Shrapnel (anthology)

Shrapnel (subtitle: Fragments from the Inner Sphere) is a collection of graphic artwork and short stories set in the BattleTech universe in the "Classic" era around 3025 up until the Fourth Succession War that begun in 3028.

Content

Besides an introduction from Jordan K. Weisman and "ContribuTech", a three-page rundown of BattleTech designers, authors, artists and editors listing their respective contributions by George O'Dajungle, the book contains the following short stories:

Old MechWarriors never...

(by Ken St. Andre)

Trev-R is an old Solaris arena MechWarrior and down on his luck when he happens to save Vayil Oonthrax, son of Baron Irvxx Oonthrax, from some muggers in an ill-reputed area of Xolaris City. The boy turns out to be a fan of Trev-R and aspires to become an arena MechWarrior himself, so he secretly enlists Trev-R to train him. Long before he is ready to fight, young Oonthrax receives an Atlas and a heavily rigged battle is arranged where bribes and sabotage are to ensure the boy's victory, while his opponent is set up to lose the fight and quite possibly his life. Only a few days before the event does Trev-R find out that none other than he himself is the "useless old veteran" who is going to be sacrificed by Baron Oonthrax and Arena Master Kandar Kant. His very life at stake, Trev-R feverently prepares to turn the tables in his favour. If he lives, this may be his last chance to make a profit and get off the Gaming World.

The exact timeframe of the story is indeterminate as no dates are provided. From the context of the book it can be assumed to take place between 3025 and 3028.

Black Cats cross your path

(by Tara Gallagher and James Lanigan)

The Black Cats, an all-infantry mercenary unit, defend a city against a rather unprofessional BattleMech company posing as the Black Widow Company and prove that even infantry can down a 'Mech with ingenuity and some luck.

The exact location and timeframe of the story is indeterminate as no dates are provided. From the context of the book it can be assumed to take place between 3025 and 3028.

This story was previously published as an introduction in the CityTech rulebook.

Think like a Liao

(by Susan Putney)

Tormana Liao is the enstranged son of Maximilian Liao, Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation. He has constantly failed to please his father or at least live up to his expectations, and has consciously stopped trying by now. He married Hanya No Cha, who was born to a commoner family on Brazen Heart, the secret prison colony in the Sarna Commonality, and refused to divorce her despite his father strongly disapproving of the marriage.

During a public parade on Liao on 10 January 3026, Tormana fails his last chance to reconcile with his father despite the urgings of his elder sister Candace and his godmother Chandra Ling. He also inadvertedly insults the father of a Davion regimental commander working for Michael Hasek-Davion during the event. It sickens him that people constantly look for a deeper meaning in his every word and action and always assume him to be scheming simply because he is a Liao, although he has no political ambitions whatsoever and really only wants to serve his beloved nation as a good soldier.

He then transfers back to the planet Kali in the Algol system aboard the DropShip Thunderfist, where he serves with the Ariana Fusiliers. Eleven days later, a mere six hours after his arrival on Kali, a message with the Brazen Heart emblem is slipped under his door calling him to come alone to coordinates some sixty kilometers from his post at Warex Base.

Enroute in his Vindicator and shortly before arriving at the given coordinates, he muses if he might be walking into a trap when suddenly another Vindicator appears and deactivates Tormana's 'Mech with a remote control. The other pilot explains that he has been surgically altered to take Tormana's place as a Doppelganger on Maximilian Liao's orders. Even if Tormana would somehow manage to return to base alive he would be killed by agents there if he did not give the correct passwords. However, the Doppelganger is unaware of the note when Tormana mentions it and claims he simply followed him out of the base when Tormana suddenly left. He discards Tormana's warnings about a possible trap as a trick, but just when he is about to kill the helpless Tormana they suddenly receive a radio transmission from a nearby Davion strike force. The note had indeed been a trap and only having his 'Mech deactivated before arriving saved Tormana. Now 21 enemy BattleMechs are moving out against the unsuspecting Liao base.

Since the atmosphere on Kali is not breathable, both Tormana and his Doppelganger realize that they will die if their base is destroyed and have to cooperate to save the base, and thereby themselves. They agree on a truce: Tormana provides the secret passwords to his ComStar trust accounts and other personal information while the other man reveals his Maskirovka connections and passwords. Thus, if the Doppelganger lives, he can take Tormana's identity; if Tormana lives, he can pose as his own Doppelganger to avoid being murdered.

Using Tormana's intimate knowledge of the barren planet and its peculiar natural anomalies, the two men proceed to prepare an ambush for the Davion force but they have to remember that they are mortal enemies at the same time, as only one of them must return to their base alive.

In the story, Algol is described as a system with four suns and Kali as a barren and inhospitable planet without even a breathable atmosphere. However, other official (canonical) material from the WizKids homepage describes Algol as a G5V sun with 9 planets (no multiple suns are mentioned, although not expressly ruled out either), and the fourth planet as a veritable breadbasket world. It must therefore be assumed that Kali is another planet in the same system.

Dance of Vengence

(by William H. Keith, Jr.)

This story is told through flashbacks during a honor duel to the death between Chu-i Salvadore Tyrell and Sho-sa Victor Garreth during a reception on Kajikazawa:

Tyrell's Raiders had been a Kurita auxiliary force of company size, originally from Kajikazawa, under the command of Salvadore's father. They were later attached to the Second Benjamin Regulars as auxiliary reserve troops on the planet of New Wessex. The bataillon commander, Sho-sa Victor Garreth, had ordered the company to guard an important river crossing against a Steiner force of ostensibly equal strength. However, the attacking force turned out to be not a company, but a heavy regiment, and crushed the defenders in short order, killing Salvadore's sister Theresa in her Shadow Hawk and forcing Salvadore himself to eject from his Centurion which was also destroyed.

Upon returning to his base on foot after three days in the wilderness, Salvadore Tyrell found that the survivors of his unit had been hanged for cowardice in the face of the enemy because they alledgedly retreated from a fight with roughly equal numbers against explicit orders after having suffered only light damage. Their remaining BattleMechs had become property of the Second Benjamin Regulars, who had already lifted off-planet. The destrucion of Tyrell's Raiders had obviously been a plot by Victor Garreth to acquire their valuable 'Mechs for his own troops, sacrificing what he considered a worthless militia unit.

Dispossessed and with no options, Salvadore returned home to plot his revenge against the treacherous commander. Almost a year later he was contacted by Duke Hassid Ricol and hired to create the Red Duke's personal 'Mech company which he came to call "Tyrell's Terrors" after his father's 'Mech (a Dragon). After Ricol's return from a venture in the Free Worlds League (implied to be the recovery of the Helm Memory Core), he informs Salvadore about a reception on Kajikazawa where he finally gets his chance to confront Garreth, seeing that Victor Garreth is an arrogant liability to his nation and how Salvadore's vemdetta is justified.

No exact dates are provided but references to other events suggest Tyrell's Raiders were destroyed around 3025 and the duel to take place shortly after the recovery of the Helm Memory Core.

The story is consistently named "Dance of Vengence" [sic] in both the table of contents and in its title.

And then there was the time...

(by Mark O'Green)

While an Slayer AeroSpace Fighter pilot boasts about his exploits, namely a dogfight with the Stuka of famous Karl Stephens and how he could have shot him down, the rather bored and distracted thoughts of his female attendance provide a stark contrast to his story.

No detailed dates are given, but references to a discussion of the Kurita pilot with famous James Doogan of Wolf's Dragoons suggest the event to take place during or after the Dragoons' employment with the Draconis Combine.

Dispatch

(by Elizabeth T. Danforth and Michael A. Stackpole)

A sequence of military mail traffic consisting of orders and brief reports illustrates how Snord's Irregulars embarrassed the Second Free World Guards in 3020 through a successful objective raid on the Kincaid peninsula on the world of McAffe, despite being expected to raid the facility. In this raid they reclaimed a collection of various pieces of art previously lost to House Marik forces. The last message is a sarcastic message to Janos Marik himself by Cranston Snord, thanking him for the items on behalf of his daughter.

Legion Team

(by William H. Keith, Jr.)

Tracy Maxwell Kent is a Phoenix Hawk pilot with the Gray Death Legion. During a raid on Shionoha she commands the light 'Mechs of the training cadre (two Locusts, Stingers and Wasps each) on a mission to destroy an undefended factory. However, on their way to the target they stumble right into an enemy staging area and find themselves surrounded by strong forces. The resulting engagement will later be celebrated as the Victory at Mifune Pass for the Legion, but it is an ordeal to teach Tracy what it means to take command and is in fact only won by sheer luck.

The story takes place after the Legion had to fight Marik forces on Helm, but no exact date is provided.

Where lies the Honor?

(by William H. Keith, Jr.)

Subtitle is a Haiku: Where lies the honor/in bonds with men of terror/or naked power?

On the poor backwater Kurita world of Kawabe, Corpsman Yancey of the Civilian Guidance Corps becomes increasingly irritated over the dishonourable and despotic behaviour of his sworn master, Prefect Vander Hassan. The execution of a peddler who only tried to keep his family fed is one injustice too many, and Yancey finds himself trapped between his oath to his master and his honor to serve the people of his homeworld.

The exact timeframe of the story is indeterminate as no dates are provided.

Natasha Kerensky: A biomedical report

(by Tara Gallagher and James Lanigan)

Excerpts from a secret service file on Natasha Kerensky that include references to a biomedical report from Chukchi III, 3020, an interview by Misha Auburn dating 7 April 3023, and various other material reveal that the "Black Widow" has repeatedly undergone plastic surgery between approximately 3007 and 3026 but little more. The interview transcript raises more questions than are answered as Kerensky is obviously skilled in evading all questions about her past and seems to toy with the interviewer, adding to the overall mystery surrounding her.

Painting the town

(by Mark O'Green)

In an attempt to capture Theodore Kurita, who is (falsely) rumoured to be around, a mysterious group of Marauder BattleMechs without insignia or markings, and sporting the exceptionally rare original armour of the design without any patches, attacks a Kurita outpost. After the destruction of all Kurita tanks and vehicles, five Kurita soldiers take up the fight, making ingenious use of paint grenades and utility chemicals found at a paint factory they had been guarding.

The exact location or timeframe of the story is indeterminate as no dates are provided.

The race is not to the swift

(by Bear Peters)

Captain Cyrus St. George is leading his unit, the "Swords of St. George" Company (Keshii's 131st Bataillon, 33rd Marik Militia), in a raid on Solaris by his regiment together with the mercenary unit Seguin's Strikers. The raiders encounter far more resistance than anticipated, including Lyran regular units and Hansen's Roughriders, and the attack turns into a retreat under heavy fire. With the regimental command structure coming apart around him, St. George tries to organize an orderly retreat of his forces while taking heavy losses from superior enemy firepower and air superiority.

St. George's command lance consists of his own Shadow Hawk, a Crusader, a Wolverine-6M and a Wasp in the story. The anthology features a matching picture depicting these 'Mechs; the same picture is found on the Ral Partha "Medium Lance" package cover and the Black Thorn Blues novel. As these 'Mechs are all unseen, no BattleTech products shot it anymore.

A second picutre illustrates the story's final scene, depicting two 'Mechs (an Atlas and a Cicada) with the Hansen's Roughriders insignia. This picture, too, was used as a cover on other products.

The story does not provide dates but must obviously take place sometimes after the formation of Hansen's Roughriders, i.e. after the end of the Marik civil war in 3015.

Final exam

(by Bear Peters)

At the Free Worlds League's renowned Princefield Academy, Cadet Willis Crawford beats the computer at the tactical plot simulator with a bold and innovative maneuver under the watchful eyes of retired General and Professor of 'Mech Deployment and Assault Strategy Sizigmund MaqAloo. The professor acknowledges his success but points out that it entirely depended on the computer's predictability; against a human opponent the simulated operation would have cost him his DropShip. Crawford remains certain of his skills, however, and his younger friend and classmate Anton Marik reassures him that between them, they can "lick anything"...

According to the sourcebook Brush Wars, Willis Crawford was recommended to Captain-General Janos Marik by Duke Anton Marik to be assigned as commanding General to an attack on Solaris in or shortly after 3002. Despite failing to meet objectives in the initial landings, General Crawford pressed the attack until his forces suffered dreadful casualties of over 50%. The blame for the desaster was laid at Crawford's feet and he was court-martialed and shot in an attempt to control the political fallout. The death of his friend supposedly was one of the reasons for Anton Marik to stage a coupt against his brother Janos.

No dates are provided, but Duke Anton Marik, the younger brother of Captain-General Janos Marik, is shown here as a junior academy cadet; he was killed at the end of his unsuccessful rebellion in 3015.

Judas blind

(by Michael A. Stackpole)

Six weeks after the Kell Hounds withdrew from Murchison, Patrick Kell returns to the planet for a covert mission. He meets a mysterious woman named Takara, the "Little Dragon", and enacts an intricate plan to secure the books that House Kurita could recover at Halstead Station. Patrick and Takara have different agendas and do not trust each other. They repeatedly cheat and betray each other over the course of the operation which ultimately ends in a decisive success for the Kell Hounds, including the capture of the Union-class DropShip "Fukushu" (which the Kell Hounds rename to "Nuada Argetlan"), because of a single detail Takara had not known. After all that happened, Patrick finds himself hoping that Takara would come with him.

Although no dates are given in the story, other sources state that the the Kell Hounds captured the Kurita DropShip that would become the "Nuada Argetlan" on 25 August 3014.

The story, told by Patrick Kell from a first person perspective, presents one Tai-sa Harrison Ukita as the ISF Colonel who secured and shipped books from Halstead Station to Murchinson, and gives a detailed account on how Patrick Kell arranged for the Kell Hounds to secure the books and a Kurita DropShip from the 27th Dieron Regulars. Another canonical source (the Kell Hounds sourcebook) relates an interview with one Chu-sa (Lt.Col.) Imorie Sanders who tells an entirely different story about how the Kell Hounds took the books and ships from another regiment, the 36th Dieron Regiment.