Without thinking, Alek stepped over to join him, looking up at the titanic machine which dominated all around it. The tick of cooling metal could still be heard. Shovel-blade feet. Bulging midsection. Hatchet-edged cockpit. Massive arms swinging down almost to the knees. Settled into their bow-legged stance, partially cloaked by the shadows, the Mechs looked like childhood monsters biding time inside massive closets.
“No,” he offered. Shivered. “But maybe these could come close.”
Patrick grunted a non-committal response, and an awkward silence descended between the two cadets. The kind, Alek knew, that often stretched out into refreshed hostility. He wasn’t certain that he wanted to let this bridge into the enemy camp fall so easily, though.
“You said earlier that you were not convinced that I was telling the truth.” Alek swallowed hard, his throat tight. “What made you say that?”
Patrick paused, as if considering his words, then, “If you are really trying to prove something to yourself, why are you holding back?” he asked.
“Who says that I am?”
“I do. As could anyone who’s seen you pilot a ‘Mech or work the simulators. Or seen your neurological response curve—that test they ran on you back when you were in the hospital? You’re green, but you should still be better than you’re showing. You’re either coasting, or you just don’t care. Either one could get somebody killed someday.”
“And you followed me here just to tell me that?” Alek bit off the question with something close to anger. Anger at himself for kicking open this door. Inviting the rebuke, which had more teeth to it than he would have thought.
“I followed you here,” Patrick said, “for the same reason I cut you off on the training run today. I wanted to learn something about you.”
Alek remembered that. Breaking through the trees to have one of the other Strikers cut him off. Having to veer out wider than he’d planned.
“So what did you learn?” he asked.
Patrick clasped his hands behind his back. For a moment, Alek thought the other cadet would simply turn and leave without answering. Then he shrugged. “Your not stupid, Kerensky. I’ll give you that. And you aren’t weak either. Maybe you’ll even make a decent MechWarrior. Someday.”
“And?”
“And maybe you aren’t a complete waste of my time. As it has been pointed out to me, my options at the Nagelring this year have been slightly curtailed. It’s been suggested that I get to know you. I’m considering it.”
“So what’s stopping you?”
“The truth?” Patrick looked form the nearby ‘Mech to Alek. Then back again. “I’m not sure yet if I want to be your friend.”
And with that, he did turn away. Toward the side entrance which led back toward the briefing room. Leaving Alek behind, still staring up at the Striker.
Then, pausing at the door, Patrick asked suddenly, “So what’s stopping you?”
The question caught Alek off-guard. He felt something rise to the top of his mind, shoving aside all the rationales and all the other excuses he might have mustered. He knew it immediately for what it was.
The truth? It seemed to be the day for it.
Alek stared up at the Striker, not knowing—no longer caring—if he were alone or if Patrick still stood at the doorway. “This whole thing.” He looked around the empty ‘Mech bay. “All of it,” he said. Then his voice dropped to a simple whisper. The way in which most basic truths were spoken.
“It scares the hell out of me.”
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Ilsa J. Bick is a writer as well as a recovering psychiatrist. She is the author of prize-winning stories and novellas, and has written such Classic BattleTech tales as Break-Away and The Gauntlet, Books I and II, as well as the MWDA novels Daughter of the Dragon, Dragon Rising, and Blood Avatar.
Other work has appeared in SCIFICTION, Talebones, Beyond the Last Star, Star Trek: New Frontier: No Limits, and Star Trek: Voyager: Distant Shores, among many others. She has several Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers e-books to her credit, and her next SCE e-book, Ghost, is forthcoming. Her first published novel, Star Trek: The Lost Era: Well of Souls, cracked the 2003 Barnes and Noble Bestseller List.
She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two children, and other assorted vermin.
Randall N. Bills has served as the Classic BattleTech line developer, continuity editor, art director, and a primary author/novelist for almost a decade, where he’s led the publication of over fifty products for that universe.
He also served as the MechWarrior: Dark Age continuity editor, working for WizKids to help in the creation of that original universe—including its thirty full-length novels—and was the driving force behind the coffee-table art/universe book MechWarrior: Technology of Destruction. In addition he’s published fiction and game design in the Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Crimson Skies and Vor: The Maelstrom universes.
As well as publishing eight novels set in the Classic BattleTech/MechWarrior universe, he’s one of the lead writers kicking off the Adventure Boys series of Young Adult fiction as published by the Adventure Boys Company.
Randall lives in the Pacific Northwest with his beautiful wife Tara, and three busy children: Bryn Kevin, Ryana Nikol and Kenyon Aleksandr…oh, and Jak O’ the Shadows, a red-tailed boa.
Loren L. Coleman has been a novelist, game designer, and all-around literary hatchet man for over fourteen years. Regularly published since 1995, his first BattleTech novel, Double-Blind, hit the bookstores in 1997. In the last ten years he’s published over twenty novels, including nine for BattleTech and a trilogy to help re-launch the world of Conan. Counting up all short stories and game-related sourcebooks, he has well over two million words in print—most of them involving a media tie-in project of one type or another. Most recently Loren has edited two DAW anthologies as well as a six-series set of Young Adult works for Adventure Boys, Inc.
When he isn’t writing or launching new ventures, Loren plays Xbox games, collects far too many DVDs, and holds a black belt in traditional Tae Kwon Do. Currently he resides in Washington State with his wife Heather Joy, two sons Talon LaRon and Conner Rhys Monroe, and daughter Alexia Joy.
Jason M. Hardy is a beloved storyteller, international peacemaker, and revered philosopher who always enjoys the opportunity to write his own bio. He is the author of the MechWarrior: Dark Age novels The Scorpion Jar, Principles of Desolation (with Randall N. Bills) and the forthcoming The Last Charge, along with the Shadowrun novel Drops of Corruption. He’s contributed a number of stories to the BattleCorps website and, with the editor’s indulgence, will continue to do so. He lives in Chicago with his wife and son.
Kevin Killiany has been the husband of Valerie for over a quarter of a century and for various shorter periods of time the father of Alethea, Anson, and Daya. Since the late nineteen-sixties, Kevin has been an actor, a drill rig operator, a photographer, a warehouse grunt, a community college instructor, a drywall hanger, a teacher of exceptional children, a community services case manager, a high-risk intervention counselor, and a paper boy. He is currently a writer, with stories published in a variety of universes—including Star Trek, Doctor Who, MechWarrior, and of course Classic BattleTech. He is also an associate pastor of the Soul Saving Station in Wilmington, NC.
After experimenting with numerous occupations, Louisa Swann, a native Californian (ack! She admits it!) settled on writing as her long-term mental aberration. During her excessively loud oral dissertations (proven integral to her writing process as evidenced by numerous short story sales to DAW, Pocketbook, and BattleCorps), husband and son shake their heads and mutter something about “the muse.” In the interests of survival, husband Jim acquired an 80-acre compound complete with coyotes, frogs, and screech owls to serve as nightly backup band for a raving writer’s rants. Interdimensional traveling provides fodder for the muse, allowing Louisa to discover wonderful new places like the Classic BattleTech world and put them on her list of favorite places.
&nb
sp; Steven Mohan, Jr. lives in Pueblo, Colorado with his wife and three children and—shockingly—no cats. When he is not writing he works as a manufacturing engineer.
He has sold more than twenty stories to BattleCorps, including the Jihad serial Isle of the Blessed. He appeared twice in Total Warfare, and has done work for several upcoming Classic BattleTech sourcebooks.
His original fiction has appeared in Interzone, On Spec, Polyphony, Paradox, and several DAW original anthologies, among other places. His stories have won honorable mention in The Year’s Best Science Fiction and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize for his alternate history tale, A Monument More Lasting Than Brass.
Blaine Pardoe is an author of science fiction and military history books. He has written numerous BattleTech/MechWarrior books and books on Count Felix von Luckner (The Cruise of the Sea Eagle) and an upcoming book on Frank Luke Jr.
Michael A. Stackpole is an award-winning author, game designer, computer game designer and podcaster. In 2006 he and Brian Pulido won the Fade-In magazine scriptwriting contest grand prize for the script Gone. At DragonCon, Mike’s writing podcast, “The Secrets”, took the first-ever Parsec award for writing-related podcasts.
When not writing or podcasting, Mike enjoys indoor soccer and salsa dancing. Both are similar—it’s all in the footwork—but for one you get to dress up nicely. His web site is www.stormwolf.com.
Robert Thurston has been writing science fiction and fantasy since the early 1970s, after attending the second and third Clarion SF Writing Workshops. When the first collection of stories from Clarion was published, his story “Wheels” was awarded first prize; the story later became the basis for his novel A Set of Wheels. He has written over a dozen novelizations and original novels, including Alicia II, Q Colony, BattleTech, Robot Jox, and nine Battlestar Galactica books. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, Rosemary.
Phaedra Weldon is the author of several Classic BattleTech stories/novellas, including the continuing Sandoval Saga, En Passant and Epaulet Mate. She has also authored the Isis Marik series, The Art of War, and is currently working on the multi-layered Jihad series/novella, A Distant Thunder.
Her other publications can be found in various DAW anthologies, as well as works in the Star Trek universe for Starfleet Corps of Engineers, and The Next Generation series, Slings and Arrows. She is also the author of the ACE Fantasy series WRAITH, released June 5, 2007, and is currently working on book II, scheduled to be released in 2008.
BATTLETECH ERAS
The BattleTech universe is a living, vibrant entity that grows each year as more sourcebooks and fiction are published. A dynamic universe, its setting and characters evolve over time within a highly detailed continuity framework, bringing everything to life in a way a static game universe cannot match.
To help quickly and easily convey the timeline of the BattleTech universe—and to allow a player to easily “plug in” a given novel or sourcebook—we’ve divided BattleTech into six major eras.
STAR LEAGUE (Present—2780)
Ian Cameron, ruler of the Terran Hegemony, concludes decades of tireless effort with the creation of the Star League, a political and military alliance between all Great Houses and the Hegemony. Star League armed forces immediately launch the Reunification War, forcing the Periphery realms to join. For the next two centuries, humanity experiences a golden age across the thousand light-years of human-occupied space known as the Inner Sphere. It also sees the creation of the most powerful military in human history.
(This era also covers the centuries before the founding of the Star League in 2571, most notably the Age of War.)
SUCCESSION WARS (2781—3049)
Every last member of First Lord Richard Cameron’s family is killed during a coup launched by Stefan Amaris. Following the thirteen-year war to unseat him, the rulers of each of the five Great Houses disband the Star League. General Aleksandr Kerensky departs with eighty percent of the Star League Defense Force beyond known space and the Inner Sphere collapses into centuries of warfare known as the Succession Wars that will eventually result in a massive loss of technology across most worlds.
CLAN INVASION (3050—3061)
A mysterious invading force strikes the coreward region of the Inner Sphere. The invaders, called the Clans, are descendants of Kerensky’s SLDF troops, forged into a society dedicated to becoming the greatest fighting force in history. With vastly superior technology and warriors, the Clans conquer world after world. Eventually this outside threat will forge a new Star League, something hundreds of years of warfare failed to accomplish. In addition, the Clans will act as a catalyst for a technological renaissance.
CIVIL WAR (3062—3067)
The Clan threat is eventually lessened with the complete destruction of a Clan. With that massive external threat apparently neutralized, internal conflicts explode around the Inner Sphere. House Liao conquers its former Commonality, the St. Ives Compact; a rebellion of military units belonging to House Kurita sparks a war with their powerful border enemy, Clan Ghost Bear; the fabulously powerful Federated Commonwealth of House Steiner and House Davion collapses into five long years of bitter civil war.
JIHAD (3067—3080)
Following the Federated Commonwealth Civil War, the leaders of the Great Houses meet and disband the new Star League, declaring it a sham. The pseudo-religious Word of Blake—a splinter group of ComStar, the protectors and controllers of interstellar communication— launch the Jihad: an interstellar war that will ultimately pit every faction against each other and even against themselves, as weapons of mass destruction are used for the first time in centuries while new and frightening technologies are likewise unleashed.
DARK AGE (3081+)
Under the guidance of Devlin Stone, the Republic of the Sphere is born at the heart of the Inner Sphere following the Jihad. One of the more extensive periods of peace begins to break out as the 32nd century dawns. The factions, to one degree or another, embrace disarmament and the massive armies of the Succession Wars begin to fade. However, in 3132 eighty percent of interstellar communications collapses, throwing the universe into chaos. Wars almost immediately erupt and the factions begin rebuilding their armies.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
WARRIORS: A BATTLECORPS COMPILATION VOL. 1
Cover art by Franz Vohwinkel
Interior art by Chris Lewis, Brad McDevitt, Matt Plog, Franz Vohwinkel and Klaus Scherwinski.
©2010 The Topps Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, ’Mech, BattleMech and MechWarrior are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of The Topps Company, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. Catalyst Game Labs and the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions LLC. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Copyright Owner, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.
Published by Catalyst Game Labs,
an imprint of InMediaRes Productions, LLC
PMB 202 • 303 91st Ave NE • G701 • Lake Stevens, WA 98258
ISBN: 978-0-9792047-0-8
First Edition: October 2007
http://www.classicbattletech.com
(official BattleTech web pages)
http://www.battlecorps.com
(Classic BattleTech subscription fiction web pages)
http://www.CatalystGameLabs.com
(Catalyst Game Labs’ web pages)
http://www.battlecorps.com/catalog
(online ordering)
&n
bsp; Did you love BattleTech: The Corps? Then you should read BattleTech: Embers of War by Jason Schmetzer!
BETWEEN HAMMER AND ANVIL...
For Ezra Payne and the Stealthy Tiger mercenaries, professionalism is everything. Hired to assist in the bitter, bloody fighting on the planet Hall, they quickly earn a decisive victory for their employer. They settle afterward in for a needed period of rebuilding, and a few months’ peace before moving on to the next contract.
But their respite does not last. More mercenaries, hired by the Allied Mercenary Command itself, land on Hall. They believe the Tigers’ employer to be league with the Word of Blake, a shadowy interstellar organization that worships technology, and which has been building its own empire among the worlds around Terra.
The Tigers want nothing of this battle, but war rages across the Inner Sphere. The hard-fought cease-fire cannot last, even on Hall, and when every faction is embittered and fueled by fervor, peace has no chance at all.
As a new conflict erupts, will the Stealthy Tigers’ BattleMechs be enough to save them? Or will the looming threat of renewed war engulf them in its fiery embrace?
Also by Loren L. Coleman
BattleCorps Anthology
BattleTech: The Corps
BattleTech: First Strike
BattleTech Legends
BattleTech Legends: Double-Blind
BattleTech Legends: Binding Force
BattleTech Page 33
