Über dem Gesetz

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Über dem Gesetz
Product information
Type Novel
Author Michael Diel
Pages 352
Cover Artwork Swen Papenbrock
Publication information
Publisher Fantasy Productions GmbH
Product code 31005
First published 2005
ISBN-10 3890645178
ISBN-13 978-3890645179
MSRP 9,00 €
Content
Era Star League era
Timeline 2600 - 2605
Series Classic BattleTech Novels

Über dem Gesetz ("Above the law"), by Michael Diel, is a German-language BattleTech novel published by FanPro in 2005 as the 4th in their line of Classic BattleTech Novels. It has not been translated into English so far.

Overview

Canonicity

Written in German and exclusively published in that language so far, Die Albatros-Akte does not technically meet the current criteria for Canon in the BattleTech universe. As an official product published under a valid license, it should be regarded as apocryphal instead.

From the back cover (translated from German)

“ 2600: The assistant to the League Prosecutor General is found murdered in his office. Star League Secret Service Command agent David Gibbs is put on the case. The answer seems simple and at arm's reach, but the case gets increasingly complicated and contradictory. What really happened in that night of New Year's Eve? Gibbs keeps at the case and uncovers a conspiracy that appears to reach to the highest government circles and up to the First Lord of the Star League himself... ”

Plot Summary

Each chapter begins with a newscast item. Initially these come from worlds all over the Inner Sphere and cover a wide range of topics to convey general background information to the reader. The focus is on the strained relationship between the Terran Hegemony and the Draconis Combine, with the Combine massing troops along the border and its leader, Leonard Kurita, considered erratic and a possible threat.

Prologue

On New Year's Eve 2600, Bergan Industries supervisory board chairman Trevor Vaughn has invited selected guests to a party on New Avalon. Bergan Industries has been contracted by the Star League Quartermaster's Command to design a BattleMech around the newly developed LB-X Autocannon and received the blueprints for the new weapon, and Vaughn has decided to sell the secret on. Star League secret service (SBGK: Sternenbund-Geheimdienstkommando) agent David Gibbs infiltrates the party and sneaks into the penthouse where the data crystal with the copied blueprints is held. Following a shootout with security guards, he manages to secure the crystal and jump from a broken window in the skyscraper, gliding to safety with an ultra-thin parachute hidden in his suit.

Main plot

Back at the HQ in Berlin, Terra, Gibbs is informed on 3 January 2600 that on 06:30am on 31 December 2599, four intruders entered the secured private office of League Prosecutor General Amanda Blair in the Rocky Mountains and killed her assistant, League Public Prosecutor Joshua Turner (implied to have been Blair's lover). Gibbs and his superior, Horst Buchholz, agree that the highly professional assassins would have found ways to kill Blair, too, if she had been the target; they deduct the raid was aimed at Turner.

On 7 January, Draconis Combine Coordinator Leonard Kurita visits President of the Parliament Barton Avellar on the Outworlds Alliance capital world of Alpheratz. They discuss trade agreements, but Kurita, rather rude and abusive, rebuffs Avellar's attempts to negotiate a possible alliance, rejects offers of military cooperation and points out over Avellar's protests that he might as well attack the Alliance. The prearranged trade agreements are signed in an icy atmosphere.
In Parliament, Barton Avellar is confronted by his cousin Rodrigo Avellar 17 days later with allegations that he allied his realm with the Draconis Combine, causing considerable media fallout.

Having traced leads from the attack on Turner to the Maskirovka, Gibbs has singled out a woman as suspect - Maskirovka Major Jin Zhang, reportedly killed in an agressive counterspionage action. By the end of January he is observing her aboard a sea-going pleasure cruiser on the Federated Suns world of Logandale while she is preparing another assassination mission. After Gibbs disposes of a hitman Zhang sent after him, they have a showdown where Zhang ends up dangling over the ship's propeller from Gibbs' hand. In mortal danger, she admits to having been part of the team in the Rocky Mountains attack, but claims not to know anything else beyond the names of her co-perpetrators: LePaies, Price and Bradforth, the latter being the mission leader. She immediately tries to kill Gibbs when he pulls her to safety, but falls to her death in the attempt.

On 2 May, the Star League High Council meets at Unity City, Terra. The meeting is overshadowed by the death of Lady Shandra Noruff-Cameron who died of a stroke on 6 January. The attendant Lords—Captain-General Brion Marik II and his daughter Rhean, First Prince Alexander Davion and his son Zane, Archon Kevin Steiner-Dinesen, Chancellor Normann Aris—and First Lord Ian Cameron, with his son Nicholas and Prosecutor General Amanda Blair discuss Leonard Kurita, who is late to the meeting as usual. When he finally shows up, the council goes into session and an argument breaks out about the "extended DCMS maneuvers" Kurita's troops have been on for two years already. Concluding a shouting match, Ian Cameron orders him to stand down within two months or the ongoing maneuvers will be regarded as a declaration of war by the Star League.

By 24 July, Gibbs has identified Jacq LePaies and Mason Price using leads found in Zhang's cabin and is observing them on New Mendham as they prepare to kill (or so he believes) Cassie DeBurke. He realizes too late that the man he is observing is not Jacq LePaies and finds DeBurke alive, but unconscious, with her research results stolen by LePaies and Price. In the subsequent car chase, LePaies is killed. Price escapes into the Bergan Industries complex , but DeBurke rigs the fire control system to spot heat signatures, enabling the security staff to find Price. He escapes through the cargo terminal and hijacks a Chameleon TrainingMech. Gibbs procures a prototype Champion to fight him, and disables the Chameleon with several head hits from the LB-X Autocannon. Price is mortally wounded. Before dying, he tells Gibbs that Turner was not killed by them.

Zane Davion succeeds his great-grandfather Alexander as First Prince of the Federated Suns, and welcomes Barton Avellar on New Avalon on 26 August. Avellar later learns that the incriminating information apparently was delivered to his cousin from the Draconis Combine. On 7 October he visits Leonard Kurita on New Samarkand and accuses him of trying to oust him from his position; Kurita in turn complains that the firms the Combine was supposed to invest in were half bought up by Davion firms. Avellar leaves after a shouting match, and Kurita subsequently orders ISA agent Tai-sa Tetsuo Yatomo to have him killed.

Gibbs meanwhile tries to track down Bradforth on Brookeland while wondering if he was given false information when he was put on the case. He and Cassie DeBurke cannot prevent Bradforth from shooting Barton Avellar with a sniper rifle on Alpheratz and end up chasing him in a space taxi towards a Ryan Cartel JumpShip at the jump point, where Gibbs and Bradforth finally confront each other in space suits on the iceberg. Bradforth is killed without revealing answers to Gibbs.

On 17 February 2601 Nicholas Cameron

Characters

Featured places

Featured units

Featured BattleTech

BattleMechs

Vehicles

Aerospace Fighters

DropShips

JumpShips

WarShips

Other

  • MS Pinafore, 56,000-ton sea-going pleasure cruiser on Logandale
  • '98 T-Bird sports hovercraft
  • Avanti aircar

Notes

  • The cover depicts the scene of Gibbs and DeBurke running from Price when he appears piloting a Chameleon
  • According to the Bergan Industries chairman in the prologue, LB-X stands for "Large Bore - Extended" Autocannon.
  • On the sidelines, the prologue mentions that a team of House Steiner's Lyran Intelligence Corps managed to steal the blueprints of the first BattleMech on New Earth in early February 2455 in cooperation with AsRoc, the Rim Worlds Republic secret service. This is contradicted by other sources, most notably Prometheus Unbound: The event occurred on Hesperus II, and AsRoc was not involved (though the LIC used a JumpShip with RWR registry for one possible escape plan, which might have caused rumours).
  • For the Outworlds Alliance parliament, 37 delegates are mentioned, each representing one member planet (suggesting the OA, as of 2600, comprises 37 planets)

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