Battletech Hunting Season

KNIVES IN THE DARK… Captain-General Jessica Marik is holding the reborn Free Worlds League together by the might of her indomitable will, and has managed to keep all of the interstellar nation’s foes at bay. But even the strongest and most inspiring leaders have chinks in their armor. After a personal tragedy, Jessica vanishes from the public eye, leaving no hand on the tiller of the fractious nation as multiple hostile neighbors drag them into open warfare. Beset on all sides, the League must navigate the flames of war with no direction from the top, leaving Warden-General Nikol Marik, Jessica’s youngest child, in control of the League’s military forces at a time when the nation needs her mother’s leadership the most. Nikol steps up to the challenge, however, as this is the moment she has been preparing for her entire life. But forces in the shadows seek to capitalize on the chaos and bring the Free Worlds League to its knees from within. The threat of coups and assassins sets the League on edge as Nikol strives to maintain the unity her mother had fought so hard to achieve, even if it means putting herself in danger. But she is not alone. At her right hand stands General Wilburn Kirkland, commander of the Ducal Guard, Jessica’s personal bodyguard regiment. Together they must discover who the League’s true enemies are, and hunt them to the ends of the Inner Sphere if necessary...

BURIED IN THE ASHES OF WAR… Freelance explorer and treasure hunter Dr. Brooklyn Stevens has made her career finding lost artifacts from Inner Sphere history, but during the waning days of the FedCom Civil War, a job offered by the academic organization known as Interstellar Expeditions affords her the chance to pursue the find of a lifetime: a missing planet, one lost in the ravages of the brutal Succession Wars. But the world of Jardine did not only die in fire—it was erased from stellar maps entirely, and Brooke’s employer wants to know why. She must hunt down the only known link to this forgotten world: a dangerous predator native to Jardine, whose initial discoverer was silenced under mysterious circumstances. Someone wants this planet to remain buried—and they will go to any lengths to ensure that Brooke’s quest to uncover the truth of Jardine’s disappearance ends in tragedy...

FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE! Shrapnel: The Official BattleTech Magazine surges onward, waging wars that will decide the fate of the BattleMech-dominated future of the 31st century and beyond! Follow a quest for quick cash that yields unusual Star League relics. Commiserate with an aging MechWarrior convinced he is cursed with the devil’s luck—which is about to run out. Listen to the tale of how mercenary commander Ace Darwin obtained his iconic ’Mech—but how much of his story is true? Within these pages, you will visit Terra after the dawn of the ilClan era, venture into the postwar period of the Aurigan Coalition, and travel to the far-flung worlds of the Scorpion Empire in the Deep Periphery. Then you will dive into the intrigue and vice of Solaris VII in the beginning of a new, four-part serial novel. Choose your plan of attack with technical readouts, after-action reports, a deep dive into plasma technology, a treatise on covert-ops poisons, and a look at Free Worlds League politics, along with playable scenarios and more—all loaded into your autocannon by both BattleTech veterans and new voices from the Inner Sphere: Blaine Lee Pardoe Craig A. Reed, Jr. E. Clark Avery Jason Schmetzer James Bixby M. W. Hayden Mark Hill Daniel Isberner Alexander J. Roth Ken’ Horner James Kirtley Wunji Lau Eric Salzman Joel Steverson Stephen Toropov

ANCIENT EVIL STALKS THE KURAI FOREST... The planet Dumaring in the Draconis Combine had been at peace for decades, until strange raids began against the populace’s livestock. A dutiful warrior and officer of the DCMS, Chu-i Uchida, was tasked with ending the attacks, but his hunt for bandits led him into the foreboding Kurai Forest. What he found in the dark wood would defy explanation and leave him a shadow of his former self. Now, only his son can regain his honor, clear his name, and find the truth…no matter how horrifying it may be...

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.

A NEW ERA IS DAWNING… The Illician Lancers: a mercenary outfit with centuries of honorable tradition, yet somehow always missing the limelight. Especially recently, after their mission failure during the liberation of New Syrtis in 3147 tarnished their once-sterling reputation and left them languishing on the Capellan border. Can Colonel Luciana Araya Morales overcome the shame of those events and restore the Lancers to their former glory? Meanwhile, as Clan Wolf prepares for its invasion of the cradle of humanity, Ya’el Labov, saKhan of the Sea Fox Khanate, hunts for new opportunities in the currents wafting from Terra. Rumors that the Clan Wolf Khan is using mercenaries as part of his attack plan set the wily saKhan’s mind to spinning. How can he take advantage of this, and make Clan Sea Fox’s star rise even further? Two people with very different goals are about to embark on a shared mission that, if successful, will change much in the Inner Sphere. And if they are not, their alliance may be doomed to failure before it can even begin…

WIN OR FALL… For Douglas, Jade Falcon Elemental cadet, there is no choice—he must succeed in becoming a warrior or die trying. Unfortunately, he is perilously close to falling—right out of his sibko. Consistently at the bottom of his class, everyone around him—from his trainers to his fellow sibkin—believes he will not survive his Trial of Position, and should quit before he is killed. But Douglas knows he is destined to be a Jade Falcon warrior. And when he meets a man with a checkered past who promises to show him the true ways of the warrior, Douglas embarks on a dangerous path that might bring him the victory he craves…or utterly destroy him in a brutal trial where sudden death is everywhere…