Battletech MechWarrior: Scorched Earth Background Material and History Thread

[Big Steve]

Alright, so you've probably noticed I've yet to cross-post some of my more-known works like the TGG stories, "The Power of a Name", or the current "Undiscovered Frontier" series. I'm waiting for the site to go public before I start any such reposting.

I decided to repost some of the 2011 material of MWSE mostly for fun, and because Spartan303 loves the story so much I suppose. Now, you might be wondering just what the big deal is with this "mix BattleTech with near-future Earth" thing. I'm going to give you a quick explanation.

Well, an explanation anyway. 3600 words for this post and the history's not done, so this will be Part 1 of probably 3, maybe 2.

Anyway, let's get started.

This begins back in the early days of SB.com. Late 1999, to be exact, when Johan was still making Spacebattles movies, we had the greats like IceFire and Miles Obrien doing videos too, and posters who have long since gone beyond the Rim such as Mayhem, Boothby, Obi-Jok Kenobi, and Cyclops. In these halcyon days when dialup was still common, broadband only starting to become widely available outside of college student dorms, and Napster was still an issue, there was nothing like Discord or similar chat programs around. You had messenger services like AIM and ICQ, but nothing like we have today. Audio chat was just starting to become a thing.

But on SB, a small client called IPARTY became known, and some of our broadband-using posters would host sessions with this audio and text chat program. You held down a button on the window to talk or play audio - no PTT functionality back then! - or you typed in the chat box - no logging either! - and that was that. Then you watched a bar fill up with the back-log of audio and waited for your dial-up, if you were still on one, to catch up to a conversation that was ten minutes ahead in some cases.

But I'm not complaining! IPARTY chats were part of a charmed time for Spacebattles, and I miss the participants that no longer post quite dearly. Our Music Wars were matters of great pride and joy, and if anyone got unruly, there was always my collection of "Thermonuclear retaliatory mp3s" such as the Pokemon theme.

The relevance? This was when MechWarrior 3 had also come out, and some of us played it. Around February 2000, shortly after Spacebattles opened the Non-Sci-Fi Discussion forum (perhaps not the wisest idea, in retrospect), a somewhat demented poster called VALYNN posted a screed about the UN conquering the world, black helicopters, etc. This came up in our chat for a laugh as we were talking about competing in MW3 multiplayer stuff. And from that combination came inspiration.

Specifically, Anakha - another Old One who's passed beyond the Rim - and the rest of us started joking about how our MechWarrior unit would be the Spacebattles First Freeman's Militia, fighting the evil UN and their allies Clan Pikachu (since this was before B5: Into the Fire was canceled, and we loved to mock a group planning to play the game as the "Pokemon Mercenary Squadron", later changed to "Fleet" when it was happily pointed out they acronymed as "PMS". Thus Pokemon insults were a thing).

Now this joke might have just remained another silly little thing to inevitably fade, but that March, I had a little plot bunny pop into my head, so I wrote out an "intro" for something I called "MechWarrior: Scorched Earth". (A reminder, I was 17 at this time)

MechWarrior: Scorched Earth​

In the year 2010, fanatical madman Armand Guiseppe was elevated to the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations following a war between the US and China over Taiwan. The fears of American right wing conspiracy theorists were realized when Guiseppe used his political influence to convince Europe and Japan to vote on making the UN the authoritive government over Earth. The US, China, and Russia fought back, and the Third World War began. By 2015, Russia had fallen to the forces of Guiseppe, who now controlled virtually the entire Eastern Hemisphere. Only Australia, New Zealand, parts of China, and the Western Hemisphere remained out of Guiseppe's control. On March 3rd, 2015, Guiseppe's forces landed in New England, intending to drive to Ottawa and Washington and force the surrenders of the US and Canada. As a show of force, three tactical nuclear weapons are fired into New York City, killing and irradiating millions of New Yorkers. NYC surrenders to the onrushing force the next day. President Colin Powell escapes as UN forces occupy Washington, and solidify their hold on the Eastern Coast. Only the arrival of Mexican, Brazilian, and Cuban troops stops the UN advance into Florida. The Pan-American Confederation begins sending troops into the Midwestern area of the US and Canada, determined to defeat Guiseppe's forces. The UN continues advancing, and by late 2015, it is becoming obvious that the PAC cannot hold out for long.


On December 3rd, First Contact came. A spacecraft lands in Kansas, near a battle line between the PAC and UN. Out come a force of BattleMechs under the command of Star Colonel Elias Kerensky of Clan Wolf. They have journeyed through a stable wormhole in the Warden Wolf capital system of Ark Royal to this place, and soon realized they were seeing an alternate Earth a thousand years in the past. Rushing to the battle, Star Colonel Kerensky patches in to the PAC's radio network and is moved by the determination and ferocity of their futile stand. His Star of heavy Mechs enter the fray, and within hours Star Colonel Kerensky has asked Khan Phelan Kell for reinforcements. Kell responds by sending the newly re-formed Tau Galaxy. The PAC and Clan Wolf, with Star League backing, form an alliance.


Guiseppe is outraged, and begins a massive construction of anti-starship nuclear missile batteries to stop the intervention of Clan Wolf. A second rift is discovered, but this one leads to Huntress, the Clan Smoke Jaguar homeworld. Guiseppe and Jaguar Galaxy Commander Brendan Corbett sign an alliance, and Smoke Jaguar MechWarriors begin to arrive at the flanks of Guiseppe's armies. As both sides continue to build and send more Mechs, and as PAC and UN forces begin training in advanced Clan and Star League technology, the lines have been drawn for one final confrontation that will not only decide the fate of one Earth, but of an entire galaxy.


Welcome to Scorched Earth, MechWarrior!

Suffice to say I got some supportive reactions from Anakha and the others. Given this was formed from the stillborn plans for a MW3 unit, we turned it into an semi-SI thing, with lead characters named and based after us. I had a character, Anakha did, Grumble, HBMC, and on. Early on we were going with three groups: Anakha's lance in the upper midwest fighting in the Dakotas with IceFire, ProvostQ, and Grumble as his lancemates (three of them at least), my lance holding the line in isolated Florida with myself and Divide_Overflow (A RL friend of mine who introduced me to the MechWarrior games, he stopped posting many years ago), and HBMC's lance in the Top End of Australia (consisting of himself, a couple of RL friends of his who also posted on SB at the time, and another Aussie poster - animator/writer Entilzha, IIRC). We filled out the positions with original (mostly female) characters (not a lot of girls back then), and I regret to say that thanks to teenage hormones, their primary role was to be love interests/sex partners.

And yeah, I went a bit overboard on the coupling. Like I said, I was 17, and I'd just read Tom Clancy's Netforce and was wowed to think about stories involving male characters touching boobs and stuff. Also, the bad guys practiced torture and made people nekkid during it like a bad SM Stirling book. Because bad guys gonna torture y'know. (I thought I was being mature. *sigh*)

Anyway, the stories began with Episode 1 "Standoff". In the next episode, "A Moment to Breathe" (winner of "Weakest title ever), I added a fourth group based on the popular reaction by introducing the British MechWarriors of His Majesty's Royal Resistance Force, the main lance being led by an insert of Reaperman and including SB animator/creator Drakh and hardcore B5 fan Dark Lord, who were based out of an underwater facility under Loch Ness in a long-term effort to drive the Giuseppian forces from Britain. In that episode and later ones I threw in the lancemates from MechWarrior 3 (the Eridani Light Horse ones), sending Epona to the Brits, Alan Matilla to the Aussies, and Dominic Paine joining the Florida team. The next episode, "Blood Trial", saw the introduction of the Eeeeeevil UN torturers with the capture of characters from both the Florida and Midwest fronts, as well as SB poster Deathbringer's character, the first non-MechWarrior one, super-assassin-spy Agent 13 aka "He Who Has No Name" (because he always killed his targets and nobody on the villain side knew any designation for him). It also brings in Samuel Drummond, a Clan Nova Cat MechWarrior who goes over to the good guys because visions lead him to believe it's the only way to save his Clan.

if this isn't impressing you, that's fine. I look back at this 19 years later, almost 20 now, and I cringe. (At both the writing and the fact that I'm over twice the age I was then, ugh). But keep in mind that this was when Story Debates were only just becoming popular and hadn't left the "Wanky art exchange" phase, hell, they were still in the Vs. Forum at the time. And we didn't have a fanfic forum, nor much of a community in terms fo fanfic writers. But MWSE, by naming characters for posters, had an RPG flavor to it that helped make a lot of people love it, warts and all (or so it seems now). They felt like "us", basically.

Anyway, with the popularity high I kept writing. I ended up with a "trilogy" format, with every three episodes having something of an arc. This only really kicked in with Episode 4, as that's when I started taking MWSE seriously. I ended up merging the two North American teams together into a unit called the 8th Striker Battalion while the Aussies continued to fight off an overwhelming invasion of Australia by the Star Adders, Fire Mandrills, and Ice Hellions. The Brits had their own thing and I even introduced the royals (the actual Prince William in fact, although later editions re-named him to the fictional James).

Over the course of that spring and early summer I wrote my way through to Episode 9, "The Hammer Falls", by which time the bad guys were expelled completely from Australia, Britain, and North America. I introduced the royal twins, Henry and Edward. Edward was destined to become the Kai Allard-Liao of Scorched Earth while Henry became something of a cross of Kali Liao and Katherine Steiner-Davion (that is, a murdering nut with a capital "MY HORSE SHALL MAKE A FINE SENATOR!" obsessed with taking the throne and making one of the British femme OCs his girl), as well as Edward's future girl Tatya aka Tatyana Ivanova, younger sister of a Susan Ivanova expy named Kristina Ivanova (another main SF expy was MechTech Shaun O'Brien, you can guess who he was modeled for). I also had the characters go out on a mission with some of the big BTech named characters (this was after I'd started reading Btech novels), with Victor, Kai, Kai's sister Cassandra, Phelan, and Kali all showing up, and He Who Has No Name even attempting to assassinate one of them due to faked orders from internal enemies working with Katherine (convoluted). The Aussiesed join up with the Sunhawks as a third company for the unit for the final episode, causing my character and HBMC's to meet, even as HBMC himself started doing fics about his unit, while one of the Aussies ended up being adopted into the Wolves in Exile in a really messed up set-up that put him on a (forced) path of following Phelan's initial arc in fast forward. And the Brits had Reaperman's character and his love interest, a Scotswoman named Tessa Shallinaugh (young Steve can do not Gaelic names!) go off to find out if his wife was alive, just to be captured by the bad guys, subjected to - you guessed it - more horrible torture, and then ultimately rescued by Tiamat (the Smoke Jaguar elemental who canonically became Victor's bodyguard) and a surprise character, a bondswoman of the local Jade Falcons who is initially introduced as "Tasha" and is revealed to be, yes, the Goddamned Black Widow herself, Natasha Kerensky, as I had never read the book where she died, didn't know the specific details of that defeat, and honestly couldn't care less about Thurston's work with the Falcons (although I hear it's quite good).

At that time I took a break, worked on the old Undiscovered Frontier some, while HBMC continued with his stuff (He was covering a planned Siberian campaign for the characters, while I ended up glossing over the Sunhawks' operations in Siberia). Toward September of 2000 I got rolling again with Episode 10, Applications of Force, which saw all of the protaganists gathering in England for the cross-channel invasion of Europe. I added a Chinese unit, with a brilliant Chinese MechWarrior/commander, and gradually introduced a unit of Israelis and Arabs from the "Middle East Alliance" (Giuseppe managed the impossible of getting the Israelis and Arabs to work together, namely by nuking Jerusalem and then Mecca and Medina when this prompted an anti-UN Muslim rising). By this time new SB posters were interested or accepted invitations for characters. Laird, Dingo, Sakura Azhreia, Fenris Ulfric, Slacker, Russ, Shadow_43, DJ, Tron (by proxy of a "daughter" character), and LTR all received inserts as new recruits to the Sunhawks (IIRC one of our purported female posters, by the SN "Susan Ivanova",inspired another).

Ep 10 hit 65,000 words. The follow-up, Pain and Triumph, was another torture-fest with Prince Edward as the primary victim, captured during Ep 10's climax, and here I tell you a fun little story about inspiration from the strangest of places. You see, I had planned to kill Edward off. The good guys would fail to rescue him in time and the Giuseppians, with their card-carrying Sadistic Asshole ways, would literally eviscerate him, as Giuseppe demanded the worst deaths for those who defied him. It was going to be an infuriating, horrifying thing...

...and I couldn't do it. Why?

Because I watched Titan A.E.

Yeah, the character's life was saved because of the movie that killed Fox's animation studio (and arguably Don Bluth's career). But it was an optimistic movie that appealed to me, and I found I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill Edward and put the characters connected to him through that. So I wrote the episode to have him rescued. And I used the episode to make a big new twist: Giuseppe was not the real villain. He was the pawn of the leader of the UN's secret police, the Verteidiger der Ordnung, a man called Reinhelt von Krager (Steve can do not German names!). Von Krager is the evil genius behind the war, behind the torture and the experimentation and the horrid "Human Behavioral Research Centers" that they were centered in, using what was sold to Giuseppe as a way to turn dissenters and enemies into loyal followers to instead follow his own twisted vision of Human evolution by separating the weak (those who die from the ordeal) from the strong (those who survive physically). Sakura's character was given major prominence by having a past connection to him and to "He Who Has No Name".

This led to the big goddamned finale, "Crimson Twilight", which broke my record at 119,314 words and set it until 2005 when TGG's "Anatomy of a War" nearly doubled that count on completion. Despite the term "episode" it really was a novel. In it our heroes join Victor's forces in going to Strana Mechty for the Great Refusal. There they issue their own challenge, declaring a Trial of Refusal over Giuseppe's proclaimed right to rule the planet. The good guys decide to troll Giuseppe by painting their 'Mechs in the UN colors of light blue and white with the original, non-militarized UN insignia on their machines, Prince William/James declaring his side the "real" United Nations. The result is a massive, novel-sized BattleMech battle (I think it was like half the book) where a bunch of characters die, shit happens, and ultimately, Giuseppe is defeated and captured by Edward after losing a 'Mech duel to him while my insert kills von Krager in a sword fight (don't ask). My insert also kills Asa Taney of the Ice Hellions in a Circle of Equals after he, and Vlad, goad the weasel into it for helping Giuseppe cheat by giving him extra 'Mechs for his fight. There are partings of characters with Sam Drummond returning to the Nova Cats to help lead them to the Inner Sphere (canonical things happened for them) as their new Khan, and ultimately the characters return to Geneva on Earth for a victory parade and the ritual blowing up of the bad guy's super-sized logo a la the Soviets dynamiting the swastika on the Reichstag. Oh, and my character calls in a favor that the Combine owes him by having Theodore agree to let Omi marry Victor without a dowry, because what makes a BTech-related character a Marty Stu more than being a Vic-bro, eh?

Then... through the first quarter of 2001, I did episode 13, in which I pulled a rogue neutron star out of my ass, put it on a course to irradiate Earth, and kicked off the setup for the next arc by forcing the Scorched Earthers to leave their homeworld and move to the Inner Sphere. Contrived, forced things happen and they basically get to take over parts of the old Terran Hegemony, with Dieron as their capital and the plan being to make the Chaos March part of their new Terran Alliance. I spent 106,700 words doing this, being silly, setting up other plot bits (including LTR's character turning coat to work for Katherine with her new prosthetic arm with a built-in laser *hint hint for BTech lore aficionados), having my character marry the woman he'd been screwing throughout the series during a stopover on Arc-Royal, and even doing Victor's wedding to Omi near the end. It was very much a grabbag of scenes solely meant to set up the growing idea I had for the sequel, MechWarrior: Armageddon, which would have all sorts of BTech shenanigans, including basically the Blakist Jihad and a general 5th Succession War, set off by the untimely killing of Katherine Steiner-Davion by a Scorched Earther mercenary (not my character either, surprisingly).

But while I was working on the fluff for the spinoff and ultimately doing silly things - like a vs. forum thread pitting the TAAF as it would be five years later versus the Lyran Alliance, done as humor inspired by Slacker and Chris O'Farrell to tease a known Lyran (but pro-Victor) Lyran partisan known as Cronos - that I ended up writing Episode 0 "Tides of Fire", which I would never complete. As the name implies, it was a prequel. The first section was about von Krager's origins and that of his evolution-obsessed secret society, Das Mittel der Entwicklung, from the ashes of the Second World War. When his father mourned the end of the Cold War, believing the conflict spurred human evolution and development, von Krager ultimately decided to start a new conflict, a bigger one, to clean out the detritus and make a stronger Humanity. Following sections follow the early years of the war with various characters (like Reaperman and Dark Lords' characters as RAF pilots in the pre-Mech days) and the career of Sakura as a CIA operative working in Japan with a prominent (yakuza IIRC) family, where she falls in love with the family heir, ultimately setting up the situation where she wants revenge on von Krager. We see the fate of Giuseppe's kind and compassionate daughter Antonia, namely, von Krager further provokes Giuseppe's madness by faking her death at the hands of "nationalist rebels" while, in actuality, he spends his time torturing her to death (because he's a BAD GUY y'know).

The Btechverse's entry is eventually covered with the training camp for a number of the characters seen in the story as well as those I was covering in the fluff for the sequel, including inserts for LordChaos, RocketGirl, and Bryan (as I recall, there may have been more).

At the same time I was writing this, the silly thread I mentioned and other thoughts led to me attempting a Story Debate, to be set after Episode 13 and provide lead-up to the timeframe of Armageddon. A number of fans and others joined up at least briefly. This is when Eagle One was becoming a fan of the setting and he joined up with a... unique character idea in the vein of HWHNN, Cavalier also signed up, and Slacker decided to make a new character to command one of the Clan WarShips given to the new Terran Alliance since his insert was a MechWarrior lieutenant. Fenris decided to follow his character since at the end of MWSE he was kinda messed up from grief.

A few other known names of the time like Revenant (the "Crazy Cappie"), Oshay, his brother Kirby, Cronos, and a certain Commander Razor all signed on as well (and so did Ghost Bear wanker Clanner, *sigh*). If anything, I'd recommend Revenant's posts, Zhou Bae-Hui was a particularly interesting character as a St. ives military officer).

And then... it all ended. August 2001 rolled around, FASA was dying, and BattleTech co-creator Jordan Weisman's company WhizKids bought the BattleTech property. The opening promotional material did not inspire much confidence, since it involved an AgriMech (or was it industrial Mech?) and a scene implying that most BattleMechs were gone from the setting, and with my momentum on everything else failing (and the whole thing of, y'know, my mom dying), I came to a decision.

I was going to reboot the whole damn thing.

(To be continued... maybe)

 

[Big Steve]

Now, if you're wondering what the above has to do with "A Short Engagement" and "Small Victories", I'm going to spare you the need to wait for me to write out what I recall of the rest of the history and post the "lazy ass" timeline for the 2011 reboot that those two short stories are a part of, plus the more detailed timeline for the actual post-First contact world.

You can decide for yourselves how much of a prophet I was in terms of political developments. (It's bad enough that in the first version from 2000-2001 I had the KKK as having made a resurgence and playing the role of internal annoyance to the heroes).


Everything goes to hell in 2012-2014, causing a Second Great Depression to strike the world. The EU implodes economically and anti-democratic ideologies begin to creep back in. The EU crash, the debt problems, and Chinese return of US treasuries cause a Wall Street crash that formally begins the Depression in the US, while China suffers Maoist revolt that gets put down by the military and technocrats in the bureaucracy. The US, beset by political turmoil, elects a Republican government in which a populist, anti-corporate wing to the disparate "Tea Party" dominates; they begin spending cuts across the board and focus economic policies on supporting a "re-industrialization" of America.

The world economic crash and the official discovery of a process for making cheap cellulose-based ethanol fuels also cause a reduction in world oil prices, furthering the crash as the OPEC nations suffer from a sharp drop in exports, instigating the fall of the Chavez government in Venezuela and the eventual collapse of Chavez's "Bolivarian" movement in Latin America, as well as political instability in Russia.

In the 2020s, the inability of the world economy to recovers continues fostering instability. China, though still officially the People's Republic, is now a military-technocratic state which invades North Korea and pressures the South into a reunification on Chinese terms. Japan's democracy also falters in the face of severe economic crisis and Chinese power, leading to authoritarianism to reassert itself; likewise Russia has seen Putin and his successors complete the transition of Russia into an autocratic Republic with nationalist goals, including recidivism aimed at Russian-populated regions of neighboring states. In 2025 the Russian government exploits a small border crisis with the Ukraine to launch a full invasion of the former Soviet republic, which sees the Crimea, Donbas, and eastern portions of the Ukraine detached forcefully and returned to Russia, leaving a rump state centered around Kiev and solid Ukrainian majority areas.

The failure of the UN to effectively deter these twin acts of aggression, or to effectively censure Western nations for economic policies hated by the rest of the world, destroys the credibility of the organization. A movement to reform the UN to remove the permanent UN Security Council seats for the US, China, Britain, France, and Russia is stymied by same Council's refusal to accept a clear UN General Assembly vote, despite the surprise defection of France to the pro-reform side. The General Assembly votes to dissolve the organization after a fiery speech from Italian politician and delegate Armand Giuseppe, who calls for those nations 'interested in a true United Nations' to reform the organization themselves to remove the "odious remnants of Great Power politics". The "Rump UN", formed of the UN Security Council permanent members and a handful of close friends, is challenged by the "New UN", which forms a more federalized charter with Giuseppe as its founder. Though initially thought of as merely a movement of non-Western nations, the Giuseppian UN reforms prove popular in Europe, where EU centralization is also favored to tackle the lingering Second Depression and to enable rearmament to face the aggressive Russians. France withdraws from the rump UN in light of these pressures, with the new UN being inaugurated in new Headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland in 2026 with a federalized charter. The power of the new organization soon comes from the "Euro-Indian" axis, centered around the European Union and the Republic of India.

The US meanwhile sees another political shift. Though the reindustrialization is generally successful, it doesn't lead to the job creation that would offset the withering cuts to social service spending, and the result is an entire underclass of American poor who can barely sustain themselves on meager aid and who demand change. The Democratic Party resurges in the 2022, 2024, and 2026 elections, ultimately resulting in the election of Denise Saunders in 2028 with a supermajority devoted to another "New Deal" that, more than any prior President, socializes the US economy to help the jobless and to spur job creation further. The US has recovered enough to barely afford this, but it eats away any reserve that would permit rearmament on the scale that Europe, India, China, and Russia are pursuing. Russia and China together are powerful enough to counter the Euro-Indian-dominated UN, but the two powers are opposed to each other in Central Asia and with China reasserting her old claims to the territories lost in the Nerchinsk Treaty of the 19th Century.

With nuclear arsenals now mostly trunucated by spending cuts and rendered mostly useless by widespread integrated national ABM defenses, the century-long barrier to great power war is gone, and a Sino-Russian War breaks out over the Far East. Early Chinese gains are prevented by a heroic defense of Khabarovsk by Russian troops aided by Japanese air strikes, with Russia rushing forces east to contain and defeat the Chinese. Though they manage to save Khabarovsk, Vladivostok is reduced in savage fighting and China's offensive out of Xinjiang further embarrasses the nationalist government. (2019 - Nukes are exchanged at some point, but I'd forgotten to mention that).

As the Sino-Russian War settles into stalemate - Korea used to counter-balance Japan, and Vietnam remaining neutral due to rebellion and dissension - the UN calls for peace. When rebuffed, Giuseppe decides to flex his newfound military power, calling for the "liberation" of the Ukraine's lost territories and for the Baltic states, which have been forced to accept Russian garrisons. He is aided by anti-government forces in Russia who, in provoking national strikes to protest new war rationing, provide Giuseppe a humanitarian excuse to invade, which he eventually does.

In the US, Denise Saunders is forced in her final two years by a Republican-majority Congress to enact rearmament, which is sluggish due to the US again moving toward excessive debt spending (now controlled by Constitutional amendment following the disaster of the 2010s). The US remains passively neutral; Russia is obliquely the attacked nation, but there is more sympathy for the Europeans against the aggressive Russians, despite many warnings that Geneva, not Moscow, is the greater threat to America. Saunders' attempt to alter the Constitution to permit further terms fails and she is barred from running again, permitting Jason Andrews to win the Presidency as a moderate Republican. Andrews begins negotiations with Giuseppe and with Russia while America continues to slowly re-arm to defend itself.

(2019 - At some point near the end here, the UK is forced to submit to a Giuseppian takeover, and the Giuseppian UN becomes the Earth National Union, with an official ideology of Pan-Human nationalism and dismissal of traditional nationalism as backwards and hostile. The Prince of Wales, his younger sister Margaret, and his twin sons are among those who flee to North America, where HMG-in-Exile is established along with an exile army.)

It is this world that Clan Smoke Jaguar will discover by accident in 3058/2038...



19 May 2038/19 June 3058: Investigating a suspicious radiation reading above the ecliptic plane of Huntress, Star Colonel Benjamim Stiles led the DropShip Blood Fury into a "wormhole" of sorts, a break in the fabric of space-time that led them to a point above the ecliptic plane of another solar system far from Clan space. Identifying swiftly the system as that of Terra, Stiles' sensors confirmed that it could not possibly be the Terra of legend. Realizing what he'd found regardless, Stiles returned to Huntress and won permission from his commander, Galaxy Commander Russou Howell, to bring a Trinary and Supernova to take an enclave on the world. The island of Bermuda was selected for the attack, taken swiftly, and seized. Attempted counter-attacks by the United States Air Force and RAF fail and are eradicated by the Jaguar fighters and DropShip.

2 June 2038/3 July 3058: At a high level meeting in Geneva, the capital of the United Earth Nation, Union Security Committee Chairman Armand Giuseppe and Union Commission President Janava Tyagri co-chair a meeting of the Union's highest military and political officials. Giuseppe, the true leader of the Union due to his control of the military forces and the special police used in Earth Union nations considered in danger of "Nationalist revolt", sees the Clans as an opportunity to bring the United States and Russia into the Union formally by playing up the Union as a logical center of resistance to the Invaders. President Tyagri agrees, but Reinhardt von Krager, head of the special police - the Verteidiger der Ordnung - expresses a different viewpoint. He believes the Earth Union better served by opening talks with the Clans, arguing successfully that the Clans' military technology might make even a unified planetary resistance useless, but that as allies, even subordinate ones, the Earth Union might use Clan forces and equipment to take over the nations that had refused to join the Union. As a result of this argument, Giuseppe recommends, and Tyagri agrees, that talks be opened with the Clan commander on Bermuda to learn about Clan intentions, and decide from that whether the Union sould serve as the center of resistance against the Clans or as their allies.

24 June 2038/25 July 3058: A Wolf Dragoon DropShip investigates a radiation reading above the ecliptic plane of Outreach. It leads them to the alternate Earth, below the ecliptic plane. They detect a Clan Diamond Shark DropShip above the ecliptic. The Shark DropShip likewise detects them.

Said Diamond Shark merchant ship had also detected the rift's thermal signature and investigated, discovering both the alternate Earth and the Wolf Dragoon ship, clearly identifiable as Inner Sphere. An attempt by a Star of Jaguar Aerospace Fighters to seize the merchant ship fails due to the merchant's own escorts, who drive off the Jaguar attackers and enable the Shark vessel to return to its JumpShip. Ian Hawker sends a message to the other Khans revealing the discovery of the Jaguars. The discovery invigorates the Home Clans yearning for a spot in the Crusade.

2 July 2038/2 August 3058: The Wolf Dragoons leave Coventry to return to Outreach and shore up its defenses. As the revelation of the rifts expands, the Successor States begin reacting by shifting troops toward Outreach should a Clan invasion force come through. Colonel Jaime Wolf, acting under support from both Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao and First Prince Victor Steiner-Davion, attempts to open talks with the governments of Earth, but is ignored by the Union - which wishes to avoid angering the Clans with negotiations ongoing - and most of the blocs; only the United States and the British Commonwealth agree to meet.

4 July 2038/4 August 3058: Galaxy Commander Russou Howell meets Chairman Giuseppe, Director von Krager, and President Tyagri. Though he cannot speak for his Clan's leadership, still inbound from the Inner Sphere, Howell confirms that the Smoke Jaguars would be willing to align with their government, and to press for such alliance in the Grand Council, if Giuseppe's forces help them secure the rest of the planet and provide further assistance to power their invasion of the Inner Sphere.

Without consulting Tyagri, Giuseppe hastens preparations for a secret operation he and von Krager had begun preparing, to turn their defensive forces in Mexico - having aligned with the Union - into an offensive force to attack the United States before its rearmament programs could be completed (and in support, it is believed, of a substantial 5th Column of Giuseppians).

1 August 2038/2 September 3058: Although the Grand Council has not met, the Smoke Jaguar Council gives a preliminary approval of supporting Giuseppe by a narrow vote. Opponents consider calling a Trial of Refusal, but Khan Lincoln Osis persuades them not to divide the Clan with the upcoming Grand Council meeting likely to result in an Absorption of a Clan (either the Wolves or Falcons) and/or a general resumption of the Crusade. The Smoke Jaguars shift extra Provisional Garrison Clusters to Mexico at von Krager's request.

12 August 2038/13 September 3058: With Clan reinforcements detected landing in Mexico, the United States issues a protest to the Mexican Government and to Geneva. President Andrews uses the issue to convince Congress to enact emergency spending to set up 'Mech training facilities with the aid of Wolf Dragoons and Federated Suns officers. The Davion Training Battalion System is chosen as a template for the creation of new US Army 'Mech units, with nation-wide testing begun to find suitable candidates.

September 2038/October 3058: Political developments begin to heighten in the Clans and Inner Sphere. The Whitting Conference on Tharkad is begun, seeking to restore the Star League and pursue a counter-attack on the Clans, while on Strana Mechty the Home Crusaders begin their own push for a renewed invasion with their Clans' participation. Though attempts by Ian Hawker of the Sharks and Asa Taney of the Ice Hellions to cause an Absorption of either the Falcons or the Wolves fails, the Home Clans are both excited and perturbed by the existence of the rifts. A Grand Council vote is held in which a majority of Clans, even including nominally Warden ones, agree to send forces to "New Terra", with Vlad Ward and Bjorn Jorggenson amongst the dissenters. An official alliance with the United Earth Nation of Giuseppe is postponed until an ilKhan can be elected, during which time the Jaguars send for Reinhardt von Krager, deemed the most warrior-like of the Nation's leaders, to be brought to negotiate it.

Australia, New Zealand, and Canada set up their own 'Mech training programs similar to that being employed by the Americans. The Wolf Dragoons provide the necessary simulators and help construct machinery toolings, bankrolled by the Federated Suns and Free Worlds League, to begin low-scale 'Mech production using US, Australian, and Canadian military industries.

In response to this, the Jaguars agree to send surplus elder MechWarriors to run training programs for Earth Army forces, though the Clan Council stops short of agreeing to build 'Mech factories on Earth.

October 2038/November 3058: After being elected ilKhan of the Clans, Lincoln Osis invites Reinhardt von Krager to negotiate an official alliance between the Earth Nation and the Clans. Von Krager proves a capable diplomat amongst the Clans, defending himself victoriously in fencing duels on occasion and confirming himself sufficiently warrior-like to be bargained with, and the proposed alliance passes a Grand Council vote on the strength of von Krager's arguments for the usefulness of the Earth Nation and on the Home Crusaders' eagerness to fight a renewed invasion. Again Vlad Ward and the Ghost Bears are the principle opponents of the alliance, although Marthe Pryde changes her vote to support it.

Von Krager reveals to the allied Clans that the Earth Nation is preparing an invasion of the United States. As the allies of the deposed British government-in-exile and supporters of the Commonwealth, as well as their strengthening linkage with the Chinese, he argues that the occupation of America's main population and industrial centers would give the Clans an expanded industrial base from which to power their invasion of the Inner Sphere, and agrees that in exchange for official political control going to the Earth Nation along with garrison duties, the Clans will be given first pick of all resources, manpower, and use of industrial base. The Earth Nation would also aid Clan forces in occupation duties in the Inner Sphere, if needed, and provide advice and support in dealing with defiant populations (like those bedeviling the Falcons in their occupation zone). Additionally, the Grand Council approves setting up Clantech military factories in Europe and India, to use Earth Nation workforces overseen by Clan technician and merchant caste supervisors and administrators.

On Tharkad, the month is used up in the debates, discussions, and planning sessions that give birth to a political and military offensive against the Clans. The Star League is reborn, with Capellan Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao elected First Lord for a 3058-3061 term, and Operation: Bulldog is approved and set into motion, with forces from all the Successor States shifting to the Draconis Combine to attack Clan Smoke Jaguar.

Simultaneously, AFFC Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion is given command of Task Force Serpent, the second half of the war to destroy Clan Smoke Jaguar; an attack on Huntress itself. ComStar has independently gained data on the Exodus Road, to lead them straight to the Jaguar capital, but the presence of the rifts cause reconsideration. While the Exodus Road permits a true sneak attack, the inability to send communications through the rifts permits their use, if done carefully, to allow a similar sneak attack, without requiring the troops to spend over half a year moving through space. Anastasius Focht, ComStar Precentor-Martial and the man invested as Commanding General of the new Star League Defense Force, opts toward the more cautious, flexible plan to use the rifts. Morgan Hasek-Davion's forces are sent to Dieron to train with each other in preparation for the attack and to be used as an emergency reserve against either the Jaguar OZ or against Clan attacks through the rifts.

With both of these strategies in place, the Star League Council opts to formally assume control of Jaime Wolf's programs to prepare the nations of Earth to fight the Clans. Capellan, League, and FedSuns forces will form the backbone of aid given, though advisors from all League nations and ComStar are sent to maintain the visage of a united front. However, due to need for troops elsewhere, and to avoid these units getting torn up, the League decides to keep its commitments more toward advisors and material than combat troops, and to place the onus of defense on the Earthers themselves (though the total fall of Earth is something they will send troops to try and prevent). There is a national element to the aid sent; Combine advisors in general aid Japan while those from the Azami of the Arkab Legions go to the Arabian nations still resisting Giuseppian control, FedSun advisors aid the Commonwealth, Israel, and America, and the Capellans open talks with the technocrat-military regime in charge of the People's Republic of China to help them build their own forces.

November 2038/December 3058: With EN intelligence sources confirming the Star League aid being brought in, Giuseppe asks the Clans to move up the timetable to bring in troops.

Despite his request, the Clans insist on the bidding trials being held. The Smoke Jaguars, Jade Falcons, and Hell's Horses win the right of first assault on North America, with the Nova Cats and Coyotes as their backup Clans. The Falcons also bid for and win secondary rights in the East Asian Theater, with the Burrock and Diamond Shark Clans triumphing and the Blood Spirits being picked as reserve (they only bid on the Asia theater, it is believed, due to their long-standing hatred of the Burrocks). Clans Star Adder, Fire Mandrill, and Ice Hellion win the right to first pick of further operations after the resolution of the initial attack into the United States. The Wolves do not bid, but Vlad Ward offers to deploy two Clusters as an emergency reserve against an Inner Sphere invasion.

Although some of the Clans - the Wolves and Ghost Bears most prominently - do not bid into the first wave, all the Clans are required by the Grand Council's alliance terms to send material, trainers, and technicians to aid the Earth Nation in establishing OmniMech factories in Europe and India and to raise their own core of MechWarriors, intended to be garrison troops to free up Clan PGCs and Second line troops for frontline battle.

Meanwhile, as US intelligence sources confirm the Giuseppian alliance with the invaders, the United States and Canadian armies integrate their command structures and establish full liaisons with Australia, New Zealand, and other nations allowing such to prepare for an invasion to be backed by Earth Nation troops. Jaime Wolf - meeting with President Andrews and the Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth - pledges the Dragoons to fighting any Clan attack into North America, and forward positions Beta Regiment at Fort Hood in Texas and Gamma Regiment to Australia and New Zealand as part of this commitment. He also proposes, and the Allies accept, taking the most promising of the MechWarrior candidates of their nations to Outreach and giving them full Dragoon-level training, preventing their MechWarrior cadres from being devastated by any sudden Clan attack.

December 2038/January 3059: The United States puts into service its first BattleMech Training Battalion, at the standard size of 36 BattleMechs, using MechWarriors trained by Dragoon and FedSun advisors on simulators while awaiting delivery of BattleMechs. It uses a triangular formation like standard Inner Sphere units, though four 'Mechs are considered a 'Mech platoon and not a lance. The unit begins training at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Both sides continue slow buildups due to logistics limitatons.

January 2039/February 3059: The Star Adders drop a bombshell in the Clan Grand Council, revealing the Burrocks have been aiding the "Bandit Caste" for decades. The Council permits the Adders to begin a Trial of Absorption against the Burrocks, against Blood Spirit protest. Spirit intervention in the Trial results in a brutal internecine Clan War that leaves the Spirits badly damaged and the Adders damaged but able to make good on their losses by the widescale transfer of willing Burrock troops to Adder command. Angered by being denied revenge for centuries of Burrock depradations, the Spirits transfer that vendetta to the Star Adders, and in response to the "betrayal" of the Grand Council in awarding Absorption to the Adders, the Spirits withdraw from their holdings on the Pentagon world of Arcadia and consolidate their capital of York, maintaining only their ties to the Snow Ravens and Fire Mandrills, as well as trade ties to the Diamond Sharks. They also withdraw the handful of Techs they had sent to aid in Earth Nation training programs.

The Adders take over Burrock obligations, including their bid for operations in the Far East. However, due to their losses and need to maintain their defense agreement with the Cloud Cobras, the Star Adder Clan voluntarily relinquishes their leading place in the East Asia theater, permitting the Jade Falcons to operate there as well in exchange for granting the Adders a planetary base. Khan Cassius N'Buta decides to focus efforts on a future invasion and intends to open bidding later in the year, after the Clan had time to recover, to attack Australia.

There is tumult in the Hell's Horses Clan as Star Colonel James Cobb refuses to launch any combat operations against the American 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, which is considered an ancestor unit of his own 11th Mechanized Cavalry Cluster (both units being known as the Black Horses and sharing the same insignia).

Another contingent of MechWarriors departs North America and Australia for Outreach and Dragoon training. This time the contingent includes two newly-tested and high-scoring figures: Prince James Windsor of Britain, Regent of HM Government-in-Exile and Regent-President of the British Commonwealth, and his two twin sons, Princes Edward and Henry. James' sister Margaret fails testing but is selected to be trained to fly advanced Inner Sphere aerospace fighters.

Although TF Serpent training is to take precedence, elements of the Eridani Light Horse are invited to train with and teach the special program Earth MechWarriors on Outreach, in conjunction with Dragoon-US Army staff studies on the roles of BattleMechs in warfare and a desire to look into the "Striker" role and the tactics of armored cavalry units versus armored divisions.

February 2039/March 3059: The first provisional Earth Nation Garrison BattleMech Battalions come into service, using Clan secondline BattleMechs. In lieu of the completion of Clan OmniMech factories, native-built factories come into service to build lower-teched 'Mechs for training and garrison use.

With Clan forces increasing in number in Mexico and Giuseppian-allied Caribbean nations, the United States officially restarts the draft full-scale. Years of disuse leaves the Selective Service Administration outdated and unable to effectively operate to the scale desired, though the inefficiency is not as severe thanks to the success of the national testing program for 'Mech suitability. This organization proves effective in ensuring the drafting of a steady stream of talented, capable 'Mech pilots.

In San Luis Potosi, Galaxy Commander Brendan Corbett of Clan Smoke Jaguar arrives to take command of the Jaguar forces leading the invasion of the US. Final arrivals of divisions from India to fill out the manpower of the Earth Nation's army are completed, while Mexican nationalist groups suborned by the Giuseppians attempt large-scale protests and strikes by Mexican workers in the United States.

On 25 February 2039/28 March 3059, Lincoln Osis wins approval from Marthe Pryde and Malavai Fletcher to commence combat operations against the United States in a week's time. Giuseppe's government is informed and Giuseppian army detachments, including VdO battalions for hunting down political and police leadership in the US that might form the core of a "nationalist resistance" in occupied areas, begin their own preparations.

On 28 February 2039/31 March 3059, the United States military formally shifts to DefCon 1 in light of intelligence assets confirming an imminent invasion. Several American cities practice air raid drills.

March 2039/April 3059: On the 5th of the month, both calendars, Jaguar BattleMechs stomp over the Rio Grande and seize the city of Brownsville, Texas, against light and sporadic resistance. The Invasion has begun. The Clans focus in the east; Clan Smoke Jaguar's offensive corridor is along the Gulf Coast to the Mississippi River while the Horses are given an invasion axis between the Rockies and the eastern edge of the Jaguar corridor. The Jade Falcons, who were last in the bidding, seize El Paso and advance up the Rio Grande. Giuseppian army units follow them into Texas and Arizona while Mexican-centered forces launch an independence offensive into Arizona and southern California.

The Mexican Giuseppians are rudely abused of their preconceptions. Though they make early maneuver gains from a lack of mobile US forces in the area, they are unable to take San Diego proper, and their dispersed armored cavalry columns do not find masses of waiting Mexican patriots to aid them in taking Los Angeles as was expected; instead they face resistance that borders on ferocious. Californian National Guard forces with mechanized equipment, aided by the US 3rd BattleMech Training Battalion (equipped with imported AgroMechs outfitted with 21st Century machine guns and flamethrowers), encircle and annihilate the Mexican columns. Unprepared for such resistance, the demoralized Army flees back across the border and are driven back over the Colorado. Authorities in the two Mexican states making up the Baja, responding to popular discontent with the Giuseppian-backed government and the Mexican Army's abandonment of defenses for the peninsula, openly declare rebellion from Mexico City and welcome US troops to drive out VdO contingents.

The Falcons are more successful; they take Albuquerque and the Cluster on their western flank, bypassing Phoenix, nearly reaches Las Vegas before being forced back by the collapse of the Mexican offensive. Phoenix becomes the frontline in the Southwest, held by American troops; the Falcons do succeed in nearly annihilating the 3rd Training Battalion when it arrives to bolster the front due to the battalion's inferior gear.

The Jaguars and Horses, meanwhile, tear open huge flanks in the draftee-swelled, disorganized US Army and National Guard formations. Surviving Armored forces make for the defensive lines of the rivers to the north; Dallas falls just a week into the offensive. The Dragoons Beta Regiment, outnumbered, nevertheless mauls a Hell's Horses Cluster outside Austin, but is forced back by the general collapse. Beta Regiment ends up pivotal to the defense of New Orleans.

With German armored brigades as spearheads, the Earth Nation supplements the Clan advance, directly capturing San Antonio and Oklahoma City as they follow in the wake of the unstoppable Clan juggernaught.

The Wolf Dragoons move Alpha and Delta Regiments to North America. News of the scope of the Clan attack, larger than was expected, prompts ComStar to rush in the 83rd and 166th Divisions to prevent a total collapse, though the Inner Sphere's large commitment to the impending offensive against the Jaguars restrains any further use of forces. In light of the Falcon appearance, Khan Phelan authorizes the deployment of the 16th Wolf Guards Battle Cluster to bolster the southwestern Front as well as a general assignment of Beta Galaxy to Outreach to provide a ready reserve to prevent American collapse.

April 2039/May 3059: Dragoon counterattacks force the Jaguars to abandon the siege of New Orleans, but Delta Regiment takes severe damage as it tries to hold Kansas City and Fort Leavenworth. The Horses finish seizing western Kansas and head to a desirable target: the cities of Denver and Colorado Springs and the American 2nd BattleMech Training Battalion, now backed by the Black Widow Company of the Wolf Dragoons and a company of the hastily-arriving Davion Light Guards. This was the first combat of the Horses against Inner Sphere units and the Horses gave it their best, eliminating half of the Light Guards' 'Mechs and forcing the Spiders back into Denver itself. Further south the Horses expected to take Colorado Springs after dislodging a Level II of ComStar troops, but were thwarted by native forces. The US 2nd 'Mech Training Battalion pulled off the unexpected; attacking from long-range with retrofitted inferno rockets (considered suicidal by Inner Sphere pilots) and their energy weapons, and backed by US anti-tank infantry in prepared defensive positions and utilizing Dragoon-provided gear, the green American MechWarriors destroyed or disabled several Horse tanks and 'Mechs and caused the Horses to abandon the attack on Colorado Springs to preserve their forces. This is the first victory of native MechWarrior forces against the Clans.

Over halfway through the month, word comes to both sides of the beginning of Operation: Bulldog. Though it buoys the morale of the Allied and League forces, the news does not shake the Jaguars enough to save Kansas City and the American Army facilities at Fort Leavenworth. A brutal defensive effort mauls the attacking Jaguar Cluster, but in the end the US loses half of its best-armed 'Mech training unit and the Dragoons are forced to withdraw Delta Regiment entirely to avoid its destruction. The arrival of the 7th Free Worlds Legionnaires prevents the collapse of the defense of St. Louis and keeps the Jaguars west of the Mississippi. They continue advancing north.

May 2039/June 3059: The commitment of the ComGuard 86th Division saves Denver from a renewed Horses attack. The 166th Division, initially considered for Phoenix, is instead relegated to the city of Minneapolis to confront the Jaguars rushing onward. All of Comstar's 5th Army is ordered in to prevent a Clan breakthrough along the wide, open front off the northern Great Plains; the United States Army likewise commits all available reserves to protect the last major road linking the western and eastern half of the countries through the Twin Cities, and receives Canadian reinforcement. Elements of the 467th Division smashes a Jaguar garrison Trinary that attempts to extend forward and take the eastern entrance to Minneapolis along I-94. The rebuilt 1st 'Mech Training Battalion of the US Army joins them at a position near Hastings to await the arrival of Jaguar troops.

Operation: Bulldog continues to enjoy unexpected success. But news is slow in reaching troops on Earth, and ilKhan Osis does not inform the Grand Council of what's going on, preventing the Home Clans from realizing the scope of the Jaguar troubles. Frustrated equally by the failure of his garrison troops at the approach to Minneapolis and at St. Louis, Osis sends in what remaining reserves he has in the Homeworlds to break through.

President Andrews asks the Dragoons to release the first battalion worth of American MechWarriors for combat service, hoping to use them to help save Minneapolis.

June 2039/July 3059: Khans Vlad Ward and Marthe Pryde confront ilKhan Osis in the Grand Council for his failure to inform the Clans as a whole about the Inner Sphere's offensive. Osis attempts to offer Home Clans a chance to fight alongside his forces, but the Home Clans are more interested in taking Earth as a springboard into the heart of the Inner Sphere and Osis' attempts to gain assistance fail. He is also forced, by reports of the arriving reinforcements, to approve Marthe Pryde's bid of the 3rd Falcon Dragoons to the attack on Minneapolis; the Sigma Solahma Cluster is left behind in the approaches to Phoenix, deemed sufficient to oppose the US Army force holding the city.

At the urging of Brendan Corbett and Director von Krager, Giuseppian 'Mech forces enter combat alongside their army in an attempt to wrest control of Memphis away from the Americans, but American National Guard units using jury-rigged anti-'Mech weapons prove capable of preventing the fall of the city. Nevertheless the Earth Nation's attack on Memphis and attempt to cross the Mississippi into Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi will bog down American troops in the Southwest and prevents further reinforcement to the vital northern front.

The 16th Wolf Guards Battle Cluster arrives at Phoenix. Star Colonel Craig Fetladral begins planning offensive attacks on the Falcon solahma opposing him.

The Dragoons deem the first cadre of 100 American and Canadian MechWarriors ready for combat service. They are given a mix of Inner Sphere and Clan BattleMechs by the Dragoons depending on their score; the top ten scoring MechWarriors are given Clan frontline OmniMechs. They will return to Earth at the first of the following month, organized as the 1st and 2nd BattleMech Battalions and attached to US Armored Brigades holding the line at Denver and Minneapolis.

July 2039/August 3059: Now.

 

[Spartan303]

Lot of buildup and backstory to the story. Nice.

 

[H.B.M.C.]

Such a nostalgic journey. So many names. I couldn't remember who it was who really started the idea - Anakha! I kept thinking EagleOne, but that wasn't right.

I remember that chat program though. Laird has such a weird voice.

Anyway, this is interesting, as it's a complete change to the backstory of MWSE, but you could still have a lot of the existing events, shifted for forces/sides (ie. more IS stuff on the good side) without disrupting a lot of the characters or even major events.

BYE

 

[Ash's Boomstick]

Gotta love Steve's old school stuff

 

[Big Steve]

Such a nostalgic journey. So many names. I couldn't remember who it was who really started the idea - Anakha! I kept thinking EagleOne, but that wasn't right.

Anakha and Eagle One always had a few points of similarities, I thought, although they're also quite distinct (especially in their choice of service, Marines vs. Air Force).

I remember that chat program though. Laird has such a weird voice.

Heh, yeah. I met him IRL in early 2004, his voice is no different in person.

Anyway, this is interesting, as it's a complete change to the backstory of MWSE, but you could still have a lot of the existing events, shifted for forces/sides (ie. more IS stuff on the good side) without disrupting a lot of the characters or even major events.

BYE

It's the 2011 reboot's history, really. But it was made to still allow for things like the Clan invasion of Australia to happen.

 

[Big Steve]

So, where was I?

Oh, right. Reboot time baby!

As stated, the release of the WhizKids stuff did not make the best impression. It soured the incoming time jump for a lot of players, so much so that years later I was accused of still letting it color my perceptions of the worth of the Jihad and Dark Ages time periods. (For the record, I really didn't care anymore either way, though I quickly re-soured on the Jihad due to the feeling the accuser was trying to force it down my throat as part of another crossover project).

I also think, looking back, I felt a bit daunted by the MechWarrior: Armageddon idea and its scope, and more than that, a feeling that I'd gone too far in certain aspects of the setting. Combined with a desire to undo the less-serious, more sex-filled early material, well, a reboot made strong sense. And writing the "prequel" story for MWSE still had my thoughts with the theme of Giuseppe recast as the well-meaning idealist whose mind was crushed by the weight of the world coming down on his ideals... aided in no small part by von Krager's manipulations.

So the reboot commenced. MWSE would be re-titled as "BattleTech: Scorched Earth", and the first novel in the series would be Tides of Fire, with von Krager uttering the line as part of his EVIL PLANS to cleanse the world and make Humanity stronger.

As I started this idea, the world changed. Literally. Specifically, September 11th, 2001 came. And looking back... honestly I'm not sure how much it influenced me? A lot of my ideas for the setting were firmly established, if anything it just gave me another background event to work in.

The real trouble was that the first novel was far too ambitious. It took 30,000 words of material alone to get through the pre-first contact years, including the start of the war, and I ended up with five times that in post-first contact material. I created a massive cast on top of following the BTech canon regulars (including some alternative bits to the Whitting Conference such as re-writing the scene where Katherine proposed Sun-Tzu as First Lord to be from Victor's POV, showing him figuring out what she was up to and thwarting Kathy Dearest's plan). This time there was something like a dozen characters in each of four groups: one in the Dakotas/Manitoba, one in Florida, and the Aussies and Brits like before. Plus I referenced other characters like the Chinese general and his sister-in-law, a high-ranking Party official who was going to eventually become political ruler of China during the war.

And this time the inserts were gone. My character's name was changed to Steven Penton, for instance. Anakha's became Josh Roland. And other changes I won't get into. New characters were introduced in each group, some of the most important being the addition of another English noble character, Diane Howard, a tomboyish heiress to the Duke of Norfolk (actually IIRC she was Duchess, having inherited after her family was killed by Giuseppe's people), a German defector fighting for the British, and a Serbian man named Branislav who was involved in an atrocity that helped start the war, an action that has since cost him everything and leaves him wanting to atone in some way. His mother was also in the training unit (at the very upper age limit for those being trained) although, for the same reason, she would have nothing to do with him. Additionally I changed how Reaperman's character worked, with his daughter born before the war and living in the Resistance-controlled areas with him.

I wrote the novel through the course of late 2001 into 2002 and even 2003, but I had trouble focusing on it at times, and the massive cast made for a slog. I never really got to any major story event. Soon I had a 150,000+ word book just 17 chapters in, and that didn't count the pre-First contact material that I cut out and posted alone as "Apocalypse Dawn". One of the last bits I wrote set up the Ivanova sisters and an ally to get to Britain, as well as a bit I posted publicly depicting the Israeli Defense Force and al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade teaming up to take out a Star of Clan BattleMechs rampaging in the West Bank.

Now someone may be asking, "Hey, what did you do with HBMC's character?" Well... nothing, because he was, to put it simply, not very happy with the scope of some of my reboot changes.

Well, no, I'm softballing it. When I told him what would be changed, he was pretty furious with me. He'd written thousands of words of his own material, after all, and now my desire to reboot was basically throwing it all away. But I can be a stubborn jackass and I stuck to my guns, insisting on changes he'd have to make that he didn't want to. Ultimately he left the project and we didn't talk for months as a result.

I think you can tell by now that "BTSE" was ultimately, if not a disaster, a failure. A valuable learning experience maybe, but still a failure. I tried to do too much with too many characters until the entire thing was a bloated mess. It would be a valuable lesson to me for future endeavors.

Anyway, during 2003 I gave up and moved on to other things. By then the Story Debate that would form the basis, creatively, for the TGG Multiverse was going strong, this was also when I was doing the bulk of the work on the RPGmaker 2000 title "Final Flamewar: The Fiver Menace", and I let BTSE die quietly.

But in 2004, MWSE made a surprise comeback, entirely due to one poster. Some of you may recall the poster Sunhawk2 over on Spacebattles? He became a known crossover writer himself, doing the nBSG/Btech crossover "Lucky 13th" and a crossover of an alternate Star Wars timeline with the canon timeline, "The Other Side of Eternity". Well, by early 2004 he was in a nightly AIM chat with a bunch of people from SB and elsewhere (we eventually called ourselves the "chatniki"), and while I was working on the "Star Trek: Timelines" fic, I inevitably mentioned MWSE to him. As he was a BTech fan he was curious, so I started sending him the original fic series... but with one change. Namely, I went through with the Find/Replace feature and renamed my insert Penton (and changed William to James). IIRC I didn't even bother taking out the other inserts, but by this time I was very self-conscious about it, to say the least, so I removed mine.

Well, he enjoyed it, even the crappier bits. And my re-reading rekindled some of my interest in the series, especially my long-dormant plans for the post-war time period. A thought came to mind, a way to make it work after all. Instead of a reboot, I'd just do a slight re-telling. And so MechWarrior: Scorched Earth The Ultimate Edition was born!

....I rewrote only two episodes.

Oh, there was plenty of idea-making. I got the chatniki involved, everyone from Slacker to Chris O'Farrell to the late SirNitram even pitching in a bit. But the rewrite soon suffered the same problem as the BTSE reboot: I tried to do too damn much. I was trying to move up the introduction of characters, I rewrote the romance between Penton and Anita/Rachel (IIRC I renamed her too), and I expanded some of the battles. Plus my approach to writing 'Mech combat was soon pointed out to me as flawed, as not really getting across the flow of the battles. I'd become too technical with it. And some of the original fans also felt the changes broke up the flow of the story too much.

So after Episode 2, renamed "The Mouth of Hell", I gave up again.

Well, I should say that I had plans for other changes. Instead of rewriting everything, I'd just write a summary of my changes to the events, and then move on to the post-war stuff. HBMC even volunteered to cover slight re-writes of the original series to accommodate this. But in the end, I simply let it go.

Thinking back I believe I felt like it was a waste of time. SB was going through one of its initial major population expansions and new posters were coming in, posters who didn't have any connection to the old story. And for those who did, the changes I was considering seemed to take the magic out of it. My attempt to improve things only undermined me more. So the Ultimate Edition was soon left to pass on, another failed project. The following year, 2005, I started writing a little something called "Anatomy of a War", and soon the TGG Multiverse was the work everyone wanted to see more of.

Granted, there was a fun little thread on SB - "YOU are a producer..." - that had Eagle One propose how he'd make a movie series, or "Band of Brothers" type special, of Scorched Earth.

I did, in the ensuing half-decade, return to MWSE twice. Once was just a lark. On a spur of the moment, I wrote "The Exile Ends", depicting a scene over two centuries in the future for our heroes where their descendants return to their broken homeworld and reclaim it. It was something of a touching moment as I described a five year old Prince Edward, named for his heroic ancestor, watching as "stars" filled the skies above Brugge... the drive flares of a fleet of DropShips bringing the descendants of Scorched Earth back to their ancestral home.

The other return was not so touching. I was goofing off and ended up writing "commentary" editions for the early MWSE episodes. I turned up the snark and spent a lot of time making fun of my younger self's writing. In the end I didn't stick with it. I only posted the commentaries for the first two episodes, while I did write a commentary for episode 3 and never finished it. (The biggest thing from the Ep 3 commentary was that I jokingly gave myself a co-commentator: the Caged Demonwolf from Adam Warren's "Empowered" graphic novels, mostly for fun in making fun of my younger self).

Anyway, so that was that. The decade that began with VALYNN's ranting about the UN taking over the world and outlawing religion ended with me having long moved on from MWSE. The story of a near-Future (now imminent-future) Earth becoming the center of a proxy war between the Inner Sphere and Clans seemed to have had its day. More TGG work beckoned. I moved on.

....or so I thought.

 

[Big Steve]

So, I kinda glossed over a critical thing in the first two parts and want to rectify that.

As I've stated, HBMC pitched in with his own entries, writing "The Charlie Company Chronicles" about the Aussie characters, including an entry about the Siberian campaign that fell between episodes 9 and 10. He was going to inevitably do a story about the Aussies joining with the 1st Davion Guards for the Cermak mission (as in the expansion to MechCommander 1), but the reboot intervened and we parted ways.

But he was not the only person to write MWSE fics.

Deathbringer, for one, intended a trilogy of stories about "He Who Has No Name", assigning the character a given name and explaining his origins. In the (mostly incomplete) first story, the pre-war CIA exploited draconian laws to recruit for what became the Black Knights; kids who were targeted for forced psychiatric treatment over being perceived as likely school shooters instead being funneled into CIA training to be covert operatives, or rather, black ops assassins. The head of the operation was a fellow named Spender, based by DB on Cancer Man from X-Files. The story changed between the past and present, depicting HWHNN being given the order to take out Giuseppe for good circa Episode 9 while, in the past, we would see his training and ultimately his first mission, a large op by the entire force to take out a warlord in Africa. Unfortunately the mission is betrayed and HWHNN is the only Black Knight to survive, although he ultimately takes out the target and starts the process of becoming the nameless legend we later meet.

In the present, meanwhile, he'd infiltrate Geneva and ultimately come close to killing Giuseppe, actually killing a double in the end, but the important bit would be that he'd discover that one of his old comrades is still alive... and working for the enemy, having become a convert to von Krager's ideology. He kills her in the end, and when he returns he asks for a leave of absence which Spender grants. His attack, while technically a failure, is seen as a partial success for the damage he inflicted on the confidence of the UN security forces and is considered a contributing factor to preparing the invasion of Europe.

A couple of scenes would play into his brief appearance on the "rogue" mission of Episode 8 and have an involvement with Kai Allard-Liao.

Sadly, DB never finished it, and the story - unfinished - is somewhere on my HDD. He ultimately planned a trilogy of stories that would culminate with preventing die-hard Giuseppians from setting off a doomsday device at the end of the war, in which the part of him who was still "John" would choose to survive while his assassin persona was ready to just let it all end.

Thankfully, another set of side stories was partially completed, and those were the Battleground Caledonia stories by ck-Brenneke. The stories followed the 5th Royal BattleMech Battalion of the British Resistence, known as the William Wallace Battalion, initially based out of Ben Lomond (or Loch Lomond or something), a front base for the Resistance closer to the Scottish lowlands. Like the rest of us Brenneke named the lead after himself. In the first story, he leads a mission to Ayrshire, his hometown, to investigate the reporrts of a factory being present. It turns out that the entire population was moved into an underwater facility to be labor for a Clan factory. Unfortunately a traitor in their unit strikes and ultimately Reid and another lancemate, a young military intel officer named Lisa Graham, are captured, although IIRC they do manage a partial victory of some sort.

I don't recall him completing the second part, unfortunately, just doing a lot for it. Reid suffers as a POW - again, the Undies were the bad guys and so tortured all their prisoners BECAUSE - in a converted castle in Scotland. When the grand liberation of Britain is launched, his captors plan to kill him and the others, but they're saved by a Hell's Horses warrior who helps them escape the castle before going out to join his Star in fighting approaching British 'Mechs. The assembled watch, cheering their comrades but also hoping to see their savior survive the fight, just to watch him die even after his 'Mech is shot out from under him. Killed by a Resistence fighter whose blood was up. Reid and the others bury him and Reid openly repents on the Clan warrior's grave that he couldn't judge the killer because, looking back, he'd done similarly himself.

With Britain freed Reid returns to duty. Most of his unit was wiped out by the traitor - their base was destroyed while he was in Ayrshire - but one lance commander and his patrol lance got out and formed the core of the new 5th. He locates Graham's laptop - hidden in Ayrshire during their op - and also discovers that none of his hometown's people were ever found. The Clans are believed to have moved them offworld. Distraught,, he ends up joining the preparation for the cross-channel invasion, with the 5th and other units slated to march across the bottom of the North Sea and attack in Holland. He collaborated with me to have a bit mentioned in Ep 10 fleshed out as part of the story.

Brenneke ended up stopping just as he was doing the Holland invasion. IIRC this was when I was ready to reboot anyway. Had he continued, Reid would havve ultimately helped catch Gunther "Longshanks" Brenneke,, the UN general who oversaw the occupation of Scotland and who was responsible for its brutality and the destruction of multiple Scottish cultural landmarks such as the William Wallace memorial. Future entries in his series would've seen the 5th Royal fight the 14th Donegal (or whichever unit was Adam Steiner's) during a brief Lyran-Terran Alliance war in 3063, but ultimately the two working together when evidence surfaces that the people of Ayrshire have been found, relocated to the same world as the residents of Somerset by Nicolai Malthus.

While not part of the original run or the reboot, the Ultimate Edition in 2004 inspired Eagle One to write "The Rise of the Rangers". Basically, I'd showed him an entry in my old 2001 fluff for the TAAF's 'Mech units. Namely, the entry for the Texas Rangers, as in the police force that became a military one during the Giuseppian invasion when it entered Texas. In the fluff (I don't recall if any of the actual MWSE stories referenced them) I pretty much made it one big reference to the Chuck Norris TV series "Walker: Texas Ranger" (as always, I took the small homages that BTech flufff sometimes had, like a Taurian commander being "Monty Scott" and a miracle worker with machines, and dialed them past 11). Eagle One, who hails from Texas in some way IIRC, decided to take that and run wiith it,, writing a story about the Rangers being turned into a military unit and fighting the battle for Houston against the Giuseppian forces. I don't think he finished it, but the initial chapters can be found here.


Lastly, Slacker - who had a character as of Episode 10 - supposedly wrote a short story about his character and the long-term resistance on Long Island after the fall of New York City in the initial Giuseppian invasion. IIRC he did it for a class. But I don't think he ever posted it, and I don't recall ever reading it.

Anyway, that's it for the side stuff other people wrote of this setting. At least, during the aughts anyway. Later I'll finish the history follow-up and a couple other projects will be brought up.

 

[Big Steve]

So one decade ended and another began. And I... was in a crap situation.

To put it in short fashion, I spent four years jobless, living on the charity of my father. I'd been effectively forced out of a retail stocker job by an ambitious supervisor pushing anyone he didn't like just before the Great Recession started to begin. As summer 2011 approached I was doing on-call security work sporadically when I was finally hired for a part-time, regular security job (one that became full time a month later). We were living in a hotel at the time, mostly to save money up for a better place that my Dad could share with his then-girlfriend (unaware that he had less than a year to live), and I eventually found myself re-reading the old MWSE (and cringing at the proper points).

Then I had a lark. I recalled the criticism of how I wrote 'Mech combat and decided to see if I could write something better with my added years of experience. The result is what I reposted here on the Sietch as "A Short Engagement", although over on SB I just called it a "BTech short". And for fun, I ended the short with the "Welcome to Scorched Earth" line.

The result was... well, actually the result was enthusiasm by Sunhawk, a near derail by people interested where he'd been, major enthusiasm from Eagle One, and then a bit more support from Chris O'Farrell and HBMC. And then, a year and a half later, Brenneke engaging in accidental thread necromancy.

Well, all that, and the thread was apparently presented as evidence against me over the issue of that anime subforum fiasco barely a week or two later, showing I was "angry" of my fic being ignored or something like that. (Note: I was just a forum mod and, to my knowledge, couldn't make subforums like that. But facts rarely get in the way of people with a bone to pick.)

Anyway, as June became July and moved on to August, I started needing reading material at my new job (12 hour days outside in Florida, you need your distractions). I started a re-read of my BTech novels. And between that and, IIRC, some conversations over AIM with Sunhawk and a few others, I found that my interest in the idea was growing. Bringing back MWSE with a reboot, one that would be more carefully planned than the "BTSE" reboot of a decade prior. I could do some new things. Change out stuff I thought was bad. Not have over half the non-combat stuff be sexual encounters and have the villains not torture just to be evil. All the good stuff y'know?

So I started conceiving of a new "history of the future". Since we were already approaching the timeframe of the first MWSE, I decided to move the time yet further to the late 2030s. Giuseppe's government isn't the UN, it's the Earth National Union. Instead of a logistically unlikely cross-Atlantic invasion, the Giuseppians and Clans would invade America through Mexico, under a government aligned with Giuseppe. No Pan-American Confederation either. Europe would be a more reluctant member of Giuseppe's new order, mostly out of fear of a militant, authoritarian Russia that's now in a civil war between Giuseppe-leaning democrats and said militarists, with India joining out of worry about both China and Russia (and likely through von Krager's manipulations). I got rid of the idea of Giuseppe being an idealist driven insane; he's an ideologue committed to his vision. And von Krager, well, is von Krager, but with the evil turned down to plausible levels. And I had a longer time period to explain why the US is disarmed enough that Giuseppe's organization is able to be a potential threat.

Plus there were a few character name changes. Penton became Alex Penton, for instance. Rachel (formerly Anita) Galvaeriz became Rachel Galvariz (and I admit I probably messed that one up too, sorry, I still suck at names sometimes). Sakura's old character (or at least her role as the Japanese-aligned woman with a history with von Krager) was re-imagined as entirely Japanese, a woman named Yumiko Sakata.

The big change in relation to their involvement with the BattleTech universe was two-fold. One, the first contact would come before the war actually starts (as seen in the timeline I posted in this thread). The other was that instead of Arc-Royal being on the IS side of the rifts, it would be Outreach, the Mercenary world operated by the Wolf Dragoons. This was a fairly substantial change since any Clan invasion via the rifts wouldn't hit the heavily-defended Arc-Royal and the nearby defended systems of the Lyrans, it'd hit Outreach - still defended - and then go into the Chaos March, where House troops are few and far between and the local petty states have nothing that even a Home Clan PGC couldn't potentially take on. And they'd just be two jumps from Terra, not half a dozen. This makes the Clans, especially the Home Clans, even more interested in securing Earth.

With these changes in mind, I posted my reboot intentions on August 5, 2011 to pretty wide acclaim. Soon afterward I wrote "Small Victories", the short that explained how Dani and Becca would have their cool Clan Heavy OmniMech rides, and then started on the first novel: "Enemy at the Gates", to kick off the tale of the apex of the initial Clan invasion with the campaign for Minneapolis and the last major road junction connecting the two halves of the US together (Yes, Canada has a highway and railway too, but I imagine it can't handle Canadian traffic and US traffic at that magnitude). The story would be about a company of the 1st US BattleMech Battalion, Alpha Company, divided between the scrappy survivors of the Training Battalions, the few who, while overmatched, lived through the battles with the Clans, and the "best of the best", the highest-scoring trainees who were sent to Outreach to be trained by the Wolf Dragoons. Their commander (Penton) is a former JAG lawyer who showed some tactical insights on Outreach to impress the experienced field officer commanding the 'Mech forces (Charles Sinclair, who was from the original and is a homage to the Louis Gosset Jr. character "Chappy" Sinclair from the Iron Eagle movies), but operates under the stigma of his "staff weenie" history.

A second unit is also followed, a lance with the 2nd BattleMech Battalion under Lieutenant Joshua Roland of the US Marine Corps, granted a commission due to his experience and success in the training but at heart he still considers himself "an old Gunny". He's a long-time NCO, to be precise, although the issues under the demilitarizing Saunders administration of the 2020s-early 30s held back his promotions so after 30 years he's still just a Gunnery Sergeant. His lance includes Sergeant Barker, an African-American woman who grew up in the inner city ghetto, and Cal Schulter, an Illinois "farmboy".

It took me a few months (especially due to work, as I went full-time and then ended up working lots of OT frequently) but I finally finished the story a few months later, a 65,000 word novel. I took a short break (well, not so short), started playing with a few other story ideas (TGG's "Where Trust Lies" for instance), and got hooked into Star Wars: The Old Republic. But eventually I returned to begin book 2, titled "On the Brink of Despair" (not one of my better titles), which continued the story of the campaign for Minneapolis and introduced the "Commonwealth" characters, specifically a few Canadian characters - led by Luisa Fraser, a RCMP officer turned MechWarrior - and the British Royals, James Prince of Wales and his twin sons Edward and Henry, aged up to their 20s. As part of my changes, I decided not to make Henry a nut, simply a bit hot-headed and competitive, but a natural MechWarrior, while Edward is the thoughtful twin. They're still competitive, of course, but it's the earnest competition of brothers, not from Henry being a lunatic. I also added Divija Scindia, an Anglo-Indian woman from a Maratha dynastic family.

(Also, much to my embarrassment, I didn't find out that the Royal Canadian Mounted Rifles and Lord Strathcona's Horse are apparently one and the same: I specified the Canadian MechWarriors were in the former and implied the latter was a different unit).

While I did all of this writing, I'd had some hope or at least expectation of co-authors. Early on Drakensis wrote a short in the reboot announcement thread, a fun bit about Jaguar MechWarriors running afoul of British-piloted tanks and winding up captured by his adversaries, revealed in the final line as the Royal Tank Regiment. And Death by Chains aka Trace Coburn was inspired to revive an RPG character of his (that is, "Trace Coburn") and his unit for a side-story called "Loose Cannons", meant to tie-in with events from the first story. Unfortunately drakensis never produced more RTR-related material and DbC was eventually side-tracked.

There was also a peculiar side-story, actually a bit of an ATL, called "Panzerkampf", with an alternate Scorched Earth based on a friend of mine's alt-Earth where the world's geography developed differently. Australia and New Guinea are one continent, and "Zealandia" comprises both islands of New Zealand and land up to New Caledonia. A nation gradually forms here, Kaetjhasti, that successfully modernizes like the Japanese did and avoids European conquest, and this story is about the Kaetjhasti openly siding against Giuseppe and dealing with the invasions of their twin island-continents by the Star Adders and Ice Hellions.

Unfortunately, two things ended up stopping me. The biggest was that I hit a brick wall in writing the second story and lost all my momentum. The other was that with the side-stories not coming out as I'd hoped, I again faced the prospect of having to do a lot of material. And ultimately my attention to TOR (my guild was into Ops and PvP) and creative drift toward other stories diverted me until I let the project come to a stop. I never formally said I was done with it, I simply started writing other things. TGG stuff, then the initial Undiscovered Frontier reboot pilot in 2013, other stuff, the beginning of nUF's first season, and of course that plot bunny to beat all plot bunnies, "The Power of a Name", which is probably still the best candidate for my most beloved work of all time.

Would I ever return to MWSE? I'm not sure. I have a lot of other writing to do, including an original fic project I'm contracted for (and I'm on book 3 of 4). I have Season 3 of nUF to finish. I have other ideas. And I've found writing 'Mech fights can be annoying if I want to have any kind of accuracy with the machines I'm presenting. Keeping track of which character has which weapons systems, I mean. It can be a pain.

But who knows? Maybe I'll revive it one day. Maybe a lot of people here will like what they see of the 2011 reboot (which I'm going to start posting soon) and interest will cause me to consider writing more. Or maybe I won't be the one doing the writing, just the one giving the info, with others wanting to tell stories in the setting.

After all, we can only guess what the future may hold, right? And I've walked away from Scorched Earth so many times, just to find myself walking back. I can't underestimate the pull of this world so much like ours, divided by war, changed by a contact none could have thought possible, and steeped in the collective memory of many old Spacebattles posters. It may yet claim my muse again.

We'll just have to see.

 

[Big Steve]

Also, for fun, listen to this up to 1:24. It's the track I chose all those years ago to be the "Main Theme" of MWSE.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Ahhh, the good old days of MWSE! I remember those chats, and I'm a far better ideas person that writer (in my opinion).