SOMETHING LURKS IN THE SHADOWS… During the chaos of the Word of Blake’s Jihad, the MechWarriors of the Federated Suns will go to any lengths to defend their nation from the Blakists’ unholy terror—including making deals with the devil. But that devil might just be a literal one: an all-black Marauder, hidden for several decades, that carries an aura of dread that infects everyone who encounters it. Many blame it for causing unexplained disappearances, technical failures, and even madness. But what is the so-called Dark One? Is it merely a ghost story told to scare pirates on the edge of the Periphery, or does something truly evil live beneath its cold, blackened armor? This anthology collects the first three of Lance Scarinci’s stories about the Dark One, along with a brand-new fourth story exclusive to this volume.
Insurrection sweeps the Federated Commonwealth, with civilians on Caledonia revolting against their Davion-backed oppressors. But this time, the Gray Death Legion is there to back them up, and when the Davion 'Mechs show up, it's a free-for-all that will leave scars from one end of the planet to the other. Now a top-rated animated series.
BACKS AGAINST THE WALL… Galatea. The Mercenary's Star. Even the most down on their luck units can find work here. Leading the newly-formed Gray Death Legion has been challenging for Grayson Death Carlyle, so when a job comes their way, he’s only too happy to take it. The mission: train the local resistance on the planet Verthandi to resist their Draconis Combine masters. But things do not go well almost from the moment the Legion arrives. Trapped on Verthandi and facing a superior force and a fractured populace, the men and women of the Legion find themselves in a situation that makes the campaign on Trellwan look like a walk in the park. And Grayson quickly learns repeating his past successes may not be so easy this time…
With his friends and family dead and his father's regiment destroyed, Grayson Death Carlyle, a MechWarrior, must learn to fight for justice in a world turned hostile. Original.
A COST IS ALWAYS PAID… Nikolai Reed is a trader on a Lyran JumpShip plying the space lanes… Chloe Mason is a hot-shot tech with the Hsien Hotheads mercenaries… Leaving the Northwind Highlanders, MechWarrior Ryana Nikol fills a billet with the Eridani Light Horse… Disparate lives, but a unified dream that will bring them all together on a fateful course that will span decades, cover hundreds of light years, and involve love, friendship, and loss across a dozen worlds. Each will pay a price along the way, as a cost always comes due. The Mercenary Life anthology is a compilation of stories written by Randall N. Bills. Including tales from several different characters as they cross paths, and the dream to found a new mercenary command is born. Their unique lives showcase the struggles and trials of the men and women who take up the mercenary mantle from a variety of angles, all bound around that central vision. The first eight stories of this anthology were originally posted for free alongside the release of MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries, acting as the origin stories for the mercenary command within that computer game. This is the first time they have been compiled into a single volume to allow for a Print on Demand physical copy. Additionally, an all-new ninth story has been added—The Sun Will Rise—along with postscripts for every story that gives the reader insight into how stories are crafted within a shared universe between tabletop, computer games, and fiction that spans more than thirty years and tens of millions of words.
MASTERS OF WAR... Since their appearance in the Inner Sphere in 3005, the mercenary regiments known as Wolf’s Dragoons have proven themselves the masters of the battlefield, the equal of any regiment of any of the five warring Successor States. Now under contract to House Marik’s Free Worlds League, the Dragoons have undertaken their most daring mission yet: an attack on House Steiner’s impregnable Hesperus II BattleMech factories. Success on Hesperus will make the Dragoons into living legends… but few enemies have survived House Steiner’s fanatical defenses. The Steiners know how important the ancient BattleMech factories are to their nation—and not even the fearsome reputation of Wolf’s Dragoons will make them blink.
THE FUTURE OF WARFARE... Thirty meters tall, 70 tons of quick-striding death and destruction, the armored war machines called BattleMechs are the fighting force of the crumbling star empire locked in the horror of the Succession Wars. Their pilots are MechWarriors, 31st-century knights riding armored machines powerful enough to destroy an entire city. Grayson Death Carlyle had been training to be a MechWarrior since he was 10 years old, but his graduation came sooner than expected. With his friends and family dead and his father's regiment destroyed, young Grayson finds himself stranded on a world turned hostile. And now he must learn the hardest lesson of all: it takes more than a BattleMech to make a MechWarrior... To claim the title, all he has to do is capture one of those giant killing machines by himself... If it doesn't kill him first.
ALIVE OR DEAD… Just a few months after their universe-shaking campaign on Helm, and the distribution of the Helm Memory Core, all Grayson Carlyle and his Gray Death Legion want is to settle into their new home on Glengarry. But they barely touch down on-planet when a Lyran Commonwealth general contacts the GDL, intent on hiring them to track down and capture Draconis Combine agents behind a daring raid on Lyons. Tracking the Kurita raiders to the Draconis border system of Valdis—better known as Wheel—Grayson and his people have their work cut out for them. The system’s main feature is literally a wheel-shaped deep-space station and recharge facility at the Valdis star’s zenith jump point. Its structure means a direct assault with BattleMechs will be extremely risky, both because of the tight quarters and the very real danger of an errant shot or missile depressurizing and destroying the entire station. Also, Grayson will be splitting his force, with Lori Kalmar providing a decoy operation on the nearby mining planet Valdis I, otherwise known as Rock, to draw the Combine’s attention away from Wheel. It’s a high-risk operation on both ends, but Grayson and the GDL have their orders, and they intend to capture the Draconis operatives one way or the other…even if they have to risk destroying the entire space station to do so…
THE FIRST TRILOGY IN THE EPIC SAGA OF FUTURE WAR... Thirty meters tall, seventy tons of quick-striding death and destruction, the armored war machines called BattleMechs are the front-line forces of the crumbling star empire locked in the horror of the endless Succession Wars. Their pilots are MechWarriors, 31st-century knights riding armored machines powerful enough to destroy an entire city. AND THE BEGINNING OF A LEGEND… The Gray Death Legion Trilogy brings together three complete Battletech novels featuring one of the most popular mercenary units very created—the Gray Death Legion. DECISION AT THUNDER RIFT Grayson Death Carlyle had been training to be a MechWarrior since he was 10 years old, but his graduation came sooner than expected. With his friends and family dead and his father's regiment destroyed, young Grayson finds himself stranded on a world turned hostile. Now he must learn the hardest lesson of all: it takes more than a BattleMech to make a MechWarrior... But to claim that title, all Grayson has to do is go out and capture one of those giant killing machines...if it doesn't kill him first. MERCENARY’S STAR Galatea. The Mercenary's Star. Even the most down on their luck units can find work here. Leading the new Gray Death Legion has been challenging for Grayson Death Carlyle, so when a job comes their way, he’s only too happy to take it. The mission: train the local resistance on the planet Verthandi to resist their Draconis Combine masters. But things do not go well from the moment the Legion arrives. Trapped on Verthandi and facing a superior force and a fractured populace, the men and women of the Legion find themselves in a situation that makes the campaign on Trellwan look like a walk in the park. And Grayson quickly learns that repeating his past successes may not be so easy this time… THE PRICE OF GLORY The Gray Death Legion is in the employ of the Free Worlds League, and has even been given a landhold on the planet Helm. But dark forces conspire against them, and the Legion soon finds themselves declared renegade war criminals, fair game for anyone to attack. Now they are on the run on their home planet, trying desperately to reach safety before the might of House Marik falls upon them. They are about to discover the true motives of those who engineered their downfall. And what they discover will change the Inner Sphere forever…
