Jennifer Brozek's Ghost Hour

 

Life is good when you can revisit an old favorite in a new way. It's even better when the new stuff is enjoyable. Enter Jennifer Brozek's <i>Ghost Hour</i>, a newly release Battletech novel. It's a Young Adult novel, which is something I wish they had when I was young enough to fit into the demographic. Ah well, I've got two daughters in the YA age group now. I still loved this thing.

We all know that the Young Adult genre really began with J.K. Rowling. Before Harry Potter readers went straight from childrens books to the big leagues. I kind of feel like this is probably closer to Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows than Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Like Deathly Hallows, Ghost Hour does not shy away from the cost of war. The body count is pretty high and the anguish the characters feel at losing their friends and family members is real.  Ghost Hour is a rough read in a good way.

Seriously, there is a lot here that is honestly kind of gut-wrenching. Brozek herself has served as I mentioned when I reviewed the first in the Battletech YA series, The Nellus Academy Incident. It shows here, as she exposes the dark side of war better than the vast majority of Military Science Fiction authors I've read. With a lot of authors you see the glory side of war. Maybe a friend or two gets lost along the way, but they're nearly forgotten for most of the rest of the story. Maybe a spouse is left behind somewhere (and if you haven't seen the film We Were Soldiers you need to because it does this well, too) but the reader never hears about the anguish they feel not knowing what's going to happen to their loved one. There is a lot of that here, although it is people that are serving wondering about their loved ones who are also serving. It's pretty deep. 

That's not to say that there aren't some really awesome slam, bang slugfests, because there are. No one loves a good old-fashioned 'Mech battle like the guy who used to set them up on his bedroom floor and leave them there because they lasted for weeks and trust me, I'd know if they weren't done right, but they are. There are plenty of explosions to keep even the most hardened grognard among the Battletech elite happy. I mean, unless they're the "OMG EVERYTHING AFTER <insert year here> SUCKS" camp, in which case they can go cook along with their character. I mean that literally. Double heat sinks FTW!

For the record, no Ghost Hour does not go that deep into the tech. At least not for the most part. I will confess to not having seen the latest edition of BT, and there is apparently at least one new weapon that I'm not aware of but totally could have used in my mixed Battletech and Mechwarrior RPG campaign even though it wouldn't have been invented in 3050 because GH takes place a century later, but...

Yeah, I'll stop whining now. But still, it was cool. 

And for those still wondering, no you don't have to have a very good understanding of the technology of Battletech to enjoy Ghost Hour. There is a glossary at the back if you have any questions. Those with just a passing familiarity will find the story extremely easy to follow. With one exception, Brozek keeps to the classics of the series. And if you like tabletop war-gaming at all, you can always check Battletech out. I love it. I used to run a mixed Mechwarrior TTRPG/Aerotech/Battletech/Battletroops campaign and I loved it.

This series is about a bunch of cadets who won't stay in their place when their planet is attacked and  go rogue and try to fight the war before they're out of training. I find this to be a lot of fun, even if it often works the other way in the real world. (During World War II, training times were reduced and West Point classes graduated early.) It was still a rollicking good time and a good representation of members of the military and their desire to be involved in "the real thing" whether they're ready for it or not. Although these kids do appear to be about as ready as anyone else ever was. 

At the end of the day too, it's the kids that make the book. It should come as no surprise to anyone who reads my reviews that it's characters and what happens to them that really get me into a work of fiction. The thing is that the main characters in Ghost Hour are precisely the kind of people I can respect and worry about. They go through an awful lot, but they never give up. For most of the book they're losing or just taking a pasting they can't really do much about. They don't care. Actually that's wrong. They DO care. They just don't let it stop them. They keep fighting. These cadets are soldiers in the truest sense of the word. 

Probably the only part about Ghost Hour that I didn't like is that it reminds me how much easier it is to find quality YA SF/F these days than it is to find quality regular SF/F. Outside of what Stephanie Meyers tried to pull (and yes, I tried reading Twilight. It was terrible. I gave it to my sister and she gave it to her daughter. And yes, Bella was a teen and it was YA. Some terribly angsty, sparkly vampire craptacular YA but still YA) I haven't seen a single YA Science Fiction or fantasy novel that I haven't enjoyed. I can't necessarily say the same of the adult samplings I've seen.

I have to mention the main villain, however briefly. I tend to be pretty sympathetic to people who are just doing their duty. I'm an American who thinks that Yamamoto Isoroku was a respectable guy. I still can't feel the slightest bit of sympathy for the antagonist of this one though. I won't say if anything happens to him but he deserves nothing but the worst. Still, it makes reading the book more fun if you really want to see the bad guy get his.

Overall, I don't really have much choice except to tell you to buy this book. I realized partway through Ghost Hour that it wasn't a sequel to the book I thought it was and now I have to go back and buy the first one in the series (when I got the email I thought this was the sequel to The Nellis Academy Incident. I guess that's why my mama always told me not to think. She says it always gets me in trouble.)I'm kind of bummed because I've spoiled part of it, but I'm really excited because there's more to read.

Well, and there's a preview of the sequel to Ghost Hour at the back of the book. I didn't read the preview. I never do. I am, however, looking forward to reading the whole book and find out how this ends.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Crashed Dropships

Ghost Hour
Jennifer Brozek
Catalyst Games Lab, 2020

Ghost Hour is available at the following link. If you click the link and buy literally anything from Amazon I get a small percentage at no additional cost to you.

The Best Deaths in Science Fiction and Fantasy

(This whole post is full of spoilers.
You have been warned.

Now I know I did a post about being severely depressed awhile back, but nobody worry. This was triggered by a Facebook group that I'm in. (It's called Hogwart's Pensieve and if you love Harry Potter, goofy little fun activities and trying to win the House Cup you should join. I won't tell you what house I'm in because we're not supposed to recruit for specific houses, but if you join you'll see me there.) So know, I'm not like backsliding or anything however...

I've read a lot of books over the years. Most I enjoyed. Some I didn't. One I threw across the room and then gave to my sister who passed it on to my niece. (Why do people like Stephanie Meyer again?) I've noticed over time that there are many things that an author can throw into a story that have a big emotional impact: triumphs, defeats, first love, weddings, births, etc. But the one I want to talk about today is death. (Yes, that's why I wrote that first paragraph.)

In the Pensieve one of the Saturday activities was to write the death of one of the characters that passed at the Battle of Hogwarts (we had a few choices of which one) and I chose Fred, because out of all the deaths I've read, it hit me harder than any other, save one: That of Sturm Brightblade in The Dragonlance Chronicles. It got me to thinking though: There are a lot of deaths in a lot of books and a lot of shows/movies (and if we're counting movies we have to include the death of Spock in The Wrath of Khan) but there are few that really hit me the way those two did. So I set about trying to figure out why.

The death of Dumbledore sucked, but it was expected. His hand was rotting off and he was as old as the hills. Also, if you've ever studied story-telling in general you know that the mentor always gets it in the neck. Dumbledore was statistically overdue for an Avada Kedavra to the face. Falling from the tower has always seemed to me to be a bit extreme, but at the end of the day, it worked.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's death was kind of wasted. It could have been so much more if he had been around longer. Ditto the death of Yoda. Really, the only death in all of Star Wars that affected me was the death of Luke, and I'm not supposed to admit that out loud because I'm the only person who liked that movie. (Or at least it seems like it.)

Star Trek didn't lose many main big characters over the years, and no, redshirts don't count. Three come to mind. Trip (in the last episode), Jadzia Dax (in the last season) and Tasha Yar (in the first season). I may very well be missing someone. But the fact remains that Trip's death occurred too close to the end to really have the impact it should have, Tasha's death was almost pointless and happened due primarily to real world concerns (she hated the show) and Jadzia's...

Well, okay that one hurt. I loved the wedding with her and Worf. She was played by an awesome actress and she was a wonderful and valiant person. Then they brought Dax back as Ezri and... Uhhh..

What?

Yeah, I know, Trill, symbiote, whatever.

She was gone, but she wasn't but she was. And the slug that lived in her stomach got to continue. That one was so confusing it almost doesn't count as a death and yet it does, because the Jadzia half of the personality was gone.

Don't get me started on Firefly. Wash got hosed. Why they thought they needed to kill him off under those circumstances is beyond me. Whatever. I have Reavers. You hate Reavers. Even the Shepherd hates Reavers. But still that never should have happened when it did.

And of course there hasn't been a comic book death that mattered since the 90s. Yeah, so Hero A died and he took Hero B with him. Oh well, they'll both be back in six months. I get that the Death of Superman sold so well and so did his comeback but at some point you'd think they'd realize that it doesn't work anymore.

Uhh...

Sorry, you can have your soapbox back. I'm done using it.

And listen, if you're a fan of the Battletech novels and approve of what they did to Grayson Carlyle, you're not really a human being. I get the fact that they needed to kill him for the story to go forward, but dude. Really? REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?! THE MAN WAS THE WARRIOR'S WARRIOR AND HE DIED IN A HOSPITAL BED OF CANCER? ARE PRETEND BULLETS THAT EXPENSIVE!?!??!?! AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

*SIGH*

Sorry. Carlyle was a personal favorite and he Really. Got. Hosed. I mean, I get the fact that George Patton (all private slapping and bad quote making aside) was the best general the US had in World War II and he got done in by a car accident. That was real life. Can my story-books please have story-book deaths for the big-timers? Please?

A well done death can stay with you forever though and it makes the story SOO much better. Seriously. Think about it this way:

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was released in 1982, and nearly forty years later (am I really that old?) it's still remembered by most Trek fans as the best Trek movie EV-AR! And there was a lot of action and some ugly bugs. There was an evil villain. Khan and his dreams of a Master Race were very Nazi-esque. There were good heroes: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. I'm not denying any of that. Despite all of that what do most people remember about that movie? One scream and a speech. Let's not pretend that “KHAAAAAANNNNN!!!!” was anything other than classic Shatner. We love it because it's the actor that we love being the character that we love.

But what do people remember just as much? They remember Spock on his knees, his face covered with red splotches saying, “I have been, and always shall be, your friend.” The emotional impression, the lasting image, is of a great man breathing his last on the engineering deck while saving all of his friends. Now, we all know that he came back in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, but think about this: Which film is remembered as the better one? Who talks about when they actually found Spock? Wasn't that the whole point of the film?

I don't know how many of you have read the Dragonlance Chronicles, but if you have you remember the death of Sturm Brightblade, once dishonored, admitted to the knighthood on someone else's honor, not allowed to wear his father's armor and yet elected as the leader of the Knights of the Crown. When the Knights of the Sword and of the Rose had gone off to get themselves massacred, he had split the knighthood in an attempt to accomplish his mission while saving his men. When his men needed time, he went to the battlements and faced a dragon alone armed with nothing but a spear. Needless to say, he lost. Yet, his death ignited the Knights and made them heroes again. And it just so fit Sturm so well. He lived for the day when the knighthood would embrace him and the people would embrace the knights. He loved Huma and wanted to be everything Huma was. He achieved all of that. It was perfect. This one hurt to read, but without his sacrifice that whole trilogy doesn't work. If Hollywood ever gets off its hindquarters and decides to make good movies again, they need to make the Dragonlance Chronicles, either as live action or a cartoon. (And yes, I'm aware that Dragons of Autumn Twilight was made as an animated film. I haven't seen it, but I've heard bad things. I want a GOOD Dragonlance conversion.) This was one of two deaths in all of the literature that I've ever consumed that made me put the book down and back away for a second.

Est Solarus Oth Mithas, Sturm. You died like a man.

But the death that really got me thinking about writing this whole godforsaken mess was the Death of Fred Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The death was one I never saw coming and it was a straight-up kick in the teeth, but it's one I hadn't dwelled on much. Fred's was the other death that made me put the book down and walk away and I went two nights straight without sleep when I had to work the next two mornings because I couldn't wait to get to the end. I was that fascinated. It's just that so many characters went down in that last fight. It was like reading Military SF for a bit there but that makes sense because the characters were at war.

But what got me back into thinking about it was my time in the aforementioned Hogwarts Pensieve. Every term we have a set of daily themes that changes. Last term Tuesday's theme was Twin Tuesday. I logged on that day excited. I've always loved the twins because of their genius (and let's face it, they invented an entire shop full of gags and jokes) and their sense of humor. The staff encourages everyone to post something about each days theme and they award House Points to everyone who does so. I logged on expecting to see a bunch of one-liners and pranks.

What I got was a bunch of “Poor George lost his brother.” I was a bit put off for a second, but the I realized that everyone who had posted something about that was right. Not only that, but I remembered when I had read it. Fred dying while fighting along his brothers Percy and Ron as well as Harry and She Who Would Be Sister-In-Law was unexpected, abrupt, unfair and shocking. In short, it captured the feeling of losing someone you love quickly really well and I can speak from experience. My father drowned in a boating accident. I had plans with him the next day. The feeling for a literary character wasn't as intense as losing my father was, but it was similar. In a way, I've always kind of felt jealous of Ron and Percy because they got to be there at the end where I didn't.

I write fiction, although I have a problem finishing things. I have a tendency to see another idea and be like “Ooh, shiny.” I honestly hope that one day I can put together something as intense as the death of Fred or the perfection of the death of Sturm. I don't know how they did it, but it all worked out.

If you've got a favorite/most hated character death leave it in the comments. I'm always looking for a new perspective or something new to check out.

A few of the above mentioned products are available at the links below:

Jennifer Brozek's Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident

(Author's Note: This review is dedicated to the memory of friend, grognard, and brother-in-gaming Jason Caldwell.)

WARNING, WARNING, WARNING: Blatant fanboying ahead. I've loved Battletech for twenty-fivish years. I make no apologies for it, but you have been warned.

I have, in the past, admitted to possessing a love of both Young Adult literature (I blame J.K. Rowling) and Science Fiction. You were just warned about my fascination with the Battletech universe. (It occurs to me that I haven't been to the Battletech Universe website in far too long.) I guess that's why I'm in love with Jennifer Brozek's Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident. Seriously. Those are some hardcore cadets. The plot moves. The kids perform in combat and action abounds.

I'll be honest: The beginning of this thing had me a bit worried. B:TNAI starts out as a bunch of cadets from the Nellus Academy find out that they'll be touring a refueling station in space. It sounded like a photo op kind of thing. I immediately became concerned because Battletech novels have always been about fighting.  It's not Knitting Tech, it's Battle Tech. Actually, that's not totally true. Ilsa Bick did a BT novel that was a detective story. It was good but I wanted a more traditional BT novel. I wanted to go to war. I wanted to see some serious action. I got over it quick. This book is action packed.

I don't want to get into too many spoilers because that's not my style but suffice it to say that things take a left turn at one point. What seems like a joyride is actually not a joyride. I hate to use a comparison to Scooby Doo, but I think I'm going to have to. The gang shows up in town, things aren't how they originally seem and then everything goes to Hades. That's awesome though. I didn't see things going the way they went but it actually made sense than it did.

Also at the beginning, The Nellus Academy Incident really felt like it was going to be a mystery novel. When the big plot twist hits that changes quickly. This thing goes from a whodunit to a canwesurviveit at the drop of a hat. The kids adjust quickly and that makes sense. The Nellus Academy is a military academy. It's what they've been trained for.

I like the way these kids work together. It feels real. One would expect an author to show her cadets in a panic. It's not realistic when you've got a trained group working together but it's the cliche. Brozek is better than that. I wonder if she's had actual military service because these kids react correctly. They use their advantages unashamedly. They instantly know what their hierarchy is based  on existing rank. They don't always agree on a course of action but they do follow orders.

Another reason that I suspect that Brozek may have some military experience is her firm grasp on the principle of Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. Brozek's little unit manages to find ways to do what they need to do even when they don't have the tools that they're used to. These kids don't screw around. If an opportunity to get closer to their objectives shows itself they do what they need to do.

That's not to say that the cadets are perfect. They do make mistakes. They don't always move precisely when they need to. They find themselves having trouble dealing with losses. They're people. That's what I want to see in any work: Believable protagonists worth rooting for. And believe me, these cadets are worth rooting for. It would have been way too easy for them to just go with the flow and hope the enemy would show some mercy. They didn't because they were trained better than that. Good for them.

Of course, one of the biggest thrills of Battletech is the 'Mechs. I don't want to spoil too much here, but we do get to see some 'Mech action. We get dropships and aerospace fighters too. This thing goes a bit bonkers at one point and that's not a good thing. It's an AWESOME thing. There is nothing so pleasing in a Battletech novel as when it all drops in the pot and things start to explode. Brozek does a good job of keeping the action that we need to see crystal clear and sharp and the background violence where it belongs... in the background.

Something else that Battletech has always done well, and that Brozek does well, is political intrigue. There are troubles brewing on the border of the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth. It's about to get ugly and the opening moves are occurring. This is what our heroes find themselves dropped into. It's the foundation of the entire story. It works.

Oh, and since I mentioned the Free Worlds League...

It's nice to see something set in the FWL. We don't see much of them. They weren't involved much before the Clan Invasion. They weren't really part of the Clan Invasion. I don't remember hearing anything about them in the Mechwarrior: Dark Age either. I mean, they exist but we don't hear a lot about them. So kudos to Brozek for putting her story in an area that really needs a story. I'd love to see more.

Oh, and by the way, I'm excited. Brozek has a Young Adult Battletech Trilogy coming soon. I can't wait to read it. The e-book that I received had an excerpt in it but I don't do excerpts. I will say that if she writes this well in this universe I have more than enough confidence in her to lay down some loot (err... ok, plastic some loot over the internet. I miss having easy access to a local bookstore.) for a copy. I want to see more stuff go boom! Brozek has more than proven that she's got the skills to make it happen and keep it entertaining. I do find it a bit strange that Battletech: Rogue Academy will be the first YA BT trilogy. I did read the blurb though. That looks good. I'm geeked.

I don't really have any major complaints about the book. Brozek did a really good job here.  Usually a blatant fanboy such as myself can find an excuse to bitch about a book because it's not perfectly perfect but I don't have one. So good job, Jennifer Brozek. Take a bow.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 ER PPCs

Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident
Jennifer Brozek
Catalyst Games Lab, 2018

Battletech: The Nellus Academy Incident is available for purchase at the link below:

Memories Surface: A Celebration

(Author's Note: This post and the review with shall follow shortly are dedicated to the memory of friend, grognard, and brother-in-gaming Jason Caldwell. There are a lot of Battletech terms listed below. I haven't taken the time to define them. Sorry to anyone who gets confused but it is what it is.)

Recently I received a request to review a Battletech novel (The Nellus Academy Incident by Jennifer Brozek). It's a good book. The review will be up in a day or two. I really enjoyed it. But, at it's core, the book is not what this post is about. This is a post about memory. It's a post about missing someone you haven't thought about in a long time. It's about something SOOO cool happening that you have to share it with one specific individual... and that individual is gone. Very few people will get all the specifics of this post, but many will get the gist.

Back in the early nineteen-nineties I first met a guy named Jeff Caldwell. He was, and probably still is, a really cool guy. What that actually means is that he is (or at least was, I haven't talked to him in awhile) as geeky as me. We had biology together. I got sent to Locker 19. It was fun. I mean, I never want to see another microscope, but whatever. Between us and John Morris, who sat on the other side of me, we had a riot. We made up stupid songs about our teacher (That's my science teacher's name Doo-da, Doo-dah [It was actually Duda, but close enough.]) John made drawings. Jeff introduced me to the Dragonlance Chronicles and inadverdently caused my lifelong love of fantasy and cost me thousands of dollars in book purchases. My nickname was Scribble. If you've seen my handwriting that makes sense. Not long after, Jeff introduced me to his brother Jason.

Jason was even cooler than Jeff, by which I mean geekier. And yes, I said was because we lost him a few years back. It had to do with a kidney condition. I'm not sure of all of the details because I hadn't spoken to him in years. Don't get me wrong. I wasn't mad or anything. It's just, well... Jason wasn't Jason anymore. He had left his house to walk to mine (it was less than a quarter mile) and collapsed. It was that same kidney thing, only it caused his heart to stop. His family immediately called 911 but he had suffered severe brain damage due to lack of oxygen to the brain by the time the paramedics got there. I don't blame his family. They did everything they could. I don't blame the paramedics. They got there as soon as they could. I don't really blame anybody. It just sucks that it happened.

I received a letter from his mother that I never answered. I'm sure it hurt her, but I didn't know what to say. I'm basically a coward who pulled a total bitch move. I was seventeen and didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything. I'd apologize if I could get hold of her. But that's not what this post is really about. That's all just background. I know. I know. I'm getting there.

See, Jason is the guy who introduced me to a thing called Battletech. I fell in love with it. Giant 'Mechs duking it out on the field of battle with the fate of all humanity hanging in the balance. I came in right around the time of the Clan Invasion with all of its associated fiction and Technical Readouts. There was new tech available! The most powerful foe in history was invading the Inner Sphere! It was time to go to war. With an implacable enemy headed straight for Terra and hell bent on conquest there was an enormous need for warriors to stop them. Enter the Jolly Rogers mercenary company, Jim McCoy commanding, Jason Caldwell as the executive officer.

We did it right. I kept a Table of Organization and Equipment. Jason kept the unit history. We fought battle after battle. We'd set up the board on my bedroom floor and it would sit there until we were done. We'd fight each other for hours. One of us took charge of the Jolly Rogers. The other took Opfor. It was kind of ironic. My favorite faction in BT has always been either the Federated Suns or the the Federated Commonwealth, depending on era. But, being the GM as well as a player, I decided that I could have a one of a kind 'Mech that I had designed with the appropriate rules. It was called the Renegade and it was a prototype liberated from the New Avalon Institute of Science when Jim (and yes, we really did use our real names for our characters) decided he didn't want to be a member of the Fedcom military anymore. So not only did we have to deal with the Clans and their invasion, we had to fight off the odd Fedcom raid with them trying to get their 'Mech back. It was a hoot but I'm afraid that I never made Victor Steiner-Davion's list of favorite people.

We did the whole "growing unit" arc thing. We started off with a company of 'Mechs fighting off water raiders from the Periphery. By the time Jason was no longer able to continue the campaign, we were a mixed-arms unit with a full regiment each of 'Mechs, armor and infantry to go with multiple dropships and two squadrons of aerospace fighters. We even had our own jumpship.  We had gone from fighting weak-ass water raiders to reconnaissance-in-force of Clan held worlds. We even took one from second-line forces and returned it to  the Free Rasalhauge Republic by "accident". (Oops, sorry guys. Thanks for the bonus! Oh, and we're keeping that mostly undamaged Behemoth. I'm sure we can find a cockpit somewhere.) We were openly talking about a future attack on Strana Mechty. Those were heady days my friends.

And please believe me when I tell you that when the Jolly Rogers showed up to conquer your planet, we conquered the bloody fucking shit out of your planet. We'd fight you to break out of the jump point. We'd fight you in orbit. We'd fight you on the ground. We'd invade your cities. We'd get in bar brawls with the citizens of your world. We straight up kicked every ass we could find and went looking for me. And bro, you don't know what it's like to take an ass-kicking until you've had your position strafed by a Leopard-CV class dropship and its aerospace fighters and then weathered the follow-on assault by 'Mechs upgraded with captured Clan tech. It got ugly. We came loaded with Gauss ammunition and massive amounts of Fuck You. We didn't lose. (Whaddaya mean GMing and leading the unit was a conflict of interests? I would never...*GAG* *COUGH* *CHOKE* I can't say that.  I can't even type that. I think my fingers just cramped.)

Jason had a pretty decent BT collection, but he traded it all to me in exchange for other things. I think he did it on purpose because I wrote the scenarios and I needed the stats and rules so that I could set things up. By the time we were no longer able to play, I had the original BT box set with the cardboard cutouts for 'Mechs, BattleForce, Battletroops, Aerotech, Battlespace (WARSHIPS!!!) and the original Mechwarrior pen and paper RPG rules. We used them all. I used to set up the game on my bedroom floor and it would stay there for weeks. We stopped using Battleforce after we lost a whole lance in like two rounds. Wargaming a battle between company sized elements with a game intended for lance sized units at best took time. It was cool. We played a lot and we played for hours. Unfortunately, I lost my collection when I lost a storage unit and it got auctioned. I want to just look at it right now.

We didn't just play though. We read the novels. We bought the sourcebooks about the Clans and the various houses.  We knew the lore. We talked about where the books were going. I remember telling Jay that they should publish a Battletech novel called Malicious Intent. We both knew it was never going to happen, but then it did. Seriously. This was in the pre-internet days. I didn't know that the thing existed until I rond it at the bookstore. You should have seen the look oh his face when I showed him the book. His eyes got real big and we laughed for like ten minutes. Thank you Michael Stackpole. You made my life.

Dude, I didn't cry when Jay had his heart attack. I didn't cry when he passed. Why am I crying now?

You know, my mom always referred to wargaming and RPGs as "sit on your butt dice games." I can't say she's wrong. That's on one hand. On the other hand, fuck that attitude. There was a friendship build through BT, just like many others have been built through all kinds of gaming. If you've been there, you know what I mean. If not, try gaming. It's fun and you'll never forget the good times you have or the people you had them with. I know I'll never forget Jason.

So, Jason, my friend, rest in peace. Wait for me where the old grognards go. Set up the board. We're gonna hit Strana Mechty and we're gonna hit it hard. Screw the house militaries. We're gonna burn in hard and we're bringing Wolf's Dragoons and whatever remnants of the Gray Death Legion we can find. We're going to win this Trial of Possession and we're going to look good doing it. I'll pilot your Hatchetman into the bay myself before I load up my Renegade. Let the Kerenskys know it's on. The Jolly Rogers are here and we came to kick ass and chew bubble gum. Too bad the quartermasters forgot to load the bubblegum and it's hundreds of light years away. And don't worry. It might take me a minute to get there, but once I do we've got eternity to win this fight.