27 replies to this topic

[InnerSphereNews]

(24 May 3049)

On the cold, cold day of the fifth of November, in the year of our Lord two-thousand, seven-hundred and eighty-four, a Kuritan officer turned ambassador faced a threat the likes of which none alive might imagine. Tasked with the operation of a recharge station at New Samarkand (the backend of no where if truth be told), Raymond Sainze never imagined that for a moment—a mere snap of the fingers against the fabric of history—all of our existence would centre on him.

At that moment, Raymond, along with the rest of the Draconis Combine, was paralyzed with fear. Of the knowledge that for long months, tendrils of troops across a thousand light years had snaked toward that one system, until the jump sails of nearly two thousand JumpShips and WarShips blotted out the sun from New Samarkand’s sky.

And not merely a navy the likes of which none of us can imagine, but a military as well. Our records tell us almost two million soldiers, and double that in civilians, followed the Great General to New Samarkand. An army that could have crushed Raymond’s Combine if that were the intent.

And where was the Great General going? The hero of humankind? The man who deposed the worst monster since humans first stepped into the heavens, who freed Mother Terra from the blood-drenched manacles of depravity…he was…running away.

Members of the One Star Faith have filed a defamation of character claim against the author of the recently published Hero or Traitor?: The Kerensky Legacy. As a person of faith, I understand, deeply, the wounds inflicted by those that disparage the things we hold sacred. As a lifelong member of the New Avalon Catholic Church, and as a public figure, such wounds have been frequent and deep. Yet if there is one shining light worth any pain, it is freedom of speech. Freedom of expression. Freedom to start a dialogue and express your opinions. I have read this treatise thrice already, and I must concur with most of its findings.

While the Star League era was not heaven-in-the-Inner Sphere, as it is too often portrayed in lurid history-fantasy holovids, it was indeed the Golden Age of humankind. After the Star League fell and Kerensky turned tail and ran, the governing brake was stripped from the baser instincts of humanity and the nobility that ruled us.

So began centuries of warfare that drove us practically back to the Stone Age… a time of entire planets dying off, of horrific and prodigious use of weapons of mass destruction… of genocides on every side. Even my beloved House Davion has skeletons in its closet from those dark, dark times we wish to ignore.

General Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky may not have been able to stop the wars. Perhaps after so long without large-scale conflict, humanity needed to remember what it was like. Yet he might have limited them to a single Succession War. While I cannot paste the label of traitor on the greatest general humanity has ever known, I must conclude that despite the protestations of the One Star Faith, the blood of millions soaks him to the bone.

And I will always fight for the right to state as much.

—Olivia Daver, Commonwealth Press

[Helmer]

Very well written, Kudos.




Cheers.

[Hayden]

Nice vignette.

[Skylarr]

Nice

[Adridos]

"In reality, the Inner Sphere of the 2750s was far from serene and light-years away from just. Though admired for its monolithic power, the pinnacle of mankind’s greatest experiment—the Star League—stood at a fateful crossroads, with feuding House Lords and rebellious territories only waiting for every chance to strike against each other. Era Report: 2750 pierces the luminous veneer of what many Inner Sphere and Clan historians alike have considered to be the golden age of BattleTech history: the height of the Star League era."

The lastest book released contradicts the visions of Olivia.
But noone can blame her for not knowing the whole truth...

[CoffiNail]

Oh Raymond Sainze, he never knew what was going to happen when he went to go ask the General what was going on...

[Felicitatem Parco]

I heard Raymond Sainze took off that day... anyone get more details than that?

[Mota Prefect]

Lore is fun!

[Vexgrave Lars]

Humanity is delivered by its own hands, into heaven or hell. The will of the individual to see right done can be cried at the top of ones lungs against a crowd, ignorance or hate. Often we call survivors of such actions heroes, more often we call them martyrs.

Blaming one man, for the wars of the successor states, is diminishing the responsibility the leaders of those states to take a more peaceful path. They had, and have, and always will have a choice. They inevitably choose war because they see it as the shortest path to an end, and tragically they are often right.

Kerensky played his role, and of what happened to him or his followers, we can never know. Perhaps he and others survive in some far away place. But I submit that to take along that level of military hardware, I doubt that some higher blissful state of peace has been achieved. His followers were warriors, and his progeny, should they survive, would be no different than us, unless more warlike, vicious and destructive.

More likely they are all dead, carved by power struggles, consumed by difference, and digested by separation.

Kerensky will remain a historical catalyst true enough, but not sole cause of hundreds of years of blood and death. We have a choice, and to pin on one soul, to demonize him in blame for our actions is reprehensible. Your childish assessment and of those of similar minds, only further proves were are not so developed as to avoid pointing fingers rather than know we are accountable for our past and current state of affairs.

Your history is accurate Mrs. Daver, your assessment of its causes and results is an excuse and a poor one at that.

Vexgrave Lars
Planet Robinson

[Alaric Wolf Kerensky]

Vexgrave, very nice counter-piece.

[whiskey tango foxtrot]

Mr Lars.....excellent post......<S>

[Threat Doc]

This is extremely well-written, and enjoyable. I've never thought of it this way. I do have one nitpick with the story, however, and that is the fact of an average of 3,000 people per vessel. Even if you dropped all your 'Mechs and non-essential supplies, you're talking about tight quarters, to say the least. So, what did Kerensky do with all but 300 BattleMechs? I know some of them were left on Outreach, and I know some were left in cache's across the Inner Sphere, but that wouldn't take care of all of them, I'm afraid.

(puts right pinky finger to corner of mouth and moves uncomfortably)

[MikeyBoy]

Who? What? When? Time to read some BT novels.

[Sychodemus]

See Operation: Klondike and the founding of Clan Fire Mandrill.

[Peiper]

I have difficulty understanding what I have read. To think that someone would call out Kerensky as the cause of hundreds of years of war in the inner sphere is a sign that they are unwilling to accept the fact that Kerensky did not fight, nor did he start those wars. Even now, in 3049, Empires ruled by decadent nobles, financed by a corrupt merchant caste that would sell their arms to the highest bidder, regardless of loyalty, continue to posture and threaten to plunge thousands of planets into endless war.

I ask you this: How has anything changed since the fall of the great Star League? Politics, religion, feelings of ethnic or cultural superiority cause endless division, just as they always have. Nothing has changed.

Mark my word: there will come a reckoning for the inner sphere. There will come a time where your petty differences will allow you to be divided and destroyed. You will fall back upon every trick you know, and like a game of Regicide you will find that there are only so many plays to be made and every one will lead to your own checkmate. You've followed the rules - what you call tradition, divine right to rule, or enlightenment via the acolytes of the secret society that holds Holy Terra hostage - for so long, you are blinded by the fact that humans created the chess board. Anything humans can create can be destroyed. Anything humans have created can also be improved, or even reborn.

The liberation of Terra in the name of all humanity will happen. You cannot defeat your opponent if they have no king to put into check, and no queen to assassinate. The great Star League WILL be reborn. It is inevitable. And while you sit idly chatting away about the mistakes of the past, and how to repeat them, there are those who are biding their time, waiting for the knights and their castles collapse of the weight of their own arrogance. I pray by the words of humanity's father that by then there will be those with the foresight to do the right thing and fight for justice and the freedom for humanity to evolve as a species then to fight for the regimes and gods that have failed you time and time again.

The Great Kerensky, our father, should not be put down for his forethought. There are those who would call him traitor to one 'noble' house or another. There are those who would call him cowardly by taking so many warriors to a place where they need not fight for a home that another calls their fief. The warriors of Kerensky died free, and they did so without bringing their wrath upon the people they had sworn to protect. They were loyal to humanity when most of humanity chose corruption and greed as a greater god. Even for their sins, Kerensky's warriors were forgiving. They let humanity beat itself into a dark age, but they never lifted a finger to aid in that destruction.

Ask yourself this, children: What would you have had Kerensky do with his warriors, his vast fleet of warships with the arsenal to lay devastation to every world in their paths? What could you have these warriors do that would have changed anything for the positive? Conquering worlds in the name of a 'first lord?' Hold hostage in the name of a BOOK?

Warriors destroy and conquer, as their leaders tell them to do so. What if, I ask, you let the warriors make the decisions? Would they choose to go to war? Would they choose to destroy the families and homes of their neighbors, and kill their brothers in the name of false promises and cultish faith? I put this to all of you so called 'nobles' and priests: Where would you be without the warriors?

You would be NOTHING. In the end, you will be NOTHING. The warriors WILL rise. They WILL take the reigns of humanity so that all society can run as a great brotherhood, and wars will no longer be necessary for humanity to flourish and grow. If given a choice, would a true 'noble' warrior EVER kill another if they weren't manipulated or forced to?

Cease looking to your bosses, your preachers, and your bankers for inspiration. A true warrior fights from the heart. Do you have the courage to follow your heart? Kerensky did and in doing so he saved the inner sphere from complete destruction. Think what all of humanity could do if each person had the courage to follow their heart and not the dictates of others.

-Seyla

[Toothman]

Bring it canned meat.

[Lanc3rz3r0]

(replying here because it will not let me post a unique comment)

Those staunchly holding fast in either camp will never see the truth of present (or in this case past) circumstance.
Followers of the Great General would have any within communications range believe that their God-general, Father and Creator, left behind the baser peoples of what was once the Star League because he saw in within their collective heart of hearts nothing but the sheep they had allowed themselves to become. He saw an unwillingness to better themselves, and a complete willingness to be used and abused by anyone with a plan, or drive enough to boast of a plan. He took those he saw to be of like mind and began the great pilgrimage across the stars to a place unfettered by Humanity's taint, that he (and his) might begin anew, and caste themselves the True-born rulers of Humanity.

Opponents of this viewpoint (and they are legion) believe that The General marshaled his forces and fled to escape the burden of leadership when leadership was needed most, that this Exodus, this Great Pilgrimage, was cowardice. They would have all believe that strictly because (and for no other reason) of his leaving, humanity fell into the basest form it had been in since its infancy in the sea of stars.

I pose this: Was he not a man? was he not born of a woman as all (or most in the case of the clans) men are? Is it even possible for one man, and one man alone, to usher in this era of perfect peace? Is it possible, or even probable, that this One Man, deified though he may have been, was human too? Even if he had stayed, is it not also possible that the wars that followed would still have broken out? Was his leaving not because he deemed the machinations of the once-and-future great houses to be beyond even his ability to forestall?
Why should he not have left while the leaving was good? If his leaving was truly in the interest of Humanity as a whole, is it not a certain kind of courage to undertake such a public exodus as this, knowing as I'm sure he did that he would be forever vilified for it?

If he was such a beacon of greatness, why, then, did none of those around him (save his immediate subordinates) see well enough to learn a thing or two from him? Isn't blaming him, and him alone, for the problems of the universe a little extreme? Short-sighted even?
and what if he had stayed? what if he had fought the coming darkness to his last breath? would he still be branded the coward for leaving? or would his death simply have been another excuse to hate him? would the public eye still or ever have been on him if he had lived out his days amid the crashing of society around him?
How can any action such as war of such a scale truly be started by (or finished) by one man alone?

I pose the idea that he was not the God-Savior of the Clans, nor was he the ******* Son of the Inner Sphere. I say the man was a man, and that he acted, as all men do, for the betterment of himself. Read whatever you wish to read into his life, or actions, but no man is more than the product of his time. The Time of the Great General reached his end, and he took his bow before somebody pushed him into an early grave.
We should all be so lucky, to be remembered as he is, to be loved or hated by so many as he is.
For he was just a man, like any other, born to a time that needed him.

I was named for him. Was my namesake a coward? A hero? Am I any more or lass the man I am for having his name? A man is who he makes himself to be. He will be remembered however he is, for being the man he is supposed to be. He was no hero, and was no villain. He was a Man, end of story.

Alexander Johannisburg

[Hawkeye 72]

From the Great General's very mouth:


"Know that I have taken the remnant of the Star League Defense Force which has remained true to its purpose beyond the boundaries of the Inner Sphere, beyond the Periphery. I have done this, neither out of disappointment with those whom we leave behind, nor out of spite or disdain, as some will say. No, we have left the Inner Sphere because we love it too much to see it destroyed. In the wake of the Usurper's coup, and the long, bitter fighting that came with it, I fear that my forces would do incalculable, possibly irreparable, harm to our society. We are sworn to ward the Star League and its subjects, not destroy it.

Thus, we have left the only homes we have ever known to place the destructive capability of this armada beyond the reach of those who would use it, not for defense, but for conquest. Perhaps, with the might of our 'Mechs and ships out of reach, the leaders who now grapple with one another will relinquish their dreams of subjugating their neighbors and learn to live in peace with them.

Perhaps, one day, should mankind step back from the brink of the abyss, we, our children, or our children's children will return, to once more serve and protect and guide the Star League in mankind's quest for the stars."

[Peiper]

Alexander Johannisburg, on 24 May 2012 - 09:28 PM, said:

I pose the idea that he was not the God-Savior of the Clans, nor was he the ******* Son of the Inner Sphere. I say the man was a man, and that he acted, as all men do, for the betterment of himself. Read whatever you wish to read into his life, or actions, but no man is more than the product of his time. The Time of the Great General reached his end, and he took his bow before somebody pushed him into an early grave.

Alexander Johannisburg

Alexander,
How would you know how General Kerensky died? You speak as if you have authority to knowing more than the author, Olivia of the Commonwealth Press, knows about your namesake. Olivia and I have given our opinion, and our opinions are based upon facts or general observations. You, however, seem to have either fabricated your own reality entirely, or are privy to information that not even this latest biographer knows of. If you know how Kerensky died, then you must know WHERE and WHEN he did so. You must also know the fates of those he was with - at least up to that point in history. If you're going to give an opinion, I would challenge you to cite your sources. Otherwise you are no more than a rumor-monger, and that is an abuse of this very 'Freedom of Speech' which the author Olivia uses as an excuse to write her debasement of a person she, nor I, nor you could have possibly known. I may not agree with her, or you, but we do not allude to a fabricated reality to back our positions.
Either move on to writing fiction, or prove your claims. Or perhaps you are devaluing your own 'namesake' to defend the image of one who wishes he was a greater man? If so, I challenge your puppeteer to reveal him or herself. Madness....

[Sleeping Bear]

General Kerensky should not be villified in such a fashion. His decision to leave the Inner Sphere seems vindicated by history. After his departure, over three hundred years of nearly unmitigated warfare followed. It's simply a case of the town bully leaving, and the next toughest sons of ******* around step up to take his place.

Humanity has been forged in a star-hot crucible these last few hundred years. All of the dross and impurities burned away. All that remains now is a flexible and supple core, hopefully one that can withstand whatever trials and trevails await us. What humanity needs now is to stop looking at the mistakes of the past, and address the problems of now, so that we can enter into a brighter future where only good things can come about.