61 replies to this topic

[Jackal Noble]

Pull Up Your Britches!
Button Your Swazzniggles!
Hold on to your Chrondanglers!

A contest of kick butt proportions has arriveth!

Up for grabs, are the IS Resistance Heroes, Clan Wave 1 Heroes, and Clan Wave 2 Heroes. Look em up in the store if you're not outright familiar with them. If none of those trick you're fancy, I'm pretty easy to work with, just ask anyone that has contesterated with yours truly before. Haven't gotten down the total number of prizes, but it will be at least 3 fiddy.

Gonna try to do a short story/ novella fiction contest here. That means write more than a few paragraphs, boys. Has, Has , Has to be original, new and created for this contest. Otherwise you are lame and not a cool person.

To emphasize my quest for originality I've laid out 3 scenarios that the stories can follow around

Scenario 1 - The first encounter with the Clans. From a line soldiers' perspective. It would probably help to really nail the scale on this one if ya pick it.

Scenario 2 - Operation Birddog - The precursor to Operation Bulldog where Smoke Jaguar catches the brunt of I.S. might. Not a lot of background on Birddog as info on it is scarce. Pick a relevant planet. This can be a tale of betrayal. Something in the vein of a son betraying his father. maybe gonna add more to this.

Scenario 3 - ESCORT MODE (lulz) - What it should be, even if it shouldn't be a derpy atlas (why would a derpy Atlas need escorting. Better yet come up with a better a better scenario, detailing a proper escort force and something NOT A MECH that would require escorting, plausibly. An encounter happens with a half-strength Clan unit in need of refit but still has a bite.

Try to use these guidelines, for consistency of the contest... but not an absolute. Good luck guys and look forward to your short story/novella submissions. Please PM me if you have any questions or even input if you think I should alter something with this.

Cheers.

Edited by JackalBeast, 09 May 2017 - 01:50 PM.

[Templar Dane]

JackalBeast, on 09 May 2017 - 01:00 PM, said:

contesterated

I enjoyed that more than I should.

I think I may need more fiber in my diet because I feel contesterated.

[Jackal Noble]

Templar Dane, on 09 May 2017 - 01:09 PM, said:

I enjoyed that more than I should.

I think I may need more fiber in my diet because I feel contesterated.

New from the Periphery! Dino-Lax! Cleans you out quicker than you can eject!
Available at your local black market.

[Bishop Steiner]

Wish I were remotely writing oriented.

Would love to do a tale of the Zhi Chiang Constabulary, doing a fugitive retrieval escort, bringing a wanted felon back to Hsien for justice, and trying to dodge not only his old bandit friends who are desperate to silence him, but the families of those he had victimized in the past looking for frontier justice.

Should be some fun reading, and I can vouch for how easy Jackal is to work with, having done so myself.

Edited by Bishop Steiner, 09 May 2017 - 01:49 PM.

[Jackal Noble]

Bishop Steiner, on 09 May 2017 - 01:49 PM, said:

Wish I were remotely writing oriented.

Would love to do a tale of the Zhi Chiang Constabulary, doing a fugitive retrieval escort, bringing a wanted felon back to Hsien for justice, and trying to dodge not only his old bandit friends who are desperate to silence him, but the families of those he had victimized in the past looking for frontier justice.

Should be some fun reading, and I can vouch for how easy Jackal is to work with, having done so myself.

that looks like a pretty good start for one lol. I'd say get at it Bishop.

[El Bandito]

Cool beans. I'll reserve this spot. Now I just need to beat Mr. Procrastination, to get this started.

Edited by El Bandito, 09 May 2017 - 05:06 PM.

[FLG 01]

Very nice ideas! I'll probably give it a try.

I have three questions though: When is the deadline for the submissions? Is there a minimum/maximum word count? And does "the first encounter with the Clans" have to be Operation Revival, or can it be a soldier's first encounter in a later era?

[Jackal Noble]

Ugh...details.

Deadline is May 24th.

Minimum of 1,500 words - to 40,000!
Just don't write "And the mech was gud and strong and beated everybody, the end." and we'll all be fine.

Also please be generous with technicalities (equipment used, if it's outdated or not, why or why not - fluff if you will. Just not so much that it detracts from the story itself. Just enough to feel alive.)

The other two topics, I'm fairly flexible with; on the Clan Invasion one, not so much but still.

Year - 3049ish
Setting - Periphery Worlds (pick one, or if you're story jumps around, pick others as well)

Premise - The planets of the Periphery were the first to fall when the Clans invaded. Utilizing mostly outdated equipment, machines and weapons (surprise) the pilots of the Inner Sphere were woefully under gunned to deal with this sudden foe.

The Gist - Think a desolate outpost planet with a lower population - maybe an agriplanet or mining planet that's fallen on hard times. Maybe the soldiers on the planet are just rotating on tour and want to survive more than anything to get home, or maybe they are local and have a stake in the fight. Maybe they had a rare posting with a couple of mechs and support equipment; maybe they only had 1 mech, and some vehicles to hold off the inevitable. Give me something in that vein and you'll be just peachy.
The periphery encompasses quite a few planets; Maybe on a lone planet, a lone pilot and his fellow soldiers had a token win and a Inner Sphere hero was born. Maybe all they had were some construction mechs re-fitted to handle the local indigenous reptilian population.

Think Tattooine (star wars) meets Starship Troopers meets Pearl Harbor. Narrative is your choice.

Example - Grigory Jenkins had been on a two day leave from base when the attack happened. He had been in search of something more palatable at the local market than the bland nutrient paste he had to eat on the daily at the mess hall. He had just recently been assigned as an infantryman to a base outside of Chrysmoor, the largest city district of Betonian Prime; an agriworld located along the Periphery belt that primarily provided food staples for itself and the surrounding systems. Of little import outside of the Periphery, Betonian Prime's defense consisted of little more than a token force. More than half of the dozen or so mechs on the planet were purpose built for agriculture, or loading the docks of the Star port. Aside from that, the Betonian Regulars had several fleets of light tanks and personnel carriers, which had served them well when tasked with quelling workers' riots.

Private Jenkins was paying the store clerk, when a deep bass rumble occurred off in the distance, the shelving and items responding in kind with tremors, the lights flickered. Everything calmed, and he was about to continue on with the exchange, when a second louder rumble happened, followed by another and another. What had at first seemed to be an earthquake quickly became the percussive booms of heavy weaponry and the surrounding buildings began to fracture and explode; that's when the realization and the horror that followed it, set in and became reality.
Oh god, Grigori thought We are under attack! Who the hell would attack us?
Alarms and screams quickly added to the mounting crescendo. Within the city limits people took to the street running for whatever cover they could find, unaware of what was advancing.
Grigory found himself huddled behind a currency interface machine, the slightly obstructed view to street revealed an a environment that seemed to be in it's early stages of destruction, made all the more stark with the absence of the glass for the store front windows.The impact of a large top corner section of masonry from an adjacent building had shattered the front display and shook loose dust from the ceiling tiles and now everything in the store had a de-saturated quality to it. Ash was just starting to float through the air. The street was littered with rubble and the smoldering wreckage of a number of vehicles; most of the passengers within had perished. Off in the distance down the main avenue and in the city proper, the Interplanetary Communications Office continued to burn, it's superstructure sagging in on itself, ready to collapse at a moment's notice.
Whatever...whoever it is that did this, they knew exactly where to hit to make us go "dark". The ICO was our only lifeline to call for help.
The comm he always had to carry, chirped " This is Captain O'reilly of the Betonian Regulars. We are under attack by an unidentified foe! Calling for all active duty and auxillary forces to report to station command for duty! Do not report to Fort Kellingrad. It is compromised. All active duty and auxillary forces report to station command for further orders." After that it began the message again, being set on repeat. Jenkins set the comm to mute and gathered himself. He had no idea of the enemy disposition and what they were capable of. His best bet would be to link with his comrades and get a carbine in his hands.
As he rounded the corner of the door leading out the back of the store, 1st Private Grigori Jenkins was presented with a view that resulted in the loss of his bodily functions. Before him stood a 14 meter walking death machine, almost monochrome in the light and absent of ostentation. The symbols on one of it's pauldrons looked alien, unlike any he had seen. The dying sunlight to it's back, gave a corposant effect of the bulbous dome of what had to be the cockpit. Surrounded by destruction, the mech looked undeniably majestic.
"If only my name was Leroy." Jenkins said right before being vaporized on the spot.

Meh. Also I apologize for any glaring inaccuracies, just trying to give some insight.

Edited by JackalBeast, 10 May 2017 - 12:59 PM.

[Jackal Noble]

hope that clears things up.

[FLG 01]

JackalBeast, on 10 May 2017 - 12:34 PM, said:

hope that clears things up.

It does, thank you!

It's quite specific but I have an idea. Two actually, but only one can be put on paper in time.

[Kaethir]

I might just have to do something for this.

[Jackal Noble]

FLG 01, on 10 May 2017 - 06:59 PM, said:

It does, thank you!

It's quite specific but I have an idea. Two actually, but only one can be put on paper in time.

Write however you want, that example I did just kinda took a life of its own. I don't profess any expertise in the realm of Battle Tech lore or the books, so details/stylization are difficult.

[JC Daxion]

This sounds pretty cool. Are you looking for 2-3 pages? I'm not huge into lore, so i dunno if i'll get it right.. But i have a nice idea for a little attack..

Edited by JC Daxion, 10 May 2017 - 11:51 PM.

[Lupis Volk]

This interests me but i am a BT lore virgin. I dun know what's yay or nay.

[Vellron2005]

- - Begin file - -

Mission report 114-526-14 - The Running Eye:

Year - 3049ish

Location: Planet Pharos, deep Periphery world.

Fragment from the black box data log of Captain Jonathan Andrews dated 12:32, December 12, 3049 (dramatized):

Jones (Raven Pilot): "God damn this cold. God damn this place. God damn this shitpiss outfit. I should have been a merc.."

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): "Zip it Jones! if you don't tone that tongue of yours down, Comm Briggs will put you on latrine duty.. again."

Jones (Raven Pilot): "I just hate that we have to run around this same old route again, day after day, on this god-forsaken iceberg. Like anything interesting ever happens here.. If I were a merc, I would be fighting those Steiner ******* right now.. but nooo, go scout instead.. what a waste.."

Andrews: "Well maybe you should become a merc then.. god knows the money is bett-" His transmission is cut short by a com beep from his Centurion's betty - "Priority one, priority one! King's Berg station under attack by unknown forces! Recalling all units! Report to King's Berg garrison a.s.a.p. This is not a drill. Repeat: THIS IS NOT A DRILL!

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): "You had to say it Jones, you just had to say it! You haaaad to say it was boring! Well, you heard it boys.. back to base!

12:46h, December 21, 3049:

Four mechs arrive at the walls of King's Berg station. A Centurion, a Griffin, a Raven and a Locust. What they find is a military fortress in ruins. Both gates leading to the base are open, with burn marks and mech foot prints littering the walkway. The prints lead inwards. Beyond the wall, a thick plume of black smoke rises high into the sky.

Jones (Raven Pilot): "Well this doesn't bode well"

Connely (Griffin Pilot): "The sensors are clear Sir, not a bird is moving out there"

Sienne (Locust pilot): "I can go ahead and scout if you want?"

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): "No. This feels wrong.. Feels like a trap. I don't know of any mech unit that could take out a fully-armed SDS cannon station in minutes and disappear without a trace. Look at these tracks.. My IFF doesn't recognize them.. Could be a Catapult? A Cataphract? But the stance.. the gait.. it's too wide.. too fast moving for either of those.. We go in together.. Keep you eyes pealed, and report anything out of the ordinary."

Jones (Raven Pilot): "You mean besides the base in tatters?"

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): "Yeah, besides that.."

Suddenly, an incoming message breaks the awkward silence, as a young boy's voice is whispering over the comms "..is...is anyone out there? Captain Andrews, is that you?

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): Danny? Little Danny? By Kerensky's beard, what are you doing on comms? Where are you!?

Little Danny: "I don't know where I am.. its all snow around me.. I.. I'm scared.. can you come get me?"

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): Danny, what happened? Calm down and tell me what happened."

Little Danny: I don't really know.. there was an alarm.. and then Daddy came and took me by the hand, and there was explosions and shouting and crying and I got really scared, and then daddy told me it's gonna be alright, and he gave me a data pad and he took me to the big house where they park all the big robots, and he put me in the biggest one, you know, the one with the face like a scary scull with an eye on it, and he showed me how to move forward, and he told me to just press the forward controls and keep going away and away, and that someone will come and find me, but now I'm scared, and there's no one here, I'm all alone, and all I see is snow, and I think I went too far, and I don't know how to get back.. will you come and get me please Mr. Andrews?

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): Commander Briggs put you in the cockpit of his ATLAS!? Danny, listen to me.. You need to turn off your ECM so we can find you.. You need to look around the cockpit, right in front and to the right of you, you will see a small blue button that says ECM toggle, you need to press that.. it should stop glowing.. Press that, and then we will find you and we will come and get you, ok.. You get that Danny?"

Little Danny: "Ok.. I'm looking".. A few moments of silence pass, and tensions rise.. suddenly, a blip appears on the Raven's sensors..

Jones (Raven pilot): "Got him! 2.2 Clicks south-east, up in the Polar highlands region!

Little Danny: "Is that ok Mr Andrews, did I do it right?"

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): "That's ok Danny.. Just stay right there, don't move, and we'll come get you!"

Little Danny: Whoa! Mr. Andrews, my panel just started flashing.. I see 3.. no 4.. red diamonds.. some have lines in them.. they seem to be mowing towards the golden arrow on the central panel.. what should I do?

Andrews (Centurion Pilot): "Errrr... Press the ECM button again, and hold on, we'll get to you fast.."

The warriors kick it into gear, and make a run for the lost child. On the way, Andrews explains that Danny is the son of their Commanding officer, Comm Briggs. He proceeds to explain that Briggs is probably dead at the hands of an unknown force, but he probably had the wits to download the station's logs on to a data pad, which he gave to his son, in an attempt to save him from a loosing battle and bring critical data about what attacked them to the right hands. This is of course pure speculation, but it was just something Briggs would do. He would put his duty and his family first, and sacrifice himself in order to keep the two safe..

They arrive within sight of a Black painted Atlas, highlighted with red stripes, and a bright red eye vinyl applied across the face and the shoulders. It was so ugly, and so threatening that the men called it "Eyesore".



Andrews (Centurion Pilot): "That's Brigg's Atlas.. we found him!"

Jones (Raven Pilot): "Looks like we're not the only ones! Heads up people, bandit mechs 600 meters! Four of them!

Over a snow-coverd hill, suddenly, two large catapult-like missile pods begin to rise, followed by a round torso with arms and legs like that of a Marauder. Another mech quickly comes into view, a hunchback by the looks of it, but not really, and behind it, two small mechs the likes of which are never before seen in the Inner Sphere.. The Marauder-Catapult looking mech's missile pods release a stream of missiles that quickly land square on Brigg's Atlas torso, sending chunks of metal flying away. The other mechs start frantingly, menacingly running toward the Scouts and Danny.

A harsh, commanding, and kinda angry voice speaks over the comms:

Angry Clansman (Timberwolf pilot): This is Leon Kandis of Clan Jade Falcon. I declare a Trial of Possession for the ugly black Atlas in front of me, and offer a "batchall" of one Timberwolf, one Hunchback IIC, and two Kit Foxes. Do you accept my batchall?"

Andrews (Centurion pilot): What? bat-what? This is captain Andrews of the 76'th Free World's support regiment. Who are you? Why are you attacking us? Explain yourself!

Angry Clansman no.2 (Hunchback pilot): Throthkin, these freebirth are like the others. They have no honor. No code. They are unworthy of our batchall. Let's just kill them and go."

Jones (Raven pilot): "eeeeerr... what's a batchall? Listen there mate, I don't know who you think you are, but we here ain't gonna let you just roll over us. You want a fight? Come get some!"

Andrews (Centurion pilot): "Jonas, you dumb mother f***er, what have yo do" - Again, his words are cut short as a Gauss round from the strange Hunchback's barrel embeds itself lightning fast in his Centurion's right side torso, knocking out most of his heat sinks, and wreaking havoc on the internals. Andrews torso twists to the left, shielding the rest of his mech with it's shield arm, but moments later, a barrage of missiles lands on him like rain. He begins to retreat and position himself between his attackers and Danny's Atlas. He yells to to the comms "Danny, hit the accelerator! Get outta here!"

Jones, Connely and Sienne all scramble, and begin firing on the attackers. The two small enemy mechs spring into motion, and are quickly at the back of Andrew's centurion. The commanding Mad/Cat now closes closer, and brings blue-streaking lasers to bear., raking Andrews's shield arm, then quickly torso twisting to the left to absorb incoming fire, and again launching a hail of missiles at the stricken Centurion. Another precise shot, and the Centurion goes down.

Meanwhile, Jones's hands are full as the small mechs begin a merciless pursuit of him. Connely and Sienne start firing on the Mad/Cat, and Sienne moves toward it's back, but the Mad/Cat pushes into gear, and using it's high level of mobility, is quickly facing her straight on. Jonas attempts to run in circles and shoot at the small mechs on his tail, but they quickly have him cornered in a snow-covered gully.

They pepper him with machine gun fire and laser streaks, and just before his engine goes critical he shouts over the comms "Take that you filthy animals!"

BOOM.

No more raven.

Connely looks to Sienne and tells her to press the Mad/Cat up against a nearby rock, and as the mech retreats, they think they have it cornered, but then, from its back, surge forth large blue exhaust jets and the mech jumps over the 25 meter rock with ease.

Sienne (Locust Pilot): "That thing has Jump Jets too? What the F**k?! That's totally OP!

Connelly (Griffin pilot): "Bring it down, quick, or we'll be outnumbered!"

A nother Gauss slug finds it's way into Sienne's right leg actuator. Her mech promptly goes down.

Connelly (Griffin pilot): "Sienne! Sienne, can you read me?!" The silence of the answer, however, is interrupted by laser fire from the Mad/Cat's arm mounted lasers. Yellow and blue streaks turn the Griffin's central torso armor plates into slag. Connelly menages one more SRM salvo at the Mad/Cat, taking out it's left torso, but is then quickly put down by another Gauss slug straight to the CT. It explodes spectacularly.

A few moments later, a scared, crying 10 year old, frantically trying to get away from the nightmare, faces 4 red blips straight ahead of him. Scared for his life, he turns left and right, but the nightmare just won't go away.

The remains of Commander Brigg's Atlas were found with a gaping hole straight through the cockpit glass. The interior of the cockpit was burned and melted beyond recognition.

The whereabouts of young Daniel Brigg, are thus far, unknown.

--End file--

I hope this is long enough.. and interesting enough for you guys..

Enjoy ;-)

Edited by Vellron2005, 11 May 2017 - 05:23 AM.

[Jackal Noble]

^Hell ya Vell, nice work.

[Jackal Noble]

Also very interesting spin/take on the whole father son tale. Not what I would have imagined.

[Bishop Steiner]

JackalBeast, on 11 May 2017 - 03:06 PM, said:

Also very interesting spin/take on the whole father son tale. Not what I would have imagined.

got about half a thing written... problem is, went back reread it and balled it up. Writing...ain't easy.

Well, correction. I can write a speech, a debate, a history lesson. Telling a STORY, that's what is difficult.

[Vellron2005]

JackalBeast, on 11 May 2017 - 02:59 PM, said:

^Hell ya Vell, nice work.

Thanks

I was bored at work, so I scribbled that down while noone was looking.. I'm a natural storyteller, so such things just flow out of my head.. It's nice to have a creative outlet sometimes.. Thank you OP for the opportunity..

The idea for the son in the Atlas came to me waaay earlier, when I was berating the Escort game mode.. it ocured to me that the only reason why a fully functioning Atlas would stumble about the battlefield without shooting back or anything, is if there was a child in the cockpit.. so here you go, as realistic and logical as possible ;-)

Edited by Vellron2005, 11 May 2017 - 11:36 PM.

[Lupis Volk]

So uh can anyone tell me what mechs around the light and medium weight group would be in the periphery worlds around the time of the Clan invasion? I'm currently looking at Primitive BattleMechs on Sarna since i don't fully know what the outer rim would have access too.

Edited by Lupis Volk, 11 May 2017 - 11:58 PM.