Letters Home (campaign AAR)

[merrick]

13-06-3027 Panzyr

Hi Tatty,

I got your message, thanks. Yes, I think sending the kids to stay with Jannie's Aunt Betsy up in Hammamea would be good idea. You and Jannie taking yourselves off to Aunt Betsy's in Hammamea would be an even better idea. And assuming that there are still cabins to rent up in the high valleys, hiring one under another name and dropping out of sight until this is all over would be the best idea of all. Don't worry about Jannie's job, or yours, or the kids' schools, just go. I'm serious. Espinoza has started adding lists of "traitors" to his propaganda vids, and I'm sweating bullets every time a new one comes in that I'll see your name on it. And if Espinoza's goons come looking seriously, they won't take long to track down Aunt Betsy.

So to Panzyr. The war is biting hard in the outworlds - we just don't have enough to keep everything running and fend off the Directorate and bloody Ostergaard. The man's a bandit in House colours - actually that's an insult to most bandits, who would rather loot than burn. He's shooting for the full-blown Jinjiro Kurita just-kill-everyone, as if enough blood will bring his son back. As if half the the people he's shooting at haven't lost people themselves, and as if being a Mech commander was about who can wreck the most planets the fastest, First Succession style.

This makes him a perfect fit for Espinoza, of course, so the Directorate set up another Ostergaard special on Panzyr - sending out raiders to wreck the food distribution network and push the place over the edge into full-on famine. We got called in the defend the spaceport, and by the time we got there the Taurian commandos were knocking on the door and the House Decimus troops had panicked and were cowering in the cellar rather than manning the turrets. Cue a nice little bug-squishing mission, trying to make sure we didn't leak any commando teams while being shot at by Mechs while screaming on the comms for the damn turret gunners to stop gibbering and get back to their stations. Dekker was the star, charging through a mob of them solo to rescue a field hospital the groundpounders had abandoned. The man may be a head-case, but there's crazy and there's Ostergaard and I know which I prefer. Anyway, it worked out all right in the end, mostly because their Mech support was only a light raiding group - none of the big Mechs we've been seeing recently. Hopefully it means even Ostergaard is running short of Mechs.

Two follow-up missions on Panzyr, cleaning up bases the Directorate had tried to put in while we were busy with Ostergaard. No real troubles there, they hadn't got much on planet to defend them with. I took the King Crab out for one mission just to see what it was like - it's big, it moves like a crippled rock and you need the armour because it's not dodging anything - but it throws enough metal to blow a Wolvie-K away in one volley, which is kinda scary if you think about it.

I didn't used to think it was scary. I didn't used to spend time worrying where the stray shots went or what was going to happen after we broke orbit. And I didn't used to feel old. Kingwolf beat me in a pickup basketball game the other day. That didn't used to happen and I certainly didn't used to feel as bad the next day. This war feels like it's being going on for ever. Oh well. Collette's almost friends with me again and we have a new op coming up that just might pull the rug out from under friend Ostergaard.

Be safe
Aleks


[OOC - The King Crab doesn't have a name yet. Loadout is 2x AC-10++ from dead Gallants, 2x LL, SRM-6 for luck]

 

[stnylan]

The man may be a head-case, but there's crazy and there's Ostergaard

This is a great line, and it is great to see Dekker getting some love

 

[Rymeer]

I am liking this writing style. Even when not intended, there are lines to read between the lines written. Plus, one can always go back and re-read everything and see the progression of events in an overall perspective.

That Crab is pretty lethal... I wonder what Aleks' people will do with some of the new Mechs they can lay their hands on, like a Highlander... and if Merrick upgrades to the 'Heavy Metal' DLC, all those lovely Mechs just released!

 

[merrick]

05-07-3027 Outbound to Itrom

Tatty,

I'm really hoping you took my advice and got out of town. Every time I think I've seen the worst from Espinoza or Ostergaard or this damn war, the galaxy goes and proves me wrong.

Our special op went bad. So what else is new, but we crossed paths with bloody Vicky Espinoza again. We were on Guldra, we were meant to be a pickup for Lord Madeira - Lady Kamea's main squeeze, decent enough guy for an aristo - who was meant to be raiding the family blackmail files for something that would put a wedge between Espinoza and the Taurians. Except that it turned out that Vicky had got to him first, and set up a nice little ambush. Well, the little ambush wasn't much of a problem - the Lady was with us in person and between Mastiff, Primus, Amazing Grace and that Star League monster she rides, nothing little was going to be more than a speed bump. Believe it or not, at the time I was mostly mad at Vicky for sending a bunch of her people to die just so she could "Gotcha" Kamea over the comms.

And then she put Lord Madeira on, and started working him over with a shockwhip while boasting about it to Kamea. It got Kamea just about mad enough to melt armour without her lasers - and all I could think of was what the hell I'd do if it was you or Sal in there instead of him. And all I could do was grit my teeth and try not to listen and try to talk Kamea out of charging off after him - which was what the bitch-queen wanted her to do, of course. At least - I'm thinking that was what she told herself. I can't believe she really expected the Lady to go charging into a fortress to get killed - she must have known her better than that, and the war hasn't made any of us any softer. I think what she really wanted was to make Kamea suffer, because she could, and if a bunch of other people had to suffer as well, then so much the better.

Well, in the end we got out of there with what we came for. What, not who. You'll have seen it on the newsfeeds if you're still on the net - Espinoza arranged the Perdition Massacre. Snake-eyed bastard killed eleven thousand people just to get the Taurians shook up enough to take his alliance offer. Even for Espinoza, we had to listen to that twice before we could believe it. Only good thing, the Taurians care about their people. I guess Calderon is going to order Ostergaard to turn right around and bring Espinoza back to Taurus in a box.

But ... I still can't get it out of my head. Even Vicky didn't want to be part of it - Espinoza had to snow her with a bunch of "greater good" malarkey. If you have to fast-talk a raving psycho like Vicky into going along with your plans, what does it say about your plans? And if Espinoza would do that to a bunch of people he'd never even met, what wouldn't he do?

I haven't been sleeping properly since we lifted. Collette says I've been muttering half the night and I know I've been waking up sweating and shaking. This war can't end soon enough.

Be safe
Aleks.


Rymeer - Glad you like the style. The advantage of the format is that I don't have to spell out everything. - I was trying not to get bogged down in endless blow-by-blows.
Oh and <spoiler> the campaign was finished before Heavy Metal, so none of the new Mechs, I'm afraid.
Stnylan - Dekker, despite his best attempts, has made it through the campaign despite being my lead scout for most of it. I even took his cockpit mod away to upgrade Triple-X's sensors.

 

[stnylan]

I don't doubt Aleks is going to have a pronounced case of PTSD after all of this. Unfortunately the 31st century seems to have other concerns than decent mental health.

 

[Rymeer]

Good thing you finished BEFORE Heavy Metal. Buuuuuttt... on the other hand, It would be most satisfying to pound little Vicky into scrap with one of the new Bull Sharks *evil grin*. I started out a whole new game with the Heavy Metal, myself. I am also thinking of starting a new round of the story campaign as well, using the new DLC... and see what happens. The Flea's Coil Gun alone would make it worth it, But then there is the Phoenix Hawk, the Warhammer, Marauder, and Annihilator, and of couse, the Bull Shark. I'm looking forwards to replaying the Story Campaign again. Ohhhhh... nasty thought... Get 3 Fleas and a Raven! *ponders the sheer evil of it all*

 

[Idhrendur]

I just read through all of this after @stnylan pointed me towards it. While I know only a little about the setting and even less about the campaign, this is quite fascinating to read.

 

[merrick]

08-08-3027 Ryan's Fate

Tatty,

I don't know if I'm writing this to you or myself. I know that there's no real chance of you getting it, at least not until after this is all over, but I need to send something, just so I can go on telling myself that there's a sane universe out there. Just so I can go on telling myself you're all all right.

Since Guldra, we've had a full month of not much, except rattling around the Argo chewing our nails and trying not to think about what might be going on. Turned out there wasn't much call for us on Itrom - one Directorate holdout, routine - so we moved on to Ryan's Fate, where the Restoration was training up a new Mech company with help from the Canopians. We got to babysit them through their first real combat op, and, well, it was lucky they weren't going up against the Taurian A-team, because "flock of sheep" about covers it. Decent in the sims, maybe, but a lot to learn about coordinating on a real battlefield. Fortunately, the Directorate didn't have enough left to make them pay, and we got them all through OK apart from one poor sucker who wandered too close to a Victor and got his head punched out. First mission. That went great for morale.

Waiting gets people in different ways. GV and Yang are holed up in the Mechbay, tweaking missile systems. Behemoth is breaking punchballs in the gym. Dekker's been overdubbing Espinoza vids in cartoon voices, but you can see his heart's not in it. Collette started talking about plans for after the war, but I told her to stop. The Mechwarriors who start thinking about the future are the ones who don't get one - I've seen it before.

But we finally got word that the Taurians have dumped Espinoza and Ostergaard has been recalled to face war-crimes charges. Serves him right. I spent half a day recording testimony in case they need any more evidence. And with him gone, the Restoration can finally push forward again.

Be well,
Aleks


[OOC] I was not impressed with the AI/scripting on that one. Mission was to guard two lances of rookies, and since they were all in heavy/assault Mechs I wasn't anticipating much of a problem, especially with only one enemy lance as opposition. But there was a ridge between us and them, and instead of shooting the AI allies all lurked around behind me out of line of sight of the enemy, except that every other turn one of them would stick his head up to get shot at. Then a second enemy lance turned up. Then I finished off the last of the first lance - and this obviously tripped a trigger in the script because the whole lot of them immediately set off on a blind sprint towards the extraction point. Straight through the enemy reinforcements. Escort missions <sigh>.

stnylan - The campaign story does a good job of making the war get progressively nastier as it goes on. Plus when I started this neither I nor Aleks had thought through the implications of Tatty and her family being on Coromodir as the campaign played out...
Rymeer - I haven't played any Heavy Metal yet (picked up Oxygen Not Included on the same weekend...) but everything I'm hearing about it is good. Certainly planning to play. I'll probably try a Career next time, though.
Idhrendur - Glad you thought the trip was worthwhile.

 

[Specialist290]

Started reading through this, and though I'm still working my way through I figured I'd drop a line to let you know that I'm enjoying this tale immensely I like the way you use the format to bring out little details about the characters and their line of work that might be otherwise ignored in a straightforward battle report; it really helps put a human face on the trials and tribulations of warfare in the BattleTech universe, letting you peek behind the budget spreadsheets and damage readouts to see the glimmers of individual triumph and tragedy that lay beyond.

I also want to credit both you and @stnylan with giving me the push to actually buy the game while it's on sale this week. I've been on the fence for a while, as I've never really dived that deeply into the setting aside from one or two brushes with a few older Mechwarrior games, but the excellent writing from the both of you has tipped the scale for me.

 

[stnylan]

Whilst it can be very aggravating I always try to take a laid back approach to scripting/AI snaffus - that there is nothing an AI does, no matter how stupid, that real live humans haven't done multiple times over the course of human history.

 

[merrick]

27-08-3027 Tyrlon

Tatty,

I'm not planning to send this, I just thought I should write it anyway. At least, if things go wrong for me, someone may find this, and deliver it, and you'll know what I was thinking when we jumped from Tyrlon. And if everything goes wrong, at least maybe they'll read it, and someone will know that the last of the Qins went down in a good cause.

I'm rambling, I should stop. I should start at the beginning. With the Taurians gone and Ostergaard out of the picture, we could finally move on Tyrlon, which was Espinoza's last stronghold before Coromodir. Funny thing is, despite everything that's happened I never thought we could fail. It was Kingwolf's birthday (he's old enough to drink. Really.) and we threw a party in the lounge a couple of days before we hit orbit. Forty-eight hours later we dropped outside the capital to take down the anti-Dropship defences. Everyone was up for it - I've never known a better crew. The operation went off like clockwork - they only had a handful of Mechs and vehicles to defend the generators, and they tried to cover the gap with artillery. But it's hard to hit Mechs with plotted fire from ten klicks away and we kept moving until we could close down the spotters and take them out.

There was some tougher fighting afterwards when the Directorate tried to rally and push us off the drop zone. Espinoza had kept back his heavy lances, and some of them had some damn big mechs. But we've got some big Mechs too and Yang and GV had them kitted out a treat. And we've all been fighting this war from the start, while they were hiding at the back scaring civilians. Everyone was a star. Kingwolf defeated a Black Knight in a one-on-one duel, Collette had three heavy Mech kills in one mission, Dekker brought down a Stalker by jumping straight over it and blowing its rear armour out. (I was in the King Crab for most of it, after a JagerMech got a lucky shot through Mastiff's armour. I still don't like it. It hits like a sledgehammer at range, but in a firefight you're basically standing there taking hits and hoping the other guys' armour gives out before yours does). In the end, we must have taken down close to two companies of heavy/assault Mechs and did it without anyone getting hurt, or any Mechs needing more than minor fixes. We even picked up a Grasshopper and another T-Bolt in salvage. We're on a mission from God.

And next stop is Coromodir. Espinoza has nothing left but his own House guard and whatever toadies and bootlickers haven't had the sense to run. No reason to wait and wait for him to come up with something new. He couldn't stop us on Tyrlon and he isn't going to beat us on Coromodir. We're coming under the Cormorant banner, and we're going to plant it in Espinoza's rotten heart.

I'm not planning to send this, I'm planning to deliver it.
I'll be meeting you on Coromodir, capital of the Aurigan Coalition.

Tatty, I'm coming home.
Aleks.



Specialist290 - Glad to have you along. Hope you enjoy the ride. The thing about the Battletech universe is that because it's been around so long, it's built up a depth of lore and backstory that most game universes can't begin to match. And HBS have done a really good job of bringing that lore into the game.
stnylan - Oh, I agree. Accept no artificial substitutes. Original 100% organic idiocy only!

 

[stnylan]

Let us hope Aleks really can deliver this letter in person, and that Tatty has somehow not been picked up by Espinoza.

 

[Rymeer]

Started reading through this, and though I'm still working my way through I figured I'd drop a line to let you know that I'm enjoying this tale immensely I like the way you use the format to bring out little details about the characters and their line of work that might be otherwise ignored in a straightforward battle report; it really helps put a human face on the trials and tribulations of warfare in the BattleTech universe, letting you peek behind the budget spreadsheets and damage readouts to see the glimmers of individual triumph and tragedy that lay beyond.

I also want to credit both you and @stnylan with giving me the push to actually buy the game while it's on sale this week. I've been on the fence for a while, as I've never really dived that deeply into the setting aside from one or two brushes with a few older Mechwarrior games, but the excellent writing from the both of you has tipped the scale for me.

One of us! One of us! hehehe.

Seriously, Welcome to the game my friend. The game that I longed for and dreamed about for decades after I started playing the tabletop version in 1984... yeah, I am THAT old.

HBS has done a bang up job taking the tabletop game to the PC, and blowing things like Mech Commander out of the water. Personally, I prefer this game to the 1st and 3rd person shooter Mech games like Mechwarrior, even though I played the hell out of them as each one came out. With the newest update to the game, with or without the three DLCs, the game is now Mod supportive... which means updates will no longer invalidate your Rogue Tech gaming experience, or other Modded version of the game.

Now, with the base game, AND all three DLCs, things like Rogue Tech and Battletech Advanced 3062, will really rock with all the additional tech, weapons, and Mechs now in the game.

 

[merrick]

18-09-3027 Coromodir

Tatty,

I hope you're OK, wherever you are. I was praying you'd taken my advice and disappeared somewhere - I didn't imagine that you would disappear so well that I couldn't find you, or that you wouldn't pop back up when it was all over. But given the state the city's in, and how messed up communications are, I can understand that it probably makes sense for you to stay put until things have calmed down.

I went straight up to the house as soon as it was safe to move around the capital without a Mech. I'm afraid there's not much there. The South Side got the worst of the blast when Ostergaard's Fortress came down and what with the fighting and the confusion there was no-one organised to put out the fires. I died inside a hundred times when I heard they'd been pulling bodies out from under the ruins, until I found one of your old neighbours who told me that the house had been empty for weeks and he'd heard that squatters had moved in. Mr Sharma, if you want to thank him, lives at 141 Firs Street. Lived. The street's gone, he's in a field hospital with burns and he's lost everything, even his cat. I almost hugged him and then I felt awful for being so happy someone else was dead instead of you.

I can't stop thinking about it - I was so worried about you getting hurt and in the end, if you hadn't got out of town, I could have been the one who ended up killing you. It was my team that ran the op that brought the Fortress down. No choice - Ostergaard was a maniac who'd have slaughtered the whole Restoration in some mad dream of vengeance, then gone looking for more people to kill - but when we were planning it, we didn't exactly stop to think of the likely consequences of wiping a big Dropship's systems when it's on final landing burn. At least I didn't - Kamea may have done, and given the order anyway, not because she's hard but because she's smart enough to keep her eyes on the big picture not matter how badly she's hurting. And I know she's hurting, however she manages to look on the vids.

It wasn't even a tough mission - thanks to a bunch of heroes from the Restoration army whose names won't be in any of the vids, driving APCs through heavy weapons crossfire to get to the turret controls. After that it was easy - Espinoza's people didn't have enough to stop us and their counterattacks were too little to late. I was in the Grasshopper because we'd been warned mobility was critical, so naturally I ended up going hand-to hand with a Banshee and wishing I'd brought the King Crab. But between me, Dekker, Blockade (he's calling the jumping T-Bolt "Judgement" which strikes me as an even more dodgy name than "Justicar"), Behemoth and the turrets, even the Banshee didn't stay up for long. Then it's pick everyone up - no losses on our side, even those loonies in the APCs got out OK - pile into the Leopard and it's back to toasts and victory parades all round.

At least I got to see that bitch-queen Vicky Espinoza get hers. She had the nerve to challenge the Lady to a showdown after the city had fallen, and Kamea was mad enough to take her on - with me (back in old Mastiff), Behemoth and GV for backup. It wasn't much of a fight in the end - we found a good position and then GV went to work with the LRMs. That brought them charging forward onto our guns and we knocked them down one by one. I opened up Vicky's Mech for her but it was Kamea who got the kill-shot, as she should.

Afterwards, I realised why it hadn't been much of a fight. We were a team - we haven't worked directly with Kamea much but she knows to trust us, we were in it together and we knew the drill. Vicky's lot, well, they knew how to shoot and drive their Mechs but they weren't a team, just a bunch of no-goods all trying to hide behind each other when the fire got heavy. One of them wandered off and took cover on the far side of the arena while his boss was getting focussed on. You can put top-end Mechs and fancy gear together with an attitude like that and it'll still add up to nothing. That's the difference between a leader like Kamea and one like Vicky, I guess - or her old man.

I'm leaving a copy of this at Jannie's office - there's about three people there and the lights aren't working but the open-for-business sign is on the door - at the Refugee Office and Central Post at the spaceport. And I'm mailing it to Aunt Betsy (I got her address at Jannie's office - I told you she wasn't secure). The Restoration Command know where to find me - if I'm not up on the Argo, I'm down at the Castle, helping get things sorted out ready for the Coronation.

There's a new monument at the Castle. Espinoza put it up - a memorial to the heroic defenders of the Directorate who fell in battle against the rebels. Our people wanted to knock it down but Kamea said no. Every time I see it, I can't help thinking that I probably put a bunch of those names there - Mechwarriors who fought us on Panzyr or Smithon or Itrom. I haven't had the nerve to check the records and find out.

Kamea would have, I know - she'd have read every name and every record and learned who they were and how they came to die in her and Espinoza's war, and then gone to do what she could for the ones they left behind. That's why she's a better person than I will ever be and why I'm not worried about her turning into a maniac like her uncle, no matter how many hard choices she has to make.

It's helped me come to a decision. I'll tell you about it when we meet up.

See you soon
Aleks


[OOC - And that concludes the campaign. There's one more post to come, wrapping things up.]

 

[stnylan]

I really hope there is a happy ending to this. Aleks deservers one - but it wouldn't be untrue to the Battletech universe for it to pan out otherwise. Plenty of triumph and tragedy in this wonderful creation, and I wonder if we will get the public triumph of the Restoration made hollow by a tragedy for Aleks.

 

[BARBOSA (Aries)]

Very nice! I´m also hoping for a happy ending

 

[merrick]

21-10-3027 Qin Estate, Guldra

Tatty,

I still don't believe we missed each other on Coromodir. I didn't want to leave so soon after the Coronation, but the High Lady needed someone to handle things on Guldra, Alex Madeira was in no shape to travel and Kamea wouldn't have let go of him if he was, so I ended up taking the job.

It was great to finally hear from you. I'm afraid I can't help much about the house - I put in a word with the Reconstruction Bureau but they're backed up to the far side of forever, so you're better off trying to track down the insurers and see if they're still in business and will believe that "hit by falling Dropship" is included in the coverage. Still, if the worst comes to the worst all you've lost is a house and some furniture. Even if Tam has found himself a girlfriend with an upper-valleys accent, then you still came off better than a lot of people.

I won't lie - I wasn't planning to leave Coromodir so soon, or without seeing you, but I was planning to leave. Ever since I saw the South Side and the mess Ostergaard's Fortress had made of the farmlands in the Southfold, I didn't think I'd be able to live on the same planet, knowing I was responsible for that. And I certainly didn't think it would be fair to ask the South Siders to live on the same planet as me, knowing the same thing. I guess Kamea would be out there every day helping with the rebuilding, but only some of us are heroes.

So - Guldra. Alex Madeira told me it was a beautiful world, and he wasn't lying. It's also a rich world and one with plenty of free space, especially now with so many of the previous landholders in jail, in hiding or bunked into exile when it was clear that Espinoza would fall. Qin Estate is the former summer residence of a south-continent barley baron. It's basically a small palace with a wonderful position overlooking the Sevenmeres. Right now it's furnished with army-surplus, I don't know what half the switches do and it's overrun with semi-civilised Mechwarriors. I have plans, but even as it is I still want to show it to you.

The Mechwarriors will be moving on soon. GV is taking the Argo deeper into the Sphere - he plans to build up a proper mercenary company with Dekker and Behemoth as his lance commanders (over/under on the last one is six weeks for Behemoth to get into a brawl and lose her stripes, but stranger things have happened). Darius is with them, and Sumire - I expected Sumire to settle down and spend the money, but she says that once she's got the Argo set up the way she wants she'll have all that and piloting too. We all had a long meeting with Kamea, and she spent most of it trying to talk Yang and the Doc into joining the new University she's setting up on Coromodir (between you and me and the left-over bugs, our new High Lady is a smooth operator, which is all to the good). I don't know if she succeeded - both of them have got the wanderlust pretty bad.

Blockade stayed on Coromodir - he's a Captain in the new Guard. I thought Kingwolf might stay too, but he's headed back to the FedSuns with a bunch of citations, to try and get a new commission in the AFFS. I did manage to track down Mo's family before I left and I gave them his things and told them that he'd been the first in the company to put his hand up for the Restoration when Kamea came back and that he'd died saving me. Which was all sort of true and sort of a lie - I glossed over the bit that he'd died fighting for a two-bit mercenary contract on a planet I hardly remember, back before the Restoration had properly started.

I also made some plans for you. Don't think you can escape me this time. The tickets are on standby at the spaceport, and when Jannie gets back in touch with his office, he'll find that they have an obscenely wealthy new client on Guldra who's paying for a personal consultation. So get yourselves moving - standing around in the wreckage doesn't put anything back together.

I had another long talk with Kamea before I left - private this time. She said she owed me and offered to give me the Star League Atlas; I said I already had a ride and I wasn't going to deprive another Mechwarrior of hers. Besides, after the duel with Vicky, that Atlas has become a symbol, and the Reach is going to need symbols. She said she thought I'd likely need it more than her. I said I was there if she needed me, but I'd seen enough memorials I was responsible for and I wasn't keen on making any more. So I made a counter-offer and much horsetrading followed - I'll spare you the details.

But the Quarrymen are officially done with, assets shared among the members - and as to the assets, I'm not sure I believe it myself. I hadn't paid much mind to the Company accounts while the Restoration was going on, except to check there was money in them, but when we came to the share-out, there was the thick end of fifty million there, plus a mountain of spares and a battalion of Mechs in the hold. Plus Kamea's offer on top.

Besides the estate, we have three Mechs, a score of land grants and eight digits burning a hole in my personal account - I really do need someone who understand laws and investments and taxes and things to get it all sorted out. And I'm a Peer of Guldra and a Colonel in the planetary militia (that last is a complete joke, as the militia was so full of Directorate time-servers that the Lady sacked the lot). House Qin has arrived, sis.

So load yourselves on the next Dropship and come on over here to help me plan the future. Collette is keen to meet you all at last.

Your successful brother,
Aleksandr Qin, Peer of Guldra, Hero of the Restoration etc etc



[OOC] - Was that the ending you we looking for?

 

[BARBOSA (Aries)]

Yes!
I actually liked it better than the official one in the Arano Sourcebook.
Even though i admit the Atlas II and the Argo are huge rewards (considering the 3025 scenario), i was very dissapointed with the commander being sent packing instead of getting a title.
It was even sadder to me at the game end itself, considering i had chosen the ex-noble background.

 

[stnylan]

Now that is a great ending. Just most excellent

 

[Rymeer]

So, Commander Qin settles down on another world, with a Peerage and plenty of acreage in Land Grants, as well as a Senior Officer spot in the local Militia, AND complete with several Mechs in very good shape and a small mountain of spare parts. Not a half bad ending for someone of his Rank and Class. The House of Qin will be a force to recon with on it's new world, and the scions of the House will in no way be seen as 'lesser' by anyone that values their hide intact.

In the only play through I finished, I ended up with well over 2 dozen full Mechs, lots of partials, and a crap load of Parts, Supplies, and Weaponry. Enough that my 'head canon' of the Character is that he retired to one of the planets not within anyone's claimed territories and set himself and his Family up as the new Ruling Elite. A full Company of Mechs, and enough gear and supplies to keep 'em going for a couple of decades would be enough to ensure that he ended up either ruling that world, or one of the 'movers and shakers' upon it. With the Argo in it's fully repaired state, it would make a good platform to project power, or tilt things in his favor, on the surrounding worlds... who knows? He, or one of his Family, might end up a new multi-star House to recon with in the decades to come.

Since the game usually takes on the order of 5 to 7 years of the character's lifetime to complete, it would only be another handful of years, a decade at worst, before the Helm Memory Core's data was disseminated as far as the Periphery. This would allow the House to hit the ground running on building things like Double Heat Sink factories, and manufacturing other such technologies using the Core's data. Within 20 years, the House would become a serious contender for equal status with the Periphery States. Within 50, it would become a leader industrially (since I chose a system with some manufacturing to start with as my 'seed' system to 'grow' the new House.

Overall, a good story, and one I have enjoyed reading. Well done Merrick!