn't have a lot of faults, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Batman's got issues

2010-05-10T00:56:00.002-07:00

What Batman does seems slightly unfeasible.

Think about it. He goes out night after night and fights criminals in Gotham City. But how does he do this? He waits until it's night. Night time will generally be from 7:00 pm to maybe... what, 5:00 am? That's not bad, that's a solid 10 hours of crimefighting. But what happens when the sun comes up? No more Batman. And that's exactly when the criminals and supervillains are going to strike, right? Cause after a while, even the cowardly and superstitious lot are bound to notice that Batman seems to arrive at 7:00 pm every night, like clockwork. They'll just sleep during the night and do their dastardly schemes during the day. Kinda like how normal people operate. Batman isn't able to do anything, he's gotta wait till night. Unless he got some sort of WayneTech device to block out the Sun. That'd be silly, though.

But you might be saying... well, he'll just go out as Bruce Wayne during the day and stop them with his Lamborghini Murcielago. Like in that Chris Nolan film, The Dark Knight. Which sounds good, except that he actually risks blowing his cover. He's not wearing his mask as Bruce Wayne. And Bruce Wayne doesn't have the protection of the Batsuit, or any handy gadgets. That's quite risky. So what he did in TDK seems like a pretty rare occurrence. Generally, he's not gonna risk it.

And of course, he'd probably be sleeping during the day. Like a vampire, which is appropriate. After fighting crime for 10 hours and grappling from building to building, beating thugs, saving hostages... Bruce has got to be beat and in need of some rest. I don't believe any comics have ever had him copying Kramer and trying that DaVinci sleep method where you only sleep for 20 minutes every few hours or something. The man's reserves are down, he'll have to go to sleep during the day. You know what happens when he doesn't get sleep? He gets his fucking back broken, that's what. It's a bad scene.

Now, on to Batman actually fighting crime. His batsuit protects him from bullets. And he'll generally hide in the darkness. But what about his no killing rule? Is that really an actual rule that a guy fighting crime night after night can keep? You'd think that eventually he'd do something like punch a guy, have the guy go unconscious, fall down, hit his head on a toilet bowl or something, and die from inadequate medical attention later on. Or maybe he punches some big dude in the chest, which causes a freak heart attack and death? Ya know, stuff that's a little unlikely, but becomes more and more likely as his crimefighter career continues. Batman doesn't have detailed medical dossiers on every two bit crook and thug in Gotham, right? That seems like a stretch.

In law, we have something called the eggshell skull rule. Basically, if you punch someone in the head and they turn out to have a rare condition which makes their skull as weak and brittle as an eggshell, you'll be punished for the actual outcome, not your intent to merely inflict a punch that would have slightly injured a man with a normal skull. So you're basically screwed if you just happen to punch someone with an eggshell skull. Now, this could happen to Batman. He might not know if a new criminal mastermind has an eggshell skull. So he goes for the one punch knockout and... ends up killing the guy. Gordon and the GCPD suddenly have a warrant out for his ass. He's done for. Or, the criminal supervillains like Joker or Two Face could just hire someone with an eggshell skull to be their thug for a heist. Batman shows up and falls right into their trap. It's terrible, breaking your one rule to never kill because you ran into a thug with an eggshell skull. That would just feel terrible.

Batman often gets wounded in combat. You know, something sharp shreds his costume sometimes. Catwoman's scratched him good in a few encounters. So he gets cut a bit and maybe blood spills out from the wound. Batman doesn't stop to clean up the pavement, he just keeps going with the battle and drives away when it's all over. So you've got Batman's blood on Gotham pavement, or inside a building somewhere. Couldn't someone take that blood and try to find Batman's real identity with it? Just gotta try and match it up with any DNA in a database. Bruce Wayne probably had blood taken from him as a kid for... medical reasons, right? Does a hospital keep really good records of people's blood and DNA? I'm not sure, but even if they don't, the existence of Batman's blood is worrisome evidence. Could you use the DNA in the blood to trace it to the Wayne genealogy? It doesn't seem too far fetched.

It's tough being Batman. I don't know how he does it.

Why I Hate Anime Part 2: The Art

2010-05-10T00:56:00.001-07:00

What's up with anime? It's just terrible, terrible art. The same identical fucking appearance, all across anime. Weird shaped head, with giant eyes, small nose, small mouth. Fucking ridiculous. Are they greys? Are they supposed to look like grey aliens? Cause grey aliens also have giant eyes, small nose, and small mouth.

And what's up with them having giant teardrops next to their head sometimes? Why is there a giant teardrop hovering near their head? Why? Is it raining? Is something going on? It looks retarded. Absolutely hideous. Along with the giant eyes. And sometimes the faces turn into cat faces for some fucking reason. Again, stupid shit.

And what about the super deformed appearances? Sometimes they turn super deformed. Have they just been in a fucking transporter malfunction, like that scene in Star Trek The Motion Picture? Where the science officer and that chick from the Lost Years novels gets transmogrified and all screwed up by the transporter? Why are things super deformed? Why does anything have to be deformed for no goddamn reason? Why is it super deformed, and not ultra deformed? Super deformed denotes that it has not quite gotten to the stage where it might be ultra deformed? Cause they look pretty deformed, and squished, and all small and ugly and kinda stout and uh... they don't look quite right. Again, really stupid and ugly art.

But it all comes back to the fact that they all look stupid. Giant eyes, really really giant eyes. Who the hell thought up this shit? With small mouths, that sometimes have a little bit of pointy incisor tooth. Just a little bit of incisor, to make em look kinda like cat people. Other times, you don't even see the nose. The nose disappears completely. Just awful. Ridiculous crap.

And of course, because they do all look the same, with the identical faces, the only logical way to differentiate them... the only way to tell em apart, is with wild and different colored hair. So you've got people with green hair. For no goddamn reason. Or they'll have blonde hair, but they're still supposed to be Asian? Really? Asian people with really blonde hair, that doesn't actually look like it was dyed? Purple hair, blue hair... just the gamut of colors. All because they can't be fucked to draw people differently. Noooooo, always gotta continue with the same identical giant eyed faces with small mouths. Unless they open the mouth, then the nose disappears. The mouth opens, nose disappears, and giant teardrop comes WHAM out of fucking nowhere. People make fun of the crazy ass hair in anime, and the defense is "well they wouldn't be able to tell characters apart without the different colored hair." No fucking shit. No fucking shit we wouldn't be able to tell those idiotic characters apart, they're all the same with those giant eyes and small noses and mouths! The answer isn't to give em all ridiculous hair... it's to actually try and draw em differently sometimes a bit mayhaps! Think, you lazy assholes!

Speaking of lazy... anime is so absolutely lazy. Just look at ALL the fucking speedline sequences in anime. I'm talking about those scenes where a character does something really dramatic, like running. What is the background while he's running? It's some crazy hyperspace field with a lot of lines and maybe purple ass stars flying around and it's like... where the fuck did this guy go off to? Or a robot will do something crazy like fly around. Suddenly, he's in this pinkish background with sparkles or some shit. And he's doing some crazy maneuver, but it's not in a location anymore, he's floating around in this magical ethereal world of white lines and stars and uh... nothingness? It's bullshit.

And of course, you'll have plenty of shots of people making punches or cutting with a sword, and the animation shows them all frozen in place, then a giant slash appears, then the thing getting punched or cut suddenly leaps six feet off of where it was, and the shot freezes once again. This is supposed to be dramatic, but just looks lazy, like the animators didn't want to animate more then a few shots. Lots of frozen scenes, depicting stuff happening. It's retarded.

You look at American animation, and yea, some of it looks like crap, but for God's sake, it doesn't all look alike. The Simpsons doesn't look like Batman TAS. Batman TAS doesn't look like X-Men TAS. Rugrats doesn't look like Ren and Stimpy. Kim Possible doesn't look like South Park. (Yes, I watched Kim Possible. It was embarrassing, but I was bored.) But everything anime is the same. Giant eyes, small nose, small mouth... usually a fucking robot in the background.

Baldur's Gate 2: Not a Fan.

2010-05-10T00:53:00.000-07:00

I didn't like Baldur's Gate 2 when I played it. The game practically forces you to pause and micromanage all your party members, and that's just not fun for me. If I want that, I'll go and play a turn-based RTS. That's not what I want from an RPG. I want something like, uh... KOTOR. I'm not gonna say I never paused the game at all in KOTOR, but it was generally in a few key spots, like during a tense boss fight.

The whole pause every two seconds to issue commands to everyone, then unpause to experience one or two seconds of real time combat, then pause again... that shit is just incomprehensible to me. Why would anyone want to do that? That doesn't feel like a game to me. Look, if you like turn based combat like that... then just go all the way and use one of those actual turn-based combat mechanics, like from Persona 4 or the Final Fantasy games. Well, I mean... I've never played a Final Fantasy game, but I figure their turn based combat works like that. Ya know, like Pokemon's combat. It's just all turn based and works fine if that's what you want. But don't give us this bastardized half in, half out schtick. Two seconds of real time combat, followed by a pause and going back to the turn based thing... that's just torture. It doesn't feel good, and if you want real turn based action, it doesn't deliver. Who wants to manually pause every two seconds? It's not what I would consider to be good gameplay, even if it is an old game.

And the isometric view... yuck. Just a terrible choice. Again, something that's fine in an RTS, but feels wrong for an RPG. If I'm some strategic god commanding a hundred different units and mining fucking vespene gas on some outposts... I want that isometric perspective. If I'm role playing as this guy with armor and a sword, talking to people... I don't want that isometric perspective.

Lastly, having a lower armor class is apparently better, which makes no sense.

Dragon Age: The Final Assessment.

2010-05-10T00:52:00.001-07:00

So, I finished the campaign last night and uh, it was nice. Very satisfying ending. Overall, I like the game a lot. That should be obvious, I've posted quite a bit in this thread. That's cause it's very good. Not a perfect game though. Not a game I can consider as a candidate for GOTY 2009, let's just say. The BioWare signature is definitely all over it, you can feel that same sort of relationship with characters that you got in KOTOR and ME and all that. It's just a very cozy and enjoyable experience, I'd say.

But ya know, there's a few wrong turns as well and I figured I'd just write up my thoughts on that. Quick summary here and uh, maybe there'll be improvements for Dragon Age 2, which I eagerly look forward to.

The graphics in DA aren't so hot. I can't believe I'm living in a world where people are posting that they can't believe they live in a world where the graphics in Dragon Age are considered bad. Like, really? Honestly, this is the year 2009. Dragon Age's graphics are considered bad, because they are bad. You look at video games, and it's clear we've come pretty far. Uncharted 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, Crysis, Gears of War 2, Dead Space, Infamous, Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2, lots of games with great graphics. But ohohoho, you raise your hand and object... those are all action games, not RPGs! Well, alright... that's true. Let's look at RPGs... we've got games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, all which look much better then Dragon Age. And some of em came out over two years ago. And I'm not certain, but I'm pretty sure Final Fantasy 13 is going to look much better then DA when it comes out sometime next year. I've never played an FF game in my life, and don't intend to pick up FF13, but it's clear to even a dude like me that it looks so much better then what BioWare delivered to us here. So no, it's not crazy to say that DA has some pretty bad visuals.

It's all fine and dandy if you say you're a hardcore RPG player and story-telling and dialogue come first and you don't care about graphics. That's fine, those are your own preferences. But to simply ignore that they are not that great is deluding yourself. It's like buying a used car with some scratches on the paint. You might value great gas mileage and the roomy interior and so the scratches on the paint don't really bother you at all. That's not why you bought the car, it doesn't affect your enjoyment of it. But don't act as if the paintjob is beautiful and flawless while conversing with your next door neighbor. Don't tell him the paint is great. That's escaping into some sort of bizarro world.

The world is changing, I feel. We no longer have to put up with FPSs with nonexistent stories, or RPGs with horrible visuals. What's Fallout 3? It's a first person shooter, but also an RPG. What's Mass Effect? It's a third person shooter, but also an RPG. It's not an either or proposition. Oblivion was an RPG that actually had decent combat for a change. This is a good thing, new games are taking the best elements of each genre and coming up with a really nice hybrid design. So don't give me the old chestnut that because it's an RPG, you shouldn't expect anything in terms of graphics. That doesn't fly anymore. Well, unless it's an indie game, which I don't think DA is. It's a BioWare game, so you're damn right my expectations are gonna be high. They've set a high standard for consistently great RPGs. KOTOR looked great when it came out in 2003. Mass Effect looked great when it came out in 2007. So to me, expecting BioWare stuff to look good isn't exactly going off and battling windmills.

As far as Morrigan goes... I'm kinda amused by all the discussion about her. It's really interesting how some people hate her a lot. I dunno, she was fine for my tastes. It's uh, it's okay if BioWare didn't just give us a retread of Bastila Shan or Liara. I might actually have found that really boring and lame. Morrigan's just different but still kinda alluring and provides a little discord in the party dynamic. Kinda reminds me of Joanna from the BattleTech novels. Ya know, mostly from Robert Thurston's body of work. Some people don't like Joanna cause she's basically a bitch, but a lot of people, including me, really really like her. Not like as in, I'd really like to be her BFF in real life, but we enjoy her as an intriguing literary character. Some people are just not that happy go lucky and they do have to occupy that realm of anti-hero. So yea, Morrigan's kinda... the best at what she does, but what she does isn't very nice? Heh...

Alright, some issues I've got with the game... starting with a MAJOR one. Terrible invisible walls. Dragon Age Origins is astonishingly awful at making any kind of sense with the edges of the levels. You go travel in the Korcari Wilds or the Dalish forests... little shallow ponds are invisible walls. WTF? These four inch deep puddles are able to prevent you from any further exploration? Is it because the plate armor will somehow rust if you dip your feet in em? Okay, another example... go to Ostagar. There are trees four feet apart that will form an impenetrable barrier. Steps that are only two feet high in Orzammar will block your movement. Head into the Deep Roads, and you'll be stopped by an invisible wall about six feet in front of the rockslide it's supposed to represent.

While doing Shale's special quest, you'll have to venture into this... place that I won't really name, so this won't require spoiler tags. But in the location, there are these hot spring pools on the sides of the level with steps leading down to them. You can actually see that the level designers crafted steps, for humans, leading down into these inviting hot spring pools. Why not go down for a little soak? Well, tough shit, cause the invisible walls again won't let you. This isn't some sort of a major gameplay flaw, but rather just kind of a puzzling choice on the part of the BioWare level designers. Why would it be better to actually limit the player in so many ways? Is freedom really so frowned upon? It kinda makes me wonder if they're somehow totalitarian fascists or something. Well, that's kind of a joke, but seriously... what could be harmed by letting the player walk down into a hot spring pool? Or allowing us to walk over tiny little ponds? Or making the trees more crowded in a location so the invisible wall looks like it'd actually impede movement? This is just really sloppy work. Bottom line, they need to be better at making limits for areas. The really strange thing is, I don't believe this bizarre level design issue reared its head at all when I played through KOTOR or Mass Effect. Maybe I forgot about it but... I don't think so. Just seems to happen in DA.

Moving right along... what is up with the loot lag? Sometimes I'll just loot everything after a battle, move on, and then backtrack a little while later and discover some more shimmering bodies. See, that's how I know that loot lag is present in the game. For a singleplayer game, it shouldn't take forever for loot to show up on bodies. Is it really that hardware intensive to process some loot stats that are probably in a small text file? It's just sad that I've encountered so much more loot lag in DA then in an MMO like WoW which has to deal with lag and all sorts of other complications.

The design of encounters in the game can seem very uh, strange and ass backwards. I'll not explain this in great detail, that might spoil something. In some quest situations, you'll have to answer a riddle. If you get it right, hurray. If you get it wrong, you have to fight a demon. Killing the demon gives experience, but just getting the riddle right doesn't. Why the hell would I want to answer it correctly and get no experience? What sort of incentive is that? It's completely counter-intuitive and ridiculous. People are actually punished for answering correctly. Everyone wants to get more XP, this is an RPG after all. Getting a dialogue answer correct should reward the player just as much as getting it wrong, if not more so.

Lastly, what is up with sustains? Most of the sustains work fine, but some are just janky and for no reason. Or they work differently but it's never explained in the description. For example, Rally seems to turn off automatically whenever I enter a new area. Wynne's Vessel of the Spirit has some unknown duration. This is no good.

Dragon Age: Some complaints of mine.

2010-05-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

First of all... let's talk about the love scenes you can trigger with Morrigan/Leliana. You only get to watch them once in the whole campaign. Frankly, it's very disappointing. Why should that love scene only play the first time you trigger it? Every subsequent time you select that dialogue option, the game just skips and you never get to see it again. WTF? I selected it, that means I wanna see it damnit.

I don't wanna press Start whenever I boot up the game, but I'm somehow forced to do it. On the other hand, if I do want to see the love scene again, that's somehow not important enough? Pressing Start at the Start Menu... absolutely required and somehow necessary but respecting the wishes of the player to have sex again... can't be done? Where are the priorities here? What's going on with the developers? Do they know anything about human beings and playing a game? It's ridiculous. This is like, common sense here.

Another issue I have with the game... the itemization for spellcasters seems pretty damn shitty. I had Morrigan in her starting robes until obtaining the Robes of Possession (the best robes in the game for her), which just looked identical to her default costume. So basically, I never actually got to see her appearance change at all. That's just a little fucking lame, right? I spent a ton of time sorting through loot and upgrading my own warrior character, but the spellcasters really don't ever need that kind of attention, cause they never get any upgrades.

Same thing with staffs. I think I upgraded Morrigan's like... about one time in the majority of the game. Then I got to the endgame and decided to actually spend some of my accumulated wealth on a much better staff from the Mage shop in Denerim. So that's two upgrades in the entire run of the game, and only one if you just count loot obtained from enemies.

Bayonetta the Demo: Hey yea, it is awful.

2010-05-10T00:49:00.001-07:00

This demo is DUMB. I just played it and yea, the graphics are nice, but there's so much messed up shit here. For one thing, the camera seems to be inverted on the horizontal plane. You'll push the stick to the left and the camera swings right. Push the stick to the right and the camera swings left. Sure, there's probably an option to change it, but why on earth would they think it'd be a good idea to invert it on default? That's just silly. Not to mention the camera's not nearly as responsive as it should be.

And why are my retinas flashing red? Right after you get off the train, there are like red pulsing nerves at the edges of the screen. There's also butterflies popping out of the ground when you land after a jump. Wha... what? What the hell is that about? The angel dudes you fight are called Third Stage Applaud? Am I supposed to be applauding their arrival or something? what does Applaud even mean in the context of giant angel guys with beaks? Should they be applauding? Are we supposed to applaud how good they look?

And of course, there's some bullshit invisible forcefield when you try to run back to the train station. How does that make any sense?

I will say though... Bayonetta really doesn't look like Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin looks really good for a woman in her 40s, but she'll never look as good as a CGI creation. Bayonetta has one really long neck though. Like, almost like a giraffe gave birth to her. It's very off-putting.

Last of all, the music is fucking terrible. Awful, retarded J-pop garbage. I mean... I went and turned it off completely about 10 seconds into the demo. But uhhh, that music... what the fuck man. Just what the fuck.

Time for some praise: Ubisoft Montreal

2010-05-10T00:46:00.002-07:00

I've been feeling this way for a while now and thought it should be put down in writing... Ubisoft Montreal makes games with absolutely the best third person cameras. Like, you never hear any complaints about cameras in FPSs, they only ever show up in reviews about third person games. Well, I think Montreal's games really give us the best cameras in gamedom (Yes, I am calling a gaming kingdom a gamedom). Splinter Cell was great, Assassin's Creed and PoP were great, there's simply nothing to note except that the cameras, or perspective, whatever you wanna call it, they work perfectly. You never hear about good third person cameras, only bad third person cameras, so I just thought I'd state that they do an amazing job getting it right. Their games and WoW.

I need more romance options in Dragon Age

2010-05-10T00:46:00.001-07:00

What's up with not being able to bed Wynne? What is this BioWare, some sort of ageism? Got something against May-December romances, do ya? What if some of us have a predilection for the MILFs? How are we supposed to get our gray wings if you won't give us that option? Wynne's not even all that bad looking, her rack seems pretty supple and uh, fighting the good fight against gravity. Leliana and Morrigan are okay, but a few gray hairs disqualifies Wynne? It's a crying shame, I tells ya.

Dragon Age Origins: A Lack of Jennifer Hale makes me a sad panda.

2010-05-10T00:45:00.000-07:00

Here's something I've been thinking about for a while...

Is anyone else shocked that they didn't get Jennifer Hale to voice anything in this game? She's been their go-to girl for quite a few games now... Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate: Ultimate Alliance, Baldur's Gate II, KOTOR, Mass Effect... it just feels wrong not to hear her again. I'll admit, I've become quite enamored with her performances over the years. Not that the voice actors for Morrigan and Leliana do a bad job, not at all. They've been quite good. But Jennifer Hale and BioWare games, they're just two great tastes that taste great together. Or something like that.

Maybe she was just unavailable because of her duties on Brutal Legend. If so, that's a real shame.

Why I won't play the Dwarf.

2010-05-10T00:32:00.000-07:00

Ya know, it's great that Dragon Age Origins has 6 unique player characters you can start with. That means potentially six playthroughs, adding up to a shitload of hours. That's all well and good but uh... I find myself feeling quite bad about this. See, I don't think I'm ever gonna choose to play a dwarf character. Like, maybe just to see his origin at the beginning, but never a full playthrough.

Now, you're probably asking, why would I do a silly thing like that? Why such a dislike for playing the humble dwarf? Well, it pretty much boils down to one issue:

The thought of actually watching my dwarf character kissing and making love to Morrigan/Leliana is frankly horrifying. Absolutely appalling.

See, the funny thing with BioWare games...

2010-05-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

Ya know, there's this one thing that's always bothered me about Mass Effect and now DA...

People treated Specters in ME as supermen of a sort. But really, you're visually just another soldier in battlearmor and carrying a gun. Not that remarkable, right? Same issue here in DA. I come up on some wounded soldier and he somehow knows that I'm a Grey Warden. But uh, how would he know that? I look just like any conscripted bum with a suit of armor and a shield and sword. How does my appearance look like a Grey Warden? Not to mention, I wasn't technically a Grey Warden yet. Shouldn't a Grey Warden look like some uber knight with shiny bling or something? I just, I dunno what to think here. There's absolutely nothing to distinguish a Grey Warden from any regular soldier. Why would any NPC talk about Wardens in hushed tones of reverence, when there's no visual indicator that a Warden is among them? I don't get it.

KOTOR was a different matter cause it's obviously easy to tell a Jedi with a lightsaber from any regular soldier wielding some vibroblade.

I've finished it: MW2 is one of the greatest games ever created.

2010-05-10T00:04:00.001-07:00

From the moment the intro movie with the Clan Wolf Timber Wolf kicks in, you know you're in for an incredible ride. The loud thumping of the mechanical titans' feet, the blasts of azure PPC fire... it just comes together in a wonderful symphony of destruction. The two different factions, Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon really give weight to the narrative of the Refusal War and let you know that you're getting your money's worth. What sorta game, outside of RTSs, actually has two campaigns these days, one for each faction? All in beautiful 1024x768 resolution for those of us with rigs powerful enough to use it. It's pretty amazing that this was possible for a DOS game when most other games at the time were still using 320xsomethingIcan'tevenrememberanymore!

I gotta be honest here. BattleTech is my favorite fictional universe, bar none. While I am also a huge Star Trek fan, my first love has always been BattleTech. I can still remember walking into a game store in my wee youth and stumbling into the back, where I laid eyes on a 3025 Technical Readout, the one with the Marauder on the front. Sure didn't know it at the time, but I would end up collecting a large part of that universe's books over the years. I actually paid 144 dollars for a vinyl model of a Timber Wolf and have it sitting on my shelf. This universe obviously means a great deal to me. And the closest gaming portrayal of the BattleTech universe is the classic MW2. The Clans are my favorite faction in BattleTech, so to be able to immerse myself in Clan Jade Falcon or Clan Wolf was incredibly enjoyable. Plus, the completely open weapon loadout customization and just well-thought out gameplay mechanics make the actual game a joy to pilot. The fluff of the universe is simply icing on the cake for a simulation which portrays 20-100 ton walking machines of warfare.

And for those of you wondering, the lack of dedicated servers for multiplayer was completely fine with me. Sure, it's expected of most PC games these days, but you gotta remember, MW2 was made way back in the scary DOS days, later ported over to Windows. There was Kali, and NetMech, and that was fine for us old timers. In fact, you might not be aware, but the entire term of "Clans" for online gaming groups came about because of MW2, it was that influential in helping to establish online gaming into what it is today. The More You Know!

Sure there are a few problems. The PPCs are slow moving blue balls instead of beams of lightning. And the darn right arm always seemed to be the first location to be destroyed. But despite those shortcomings, MW2 is fondly remembered by myself, and many other old timers, as the best Mech Sim ever, and undoubtedly one of the greatest games ever created.

Impressions of Red Faction Guerilla

2010-05-10T00:03:00.002-07:00

This game has some issues. I just started playing it on Hard cause ya know, I'm pretty good at games and stuff but uh... the mission to liberate Parker is just frustrating. Ya know, that mission where you get in a truck and have to run over 12 sensor towers. It's frustrating for a couple reasons. The vehicle handling isn't particularly good, your truck takes a whole lot of damage once the plasma bolt spamming APCs show up, and you're also getting rammed all over the road by APCs crashing into you. You can get out and try killing em but they just keep respawning so that's pointless.

The other big issue I have is with the ammo capacity for weapons. For some reason, the assault rifle is only able to hold 3 magazines. 120 rounds. Now, that's insanely low for a shooter where you have EDF forces spawning all the time. Especially cause it takes about 10-12 rounds on Hard to drop a soldier. So you run out really quickly. That's just not fun. Why would you only be able to hold 3 magazines? That's not nearly enough. I was expecting an upgrade to increase it to 6 or 8 magazines, but I don't think such an upgrade exists. That's a real shame.

Realistic Wrestling Games? Let's Ponder!

2010-05-10T00:03:00.001-07:00

So uh, Jeff's a pretty big wrestling fan. Or, rather, he seems to be, cause he knows stuff about wrestling. Kinda a rarity in this day and age. I think that's fair to say. I mean, cmon... wrestling? Who gives a fuck about wrestling these days? More people care about the World Wildlife Fund then about the silly shenanigans of some grown men in spandex touching each other. Anyways, him talking about wrestling in the recent Quick Look about that wrestling game that's like... WCW Extreme Versus NCAA 12k or something... it got me thinking... about realistic wrestling games. You probably have no idea what I'm talking about. That's cool, we'll walk down this path together.

Wrestling's fake. Well, at least the wrestling that's portrayed in these wrestling games. Everyone knows this.

Video games are also fake. However, their fakeness is vastly different from the kind of fakeness in Wrestling. Video games are fake but can present a realism that's not possible in real life entertainment. Thus, wresting video games... they don't have to be fake in the same way as wrestling in real life. Yet, would people want that, or do they want fake realism in their wrestling games?

Just think about it. In real life, wrestlers don't actually punch each other. They pretend to punch each other, while stomping the ground with their foot to make the impact sound. Or they'll slam chairs into each other, but only hitting their meaty back, where they won't inflict any actual injuries to the other person. Instead of actually punching and drawing blood, the other guy simply hides a small razor until the opportune moment and then cuts himself with it. This is the sort of stuff that real fake wrestlers have to do in order to deliver their unique brand of entertainment.

Well, now let's look at video games. Wrestling video games don't have to worry about any of those limitations. They can actually animate wrestlers' ingame models punching each other and making contact, using chairs on any part of their opponent's body, etc. But then, that wouldn't be an authentic wrestling game, would it? It would be much less of a simulation of the "sport." So should the developers strive for realism in simulating the wrestling? Actually model a tiny razor blade in the character model's hands? Do you want to see the ingame player surreptitiously cut himself on the forehead during a match? Should the wrestler models actually be punching air and stomping with their feet in order to simulate an actual punch inside the game? That's a double fakeness, isn't it? It's the fake sport, actually being protrayed in an realism manner, inside a video game, which is fake. That's kinda mind boggling. I don't play any wrestling games, so I dunno how they deal with this in current games. But it's an intriguing concept.

Anyone else found these delays for PC games a bit... suspicious?

2010-05-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed that PC versions of multiplatform games now always seem to have release delays compared to their console versions? We had the delay for Batman Arkham Asylum, which was chocked up to the addition of PhysX effects. That seemed a little bit plausible. Kinda. You could sorta see it as a reason. Fair enough, right? Red Faction Guerrilla also had a substantial delay for the PC version. Street Fighter 4 and Resident Evil 5 obviously had lengthy spans of time between their console and PC releases. Though I suppose in their case, it's more the Japanese developers not giving a hoot about the PC market then actually trying to delay the games in an effort to combat piracy. Two of the biggest hits in recent years, Assassin's Creed and GTA 4 were both released on PC long after their console versions. Borderlands PC is going to be delayed 3 days, ostensibly because they're "optimizing the PC version which takes a few days longer than expected." Which is frankly absurd. Optimizing code takes a bit longer then 3 days, most reasonable people can agree.

Now we've gotten word that COD Modern Warfare 2 is going to have a 2 week delay for the PC version. Mind you, I don't really care, Call of Duty 4 was a pretty big disappointment and I have no plans to get the sequel. I mean... it looks like more linear scripted sequences every ten feet, more infinite respawning enemies, now with unrealistic dual wielding? C'mon, that's a no brainer. But uh, it's just another in a growing trend of delays for PC games compared to consoles. Obviously, I think it's getting pretty clear that this is just the industry as a whole trying to combat piracy and has nothing to do with polishing/optimizing the game, adding weird PhysX effects, yadda yadda yadda. It's just adding a delay to give more incentive to buy the game on consoles. And even if you take out the piracy component, there's just a benefit to selling someone a 60 dollar game as opposed to selling them a 50 dollar game.

I can't help feeling that this grand strategy is going to backfire. These uniform delays are going to just make people bitter and actually convince them that the game companies are turning against them on the PC. One might even say it could serve as an impetus for higher rates of piracy, just to spite them. Seems like an alright idea, if you think about it. They're screwing us by delaying the release on the PC, we'll screw them over by pirating the game. It's a vicious cycle, one might say.

So there's this Stargate Universe show now

2010-05-09T23:56:00.000-07:00

Yea. I'm really happy for you. It looks like a great television serial. Now, it's not just a world. Or a solar system. It's an entire universe of possibilities. Universal appeal. Universal ideals. I mean, Atlantis? Those were just the undersea exploits. That's small potatoes compared to the entire universe.

A universe, that's bigger then a galaxy. Bigger then a nebula, even. Kinda like how the Galaxy class starship was bigger then the Nebula class starship on TNG. Wonder why they never built a Universe class? They seemed to think a Galaxy class was big enough. Didn't wanna get too cocky, too ambitious with the universe.

I didn't actually watch it, but my friend did. Said there was about 30 seconds of... Lou Diamond Phillips. And I said, "Oh...you mean... La Bamba." That's what that guy's gonna be known for, for the rest of his life. Not the guy in Courage Under Fire, not the father figure in that Aquaman pilot... not even as the guy in Stargate Universe. Just La Bamba. They're gonna have to carve that into the guy's tombstone. "The Actor Who Played La Bamba."

I don't see it lasting 7-8 years. The Stargate series are now like Power Rangers series. Have you noticed that? They last a short while before changing. Permutating. Lots of permutations. Remember how Power Rangers would turn into Space Power Rangers, and then Power Rangers Full Auto, and then Power Rangers Galaxy Police, etc? It was insane. I think it's an apt analogy. Well, ya know, those Power Rangers shows changed every season. The Stargate shows last a bit longer. But it's cause kids have shorter attention spans then adults. And a kid nowadays, wouldn't even remember the original Stargate movie. I hardly remember it, heh.

Who knew the Stargate franchise would last so long? At this point, think about it... Stargate's almost got as many tv series as Star Trek. Just think about it. We have a name for Trek fans. Who knows what the name of a Stargate fan is? Gaters? Gators? No, that's some sorta football fan in Florida somewhere. They've got alligators down in Florida, not crocodiles. Maybe a gar or two. Gars are those freaky ones with the really long narrow jaws, right? Has anyone even come up with a name for Stargate fans?

So Robert Carlyle is also in it. Hopefully he can redeem himself for that performance in 28 Weeks later. God, that movie was terrible. Did I tell you how much I hated that film? It was awful. And ya know, I liked the first movie. 28 Days Later was quite good.

What's the deal with the Start button?

2010-05-09T23:55:00.000-07:00

I recently bought a 360 and started noticing some peculiar features in the games. They all seem to want you to press Start at the beginning, right after the game loads. Why is this? I really don't get it. It's also showed up in a lot of recent PC games that were ported directly from the 360. There, you have to press a key to start. It's kinda off-putting. Why should I need to press Start to start the game, when I've already signaled my intention to start the game by putting the fucking disc into the tray and closing the aforementioned tray? Or, if Autoplay is turned off, I've already started the game by selecting the Play Game option from the console's Dashboard. Why this extra burden? Is it just to justify the existence of the Start button? That can't be it, cause the Start button's also used to pause the game while in the middle of playing, sending you to a nice options menu.

Frankly, I'm sick of pressing Start to begin. You already know I want to start the game. Do you just want me to look at your pretty game logo, so you force me to press Start to get away from it? That's unnecessary, dude. Just load up the game, show me the logo for a couple seconds, preferably no more then 3, and send me directly to the main game menu. There shouldn't be any prompt for me to press Start. I already started the game from the Dashboard, that should be enough to convince you I wish to play the fucking game. Is it some sort of warning to me, just to see if I'm having any second thoughts about initiating interaction with the game? Do you want to know if I'm really ready to leap in without careful consideration? Should I go back and do some research between the time that I launch the game from the Dashboard and the moment the Press Start screen shows up? What's up with this reluctance to actually launch the game? It's like a multi-tiered decision I'm making here. This isn't like a nuclear submarine, where we both have to turn the keys at the same time. It's just a game. There's no need to force me to press the damn Start button.

You know what I actually would like? A damn "Quit Game" option. All these console games just don't have any way to quit out of the game. As a PC gamer, this is infuriating because I'm used to being able to exit a game. Here, it's like I'm trapped, forever stuck inside this game. Of course, then I remember I can press the Guide button and exit to the Dashboard from there, but it's a hassle. All game developers should really just put a Quit Game option on their main game menu, just like with PC games. Are they really too lazy to do this? What's up with the contradictory signals? First you're programming in this asinine "Press Start to begin" screen that we don't fucking need, then you won't actually give us an "Exit game" option that we could actually use.

How do Japanese keyboards work?

2010-05-09T23:54:00.002-07:00

So uh, I know about English keyboards... 26 letters in the alphabet, pretty simple. But what about Japanese keyboards? I was just reminded because of the Quick Look for The Typing of the Dead. Doesn't the Japanese written language have about 50,000 characters? How the hell do you fit 50,000 characters onto a keyboard? It would need over 50,000 keys, right? That seems unfeasible.

What's up with all the Delta Squads? Kinda cliched, right?

2010-05-09T23:54:00.001-07:00

I don't get it, why is Delta always used as the squad designation of choice for games? Hear me out here, I don't think I'm being crazy and far out like I usually am. You've got Delta Squad in Star Wars Republic Commando, right? That's one, that's one infantry squad in a game that calls itself Delta. Pretty good squad, nice camaraderie there, shame there's no sequel.

Then you've got the Delta Cog Squad in Gears of War 1 and 2. That's another highly prominent squad that calls itself Delta. Marcus Fenix starts out with Dom but they eventually get to join Delta. Isn't that getting a bit excessive? I'm not saying that Epic ripped off RC here, but it just seems that people are gravitating towards using Delta, instead of something like Mu or Epsilon or Beta or Gamma or anything else...

Ya know, now that I think about it, maybe they're both taking cues from Novalogic's Delta Force. Obviously, that game is based on a real life Army Special Forces unit called Delta Force, also the 1st SFOD or CAG (Combat Applications Group). Basically, they're the elite of the elite. So perhaps both RC and GoW are trying to evoke that sorta sense of military competence. Even though I'm not sure the Cole Train persona would really be representative of a military soldier. Not so sure about that guy. Seems a little iffy.

I really don't like this tipping business

2010-05-09T23:53:00.001-07:00

How do you feel about tips? Call me crazy, but I am totally not in favor of the tip system currently in place in our fair nation. It's just such a hassle. I think it'd be so much better all around if we just had a regular wage for waiters and got rid of tipping.

I mean, you've gotta do the math at the end of the meal... figure out what's 15%. And maybe there's some rule about dinner tips being larger then lunch or breakfast tips. You've gotta figure out if you're going to write in the little receipt or pay the tip in cash. If you don't use a credit card, you've gotta get correct change for your tip... it's just an annoyance. And the tip these days ends up being more like a kickback. Instead of paying them extra for great service or something, you're just paying them not to spit in your food the next time you visit.

Ya see, I really screwed the pooch with tips lately. First, there's a visit to this taqueria. They make good tacos. I end up making the wrong calculation and figure out my tip wasn't quite 15%. That's not so great. I feel bad about that. So then, the next time I visit, I figure out ahead of time that I'm gonna pay a bit more on the tip. That'll make up for the first tip. So I give a generous tip and as I'm walking back to the car, it hits me that I actually ordered fewer tacos then the first visit. So the tip ended up being really huge. And now, I'm not sure if I'm gonna be expected to give something like that again the next time I go to that restaurant. Ya know, maybe she'll be pissed off if she sees a decline in the tipping trend. I dunno what to think. It's a crazy system.

And ya know, it just... it seems very hard to actually provide outstanding service as a waiter in the first place. It doesn't seem like something that's actually noticeable. Cause it's a very simple job... you take my order, and then you deliver the food. There's no real room for performance excellence in something that straightforward, ya know? So why would anyone pay more then the usual 15%? Unless they go down on their knees and pleasure me or something, I can't see any way they could go above and beyond the call of duty of waitering. Now, maybe the cook could be commended for cooking the food in an outstanding fashion. I can see that happening, some cooks are better then others. That might deserve a tip. But not so much for waiters.

I will tell you, I absolutely hate it when waiters come around while you're happily eating your meal and ask you if you're ok. Or they ask you how you're doing. Something like that. It just irks me. I know they mean well, but uh... it's just not something I welcome. Cause if I'm eating my food, obviously everything is going ok and there's no reason to ask. And if something were not ok, I wouldn't just wait around for the waiter to come around and ask, I'd probably raise my hand to get their attention and remedy the situation. Them asking me does nothing but interrupt me while I'm eating. It's just bizarre. I dunno why they do it. If they think that's going to get em a bigger tip, it's a poor idea.

What if the restaurant just raises the price on everything on the menu? I'd be all for that. Everything just costs a little more, but no more worries about mathematical calculations or people spitting in your food. Well, less of a worry about people spitting in your food.

I hear Europe doesn't do any tipping.

Star Wars: What a shitty film

2010-05-09T23:52:00.002-07:00

Well, you have the film start with that really annoying and ponderous scroll up the screen. Not a fan of that. Then we're introduced to C3P0 and R2D2. Even way back at the tender age of 5 when I first saw the movie, I could sense that there was some sort of homoerotic partnership going on between those two droids. Very uh, very dainty mannerisms. Of course, it was pissing me off that R2D2 just made a bunch of clips and beeps. Didn't find him cute at all, just indecipherable. What's up with that? Who needs a trashcan with some beeping noises?

Then we get the firefight that has a bunch of stormtroopers running in and dying because their armor does absolutely fuck all. Luckily, the Rebel guards have about the same level of marksmanship and no armor. Darth Vader comes in... he's not bad, he's kinda cool looking. But uh, then we get to Princess Leia. And ya know, I just don't find Carrie Fisher attractive. She's not a good looking woman. Not a fan of her. You kinda get the sense she's trying really hard to stay skinny by vomiting after meals or something.

Annnd then we get the two droids walking around this barren desert and bickering at one another. I dunno... it just seemed really... boring and mundane. Not much of a crowd pleaser. It's also a very one sided conversation, since the little shitcan can only make beeps and clicks. Fuck him... I really thought it was good that he got tasered or whatnot.

So yadda yadda yadda and... we finally come to the hero of the entire film... Luke fucking Skywalker. Our protagonist, if you will. A little whiny farm boy. Oh my God I cannot stand Luke. Or maybe it's Mark Hamill. Maybe Mark Hamill was the problem, but I didn't like him. And this was before his face got all mangled up in ESB. Dude really resembled some sort of mongoloid then. But in ANH, he was just really whiny and annoying and hard to stomach. The way he would just stare at those two setting suns like he'd never seen them before in his fucking life. You just didn't see why we should care about this guy, who whines about wanting to go join his friends at some academy. Or he's going to Toshi to get water vapor machines or something... it just doesn't inspire any sort of liking to this guy. Later on, we find out he also has a thing for his sister. What the fuck.

We meet Obi Wan Kenobi. Ridiculous name, of course. I can't see why anyone would think that's a name at all. Just gobbledygook. But whatever. He rescues Luke from those sand people. Which was sad, cause I really wanted them to kill Luke and maybe eat his entrails? But no, we get treated to more of Mark Hamill's hammy ass acting as he acts surprised to learn more about his father. We see the first scene with the lightsaber, which looks awful of course, because this was the original version of the film I saw, back on VHS. No special edition with the CGI yet. So yea, it just looks kinda like a bright snow sword at times.

We go to the town and find Han Solo. Han Solo... really cocky and smarmy. Not as bad a character as Luke, but still not all that likeable. Plus, he hangs around with this walking bigfoot ripoff named Chewie, who again like R2D2 doesn't actually say anything we can understand. That's just annoying, sticking in characters that can't talk. Then again, this is from a guy who gave us great lines like "I don't like sand. It's rough. Not like your skin, it's smooth. Not like sand." Or something to that effect.

The Force. Sooooooo ridiculous. Crazy mumble jumble. What is it, what does it do? I dunno, whatever George Lucas pulls outta his ass, apparently. New Age mysticism turned into a pithy little catchphrase in cinema. And that's the thing with Star Wars, it's not sci-fi, it's just sci-fantasy. A wizard did it, it doesn't have to make sense. Whatever, I hate fantasy.

The Death Star. Oh god, the Death Star. Why would you build a ginormous battle station with this one vulnerability that allows the entire thing to blow up? That doesn't seem like a very good design. The shaft somehow goes straight into the main core. Of course it does. It's the size of a small moon but they couldn't be bothered to have the shaft deviate in some sort of manner. It just goes straight. And no filters in between. Nothing to stop a missile or torpedo.

It fires its super laser, which apparently consists of some five or six lasers converging at a point and forming one big laser that blows up planets good. Though of course, that's really silly. Five lasers firing like that would just pass through each other and you wouldn't be able to hit squat. Well, anyways... the Falcon gets trapped and brought inside a hangar bay. We see some hijinks ensue as they disguise themselves as stormtroopers. They go into the detention center and rescue the princess. And uh... then they get stuck in the garbage disposal unit. Now, this just seems unnecessary. It's a dank, stinky pit and there's not much humor to be had. It seems like there's supposed to be some sort of comedic value in being trapped with garbage but I didn't laugh. I did wish that garbage monster had killed Luke, since he's still as uninspiring and bland as ever. Unfortunately, they don't get crushed by the disposal walls. That's too bad. I would have found that very funny.

Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi meet and duel. Now, I had actually thought that Darth Vader was pretty cool up until this point. I mean, he looked kinda cool, with that armor. But uh... that all went away as soon as they started dueling and we saw that he was even worse at using a lightsaber then this 80 year old arthritic guy played by Alec Guinness. Seriously... what is cool about lightsabers from watching this fight? It's like watching two retards trying to wrestle... they're both awful at it. And of course, the rotoscoping on the lightsabers isn't quite right so sometimes you can see that it's just a slightly glowy stick on the end of their handles.

So yea, Kenobi decides to commit suicide and they manage to escape... But of course, they now know about the Death Star's glaring weakness and figure they should go back and blow it up. How do they do that? Well, they fly into a narrow restrictive trench. It's just this trench along the surface, which is straight and unobstructed, leading to a hole that's straight and unobstructed. And of course, you've gotta wonder... if the trench is just leading to this hole on the surface of the Death Star, why even fly inside the damn trench in the first place? Why not just fly directly for the hole? Then you can maneuver all you want in space... not have TIE Fighters shooting you in the ass while some asshole on the comm tells you to "Stay on target. Stay on target." in this really wooden and robotic voice. Seriously, did anyone else notice how fucking retarded and annoying that lead Rebel guy was on the comm channel? I dunno why, but he chose to deliver the lines "Stay on target" in this hilariously bad inflection. Just repeated them over and over again too. It was so, so awful. Holy crap, I wanted that guy to die.

And so this lame farmer boy blows up the Death Star. They get back and hold this really... shiny glaring ceremony. Lots of light bloom, to borrow a gaming term. I dunno what they were thinking, it's this really hokey scene. They get their shiny gold medals and then turn to the camera and smile smugly at us all. We, who just had to endure this retarded film. Luke and Han, with their big shit-eating grins. Ugh, just awful. Why would anyone think that was a good ending?

Batman's mysterious explosive bat-gel

2010-05-09T23:52:00.001-07:00

I was just thinking about the explosive gel, and it occurred to me that there's no real way to trigger it, is there? Cause doesn't Batman just spray the gel onto the wall in the shape of a bat? Then he steps away and triggers the gel with a remote detonator in his hand. But how does that signal from the detonator activate the gel? Is there some sort of receiver stuck inside the gel that receives the signal from the detonator? I didn't see any. The gel itself can't possibly receive remote signals, can it? It's just this gel substance.

Has anyone figured out how Batman triggers the gel to explode?

WoW's Clearly Calamitous Catastrophic Cataclysm! Details ahead

2010-05-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Geez, does it seem like Blizzard's just kinda given up on putting forth any sort of effort? At this point, it just seems like they're desperately trying to keep the money train rolling. Ya know, first there's the Burning Crusade. Which was about Outland, which had some fires and a uh... crusade of some sort. It made some sense. Then the Wrath of the Lich King, which was about Arthas being angry about something. And he was the Lich King. So that also worked. But now, what do they do? They give us a remodeled Azeroth that allows flying mounts, which is nice but seems kinda odd for a full blown expansion. And it's called Cataclysm. Like, really? You couldn't really think up anything better then Cataclysm? Ripping off the name of a Homeworld game? Anyone know what I'm talking about? Cataclysm was the Barking Dog expansion pack for the original Homeworld. Pretty good one too, but it was about warships fighting it out in 3D space. In an RTS. Not much in common with a fantasy RPG game.

That's the best you can come up with, "Cataclysm?" Way to phone it in, Blizzard.

Wouldn't something like "Revenge of Deathwing" be more descriptive? I was gonna say "Wrath of Deathwing" but the Lich King had already wrathed. There's not enough wrath to go around, I guess.

Yea, that was a Star Trek II/ROTS reference

...Oh damn... there's gonna be Heroic Van Cleef? Okay, fuck the lame name... I'm back on board. THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME.

Stupid Video Game Cliches

2010-05-06T14:45:00.001-07:00

Oh man, where to start...

Well first off, I just love those games where you can put away your gun, switch to a knife, and somehow... this allows you to run faster. Like, WTF? The gun didn't disappear, you're still carrying it somewhere on your body... why would holding a knife instead reduce your overall weight and allow you to move quicker? It makes absolutely no sense. Wasn't it the case in Counter-Strike? It's been a while, but I think it was. People on your team would immediately pull out their knives at the start of every match so they could leg it a bit quicker to the chokepoints. Absolutely retarded game mechanic. I think I saw the same thing happen in a Quick Look of Fallout 3 DLC. Hey, let's run faster because we put the gun back into our backpack and pulled out our knife. Yea, way to go... that makes a lot of fucking sense.

And what about the super weak flashlights we always get to use in games? Like, the ones that only work for 30 seconds before you have to turn em off to recharge? Let's see, what games have these weakass flashlights... I think Half-Life, FEAR, and AvP 2 just to name a few. Cmon, where do they buy these piece of shit flashlights? Are the batteries really that weak? They seem to work forever, but you just need to let them recharge every 30 seconds? What are you recharging them with? Is there some perpetual motion device you use to crank em up? Is that how those work? Cause I know regular flashlights can work for hours without needing their batteries replaced. How they didn't decide to buy those regular good ones for use in Black Mesa, whereever-the-hell-FEAR-is, and the Colonial Marine Corps, I just don't know. It's mind boggling.

Weapon balance in games is just silly sometimes. In almost every action game, you've got the pistol, then the rifle. Sometimes it's called an SMG. Now, the funny thing is... the pistol's bullet somehow seems a lot stronger then the rifle's. You'll pull out this pistol and it delivers a mighty semi automatic bang. Yet when you switch to this faster rifle or SMG, their bullets seem mighty underpowered. Like, the bullets are individually much weaker then the bullets in the humble pistol. When in reality, a rifle's bullets are actually going to be bigger or at least the same as the pistol's. Yet while you can snap off one or two rounds from a pistol to down an enemy, the rifle might require bucketloads of shots to put down the same enemy. Obviously, this isn't the case in every game, but it's a trend I've noticed in quite a few. It makes absolutely no sense. Why don't the rifle's bullets pack as much of a punch as the pistol's? It seems to be arbitrary balancing bullshit on the part of the developer. Good example of this phenomenon would be the assault rifle from Halo. You can use a few shots from the pistol (which somehow also has a scope) or use up 60 rounds from your rifle. Why does the rifle use plastic bbs instead of real bullets like the pistol? Hey, I'm not Bungie.

Okay, now let's talk about another gun, the shotgun. The shotgun in a lot of games seems to be insanely short ranged. Like, I've seen water hoses with more cohesion at range. Classic example is the shotgun from Doom 3. Now, this thing sprays buckshot so wide that it only has an effective range of about five feet. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating here, you just shouldn't use it beyond five feet. The spread is that bad. It just defies logic, why would anyone make a shotgun that only works out to five feet? An honorary member could also be the assault rifle from Halo. No, it's not a shotgun, but it also has an effective range of about five feet. Why would anyone use a rifle with spray that wide? Who knows.

In every sort of GTA open world game, all you have to do is jump into the car and push out the driver. They all have their doors unlocked for some reason. Is this really how people drive? They leave their doors unlocked? I sure as hell lock my doors when I drive my car. Do you? You should, precisely so you don't get someone kicking you to the curb and driving off in your ride. It's common sense, really. Also, if you grab a vacant car in a game, they'll always have their keys inside. No need to hot wire it or anything.

In RTSs, you'll have battlecruisers the same size as five or six infantry soldiers. How does that make any sense? The goddamn battlecruiser's supposed to be the size of the whole fucking map, right? Why would they make it a buildable unit and then make it look as big as six soldiers? How does that do justice to the battlecruiser? Frankly, it seems a bit insulting. There are probably four or five hundred people on board the battlecruiser. Maybe more. Maybe it's over a thousand, like the Galaxy class Enterprise-D. Yet here it is, floating about five feet over the battlefield and looking comparable to a squad of marines. Why would anyone think this was a good idea?

I recently watched a new gameplay video for AvP 3 and saw a marine being held down by an Alien, completely helpless, his gun nowhere to be seen. This pleased me, because it has always frustrated me how melee has gotten the shaft in first person games. Melee should be insanely scary, just because if the big bad monster actually makes it to you, you're not just going to get to shoot at it with your gun while it futilely claws away bits of your health and armor. If it gets into melee, it's going to knock your fucking gun out of your hands and proceed to rape your face off. That's what a melee enemy in a game should do. Yet it's never been portrayed this way. Both the previous AvP games just had you shooting aliens even at point blank range, negating their effectiveness. I'm glad to see that AvP 3 is gonna be different, giving melee enemies their teeth back. You should be scared of them surviving your ranged fire and getting into melee range. Guns never getting knocked out of your hands in FPSs was simply illogical and way too easy.

The Beatles Rock Band? WTF?

2010-05-06T14:44:00.001-07:00

I don't get it, why's this game called The Beatles Rock Band? Shouldn't it be called Rock Band The Beatles? For example, it's not called The Wrath of Khan: Star Trek II, it's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The subtitle goes after the main title, see? Like with Star Wars, it's Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, not The Empire Strikes Back: Star Wars. Or you might say The Empire Strikes Back: Episode V: Star Wars. That's a double subtitled name. That would be really silly. This isn't a game in the franchise series of The Beatles, this is a game about The Beatles in the franchise series of Rock Band. The main attraction for this game is that it's going to be Rock Band, but with Beatles songs. It's not going to be The Beatles, playing their songs with Rock Band instruments. If that was actually what it was about, then maybe you could name it The Beatles Rock Band.

So really, this game should be called Rock Band The Beatles. Title before subtitle. Don't do things ass backwards, there's no call for that kind of nonsense. Does Alex Navarro agree? I bet he would if he read this. Why should Rock Band go on the tail end of The Beatles? This is a band that hasn't been relevant since the 1960s. With their dumb bowl cuts and outrageous Japanese wives who like peaches floating in a bowler hat. That's not really something that should take precedent over the actual game series of Rock Band. And I don't even like rhythm games, for God's sake. Who the hell thinks rhythm games are great and amazing? Did anyone actually think that DDR was some sort of astounding achievement? How is Rock Band any different? It's the same exact sort of thing. Mindless repetitive button pressing according to some streaming lines on a screen. The graphics don't even matter for a rhythm game, all they have to render is that endless flowing chart going down the screen. It's a joke.

Impressions of Batman Arkham Asylum

2010-05-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

Mind you, this is still only halfway into the game...

I think Batman might be a killer in this game. Driving an automobile at full speed into people is generally pretty bad and can be fatal, after all. Bane's a strong guy, but I don't think steroids make you invulnerable to death by blunt force trauma from cars. The impact could've done enough internal injuries to kill Bane. Caving in his rib cage, crushing his heart, etc. And even if the internal injuries somehow weren't fatal, the car might be pinning him to the bottom of the seafloor, leading to death by drowning.

...Bane was something else I found rather odd. In the comics, normal Bane without his venom is still a rather large fellow, but in the game normal Bane seemed to be really skinny and emaciated. It creates this somewhat inaccurate picture of Bane as a weakling who requires Venom in order to become super buff and strong, when in the comics Bane is already really buff and strong and uses Venom to get a bit of a temporary boost.

Ya know what, I'm gonna say a bit more. I'm not sure about this, but I hope there's an upgrade for faster knockouts. Right now, the knockouts seem really slow to deliver. By knockout, I'm referring to the ability you get once you punch an opponent to the ground and they're trying to get back up. Batman kneels down next to the thug, seems to check him for a moment, and then delivers the knockout punch. I think an upgrade to just have him quickly deliver the knockout and move on would be nice.

Also, if they ever do a sequel, I hope they'll separate the armor upgrades into two different categories, one for melee protection and one for firearm protection. Because the armor upgrades in this game seem to be way too effective against guns. I saw Batman take 2 shotgun blasts and a few rifle bursts and survive, on normal difficulty and without any armor upgrades. With the added protection of the armor upgrades, Batman almost becomes the Man of Steel against guns. It's pretty silly how much he can take against lead. With that said, I don't have any problem with upgrades against melee attacks, that seems more reasonable. Batman's well known for being able to take a lot of bruises and cuts fighting thugs in hand to hand combat. Maybe it could be called "Added Stamina" or something. But in this game, I would be loathe to apply the armor upgrades because I don't want Batman to feel like a bullet sponge, that's not Batman to me.

And what's with the Gears of War style finger in ear slow walking bullshit? That's pretty strange, seeing as how Batman's cowl doesn't even have any button for his fingers to press. His comm with Oracle should thus be hands free, allowing him to run around unhindered and do plenty of stuff while talking. I mean, think about it. If your fucking Xbox live headset doesn't require you to press a button on the side of it to communicate, why does Batman's high tech cowl? Why are they copying something from Gears of War for absolutely no reason? Copy something if it's good and appropriate, not just because it's trendy or whatever.

Oh yea, there's also really no real reason to ever leave Detective mode. Being able to see through walls and pick up hostile skeletal figures hundreds of feet away... it's just insanely overpowered. The night vision goggles in Splinter Cell were quite nice to use, but you didn't feel like you were basically cheating the game by using them. And that's a real shame, because the game looks gorgeous and quite stunning when you're not in Detective mode.

Problem with Dead Space

2010-05-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

Ya know what, something else just occurred to me about Dead Space. Something else that wasn't flawless.

There's that one section of the game where you have to use TK to pull wall blocks in a puzzle-y way to make a path through these living quarters. Ya know, pretty standard game mechanic, rearranging blocks to allow access to new areas. So I do this and get to the end, which triggers this script to send in the Hunter, or Regenerator. I've heard it called either way. They both make a certain amount of sense. The thing does hunt you through the game. But it also regenerates its limbs. Perhaps it should be the Hunter-Regenerator, like some feminist who decides to finally settle down and get married?

Whatever you want to call it, the boss creature that's invincible. You can't kill him, he just regrows the limb. Kinda cheap, I think. Not a fan of invulnerable enemies in games... but that's not the issue really. Anyways, I start running back and get to where I've been pulling the wall pieces. Now, obviously, you've gotta move em back the other way so you can block off the area and be free of the boss. Seems simple enough. I turn around to start using TK and a leaper jumps out of the ceiling. I shoot it a few times and kill it. Easy enough. Now, time to move the wall block. Except I can't. It's only moving a few inches before stopping. What the hell? I've still got a gap in the walls where the Hunter-Regenerator might be able to wiggle his way through. I can hear him growling and snarling from where I am. It's crazy tense. This is like a nightmare. Why the hell can't I move this wall block?! I could move it before when I wasn't being chased by a holy terror... what's the matter? The snarling and gurgling... it sounds like it might be moving closer...

Oh! I got it... the body of that dead leaper is partway in the gap between the walls. That must be why I couldn't move the block. Oh silly me... I should've seen it sooner. Ok, I'll just use telekinesis to throw the leaper corpse out of the way! Oh wait... I grabbed the wall block with my telekinesis instead. Ok, that's not what I wanted to do... I'll target it again. Oh no, the telekinesis got on the wall block again! Oh boy, this is frustrating... okay, fuck that. I'll just shoot the damn corpse instead. Wee, that got rid of it. Now, let's move this wall block so I can feel safe and sound. Footloose and fancy-free, even.

Wait... no, the wall's still not budging. Why isn't it moving? Why oh why is this part of the game not working? It's not working as intended, I'm sure of this. The game designers surely didn't plan on having the Hunter-Reg... ya know what, let's just call it the H-G from now on. My fingers are tired. Tired from talking about fucking black bars. But that's neither here nor there.

I try moving it a couple more times, but no dice. So I look into the gap again and see that a little bit of the leaper's severed limb is lying in the gap. Is that what's stopping me from moving the wall with TK? That little flimsy limb? Really EA Redwood? All this time, I've been putting up with crazy corpses flipping out and jiggling through doors and just generally going crazy whenever something happens to them, and now I'm being stymied by a little severed limb lying in the gap between the walls I have to move? Okay, that seems ridiculous, but I'll get the limb out of the way. And... hey. What do ya know, that did the trick. That was the problem all along... now the wall moves like butter!

Okay, now I just need to move the wall block along the side to open up a new gap for the last wall block and I'll be out of this puzzle and free to go about my business. Just gotta move this block up... oh wait... it's only moving a little bit. It's not fully moving across like it should! Holy hell, this has been taking forever to do... this so called escape from the big bad H-G... It's just gotten silly. The wall moves like it needs to be oiled or something, it's not fully sliding into place where it should. There must be something wrong with this one too. Okay... let's check here... what's the problem this time?

Oh! I see here, there seem to be three shattered pieces of a crate that I had broken apart earlier. Ya know, those big green crates that you always break apart for loot? Sometimes there's just little swarmer thingies inside, but most of the time, it's some sort of goodie? Well, I find this very odd. The crate itself shattered into pieces, but these three pieces seem really really solid. Like, their durability is impressive, cause I've just been working this wall with my telekinesis and smashing it against another wall block. Yet these three crate fragments seem as indestructible as ever. Is it spelled indestructible or indestructable? They both sound right when you pronounce it, ya know?

Well, gotta get these three crate remnants out of there so I can move this wall block over. Ok, I'll use telekinesis to get at em and throw em away... oh wait, my telekinesis latched onto a wall block instead. But I was aiming right at the crate pieces. Okay, let's try again... nope, again the telekinesis failed. Well, okay now... I guess I'll have to move into the gap and stand right over them to use TK. Yep, that worked. Throwing em out... one by one. Yea, that did it... the wall snapped into place. Great, I'm finally out. Escaped from the H-G boss.

And all it took was about 10 minutes of fucking around with wall blocks. How exhilarating.

Windows Media Player: what's the deal?

2010-05-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

I never understood why Microsoft won't allow you to run multiple WMPs at once. I have to switch to VLC if I want to play another movie while keeping my first movie paused. It's a nuisance. Ya know, VLC won't let you play more than one either. That's strange.

Don't tell me it's because of some resource/processing limitation either. If a computer can handle a game like Crysis, I would think it could handle two WMPs at once. Right now, I can have WMP playing a movie and VLC playing another. Just think what would happen if I got Winamp into the mix. Three motherfucking movies at once, BOOYAH!!!

Why I generally won't go to a Best Buy.

2010-05-06T14:40:00.000-07:00

Ya know, I don't generally go to Best Buy. Why? Well, because I've happened to notice that they often will not have... the best buy. The cheapest prices. On their goods, you see. And ya know... I just think that's such a crock. It's complete bullshit advertising. Why call yourself Best Buy if you won't always have... the best buy? Why should I trust a store like that? It's idiotic. They often have prices much higher then the lowest you can find. Is that really a best buy? I think not. I think not. That doesn't seem like a business on the up and up. If you name yourself Best Buy, I expect the best buy. They don't deliver. Don't hold up their end of the bargain. And where are you? Up a creek without a paddle.

Ya know, what do people do up a creek without a paddle in the first place? Do you ever wonder about that? Don't people generally skinny dip in a creek? It's kinda... shallow, and you'll usually see some cat tails along the shore... it's very rustic looking. People will skinny dip in those environs. But then, why have a paddle? A paddle doesn't suit you if you're gonna skinny dip. People use paddles with canoes, right? Canoeing with a paddle, that makes sense. Or a kayak, I suppose. What's the difference between a canoe and a kayak? Is a kayak just a one-man version of a canoe? You never do see multiple people situated on a kayak, it's always a solo operation. Like a lone eagle, or something. Canoes can seat many people though. I remember reading a Jules Verne story... The Mysterious Island, where the castaways fashioned a simple canoe from the trunk of a tree. Marvelous chapter, they chipped away at the inside of the trunk and had this canoe to seat more then one. Canoes seem much more useful then kayaks, I gotta tell ya.

"Talking out of turn...that's a paddling. Looking out the window...that's a paddling. Staring at my sandals...that's a paddling. Paddling the school canoe...ooh, you better believe that's a paddling."

-The Simpsons, The PTA Disbands

The Star League Part 26

2010-05-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

PROTECTOR OF THE REALM

The civil war claimed more than 100 million people. Four times that number were wounded, and ten times that number were left homeless. The immensity of the devastation caused by Amaris stunned everyone, and a silence seemed to fall across the entire Inner Sphere.

Ruling over this sad domain was General Aleksandr Kerensky. He announced that he was reassuming his title as Protector of the Realm. He invited the Council Lords to come to Terra for meetings “to help guide us away from the memories of these devastating times.”

Relief supplies and aid began pouring into the Terran Hegemony from all five Houses. Trading companies donated space on their ships to carry the supplies and donations to the Hegemony, but it was the common people who made the most heartfelt contributions. A massive outpouring of concern came forth from the citizenry of the five realms. They gave what they could afford, often taking food from their own mouths to feed the starving in the Hegemony. Even people in the Periphery, themselves not yet recovered from the ravages of war, felt compassion for the billions in the Hegemony and gave what they could.

Many people were stricken with remorse upon hearing about what life had been like under Stefan Amaris. Some had relatives in the Hegemony. Others felt guilty that their governments had allowed such a thing to happen. Many assuaged their guilt by traveling to the ravaged worlds to offer their time and skills to the reconstruction effort.

People looked forward to seeing Aleksandr Kerensky become the next First Lord. His fame, considerable even before the war, had grown to superhuman dimensions immediately after the liberation of Terra. Everyone took comfort in the thought that he would soon rule the Star League.

The Council Lords reconvened in the ruins of Unity City on October 10, 2780. The arguing started soon thereafter. The Council Lords, who shared none of their citizens’ guilt for having stayed aloof from the civil war, fought among themselves for power. The past four years may have caused incredible grief to some but they had also created a wealth of opportunities for the House leaders. Among the few things that they agreed on was the appointment of Jerome Blake as Minister of Communications. They gave him the monumental task of rebuilding the League’s communications network.

They were also agreed that General Kerensky would not be the one to lead them. To quiet the public cry for him to become the First Lord, the High Council unanimously stripped General Kerensky of his title of Protector on October 18 of that year. They then ordered him to demilitarize Terra and to disperse SLDF units to their peacetime locations.

In response, many people took to the streets to demonstrate in support of the General, even in the Draconis Combine and the Free Worlds League.

Before leaving, General Kerensky asked to meet the Council Lords one last time in the Throne Room, which had been mostly restored to its former glory. They agreed, though not without some misgivings.

After the five Lords gathered, the General entered carrying the ornate laser pistol of Stefan Amaris. The Council Lords’ uneasiness turned to near panic when the doors to the room closed and General Kerensky sat on the First Lord’s throne. Though the Lords must have feared for their lives at that moment, Kerensky merely began an impassioned plea to the Council Lords to be lenient with captured Republican soldiers. With a sigh of relief, the Council Lords listened and agreed to the General’s proposals for the treatment of the Amaris soldiers.

General Kerensky left Terra for New Earth, the temporary headquarters of the SLDF. There, he issued orders to his troops to treat the Republicans well and congratulated them on surviving the long campaign. “In the coming months some of you may envy the dead,” he concluded. “The universe has become a very different place and you may feel that you cannot cope with it. Have courage. You and I have faced the worst; what comes next cannot be as bad.”

A week after Kerensky’s return to New Earth, General DeChavilier approached him with word that all of the Star League troops were ready to help overthrow the Council Lords. General DeChavilier wrote in his journal that the General smiled but politely refused the offer, saying that he was too tired for treason. He went on to say that as long as there was a Star League, he would remain loyal. Historians have pointed out that Aleksandr Kerensky was a military man, not a politician. Others have maintained that Kerensky realized that his age and lack of heirs meant an overthrow would only have delayed the inevitable.

As the weeks wore on and the High Council continued to meet, the continued existence of the Star League looked more and more doubtful. The Council Lords could not agree on who would become the new First Lord. Their meetings turned into aggressive auctions, with each House leader attempting to trade huge sums of money, resources, and even whole planets in desperate schemes to become the ruler of the League. The only hopeful sign was the fact that the Council Lords were still on Terra and still talking long after the meetings had been scheduled to end.

On August 12, after ten months of deliberations, the five exhausted and angry leaders agreed to disagree forever. With a short written statement that they brusquely handed to some reporters, the five left for the spaceport and their individual realms.

The message read: “After long months of intense negotiations, we have reached an impasse on the question of who should become the next leader of the Star League. It is our opinion that the inability to find a new First Lord makes any further decision-making impossible. Therefore, we officially dissolve the High Council on this day, August 12, in the year of 2781.”

MOBILIZATION

When news of the dissolution of the Star League reached New Earth, many soldiers believed that now General Kerensky would have an excuse to seize control. Instead, Kerensky immediately sent messaged to the five Houses imploring them to reconsider their decision. For the next two years, he traveled to and fro across the Inner Sphere trying to get the leaders of the five Houses back into the Council Chambers, where he hoped them would reconcile and resurrect the Star League. His efforts had tremendous public support but did nothing to sway the House families, who seemed to prefer the new political alignment.

Freed of limits on the size of their militaries under the Star League Accords, the five families began massive buildups. They turned to the skilled soldiers of the Rim Worlds Republic, who were waiting for release from prisons in the Hegemony. Recruiters from the five Houses met every group of soldiers released. They offered money, rank, positions, and even titles to get them to sign contracts. MechWarriors and AeroSpace Pilots often received huge plots of land for their services.

In August 2783, General Kerensky heard that recruiters had been talking to SLDF units. When the General tried to keep the recruiters away from his troops, the House lords asked for his resignation as commander of the SLDF. A month later, most of the Ninety-first Heavy Assault Regiment (The Armadillos) deserted the SLDF to join the Federated Suns. General Kerensky realized that the spirit that had made the Regular Army and the Star League so noble was fast eroding.

No one knows exactly when General Kerensky decided that the Exodus was the only answer. Most records left with the General, leaving historians with only sketchy notes and hints into the General’s thinking. Some have suggested that Kerensky was planning the Exodus even before the New Vandenberg rebellion and the subsequent second war in the Periphery. Other historians have theorized that it was not General Kerensky’s idea at all, but General DeChavilier who originated the plan.

Most of the evidence points to August or September as the time when General Kerensky settled on an Exodus of the SLDF. Records show that in September, activity at the General’s headquarters jumped dramatically and that the HPG station on New Earth was in almost constant use.

On February 14, 2784, more than 100 division commanders and an equal number of lesser officers crowded into an empty wooden warehouse on Terra. General Kerensky and his High Command then explained Operation Exodus to the astonished officers. The Star League still lived within the heart and soul of each trooper and sailor, the General said, but this new cruel age would eat away at that spirit in no time. If so many lost lives were to have any meaning, the essence of Star League had to be saved. Thus, the Exodus. When Kerensky finished speaking, everyone present stood and applauded.

News of Operation Exodus traveled quickly through the SLDF. Soon every soldier was talking about it, yet the plan never leaked to the five Houses. Though secrecy was complete, many Believers in the Saints Cameron guessed what was about to happen from reading Jonathan Cameron’s letters. There are also indications that Minoru Kurita suspected Kerensky’s scheme.

Each soldier was eventually asked individually if he or she wanted to follow General Kerensky, and more than 80 percent said that they did. Most of the remaining 20 percent felt that leaving would be improper. A few whole units decided not to go, and like the Eridani Light Horse, played an important part in the future of the Inner Sphere. Most of the individuals who refused later died wearing the uniform of one of the five Houses.

Ship traffic among SLDF bases rose dramatically after the February 14 meeting. Star League shipyards grew hectic as workers hastily repaired damaged ships for the coming journey. Because 200 more transports were needed to carry the soldier’s families and supplies, the SLDF went on a buying spree, snapping up all available ships from commercial JumpShip manufacturers.

Quartermasters began buying massive amounts of food and supplies. They bought on the open market from private companies in the other realms. Sometimes they even bought directly from the House governments. Star League military bases were stripped of all their supplies and parts, and families bundled up their lives into boxes and crates.

Despite the scale of the preparations, the preoccupied leaders of the five Houses, except for Coordinator Kurita, failed to realize what was going on until units in the Periphery and in outer reaches of the Inner Sphere began moving in August.

It was not until July, when the jump points around Hegemony worlds were thick with warships and transports, that the five leaders begin asking for explanations. General Kerensky gave them none. He banned the SLDF from communicating with outsiders unless absolutely necessary.

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STORM INHIBITORS

The Terran Hegemony gained influence over the other realms partly by providing high-tech services that others could not do themselves. One of these services was terraforming, and Storm Inhibitors were among the most advanced features of the process. Consisting mostly of huge orbiting reflectors that focused heat on clouds, the installations could not actually prevent storms but greatly reduced their severity.

Storm Inhibitors could change weather in other ways, too. By using heat, they could create high-pressure areas and guide rain clouds to parched areas. Storm Inhibitors could also warm a planet, or part of it, either to make it more comfortable for colonists or to melt icecaps of glaciers to provide water. The fall of the Star League took with it all production of Storm Inhibitors. The few that remain do not work properly because of the lack of maintenance and spare parts.

-From Ghost in the Machine: Technologies Lost, by Gwen Hill, Stormseed Press, Donegal, 2980
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THE EXODUS

To those that we leave behind, let me say that we see no way to continue living in a civilization that spurns the ideals it once professed to hold so dear. Though we depart, our hope is that one day we might return.

-Last known transmission from the warship McKenna’s Pride, assumed to have been written by General Kerensky

On July 8, General Aleksandr Kerensky flashed a one-word order to the ships assembled about him at the New Earth jump point and to the ships assembled above 50 other stars throughout the Inner Sphere. The order was “Exodus.” More than a thousand ships made jumps that day.

General Kerensky’s convoy headed into the Draconis Combine, making as many jumps as possible in the shortest time and making no outside contact. Across the Inner Sphere, other convoys were moving through the other realms toward the Combine. When asked the purpose of their journey, they replied: “Out on extended maneuvers.”

They rested only in star systems with a sizable SLDF base. Food and other supplies had been stockpiled in these systems and were loaded onto the transports when the fleet reached the system. When the last group of ships was about to leave, the people on the base packed up and joined them. Some convoys stopped to pick up civilians, too, as on the planet Helen.

To the five Houses, the Exodus appeared to be a military mission. Warships guarded each fleet of transports, and the SLDF’s reluctance to explain their extended maneuvers seemed to indicate that the General was planning revenge on one or more of the House Lords. Because Minoru Kurita had treated Stefan Amaris so well and Aleksandr Kerensky so badly, the Draconis Combine seemed a likely target. The routes of the convoys seemed to confirm that suspicion. The SLDF was still vastly stronger than any of the House militaries. It would not take much effort to depose any of the ruling House Lords and declare that realm the true Star League. Each of the five House leaders remembered every real or imagined slight to General Kerensky and was haunted by the fear of becoming the target of the General’s wrath.

House Kurita had the most reason to worry. The Kuritas had always been at odds with the Camerons and the Star League. Almost everyone except Coordinator Minoru Kurita in the Combine felt certain that Kerensky was about to attack. Kurita believed he understood the honor-bound thinking of the General, and if he were correct, the worst response would be panic. The Coordinator told his realm to remain calm and wait. Coordinator Kurita’s conviction that General Kerensky was planning to leave the Inner Sphere grew when the convoy’s routes turned away from Luthien.

The first transports and warships arrived above the Combine world of New Samarkand on October 2, 2784. Daily, more and more ships appeared at the star’s two jump points. By October 12, the entire fleet of 1,349 transports, carrying more than 100 divisions and their families and escorted by 402 warships, was in the New Samarkand star system.

The SLDF had two major military bases on the planet, each with large wilderness areas of deep forests and mountains. General Kerensky ordered that everyone be allowed to spend some time on the two bases before they left the Inner Sphere. For the next three weeks, a constant stream of planetary transports shuttled between the planet and the jump points. At night, the forests and mountains of New Samarkand were speckled with the campfires of men, women, and children all enjoying some rest before journeying on. Above them, their ships shone like stars in the night sky.

During this shuttling, General Kerensky completed his last duty in his old role of Protector; he gave the remains of Stefan Amaris and his family to the medical school at the University of New Samarkand.

On November 5, as the last DropShip was docking with its JumpShip, the first groups of ships left New Samarkand for the Periphery. It took a whole day for all of the ships to leave the system. The last ship to leave New Samarkand was McKenna’s Pride.

The fleet quickly moved through the Periphery. The last known star system where the fleet was seen was above the sparsely populated world of Gutara V, which, coincidentally, had been the site of one of Stefan Amaris’s secret MechWarrior academies. After the 1,000 ships of the Regular Army left Gutara V, they were never seen again.

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THOSE WHO STAYED BEHIND

Though the Star League Defense Forces remained loyal to General Aleksandr Kerensky through frightening times and 115 divisions joined him on his voyage into the unknown, there were some who stayed behind.

In the long years between the executioner of Stefan Amaris and the Exodus, recruiters from the five Inner Sphere realms attempted to lure Star League troops into the House militaries. Without their previous sense of purpose, a few soldiers and units of the SLDF were swayed, but the vast majority remained loyal to General Kerensky.

The idea of the Exodus, however, cost General Kerensky the loyalty of many more of his troopers. Units that declined to join the journey had enough love for the General to help keep his plans secret even though they would not join him.

When it became clear that most of the SLDF was not coming back, the five House governments looked eagerly at the few units that were left behind. A swarm of recruiters descended on these troops, most of whom were in the Terran Military Region.

With offers of high pay, promotions, and land, the realms of the Inner Sphere each recruited a number of units. The Free Worlds League wooed fewer units than the other realms but did eventually get one of the plums, the remainder of the Third Regimental Combat Team. These units, the Seventy-first Light Horse Regiment, the 151st Light Horse Regiment, and the Twenty-first Striker Regiment, survived to modern times as the elite mercenary Eridani Light Horse.

Other units, including the Twelfth Heavy Assault Regiment, the Twenty-fifth Striker Regiment, the Fifteenth Dracon Regiment, and the Fourth Tau Ceti Rangers, also kept their organization and identity to modern times. Most other units eventually broke up or were destroyed in the Succession Wars.

In all, the Draconis Combine recruited nine independent regiments of Star League forces, the Lyran Commonwealth recruited an infantry division and nine regiments, the Federated Suns got ten regiments, the Capellan Confederation got the biggest prize, the 360th BattleMech Division (The Bannockburn Division), and seven regiments, the Free Worlds League recruited the Eridani Light Horse plus two other regiments, and one regiment joined the Periphery.

In many cases, these units formed the backbone of key fronts in the Succession Wars, and often their weapons, training, and organization became models for House units.

-From The Rise and Fall of the Star League, by D.H. Rand, Tharkad Press, 2989
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AFTERMATH

It is a favorite cliché among scholars to say that General Kerensky and his men disappeared into history. Almost immediately after the Exodus was confirmed, people began turning the story into romantic myth. Biographies, novelizations, and holo-shows purporting to tell the true story of General Kerensky, the coup, and the Exodus came out by the thousands, barely slowing when the Succession Wars started. One of the most telling pictures ever taken in the First Succession War was of a Davion infantryman in a foxhole, his rifle in his lap, reading a book whose cover asked the question on the minds of billions: “Where Did the General Go?”

There have been five attempts to trace the path taken by General Kerensky. During the height of the First Succession War, when it seemed that the Draconis Combine might conquer a huge chunk of the Federated Suns, the First Prince sent a fleet to look for the SLDF. The hope was that five JumpShips could find the SLDF and persuade them to come back on the side of the Federated Suns. The five ships returned two years later. They had gone more than 100 light years beyond Gutara V, following a trail of debris left by the General’s ships. The trail eventually became confused and then stopped altogether, forcing the expedition to return.

The next four missions, two by the Federated Suns and two by the Draconis Combine, extended the scope of the search but yielded only a few tantalizing clues. Only recently, the Guided Light Expeditions have provided a clearer picture of where the General and his followers might have gone. The explorers discovered that the General probably did not continue in a straight line, as everyone had assumed. About 130 light years from the Periphery, the survey teams found proof that the fleet had changed course. This raises two new possibilities. One is that General Kerensky had a definite destination for his fleet, contrary to romanticists who believe he just leaped off into the unknown. The other possibility is that his descendants could be living just outside known space, waiting and watching.

If this proves to be true, it will help explain certain mysterious incidents that have occurred in the Inner Sphere since Kerensky’s Exodus. One of the most well-known of these puzzling stories is the one involving the Minnesota Tribe.

In 2825, as the Second Succession War was just getting under way, a regiment of unidentified ‘Mechs appeared in the Draconis Combine. From a convoy of transports and DropShips, the regiment struck at the garrison on Svelvik, seizing supplies and then leaving. People were quick to notice that the ‘Mechs were in excellent condition and painted according to Regular Army standards. The regiment fought using Regular Army tactics, and wounded or stranded MechWarriors killed themselves rather than be captured. There was a small symbol on each ‘Mech that was later identified as a map of Minnesota, a geopolitical domain of North America.

The leaders of the Draconis Combine did not need further proof to be convinced that the Minnesota Tribe, as the regiment came to be known, was the vanguard of an SLDF attack. The Minnesota Tribe attacked three more worlds. During its last attack, its MechWarriors freed thousands of political prisoners on the Combine world of Richmond. The Minnesota Tribe then left the Draconis Combine and was never seen again.

Another curious incident was the departure of the Clinton Cutthroats during the Third Succession War. A reputable mercenary unit, the Cutthroats had been working for the Federated Suns when a courier vessel landed in the midst of a battle. A man and woman got out of the ship and asked to see the commander of the mercenary regiment. For three days, they engaged in private talks with the unit’s commander. Then DropShips, unmarked but obviously in excellent condition, landed and whisked the Cutthroats offplanet and out of the Inner Sphere.

These incidents are just two of many stories and observations that have accumulated over the years. Other stories revolve around the powerful Wolf’s Dragoons, who many believe are part of the SLDF. Another favorite tale told in smokey taverns on cold winter nights is one about the Vandenberg White Wings, squadrons of white AeroSpace Fighters that appeared on the Periphery edge of the Capellan Confederation escorting 20 Star League transports. The Disappearing Battleship of Merope is yet another story about a Black Lion battleship that was seen and filmed orbiting Merope, but then vanished when ships from the Inner Sphere came to investigate.

It is uncertain whether these stories are the wishful thinking of men and women eager for the return of the good days of the Star League or whether they are factual sightings. What is certain is the possibility that descendants of General Kerensky and his forces still live. Just outside our sphere of light, men and women may well be watching and waiting for the day of return.

The Star League Part 25

2010-05-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

THE LAUNCH

Defeating the automated defenses at Terra’s two standard jump points proved to be the easiest part of the entire campaign. The SDS had five major immobile battlestations at each jump point, their weapons ready to attack anything that materialized and failed to signal the proper code. To deal with this, General Kerensky ordered the automating of 20 aging Jumpships and 60 Overlord DropShips with sophisticated computer and guidance systems. The DropShips weapons were replaced with extra armor. Their massive holds were then stuffed with explosives.

These unmanned ships materialized in the Terran system and accelerated immediately toward the enemy battlestations. Though many DropShips were destroyed, enough got through to detonate on their targets to destroy all of the battlestations.

Almost a thousand warships and troop transports surrounding the jump points of eight different worlds waited to make the journey to the Terran system and responded within minutes after receiving confirmation that the last obstacle had been cleared away. Because of the premium on speed, the General reluctantly agreed to cut the distance between jumping ships to one-fourth the norm so that extra ships could pack the points and make the jump. After fully materializing, ships had just five minutes to clear the jump point before the next group of ships materialized. If they made a mistake, groups of ships would materialize inside of one another. There was also no way to stop the operation should something go wrong; once it started, it would not stop until the last ship materialized above Sol.

Fate seemed to be looking out for the soldiers and sailors of the SLDF that day. Of the 932 ships that waited to make the jump to Terra, only 20 failed. Eighteen of those suffered drive failures at the point of departure without any loss of life. Of the remaining two, the troop transport Richardson suffered a partial failure of its station-keeping drives upon materialization. Captain G.T. Garret, realizing that he would not be able to move his ship out of the jump point quickly enough, ordered its DropShips to launch immediately. The DropShips made it clear of the jump point. The Richardson almost made it clear, but the corvette Mississippi Queen materialized with its prow inside the transport’s engineering section. The Richardson exploded, with all hands lost. The Mississippi Queen sustained heavy damage but vacated the jump point before the next wave appeared.

Once the fleet was assembled into formation with the troop transports (armored DropShip carriers) surrounded by warships, it began a High-G acceleration toward Terra. The orders for the warships were to protect the transports at all cost. Though not discussed in the briefing rooms of the warships, the ship captains understood the unspoken order from the Admirals to sacrifice even their ships as a last resort to save the transports.

Four days before the main force was to rendezvous with Terra, 40 warships used pirate points to materialize just a day’s travel from Terra. They were ordered to destroy as many drone warships as possible. Each Caspar carried the firepower of a cruiser and had the maneuverability of a destroyer. For the next two days, the Star League ships fought the swarm of Caspars that gathered around them. The cruiser Sovetskii Soyuz was the last warship to succumb to the sheer number of drones. The 40 Star League warships had destroyed more than 100 drones.

This left only 150 drone warships to challenge the fleet. With the main fleet still two days from Terra, the battle with the Reagan drone warships began. The drones, using the tactics that long-dead admirals had programmed into their distant computers, shadowed the fleet just outside of weapon range, waiting to single out ships to destroy. Occasionally, groups of two or three drones would suddenly accelerate and attempt to cut through the fleet with the ferocity of sharks. They concentrated their fire at the transports, destroying many. Whole divisions disappeared in a single pass of the deadly ships.

Twelve hours from Terra, with the sudden brightness of their engine exhaust signalling their acceleration, all of the drones attacked. Admiral Grec ordered most of his warships to meet them midway. Fighters scrambled from their carriers.

The two fleets opened fire, the flash of lasers and the angry exhaust of missiles casting eerie shadows on the hulls of the ships. Several drones broke through and drove toward the vulnerable transports. Clouds of fighters chased them down and destroyed them, but at the cost of more transports. Debris traced the path of Kerensky’s fleet.

As the battle wore on, the drone warships lost their tight organization as more were destroyed. No longer able to make coordinated attacks on the transports, more Caspars began defending against the Star League warships. The unspoken order was also having an effect. Captains of grievously wounded warships aimed their vessels directly at drones. Most of the time, the automated ships easily dodged the suicide attacks, but these tactics by their human opponents seemed to confuse the drones and make them more cautious.

By the time the fleet was two hours from Terra, the tide of the battle had turned. Star League warships outnumbered drone ships. Admiral Grec’s warships caught the enemy in a crossfire. With the transports safe, the fighters returned to their carriers for refueling and rearming.

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KERENSKY’S RETURN

The campaign to recapture Terra was long and bloody. It took eight years and cost millions of lives, consuming more than half of the most powerful military ever assembled.

Though the Periphery uprising had cost about one-fourth of the strength of the SLDF, General Aleksandr Kerensky still had an army of more than 300 divisions, and he threw the full force of it at Stefan Amaris.

The campaign cost more than half of General Kerensky’s divisions, including 46 of the remaining 82 ‘Mech divisions, advanced weapons that mankind has been unable to replace.

From the beginning of the Periphery uprising to the Exodus of General Kerensky and his remaining loyal troops, the SLDF was reduced from a force of 486 divisions in strength to one of 113 divisions. Even with such horrifying losses, General Kerensky took with him a force stronger than any that remained. The Star League forces that did stay behind became the strongest units in the House militaries, with some surviving intact to modern times.

-From Fall of an Empire, by Grenville DuSimpson, Tharkad Press, 3021
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THE DROP

An hour from Terra, the fighters were ordered back into combat. They left their DropShips and warships and headed toward Terra to destroy 30 key laser and missile batteries on the continents of Europe and Asia.

To reduce their vulnerability to laser and missile fire, the fighters chose an especially steep descent angle. Many were shot down anyway, some by Republican fighters, but most by the automated defenses of the Reagan SDS.

Some ‘Mechs were already making their descent when the first fighters reached their targets. DropShips were already releasing armor and troop carriers. The few fighters protecting the rain of ‘Mechs and men had their hands full with Republican fighters that scrambled from bases all over Terra. Aiming for the thousands of ‘Mechs, the Amaris fighters had little trouble scoring kill after kill. If the fighters sent to destroy the SDS bases could not accomplish their missions, the entire invasion was in jeopardy.

The fighters almost failed. Losses due to enemy fighters, ground-based weapons, and the treacherous descent were higher than expected. The remaining pilots, chased by Republican fighters and fired upon from the ground, needed to make every bomb count. They succeeded, but with extremely heavy losses.

Because of the skill and determination of the Star League AeroSpace pilots, 30 divisions made their drops onto Terra in relative safety. The first division down was the 146th Royal BattleMech Division (George S. Patton Division), which landed within striking distance of Moscow. The other divisions landed as far west as Madrid, Spain, as far east as Magadan on Asia’s Pacific coast. Their landings went unopposed by the Republican forces, who were holed up in the major cities and in Terra’s twelve Castles Brian. The few attacks came from AeroSpace Fighters and other air units, which retreated quickly when challenged.

General Kerensky landed a short time after the initial drop. He assumed control of the Patton Division and led the first assault to retake his home city of Moscow. As he did so, other units were launching similar attacks against other major cities and, more importantly, spaceports.

The General’s tactics were tinged with conflicting emotions as he maneuvered his Orion BattleMech down streets he knew so well. Every building, every tree, every monument in the city was sacred to him, and the General knew that this battle would damage Moscow as much as it would his enemies. Seeing what his city had become under Emperor Amaris-the defaced monuments, the hospitals turned into mortuaries, the parks where daily executions had been held-enraged him beyond caring. Even the house where he was born had been destroyed.

With the aid of the Eleventh Mechanized Infantry Division, General Kerensky pushed the Rim Worlds units, the Thirty-third Amaris Dragoons ‘Mech regiment and attendant regiments, out of the city and then surrounded them on the plains. For a long while, General Kerensky seemed to be waiting to call in air strikes and artillery barrages. Even when the enemy offered to surrender, it appeared that the General would let his anger rule the day. After two hours of sitting in the cockpit of his ‘Mech, he finally accepted the surrender.

INVASION OF NORTH AMERICA

You will fight to the last soldier, and when you die, I will call upon your damned soul to rise and speak horrible curses at the enemy.

-Orders of Emperor Stefan Amaris to his troops

By January 2779, Europe and most of Asia were in General Kerensky’s hands. Though there had been some bitter fighting, especially for the Castles Brian, it was obvious that most of the Republican forces were massed on the North American continent. The Republican forces were using desperate tactics, including using entire city populations in chains as shields. To save lives, General Kerensky canceled plans to invade Africa and South America and instead focused on North America.

Getting there would be the biggest problem. Using DropShips to ferry troops would expose them to the still-active SDS ground weapons in the Americas. The ten transoceanic tunnels that connected the continents had been destroyed by Amaris and were beyond repair. General Kerensky devised a plan that balanced safety and speed.

On January 15, a massive force led by the 322nd BattleMech Division (The Antarctic Division) and the Ninth Mechanized Infantry Division crossed the Bering Strait and entered the northern state of Alaska. At the same time, SLDF warships and fighters loosed an enormous barrage on SDS ground weapons to cover the descent of thousands of DropShips into the Mexican Republic.

Resistance to the simultaneous invasions was much stiffer than anything encountered in Europe and Asia. The elite of the Amaris military fought the Regular Army for every centimeter of land. On the northern front, the Antarctica Division’s tenuous foothold on Alaska was almost taken away when two Amaris divisions threatened to push it back into the frigid waters.

Then Emperor Amaris assumed command of the continent’s defense. He had been a good strategist, but years of paranoia had eroded his skills and judgement. By March, the northern force, reinforced by a landing in central Canada, was working its way down the coast toward Unity City. On the Southern front, the 135th Royal BattleMech Division (Van Diemen Division) was leading Star League forces north along the coast toward the Court of the Star League. The states of Florida, Texas, and New York became secondary invasion sites, pinning down Amaris troops that might otherwise have gone to the aid of their Emperor.

The Amaris forces made desperate stands against the approaching Star League troops during June-July 2779. On the northern front, massive battles took place on Vancouver Island. To the south, Republican forces held the northern bank of the Columbia River against the 135th for three weeks. Star League forces finally broke through both lines, pushing Republicans back to the terrain around the Court of the Star League by September.

On September 3, 2779, forward elements of the Ninth Mechanized Infantry were the first to see the Court of the Star League. (The Ninth was known as the “The Pride of Puget Sound” because its ancestor division had once been stationed nearby.) The final battles proved to be the bitterest. Republican troops, true to their Periphery heritage, resorted to suicide tactics in futile efforts to prevent the Star League from regaining the city. Their desperate tactics delayed the final assault, which General Kerensky led personally.

The victory of the long campaign quickly turned sour, however, when Kerensky learned that Amaris was not in Unity City. Even before Star League troops reached the Court, Terran citizens welcoming the General told him that Amaris spent most of his time pacing the Imperial Palace.

Heeding the pleas of his wife, two sons, and three daughters, Stefan Amaris had left Unity City for the Star Palace that Richard Cameron had built for him in the Canadian wilderness years earlier. Amaris had renamed it the Imperial Palace, and there he waited.

General Kerensky left Unity City to his staff and turned his attention to Amaris. To make sure the Usurper did not escape, General Kerensky called on his second in command, General DeChavilier, to lead a special assault force. On September 29, ‘Mechs from the elite Twenty-Sixth Royal ‘Mech Division (The Graham Division) dropped on and around the Imperial Spaceport, which was located near Amaris’s retreat. General DeChavilier’s drop, which was soon reinforced by DropShips carrying more troops, disrupted the Republican defense and cut off Amaris’s only avenue of retreat.

General DeChavilier, commanding regiments from the Ninth and Twenty-sixth divisions, soon linked up with General Kerensky, who was commanding several regiments from the 328th Royal ‘Mechs (Lion-Hearted Division). Together, they defeated the Republican guards protecting the area. Despite repeated ambushes, Generals Kerensky and DeChavilier subdued the opposition in one day and closed in on Amaris.

The two Generals, with two lances of ‘Mechs guarding them, entered the large park that encircled the Imperial Palace. Members of Amaris’s personal guards had been warned that General Kerensky would be coming in his olive-drab Orion. Actually seeing the ‘Mech and knowing that commanding it was the mighty legend himself, however, made them hesitate.

General Kerensky pushed his Orion into a run. By the time the Republican defenders in their armored pillboxes on the wall began firing, the General was halfway to them. He quickly reached the walls, where bad firing angles for the pillboxes protected him. As General DeChavilier and the rest of the two lances silenced the pillboxes, General Kerensky’s Orion smashed the gates of the Imperial Palace.

With that, the Republican soldiers inside laid down their weapons and cleared the way to Amaris’s quarters. When the Generals approached Stefan Amaris, still in his now-tattered Emperor’s robes, came out to meet them. He slowly drew the same pistol he had used to execute Richard Cameron, and laid it at the feet of General Kerensky’s ‘Mech. He then looked up, as if expecting his conqueror to say something. When no response came, Amaris shrugged and began to leave the Imperial Palace grounds.

The sight of the former Emperor walking ahead of General Kerensky’s olive-drab ‘Mech ended the resistance of the few remaining Republican soldiers. From a side entrance, Amaris’s wife and children emerged. They ran to catch up and fell into step beside him without a word.

The General escorted his prisoners to the headquarters of the Ninth Mechanized Infantry Division, located in the remains of what had been a posh hotel for visitors to the Imperial Palace. General Kerensky treated the Usurper like a gentleman and ordered a suite of guarded rooms turned over to the Amaris family. In return for treatment that he did not really expect, Amaris gladly agreed to broadcast an order to his troops to surrender.

The effect of Stefan Amaris’s message was immediate. Republican troops, mostly in the three North American Castles Brian, began to lay down their weapons and surrender. The message took longer to reach troops on other worlds, where fighting did not end until early November. Enemy troops, who surrendered by the thousands, were treated with respect, as ordered by General Kerensky.

END OF THE STAR LEAGUE

The General’s advisers debated what to do with Stefan Amaris, his family, and his top aides. Many argued that they should be executed immediately, but General Kerensky felt that executing Amaris and his people without a trial would make a shame of all they had fought for. Only a few sided with the General, but no one dared challenge the legendary leader. The prisoners continued to live on in their luxurious cells.

After nearly a decade of war, General Kerensky and the SLDF rested. The people of the Hegemony and in some other realms celebrated. Star League troopers were heroes everywhere they went. General Kerensky allowed the atmosphere of celebration to continue for a month. Then it was back to work. He ordered his units to assess the damage to the Hegemony, salvaging what they could, and begin the reconstruction.

Two weeks later, while cleaning up the Court of the Star League and attempting to restore it to its former grandeur, troops unsealed the Throne Room. Even the most battle-hardened soldier could not take the sight or the smell of the room for longer than a few moments. The outrage was immediate. The cry for Amaris’s head grew so loud that General Kerensky had to be careful about who he assigned to guard the Amaris family.

Though he had been wading through the stack of administrative tasks that had built up, the General had to see the Throne Room for himself. Two weeks after the unsealing, Kerensky flew from the Imperial Palace to the Court of the Star League. He walked into the Throne Room, which had not been cleared, and asked to be left alone. Thirty minutes later, he came out and flew back to the Amaris’s retreat. He ordered that Stefan Amaris, his family, and his aides be marched into a courtyard, where soldiers with laser rifles waited as each prisoner refused a blindfold. The General himself gave the order to fire.

When the deed was done, Kerensky was heard to mutter as he left, “There will be no sympathy for the devil.”

Later that day, the General ordered the bodies preserved and protected until he could decide what to do with them.

The Star League Part 24

2010-05-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

VOLUNTEER REGIMENTS

Though the five Houses of the Inner Sphere adopted a neutral attitude toward the coming storm, their citizens did not. The coup and its horrors were felt deeply by the average citizens in all five realms. The Houses’ refusal to join General Kerensky shocked and angered billions of people. Demonstrations in support of General Kerensky and against their government’s decision were common and often violent.

Some people were not satisfied with just protesting. Thousands of men and women left for the Republic so that they could fight alongside General Kerensky. Though the Steiners, Davions, and Mariks did nothing to prevent this, the Kuritas and Liaos did. Meanwhile, sympathetic traders smuggled whole shiploads of men and women to the Republic or a Star League base. Many volunteers had been soldiers and officers in the House militaries who risked court-martial or even summary execution for going AWOL. Some MechWarriors and AeroSpace Pilots escaped with their vehicles.

The unexpected response deeply moved General Kerensky and the rest of the SLDF. Everyone was allowed to join. Even the very old and young were given tasks to keep the SLDF supplied and fit. Boot camps and makeshift military academies were created to train those able-bodied enough to fight. General Kerensky set up a MechWarrior school on Circinus. Its graduates received new ‘Mechs from factories in the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth.

By the time General Kerensky was ready to launch his offensive, there were 36 Loyalist regiments. They became among the most impassioned fighters, with casualty rates two or three times higher than the average.

HEGEMONY CAMPAIGN

You have your orders. All I can add is that I hope and pray some sort of sense will come out of this horror story because I certainly can’t see any at the moment.

-From General Kerensky’s address to his commanding officers, February 12, 2772

The Star League Defense Forces began leaving the Rim Worlds Republic in early 2772. They had spent a year and a half resting and preparing for the offensive, but that time could not replace the men and women who had been lost fighting in the Periphery. Most units were severely understrength. On paper, the General had 300 divisions and more than 200 independent regiments, but barely half that number in reality.

As the units began loading onto their DropShips and transports, General Kerensky received messages from the Inner Sphere that the leaders of the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns would allow the Star League soldiers to pass through their realms without challenge. These messages were not unexpected; each has provided shelter and information to SLDF units probing the Amaris defenses. The Free Worlds League, which had allowed the presence of the Eridani Light Horse, now refused the SLDF permission to use League systems as staging areas. Thus did Kenyon Marik again act on an old grudge against General Kerensky stemming from an incident when Marik served on General Kerensky’s staff. Later in the campaign, Kerensky repaid Marik by using the Oriente system without the leader’s consent. The loss of Marik support was partially offset by an offer of help from the Capellan Confederation.

With the aid of three realms, the General could shape his strategy. He divided his troops into three major elements, one to travel through each of the accommodating Houses toward the Hegemony. Once all were in place, the three forces would launch their attacks. The first objective was not to strike for Terra, but to link with each other and encircle Stefan Amaris and his troops. Only after the three had linked up and drawn their forces completely around the Hegemony would the General begin to move on Terra.

Some questioned Kerensky’s strategy, arguing for a sudden thrust for Terra. The General had chosen the slow and cautious approach because intelligence reports indicated that Amaris had been successful in hiring mercenaries and had amassed more than 40 divisions. This, coupled with the lethal Space Defense Systems and the Castles Brian, made him a force to be reckoned with. Besides, the General was still worried that the Draconis Combine might side with Amaris and was not sure about the Free Worlds League.

General Aaron DeChavilier was given command of Task Force Sun, which was to travel through the Federated Suns. Admiral Joan Brandt was given command of Task Force Commonwealth, leaving Task Force Confederation to be commanded by General Kerensky.

The campaign for the Hegemony began on July 14, 2772, with SLDF divisions assaulting border worlds and with groups of warships venturing deep into the Hegemony, hoping to pick off a few enemy ships or bombard enemy positions. Worlds on the Hegemony’s border with the Draconis Combine were lightly defended. With Minoru Kurita maintaining a nonviolent stance toward Stefan Amaris, the Emperor stationed few units facing the Combine. Sabik, Lambrecht, Kervil, Telos IV, and Murchison fell quickly. With Republican troops retreating before a superior enemy and with General Kerensky still afraid to expose his back to House Kurita, the SLDF paused to consolidate its gains. House Kurita, always ready to exploit a situation, sent Combine units to occupy the worlds the Amaris troops were vacating. When Star League forces later advanced, they were surprised to be fighting Kuritan troops on Vega, Imbros III, Styx, and Altair. Wanting no war with the SLDF, the Combine forces gave ground readily, only to return after General Kerensky’s offensive had moved on.

Because Hegemony relations with the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth had always been cordial, the Camerons had built fewer Space Defense Systems and Castles Brian on those borders. The Regular Army used its superior training, equipment, and numbers to overwhelm Republican troops on such planets as Mallory’s World, Ozama, Syrma, and Zebebelgenubi. These fronts were where Star League troops found the first evidence of atrocities, the massacres of artists on Helen and of scientists on Zebebelgenubi.

Though this gave the SLDF an even greater sense of mission, General Kerensky’s troops were bogged down on the Free Worlds and Capellan fronts. They also found more and more defenders as they attacked planets closer to Terra. Though Star League troops had a year and a half to train and plan, they were still largely stymied by the Castles Brian and the Space Defense Systems. The long and costly campaign to recapture Nusakan was a prime example.

Republican soldiers changed the access codes on the Space Defense Systems, thwarting SLDF efforts to break through the security and into the computers. Other SLDF strategies, such as drawing drone warships away from a world with a decoy fleet, also failed. For the first two years, the only way for General Kerensky’s soldiers to deal with an SDS was to fight with every drone. Though this worked, it was accomplished at the cost of at least three major warships for every planet protected.

Castles Brian proved equally difficult. Soldiers had maps of each world’s Castles, but they did not know how the enemy would use the fortresses. The castles had miles of tunnels, large enough for BattleMechs to walk through, leading to at least 20 concealed exits. This made it virtually impossible for Regular Army units to be sure that Amaris troops were not popping up behind them. The interconnected bunkers and strongholds were concealed so well that it often did not matter if a platoon of soldiers knew that a bunker was ahead of them; they could not attack what they could not see without sacrificing themselves to draw fire.

The early successes produced prizes for the SLDF when they captured several key planets, such as Oliver and Ozama, more or less intact. As General Kerensky’s troops began to meet stiffer resistance, however, they also gained less from worlds closer to Terra. The woeful conditions of liberated worlds revealed how horrible life was under Emperor Amaris. Food, water, and power had been reserved for Amaris troops. The Republicans drained the resources and supplies from cities they did not need, often causing the loss of thousands of lives. Living in the countryside was no better. Farmers were told to triple the yield of their farms or die.

Government buildings were destroyed or defaced. On Saffel, the local garrison, in a fit of ill humor, painted the government buildings in harsh day-glo colors and gave them to prostitutes from the Republic. Universities and instructors suffered as well. Any research project that might have military application was moved to Terra so that the Emperor’s scientists could monitor it. The rest of the university was destroyed. Professors who were of no value to the military were either killed or forced to build defenses for the local garrison.

By the end of 2774, General Kerensky’s troops had seized only eleven worlds and were contesting another ten. They had lost 30 divisions and 40 major warships. Morale among the troops plummeted as the soldiers realized how terrible life must be for those still living under Emperor Amaris and how long it would take to free them.

NEW STRATEGIES

In November 2774, forces from Task Forces Sun, Commonwealth, and Confederation linked up. Emperor Amaris was surrounded by a ring of worlds, each thick with Regular Army units.

The military value of this ring is debatable. Even General Kerensky admitted that the idea of encircling Amaris was strategically impossible. The psychological effect of being surrounded did have a profound effect on Amaris, however. Once he heard that his troops had lost Slocum and Connaught, the final two worlds in the ring, he reconsidered his defensive strategy.

From recordings made by automatic devices in Unity City, it was later learned that Amaris was slowly losing his sanity. Gone was the exultation of those first few months after the coup, when he had staged huge parties and forced his high-born hostages to attend. By 2774, he was walking through the deserted Court with a laser rifle in his hand, firing at anything that reminded him of Richard Cameron or General Kerensky.

After the encirclement was completed, Emperor Amaris gathered his high command and ordered them to withdraw from worlds without either fortifications or an SDS and to pull back to worlds that did. He felt that this limited withdrawal would strengthen his hold over the key worlds. He ended his meeting with his officers by remarking that “I can’t look at the stars anymore. Every time I do, they seem to constellate the face of Kerensky.”

Emperor Amaris’s orders were carried out in late 2774 and early 2775, as his forces pulled back from twelve worlds. Amaris was pleased that this would use his troops more effectively. When General Kerensky found out about the pullback, he had reasons to be happy as well.

The SLDF gained control of worlds scattered throughout the Hegemony. Officers and sailors of the Star League Navy quickly realized the importance of these worlds because their locations allowed Star league ships to jump across the Hegemony without using enemy star systems. Two of these worlds, Bryant and Asta, were within one jump of Terra and later became important as mustering points.

Recapturing another world, Carver V, provided psychological lift as well. The SLDF units arrived to relieve the remnants of three Marine regiments that had been holding out since the coup eight years earlier. The units had received emergency supplies from the Eridani Light House that had allowed them to continue their fight.

Star League troops quickly garrisoned the twelve worlds. Amaris’s forces had left plenty of minefields and booby-traps for the troopers to deal with, and the SLDF spent months removing and evaluating what the enemy left behind. On some key worlds, such as Graham IV, all that was left was nuclear devastation.

What Kerensky did find, however, led to a turning point of the war. Before the war, the planet Nirasaki was the headquarters of the Nirasaki Computers Collective. The NCC had been one of the major developers and contractors of the Space Defense Systems. It had had the responsibility of developing the incredibly intricate computer communications network that linked drone warships, ground weapons, and supply centers. When General Kerensky and Admiral Janos Grec, commander of the Star League Navy, heard that Nirasaki had been abandoned, they sent troops and scientists to the NCC research facility hoping to find something they could use against the Space Defense Systems.

At first it did not look promising. Most of the NCC buildings had been destroyed and the scientists rounded up and taken to Terra in the first year of the Amaris occupation. Searching the levels beneath the buildings revealed much of the same. The computer memories had been dumped and wiped clean. The paper files had been burned.

When a soldier discovered a small portable computer in a cleaning closet, it turned out that the computer’s contents had been hidden by Professor Catherine Glimp. When Nirasaki was being seized by Republican troops, Professor Glimp realized that the Space Defense Systems would be major stumbling blocks to anyone trying to rescue Hegemony worlds. She filled the limited memory of the portable computer with information that she and her colleagues thought might help.

Unfortunately, they had no way to defeat an SDS. In their own words: ”We just did too good a job, never once imagining we might one day wish the stupid things were more vulnerable.” The data Professor Glimp provided, however, allowed engineers and communication specialists to devise an electronic countermeasure. It was a device that swamped the primary communication channels of an SDS with static, forcing its computers to use backup links. The hope was that these secondary channels would be less effective in coordinating the various weapon systems. The device was also supposed to hamper the targeting of the SDS weapons.

General Kerensky had no way to test the effectiveness of the new ECM device except in battle. In March 2775, he led an attempt to invade New Home, an SDS-protected world just a few light years from the important world of Keid. At the head of a large fleet of warships and transports, the General anxiously watched as the new ECM was tried. At first, it seemed to have little effect. The nearest drone warships responded to their presence and attacked. Other warships around the planet, however, and the missile and laser batteries on the planet, seemed confused about how to respond. Their ineffectiveness allowed the General to drop his troops with few losses. New Home fell quickly, and Kerensky finally had his first break of the campaign.

He wasted little time in exploiting his new advantage. From mid-2775 through late 2778, the SLDF launched a series of attacks against SDS-protected worlds. Terra could not be attacked directly because of its advanced and extensive SDS, and so the worlds around it became the General’s targets. Because many of the worlds attacked were not protected by Castle Brians, the fighting on these worlds was relatively straightforward for the Regular Army.

On worlds like Dieron and Procyon, where there were Castles Brian, the fighting was especially difficult because there was no high-tech answer for overcoming an enemy firing from inside a bunker or for ’Mechs popping up from a hidden tunnel entrance. General Kerensky could have bypassed the mountains, where most castles were built, but that would have left whole regions vulnerable to attacks and atrocities from Republican troops, who thought nothing of killing civilians to hurt their enemy. The only solution was to break into the forts and hunt the enemy down. On Dieron, Republican troops had entrenched in the cities, too. The campaign for Dieron lasted two years, cost millions of lives, and devastated the planet and its economy.

In 2775, some of the mercenary units hired by Stefan Amaris began to surrender to the SLDF. Seeing the Space Defense Systems neutralized and the Regular Army’s new tactics for combatting Castles Brian took much of the fight out of many Amaris soldiers and mercenaries.

Also in 2775, some of the Star League member states began to participate in General Kerensky’s campaign. Supplies from the Lyran Commonwealth, the Capellan Confederation, and the Federated Suns began appearing at worlds held by General Kerensky’s troops. While most of the aid was for the many millions of refugees, there was also considerable ammunition and other equipment for the SLDF. Some of the soldiers cynically thought that the member states had begun to contribute only after General Kerensky and his army had gained the upper hand.

Despite recent successes, General Kerensky felt far from certain of victory. For every world like Keid, where Amaris had destroyed the military installations but had found the planet too useful to ravage, General Kerensky captured another like Caph, once a jewel of the Hegemony and left in ruins by the Rim Worlds forces. The General had lost more than a third of his forces and almost half of his navy. He did, however, control all the worlds closest to Terra. He could turn his attention and his remaining forces to the awesome task of seizing the most heavily defended place in the universe.

LIBERATION OF TERRA

The Reagan Space Defense System was many times larger and more powerful than the others, and the engineers and scientists of the SLDF could offer General Kerensky no short cuts to defeat it. Brute force was the only way through the Reagan Space Defense System.

The General and his staff spent months of conferences to shape the plans for capturing Terra. Code-named Operation Liberation, the resulting risky plan was to swamp the Reagan Space Defense System with so many targets that most of Kerensky’s forces would be able to reach Terra’s surface.

While his troops were preparing for the operation, General Kerensky issued a statement to Terra giving Stefan Amaris a chance to surrender. Amaris, by then almost totally insane, sent a long, rambling reply that, among other curious things, called General Kerensky the angel of death. Taking the reply as a no, the Regular Army continued to prepare for the assault. This could be the final battle and no doubt the biggest.

On January 23, 2777, soldiers on eight worlds loaded onto their DropShips. General Kerensky, in his flagship, the McKenna’s Pride, watched as ships began gathering around the zenith jump point of New Earth. Twenty minutes before Operation Liberation was to commence, a taped message was flashed to all ships.

“Soldiers of the Star League, I’ve a few words to say before we begin. We’ve come a long way, my friends. From the far Periphery to just outside home, we have fought battle after battle. We’ve seen our enemy fall before us. We’ve seen our friends die. Now tired, bloodied, and battered, we are about to enter a battle that many have said is impossible to win. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps freeing Terra from the Usurper is humanly impossible. If it is, I’m not worried. I have long known that the men and women whom it has been my honor to command are more than just flesh and blood. That they are more than the sum of their physical parts. An unalloyed spirit runs through you like the sparks in diamonds. It is hard to put this into words but when I look into the eyes of even the lowest-rank trooper, I see the Star League. And I know that the worth of the Star League lies with the fact that it gave birth to and nurtured men and women like you. Friends, it is time to go home. Godspeed to all of you.”

The Star League Part 23

2010-05-06T14:29:00.000-07:00

THE KURITA HOSTAGES

Stefan Amaris proclaimed himself First Lord in January 2767. This was the first transmission from the Terran Hegemony since the coup began. General Kerensky and the leaders of the other realms were shocked. Everyone had considered the Periphery uprising, not the Rim Worlds Republic, to be the threat. Even the suspicious Takiro Kurita, who had tried to warn the other Council Lords about Amaris, was caught off guard by Richard’s death. Kurita knew that Amaris was a schemer, but the Coordinator had believed that Amaris would exercise control through his influence over Richard. Kurita had thought Amaris too shrewd to risk the reaction of the entire Inner Sphere and the wrath of General Kerensky and the SLDF.

As weeks passed and the fait accompli began to sink in, the House leaders began blaming each other for letting it happen. They also waited for General Kerensky to restore order. The General, however, was totally surprised by the coup. When he recovered from his initial shock, the General reasoned that Amaris could not have been foolish enough to attempt the coup without support from one or more of the other realms.

In fact, the Draconis Combine began to cooperate with First Lord Stefan. Shortly before the coup, Takiro Kurita had ordered his grand-nephew, Drago Kurita, to evacuate his post as Ambassador to the Star League because the Coordinator feared a popular uprising against the large number of Republican troops on Terra. Drago and his family did not get out in time, however. Though the 121-year-old Takiro had assigned most of his duties to staff members, he flew into a rage upon learning that Amaris had arrested Ambassador Drago, his wife, and their four children. After fretting for days because he knew how brutal Amaris could be, Coordinator Takiro had a heart attack. On the day before he died, Takiro made his son Minoru promise to resolve the hostage situation through negotiation.

Thus the Draconis Combine was civil and cooperative despite Amaris’s brash goading of the Kuritas. Not knowing why House Kurita behaved in a friendly manner to the Usurper, the other Council Lords and General Kerensky feared that the Draconis Combine had been part of the plot.

WARRIORS WITHOUT A HOME

While we fought and died trusting that all was well back home, a cancer was allowed to grow that has now seized our hearts and souls. The Hegemony is lost and our hopes with it.

-General Aleksandr Kerensky, announcing the Amaris coup to his troops, February 15, 2767

In January 2767, General Kerensky led the attack to retake New Vandenberg. For a year, he had been at the head of an offensive to regain the Taurian Concordat. Though he faced stiff resistance from the Periphery forces, he finally gained the upper hand.

With the seizure of New Vandenberg complete and the submission of the Concordat likely to follow soon, the General hoped to pressure the neighboring realms to submit with a minimum of bloodshed. Yet certain things worried him. The large enemy BattleMech divisions, once so eager to engage in combat, began to avoid big battles. It seemed to General Kerensky that they were waiting for something.

His message to Terra, telling the First Lord of his victory of New Vandenberg, went unanswered. Then General Kerensky heard Stefan Amaris proclaim himself First Lord. An unbelieving Kerensky immediately asked for a status report from commanders in the Hegemony. The few still alive told the General that there was no hope for the SLDF units that were still fighting.

On May 19, the General received a message whose full implication filled him with horror:

FROM: Stefan Ukris Amaris, Emperor of the Amaris Empire
TO: General Aleksandr S. Kerensky, Commander of the late Star League Defense Forces
General:

I, with my infinite skills and aided by my loyal subjects, have struck, with a swiftness given only to the righteous, a blow that has corrected decades of injuries and slights to my family. I rule where the Camerons once called home. I control the Cradle of Humanity. All within the Hegemony have bowed before me; those who didn’t are dead.

Join me, General Kerensky. Become my sword arm and help me impress my word and wisdom upon the other realms. I’ve no reason to hate you; I wish only peace between us. Join me and convince your men and women to follow you, and I will give you power second only to mine.

But should you dare turn a blind eye to the wisdom of my offer and decide not to join, then heed my warning: I control everything the Hegemony has. All its defenses, all of its fortifications are now manned by people loyal to me. Should you try to attack, every inch of Hegemony soil will be stained with the blood of the fallen, and every drop will be a burden upon your soul, which must already be heavy with guilt for allowing me to accomplish the complete control of your homelands.

(signed) Emperor Stefan Ukris Amaris I

The feeble attempt at conciliation and the mockingly adversarial tone of the letter confused General Kerensky. Even after the losses in the Periphery war, the SLDF was by far the strongest military ever assembled. How did Amaris dare to antagonize its commander?

For three days, General Kerensky stayed in his quarters. His troops were more vocal in their reaction. Because Amaris was from the Periphery, many troopers wanted to go on a rampage, destroying anything and anyone from the Periphery. Just barely, their officers contained them and prevented a catastrophe.

Royal units, whose soldiers were recruited from the Hegemony, were the hardest hit by the news. Most of them wanted to leave the Periphery immediately to attack Amaris, but their officers ordered them to wait for General Kerensky’s decision. One unit, the Thirty-fourth Royal BattleMech Division, would not wait. It left its post in the Outworlds Alliance and headed for home. It was later wiped out above Epsilon Indi, its homeworld, by that planet’s automated Space Defense System.

General Kerensky finally broke his silence by issuing a long message to his troops and the people of the Periphery. He expressed outrage at what Stefan Amaris had done. He stated that, considering the nature of the Amaris family, there was little hope for the life of the First Lord or anyone who dared to show their loyalty to the Star League.

The General went on to say that a state of war obviously existed between the SLDF and the Amaris Empire. He cautioned his troops that it would be foolish to charge blindly at Amaris and his forces. The Rim Worlds forces were strong enough that the SLDF needed to plan strategy, General Kerensky said. Though the SLDF vastly outnumbered the Republican forces, General Kerensky knew that his adversaries would be in excellent defensive positions, and he worries that one or more of the House militaries, especially the Kuritans, might be fighting alongside the Amaris troops.

Addressing the people of the Periphery, he said it would be ridiculous for his troops to continue fighting the Periphery rebels to preserve a Star League whose capital was enslaved. He declared a cease-fire with all the Periphery realms except one. General Kerensky warned the Rim Worlds Republic that he intended to seize the homeworlds of Stefan Amaris to use as his base of operations. This was not simply a matter of revenge. General Kerensky, mistrustful of all the Lords after what had happened, needed a command center, and the Rim Worlds Republic lay undefended.

His announcement calmed the soldiers of the Star League. Knowing that their leader, a man whose stature and charisma had grown to almost godlike proportions, was back in command gave everyone hope that all was not lost. Some still disagreed with the General and felt that they should try to recapture the Hegemony immediately, but the news of the fate of the Thirty-fourth Royals restrained even the most impulsive among the soldiers. MechWarriors and common soldiers eagerly agreed with General Kerensky’s plan to attack the Rim Worlds Republic as a chance to repay Amaris for what he did to their homeworlds.

RIM WORLDS CAMPAIGN

The decision to move on the Rim Worlds Republic must have been a difficult one for General Kerensky. He had long been a vocal opponent of what he called “war’s unnecessary acts of stupidity against the innocent.” Even during a battle’s angriest moments, he had never succumbed to the temptation to strike an easy and telling blow against an enemy’s civilian population. General Kerensky was an anachronism, more in tune with a time when warfare had a set of rules and a code of honor.

As news of General Kerensky’s plan passed through the Inner Sphere, many people questioned its sense. These individuals believed that the General should stay in the Concordat, summoning his strength and planning his strategy. To embark on a campaign against the Republic seemed a foolhardy waste of effort and lives.

Some among the militaries of the five inner realms understood. They realized that the Republic was probably woefully underdefended. Officers of the five Houses also understood that the Rim Worlds Republic was the only Periphery realm that was not battle-scarred and exhausted. There was every reason to believe that General Kerensky would find plenty of supplies and equipment for his troops in the Republic. Some also realized that Star league forces would vent their frustrations on the Republic and thus be able to fight for the Hegemony with less passion and greater thought.

When he heard what General Kerensky was planning, Emperor Amaris was livid. He sent messages throughout the Inner Sphere about “the butcher Kerensky” and “his unholy intention to attack innocent men, women, and children.” He also sent messages to the remaining Periphery BattleMech Divisions that he had helped form, ordering them to defend the Rim Worlds to the last soldier.

The offensive began in August 2767 after General Kerensky and his forces approached the Republic from one side, and General DeChavilier, with an equal force, moved in from the other side. Before they attacked, the Star League force offered the Republic the chance to surrender. Mohammed Selim, Regent of the Rim Worlds Republic in Amaris’s absence, flatly refused.

The Periphery divisions that Amaris had ordered to protect the Republic had refused the order. Their reasons were many, but the most common one was revulsion for what Stefan Amaris had done. The warriors in the divisions had wanted independence from the Star League, not the death of innocents. Without the protection of the Periphery divisions, the Republic had only reservists and a few militia units to defend against the most powerful fighting force in history. Against such odds, many Republican warriors simply gave up, either refusing to fight and going AWOL or defecting to General Kerensky’s side at the first opportunity. The main contests were at the 20 fortifications scattered throughout the Republic.

Built decades earlier by the Star League, these fortifications were virtual copies of the Castles Brian in the Terran Hegemony. After Richard Cameron had ordered the SLDF to transfer the fortifications to Republican units, Stefan Amaris had used them to train his troops on how best to overcome the Castles Brian in the Hegemony. General Kerensky assaulted the Republican fortifications in a variety of ways: full frontal assault, combined assaults, bombardment from the air or space.

As expected, General Kerensky’s troops fought the Republicans with unmatched fury. There were many acts that, under different circumstances, would have been called foolhardy and overly violent. The General and his command staff issued special orders in an attempt to prevent the Star League troops from committing the same sins as their enemies. To their credit, most SLDF soldiers controlled their emotions. There were exceptions. The massacre at Gutui Junction, where the Ninetieth Dragoons killed 100 POWs, was the worst incident.

The Rim Worlds Republic fell quickly.

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ADMIRAL BRASO’S LAST TRANSMISSION

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The Thirty-fourth Royal BattleMech Division was aided in its attempt to win back the Hegemony by the 568th Armed Transport Flotilla. The flotilla consisted of a single Black Lion Class battlecruiser, two Aegis Class cruisers, four Lola Class destroyers, one Potemkin Class cruiser/transport, and 20 transports and service vessels.

Commanding the 568th was Admiral Amanda Braso, a 30-year veteran of the Star League Navy and recipient of the Naval Medal of Valor, for her action during the Battle of D’Van’s Star. What follows is her last transmission. The message was received and recorded by a small trading vessel that was watching the battle from a jump point. The message was forwarded to the Periphery.]

This is Admiral Braso, commander of the 568th Armed Transport Flotilla. I’m hoping that someone friendly to the Star League might be listening in and relay my message to the General. He has to know what has happened.

We materialized into the Epsilon Indi system on July 1 at 0900 hours at both the zenith and nadir jump points. No resistance.

We high-geed it to Epsilon Indi in two groups, I in my flagship and Vice Admiral Mitchell Justin in his cruiser, the E. Presley. A day away from Indi, we picked up a challenge from a drone warship. We gave the proper response. To no one’s surprise, it refused our ID code. Our computer programmers took over at that point and attempted to worm their way into the controls of the Space Defense System. They tried everything but were rebuked by the computer’s security system each time. My hat’s off to whoever built the SDS; they built quality stuff, damn them.

As we drew nearer, more Caspars left their posts on the far side of the planet until all 56 were ready and waiting for us. There was no way to avoid a fight. I ordered Justin and his ships to change course and try to make it to the far side of the planet while my group would bear the brunt of the fighting. I was hoping that he might have a chance to unload his troops unopposed.

The Caspars, looking for all the world like warships from hell, are incredible to watch. They took the initiative, which surprised me, and performed an incredibly swift raking pass at my ships. Our gunners found it difficult to aim at the drone ships because of their speed and maneuverability. After they passed my ship, they concentrated on the Rex, a destroyer. Her commander made a fatal error and tried to run away. Like sharks around a whale, the drones encircled the Rex and sliced her to pieces. They went after the transports next. We managed to scatter the drones by diving into the middle of the fray, but not before they had gotten two troop transports. The gunners on my ship, bless their hearts, managed to get two of them by aiming at their tails. There seems to be an unusual weakness there that might be exploited by whoever follows us.

I ordered the remaining transports to launch their DropShips and ‘Mechs, hoping that so many targets would confuse the SDS and that some would get through. The Caspars split into two groups, one to engage us and the other to slice through the cloud of DropShips and ‘Mechs, their weapons firing at even the smallest tank-carrier. Many ‘Mechs were lost, but some survived.

Then, without warning, one of the drone ships rammed the Huston, an Aegis Class cruiser. I was horrified to see both ships explode. I then watched helplessly the ground-based SDS lasers and missiles picked off our remaining ‘Mechs and DropShips like so many kernels of corn thrown into a fire. One by one, ‘Mechs and DropShips were singled out and destroyed. I estimated that of all the DropShips and ‘Mechs I had in my group, maybe 10 percent actually reached the ground. Justin’s last report said that his group fared a little better, but not much. I do not hold out much hope for those that did reach the surface.

I don’t know how we are going to overcome these SDSes. The only way I can see to combat them is just hunting its warships down and destroying them all, then bombarding the hell out of the planet in hopes of destroying the laser and missile batteries on the planet’s surface. I…

What? Evasive action to port! Gunners fire, maximum spread. Prepare for collision. (Sounds of explosions)

End of transmission.
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PREPARATIONS AND NEGOTIATIONS

The Rim Worlds Republic had a wealth of resources badly needed by the Regular Army. What was not expected was the docile way the people of the Republic accepted the presence of so many SLDF units on their worlds and in their skies. This has never been fully explained, though some historians have speculated that even the citizens of the Republic were shocked at what Amaris had done.

Stefan Amaris sent new messages to the leaders of the five major Houses calling General Kerensky everything from an unprincipled schemer to the Great Satan. These messages had a new twist, however, in that they stated Amaris’s terms for admitting the Great Houses to join with his new empire.

General Kerensky also called upon the five Houses to join him “in ridding Terra, the home of us all, of the Amaris scourge.” He did not offer terms or try to persuade them to join; he merely stated that he considered it was a duty honorable people would undertake. Not one of the five member states joined either side.

Oddly enough, the Draconis Combine, the one realm that most thought would join Stefan Amaris, was actually the most eager to join General Kerensky in smashing the Usurper. Though Minoru Kurita had pledged to try to rescue his nephew peacefully, he privately did all he could to help Kerensky. Though pleased to have the support, General Kerensky was mystified by the Coordinator’s public stance.

The other Houses had no such excuse. Members of their ruling families had escaped the Hegemony safely. The other Houses did not want to join the struggle for political reasons. To join the losing side would cause physical and political losses that could not be recouped, and none could predict the eventual victor. Though the SLDF was obviously more powerful than the Republican military, none of the leaders knew what secret deals might exist. All the inaction heightened the mutual suspicion.

For the next year and a half, while both sides sought to win the support of the five Houses, the military of the Star League prepared for the offensive. General Kerensky grew more cynical and less trusting of the Lords. He created two groups of the divisions and regiments that were stationed in the Inner Sphere. One group stripped Star league bases of supplies and equipment and sent the material to the Republic. General Kerensky ordered the second group to test the defenses of Stefan Amaris. Emperor Amaris, too, began to prepare for the inevitable, building up his forces and strengthening fortifications.

The House leaders attempted to protect their interests without angering either side. The Capellan Confederation rebuffed Amaris incursions. The Draconis Combine, still trying to negotiate with Stefan Amaris, refused General Kerensky permission to stage raids on Amaris from Combine territory. Coordinator Minoru Kurita even forced the Third Regimental Combat Team, the Eridani Light Horse, to leave the Combine if it persisted in testing the Republican defenses. Colonel Ezra Bradley, commander of the Third RCT, was treated brusquely even though his unit had been based in the Combine. After an initial confrontation with the Free Worlds League, the Third RCT was allowed to use bases there. Colonel Bradley learned a lesson from the Thirty-fourth Royals, making only probing raids on worlds protected by an SDS in the hopes of destroying a few drones at a time.

Often these tactics worked, but sometimes they did not. Almost weekly, the soldiers training in the Republic heard about the deaths of their fellow soldiers. This news hardened their hearts and deepened their resolve.

The Star League Part 22

2010-05-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

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KERENSKY’S FLIGHT

For MechWarrior Nicholas Henson and everyone of the 2234th Battle Regiment (The Star Vikings), the uprising came as a shock. Two weeks before the rebellion on New Vandenburg, he had been carousing with his classmates, celebrating their graduation and wondeirng where they would be assigned. Though he had hopes for action upon learning that he was Periphery-bound, Henson was given the boring job of patrolling the warehouses.

Henson had been listening to the news for further word from Fort Gorki when the station went dead. He flipped through the dial looking for another, but all the civilian stations had gone silent. Just then his CO popped up.

“Henson, this is the situation. The whole planet seems to have gone up in arms over the Fort Gorki fighting. General Kerensky’s headquarters are under attack. He and his staff are headed here. Go to Warehouse 5 and open it up so that our Techs can get in there and start powering up some of those ‘Mechs. When you’re done, look for the General’s convoy and guard it. Understood?”

Henson spent the next half hour assisting the Techs as they powered up a Wolverine II and an Atlas II. Using power they drained from his Warhammer’s reactor, they inserted live fuel cores into the two ‘Mechs and started them up. Just as the Techs were disconnecting the last power cord, a laser-scarred and blackened hovertank pulled into the warehouse. The hatches of the vehicle opened, and its occupants got out.

MechWarrior Henson recognized General Kerensky. The tall, muscular man stepped down from the vehicle and walked toward Henson and his ‘Mech.

“At ease, at ease,” came the General’s voice through the speakers of Henson’s helmet. “This isn’t a parade. What’s your name, warrior?” The voice was remarkably gentle for all the authority it carried, and the slight slavic accent gave it an unusual cadence.

“Henson, is it? Well, MechWarrior Henson, we’re faced with what my people back home would call a snowy choice. The entire planet has rebelled and apparently has more than enough weaponry to give us a run for our money.

“I’m guessing the enemy ‘Mechs are after me and will soon attack the spaceport. My DropShip is coming, but I don’t know when. It will be close. Until then, I want to be able to fight, which is why you’ve been helping these good Techs to power up these ‘Mechs. Excuse me a moment.”

The Atlas, Warhammer, and Wolverine walked out of the warehouse and looked upon the inferno that had once been the spaceport. Suddenly, General Kerensky’s aide called out that his sensors had picked up a fighter coming in from behind. Henson ran for the warehouse but stopped abruptly when he realized that no one was following him.

General Kerensky, in his Atlas, took a few steps forward and away from his aide. Both faced the approaching fighter and calmly waited. The fighter, a Thrush, dove and waited until the last instant to let loose a volley of missiles and laser fire at the two ‘Mechs standing so defiantly below.

An instant before the enemy missiles reached them, General Kerensky and his aide let loose a salvo of their own missile and cannon fire. Then, with a speed and precision Henson never seen before, Kerensky and his aide dodged their ‘Mechs out of the way as the enemy missiles exploded into the ground where they had been standing.

An instant later, the fighter erupted into a ball of flames as it passed over and crashed into one of the warehouses behind them. Sheepishly, Henson walked back from the warehouse and approached the two warriors, who, he could hear, were quibbling over whose missile had brought the fighter down.

“There you are, MechWarrior Henson. A wise move to hide. Don’t worry. We’re just too old to really care anymore.”

There was a barrage of artillery shells that whistled over their heads and exploded nearby, demolishing several warehouses.

“Well, Henson, looks as if the enemy wants to save us the trouble of blowing up our stores. Let’s find your company and lend them a hand. Lead the way.”

The next 30 minutes became a blur of impressions and sensations for the young MechWarrior. The shock of arriving at the runway’s edge and linking up with the remainder of his company just in time to see enemy ‘Mechs appear across the runway, their weapons searing the ground and air about him. The crazy chase as the enemy ‘Mechs pursued them through the maze of warehouses and buildings, every blind intersection becoming a potential ambush. The horror of seeing three friends being cut down. The anger he felt as he launched a Headhunter at an enemy ‘Mech, and the elation he felt as he saw the cockpit explode and the ‘Mech collapse, smoke billowing from where the head had been.

Just as the remaining SLDF forces were surrounded and the noose was beginning to tighten, the ground began to shake, a hot gale came down over them, and a shadow fell over the Star League ‘Mechs. Moving impossibly slowly over their heads was a Fortress DropShip, so close Henson felt he could touch it.

“Ah, good,” was General Kerensky’s only comment on their rescuer’s appearance.

The loading onto the DropShip was eerily quiet, considering what had been happening in the battle just moments before. General Kerensky walked up to Henson, who was desperately trying to compose himself.

“I feel for you, Henson. To have such a disaster for your first battle is a difficult way for you to begin your career. You did very well today. Unfortunately, it looks as if disasters may be what we will be getting for a while. It is going to be a long and stupid war."

-Excerpt from the novelization, Brian Henson, MechWarrior, by Vincent DeVries, New Avalon Press, 2788
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THE AMARIS COUP

Days of infamy, when some heinous act or crime is committed, are almost always bright and sunny. All have their faces pointed to the peaceful heavens above, making it that much easier to slip them the knife.

-Stefan Amaris to his officers the day after he usurped the Throne of the First Lord.

As he traveled toward Terra, Stefan Amaris listened closely to the news coming from the Hegemony and the Periphery. From the Hegemony, he heard very little to alarm him. Resistance to his Republican troops was growing but still too small to have any effect. From the Periphery came reports of continued heavy fighting, demanding General Kerensky’s undivided attention. Pleased, Amaris sent streams of coded messages to his officers and agents in the Hegemony. By the time he arrived at Unity City on the snowy night of December 26, 2766, all of his key personnel were ready to act.

The next day dawned cold but beautiful, after the snowstorm of the night before. The storm left behind clear skies and a layer of fresh snow, through which Stefan Amaris and his guards trudged across the open courtyard leading to the First Lord’s private chambers. Amaris had a nine o’clock audience with Richard Cameron, and he did not want to be late.

The Amaris group went unchallenged past the guards at the door, who had standing orders to admit Amaris and anyone with him. Carrying a large box tied with satin ribbons, Stefan Amaris continued with his bodyguards down the ornate corridors with their white marble pillars, past the sentries in their cloaks hiding ablative flak suits and weapons, and past the elaborate security strongpoints hidden among the decorative ornate carvings and sculptures.

When Amaris and his guards entered the private Audience Chamber of the First Lord, they found Richard Cameron eagerly waiting. Amaris and Richard exchanged greetings, with Amaris complimenting the First Lord on his decisive and capable administration since their last meeting. Then, with a flourish and a smile, Amaris handed the First Lord the present, saying it was a gift from one friend to another.

Richard tore through the wrapper and opened the box, only to discover another, identically wrapped package inside. Laughing, he repeated the procedure. After working through box after box, he finally discovered a large laser pistol set with ornate jewels and with the Amaris crest carved into the grip.

Amaris reached out and took the pistol from the First Lord, saying that it was a very special weapon, made to his exact specifications. He held the gun up to the light, letting the jewels catch and reflect it. Amaris then slowly lowered the pistol until its barrel was pointed at the First Lord’s forehead.

From outside came the sounds of distant explosions. “It has begun,” Amaris said as he pulled the trigger. As the body of Richard Cameron slumped to the floor, Stefan Amaris sat down in a plush chair and calmly watched his guards leap into action. They pushed aside a large painting on a wall, revealing a hidden panel that controlled the security systems for the First Lord’s private quarters. On instructions from Amaris, to whom Richard had proudly shown the panel’s workings years before, the guards quickly took manual control of the many automated security systems in that wing of the palace.

Amaris interrupted the guards only once. Motioning to the body of Richard Cameron and the growing pool of blood, he asked one of them to clean up the “unsightly mess.”

CONQUEST OF THE HEGEMONY

Surprise is the best weapon to have in any arsenal. With it, all things become possible.

-Excerpt from the testimony of General Patrick Scoffins, Commander-in-Chief of the Republican forces in the Terran Hegemony, August 2780

Before 2765, there were 25 divisions in the Terran Hegemony. These included fleets, supplies, and planetary militia units. By December 2766, all but eight divisions, only two of them BattleMech divisions, had been sent to the Periphery. Reinforcing these divisions were a handful of independent SLDF regiments and planetary garrisons made up of aging veterans with Reserve status and young men and women hoping to get into a military academy.

Arrayed against the Regular Army in the Hegemony were Republican regiments and brigades with a total strength of 16 divisions. Even on Terra, Republican troops outnumbered the SLDF. Even as Stefan Amaris was murdering Richard Cameron, his regiments were pouncing on Regular Army units throughout the Hegemony. Republican troops used surprise to devastating advantage with such tactics as destroying Regular Army barracks filled with sleeping soldiers and flooding troopships with poisonous gas.

Regular Army forces stationed further from Republican forces fared little better. Amaris had made a point of having adequate air support for his strike. Among the weapons used by the Republican AeroSpace Fighters were nuclear bombs, which they used enthusiastically on the SLDF units untouched by opening moves of the coup.

Other prime targets were the Hegemony communications centers, for Amaris wanted to prevent any calls for help. Squads of Amaris commandos had little trouble seizing the lightly defended sites and shutting them down. Though HPG operators in the surrounding member states noticed the sudden cessation of messages from the Hegemony, it took days for their concern to work its way up through the channels. By then, it was too late. Surprise and ruthlessness were the keys to Amaris’s grand plan. It succeeded on almost every Hegemony world.

Because of the gallantry of some units, there were exceptions. Certain units, like the 3986th North American Infantry Battalion (The New Grunts), took to the wilderness of Hegemony worlds to fight a vicious guerrilla war that lasted until the liberations. The regiments in five Castles Brian also survived the initial onslaught and remained constant thorns in the Republicans’ sides until Amaris got impatient and destroyed all five with the repeated use of nuclear devices.

The most valor was shown by the palace guards, who almost killed Stefan Amaris despite his elaborate preparations. Amaris was unaware of the full extent of the security measures in the palace. He did not know that when he fired his pistol, the laser light was picked up by a sensor in the ceiling, sounding an alarm in a control room. Within seconds, the entire Court of the Star League was alerted, including the warriors of the Royal Black Watch BattleMech Regiment, the Camerons’ personal regiment stationed a few kilometers away.

Inside the palace, the guards raced down the halls to the Audience Chamber. They soon discovered that Amaris’s guards had control of the palace’s security systems. Hidden lasers killed many of them. Some pressed forward, relying on speed and their ablative armor. Three reached the doors of the Audience Chamber, only to be killed when Amaris’s men opened the door and lobbed a grenade at them.

Two lances of the Black Watch escaped the traps set by the Amaris Dragoons and headed for the Court of the Star League. Unaware that Richard Cameron was already dead, the nine warriors prepared to meet the Dragoons and hold them off as long as possible so their First Lord could escape.

The last members of the Royal Black Watch met the forward elements of the Fourth Amaris Dragoons at Gorst Flats. Commanding what was left of the elite SLDF regiment, which had been made up entirely of graduates of the Gunslinger Program, was Colonel Hanni Schmitt. She had chosen an excellent site to make her regiment’s last stand. With high, forested hills on one side and the waters of Puget Sound on the other, the nine ‘Mechs of the Black Watch forced the Republican ‘Mechs to bunch up and face them head on. Unable to use their numerical superiority, the Dragoons felt as if they had walked into a meat grinder that chewed up the first ten ‘Mechs before they could even react. The commander of the Dragoons withdrew his forces.

Meanwhile, a platoon of guards with jump packs was hopping across the palace roofs toward the Audience Chamber. As they approached the inner buildings, they too came under attack from the defensive systems. Turrets with lasers meant to knock out enemy AeroSpace Fighters cut down several troopers slowly arcing through the air. The defenses were programmed not to fire if the shot would hit the palace. Using this to their advantage, the remaining troopers started making shallow but dangerous jumps, praying that the turrets would not risk shooting at them.

Upon reaching the roof above the Audience Chamber, the guards began to use lasers to drill holes into the building. They cut into the wall that held the panel Amaris was using to control the security systems, hoping to destroy it so that other troopers on the ground could assault the chamber. As they drilled, two AeroSpace Fighters flashed past them high overhead on their way to destroy the last Black Watch ‘Mechs. The turrets on the palace did not react. An instant later, a flash, then the incredible force of a nuclear explosion, shook the Court of the Star League. The Royal Black Watch Regiment was no more.

The guards on the roof feverishly continued to drill. After fifteen minutes, they broke through the last barrier and found their lasers had burned a hole directly above the wires. They lowered a small explosive into the hole and detonated it. The explosion blew out the wall, killing two of Amaris’s guards and filling the Audience Chamber with debris and smoke. Amaris escaped injury only because he was standing next to a high-back oak chair that protected him.

Though unhurt, Amaris must have thought that his grand scheme had failed. Troopers were undoubtedly storming up the corridors, and he had only four guards with laser pistols to hold them off. The explosion, as powerful as it was, buckled but did not blow out the windows, which were made of safety glass laced with steel fibers. Unable to climb out or open the door that led to the First Lord’s private quarters, Amaris was trapped.

Through the hole in the wall, he heard the approaching steps of palace guards. Just when he thought he was finished, the sounds of running changed to crashing noises, the explosions of laser fire, and the confused shouts of soldiers. Poking his head through the hole and looking down the corridor, Amaris saw Dragoon infantry pouring out of an armored personnel carrier that had plowed through the wall of the palace. The bodies of Star League troopers were scattered on the marble floor.

THRONE ROOM MASSACRE

Republicans quickly seized control of the Court of the Star League after rescuing Stefan Amaris. Amaris then broadcast an ultimatum over all channels that called for SLDF soldiers to lay down their weapons and surrender or he would kill the First Lord. The ruse largely succeeded. Many units, badly mauled or outnumbered by Rim Worlds troops, did lay down their weapons. Those who surrendered were forced to dig their own graves before they were shot.

Those who did not surrender were chased away from the major cities and then hunted down. Many lances of the 191st Royal BattleMech Division, of which the Royal Black Watch Regiment had been part, survived the initial slaughter and escaped. They continued to fight for two years, with some surviving to see the liberation of Terra.

Reasonably secure on Terra, Amaris listened with pleasure to reports from the other Hegemony worlds. His plan was almost a total success. Of the 103 worlds, 95 fell under Amaris’s control in the first day. Though a few units held out and others resorted to raiding, Amaris forces controlled all the worlds by the end of the year. Many of the Castles Brian and the Space Defense Systems were captured intact and now belonged to Republican soldiers.

In a gruesome ceremony, Amaris forced the surviving soldiers of the palace guard to remove the Star League standard from the flagpoles and run up the Amaris family crest. Then Amaris ordered the prisoners shot and their bloody bodies buried at the foot of the flagpoles with the Star League flag as their burial shroud.

Amaris next turned his attention to the Cameron family. Richard’s wife, Elise, and two-year-old daughter, Amanda, were in custody. Consulting computer records, Amaris traced the names and locations of everyone who might have even a trace of Cameron blood. He brought these people to the Court of the Star League, treating them with kindness and courtesy until the whole group finally arrived.

Amaris assembled 79 men, women, and children of the Cameron family in the Throne Room. Sitting on the Star League Throne and protected by many guards, he gave the distant relatives of the Camerons an ultimatum: swear allegiance or die. He had them brought before him, one by one, to answer. Not one of the first 20 yielded to Amaris, who accepted their answers and asked them to rejoin the rest.

The 21st relative of the Camerons, Jason Cameron Bashina, agreed to bow to Amaris. With a cruel grin, Amaris shot Jason Bashina with the same laser pistol that had killed Richard. With no chance to live, the rest of the Camerons rushed the throne, only to be cut down by the surrounding guards. After the smoke from the charred bodies had cleared, Stefan Amaris left the Throne Room and ordered it sealed.

Elsewhere on Terra, similar atrocities occurred. The Greenhaven Gestapo, a notorious mercenary band, took control of Rome and tortured the people of that noble city for a decade. In 2770, the mercenaries, after an attempt to extort money and riches from the already-stripped Rome and Vatican City, killed Pope Clement XXVII and many cardinals and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church.

Across Terra and the Hegemony, Stefan Amaris destroyed everything that had to do with the Star League or the Camerons. Amaris wanted the memory of the Star League expunged from the face of every planet, to be replaced by his family crest, the symbol of the cruel Amaris Empire.

The Star League Part 21

2010-05-06T14:22:00.000-07:00

NEW VANDENBERG

As 2765 dawned, anti-League sentiment was further on the rise throughout the periphery, spreading into worlds that had previously been loyal. The only exception to the disturbing trend was the Rim Worlds Republic.

General Kerensky and his soldiers were particularly puzzled by the constant violence in the Taurian Concordat because they had broken the TFA. The SLDF had expected a lull in the Concordat troubles and was caught flat-footed by the new violence. Many lives were lost in the new cycle of bombings and shootings. The worst atrocity was the destruction of Fort Simpson, home of the 265th Heavy Assault Regiment, by a terrorist in a car carrying a nuclear device.

Then New Vandenberg and 17 other Taurian worlds, with the permission of Concordat President Nicoletta Calderon, seceded from the Star League, though not from the Taurian Concordat. The Concordat itself did not secede, however. The Council Lords could not decide how to react. Finally, General Kerensky, under the mandate to suppress rebellion in the Periphery and to keep the Star League intact, landed on New Vandenberg and ordered the militia units there to lay down their arms. Because he had no evidence linking the militia to terrorist activity, General Kerensky considered the New Vandenberg units most loyal to the Star League. The General felt that if the SLDF could show the rest of the Concordat that the New Vandenberg militia calmly handed over its weapons to the Regular Army, it would be easier to ask the other militias to lay down theirs.

General Kerensky’s plans were shattered when the New Vandenberg militia refused to give up its weapons. Stunned, General Kerensky hastily began negotiations with the soldiers, hoping to change their minds. News of the militia’s defiance spread like wildfire throughout the Periphery. Anybody who had ever dreamed of defying the mighty Star League cheered them on. This celebrity status made General Kerensky’s negotiations much more difficult and much more important. Any failure or mistake would surely turn the new celebrities of the Periphery into heroes or martyrs.

The mistake occurred when a firefight broke out at Fort Gorki between a platoon of militia that had been patrolling the fence of the base and a squad from the First French Regiment, whose vehicle broke down just outside the base. The squad tried to retreat but was cut down.

Unit records showed that Lieutenant General Dominique Petain, commander of the First French Regiment and one of General Kerensky’s trusted friends, had no intention of retaliating for the incident. She knew that the delicate negotiations would be affected by how her troopers behaved now that they had been provoked. She did not want her soldiers to be responsible for another Periphery war.

The Concordat regiment inside the fort did not realize how conscientious and peace-loving Lieutenant General Petain was. The militia expected to pay a heavy price for the incident. Each hour that passed without retaliation increased the tension. Thirty hours after the initial firefight, the Taurians could stand the anxiety no longer. In a wave assault, the entire regiment attacked the Star League troopers.

Her forces split by the attack, Lieutenant General Petain had to either let her regiment fight or succumb. The SLDF regiment showed its superiority but faced desperate Taurians, who feared for their lives if they surrendered. Fighting was protracted and costly to both sides.

A military tribunal later cleared Lieutenant General Petain of guilt in the Battle for Fort Gorki, but that could not change the tide of events. The entire Periphery, except the Rim Worlds Republic, rose up in rebellion as news of the battle spread.

YEAR OF A THOUSAND BATTLES

Like a wave of fire, the news of New Vandenberg’s rebellion sparked similar revolts. On worlds where terrorist organizations had once been the Star League’s only enemy, there now rose up whole regiments of men and women armed with weapons retrieved from secret caches. Worlds throughout the Periphery also seceded. Several SLDF units that had seen the injustices suffered by the Periphery joined the rebellion.

The rebels did not forget the guerrilla tactics their ancestors had used in the Reunification War. Suicide attacks, made by individuals in explosive heavy hovertrucks, or by whole crews in cargo ships, crippled many vital Star League installations. Communications and transportation centers were the prime targets of these attacks, and most were spectacularly successful. In one instance, a cargo ship laden with highly volatile fuel floated into an open cargo hold of the SLS Nebraska, a Star League battleship. The detonation split the ship in two, and one of the pieces collided with the SLS Cairo, a nearby battlecruiser.

Whole divisions were cut off from outside help. At first, the loss of assistance did not seem too important. Though well-armed, the regiments of rebel infantry that challenged the Regular Army were just brave citizens with only rudimentary training. The League troops’ real opponents were the professional soldiers in the various militia units, but they were refusing to engage in combat, as though waiting for something.

A month into the war, dozens of ‘Mech divisions arrived from beyond the Periphery boundaries and attacked isolated SLDF forces in all three rebel realms.

General Kerensky’s worst nightmare had come true. The years of unrestricted ‘Mech manufacturing by Periphery firms had allowed the creation of 50 full ‘Mech divisions. Personnel for these divisions had been recruited from militia units, mercenaries, and from colleges throughout the Periphery. The recruits had been sent to secret training centers, where mercenary units taught them how to use their ‘Mechs. To cover their disappearance, the future MechWarriors were signed on as crew members of the trading vessels of the Black Crow Trading Company, the White Star Liner and Mercantile Company, and the Far Side Convoy. During the five years it took to train personnel for the divisions, the leaders of the Star League had no idea of what was going on, a sign of how deeply the people of the Periphery wanted independence from the League.

‘Mechs and their crews had been hidden on key worlds. When news of the revolt reached their commanders, the ‘Mechs performed a variety of missions, the most common being to kill the commander of the local SLDF contingent. This tactic, essentially just another suicide mission, was successful and weakened many SLDF units. Had it worked on New Vandenberg, where a battalion of ‘Mechs attempted to kill General Kerensky, this tactic might have changed the course of history.

As the General left New Vandenberg for his flagship, his issued new orders for the entire SLDF. Divisions in the outer military regions of the five member states were to move “with vigor and force into the Periphery as soon as possible to relieve besieged units and take on enemy forces.” Units stationed in the Five House sectors nearest Terra and in the Hegemony were spread throughout the Inner Sphere to cover the planets vacated by troops heading into the Periphery.

Many divisions could not reach the Periphery quickly enough to save other SLDF units. Without support, most Star League forces in the Periphery could only hope to survive long enough to be rescued. Many units were forced to retreat to their bases for a final stand. Their opponents, the Periphery BattleMech forces, had no wish to waste their time on a beaten enemy and commonly issued the ultimatum: surrender and die. Few SLDF units surrendered. In most cases, Periphery forces dropped a nuclear bomb on the Star League troops and moved on.

Of the 50 divisions and regiments cut off by the uprising, 18 independent regiments and 13 complete divisions were annihilated.

By the end of 2765, more than half of the original 98 divisions in the region were lost or so severely mauled that they had to be disbanded. General Kerensky, faced with the possibility of being surrounded and cut off from the Inner Sphere, retreated with most of his forces back into the Inner Sphere.

Though forced to pull back in 2765, General Kerensky redeployed almost the entire SLDF and launched an offensive against the Periphery rebels the next year.

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UPRISING

I had never seen violence. I know that sounds precious, but I hadn’t. Sure, I’ve seen an occasional fistfight, even been in a couple myself, but here in Somab we pride ourselves on being above violence, or at least we did. Hell, we didn’t even have a transceiver to pick up the news from Vandenburg. We had plenty of things to keep ourselves entertained: the mountain slopes, the streams, each other. We didn’t need anything from the city below. They came here for entertainment.

Then came organizers for the TFA. Spouting grandiloquent phrases like “freedom from the League oppressors,” or “justice and honest self-rule for New Vandenburg,” they tried to get us to join them. They eventually left our town in disappointment, and we went back to looking after our guests.

We had met people from the Inner Sphere, mostly officers and soldiers from the local SLDF garrison. They came to Somab to ski, rest, and flirt with us just like anyone else.

Then someone blew up Crystal Lodge. A gaping black hole in the white snow was all that was left of the hotel and restaurants. The force of the blast had been so great that we couldn’t even recover the dead.

The TFA was blamed for the explosion because many of the dead were soldiers from the local garrison. I looked at the list and saw that there were some important local politicians visiting as well, very vocal anti-League politicians. I guess the TFA was responsible, though. The League doesn’t need to resort to bombings to get rid of its enemies. It just arrests them.

It didn’t matter, really. A detachment from the 351st Dragoon Regiment, ‘Mechs and all, entered our town and stayed. They interrogated everyone.

Their presence became an eerie fixture in our town, metal monsters on street corners, soldiers with rifles walking through our buildings.

Huddled around the small holoset was how we heard the news about Fort Gorki. We saw the reports of the battle, saw the soldiers running in and out of the smoke and fire. Already we could hear the screech of AeroSpace Fighters high above us and the commotion of the troopers outside.

On a cold, snowy night a week later, the TFA returned to Somab with ‘Mechs and rifles. They slipped past the troopers guarding the town without being noticed. I was sitting in the bedroom of my second-floor apartment, and I saw their ‘Mechs walk past my window toward the center of town. From one of the side streets came a League ‘Mech, which was quickly riddled with gun and laser fire and put out of action.

The TFA ‘Mechs then fanned out and began hunting the League ‘Mechs. All I could hear was gunfire and explosions. I managed to get out of my building just before two ‘Mechs, rockingly embracing each other like drunks, crashed into it.

I couldn’t find a way out of the town without running into ‘Mechs, their features lit up by the flash of their weapons. Running this way and that, I finally found myself climbing up the slopes with a group of other townsfolk. We walked and walked until we knew we were safe. We sat in the snow and watched our town being demolished.

The fires burned for two days, and the smoke hung over the ruins for weeks. The ‘Mechs that survived the night’s fighting moved off to fight elsewhere. We don’t listen to the news anymore. No matter who wins, the Somab we loved is gone.

-From The Faces of War: Interviews and Anecdotes, edited by Collette DeNal, New Vandenburg Press, 2766
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SETTING THE TRAP

All the while the other three Periphery realms were aflame with dissent, Amaris’s realm, the Rim Worlds Republic, was almost ridiculously peaceful. On only a few worlds was there even a hint of rebellion, and these sparks were quickly and ruthlessly stamped out by the military of the Republic.

There was a report of only one major battle in the Republic, when one of the Periphery BattleMech divisions tried to invade the Rim Worlds Republic at Gotterdammerung. Twenty Rim Worlds regiments valiantly repulsed the invading BattleMechs. There was little, if any Star League representation in the Republic at that time (the SLDF having been asked to leave the Republic in 2755), and so there was no independent verification of the heroic stand by the Republican military.

Only decades later did it become common knowledge that all the glorious stories from the battlefield, which included live reports on the fighting and interviews with the wounded, were a complete hoax. There had been no Battle for Gotterdammerung.

Stefan Amaris, far from being the country bumpkin that he pretended, was a schemer of the first order. The reason the Rim Worlds Republic was suffering none of the ravages of war was because Amaris was one of the war’s chief architects. Years earlier, he had met with leaders of all the major anti-League movements and had outlined his plans for the Periphery rebellion. It was Amaris who had suggested how BattleMech divisions could be outfitted and personnel trained to use them.

To the Star League, Amaris was a rabid loyalist determined to see his realm free of any anti-League activity. To the Periphery independence groups, Amaris was the clever ally who had rid his realm of the SLDF and made it a haven for their activities against the Star League. The ease with which he betrayed the Taurian Freedom Army to General Kerensky made it plain that Stefan Amaris’s loyalties changed to fit the situation.

The need for fresh SLDF troops to relieve divisions that had been mauled in the Periphery required that more troops be called up from the Hegemony. By July 2765, more than 60 percent of the fighting units normally stationed near Terra had been called into the war, leaving behind increasingly fearful Hegemony citizens. At the urging of Stefan Amaris, First Lord Richard asked the Council Lords to use the House militaries to help put down the Periphery war. Because he had not held a High Council session in two years and because the First Lord’s Taxation Edict had been largely responsible for the rebellion, the Council Lords had no intention of using their militaries. At the request of General Kerensky, however, most of the realms provided transportation and other services for SLDF units.

With the Terran Hegemony underdefended, rumors began to fly of suspicious troop movements in the Draconis Combine. It was at the height of these rumors that First Lord Richard Cameron revealed the treaty he had signed with Stefan Amaris, allowing for units from the Rim Worlds Republic to defend the Terran Hegemony. Even Richard did not know that Amaris had planted the rumors and had targeted them against the Draconis Combine to destroy the credibility of Takiro Kurita, a long-time critic of Amaris.

Initial reaction to the treaty was negative. Many in the Hegemony could not accept even the presence of the foreign troops, much less entrust them with the defense of the Cradle of Humanity. Those who disagreed with the plan became even more vocal when they learned that General Kerensky opposed it. When the General had heard of the treaty, he immediately sent the First Lord an alternative plan. Kerensky said the First Lord could easily hire regiments from the more trustworthy member states, such as the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns, to assume some of the defensive burden.

Then news of the Battle for Gotterdammerung reached the Hegemony. The glowing reports of the heroism and skills of the Rim Worlds troops blunted criticism of Amaris’s intentions. Even General Kerensky, busy trying to control a growing disaster, said nothing further.

As soon as he received permission from the First Lord, Stefan Amaris had his best and most trustworthy units loaded onto transports heading for the Hegemony and Terra. Eager to show that he was a wise leader and had been right about Amaris all along, the First Lord celebrated the Republic troops’ arrival on Terra with great pomp. The first BattleMech regiment to arrive, the Fourth Amaris Dragoons (nicknamed “The Far Guard” by the appreciative First Lord), was assigned to join the First Lord’s personal troops, the Royal Black Watch Guards, in protecting the Court of the Star League.

Most of the Council Lords, preoccupied with their own affairs and trusting in the character and strength of General Kerensky, were unconcerned about entrusting the Hegemony’s safety to Rim Worlds troops. Takiro Kurita, however, had always distrusted Amaris and tried to rally other Houses to an agreement for joint action. This failed because the other Lords were far more suspicious of Kurita than they were of Amaris.

Hegemony citizens began to raise questions about the number of troops that Amaris was sending. The designated number of troops were showing up, according to the accounting, yet Republican troops seemed to be everywhere in the Hegemony. The First Lord and his close advisors remained oblivious to the apparent discrepancy. In fact, Amaris was shipping two regiments for every one and concealing the fact by having extra units arrive in the Hegemony under false unit names. By the time Amaris was ready to act, almost half the forces of the Rim Worlds Republic had been redeployed to the Hegemony.

The duties of the Republican regiments were quickly expanding. At first, Amaris forces were asked to guard only secondary military bases. After several “helpful suggestions” from Stefan Amaris, the First Lord allowed Rim Worlds troops to man more sensitive bases.

Republican units soon controlled more than half the Castles Brian, the massive fortifications built on key Hegemony worlds. The Republican troops were well-acquainted with Castles Brian, thanks to Richard Cameron, who gave virtually identical fortifications to the Rim Worlds Republic when he withdrew the SLDF in 2755.

Republican officers were also infiltrating the bureaucracy of the SLDF, despite the efforts of many wary Star League officers. After the First Lord ordered SLDF commanders to give Republican observers the run of the realm, they watched and asked questions about the workings of every branch of the Regular Army. They were especially curious about the workings of the Space Defense Systems.

Eventually, the questions about the number of Republican troops, the curiosity of the Rim Worlds officers, and the underlying distrust of foreign forces became too much, and a group of high-ranking officers and nobles approached the First Lord. Richard Cameron scoffed at their fears that the Republican forces were up to no good. He was so fiercely loyal to Amaris that he angrily threatened to imprison any officer or noble who ever again publicly doubted Amaris’s intentions. The First Lord then immediately sent a message to Stefan Amaris that his good name was being besmirched.

Deciding that the time for action had come, Stefan left for Terra aboard his private warship. He was eager and alert. All of his preparations had been completed, and everything was proceeding as planned.

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PERIPHERY MOBILIZATION

General Aleksandr Kerensky’s response to the Periphery uprising involved almost the entire SLDF. Between one-half and three-fourths of Star League units actually fought their at one time or another during the crisis. About one-fourth of SLDF units were lost in the campaign.

Thirty ‘Mech divisions were destroyed, and nine were disbanded because of heavy losses. In all the SLDF lost units equal to 140 divisions, suffering more than one million casualties and even losing seven units who went over to the enemy.

General Kerensky mobilized so many units in the other military regions and sent them to the Periphery that he had to redeploy his remaining forces to cover the House districts. This left the Terran Hegemony so underdefended that few could object to bringing in troops from the Rim Worlds Republic.

With a strength of less than ten divisions left in the Terran Military Region, Star League forces were no match for the troops of Stefan Amaris. And thus did the mighty League topple.

-From The Rise and Fall of the Star League, by D.H. Rand, Tharkad Press, 2989
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The Star League Part 20

2010-05-06T14:20:00.000-07:00

PERIPHERY UPRISING

FLEET MANEUVERS, 2757

The SLDF staged “Operation Persuasive Force,” a military exercise in the Hegemony that involved more than 50 divisions, to judge the Terran Military Region’s readiness to repel an enemy invasion. Star League divisions and warships outside the Hegemony made a multi-pronged push for Terra, while the units of the Terran Military Region tried to defeat them.

Few believed that Persuasive Force was just a training exercise. Everyone in the Periphery, from the government to the anti-League organizations, called it a rehearsal for the Regular Army’s imminent invasion of the Periphery. The Council Lords, on the other hand, protested that the operation was an attempt to bully them.

In some ways, both were correct. The Regular Army High Command was using the information gathered from exercises to modernize plans for fighting in the four Periphery realms. It was also true that General Kerensky timed the operation so that the Council Lords would be aware of the might of the SLDF as they traveled to Terra for their spring session. The primary goal of the operation, however, was for General Kerensky to regain Richard’s trust.

Kerensky invited First Lord Richard Cameron, then 13, to observe Operation Persuasive Force with him aboard the SLS McKenna’s Pride. It was an offer that the young lad, steeped in the literature of romantic warfare, could not bear to pass up. Even General Kerensky’s request that he come without Stefan Amaris did not dampen Richard’s enthusiasm.

The First Lord and his Regent watched the operation together, from the first simulated clashes on the border of the Hegemony to its climax, three months later, around Terra. They watched fleets of warships engage in mock battles for control of star systems. They nervously watched as huge DropShips let ‘Mech after ‘Mech fall toward a planet’s atmosphere. The First Lord and the General watched the fighting on the ground from a specially built, two-seat BattleMaster. To show the First Lord the darker side of war, General Kerensky took Richard to field hospitals to see from the many accidental injuries what the aftermath of a real battle might be.

General Kerensky was trying to fight his way back into Richard Cameron’s life. Realizing that he had spent less than a month with the boy in the six years of his guardianship, General Kerensky wanted to get to know Richard better.

Stefan Amaris had been virtually the sole force shaping the thoughts, emotions, and character of the First Lord for years. Aleksandr Kerensky faced a young man who staunchly believed that nobility was born to the person and not something that could be earned. To Richard, Stefan Amaris was the embodiment of the noble man. Whenever General Kerensky hinted that Amaris might not be perfect, that his motives might not be altruistic, the First Lord flew into a rage.

General Kerensky lost in his efforts to sway Richard, and he lost badly. Not only was the mission of winning the First Lord’s confidence hopeless, but every move made by the SLDF was being scrutinized by official Rim World observers, who later used what they saw with deadly effect.

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ON THE QUESTION OF NOBILITY

[EDITOR’S NOTE: What follows is an excerpt of a conversation between General Aleksandr Kerensky and First Lord Richard Cameron II on April 19, 2757. The conversation was held in the General’s quarters and was captured on his personal recording system, apparently without the First Lord’s knowledge.]

GENERAL KERENSKY: You mentioned yesterday about "the nobility of the spirit." What did you mean?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: Nobility...You know, that something people are born with that makes them either good or bad, rich or poor.
GENERAL KERENSKY: Born with? Can someone start out common but become noble?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: I don't think so.
GENERAL KERENSKY: Could you be a friend to someone who had committed a crime, or was poor?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: I doubt it.
GENERAL KERENSKY: No hope of redemption for the weary sinner, eh?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: I don't follow.
GENERAL KERENSKY: Never mind. Look out there, your Highness; what do you see?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: The Aegis about a klick to port, the Michigan to starboard. Several destroyers and a few DropShips.
GENERAL KERENSKY: And what do they represent to you?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: The might of the Star League, the force by which the League can smite its enemies and create justice.
GENERAL KERENSKY: Justice can be created?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: Of course.
GENERAL KERENSKY: How? Justice is justice. It is the indefinable purpose of God we look for in life. It's not something we can create.
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: Don't be funny, Aleksandr. Everyone knows that justice is one of the spoils of victory.
GENERAL KERENSKY: Might is right?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: It is the noble way, isn't it?
GENERAL KERENSKY: According to whose definition?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: Lord Amaris. He says that nobility is often just blind confidence.
GENERAL KERENSKY: And when you believe you are right, then anything you do is right?
LORD RICHARD CAMERON: Exactly. Why do you shake your head that way?
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COMING OF AGE

The years between 2757-60 passed without any major crises. Stefan Amaris, ecstatic that General Kerensky had failed to influence the First Lord, continued to fill Richard’s mind with words meant to enlarge his ego and shake his confidence in everyone except Amaris. General Kerensky, meanwhile, had returned to the Periphery. The show of force in the maneuvers had given General Kerensky a brief respite in the Periphery, but the depth of antipathy toward the Star League still required his presence there.

As the day of Richard’s majority approached, the Council Lords were quickly losing the honor among thieves that had characterized the early years of the Regency. Old hatreds and grievances were rising to the surface once again. Unimpressed by General Kerensky’s maneuvers, the Lords continued to build up their own militaries and to raid one another.

In 2760, the raiding escalated into something more serious when a nuclear explosion on the Davion world of Demeter killed more than 200 people. House Davion claimed that the Confederation was responsible, and they demanded reparations. Barbara Liao, after only four days as Chancellor, referred the matter to the High Council. When the Council Lords could not agree, Prince John Davion began for his offensive.

The Federated Suns opened three fronts, targeting the Liao worlds of Tsamma, Wei, and Redfield. The offensive placed the SLDF units on those worlds in a precarious position between two warring forces. The SLDF units requested orders from General Kerensky, but instead received orders from the High Council to evacuate all the worlds being contested. The Regular Army left those worlds, but not before several officers were demoted for challenging the Council’s authority to give them orders.

General Kerensky left for Terra as soon as he heard that the Council had issued orders without consulting him. When he arrived, he tried to convince the leaders of the Commonwealth, the Free Worlds League, and the Draconis Combine that any fighting between Houses could easily spread out of control. The three Lords hesitated, but they were content to let the border war continue because neither side seemed to be gaining ground. The war sputtered to a halt in early 2762, and the First Lord soon united the Council Lords, even the warring parties, in opposition to his actions.

Richard Cameron turned 18 on February 9, 2762. Everyone, from the Council Lords to the commoners, looked forward to seeing what the young leader would do now. Most were relieved that the Star League had survived the Regency intact. With a Cameron back on the throne, they felt that things had to get better. It seemed that only the Council Lords and General Kerensky were worried as the delighted Richard celebrated his birthday.

A week later, the First Lord invited General Kerensky to his private quarters. Before Kerensky could even say hello, the First Lord thrust papers at him and excitedly asked that he read them. Stefan Amaris was also present, closely watching both the First Lord and the General.

What General Kerensky read was Executive Order 156, an order to disarm all House militaries and private armies. Any piece of military hardware larger than a laser rifle or more destructive than a grenade would be outlawed. Failure to comply would be a treasonous offense. This was Richard’s revenge on the Council Lords. With one bold stroke, Richard intended to pay back every real and imagined insult he had ever suffered. He would also do it in such a way that everyone would acclaim him as a man of peace.

Richard eagerly asked the General what he thought even before Kerensky could finish reading. When he finally spoke, General Kerensky said that he admired the spirit that went into the document but saw no chance of executing the order.

Amaris, who had remained quiet until then, interjected that Richard was the First Lord, and all the other Lords were bound by loyalty to obey him. “The Lords are bound to the Star League, of which Richard is only the first among six Lords,” General Kerensky replied. “Though they look to Richard for leadership, the Lords look to the articles of the Star League Accords for the law,” he went on. He knew the Lords would have plenty of valid reasons to challenge the legality of Richard’s order.

Richard was crestfallen. He had expected General Kerensky’s wholehearted support. Without it, he doubted that the other Lords would accept the order. Sensing Richard’s mood, Amaris demanded to know whether Kerensky supported the laws of the Star League or its leader. The General turned and left the room without another word.

Despite the General’s apparent disapproval, Richard issued the order at Amaris’s urging. The Lords were outraged. Messages that smoked with anger arrived at Unity City. Then the Lords themselves arrived for an emergency High Council meeting. When Richard strode into the Council Chambers, followed by Amaris and a very somber General Kerensky, he had no idea how deeply his order had offended the other leaders because Amaris had kept it from him.

Richard Steiner II, Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth, asked if the order had been a mistake. Led by the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine, the other Lords began to shout their anger about the order and the order’s author. Richard’s stunned silence encouraged them to even louder protests.

Stefan Amaris pretended to be frightened. He defended the order and then behaved as though in fear of his life when the Lords directed some of their venom at him. When Takiro Kurita rose from his chair, Amaris feigned panic and called for the guards. They entered the Council Chambers, their weapons ready.

General Kerensky ordered them to lower their weapons and leave. The shouting died away and everyone looked at him. The guards, uncertain whom to obey, hesitated, then lowered their weapons and left.

It was the First Prince of the Federated Suns who put the question to the General of the Star League Defense Forces. “General Kerensky, where do you stand on this order? Do you support the First Lord in demanding that we give up our legal rights to our own militaries, or do you stand with us?”

“I swore an oath to the Star League when I entered the SLDF. I vowed to defend to the death the laws of the Star League and the uniqueness of each member state. I am loyal to my oath,” General Kerensky said quietly, “which is why I must disappoint my First Lord and say that the Executive Order is, I believe, illegal.”

The Council Lords were ecstatic, while the First Lord looked like a child who had just been severely scolded. Seated on his throne, Richard Cameron meekly signed a hastily drafted order rescinding Executive Order 156. For once, Amaris could say or do nothing.

AMARIS AND KERENSKY

Deeply ashamed at being bested by the Council Lords, First Lord Richard Cameron went into seclusion after the High Council meeting. He was also extremely angry with General Kerensky, certain that the other Lords had turned the General against him. Amaris fed these feelings with distortions and lies: that the Council Lords had laughed at him after he left the Council Chambers, that General Kerensky had called him a “child,” and so on. Richard disbanded the High Council, vowing to rule by decree, and left the Court of the Star League for the small Star Palace he had built for Amaris in the wilds of the Canadian States. Cameron remained there for two years.

Convinced that the Council Lords and General Kerensky were conspiring against him, First Lord Richard began to govern by himself. His most important act was the Taxation Edict of 2763, which placed an even heavier burden on the Periphery. When the Periphery states refused to comply, Richard ordered General Kerensky to reinforce troops there and take charge personally.

In 2764, Stefan Amaris left the First Lord and Terra to meet with General Kerensky in the Periphery. The stated reason for Amaris’s visit was to try to reconcile their differences. Amaris had a very special peace offering for Aleksandr Kerensky. Because of the underground network among Periphery resistance movements, Amaris had information that would allow the General to smash one of the strongest terrorist organizations in the Taurian Concordat. Called the Taurian Freedom Army, the well-armed and organized band of rebels had stymied the Regular Army and even its vaunted SAS. The opportunity to remove such a menace was, Amaris assumed, worth considerable money or influence to the General.

When Amaris and General Kerensky met, the leader of the Rim Worlds Republic disclosed the information without conditions or demands for payment. This act of seeming friendship and honesty surprised the soldier. Despite his gratitude, General Kerensky told Amaris that he was a bad influence on the First Lord and should allow Richard to learn to rule by himself. Amaris surprised General Kerensky yet again by saying he would not be spending as much time on Terra as formerly. Responsibilities in the Rim Worlds Republic demanded that he return home.

The meetings did not end in friendship, or even in the lowering of General Kerensky’s guard, but Amaris walked away happy. The fact that the General appreciated the value of his information about the Taurian Freedom Army was enough of a victory for Amaris to allow him to continue with his plans.

General Kerensky immediately acted on Amaris’s disclosure. First, he had his own intelligence personnel confirm the information. He then sent three regiments of troops to Camadeierre, the stronghold hideout of the Taurian Freedom Army. Not only were the leaders of the organization captured alive, but the troops uncovered enough evidence to incriminate the government of the Taurian Concordat.

In the meantime, Amaris returned to Terra to say his farewells to Richard. He lied that General Kerensky had attacked Rchard’s friendship with Amaris and ordered the Rim Worlds leader to leave Terra within the month and return to his realm or be arrested.

Shocked, Richard offered to rescind the order. Instead, Amaris donned the cloak of self-sacrifice and said that he would return to the Rim Worlds for the sake of the Star League. Amaris urged Richard not to be angry with General Kerensky, but to have pity on the aging officer. The General just wanted to protect the First Lord from the coming storm in the Periphery, Amaris counseled. The First Lord should be thinking of ways to help General Kerensky fight the coming rebellion.

Amaris offered to help the First Lord and the Star League from the Rim Worlds Republic. He outlined a treaty that would allow regiments from his realm to assume the defense of the Terran Hegemony if a crisis arose. Amaris assured Richard that he could spare the soldiers; his republic was the most loyal of the four Periphery realms, and so rebellion there was extremely unlikely.

Richard shared his grandfather’s deep fear of seeing Terra overrun. To know that the Hegemony could depend on the Rim Worlds Republic for assistance would be a great comfort. Richard eagerly accepted the terms of the treaty and signed it, without the High Council’s knowledge, on July 21, 2764.

The Star League Part 19

2010-05-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

FABLES AND FAIRY TALES

There was always an air of disappointment hanging heavy about him. He looked as if the world around him were a poorly written novel.

-From Richard Cameron: An Unauthorized Biography, by G.R. Tillers, Sian Press, 2775

Richard, like all Camerons, grew up keenly aware of his family’s history, nourished from childhood by tales about his famous ancestors. They were fairy tales, bedtime stories laced with virtue and passion and action, but regrettably short on fact. Richard’s parents did not worry that the stories would give their child the wrong impression; there was plenty of time for him to learn the unvarnished truth.

Then they died, leaving their child with the grandly romantic stories permanently etched in his mind as the truth about his line. As he grew, Richard began reading all he could about the great romantic heroes of literature. He became obsessed with figures such as King Arthur, Charlemagne, Roland, and Aragon because they reminded him of what he thought his parents were and what he should be. The many histories of the Cameron family did not interest Richard. He said that they were “too dark and filled with depressing lies.”

Young Richard had very few people to turn to after his parents died. He had only a handful of distant relatives, and they were scattered across the League. Because of his importance, the few children at Unity City shied away from him. Teachers, butlers, and maids were the only people that he would see for days. None of them seemed able to look past Richard’s title and see the very lonely boy. Richard delved ever deeper into his books about kings, queens, and knights.

AMARIS THE SCHEMER

My loyalty to the Star League and to the young First Lord is unswerving. May God strike me dead if I ever do anything to harm the glory of the Star League and the Camerons.

-Stefan Amaris, October 2754

Stefan Amaris, leader of the Rim Worlds Republic, became a frequent visitor to the Court of the Star League during the Regency. As leader of the Periphery’s most pro-League realm, his presence at the Court was welcomed by some, but most looked down on anyone from the Periphery. By making himself up like a bad imitation of Genghis Khan and deliberately playing the country bumpkin in public, Stefan Amaris played on these prejudices to mask his cunning. Seeing this seemingly harmless, roly-poly man, few thought to question why the ruler of such a distant realm suddenly showed such an interest in Court life.

Hidden behind Amaris’s unimpressive exterior was a grand schemer. Ever since he could remember, Stefan had believed that his family and his realm had suffered at the hands of the Star League like the poor relations of a rich family. He felt the Star League and the Camerons had spent the last two centuries either ignoring the Amaris family’s diligent attempts to show their worthiness or by behaving like a club-wielding policeman the instant the Amarises made a minor mistake.

Stefan Amaris had decided early in his life that he would avenge himself on the Camerons and the Star League and prove the Amaris name worthy of recognition. With the death of Simon Cameron, Amaris got the break he needed. The moment he heard about the First Lord’s death, he began to read and study everything he could about young Richard Cameron: his likes, dislikes, what he read, and what he watched. Once he felt he understood this lonely boy, Amaris left the Republic for Terra.

The leader of the Rim Worlds Republic had done his homework well. When introduced to Richard Cameron in August 2753, he knew just how to attract the bored boy’s attention and curiosity. From beneath his cloak, Stefan Amaris produced an ornate book of stories about chivalry and knighthood. When activated, a small holographic scene in wondrous color and detail appeared on one page depicting a scene from the text on the facing page. Richard was entranced by both the book and this mustachioed leader from a far-distant realm. The friendship blossomed, and soon Amaris was accompanying the lonely boy through his daily routine of studies and endless audiences with a long stream of officials.

Considering Richard’s extreme isolation, his immediate fondness for Amaris is not surprising. Here was a man who understood his favorite stories, who claimed to share Richard’s beliefs, and who seemed to listen. No one in Unity City cared enough for Richard Cameron to recognize that he was still a boy with a child’s needs. The only person he found to comfort him would turn that trust to his own secret ends.

Under Amaris’s influence, Richard Cameron began to change. He grew ever more petulant, demanding, and outraged when denied anything for any reason. He cried, he yelled, and he sneered, alienating the few people who did care for him. Amaris approved and even encouraged the future First Lord’s expectations by saying that in the Rim Worlds Republic, Richard would be treated like a god.

Under Amaris’s influence, Richard came to believe that everyone should bow to his will simply because he was a Cameron. Anyone who did not was an imbecile or a traitor, and the young First Lord took careful note of those who would not yield to him. He remembered every insult, every slight, however small, and waited for his 18th birthday, when he would have his revenge on everyone who did not show him the respect he was due. To restrain his anger for a decade required remarkable control, a sign of how vindictive Richard Cameron had become.

The Lords of the High Council, busy with their own unscrupulous plans, were pleased that someone was keeping the young First Lord occupied and not intruding on their work. Others of the court thought the two were just good friends. Yet some did not trust the overly polite Amaris, whose whispering into the First Lord’s ear sent shivers down their spines. These nobles made several attempts to reduce Amaris’s influence, but the First Lord believed he had finally found someone he could trust. As for General Kerensky, though Richard’s Regent, he was so pressed by his duties as commander of the military that he had few chances to see the boy, let alone form an opinion about the friendship with Stefan Amaris.

When Stefan Amaris received a pile of extravagant gifts from the boy during the holidays of 2754, he realized how total was his influence over the boy. Knowing his position was secure, Amaris began to poison the lad’s thoughts so that Richard began to see everything as a threat. If, for example, one of his teachers tried to discipline him, he would assume it was an act intended to shame the First Lord.

Amaris must have gloated privately at how easy it was to sway the child.

VULTURES GATHER

…I dreamt again last night, Jocasta. I dreamt of seeing the wheel again, but this time upon its rim were vultures black as night who looked expectantly at the young child who was laughing and playing with swords in the wheel’s center…

-Excerpt from a letter by First Lord Jonathan Cameron to his sister, Mother Jocasta, 2729

When the Council Lords passed their laws imposing heavy taxes on the Periphery in 2752, they unleashed the fury of many underground Periphery movements bent on overthrowing the Star League. This unfair tax burden outweighed any previous political and ideological differences among these organizations and gave them a common rallying point.

Many Periphery worlds suddenly became battlegrounds after well-organized and well-equipped terrorists staged attacks. Taken by surprise, the SLDF forces in the Periphery suffered heavy casualties. The bombing of troop ships or the poisoning of a military base’s water supply became commonplace.

The SLDF in the Periphery was ill-equipped to respond. ‘Mechs were useless against lone saboteurs, and even the best-trained soldier had no defense against assassins supported by the local population. Even worse for the Star League, some SLDF troops were becoming sympathetic to the Periphery’s cause.

General Kerensky had few choices. He could not keep his troops inside their bases like besieged knights in castles because it was their duty to collect taxes from the hostile people. Nor could he expect his troops to walk through the gates into one ambush after another. Hoping that the sight of more soldiers would discourage the guerrilla violence, Kerensky reluctantly ordered more troops.

The Special Armed Services was the Regular Army’s elite anti-terrorist combat organization. Recruited solely from members of the Hegemony Armed Forces, the SAS quickly established itself as the Star League’s premier institution for covert operations and anti-terrorist missions. The few who knew of the existence of the SAS called its members the Blackhearts because they traditionally left their calling cards on the bodies of their victims. Their cynical motto was “in hoc signo vinces,” which means “by this sign you will conquer.”

In 2753, the SLDF had about 100 battalion-sized SAS squads. General Kerensky sent all but a few into the Periphery. He assigned them the monumental task of finding and rooting out the groups responsible for the terrorist activities “without resorting to equally violent actions.” Outnumbered and facing a public as determined as the underground groups, the SAS began to resort to tactics as brutal as those of their opponents.

On the other side, the Periphery governments began to take a more active role in the growing revolt, secretly funding the underground organizations and providing them with support and alibis. The governments also began to hamper the efforts of SLDF forces to track down suspects.

Only the Rim Worlds Republic appeared to remain staunchly loyal to the Star League. Terrorism was not nearly as rampant there as in the other three realms. Indeed, the Amaris government made a big show of ruthlessly hunting down suspects accused of terrorism and handing them over to the Star League for trial.

In retrospect, it is easy to say that General Kerensky and the rest of the Star League should have been suspicious of the way the Rim Worlds Republic reacted to the revolt. At the time, however, the SLDF welcomed help from any quarter as it tried to contain what threatened to become a catastrophe.

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CULT OF THE SAINTS CAMERON

After the deaths of Jonathan and Jocasta Cameron, some curious incidents and coincidences sparked a remarkable religious phenomenon in the Hegemony. Calling themselves “the devout believers of the Saints Cameron,” the movement at its peak claimed a following of more than one million on Terra and another 50 million throughout the Hegemony, including many soldiers and officers.

The truth behind the “Mystical Revelations” that gave birth to the movement is hard to determine. A summary of accepted fact follows.

One year to the day after the death of Jonathan Cameron, Lieutenant Saul Robstein, a young soldier in the 191st Royal BattleMech Division, was struck blind and dumb while participating in a military exercise. Doctors could not explain his affliction. Three days after being struck, Lieutenant Robstein suddenly regained his sight and speech. He began ranting to the shocked doctors that the ghost of Jonathan Cameron came to him, a flaming sword in his hand. He said that the ghost told him that Jonathan’s sister would die in two years but that her influence would be felt far into the future.

Two years and three days later, Mother Jocasta Cameron died. Five days after her death, another soldier, this time a gunner in the Seventieth Infantry Division, Trooper Sandra Ustus, was struck deaf, blind, and dumb. She also regained the use of her senses, but in five rather than three days. She claimed that Mother Jocasta prophesied that Simon Cameron would meet an unfortunate end at the hands of an “assassin’s digging machine.”

Both incidents were reported in magazines catering to the bizarre, but otherwise forgotten until the death of Simon Cameron in 2751 at the hands of an errant Miner ‘Mech. A debate erupted in the Hegemony media over whether these events were just twists of fate or influenced by God. Eight days after Simon’s death, Sergeant Heinz Mann inexplicably fell into a coma. Sergeant Mann, who served in the 290th Mechanized Infantry Division, had been in excellent health but his current condition baffled doctors for eight days.

The private letters and writings of Jonathan and Jocasta, including the many about bizarre dreams, were released to the media by the Court of the Star League staff. The writings were published in book form and became instant bestsellers. Many people read the books and dismissed them, but others took them as clear visions of the future and began to shape their lives accordingly. Eventually the believers began to meet together, forming a set of common beliefs and rituals. Among these beliefs was that both Jonathan and Jocasta were saints of God who watched over the Star League from heaven. When he awoke, Sergeant Mann told of visions of dozens of dead Camerons, lying in their own blood.

At first, the general public considered the Believers of the Saints Cameron to be crackpots. In 2753, however, the Believers’ cause received a major boost. Richard Cameron met Stefan Amaris in a meeting supposedly divined by Jonathan Cameron in one of his letters written half a century earlier: “…a Cameron child shall stand before a distant ruler and be beguiled by his rough country ways and the interests that they share. I fear for the child because the distant ruler has cruel, dark thoughts…”

This drew more people to the Believers of the Saints Cameron. Symbols unique to the new religion began appearing everywhere. One was the Three Swords of Saint Cameron, representing the visitation of Jonathan Cameron to Lieutenant Saul Robstein. Another was a symbolic representation of the habit worn by Benedictine nuns. A third was a bloody throne. These symbols sprang up on the sides of buildings, machinery, and even BattleMechs.

The Believers of the Saints Cameron wielded considerable social and political power in the Hegemony during the last years before the Fall. The religion not only survived the chaos that followed, but it even grew, with small, fervent groups scattered throughout the Inner Sphere and the Periphery. The Believers, not surprisingly under the circumstances, added General Aleksandr Kerensky’s name to the two Saints Cameron to form a trinity of divine figures from the last days of the Star League. Simon Cameron became a minor prophet even though he had shown little interest in spiritual affairs during his life and had appeared in no visions after his death.

Today, the religion has all but died out. Except for a few small pockets of Believers in the Periphery and in the Lyran Commonwealth, most of the lore has been absorbed into the huge mythos surrounding the final days of the Star League.

-From The Death of Order, The Birth of Legends, by Precentor Tamela Cresky, ComStar Press, 2999
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BIRTHDAY PROCLAMATION

As unrest increased in the Periphery, the Star league began to suffer from the lack of Cameron control. Despite the new tax money flowing from the periphery into the Inner Sphere, the massive buildup of the House armies still strained the economies of the five realms. The healthy economic signs of just a few years before-near-full employment, high wages, and major worker benefits-began to deteriorate. Unemployment climbed into double digits in three member states.

The five Council Lords ignored these economic problems, so preoccupied were they with outfitting and training their new regiments. They even lost interest in running the Star League. Without a First Lord, the Council Lords were supposed to be in charge. When only two or three attended meetings of the High Council, effective government became impossible.

The Bureau of Star League Affairs tried to handle some of the responsibilities without overstepping its legal bounds, but its efforts lacked the force of law. Many career diplomats and bureaucrats, whose loyalty and dedication had been the core of the government, began to resign in disgust. Morale plummeted throughout the Star League government.

Stefan Amaris was pleased. The growing government discord, the shaking of the realms’ economies, and the continuing urban wars in the Periphery all fit into his plans.

His friendship with the now adolescent Richard Cameron was firm. Richard saw Amaris as his closest confidant and as a substitute father, and Amaris did everything to encourage that. Richard’s trust was the foundation for all of Amaris’s coming plans. Until 2755, Amaris had resisted the urge to manipulate the young leader. He wanted to be certain that Richard grew up trusting only him, but he also needed to soothe the fears of the few nobles suspicious of his intentions. After four years and with the young teenaged ruler eager to show his authority, Amaris began to exert more control.

Richard Cameron, though still too young to assume complete control, was allowed to sit in and comment on all High Council meetings. Until Amaris suggested it, Richard did not go to the meetings, which suited the purposes of the Council Lords just fine.

The appearance of the First Lord at the 2755 Winter Meeting was definitely a shock. The sight of the slim youth sitting in the ornate chair of the First Lord was disconcerting. Even more surprising was his announcement that, to honor his friend’s birthday, he was making Stefan Amaris a Knight of the Star League. He added that, as a further sign of the Star League’s gratitude to the leader from the Rim Worlds Republic, SLDF units would be withdrawn from his realm.

The Council Lords were too stunned to react. The First Lord received the necessary certifications from each Lord to make the proclamations legal before any Lord had the wit to question them. The Lords later wrote that each had been so perplexed by Richard Cameron’s request that they thought to object only after the “Birthday Proclamations” had become law.

The Knighthood created considerable pubic controversy. Many people were outraged that a man of such “unscrupulous nature and backwoods origin” would be given Knighthood. To them, the Star League list of Knights was tainted by inclusion of a man of no worth or integrity.

The public was unaware of the struggle the second birthday proclamation created between Richard Cameron and General Kerensky. To abandon the Rim Worlds with only Stefan Amaris to combat anti-League forces was bad enough, but Richard Cameron specifically ordered General Kerensky to turn over all Star League bases and fortresses to the military of Stefan Amaris.

General Kerensky would not allow this. In a series of sharply worded messages from the Periphery, the General said that he would never submit to an order that “would hand over Star League technology to a Periphery realm.” Richard Cameron, at the urging of Stefan Amaris, demanded that the General carry out his orders.

Though the Council Lords must have had their own misgivings, they sided with the First Lord. The High Council considered General Kerensky, with the might of the SLDF and charisma on his side, to be the more formidable adversary. Even if it meant siding with Stefan Amaris, the Lords were willing to do anything to drive a wedge between General Kerensky and the First Lord. With the First Lord and the High Council united against him, General Kerensky had not choice but to accept the orders.

The Regular Army began to evacuate its installations in the Rim Worlds Republic, but not before General Kerensky stripped everything from all the bases, forts, and fortresses. He wanted nothing handed over to the Republic that might benefit it or give it insight into SLDF operation.

Unfortunately, he failed. At Fort McHenry, a typical Star League fortress, stripping was so inept that more than 50 percent of the facility was left in working order, while at Hevrol Aero Base, computer memories were improperly wiped, leaving behind many files of sensitive SLDF documents. Stefan Amaris was overjoyed at obtaining access to the secrets of General Kerensky’s military. These were the gifts he wanted, and he immediately began to scheme on how to use them to best advantage.

The Star League Part 18

2010-05-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

DEATH OF SIMON CAMERON

In February 2751, the First Lord visited the disputed world of Star’s End on the Lyran-Rim Worlds border. While there, Simon was invited to visit the mining facilities of the large asteroid of New Silesia. Though it was not on his itinerary, Cameron accepted because of his interest in low-gravity mining.

On New Silesia, the First Lord met with the men and women living in the company’s small domed city. Intrigued by their life, he eagerly accepted an offer to see how they earned their living. Simon Cameron and his entourage traveled down into the tunnels where the precious titanium and silenium ores were extracted from the asteroid. What he saw was a typical low-G mining operation. Mining robots cut at the asteroid with a series of lasers and diamond bits, while the robots’ operators sat at the end of a pressurized tunnel a short distance away, using a control system very similar to a MechWarrior’s control panel.

In Tunnel 5T, Level 42, the First Lord asked if he could control the mining robot. As he had been a MechWarrior and was familiar with the neurohelmet and controls of the mining robot, no one objected. He donned the helmet and confidently took the controls, looking through the thick glass window into the vacuum of the tunnel where the robot sat idling.

What happened next is uncertain. Cameras recording the event from inside the control booth and on the robot indicate that the First Lord must have made a mistake. The mining robot, which had been working at the far end of the tunnel, wheeled and charged the control booth. Simon Cameron tried to shut the robot down, but he either did not know how or the robot did not respond to the command.

The 30-ton machine crashed into the control booth, shattering the porthole through which the First Lord had been looking. The decompression sucked him through with great force against the front of the robot. His death was quick. Nine other people also died.

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WAS SIMON CAMERON MURDERED?

The facts surrounding Simon Cameron’s death, with their many inconsistencies and gaps, have invited countless theories, most of which conclude that he was murdered. Following are some facts and speculations raised by the High Council’s Panel of Investigation into the death.

1) The mining robot, a Digger 500 built by Wotan Mining Industries, had been overhauled and inspected just ten days before the incident. There was nothing in the report to indicate any unusual defects.

2) Mining Operator Charles “Mole” Dryden reported that the robot had exhibited “damned unusual control twitching” two days before the incident. The robot was pulled off-line, but a check of its control system revealed nothing.

3) Examination of the robot itself proved fruitless because the collision had split one of the hydraulic reservoirs, spilling its highly corrosive fluid all over the computer center.

4) Log-in sheets indicate that Petrovia Drewsivitch, a robot technician, worked on the robot the night before the incident. The company had no record of an employee named Petrovia Drewsivitch, however. This is not conclusive because the company had very poor bookkeeping, but investigators were unable to find the woman.

5) One hour after the death of Simon Cameron was confirmed, government agents noticed a transmission from somewhere within the colony. Investigators were never able to find the source of the transmission or to decode it.

Speculation abounds about what happened in that tunnel. Most people believe that Simon Cameron was the victim of a plot. The Draconis Combine, the Lyran Commonwealth, and the Periphery realms are the three possible villains mentioned most often. The Commonwealth is probably the least likely of the three, even though the First Lord’s appeal to the people had caused the Steiners some political discomfort. The Periphery, with its countless anti-Star League groups, definitely had enough reasons to wish the First Lord dead, but it is unlikely that any of the Periphery realms had the resources to pull off the feat.

If Cameron’s death was not an accident, the Draconis Combine is the one that most people think was responsible. Not only was there a longstanding feud between the Camerons and the Kuritas, but the Draconis Combine was also the next destination of the First Lord’s Peace Mission. The Kurita family had always placed a high priority on maintaining complete control over the Combine population, and it is reasonable to believe that the Kuritas had the First Lord killed to prevent him from entering the Combine and appealing directly to the people.

With everything we know and love collapsing around us, it is unlikely that we will ever know if the First Lord was murdered or not. Even if we did, it is unlikely that it would make any difference in what is likely to happen next.

-From Investigation into the Death of Simon Cameron, by Paula Catterson, Terra Press, 2784
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ERA OF DECLINE

During these sad times it is the responsibility of us, the Council Lords, to ensure that the Star League survives and that the Camerons continue on as its unbroken heart…

-From the joint statement issued by the High Council, April 3, 2751

THE REGENCY

First Lord Simon’s death was not only a tragic shock, but it left the Star League without a leader when it needed one most. Lord Simon’s only child, Richard Cameron II, was barely eight years old. Richard’s mother had died a year earlier. Nor was there any other Cameron family member qualified to become First Lord. Where was the League to turn for leadership?

Richard Cameron was the Star League’s only hope, but it would be at least a decade before he could rule effectively. Would there still be a League then? Many people could not imagine that the Council Lords would do anything but fight for ascendancy in the absence of a First Lord. Many others predicted that war was inevitable.

Archon Michael Steiner II of the Lyran Commonwealth, Chancellor Warex Liao of the Capellan Confederation, Coordinator Takiro Kurita of the Draconis Combine, First Prince John Davion of the Federated Suns, and Captain-General Ewan Marik of the Free Worlds League left for Terra as soon as they received news of First Lord Cameron’s death. When they arrived, the Lords immediately entered the Council Chamber for a series of long meetings. They met day after day, often for ten hours at a time. As they left the Chamber each evening, their drawn faces and refusal to talk to reporters created a mood of foreboding. The dissolution of the Star League and a new era of war seemed imminent.

It was a stunning surprise when, on April 3, all five Council Lords gathered before the Star League Throne and read a joint statement to the gathered dignitaries. The five named young Richard Cameron as the next First Lord of the Star League but stopped short of giving him all of the powers. Instead, they appointed General Aleksandr Kerensky, commanding officer of the Star League Defense Forces, as Richard Cameron’s Regent and Protector.

Tapes of the meetings between the five leaders reveal that the Lords never raised the possibility of dissolving the Star League. The five saw their responsibility as continuing the realm, not burying it. Later events showed that the five cooperated not because they believed in the Star League, but because each wished to expand his own power.

For the moment, the Star League had been saved. The people of the Inner Sphere reacted to news of the Regency with great joy. There were joyful demonstrations in support of the new Regent and the Council Lords. General Aleksandr Kerensky was already well known to the public as an extremely honorable and trustworthy officer.

KERENSKY’S EARLY YEARS

Of all the men and women who have earned mention in the Star League’s long and rich history, few hold the awe, respect, and admiration of so many people as General Aleksandr Kerensky. His life and the effect it had on the lives of billions, as well as how he behaved in the chaos of the League’s final days, have been the subject of thousands of books and shows. In many ways, he has come to represent everything that seems lost since the collapse of the Star League. Kerensky possessed such traits as honor, courage, compassion, and sympathy, so missing in our modern world.

Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky was born on December 16, 2700, in Moscow, Terra. Legend has it that he was born in his parents’ home during a blizzard. When his father saw that both Aleksandr and his mother were ill and it looked as though the child might die, the father bundled them both up in blankets and carried them from the warmth of their home through the howling winds to a hospital.

His father, Nikolai Maksimovich Kerensky, was head curator at the People’s Museum of History. He had served as a trooper in the SLDF but retired after his first tour. He was a great, kind, bear of a man who took his son on tours of the museum after closing hours, telling Aleksandr grand stories about the various exhibits. Aleksandr’s mother, Anna Tronchina Kerensky, spent more time in the military, rising to the rank of Sergeant Major before leaving the SLDF to become a major administrator in the Moscow city government. She loved literature, a love she passed on to her son, who was a voracious reader in English and French, as well as his native Russian.

Aleksandr’s early childhood was plagued by a heart condition that required a major operation when he was just three years old. It took two years for him to recover fully. His early troubles left Aleksandr small, thin, and reserved. Nothing about his early schooling could have predicted that he would become such an important person. His teachers noted that the blond, blue-eyed boy was remarkably observant, polite, and shy. Indeed, one teacher later remarked that he might have wagered on Kerensky becoming a poet rather than a warrior.

At 18, his grades and manners won him a Star League scholarship to Tharkad University in the Lyran Commonwealth. While attending the university, he met Michael Steiner, a research assistant studying to become a professor. The two formed a deep friendship that continued throughout their lives.

During a routine physical, Aleksandr learned that he had a keenly responsive nervous system that could easily adapt to the strains of being a MechWarrior. The SLDF, looking at his excellent grades and background, offered Aleksandr a place in the next class of cadets at the Nagelring Military Academy. Despite his initial reluctance, Aleksandr decided to join because his parents and friends were so persuasive.

Cadet Kerensky completed training at the Nagelring with honors. He was immediately asked to join the Gunslinger Program at the War Academy on Mars. There, he learned to put his Orion ‘Mech through maneuvers that most people considered impossible for such an old BattleMech design. (Though Kerensky soon qualified for one of the Hegemony’s ultra-sophisticated ‘Mech designs, he, like many MechWarriors, had grown fond of his first ‘Mech and never willingly piloted anything else.)

RISING THROUGH THE RANKS

MechWarrior Kerensky was assigned to be the champion of the 564th Hussar Regiment, then part of the 160th BattleMech Division (The Sirius Division). Stationed on the Draconis Combine world of Paris, the young officer fought four duels his first year, winning one. His abilities as a MechWarrior soon paled next to his budding skills as a leader. In 2729, the 160th BattleMech Division participated in Operation Smother. Kerensky, a Captain in his first combat command, led a lance that distinguished itself despite being outnumbered and surrounded by Combine forces on Royal. The commanding officers of the 564th Hussars were killed in a DropShip collision.

Leaderless, the regiment was in danger of being split apart and destroyed piecemeal by a Sword of Light regiment from the Draconis Combine. Captain Kerensky stepped in and assumed command of the regiment. He successfully regrouped the Hussars and held off the Kurita regiment until his company was reinforced. For his quick thinking and actions, Aleksandr Kerensky was given the Medal of Valor and promoted to the rank of Colonel, one of the rare officers in the history of the SLDF to merit such a jump in rank.

The young Colonel was then given command of the 261st Royal Dragoon Regiment stationed in the Taurian Concordat. He spent a year commanding the regiment and became deeply embroiled in local politics. The corruption of the local government and the greed of companies from the Inner Sphere sickened him.

On five occasions, he arrested and tried corrupt politicians and businessmen, using an obscure provision in Periphery law that allowed SLDF officers of high rank to arrest men and women who represented a threat to the Star League. His actions won him the respect and admiration of many people in the Periphery.

Colonel Kerensky’s crusade against corruption angered some of the Council Lords, who were responsible for the exploitation of the Periphery in the first place. Colonel Kerensky was a threat they had to remove. Chancellor Warex Liao came up with a plan that found ready support among the Lords. With effusive public praise, the Council Lords lauded the exploits of Aleksandr Kerensky, making him seem twice as heroic and important as he was. Hearing of a hero they knew little about, the public media traveled to the Periphery to do programs and articles about Kerensky, just as the Council Lords hoped. Their glowing reports made the First Lord eager to meet the dashing officer. He approved Kerensky’s promotion and transfer in 2731.

The new Lieutenant General was somewhat shocked that almost everyone on Terra recognized him and considered him a true Star League hero. He responded to all the fuss with dignity, courtesy, and bemusement, which endeared him to the public all the more. The General met the First Lord, Mother Jocasta Cameron, and Jonathan’s son, Simon. Simon Cameron and Aleksandr Kerensky became good friends.

Lieutenant General Kerensky was assigned to the Planning and Strategy Sub-Command, the think-tank of the Regular Army. He was promoted to Major General in 2733 and assigned as a aide to General Rebecca Fetladral, commander of the Star League Defense Forces.

The public’s interest in General Kerensky did not wane. His frequent appearances at parties and balls at the Court of the Star League charmed the nobility. The media found him unusually charismatic and kept the public attuned to his life.

Though General Kerensky did not seek out this attention, he used it to his advantage when necessary. He publicly berated the Council Lords for their reluctance to investigate the huge MedTech Scandal of 2736, suggesting their reluctance might signal their involvement. The five Council Lords were enraged and demanded that General Kerensky be court-martialed under the Hooks Act, which prohibited members of the military from voicing their opinions on political matters.

For a short time, the First Lord seemed ready to acquiesce to the Lords’ demand. The public outcry was so great, however, that the First Lord gave General Kerensky only a slap on the wrist. None of the Council Lords was implicated in the scandal, but neither did General Kerensky’s popularity diminish.

When First Lord Jonathan died and Simon Cameron became the new leader of the Star League, General Rebecca Fetladral retired. She recommended Aleksandr Kerensky as the only person qualified to become the next SLDF leader. That recommendation, plus Simon Cameron’s personal friendship with General Kerensky, greatly outweighed the objections of the Council Lords.

During First Lord Simon’s reign, General Kerensky commanded the SLDF with great dynamism. Tirelessly, he toured fortresses and installations, inspecting the troops and the condition of the fortifications. During the 13-year reign of Simon Cameron, Kerensky inspected at least 1,000 SLDF bases throughout the Inner Sphere. During these visits, he inspired the absolute loyalty of his troops.

General Kerensky was also busy overhauling the military bureaucracy, eliminating waste and ruthlessly ferreting out any hint of corruption. He also tightened security around secret projects and intelligence-gathering. The result was a military that was much more responsive and efficient and no longer top-heavy with officers and administrators.

HIDDEN REALITIES

It’s nice having a hero as our leader. His aura shines so brightly that it tends to blind anyone trying to watch us, making it much easier for us to get the job done.

-Chancellor Warex Liao, from private tapes of the Winter Meeting of the High Council, 2752.

General Kerensky offered to step down as SLDF commander when the Council Lords appointed him Regent of the Star League. Many people were surprised when the Council Lords rejected the General’s resignation, but the Lords said he was too vital to be replaced on the brink of war. They doubted that the military could function properly without his guidance.

This was essentially true. The general’s success at cutting away the fat in the military had given every officer, particularly the commanding general, more responsibility. If General Kerensky stepped down, the SLDF would be disrupted for months while a new commander learned to control the immense military machine. With the situation so tense in the Periphery, the Star League could not afford an unsteady and unsure military; it was essential that Kerensky stay on.

There was considerable speculation about whether the Lords had ulterior motives in refusing the General’s resignation. Critics of the Lords felt that they wanted him to remain as commander so he would not be able to take an active part in running the government. This way, the Council Lords won public approval for appointing Kerensky as Regent and yet kept him from interfering with these plans. The scheduling of High Council meetings seemed to bear this out; they were consistently held when the general could not attend because of SLDF duties. Because of these scheduling conflicts, General Kerensky suffered the same fate as his ancient ancestor and namesake, becoming little more than a rubber stamp in the Star League government, often reduced to signing entire stacks of unread documents.

Within the High Council, the five leaders of the Inner Sphere realms continued their plans to gut the Star League. In the Spring Meeting of 2752, the five Council Lords passed, without the General’s signature as required by law, an amendment to First Lord Michael’s Edict of 2650. While the earlier Edict limited the number of troops that each House government could raise, the new amendment doubled the allowance. The next year, another Edict permitted the Houses to build up by raising taxes on the Periphery.

General Kerensky, who was inspecting Hegemony fortifications and SDS networks, was livid when he heard the news. He ordered all SLDF troops to increase their readiness in response to provocation by the Lords. He briefly considered challenging the legality of the order but decided against it.

The situation in the Periphery was heating up. The anti-Star League factions, which had been idle during the shocked months after Simon Cameron’s death, were active again. Terrorist acts against SLDF bases and Inner Sphere companies were on the rise, with no end in sight. General Kerensky decided that having the Council Lords on his side in the event of a Periphery war was more important than trying to stop them from stockpiling weapons.

The Star League Part 17

2010-05-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

SECOND HIDDEN WAR

When the commission still had not decided anything after eight years, Takiro Kurita decided the issue for himself. The Kurita Coordinator assembled a large invasion force on the Federated Suns border and then began his offensive. In early 2725, the Eleventh Benjamin Regulars, a Kurita ‘Mech regiment trained in city fighting, landed on the Davion world of Marduk.

The Federated Suns sought quick revenge. Prince Joseph, though his troops were unprepared, ordered a strike deep within the Draconis Combine. Though the war between the two most powerful Houses threatened to destroy the Star League, First Lord Jonathan hesitated. Increasingly plagued by visions of a destroyed Terra, the First Lord refused to commit Star League troops for fear of leaving the Hegemony undefended.

With Davion troops on the offensive, Coordinator Kurita used his assembled forces not to defend, but to launch a drive of his own. Draconis regiments began a push directly toward New Avalon. Though the Federated Suns blunted that drive and occasionally handed the Kuritans a setback, the Combine troops gradually gained ground during the next four years of the War of Davion Succession.

At the Court of the Star League, impatience with First Lord Jonathan’s detachment was growing. SLDF Commanding General Ikolor Fredasa was one of those most concerned. He led delegations to the abbey of Mother Jocasta Cameron in an attempt to persuade her to take over for her brother. When Mother Jocasta refused General Fredasa’s offer of support for her to depose First Lord Jonathan, the General began spreading rumors that she was planning a coup. Knowing his sister would never do such a thing, Jonathan was enraged at the plotters. General Fredasa, BSLA Commander Gregory Wallace, and Revenue Director Brice Hinchcliffe IV were tried for treason and hanged.

This episode convinced First Lord Jonathan that he needed help, and he turned to his sister. Through her “suggestions,” she became de facto First Lord. Jonathan quickly named Mother Jocasta’s close friend, General Rebecca Fetladral, as Command-in-Chief. General Fetladral immediately began to plan Operation Smother to stop the War of Davion Succession and reunite the Star League.

At precisely the same time, civil war erupted in the Free Worlds League over Marik succession. Many lives were lost in the five-year conflict, but the Star League remained strictly neutral, even when urged to intervene by the Capellan Confederation and the Lyran Commonwealth. General Fetladral and Mother Jocasta realized that the Steiners and Liaos were hoping for the departure of SLDF units so they could grab Hegemony worlds. Upon Mother Jocasta’s advice, First Lord Jonathan declared the Free Worlds League fighting an internal affair and ordered General Fetladral to concentrate on ending the War of Davion Succession.

Not knowing that help would soon arrive and watching his troops being pushed back, Prince Joseph Davion made a decision that turned out to be fatal. To rally his troops, he took command of the counterattack on Royal. When his Marauder was disabled in the fight, the Kurita ‘Mechs swarmed over him. The death of their Lord shocked the Davion troops, who fell back and soon retreated off Royal.

Before the Kurita forces could exploit their good fortune, Operation Smother began. Five flotillas carrying five Star League divisions were already heading for the contested worlds of Breed, Klathandu IV, Lima, Royal, and Wapakoneta. General Fetladral chose some of her best units: the Twenty-sixth Royal BattleMech Division (The Graham Division), the 159th Royal Mechanized Infantry Division (The Athena Division), the Thirty-ninth Royal BattleMech Division (The Denebola Division), the 160th BattleMech Division (The Sirius Division), and the First Jump Infantry Division (The Hellraisers from Heaven).

The simultaneous appearance of five Star League fleets and the dispatching of hundreds of Star League DropShips toward the five embattled planets surprised both the Davions and the Kuritas. None of the five landings met any opposition. On three worlds, Lima, Klathandu, and Wapakoneta, the arrival of elite Regular Army troopers and ‘Mechs shocked both sides into agreeing to a hasty cease-fire.

On Breed, the Combine forces were less intimidated by the appearance of the First Jump Infantry Division. When they tried to retaliate, however, they discovered quickly that they were vastly outclassed.

On Royal, the Sirius Division met similar resistance, but the 160th still had most of its troops orbiting the planet in DropShips, putting its vanguard forces at a serious numerical disadvantage. In the end, though, the superior training of SLDF forces prevailed. In the 160th, in his first combat command, was a young Captain named Aleksandr Kerensky.

Operation Smother succeeded in ending the fighting. It also humbled Houses Kurita and Davion before the power of the SLDF. First Lord Jonathan, depending heavily on Mother Jocasta for advice, severely chastised both realms. He was harder on the Draconis Combine, restoring the border to its 2724 position and forever denying the Kurita claim to the Davion throne.

The Kuritans were bound to accept the First Lord’s decisions, but they did not forget that the Camerons had again discriminated against and humiliated the Draconis Combine.

SURROGATE FIRST LORD

The attempted coup and Mother Jocasta’s quiet advice and counsel made First Lord Jonathan realize how sick he was. The First Lord offered to step down in favor of Jocasta. She flatly refused, saying that her religious life came first, even above ruling all mankind. Though Jonathan’s son, Simon, was old enough to take over, the First Lord barely knew him and trusted Jocasta implicitly.

They agreed that Jocasta, from her abbey in the cold Scottish highlands, would be First Lord Jonathan's most trusted adviser. With a sophisticated communications link to Unity City, Mother Jocasta became a temporary co-ruler.

The compromise worked well. Though Jonathan’s mental and physical health worsened with age, he indulged in the few things that made him truly happy, such as building hospitals, contributing to relief efforts, and other humanitarian acts. He became deeply loved by the people of the Star League for his accomplishments during the last years of his reign.

Meanwhile, Mother Jocasta shouldered more and more of the government’s burden. In 2735, the Council Lords journeyed to the Abbey of St. Joan for their autumn meeting. Seated behind the grillwork that separated her community from the rest of the world, Mother Jocasta chaired the session of the High Council, thereby assuming the highest powers and responsibilities of the Star League government.

Jonathan Cameron died in 2738 of a stroke. His funeral, attended by all the Council Lords and the League’s highest nobility, was also attended by his aging sister. She had been de facto ruler of the Star League for the last three years.

In a short ceremony after the funeral, Mother Jocasta, as executrix of Jonathan’s will, handed Simon Cameron the jeweled staff symbolizing the office of First Lord of the Star League. With that, Jocasta Cameron left the Court of the Star League for her beloved abbey, where she lived peacefully and no longer burdened with awesome responsibilities, until her death in 2742.

SIMON CAMERON

I see nothing that indicates the Star League will not last for a thousand years. We are stronger than ever before. Our lives are better than ever before. We are a better people than we were before. Why should not the Star League last into and beyond the next millennium?

-Simon Cameron, 2739

When Jonathan Cameron died in 2738, his 39-year old son, Simon, had been the Director-General of the Terran Hegemony for four years. Because of his experience in dealing with Hegemony bureaucracy, he was amply qualified to become the First Lord.

Simon was neither glib nor suave. He was a no-nonsense ruler who spoke his mind bluntly and made even blunter demands. Beneath the brutally practical side of Simon was a deep idealism, however. He read voraciously, as did most Camerons, and the authors he most admired were members of the recent Modern Chivalrists Movement. Writers such as Uston DeKirk, Toshiro Ohiriko, Mina Samuels, and Bonnie Cracken, believers in a strict code of personal behavior, deeply influenced the new First Lord’s early development, so much so that he appointed Mina Samuels as one of his advisers.

Modern Chivalrists tried to adapt an ancient code to the modern era. They believed that morality and honor depended on three separate but entwined beliefs: belief in an ever-present God, belief in Goodness, and belief in strict mutual loyalty between a liege lord and his subjects. Because of their reliance on medieval writings and poetry, the Modern Chivalrists often referred to ancient legends, such as King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, to drive home a point.

It was not long before medievalism became the rage throughout the Star League. It soon influenced almost all aspects of the culture, with even societies far removed from the European tradition eventually taking a lively interest in the Modern Chivalrists. The pervasive legends of courtly love and feats of honor achieved by moral knights soon became tragic threads in the tapestry of events.

The First Lord encountered difficulty adapting his strict morals to the administration of the Star League. When he was Director-General, he had ruled a homogeneous realm whose people agreed with his beliefs. To rule ten different states, each with its own culture and values, was much different and much more complicated.

Though he believed in a strong military, First Lord Simon spurned the Space Defense Systems that were so important to his father. He allowed the completion of the partially built SDS networks, but canceled plans for the rest. Anticipating trouble in the Periphery, First Lord Simon instead ordered the construction of massive fortifications on key worlds in the four Periphery states. These forts were virtual copies of the ancient Castles Brian still in use on Hegemony worlds.

TROUBLE IN THE PERIPHERY

By the time Simon Cameron came to power in 2738, the Good Years were over for the four Periphery States. Gone were the days when the people on those distant worlds willingly obeyed the regulations coming from the Inner Sphere. There was a deepening anger instead.

The people of the Periphery had many reasons to feel as they did. First Lord Jonathan, preoccupied by his visions and worried about unrest in the Periphery, trusted the Council Lords’ explanation of Directive 41 and signed it without further ado in 2722. The Directive, written by the Lords from the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League, appeared to grant the Periphery states limited autonomy, freeing them from many restrictions after the Reunification War.

The freedoms were only cosmetic. Though changes did occur, the real power merely shifted from the Bureau of Star League Affairs to the governments and businesses of the Inner Sphere. Despite the withdrawal of the Periphery Administrators, who could veto laws proposed by the Periphery governments, ambassadors of the Inner Sphere realms held the real power. The five greedy Lords had tricked the First Lord into signing the directive. The BSLA had monitored and restricted exploitation of Periphery resources, but the new system allowed Inner Sphere businesses to suck the Periphery dry. Hegemony companies were no exception.

A wave of exploitative businesses swamped the Periphery worlds, setting up factories that consumed whole sections of planets. Products were sent to the Inner Sphere without benefit to anybody in the Periphery. Unaware that the rape of their lands was the fault of the Council Lords and not the First Lord, citizens of the Periphery focused their anger on the Camerons. Demonstrations outside Star League offices became common, and underground independence movements gained wide support. By the time Simon became First Lord, Periphery support for the Star League had deteriorated beyond redemption. Lord Simon knew that Council Directive 41 was to blame, but recent divisiveness, such as the Davion War of Succession, left him in no position to try to repeal it. Instead, he strengthened military forces in the territories while privately condemning the Council Lords for their greed.

What worried the First Lord most was that scattered throughout the Periphery were 20 weapons manufacturers capable of turning out BattleMechs, heavy tanks, and DropShips. These manufacturers were under no scrutiny and no constraints. The First Lord learned from his agents that the factories operated around the clock and that anonymous parties purchased most of the weapons, which then disappeared without a trace.

The possibility that the militaries of the four Periphery realms could equal the Regular Army prompted the First Lord to build more fortresses in the Periphery. The First Lord hoped that the fortresses would be able to contain any uprising until help could arrive from the interior.

The Rim Worlds Republic, ruled by the Amaris family, seemed to be the only Periphery realm that the Star League could trust. Everyone daily pledged allegiance to the Star League and Terra, but a closer look at the Amaris high praise and admiration for the Star League made some observers skeptical.

The Republic’s military furthered the uneasiness. The number of Rim Worlds regiments, while technically limited by the Edict of 2650, was actually three to four times that size if one counted the reserve and militia units, which could be fielded on short notice. The First Lord, heeding reports from his agents, kept the Rim Worlds Republic under control by building even more fortresses there than in the other Periphery Territories.

ENEMIES ONCE MORE

The Federated Suns, once a staunch supporter of the Star League, gradually withdrew its cooperation during Simon Cameron’s reign. The Davion government raised economic and social barriers and began subtle propaganda campaigns to discourage young men and women from joining the SLDF. Mutual assistance between the two governments ceased.

Richard Davion never forgave the Star League for taking four years to force a cease-fire between the Federated Suns and the Draconis Combine. He saw those years of inaction, during which many Davion lives were lost, as a betrayal of a Star League promise to enforce peace between member states. The Davions felt no obligation to honor a government that did not keep its commitments.

Though First Lord Simon tried to reason with Richard Davion, it did not help. He had no choice now but to sit back and watch both the Federated Suns and the Draconis Combine drift further from real participation in the Star League.

In 2741, a gang of brigands attacked the Commonwealth world of The Edge, unleashing a battalion of brand new BattleMechs on the unsuspecting public. Firing at anything that stood in their way, the ‘Mechs crashed their way to their objective, a rare-metals refinery and its stockpile in the center of The Edge’s major city. More than 500 civilians died in the raid.

A year later, the Twelfth Lyran Regulars landed on the brigands’ base world, Butte Hold, showing the gang no mercy. Afterward, the Lyrans interrogated the survivors and discovered that the Draconis Combine had supplied the brigands with BattleMechs. The news was outrageous, but the informers offered hard proof.

Archon Michael Steiner confronted Coordinator Takiro Kurita with that damning evidence at the Winter Meeting of 2742. The Coordinator denied nothing, saying only that the Lyrans, of all people, knew that business was business. In a rage, the Archon threw himself at the Coordinator, wrestling Takiro to the floor. Obviously, the former cautious good will between the realms was gone forever.

The leaders of the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League also contributed to the increase in interstellar tensions. Ewan Marik of the Free Worlds League was a belligerent lush, who liked to make boorish comments about everything said at High Council meetings. On the other hand, Warex Liao, Chancellor of the Confederation, was quietly building up the Capellan military.

Raids and reprisals between the member states were becoming common. The official explanations were to blame the raiding on a small number of very energetic pirates. This fooled no one, especially First Lord Simon Cameron, whose military was chasing these supposed bandits. SLDF warships and troops often pursued fleeing raiders into neighboring realms and saw them land at military bases. They even captured on holofilm some unmarked vehicles with enough gray paint stripped away to reveal the colors of a House military.

In 2744, the First Lord issued new orders to his troops: No longer was the SLDF supposed to capture bandits alive; Star League forces should shoot on sight any unmarked and unresponsive soldier, vehicle, or ship. The offending realms, of course, resented Star League interference. Warships began to escort the bandits on their missions and fire on any SLDF ships. Soon, small groups of warships were battling all along the borders.

No one wanted to provoke a full-blown war by accusing neighboring realms or by taking responsibility for raids. House leaders were content to let the “pirates war” rage while in public they smiled charmingly and wrung their hands piously. This era of hypocrisy and inter-realm aggression is known today as the Third Hidden War.

Simon wrote later that the League felt like a valuable tapestry that was about to unravel. Uncertain of what to do, he canceled the next two meetings of the High Council and then sent high-level officials to the capital of each member state to negotiate their growing differences. All that came of these efforts were lukewarm promises that the various House leaders would look into the problem.

PEACE MISSION, 2750

The diplomatic missions of 2743-44 failed to produce anything concrete. High Council meetings had degenerated to the point that the sullen Council Lords often sat, eyeing each other suspiciously and not talking. There was only an occasional outburst, usually from Ewan Marik, who drank through most sessions, to break the tense silence.

By 2750, the First Lord had finally had enough. If the Council Lords were not going to cooperate, he would appeal directly to the people to restore the unity of Star League. Gathering a huge fleet of warships to escort his private JumpShip, the First Lord left Terra on an ambitious five-year tour of his realm.

His first stop was the Lyran Commonwealth. After arriving at the star system of Skye, several DropShips and fighters escorted his private vessel to the planet. He addressed the assembled cadets of the Sanglamore Military Academy on the virtue of peace and on responding to the needs of the common people. He then visited workers at factories and farms, as well as visiting soup kitchens. After several days spent with the common citizens of the planet and ignoring the nobility entirely, he left Skye. While his ship was returning to the jump point and the rest of the fleet, the First Lord gave extensive interviews to the journalists whom he had invited to join him.

The effect of the First Lord’s visit was electric. The sight of a First Lord speaking to people on city streets, riding bicycles, and even feeding slop to pigs on a farm instantly endeared him to the public. The interviews he gave to the reporters, in which he stressed the importance of involving common people in decisions, galvanized public opinion in support of Simon Cameron and the Star League. He repeated this strategy on the other Commonwealth worlds he visited.

The more planets he visited, the more interest and support for the Star League rippled to other worlds. For the first time in decades, the common people believed that they could affect political policy and influence the noble classes.

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DECLINING TOURISM

Some sociologists believe that individuals’ feelings and thoughts are shaped by history. To them, free will is meaningless because any ostensibly independent action is actually a reaction to social and economic conditions.

Others feel that mass behavior is useful in predicting the future. As proof, they point to the crash of the tourist trade in 2745. In the years preceding ’45, tourism into and out of the Hegemony was extremely heavy. Ever since the creation of the Star League, the number of travelers had steadily increased.

In 2744, tourism was at its peak. The five major JumpShip lines (Red Swan Lines, Black Ball Express, Ozawa Passenger Interstellar, Blue Diamond Shipping, and Tamar Liners) had record earnings and plans to expand. All the major hotel chains were reporting similar growth and profits.

In early 2745, travel between member states dipped, then plummeted. By mid-year, the number of bookings dropped to about half of what was expected. There was no obvious explanation. Though the political situation was tense, there was not any major fighting between realms, and none of the leaders had restricted travel. There was no reason for people suddenly to fear space travel, nor were there economic problems that limited available cash. Everyone just decided not to travel anymore.

Some sociologists believe that people could sense the impending collapse of the Star League. Whether an indicator or not, the simultaneous decision of billions of people was an eerie precursor to the Fall.

-From Divining the Fall: Road Signs to Disaster, by Countess Yolopres, Terra Press, 2809
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The Star League Part 16

2010-05-06T14:06:00.000-07:00

TERRA’S IMPORTANCE

The Draconis Combine dueling has been called the First Hidden War because people everywhere, including inside the Combine, were blind to the seriousness of the events. Unless one lived nearby, news of the Combine and Star League ‘Mechs’ duels seemed the stuff of romantic fiction, even though the Combine’s state-run news hailed every victor and provided extensive video coverage. This unreal quality was fine with the First Lord and the Council Lords. With the possible exception of Lord Urizen, no one wanted war when peace was so profitable.

The political serenity of the realm gave Michael Cameron the time to be with his three children. Jonathan, the eldest and most like his father, was an athletic boy who grew up to be an expert swordsman. Jocasta, three years younger, was a pretty child with an insatiable intelligence and a quiet demeanor. William, ten years younger than Jonathan, was the dark child. Though he was as attractive as his brother and sister, a cloud seemed to hang over him since birth, when he needed respirators to assist his breathing.

Culturally, the Star League was increasingly centered on the style of the Court of the Star League. Immigration laws had been relaxed between most member states, except for the Draconis Combine, whose government made it difficult for its citizens to leave. The Hegemony drew people like a magnet, increasing its population by a third during the reign of First Lord Michael.

Those unable to travel to the Hegemony watched and studied what was going on at the “Cradle of Humanity,” as Terra was known. People hundreds of light years away followed everything that happened in the Hegemony, and the Court of the Star League, in particular. Hegemony books, films, and art were all tremendously popular in the other realms. Billions watched shows that depicted court fashions, manners, customs, morals, language, and even the ways of wooing a mate. This universality pleased the Cameron family, who believed that their ancestors’ dream of “One Species, One Realm” was finally coming true.

In 2690, Michael Cameron underwent a routine physical and learned that he had pancreatic cancer. Because the prognosis was poor, the First Lord announced his retirement on October 13, 2690. Lady Katarina, though she would have made an excellent leader, chose to minister to her ailing husband. Thus did Jonathan Cameron, the eldest son, succeed his father.

Michael Cameron spent his last years completing the immensely important Journey of Humanity. A 26-volume epic work, it is the history of mankind from the dawn of civilization to its author’s retirement. Using the vast resources of the Library of the Star League, located near the BSLA, for most of his research, Michael had started the work decades earlier and poured himself into the task after his retirement. He not only served history well with his scholasticism, but he served art too in beautiful passages attempting to fathom the psychology of some of the most famous people in Human history. It was a tribute to Michael’s strong will that he was able to complete these volumes during a time when he must have been in constant pain.

Perhaps it is an omen of Humanity’s eventual renaissance that a copy of the Journey of Humanity survived the fall of the Star League and landed in the possession of our Blessed Order.

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MYSTERIOUS DISASTER ENDS TRAILBLAZER MISSION

Court of the Star League (SLPI)-The Star League government announced today that Trailblazer One, the ambitious expedition launched 35 years ago to map and survey unexplored star systems, has been found floating above the third planet of the Omega Lord star system.

Court officials said that none of the ship’s 479 crewmembers was found alive, though they did survive the mechanical breakdown that stranded them in the star system. Extensive interviews with highly placed sources reveal the following scenario. Two months ago, surveillance vessels of the 169th Flotilla picked up a faint HPG transponder signal coming from a distant group of unexplored stars. The commander of the flotilla, Commodore Thomas Jenkins, received permission from his superiors to track the signals.

The flotilla entered a small G Class star system that was the source of the transmissions, which had been identified as the Trailblazer’s transponder code. The ships’ instruments revealed that the Trailblazer was orbiting the third world of the star system.

The Trailblazer’s exterior was in good condition, but a landing party of Marines and engineers found the ship to be a gutted hulk. Ship’s logs made by the Trailblazer commander, Commodore Niamola Bendricks, report that a micro-asteroid had penetrated the vessel at the circuit junction that tied the ship’s three jump drives into its computers. The damage rendered the ship’s vital computer inoperable, stranding the Trailblazer.

After a year of attempted repairs, the crew mutinied and killed the ship’s commander and most of the senior officer staff. The remaining 391 crew members went to live on the planet’s surface, hoping that the planet’s lifeforms would sustain them.

A platoon of Marines from the 169th Flotilla, aided by medical teams, landed on the planet to search for the crew.

When a landing party from the 169th investigated the crude fortress-settlement that the Trailblazer crew members had built, they found no survivors. Journals recovered from the site reveal that huge herds of carnivores and catastrophic diseases had killed the crew.

-From Star League Press Interstellar, November 19, 2690
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MILITARY RENAISSANCE

I resent being called a warmonger. Just because I have an interest in keeping our military up to date does not mean the passion of a conqueror flows through my veins. In fact, the opposite is true. I want to so fortify our League that it would be foolhardy for even the strongest militaries to attack us.

-First Lord Jonathan, responding to reporters’ questions about whether his massive military buildup was the prelude to war, 2694

Jonathan, the eldest son of Michael Cameron, assumed control of the Star League in 2690. Thirty years old, married to a noblewoman from the planet Sheratan, and at ease before the public, he projected the image of a confident man with few pretensions and affectations. People looked forward to decades of peace and continued prosperity under this handsome new leader.

With the exception of the Draconis Combine dueling, peace had become such a way of life that First Lord Michael had even considered proposals to cut the military budget. When First Lord Jonathan proposed a major expansion of the SLDF, therefore, it was a shock.

When asked why he wanted to pour so much money into the military, the First Lord explained that League scientists were on the verge of a “renaissance in military technology that would make all previous advances seem puny in comparison.” Without funding, those discoveries might die stillborn, he continued.

Asked if he would share the new technology with the member states, First Lord Jonathan said that he would follow the laws regarding weapon technology. Any new weapons systems would go to Royal units in the SLDF first, to the other SLDF units a few years later, and finally to the House militaries after a decade or more. The member states would not get the new technology for many years, but they would benefit from hand-me-downs. Such devices as advanced computers, advanced personal weapons, and ‘Mech designs that had been restricted to the Royal units would become available to the House militaries.

The thought of being able to purchase new and better equipment for their armies outweighed any doubts the Council Lords may have had about whether to build new and more lethal weapon systems just because scientists knew how to do it. First Lord Jonathan got the Council’s approval for the funding.

The fruits of First Lord Jonathan’s military renaissance began to appear in Royal units of the SLDF almost immediately. Improved ‘Mechs, Headhunter Missiles, Snub-nosed PPCs, and countless new vehicles appeared, utilizing breakthrough research in such areas as energy and myomer technology.

One of the most important weapon systems developed during this time was the Space Defense System. The SDS was a series of free-roving system defenders called M-5 Drones. The drones were automated warships that packed the punch of a battlecruiser in the frame of a Lola destroyer. These drone ships, dubbed Caspars, were designed to defend a planet against enemy vessels. Using an ultrasophisticated computer system, the SDS could easily operate with only a handful of Humans monitoring the system. The computers were capable of repairing themselves and of launching other drone ships from computer-run spaceports. Backing up the drone warships were ground bases that could fire huge lasers and missiles at any ship that evaded the drone warships.

This mammoth weapon system did give the Council Lords pause, especially because the new SDS networks were slated for construction only around Hegemony worlds. The First Lord assured the worried Lords that he had chosen these sites because the untried SDS networks should be near their place of manufacture in case of problems. The First Lord promised that when the systems proved reliable, the capitals of the member states would get their own SDSes.

Space Defense Systems were usually deployed in orbit near a sun’s two main jump points and the most important planet, but First Lord Jonathan wanted Terra to have a more formidable defense. Not only was the space around Terra strewn with automated warships that challenged each approaching ship with an “Identify-or-be-Destroyed” ultimatum, but so was the entire solar system. The area around the two standard jump points was especially well-protected. This SDS was named the Reagan Defenses for an obscure Terran leader who had dreamed of a similar system.

The huge number and cost of drones being built and deployed disturbed many people. They believed that the idea of an attack on Terra was ludicrous. Besides, they argued, Terra was for everyone; to encircle her with weapons went against Humanity. Discontent grew when the SDS accidently destroyed three ships. Even after the glitches in the friend-or-foe identification system was remedied, many Terrans questioned the sanity of a man who believed their planet was in so much danger.

SEER OR MADMAN?

My greatest nightmare is that of Terra dying in explosion and flames. No hope exists amid the rubble, only the step of hulking ‘Mechs, the smell of smoke and death, and the wail of orphaned children.

-From a letter by Jonathan Cameron to his wife, 2704

In response to the public’s concern about the huge sums being poured into the SLDF, Jonathan Cameron spoke glibly of “covering every possible contingency” or of benefits from the general scientific advances that would eventually reach the public sector.

Meanwhile, from the Periphery came rumors of spreading discontent. In 2722, the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League pushed through Council Directive 41. Ostensibly giving the Periphery Territories more freedom, the directive actually gave Inner Sphere companies a free hand to loot the territories in all manner of unscrupulous business deals. Because war seemed likely, some people believed the First Lord was farsighted in building up the SLDF for another Periphery campaign.

Others believed that the First Lord was shoring up the SLDF because of the Draconis Combine’s continued belligerence toward the Star League. If Jonathan Cameron was spending so much money on the military, those people thought, perhaps he was seriously considering waging war against House Kurita to rid himself and the Star League of its greatest irritant.

If these pundits of the time had been able to read some of Jonathan Cameron’s letters, they would have understood that he had become obsessed with the fear that Terra would be besieged, captured, and ruined by foreign enemies. His letters to his wife, who preferred the tropical islands to the coolness of the Court of the Star League, and those to his trusted sister, Jocasta, were filled with disturbing phrases: “dreams of Terra scarred and mutilated”; “foreign flags upon Earth’s soil and strange, coarse men walking the white halls of Unity City”; “Humanity leaving Terra ad the universe like the delicate wind-blown seeds of a dandelion, never to be seen again”; and “Terra dimmed and no longer the bright beacon of the Human race.”

The Star League’s collapse, Stefan the Usurper, the destruction of Terra, and the Exodus make these few phrases seem prophetic. Indeed, his letters are so full of prophecy that even a skeptic might wonder whether Jonathan could predict the future. One researcher has recently and aptly compared him to Nostradamus, a 16th Century prophet.

Whatever his abilities, Jonathan Cameron paid dearly for them. Though he maintained his charming, self-assured exterior, he was tormented by insomnia, anxiety attacks, and losses of physical control similar to mild epileptic seizures. He said he had visions during these seizures.

Setting aside the prescience of his words, the tone of Jonathan Cameron’s letters indicate that his mind was beginning to crumble. His emphasis on weapons and defense systems was obviously his attempt to protect the Hegemony, and Terra in particular. He hoped to create an “impenetrable shield of swords and ever-vigilant eyes to guard against any threat approaching Terra.” That his creation eventually protected those who despoiled Terra is one of the great ironies of history.

MOTHER JOCASTA

The First Lord’s sister, Jocasta Cameron, did not share her brother’s torments of spirit. Where her brother was publicly open and outgoing, yet privately troubled, Jocasta had withdrawn from the pressures of political life to the wilds of Scotland. She joined the cloistered Benedictine Order, devoting her life to God in the serene privacy of the Abbey of St. Joan.

Little about her childhood suggested that Jocasta Cameron would surrender herself to prayer and contemplation. She was as bright and precocious as both of her brothers when it came to navigating the complexities of Court society. She loved the grand balls, the pomp, the ceremony, and the elegance of her high station in life. Many in the Court looked forward to the day when the intelligent Jocasta might be the Hegemony’s Director-General.

At age 17, however, she heard the call of God, became a Catholic, and spent a year preparing to enter the Abbey of St. Joan. Though she frequently doubted her ability to survive life as a nun, she never doubted the calling. She entered the abbey on the day after her 18th birthday.

For the next two decades, Jocasta thrived on the ascetic lifestyle. The drug-related death of her younger brother, William, saddened her but did not shake her religious conviction or vocation. In 2704, after 23 years as one of the choir nuns, she became Mother Jocasta, a sign of her importance in the abbey.

Throughout these years, Jocasta maintained a close relationship with Jonathan. More than anyone else, she seemed to be aware and concerned about what was happening to him. His wife, who had lived mostly away from the First Lord, died in 2710. His son, Simon Cameron, had also been away from his father and thus unaware of what was happening.

MARY AND SOTO

Just as his obsession was beginning to crack Jonathan’s public facade, a crisis arose that demanded the First Lord’s total concentration. Associates later said that this crisis drained the last shreds of his sanity. Historians point to it as the beginning of the end of the Star League.

In 2696, while on a diplomatic mission to the Draconis Combine, Mary Davion, daughter of Prince Roger Davion, met and fell in love with Soto Kurita, son of Urizen Kurita and brother of the current Coordinator, Takiro Kurita. In spite of her family’s protests, Mary and Soto married. Their union produced two sons and a daughter.

According to the ancient traditions of primogeniture, the entire Federated Suns would pass from the Davion family into the hands of the dreaded Kuritas upon Prince Roger Davion’s death. Because Mary was raising the children as Kuritas and not Davions, Prince Roger was desperate to prevent them from claiming the Davion throne.

He thought he had solved the problem in 2700, when he passed the Act of Succession, which called for Mary Davion to relinquish her children’s rights to succession and recognized Joseph Davion as heir to the throne. Mary signed her consent in 2702. The crisis seemed revolved when Prince Joseph succeeded Roger Davion in 2703.

The issue re-emerged when Mary Davion died in 2715, just as Prince Joseph was about to name his 19-year-old son heir to the throne. Almost immediately after her death, embassies from House Kurita arrived demanding that Mary’s eldest son, Vincent Kurita, be named heir. The Davion family dismissed the claim as ludicrous. They did not expect the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine to take the matter to the High Council.

During the spring and winter sessions of 2716, Coordinator Takiro Kurita pleaded his case and produced convincing evidence that Mary Davion had expected her son to become Prince of the Federated Suns. The seeming authenticity of the Coordinator’s documents, apparently signed by Mary Davion, cast doubt on the Davion Act of Succession and placed the question of who would rule the Federated Suns squarely in the lap of First Lord Jonathan Cameron.

The First Lord knew that if he decided the issue, there was a strong possibility that the losing party would withdraw his government from the Star League. Jonathan Cameron therefore ordered an investigative commission to study the question. He declared that if Prince Joseph died before the question was decided, the Star League would rule in favor of the Federated Suns. Though this was not entirely satisfactory to the Davion Prince, it guaranteed that his realm would not fall suddenly into the Kurita family’s hands.

The Star League Part 15

2010-05-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

GENERAL JOSEPH CAMERON

In 2598, Nicholas Cameron married Lydia Petersen, the Duchess of Bryant, just before his unit shipped out to serve in the Periphery Territories. As a member of the Department of Star League Education and Information, Duchess Lydia was involved in the public relations campaign to persuade the citizens of the Periphery Territorial States that the Star League was their far-away friend always willing to lend a hand.

The marriage was apparently a very good one, despite the difference in their ages. Duchess Lydia eventually became the Education Department’s second-in-command, taking only a brief leave of absence to give birth to a son, Joseph. Nicholas Cameron was severely wounded on the Periphery world of Badlands on the same day his son was born.

Despite what was, by all accounts, a loving and proper upbringing, Joseph Cameron grew up to be a vain, devious, and aggressive young man. On Joseph’s 16th birthday, his parents sent him on an extended tour of the Star League, accompanied by many admired and respected figures of the realm. They hoped that these dignified men and women would somehow influence their wayward son to change his ways.

Unfortunately, Joseph Cameron seemed even worse by the time the tour was over. At a loss, his parents turned him over to the SLDF, who sent the young man to the newly built War College of Mars as a cadet. The college staff was under strict orders from the Camerons not to give Joseph any preferential treatment. If anything, Nicholas ordered them to give the boy an extra-strong taste of reality so “he’ll learn that foolish actions can lead to serious consequences.”

Joseph’s incorrigible behavior survived the academy, but he also developed a veneer of suave courtesy during that time. A year after leaving the academy, he married a young officer named Josephine Franks. She was one of the reasons that Joseph almost became respectable. Only on the battlefield, where he earned a reputation as a nasty fighter, did his true self fully emerge.

Joseph rose quickly in the ranks of the SLDF, despite several minor scandals. By his 29th birthday, he was a Colonel in command of a Royal regiment. He also became a father that year when Josephine gave birth to Michael Cameron. Believing his son’s days as a delinquent were over, First Lord Nicholas appointed him Director-General of the Terran Hegemony in 2630.

The Mhan-Gradium scandal broke a decade later. Mhan-Gradium Light Conductor Industries was a small manufacturer of light pathways for computers. In 2641, they won an important government contract that gave them virtual dominance in their field. Several months later, investigative reporters traced a series of kickbacks and bribes from the company all the way to the Director-General’s palace. The story went public, and for the next several months, Joseph Cameron repeatedly denied the growing evidence, calling it a lie fabricated by his many enemies.

Just as one reporter was promising the revelation of important new evidence, the man met with a sudden, mysterious death. Suspicion came to rest squarely on the shoulders of Director-General Joseph. The First Lord removed Joseph from his position as Hegemony Director-General until after the investigations, reactivated his commission in the Regular Army, and had him assigned to the backwaters of the SLDF as commander of the Wargame Arrangement and Planning Commission.

Four months later, Joseph died. While participating in a regional wargame with the 112th Royal Hussars (The Jokes of Joseph), his ‘Mech stepped on an improperly prepared vibrabomb that blew its leg off. Joseph attempted to eject from his falling ‘Mech, but the rockets fired before the cockpit hatch could open. The accident occurred just as the investigation into the reporter’s death was leading to a warrant for Joseph’s arrest.

During Joseph’s few short months at the Wargame Arrangement and Planning Commission, he devised one of the most important training tools of the SLDF. These were a series of contests that turned warfare into a competitive event in the Star League. The competitions not only helped soldiers to keep their combat skills honed to a fine edge, but the contests instilled esprit de corps. Regional wargames determined which units would go on to face the champions from other regions. The cycle of competitions continued for four years until the final and ultimate wargame, the Martial Olympiad, was held to determine the best fighting units in the SLDF.

COUNCIL EDICT 2650

In 2646, Nicholas Cameron designated his grandson Michael as his successor. This surprised many who expected the First Lord to name one of his daughters or his second son, Mitchell, as Heir-Designate. The unexpected announcement, plus the cloud of suspicion that still clung to Joseph’s memory stirred up considerable debate among the member-states. Michael Cameron attended the War Academy and graduated as a Naval officer, though he had a scholarly bent. Most of his military career was spent aboard the battleship Arkansas, first as its Science Officer and then as its second-in-command.

When Nicholas Cameron died in 2649, control of the Star League passed on the Michael Cameron by right of succession. While the Council Lords publicly welcomed the new First Lord, in private they wondered whether young Michael had enough political skill for the job. Several were looking forward to being able to manipulate him. Events in the Periphery territories would soon prove that the new First Lord was up to the tasks facing him.

Tadeo Amaris, a member of the ruling family of the Rim Worlds Republic, had begun an alarmingly rapid expansion of his military. By 2650, Michael began to receive urgent messages from agents in the area about whole cargoships filled with BattleMechs, tanks, and artillery pieces docking at Tadeo’s homeworld of Apollo. They estimated that within three months Tadeo’s military had swelled from eight regiments of battered light ‘Mechs to 15 regiments of very capable ‘Mechs of all sizes.

Where Tadeo was getting the ‘Mechs was a mystery. The ships delivering the arms were registered to legitimate trading companies from several realms. When questioned, the forms replied that mysterious parties had asked them to ship the weapons with no questions asked. Because they had been paid well, the manufacturers complied, even though it was weapons and ammunition they were transporting.

The First Lord convened an emergency meeting to reveal this information to the other Lords and to seek their advice. The problem was that, technically, Tadeo Amaris was not acting illegally, for he had the right to build up his House forces. When Cameron sent Star League representatives to ask that he disband his army, Amaris quoted passages of the Star League Accord guaranteeing the right to bear arms.

When the High Council and First Lord met to consider the crisis, most expressed fear that this would be only the first of the powerful Periphery families to present a threat. The spectre of another Reunification War seemed to raise its head. The High Councilors believed that they had few choices. They could order the Regular Army and the Navy to march in and simply confiscate and/or destroy Amaris’s weapons, without even the slightest pretext of legality. They could publicly demand that Tadeo disarm. Or they could change the laws so that Amaris’s acts were illegal, forcing him to disband his excess regiments.

Though Michael Cameron was not entirely comfortable with the tactic of rewriting laws, the Council voted to proceed with the third option. The First Lord also persuaded them to approve a new law limiting the militaries of powerful Inner Sphere families and the House armies of each member-state. Council Edict 2650, the law’s official title, dictated the acceptable size of military forces that governments and private families were allowed to raise. An even stricter measure had already been enacted in the Periphery, where even particular weapon systems were specified as unacceptable.

Amaris backed down after the Star League sent in several ‘Mech regiments on extended maneuvers over the Rim Worlds border. The crisis ended without a single shot being fired when Amaris apparently disbanded his extra regiments. He secretly continued to build up his forces through reservists and the formation of local militias, however. It was only much later that anyone learned that Amaris was obtaining his ‘Mechs from the Draconis Combine.

PEACE AND PROSPERITY

A FORTUNATE MARRIAGE

In 2657, First Lord Michael Cameron, who had “lived life to the fullest with many women,” as one news commentator put it, finally fell in love. The woman who had won his heart was Duchess Katarina Mann, a beautiful and intelligent woman from a noble family that traced its lineage to the 15th century.

Katarina was born and raised on her family’s estate outside Magdeburg in northern Germany. She had an early and keen interest in history and flying. She pursued both at the War Academy on Mars, where she became a superb aerospace pilot, a capable officer, and a scholar of ancient European history.

After graduation, Katarina was assigned to the Thirty-fourth Fleet Aero Wing (The Black Aces). Her mothership, the Vengeance Class Dropship Nimitz, was attached to the Forty-ninth Naval Flotilla when the Star League wanted to discourage Tadeo Amaris’s political ambitions in the 2650’s.

News of her father’s death in 2653 cut short Katarina’s promising military career. She returned to Terra to take up her father’s position as her home region’s political and economic leader. She sparked a boom in the region’s economy by coaxing several major defense industries into building factories there. The First Lord met the elegant Katarina Mann on a visit to one of these factories.

Their courtship became something of a game followed by the whole Hegemony. Journalists, always eager for exclusive pictures or comments, stalked the couple incessantly. An overeager reporter from Der Spiegel, one of the Hegemony’s largest magazines, was thrown to the ground by the Duchess, who was proficient in karate.

The First Lord and Duchess were imaginative in their efforts to escape the press. One of their favorite dodges was to spend a quiet, if not luxurious, week in the middle of an SLDF base, where the guards at the gates gave any inquisitive reporter a tour of the brig. Another time, Duchess Katarina took off in her personal cutter, leading reporters in their chartered vessels on a week-long chase as she tried to rendezvous with Michael.

In 2659, after several years of this courtship in public, First Lord Michael proposed and Katarina accepted. Their marriage took place in the Christian Cathedral at the Court of the Star League. The ceremony, with its medieval flavor, was remembered as one of the grandest pageants in League history.

For their honeymoon, the bride and groom boarded the First Lord’s private JumpShip for a two-year grand tour of the Star League. Escorted by a fleet of military and private vessels, the two visited all five member states and the four Periphery Territories. The trip was a triumph of good will, with the elegant couple charming the nobility and the public wherever they went. Politically, the voyage gave the First Lord a chance to cement his relations with the other member states. Even the economy benefited because the First Lord examined at close hand what his unified economy was accomplishing and what it was not.

When the two eventually settled down to a normal marriage back on Terra, romance gave way to reality. The Duchess despised the almost constant scrutiny that attended the wife of the First Lord, while the First Lord was angry at Katarina’s reluctance to put her responsibilities as First Lady over other concerns, such as the situation in her homeland. For a few tense months, the marriage seemed doomed, but the couple’s mutual affection eventually won out. This was fortunate because Katarina became the First Lord’s closest adviser as well as a voice for caution and peace during coming crises.

FIRST HIDDEN WAR

The new couple’s charm could not prevent the Draconis Combine’s withdrawal from the League’s social, public, and economic affairs. The Edict of 2650, which placed a ceiling on the size of House armies, had forced the Kuritas to dismantle many units, including several regiments of BattleMechs. The Kurita family was insulted. They believed that the Camerons had drafted the Edict to prevent the Combine from growing too strong. They might have raised an even greater storm but for the fear of being discovered as the arms supplier to Tadeo Amaris. Until they could find a proper response, House Kurita withdrew, slowly raising barriers between itself and the rest of the Star League.

Some of the Draconis Combine’s isolationism can be attributed to a sweeping interest in ancient Japan, the Kuritas’ ancestral homeland. The rise in the use of the Japanese language further isolated the Combine from the rest of the Star League. There was also an upsurge in interest in Bushido, the ancient samurai code of honor. One of the oldest and strictest of warrior philosophies, it suited the Kurita MechWarriors, who already saw themselves as a class apart and above society.

The Kurita family easily exploited Bushido’s emphasis on loyalty to one’s lord and reliance on an uncompromising code of personal honor. In return for this loyalty, the Kurita rulers elevated MechWarriors ever higher by granting them many privileges. The most obvious of these was the right to wear samurai swords as symbols of MechWarrior status.

Along with Bushido came a fascination with dueling. At first, most duels were fought between men armed with swords, but duels between individual warriors in their ‘Mechs soon became common. MechWarrior regiments contested to determine who was the best warrior, often with unfortunate results. Despite the losses, the Kurita leaders supported the idea of dueling as a way to improve the overall quality of their warriors and to promote a fanatical loyalty.

Ultimately, the better and bolder warriors began to challenge warriors from the SLDF regiments based in the Draconis Combine. Though this practice was politically dangerous, the Kurita family condoned it because they considered the SLDF’s 500 bases in the Combine to be a kind of occupation force. The Coordinator could not demand that the SLDF force, numbering about 350 regiments, be removed without causing an immediate crisis, but he could harass them. These duels, which continued for decades, were a kind of hidden war occurring beneath the placid and prosperous daily life of most citizens in the Star League.

The first duel involving a member of the SLDF occurred in 2681, just outside Fort Shandra on the Kurita world of Benjamin. Dueling Master Amanda Kazutoyo, a MechWarrior from the Third Benjamin Regulars, lifted her BattleMaster’s fist before the main gates of the base and loudly declared that all Star League MechWarriors lacked courage and the warrior’s spirit.

When the base commander asked her to leave the area, she refused and parked her ‘Mech squarely in front of the gates. For ten days, she sat there in her BattleMaster, periodically reissuing her challenge to the MechWarriors inside the fortress. This game of psychological warfare wore down the good sense and resolve of the SLDF troops.

The resentment within the Regular Army finally reached the boiling point, and Lieutenant Bradley Grebbers and his Warhammer left the fort without permission to face Amanda Kazutoyo. The fight lasted little more than ten minutes after the two had located suitable ground away from the fort. With a series of incredibly precise missile shots, MechWarrior Kazutoyo disabled her opponent’s legs, forcing the ‘Mech to its knees. Lieutenant Grebbers was helpless as his opponent walked up from behind and placed her ‘Mech’s PPC at the back of the Warhammer’s cockpit. The coup de grace was quick, but very painful for the spectators.

The callousness of the duel was shocking. The commander of the regiment barely prevented his warriors from charging out of the fort and tearing Kazutoyo limb from limb.

URIZEN’S SCHEME

First Lord Michael vigorously protested this and other duels as reports of individual contests between Kurita and Star League ‘Mechs reached Terra. Each time the First Lord complained, Urizen Kurita threw up his hands in consternation, telling Michael Cameron that the “duelists” were beyond his authority. He complained that most of them had once been loyal soldiers in the Combine military until Michael Cameron’s edict on troops strength had forced their discharge.

The Coordinator did not tell the First Lord that these ronin (the Japanese word for masterless warriors) had been allowed to take their weapons with them. Most of them were then reassigned to nobles in the Combine government as “civilian bodyguards,” a euphemism for a fully armed and trained reserve force.

Urizen told First Lord Michael that he could barely prevent the better ronin MechWarriors from challenging the Kurita military. He said that he had neither the time, the money, nor the troops to hunt down each masterless MechWarrior and strip him of his ‘Mech. Coordinator Urizen did indeed control the ronin, however. His memos to his commanding officers show that he supported the ronin with transportation and supplies, and he even ordered the best of them to engage Star League warriors.

He hoped that humiliating the best of the Star League would reduce its prestige among the Combine common people. If enough commoners saw a Combine ‘Mech disposing of a Star League ‘Mech, perhaps they would be less willing to join the SLDF as soldiers and thus deplete the Combine’s pool of labor resources.

At first, the Coordinator’s plan worked quite well. Both freelancing ronin and champions from local ‘Mech regiments began to defeat their Star League counterparts with shocking speed and ease. The Kurita warriors showed superior handling skills and control over their ‘Mechs. The First Lord realized quickly that the duels jeopardized the Star League’s prestige among the common citizens of the Combine. Should the League lose the people’s respect, the SLDF units stationed in the Combine would be surrounded by a scornful and potentially hostile populace.

The First Lord also wondered how the Combine warriors were able to control their ‘Mechs so well. He worried that they had discovered new technology, such as an improved joint system that allowed greater mobility. He ordered that one of the ‘Mechs used by a champion be captured at all costs.

A month later, a ronin ‘Mech marched up to the gates of Fort McHenry on Leiston. With the usual bravado, the warrior challenged the local champion. While the ronin recited the usual litany of insults, two forces of ‘Mechs from the base approached from behind. By the time the ronin finally noticed, the force was on top of him. With several mighty pushes, they forced the ‘Mech into Fort McHenry. Before they could persuade him to leave his ‘Mech, he committed suicide. The ‘Mech was shipped off to the Hegemony and examined.

When Hegemony engineers could identify nothing unusual in the ‘Mech’s construction, SLDF officers realized that superior training accounted for the difference in fighting abilities. Faced with this fact, the First Lord ordered his soldiers to refuse all dueling challenges until further notice. By this time, in 2682, five MechWarriors had been killed in duels and 15 had been wounded. The Draconis Combine made political hay from the First Lord’s orders, never failing to make oblique references to the SLDF’s seeming cowardice.

Deep within the Hegemony military, certain MechWarriors were undergoing extensive retraining as part of the ACMS (Advanced Combat and Maneuvering Skills) Project. From ancient Oriental martial philosophies to advanced neural-thought technology, these warriors relearned almost everything about piloting a BattleMech. The 52 warriors in the first graduating class became the SLDF’s champions.

The first group of Star League champions arrived at their postings inside the Draconis Combine in late 2687. Colonel Donovan Fresnel of the Seventy-fifth Royal Hussar Regiment, then stationed on the Combine world of Minakuchi, was the first of the highly trained MechWarriors to participate in a duel. Challenging him was the champion of the local Combine regiment in his brand new Marauder. In his Warhammer, Colonel Fresnel was able, after an hour of fighting, to force his shocked opponent to a draw, a first for the Star League. Ten days later, Lieutenant Karen Graham, in her Phoenix Hawk, defeated a ronin MechWarrior on the planet Awano.

Any hopes that these successes would discourage the Kurita champions and ronin from issuing further challenges were quickly dashed. Now that the Star League finally had warriors worthy of fighting, the Kurita champions were keener than ever to duel.

Realizing that he could not prevent duels, the First Lord tried another tack. He began to send envoys to Combine bases, not to challenge their champions but to offer them commissions in the SLDF. There was little the outraged Coordinator Urizen could do about it, either. As the First Lord expected, only a few champion Kurita MechWarriors wanted to join the SLDF, but those who did became instructors in the Regular Army’s expanded ACMS program. Renamed the “Gunslinger Program,” the intensive training regimen eventually became an important part of the Military Academy of Aphros. Only the Academy’s most skilled MechWarrior graduates won spots in the Gunslinger Program. To wear the crossed six-shooters on their uniforms became a great honor among Star League MechWarriors.

This dueling continued off and on into the next century and did not stop until 50 years later. The final tally between the two sides was a House Kurita victory 49% of the time, 47% for the Regular Army, and 4% of the time the combatants fought to a draw.

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FAMOUS STAR LEAGUE GUNSLINGERS

Lieutenant Oha Heller
Champion of the 231st Light Horse Regiment from 2689 to 2693, Lieutenant Oha Heller was one of the first graduates of the Gunslinger program and among the first to score a victory when her Dervish, the Wild Scream, faced a ronin Wolverine BattleMech. In the next four years, she entered into ten duels, winning eight, losing one, and fighting to a draw once. She finally lost to a Kurita champion in a Victor BattleMech.

Colonel Daniel Allison
Commander and champion of the Twenty-ninth Royal Dragoon Regiment from 2701 until 2743, Colonel Daniel Allison and his BattleMaster lasted longer than any other SLDF Gunslinger. He was a phenomenal marksman and ended many duels in the first seconds with shots that disabled his opponents before they could take a step. After 42 years of dueling, Colonel Allison’s record stood at 59-0-1. He retired in 2743 and became a major BattleMech designer for Kallon Industries.

Captain Wilbur Frews
Champion of the 124th Royal Heavy Assault Regiment from 2711 to 2718, Captain Wilbur Frews may have been the strangest graduate of the Gunslinger Program. He immersed himself in the Wild West mythos in the belief that to know everything about the ancient gunslingers would give him the edge over an opponent. After joining the 124th, he stopped wearing his uniform, instead dressing like gunmen of the ancient American West. Seven years of dueling took their toll, and by the end of 2718, Captain Frews had lost his mental stability. His commanding officers were finally forced to restrain him and sent him back to Terra for rest and recovery. His record was a 19-0-0.

-From The Gunslinger Project: A History, by Frederick Galard, Albion Military Press, New Avalon 2823
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The Star League Part 14

2010-05-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

POSTWAR ERA

As of midnight September 3, 2596, the Provisional Government of the Rim Worlds Republic does hereby surrender unconditionally to the forces of the Star League. All citizens are ordered to cease hostile actions and lay down their weapons…I realize that the fight has been long and hard and to surrender now is a bitter pill, but to fight any longer would damn us to oblivion. May God have mercy on our souls, we don’t want to see everyone die.

-Senator Benjamin Trivallor, spokesperson for the Provisional Government of the Rim Worlds Republic

With the surrender of the Rim Worlds and then the Taurian Concordat in 2596, the Reunification War finally came to an end. In 2597, the four conquered Periphery governments became Territorial States of the Star League, with large occupation forces present to enforce the will of the League-appointed Military Governors. Most of these garrison forces would be withdrawn by 2607, when home rule was reestablished and Star League Associate-Member status accorded to the four Territorial States.

To soften the trauma of these changes, the Star League launched a massive reconstruction effort and propaganda campaign to “foster good will between the distant frontiers and the cradle of Humanity.” The people of the Periphery reacted with cynicism at first, finding it hard to believe such propaganda after all that had occurred. As the years passed and the Star League government’s reconstruction efforts began to show results, many citizens of the Periphery began to feel a grudging respect for their former enemies.

For the next 150 years, the Star League would guarantee its people an unparalleled era of peace, prosperity, high technology, and improved quality of life. Ian Cameron did not live to see the true greatness of the Star League, which flowered only after the Reunification War.

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NOT SO BAD

I realize that I’m supposed to live up to the high ideals of my youth and not cave in to the lure of comfort and security, but I do like these Star League folks. Yes, I remember all our war cries: “Remember the Republic,” “Down with the puppet governments,” “Kick the Cameron bastards out,” and the rest-but that doesn’t change the fact that things are better now than before the wars. We’ve got hospitals, we’ve got farms where once there were deserts, and we’ve got more jobs than there are people to fill them. And what do the Camerons ask in return? That we get up and pledge allegiance to the League flag, that we pay our taxes, and that we put up with a few BattleMechs stomping around. I call that a fair trade. Now what can you young rabble-rousers offer me that’s better?

And, before you accuse me of being a League sympathizer, let me remind you that I was toting a laser rifle in the Black Hell Mountains and risking my neck against Star League ‘Mechs long before you young firebrands were even born. Never accuse me of being a coward or I’ll be tempted to shove my fist down your scrawny little throat.

I am not a coward, and I’m not a fool, either. So when you come around here throwing rocks and causing a ruckus, remember that being independent means having to take care of yourselves. Judging by the looks of you, we’d be in big trouble if we were suddenly independent. If you didn’t have the Star League to change your diapers, what would you do?

-From One-Eyed Jack, a novel about life in the Periphery Territories, by Venalla Hafnerson, Star League Press, 2609
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A NEW FIRST LORD

In 2600, Lady Shandra Cameron died. Two years later, Lord Ian Cameron followed her. The Star League marked their deaths with a year of official mourning, and the High Council Lords ordered all Star League officials to wear black and all official vehicles to display a black stripe. This would become a tradition after the passing of every subsequent First Lord.

Ian’s son Nicholas became leader of the Star League when he was 46 years old. None of the other High Councilors opposed his accession because the elder Cameron had trained his heir well for the power and responsibilities he would face.

Just after his 18th birthday, Nicholas Cameron had entered the Sandhurst Royal Military College, an SLDF Academy in Berkshire, England, on Terra, where he trained as both a MechWarrior and computer specialist. In 2578, he graduated with honors and was assigned to the Forty-third Royal Light Horse Regiment (later known as the Steeds of Nicholas). Within six months, he had been promoted to Lance Commander and in another six months to Company Commander.

In 2600, the Forty-third’s posting was the small Concordat world of Badlands. It was a dangerous assignment, because tough and stubborn groups of Concordat rebels still roamed the arid mountains of the planet’s southern continent, refusing to surrender. Twice, Nicholas Cameron was wounded in action. In the first incident, a small piece of shrapnel penetrated the cockpit of his Rifleman and slightly wounded the left side of his face. The second time was more serious. After walking his Rifleman into an ambush of three autocannons, his cockpit was completely destroyed before his company could come to his aid. Nicholas lost an arm and nearly lost his life.

He arrived back on Terra for recuperation just after his mother’s death. Within weeks of the funeral, the First Lord appointed Nicholas First Lord-Designate. By 2602, he became First Lord.

LEONARD’S FOLLY

In the grand and everlasting debate on which is more vital for a man, a well-built slut or a slug from a bottle, one thing must be said in defense of the bottle: it’s always willing.
-Remarks attributed to Coordinator Leonard Kurita

The one sour note in the era of postwar reconstruction and the healing of war wounds came, predictably perhaps, from the Draconis Combine. In 2591, Coordinator Hehiro Kurita died after falling down a flight of stairs. Where Hehiro had been a skillful politician as well as a wise ruler, Leonard Kurita, his son and successor, was a willful, erratic, perhaps even unbalanced man. The fact that he was also an alcoholic and a libertine did nothing to improve his qualifications to rule a powerful state.

Indeed, his accession to the Combine throne was not auspicious. As soon as he received news of his father’s death in 2591, the middle-aged Leonard decided to celebrate his new power by hopping from planet to planet across at least a dozen of his worlds in an orgy of women and drink.
This was, of course, in the midst of the Reunification War, and Ian Cameron did not appreciate the newest member of the High Council being off on a debauch instead of tending to crucial affairs of state. The new Coordinator only shrugged when he heard about Cameron’s speech censuring him before the other members of the High Council. It was his first duty, Leonard said, to produce an heir, even if he had to visit every seraglio in the Combine to do it.

Both his excesses and his vices seemed to multiply as time went on. As a result, the Combine’s District Military Governors had to assume responsibility for the Combine’s role in the Reunification War. Nor did they yield any of this power with the war’s end, for Leonard paid neither them nor his duties any mind.

Whether it was due to drink, drugs, or some intrinsic mental defect, the wildly unpredictable Leonard would sometimes order large contingents of BattleMechs to land on worlds near the Hegemony/Combine border. Perhaps he wanted to see what the First Lord would do. Cameron interpreted this behavior as deliberate aggression against his people and a challenge to his power. Cameron was also angry because Leonard’s ‘Mechs were badly needed elsewhere to fight the war.

While the Reunification War went on, Cameron limited himself to issuing ever more strongly worded protests. Once the Periphery War was over, he immediately took more direct action. As many units began to return homeward, Cameron began to order some of these to positions along the Hegemony/Combine border. Yet Leonard did not seem at all intimidated. Rather, he seemed inspired to new heights of folly.

In 2601, the unmarried Leonard Kurita decided it was time to search the Combine for the bastard children he had tried to sire ten years before. Though he located a few, the Coordinator was not satisfied. Obsessed with the idea of finding all his children, he began to have paranoid fantasies that Ian Cameron had spirited some of his offspring across the border into the Terran Hegemony.

In 2602, several lances of Combine BattleMechs, reinforced with platoons of infantry, landed on Asta, a world jointly owned by the Combine and the Hegemony and therefore a demilitarized zone. The Combine troops headed directly for the planet’s schools and orphanages, where the soldiers ordered the frightened children to line up for scrutiny. By the time elements of the Regular Army’s Ninety-first Heavy Assault Regiment (The Armadillos) arrived, the Combine troops had gone, but not before taking 14 children whom they believed to resemble Leonard Kurita.

Even after medical tests proved that these children were not related to the Coordinator and they had been returned home, relations between the Hegemony and the Combine remained severely strained. Royal units of the SLDF were placed along the Combine-Hegemony border in a state of heightened readiness, for no one knew what scheme the erratic Leonard might conjure up next.
During the Fall 2604 session of the High Council, Coordinator Leonard stumbled into the Council Chamber, strode up to the First Lord, and spat in his face. When guards rushed forward with their weapons at the ready, the First Lord raised his hand to signal them to wait. Calmly wiping his face, he asked the enraged Council Lord what was the meaning of this act.

Lord Leonard launched into a tirade about how the First Lord was deliberately hiding his Kurita heirs. Waving a half-empty bottle of his favorite brew, Leonard next accused Cameron of deliberately attempting to gut the Combine of military forces during the Reunification War. Nicholas Cameron calmly denied the charges and invited the Coordinator to sit down to discuss the matter with dignity. Wobbling where he stood, the Coordinator screamed that he would do no such thing and threw the bottle at Nicholas Cameron.

The bottle missed the First Lord, but hit one of the guards. As the guard instinctively fired a shot with her laser rifle, the bolt grazed the Coordinator’s right arm. Leonard leaped at the guard before she could react, stabbing her with a dagger that he pulled from beneath his robes. Then he ran from the Council Chamber while Nicholas Cameron and the other Lords tried to help the wounded guard. She died before medical assistance could arrive.

The guard’s name was Sergeant Tanya Kerensky. To honor her attempt to protect him, First Lord Nicholas Cameron awarded the Kerensky family the special title, “Defender of the First Lord,” and the right to attend any university or military academy. So began this great military line, whose name has become almost synonymous with the Star League.

Coordinator Leonard Kurita fled Terra for the safety of the Draconis Combine. When he arrived, he immediately began to assemble an army and a fleet for the invasion of the Hegemony. He did not listen to his family or his generals’ pleas to reconsider. Even the normally timid public was uncharacteristically bold in demonstrating their opposition.

Leonard Kurita lent a deaf ear, even after his sister committed seppuku in shame. It truly looked as though the Hegemony and the Combine were about to go to war. With the Coordinator so unpopular among the other Council Lords, he would surely have to go it alone against the entire Star League. If this was to be war, it would be one the Combine could not win.

Before the first attack could be launched, Coordinator Leonard Kurita died mysteriously. It came out only much later that members of the Kurita family, humiliated and shamed by Leonard, had secretly tried the hopelessly corrupt Coordinator and found him guilty. Leonard had been assassinated at their command, averting a useless war. The Kurita family stood down the assembled warships and divisions and began to hope for a much saner regime under the new Coordinator, Blaine Kurita.

ECONOMIC AND SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES

In many ways, the passing of Leonard Kurita marked the true, though unofficial, end of the Reunification War. By 2605, most of the participating troops had returned to the Inner Sphere and were making their way back to their homeworlds. Everyone was eager to sweep away the last vestiges of the bad years and enjoy the peace that the Star League had promised but not yet delivered.

With Leonard gone, the threat of war evaporated. The Star League forces poised to attack on the Kurita/Davion border were ordered down from War Alert status, but First Lord Nicholas Cameron decided that Star League or no Star League, he was taking no more chances. In another of the great ironies of history, the First Lord of the Star League asked his most trusted advisores and military strategists to create contingency plans for war with each of the other five members of the Star League at the very moment he was about to lead the Human race into its finest moment.

Though a minor economic depression affected every government immediately following the Reunification War, the Inner Sphere began to boom as corporations retooled their factories to produce civilian rather than military items. Trade with the new Territorial States was especially profitable because they lacked almost everything and were willing to pay with vital raw resources from their worlds. Once again it was cargoships laden with goods rather than SLDF troopships making their way among the worlds of the Periphery.

The period from roughly 2600 to 2650 has been often referred to as the Good years. Freed from the demands of researching ever more potent weapons and of churning them out for ward, the leaders of Star League member-states could direct their scientific and industrial resources toward creating a better life for all. The Terran Hegemony, the Federated Suns, and the Lyran Commonwealth were the leaders in research and development, but the whole race benefited from the fruits of their research.

The Terran Hegemony could now return to what it knew best: high technology. Spurred on by a series of decrees from the Director-General, major industries adopted long-range plans for research programs aimed at widening the Hegemony’s technological edge. Also important in shaping the Hegemony’s future was a series of secret messages, only recently discovered by ComStar researchers, in which the government urged these same industries to voluntarily reinstate the ban on selling advanced technology. This was because Cameron was still not convinced that no other Lord would challenge his power. In return, First Lord Nicholas awarded the firms lucrative military contracts to help make up for any business lost.

Perhaps the most significant technological development during Nicholas Cameron’s reign was the HyperPulse Generator. The origins of the HPG go back to the equations of the great Professors Kearny and Fuchida. In one obscure section of their papers, published in 2022, they speculated on the possibility of creating artificial jump points and they provided equations for generating them. Because the costs would have been astronomical, the scientific community did not pursue these hypotheses any further.

In 2614, First Lord Cameron appointed Joshua Hoshiko as Minister of Communications. The next year, Hoshiko enlisted Cassie DeBurke, a brilliant young professor from the University of Terra (located near the Court of the Star League), to study the problem further. DeBurke realized that the cost to transmit matter through artificial jump points might be prohibitive, but the cost to transmit bundles of energy-modulated energy, such as simple radio waves-was within the range of modest reactors. If this idea could be converted into practical technology, it would make possible the instantaneous transmission of messages to receivers 50 light years away.

For the next 15 years, Professor DeBurke and her research staff worked secretly and feverishly on her theories. The culmination of their work was the first HPG station, built just outside the Court of the Star League, which transmitted the first HPG message on New Year’s Day 2630. Once this revolutionary system was set up all over the Inner Sphere, it took a mere seven days to broadcast from Terra to Tharkad. Messages to the most distant Periphery planet took less than six months to arrive, at least twice the speed of the previous transmission time.

Another major change that First Lord Nicholas instituted was the unification of the entire Star League under one economic system. When he announced his ambitious plans in 2621, reactions were varied. Interrealm speculators vehemently opposed the idea, which was understandable because they made their living from trading in the various currencies and taking advantage of differing economic systems.

The Kurita government was at first opposed because they feared becoming too dependent economically on the other states of the Inner Sphere. The Steiner Archon also opposed the idea because it seemed to violate the sovereignty of an individual realm. The major corporations in all the member-states approved of the First Lord’s economic plan, however. Indeed, a protest shutdown of 80 percent of all Lyran business forced the Archon to accept the plan. Businessmen saw a single currency as a way to raise profits and to simplify the maddeningly complicated monetary exchange system that hampered all their dealings.

The change over to the new money system officially began on July 1, 2623. The new currency was based upon the Star Dollar. The paper money had the official seal of the Star League on one side and a small holographic engraving of a spaceship on the other. The Council Lords suggested that Lord Nicholas’s image appear on the bills, but he declined. Because every member-state had the responsibility of printing the money, under strict League supervision, each bill would also show the seal of its own realm.

As the First Lord had foreseen, the new economic system led to an unparalleled boom in trade. Merchants traveled to the farthest corners of occupied space, bringing prosperity and a better quality of life to all. Truly, this was a golden age of cooperation and the good life.

From 2632 on, the League began to expand at a rapid rate because of advances in water purification technologies that reduced the costs appreciably. The process was so much cheaper than what the Ryan Cartel iceships could provide that Ryan eventually went bankrupt. The other major difference was that these new water purifiers required high-tech maintenance, but that was no problem during this optimistic era. By the year 2700, more than 1,000 new planets had been colonized and the League had expanded to control a sphere roughly 540 light years in diameter.

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OTHER MAJOR TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGHS

The Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purification Procedure
First demonstrated in 2622, the J-U Purifier was a breakthrough that rivaled the development of the HPG in importance. The procedure, which used a filtering agent made from common sand, was half the size of the previous purification plant and could be produced at a third of its cost. The device was developed at the Caph Institute of Technology.

When news of this important technology was announced, it sparked considerable debate within the Hegemony government as to whether the J-U Water Purifier should be placed on the Hegemony’s unofficial list of “sensitive” technology, preventing its sale to anyone outside the Hegemony. First Lord Nicholas decided that to suppress the device would be unusually cruel to those worlds that had to devote enormous resources just to obtain drinkable water. He approved the licensing of the purifiers to other member-states. Soon, previously marginal or uninhabitable worlds were opening up for colonization while other colonies blossomed with the aid of the J-U Purifier.

The Eligus Medical Diagnoser
Developed in the 2640s, the Eligus Diagnoser was the brainchild of the Saffel Medical Institute. Using the latest computer technology, the Diagnoser was capable of doing a complete medical work-up on a patient in an amazingly short time with only minimal Human assistance. The Diagnoser also combined various devices, such as X-Ray, CAT, GRT, and VelRay scanners into one compact device. With the Eligus Diagnoser, it was now possible for a computer with the intelligence of a specialist to diagnose a medical problem and suggest a treatment in a fraction of the normal time and cost. The machine was so proficient that the Star League Medical Association would not allow it into hospitals until 2665 because of groundless fears that its use would throw thousands of doctors out of work.

Neural-Dimensional Computer Technology
While photon coursing had long ago replaced electronic wiring in computers, a major breakthrough occurred when several research groups discovered that light beams could be phased and modulated to represent more than simple on-and-off messages. The discovery resulted in the development of the Light Tree as the basic building block of computers and allowed computer designers finally to build a computer patterned after the Human brain. Though the resulting computer, called SIBYL, was in some ways a disappointment (not being able to “think” like Humans, as its designers had hoped), its ability to calculate and make rational decisions was a quantum leap beyond the capabilities of computers. Neural-Dimensional Computers were a development that the Hegemony kept to itself while funneling them into its military.

-From A Timeline of Technology, by Duchess Nichole Simon, Hegemony Press, 2734
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