BattleTech: Onslaught
It is the 31st century, a time of endless wars that rage across human-occupied space. As star empires clash, these epic wars are won and lost by BattleMechs, 12-meter-tall humanoid metal titans bristling with lasers, autocannons and dozens of other lethal weapons; enough firepower to level entire city blocks. Elite forces of MechWarriors drive these juggernauts into battle, intent on expanding the power and glory of their neo-feudalneo-feudal realms. At their beck and call are the support units of armored vehicles, power armored infantry, aerospace fighters and more, wielded by a MechWarrior’s skillful command to aid him in ultimate victory. Will they become legends, or forgotten casualties?
In 3050 the Clans, militaristic descendants of the long-last Star League army, returned from the depths of unknown space to invade and conquer the Inner Sphere their ancestors had abandoned. The nations of the Inner Sphere, successor states to the fallen Star League itself, having struggled through centuries of warfare, were ill-prepared to resist them. The totemic hordes of Clans Wolf, Jade Falcon, Smoke Jaguar and Ghost Bear, led by the elite MechWarriors, tore through world after world.
Now, in BattleTech: Onslaught, we present seven tales of this horrific attack—seven tales of honor and sacrifice, stratagem and gambit, victory and defeat—previously published only for subscribers of the BattleCorps fiction website. From longtime BattleTech authors Steven Mohan, Jr., Jason Schmetzer, Chris Hussey and others, these stories exemplify the new blitzkrieg-style warfare of the Clans.
“A New Game,” by Steven Mohan, Jr.
Both sides, during the Clan invasion, faced new tactics and new enemies. Both sides had to learn to play by their enemy’s expectations and rules. And both sides, Clan or Inner Sphere, found something in the other lacking. In “A New Game,” Steven Mohan, Jr. shows us how each side learned to play.
“Fourth Form,” by Jason Schmetzer
The BattleMech and the MechWarriors who pilot them are recognized as the kings of the thirty-first century battlefields, but they are not the only combatants, and certainly not the only soldiers of honor, as the Smoke Jaguars discover fighting against the cadets of the Almunge Infantry Academy in “Fourth Form” from Jason Schmetzer.
“Double Down,” by Philip A. Lee
In “Double Down,” Philip A. Lee explores the story of what happened when the invading Jade Falcons, certain of their superiority, attacked the world of Blackjack—and its famously irregular Blackjack School of Combat.
“My Father’s Sword,” by Craig A. Reed, Jr.
Clansmen are exemplars of single combat, be it with blade or BattleMech—but in the samurai of the Draconis Combine, the Smoke Jaguars met MechWarriors with a code reminiscent of their own, as we see in Craig A. Reed’s “My Father’s Sword.”
“The Tools We Serve,” by Chris Hussey
The Clans were superior MechWarriors in almost every way, but that didn’t mean they weren’t susceptible to guile and misdirection, as Chris Hussey shows us on the planet Damien against the Ghost Bears.
“Superior,” by Steven Mohan, Jr.
Clan MechWarriors are genetically enhanced, the product of generations of selective breeding and training; when they faced the soldiers of the Inner Sphere, this enhanced showed itself in many ways, as we see in “Superior” from Steven Mohan, Jr.
“Three Points of Pride,” by Jason Hansa
Though every world in the Clans’ invasion corridor suffered some form of conflict, not every world suffered the hellish lights of ’Mech-scale warfare. Some worlds—like Sheliak, when facing the Ghost Bears—chose to fight for their fate in a different way, as Jason Hansa shows us in “Three Points of Pride.”
