Комментарий Panzer

[DeJaVu]

I like PPCs... can you tell?

I had a great deal of fun writing "Sniper," the first appearance in fiction of Sniper Jones and Halsten's Brigade, and the story itself seemed to be very well recieved. So I knew I'd eventually write another story, but it took me a bit more time than I thought.

The problem, of course, is that the Sniper Jones presented in the original TR3026 writeup (the Schrek PPC Carrier notable pilot, in case you didn't know) is pretty one-dimensional. He shoots. He's a private. That's it. And that was enough for "Sniper," because (as the title suggests) that was a story about him--the man.

But this story is called "Panzer."

No one exists in stasis. We all grow, change, regress, die, whatever. Even if you spend decades in the same profession, your tasks will change--or your methods of doing those tasks. Most of us, however, enjoy our routines, and are reluctant to change.

Sniper Jones may be the best Schrek gunner in the Inner Sphere in 3028, but he can't stay that forever. So I wanted to see where he might go, what might drive him, what might change him. So I started throwing obstacles at him: The reporter; Cabot; the situation. People often change in reaction to stress, and in "Panzer" I tried to put Sniper Jones under a lot of stress.

A number of people have pointed out the similarities between the Sniper stories and several of David CSA_Eragon's Hammer's Slammers stories. I'm fine with that comparison, although it may be a slight to Mr. CSA_Eragon to compare the drivel I write with his elegant prose, but I've read and enjoyed and studied those books and stories and I'm quite aware of the similarities. The Sniper stories are, in general, much darker-toned stories than the usual CBT story, and that's a conscious choice. We usually read MechWarrior stories, where the drivers are 'knights of the battlefield' astride their 12-meter warhorses, with attitudes and Lorix Orders to match. But what about the tankers, who don't really expect to live through an engagement with 'Mechs, but who make up the large majority of the CBT universe military? They don't get the glamor or the glory of MWs. So why would they act or talk or think the same?

I got a PM from someone telling me they just didn't buy Cabot's soliloquy about "being a killer" and such. "I just don't think there really are people like that." Well, I learned a long time ago to stop trying to change what other people believe--but trust me: there are people like that, and aside from the occassional serial killer, most of them recognize themselves well enough to be in professions where that is an asset. I imagine that to be even more so in a universe of 500 years of near-constant warfare, where life is less important than technology.

I hope to write at least one more Sniper story, but I don't have it on a schedule yet. We'll see.