BattleTech: No Tears (Eridani Light Horse Chronicles, Part Two)

By Craig A. Reed, Jr.

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.

Book Two: No Tears by Craig A. Reed, Jr.: During the First Succession War, a tragedy borne of spite strikes the Light Horse on the Draconis Combine world of Sendai, and they will stop at nothing to exact their revenge.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
• Release date: Apr 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201850715

Book preview

BattleTech: No Tears

BattleTech: No Tears

Eridani Light Horse Chronicles, Part Two

Craig A. Reed, Jr.

Catalyst Game Labs

Contents

No Tears

Craig A. Reed, Jr.

Coming Soon: More New Fiction from the Eridani Light Horse Chronicles

Battletech Glossary

BattleTech Eras

The BattleTech Fiction Series

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No Tears

Craig A. Reed, Jr.

AOBA DISTRICT

SENDAI CITY, SENDAI

BALDUR PREFECTURE, BENJAMIN MILITARY DISTRICT

DRACONIS COMBINE

5 JUNE 2798

The mournful drone of a sole trumpeter playing Retrieve the Colors echoed through the half-filled courtyard. It bounced off the surrounding stone buildings, leaving an echo a couple notes behind the actual tune. In front of the headquarters building, a trio of Eridani Light Horse soldiers in dress uniforms slowly lowered the unit’s flag from half-staff.

The courtyard was filled with rows of soldiers. Every single soldier in the Eridani Light Horse, except for a handful on guard duty, stood in dress uniforms at parade rest. Behind the rows of soldiers, civilians—men, women, and children who were the soldiers’ dependents—stood and watched the solemn ceremony.

With the rest of the Fiftieth Heavy Calvary Battalion, Lieutenant Rafe Fraser watched the flag being lowered. He glanced left, to see if the rest of his lance was paying attention. Next to him, Jason King, his lance second, stood at a stiff parade rest. Next to King, Linda Lawton made parade rest look like slouching. The last member of his lance, Randy Van Faylen, looked as if he was calculating the flag’s speed as it came down the pole.

The trumpeter’s last notes faded away as the flag reached the bottom of the flagpole. In a measured manner, members of the color guard detached the flag from the flagpole ropes, two of them carefully folded the flag, while a third watched every move with a critical eye. With military precision, the trio turned and marched toward the quartet of officers standing a dozen meters away. One presented the flag to the senior officer while the other two saluted. Colonel Bradley took the flag, while the other three officers, all colonels, returned the salute of the color guard.

Once he had the flag, Bradley turned to a grizzled master sergeant and nodded. The man’s bellow carried across the courtyard and echoed throughout the space. Soldiers of the Eridani Light Horse! Attention!

The sound of several thousand boots coming together thundered like an artillery barrage.

Bradley handed the folded flag to Colonel Winston and took a step forward. Soldiers of the Light Horse! he said, the courtyard’s sound system doing most of the work for him. As of yesterday, with the backing of the regimental colonels, I invoked the escape clause in our contract with the Draconis Combine.

There was only a low murmur from the soldiers, but a larger one came from the civilians. The Combine was not well-liked among the Light Horse, but invoking the escape clause was unexpected. Most of the soldiers had heard the rumors—Rafe had heard them, and he was sure the rest of his lance had too.

Bradley scanned his command. We are leaving the Combine because we just learned that the Combine has massacred millions of civilians on Kentares IV, on the orders of Coordinator Jinjiro Kurita. He let the shock settle in for a few seconds. We cannot, in good conscience, continue to work for a state that massacres civilians.

More like the colonel doesn’t want us anywhere near ‘Psycho Jinjiro,’ King muttered.

Rafe elbowed him and followed up with a

Reviews for BattleTech

[Michael Orabona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great back story about this unit and it's history. Thank you.