25 replies to this topic

[Threat Doc]

So, throughout our lives -at least here in the U.S.- we're asked, periodically, where we were when certain important events happened...

• When John F. Kennedy was assassinated - I had eight years until my birth at this point
  
• When Star Trek: The Next Generation started - There was an earthquake that morning, in Tierra Santa, San Diego, where my step-dad was stationed
  
• On 9/11 - Long story
  
• When Saddam Hussein was found and slain
  
• When Osama bin Laden was found and slain

I'm sure there will be many more list items for important real-world-wide events. However, I want to take a moment and address in-game BattleTech/MechWarrior important events, because today is one of those days.

I would like to have each of us couch it in either the career of our unit, whether House, Clan, or Merc, where they were at that time, or where we were in our individual BattleTech careers. Now, today's important, because PGI are using a day-by-day countup in MWO, so just as it's the 13th of August 2014 for us, it's the same day in 3049 in BattleTech history.

On my own forums, I have re-begun a project that I did a couple of years ago, but lost due to fat-fingering, and I would like to share it, here, as well, with updates periodically, keeping the time-line according to the Blood of Kerensky trilogy fresh, happening here as it does, there. For those of you who would ask, "How is this different from the Inner Sphere News feed that will, hopefully, be started again, soon?" To which I answer, plainly, this is not the "official news" feed, but rather similar short bits concerning the major news from Blood of Kerensky, minor news from things taking place in Armageddon Unlimited (which is, interestingly enough, known as Equal Opportunity Destroyers, just now), and also minor news from the lore of any other unit leaders/loremasters who wish to post news bits on certain days, as well, to keep a time-line of their own records.

So, belly up to the bar, follow this thread, and let's post history... (okay, that doesn't sound as exciting as it does in my head, hehe)

______________________________

All of the following comes from my forum site for Armageddon Unlimited: http://www.wolvesau....&p=11787#p11787

In March 2012, I began re-reading Michael Stackpole's Blood of Kerensky trilogy, beginning of course with Lethal Heritage, and I was keeping year-to-year, sometimes month-to-month bullet-points of the more important things that were happening in the invasion, coupled with anything in particular happening in Equal Opportunity Destroyers and Armageddon Unlimited at those times. Somehow, just as I was finishing the third novel, and completing the journey, something was fat-fingered, and all of my bullet points were lost.

In honor of the clock being set back by PGI, for MWO, again to 3049, I have decided to give this another go. Hopefully, this time, it will be done for posterity, and nothing will be lost...

BATTLETECH
The Blood of Kerensky - Volume 1: LETHAL HERITAGE
Michael A. Stackpole

• 16 August 3030: Wolf's Dragoons are given Outreach by Prince Hanse Davion.
  
  
  
• April, 3047 - July, 3049 // Equal Opportunity Destroyers Contract 15: w/Capellan Confederation, Pirate Hunting
  
  • Mission Definition: Equal Opportunity Destroyers BCT, with attached Shadow Blade Covert Company, is contracted to garrison worlds along the Capellan Confederation/Periphery border and deter, at the unit Commander's discretion, aggressive bandit and pirate raiding forces.
    
    
    
  • Force Declaration: Equal Opportunity Destroyers Combined Arms BCT (one Heavy Battalion, one Recon Battalion and one Medium Company (Shadow Blade)), one Infantry Platoon, one Administrative Platoon, ninety ’Mech Techs, two JumpShips (Star Lord-Class: Izetbegovic, and Invader-Class: Endurance), four DropShips (Overlord-Class: Ugljevik, Old Sally and Kaposvar; Excalibur-Class: Titan)
    
    
    
  • Base: Repulse, Hurik, and Rollis
    
    
    
  • Target(s)/Garrison: Uncharted worlds and jump points beyond Capellan borders.
    
    
    
  • Other Contract Terms: The Capellan Mercenary Liaison assigned to monitor Equal Opportunity Destroyers activities may contest payment if results, including imagery, contacts and tracking records are not reported once per fiscal quarter.
    
    
    
  • Contract Journal: Romano did everything in her power to screw us from the get-go. Liao's have no love for mercenaries, believing we are even further down the evolutionary ladder than their own subjects. However, she needed to win hearts and minds in the backwater worlds reporting pirate attacks without moving her own forces off "the line" with Houses Davion and Marik. Oh, ComStar made the Cappies pay us our due, especially since we absolutely complied with their rules and regulations, and kept our own records to prove it. Imagine us taking a contract with a Liao after Tsitsang; if it ever gets this bad again, I'll disband the unit.
    
    It's funny how many worlds are actually out there once you jump around a bit, although it's awfully difficult to maintain a decent star fix to get back 'home' once you hit the Periphery. The equipment MIIO provided for us back in ’34 helped a lot with that, but it was still more difficult than it should have been. Between kicking around on backwater Periphery planets, hitting a lot of bars and a lot of starving colonies in the process, and fighting bandits, we actually didn't get much accomplished by the time we were dismissed in July 3049. Don't tell Romano that, though, or she'll take us back to court.
    
    
    
  • Award(s)/Special Recognition: Nearly all of the difficulty had was by the JumpShip Captains trying to keep us from getting lost, and keeping down our food when we saw some of the dirtside conditions ‘out there’. I would imagine none of the other Periphery states/colonies are in this poor condition, only on the Liao side. The Contract Completion Award is given.
    
    
    
  • Coffers
    
    • Beginning-of-Contract: 1,160,688,279
      
    • Total Pay End-of-Contract: 118,518,204
      
    • End-of-Contract (Post-Transpo and Maintenance): 1,057,770,075 (we lost 102,918,204 C-Bills on this job. It doesn't matter, we'll be home by October.)
• BOOK 1: SHADOW OF THE BEAST
  
  Stortalar City, Gunzburg
  Radstadt Province, Free Rasalhague Republic
  19 May 3049
  
  
  • Feeling like a spy trapped light years behind enemy lines, Phelan Kell...
    
    The Kell Hounds, being in FRR territory -where mercenaries are hated-, are stuck in a reservation/mercenary quarter where mercs can go while in transit to a new duty station. Phelan goes looking for a girl he met, Tyra Miraborg, daughter of the Regent of the FRR, and ends up nearly getting his head handed to him, instead.
    
    
    
  • The week of 19 May 3049 - Victor Ian-Steiner Davion and Kai Allard graduate from separate MechWarrior Academies, Victor from the Nagelring, Kai from New Avalon Military Academy.
  
  
  
• 20 June 3049 - Victor Davion finds out he's assigned to Trell I's 12th Donegal Guards, a backwater world to match a move made by Theodore Kurita to place his son, Hohiro, on Turtle Bay.
  
  
  
• 25 June 3049 - We are introduced to Kay Wolf, son of Stephanie Wolf and J.T. Crossman, grandson of The Wolf, David Montgomery Wolf.
  
  
  
• 11 July 3049 - Kay and his training Lance finish up with a city-clearing exercise, and he receives word the Capellan Contract is done.
  
  
  
• 29 July 3049 - Kay Wolf's 19th birthday bash, a short story about the best, and worst, day of his life.
  
  
  
• 7 August 3049 - Kay, getting over his alcohol-sickness from the previous weekend, gets a message from Mom, a new contract, and a desire to meet his girlfriend.
  
  
  
• Sector 313 Alpha, Sisyphus's Lament
  The Rock System, Oberon Confederation
  13 August 3049
  
  Phelan frowned heavily as the computer sharpened and tried to label the image of the new 'Mech. Confused, the computer identified the 'Mech first as a Catapult, then almost immediately reclassified it as a Marauder. It's got that hunched-over torso with the bird legs common to both designs, alright. And it's got the Catapult's wing-mounted LRM launchers, but it also has the Marauder's weapon pods. And I've never seen that flat gray color scheme before, either. Who and what the hell is it?
  
  Phelan would soon find himself captured, his family -having seen a broadcast of the tech and tactics of this new threat- thinking him dead, though it would only be the beginning of an odyssey with The Clans for him.

[Threat Doc]

15 August 3049 - The Death of Colonel David Montgomery Wolf ~ This was an absolutely pivotal moment in WFMU, LLC history.

Edited by Kay Wolf, 19 August 2014 - 08:25 AM.

[Threat Doc]

19 August 3049 - Kay accepts that he will have to take over the WFMU, and begins to make plans for early-out testing from Tremaine IV Mercenary MechWarrior Academy, in the Rochester system.

Edited by Kay Wolf, 25 August 2014 - 01:26 PM.

[Threat Doc]

22 August 3049 - The new CO of EOD, Lisa Wolf, holds a meeting to discuss EODs future, expressing that Kay should be the one to take over the reins of the unit, but this immediately stirs up trouble.

(NOTE: I know a lot of you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with the Blood of Kerensky trilogy, and the answer is it doesn't; indeed, the next update for that series doesn't happen until October 19th. In the meantime, I have four more updates for what's taking place in the lives of my own unit's characters, and how they inter-relate with what's taking place in the Inner Sphere.

Imagine having NO clue whatsoever that any force known as 'The Clans' exists, or that the entire Inner Sphere is about to be turned upside down by them. Imagine that all of the leadership of the Inner Sphere, since the end of the War of '39, have begun to turn over the reins of leadership to the first true generation seen in the BattleTech universe, ever. I mean, of course there have been people in generation after generation, but not during the time-frame we're exploring it. Thomas Marik, Victor Ian Steiner Davion, Katherine Steiner Davion, Theodore Kurita, and Romano and Candace Liao, Tor and Tyra Miraborg, and the new leadership of the countless Mercenary elements out there. The FIRST total generation is being seen during this time-period, just prior to the Clans, and that, to me, is exciting.

Again, I implore ALL of you to join me in telling stories about your own non-Canon units, work to develop the recent history of your unit, something you can grab onto, and keep for yourselves, to share with your fellow MechWarrior's, and so you can say, 'Hell yeah, we're more than just Gauss balls and artificial lightning bolts on small and medium maps!" Join me in building a community with a new history, not one steeped in the lore many of us have grown up with and hold so sacred. Build what is sacred to you, to this community, not to the original developers of the lore. Let's make history happen here, for us.)

Edited by Kay Wolf, 04 January 2015 - 11:14 AM.

[Threat Doc]

28 August 3049 - Lisa Wolf, at the Blandinsville Command & Staff meeting, explains about Kay taking Command of EOD in December, to mixed reactions, and then ties one on with all of her Officers to let off some steam.

[Threat Doc]

7 September 3049 - Kay and his long-time Academy girlfriend, Kaylee Barton, have to part ways, as Kay and Kommandant Lang enter a DropShip set for Rochester, from Tremaine.

Edited by Kay Wolf, 07 September 2014 - 03:18 PM.

[Threat Doc]

Friends, I fell behind a little bit on getting things posted for the Blood of Kerensky trilogy because my sons and I were moving, so I apologize for that... here's the catch-up...

• BOOK 2: CLAWS OF THE BEAST
  
  
  ComStar First Circuit Compound, Hilton Head Island
  North America, Terra
  15 September 3049
  
  Primus Myndo Waterly and Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht begin to react to reports of fighting in the Periphery, attempting to ascertain the origin of these invaders, and their purpose with the Successor States. The probability of Kerensky's people returning is dismissed, but a wilder one, where alien creatures consumed Kerensky and his people long ago, then assimilated what they had consumed, built technology to return to and conquer the Inner Sphere, whether to become one with Humanity or because they need more raw materials, becomes more likely. The Precentor Martial is sent to make contact with these beings, to gain more intelligence on them.
  
  This is when the Clan Timberwolf is given the Mad Cat designation. It is named so in the Inner Sphere because DIB (Damage Interpreter Battle) Computers can't decide whether it's a Marauder or a Catapult.
  
• Sometime between 7 August and 19 October - Phelan Kell, having been captured by Clan Wolf, is interrogated over the course of these months. His interrogators are surprised to find out his last name, the mercenary unit he's from, and how large that mercenary unit, the Kell Hounds, is.

Alright, I should be able to keep up on this from now on.

Edited by Kay Wolf, 27 September 2014 - 09:53 PM.

[Threat Doc]

27 September 3049 - Kay is frocked to the rank of Captain in the Equal Opportunity Destroyers, to take command of Third Regiment, Third Battalion, Attack Company Commander, so he can begin his training. In an effort to get it through the brains of those in EOD that Kay is The Wolf, in light of his Grandfather's death, Major Lang had his Grandy's uniform and weapon prepared for Kay to use. The description of the current EOD uniform is, "dark brown and black Tiger stripes and shined black boots, with a Navy tee underneath the BDU blouse".

[Threat Doc]

1 October 3049 - Kay, learning about his mercenary unit's heritage, tries to ascertain whether his Father and Grandfather were crooks, and Aunt Marly explains it to him.

[Threat Doc]

8 October 3049 - The body of David Montgomery Wolf is escorted to a place where the body will lie in state for eight days. On the transport home, Kay is introduced to the ideas his Uncle's will want to take a crack at owning EOD by his Mom and Grandmother.

[Threat Doc]

12 October 3049 - Kay gets to meet his Uncle Jimmy for the first time, both men trying to outdo one-another's hand shakes, and then off to dinner.

_________________________________________

(EDIT: Some of you already know that I am providing story items that are supposed to run parallel to the Blood of Kerensky trilogy, for which I'm also putting in tight synopsis for each chapter in that trilogy. Of late, most of the story items have heavily involved my own mercenary combat command, Armageddon Unlimited; unfortunately, my planning for these entries did not take into account the fact that Blood of Kerensky, as written, takes place over a very long span of time, so fewer entries are made. I do not intend to stop my stories, but I do have a plan to slow them down a bit, especially after the transition of Kay Wolf, moving from Equal Opportunity Destroyers to Armageddon Unlimited, is finished. There are some exciting things coming down the pipe, but the story is building toward those things, as I continue to mix them with Blood of Kerensky entries.

For today, however, I am providing the link to the threads on both my Armageddon Unlimited forums, and to the mirror for the entries there on the MWO forums. I provide the former because I feel it's a cleaner representation -I've never been a fan of the of the way the MWO forums handle information, being pretty difficult to navigate without any manner of manageable current postings listing-, and the latter so anyone who would like to join me in placing their canon or non-canon unit Blood of Kerensky time-frame history and/or stories can do so. I would LOVE it if someone would share what they've put together among my own entries. I am also placing this very entry in multiple locations, under various types of formatting.

Armageddon Unlimited HeadQuarters forum entries... http://www.wolvesau....&p=11787#p11787

MechWarrior Online forum entries... http://mwomercs.com/...-were-you-when/ .

I am honestly not providing these entries to show off or spotlight a non-canon merc unit in BattleTech/MechWarrior, but to help give a time-line, a sense of flow, to the MechWarrior Online day-to-day time-line. I hope more folks are able to enjoy this than presently do.)

Edited by Kay Wolf, 04 January 2015 - 11:16 AM.

[Threat Doc]

16 October 3049 - Uncle Steven comes in as would be expected for a high and mighty Kuritan Officer, but Kay will not get an opportunity to know this one, at least not before his Grandfather is buried. Due to Steven and Jimmy being serious rivals, now, not just in the brotherly realm, but as Capellan and Combine, Jimmy comes that morning with a shiner. At the funeral, Kay gave a rousing speech, one his Grandfather would have been proud to hear, and swore to drive on with the 'Destroyers.

[Threat Doc]

19 October 3049 - Victor Steiner Davion makes it to his posting on Trell I (aka Trellwan) and, almost immediately, finds an ally and baby sitter in Hauptmann Galen Cox, who will become his best friend, mentor, and confidante through the remainder of Victor's life. He's supposed to make sure the new Kommandant -who should likely have not received a Battalion-sized element for his age and lack of experience- walks through any fighting or Battalion-sized troubles and keeps his people alive and his command functioning.

[Threat Doc]

Sometime between 19 October and 31 December 3049 - Phelan Kell cracks under horrible chemical effects while bound, as he is interrogated by the Clans. The information he gives up is something likely already corroborated by a dozen others also captured, but he resists -for the sake of his homeland- until the drugs are so much in his system that the pain is absolutely unbearable.

[Threat Doc]

7 November 3049 ~ Strategy discussion about ensuring neither Uncle's Jimmy or Steven take over the WFMU ~ http://www.wolvesau....&p=11272#p11272

Edited by Kay Wolf, 08 November 2014 - 12:18 PM.

[Threat Doc]

10 November 3049 ~ The threats begin ~ http://www.wolvesau....&p=12160#p12160

[Threat Doc]

14 November 3049 ~ Sniper ~ http://www.wolvesau....&p=12225#p12225

[Threat Doc]

23 November 3049 ~ The Castle, Part's One, Two, and Finale ~ beginning at http://www.wolvesau....=4&t=442#p12320 . The battle for the soul of the WFMU has begun.

[Threat Doc]

27-30 November 3049 ~ Fate and Duty, how the battle for the heart and soul of the WFMU shook out, finally ~ http://www.wolvesau....&p=12365#p12365

[Threat Doc]

31 December 3049 - Kai Allard, son of Justin Xiang Allard, Davion's head of the Ministry of Intelligence, Information, and Operations, the Federated Suns side of the Federated Commonwealth intelligence arm, meets Doctor Dierdre Lear for the first time. They seem to get along very well, if competitively, but when they are finally introduced later, at a New Year's party, she shoves off as if bitten, leaving Kai and General Redburn in shock and wondering why?