MERCS VERSUS MERCS… During the years of the Star League, few mercenary units served with such honor and distinction as the Eridani Light Horse. Stalwart allies of the Star League and the ideals it stands for, the men and women of the Eighth Recon Battalion are about to have their own ideals tested on the world of Radstadt. For when an invading mercenary force assaults a massive Draconis Combine prison complex, the Light Horse warriors are faced with the choice of risking their lives to defend convicted prisoners. And while the Eridani Light Horse has never shied from a mission or a challenge, repelling the invaders will try them in ways they could never have expected…
Covert Operations... Edwin Amis, new commander of the Eridani Light Horse, faces a tough decision: Should he openly defy Sun-Tzu Liao, the First Lord of the Star League? The First Lord has sent Star League troops as "peacekeepers" to the St. Ives Compact to prevent open rebellion by angry citizens—but they're not seeking peace. Amis knows the mission is only a guise for reclaiming territory for the Capellan Confederation, and he's ready to station counter-forces on Milos, close to the heart of the Capellan capital. But on Milos, things are already escalating—Death Commando Chen Shao and his ruthless partner, Nessa Ament, have secretly murdered a dissident's family in cold blood. Now both forces are at each other's throats in what could erupt into full-scale war unless Amis can find a way to defuse the situation before more blood is shed...on a planetary scale...
TRADITIONS RUN DEEP… Other mercenary units fly flags at two flagpoles at their headquarters, one with their unit’s flag, and other bearing the flag of their current employer. However, the Third Regimental Combat Team—a.k.a. the Eridani Light Horse—leaves one flagpole bare, as a reminder of the death of the Star League, and the other pole flies the Light Horse’s unit and regimental flags at half-mast. What triumphs and tragedies shaped the Eridani Light Horse and its traditions? What drove them to become a force to be reckoned with, an elite mercenary unit with one of the longest histories and the deepest traditions in the Inner Sphere? Witness the unit’s origins in the Star League and follow their evolution all the way through the Succession Wars and the Clan Invasion to their downfall in the Dark Age and their resurrection in the uncertain future of the ilClan era. Part Two: No Tears by Craig A. Reed, Jr.: During the First Succession War, a tragedy borne of spite strikes the Eridani Light Horse on the Draconis Combine world of Sendai, and they will stop at nothing to exact their revenge.
TRADITIONS RUN DEEP… Most mercenary units fly flags on two flagpoles at their headquarters: one with their unit’s flag, and other bearing the flag of their current employer. However, the Third Regimental Combat Team—a.k.a. the Eridani Light Horse—leaves one flagpole bare, as a reminder of the death of the Star League, and the other pole flies the Light Horse’s unit and regimental flags at half-mast. What triumphs and tragedies shaped the Eridani Light Horse and its traditions? What drove them to become a force to be reckoned with, an elite mercenary unit with one of the longest histories and the deepest traditions in the Inner Sphere? Now, collected for the first time, nine of BattleTech’s finest authors bring the legacy of this storied unit to life like never before. Witness the Eridani Light Horse’s origins in the Star League, and follow their evolution all the way through the Succession Wars and the Clan Invasion to their downfall during the Dark Age and their resurrection in the uncertain future of the ilClan era. Featuring stories from: Joel Steverson Craig A. Reed, Jr. Chris Hussey Randall N. Bills Jason Hansa Daniel Isberner Alan Brundage Jason Schmetzer Michael J. Ciaravella
On 25 October 3069, the extremist Word of Blake attacked the capital world of the Free Worlds League and declared the League’s leader, Captain-General Thomas Marik, a fraud. House Marik fell into disgrace and, after eight centuries of existence, the Free Worlds League shattered. Three captains-general now vie to reunite the realm:Anson Marik of the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth prides himself on possessing Marik blood and seeks to rule on its strength. Lester Cameron-Jones of the Regulan Fiefs knows the Marik bloodline is defunct; only a new royal house can resurrect the League. Jessica Marik of the Oriente Protectorate is on a mission to redeem her father’s name: the false Thomas Marik, the man who helped destroy the League. They will all find the price for their ambitions is higher than they could ever have imagined. Who will be willing to pay?
Long before the days of Mortal Engines, London is poised on the brink of apocalypse. Huge armoured fortresses are advancing across the wastelands - a new and terrifying kind of enemy. The city is days away from ruin. Buried in London's past is a secret that may save it. But only one key can unlock it - an odd-looking orphan named Fever Crumb. Set centuries before the events of Mortal Engines, Fever Crumb's paralysing mission will make your heart stop.
As the chief planner for General Marshall, and co-author of the Victory Plan, General Wedemeyer had a truly significant hand in shaping and directing the Allied War effort against the Fascist powers. In these brilliant, excellently written memoirs he reveals the planning and execution of Grand Strategy on a global scale that toppled Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo. ““The Second World War,” says historian Walter Millis, “was administered.”...As a war planner in Washington from 1940 into 1943 I was intimately involved in an attempt to see the war whole—and even after I had moved on to Asia, where I served successively on Lord Louis Mountbatten’s staff in India and as U.S. commander in the China Theater, I was still close to the problems of adapting Grand Strategy to a conflict of global dimensions. It was inevitable, then, that the subject of Grand Strategy should predominate in this book. I was not deprived of my own share of war experience from close up, but my most strenuous battles were those of the mind—of trying, as we in Washington’s planning echelons saw it, to establish a correct and meaningful Grand Strategy which would have resulted in a fruitful peace and a decent post-war world. There were many obstacles in the way of developing a meaningful strategy, of assuring that our abundant means, material and spiritual, would be used to achieve worthy human ends. First, there was the pervasive influence of the Communists, who had their own plans for utilizing the war as a springboard to world domination. Second, there was the obstinacy of that grand old man, Winston Churchill, who, as we soldiers felt, could never reconcile his own concepts of Grand Strategy with sound military decisions. Because we had to contend with the machinations of Stalin on the one hand and with the bulldog tenacity of Churchill on the other, this book has had to be harsh in some of its personal assessments.”-Foreword
