Wandering thoughts in a Beautiful World.

Today’s Book Review will be on a particular Science Fiction series i hae chased for several years, till they stopped printing them. But even so, there is a great following. Starting from a humble Tabletop Game,  to one of the games taken up by MicroSoft, it has spawned a following of older style sci-fi otakus.

The Classic BattleTech Series is based on a futuristic universe, set in the 31st Century, Mankind has expanded way beyond the confines of our own solar system. over centuries of pioneering and settlements, the human race has spread into what is now known as the Inner Sphere. By  2571, the Star League, an era of great technological improvements blossomed. However, it was not to last, as the Star League fell to a coup by Stefan Amaris, the Upsurper. After the Upsurper was crushed, the Star League was dissolved, and General Aleksandr Kerensky led the Star League Defense Force into uncharted space to save them from the chaos in the Inner Sphere. The subsequent wars to follow as each faction, comprised of the Great Houses Davion, Steiner, Kurita, Marik and Liao, sought to become the First Lord, became known as the Succession Wars.

At the start of the series, the Third Succession War was in it’s late stages, followed shortly by the Fourth Succession War. As the series progressed through it as well, the writers introduced a new faction to the mix, known as The Clans, these were originally the soldiers who travelled with General Kerensky on his Exodus, and after several generations of technological and scientific improvements, they began an invasion of the Inner Sphere, to rebuild the Star League.

In this universe, the ultimate display of military might is through the BattleMech. Towering at 3 storeys, they possess enough firepower from lasers, missles and autocannons to level a city. Reaching a maximum of a hundred tons, these avatars of war were the greatest technological advancement the Inner Sphere knew, till the Clans arrived. Possessing faster, better armed and armored ’Mechs of the same weight, the Clanners’ weapons could reach further and hit harder than their Inner Sphere counterparts.  

Here’s an image of a Clan OmniMech.

Eventually the Clans, in their rush for Terra, were stopped by a mysterious organization ommnipresent in the universe. Comstar, who tends to the HPG network that provides interstellar communications possible, challenged them to a proxy battle on Tukayyid, defeating them and holding them to a fifteen year truce. It was this truce that gives the Inner Sphere a chance to catch it’s breath and catch up with the Clans.

It was during this fifteen year truce, that the Inner Sphere decided to reform the Star League, to defeat this foe, and after it’s formation, the second Star League sent two Task Forces to utterly destroy a Clan.  After that mission was sucessful, the Clans were challenged to another proxy battle, where they lost and were unable to invade the Inner Sphere, forever known as the Refusal War… And shortly after this, would be the Federated Commonwealth Civil War, which marks the end of the Classic Battletech era.

This Series was so popular during it’s time, that it spawned 4 Mechwarrior Games, 3 MechCommander( A RTS version of MechWarrior) and 2 XBox games.(MechAssault.)

Currently, there is a ongoing series, called Mechwarrior: Dark Age, which takes up some 150 years after the FedCom Civil War. The Inner Sphere still remains, but there is a wide hole that is now called the Republic of the Sphere. As of now, the Republic is also broken down further by civil unrest and factions moving to expand their borders.

 I would recommend this series for anyone who has a interest with science fiction, although if you can find a complete set of the Classic battletech collection, i’d certainly pay it’s weight in gold.