Betrayal of Ideals
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| Betrayal of Ideals | |
|---|---|
| Product information | |
| Type | Novel (4 parts) |
| Author | Blaine Lee Pardoe |
| Pages | 231 pages total: 31 (part 1) 54 (part 2) 68 (part 3) 78 (part 4) |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | BattleCorps |
| First published | 25 October 2006 - 16 January 2007) |
| Content | |
| Era | Succession Wars era |
| Timeline | 12 June 2822 - 10 January 2840 |
Betrayal of Ideals is a serialized novel by Blaine Lee Pardoe published in four parts on BattleCorps. It provides the "true" story behind the demise of Clan Wolverine, making Clan founder Nicholas Kerensky appear in a rather bad light and revealing many aspects of Clan history as revisionistic falsifications (and incidentially explaining inconsistencies in previously published material).
Contents
Plot summary
Foundations of Fate
- published on 25 October 2006
| “ | Clan Wolverine. The Not-Named Clan. In the years after their return to the Inner Sphere, Clanners were reluctant to discuss this period of their history. The constant struggle to mix the ways of the past and the ways of Nicholas Kerensky's vision of the future... a vision that seemed to constantly evolve and change. What happened to cause the destruction, the Annihilation, of Khan Sarah McEvedy and Clan Wolverine? | ” |
Clan Wolverine Khan Sarah McEvedy surveys the construction of the Great Hall of the Clans at the center of Katyusha, on Strana Mechty. She muses on the changes she has seen begin to emerge in the Clansvonce a brotherhood of warriors united under ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky's banner, and now beginning to form secret alliances and making back-room deals. She prides herself in having kept her Clan aloof from any such politicking.
With the fall of the Black Brian on Dagda two weeks earlier, she notes that the Khans of the Clans have begun to chafe in the absence of the war they were engineered for—a warrior people without a foe. Though Nicholas has stepped into the role of "great father" once occupied by his father, Aleksandr Kerensky, McEvedy feels that the future has become harder to see since the death of Nicholas' brother Andery Kerensky on Eden during the mopping up against the Levic Ascendancy. She has nagging suspcions that Nicholas may have had something to do with Andery's death.
To replace battlefield losses from Operation KLONDIKE, the re-conquest of the Pentagon Worlds, new warriors have been inducted into each Clan, and McEvedy finds that this new generation lacks the common bonds that knit the original Clans together.
She goes to the temporary command center to join Nicholas for dinner, and notes that the officers' mess this night hosts a number of other Khans: Jason Karrige of Clan Widowmaker, Franklin Osis of Clan Smoke Jaguar, and Joyce Merrell of Clan Snow Raven. McEvedy counts Merrell as a friend, but views Karrige as being unpleasantly extreme in his views. She recalls that relations between the Wolverines and Widowmakers have been strained since an unspecified incident during the Pentagon Civil War.
In the IlKhan's private dining room, McEvedy muses on Nicholas' numerous quirks—any violation of his protocols results in temper tantrums that proceed nearly to the point of requiring a Circle of Equals. Nobody is allowed to sit before he does, and he eats his steaks unseasoned, nearly raw. Conversation may not begin at the table until he finishes his meal and rests his arms on the table. Those close to him have learned his foibles to avoid setting him off.
This night, Nicholas has an agenda: He chastises McEvedy for allowing social mobility between her Clan's castes in the interests of efficiency. Though this has resulted in record productivity from the Wolverine enclaves, it undercuts Nicholas' goal of removing personal ambition by imposing rigidly defined caste roles and eliminating most opportunities for social mobility. McEvedy muses that many of Nicholas' extreme measures imposed during the crisis of the Pentagon Civil War and Second Exodus are now becoming permanent, and serving as the basis for even more extreme social engineering.
Regretting that Andery is no longer around to restrain Nicholas' impulses, McEvedy accedes to his demand that she undo her reforms and deal with any resulting social unrest—harshly, if necessary. However, to satisfy her own sense of honor, she demands to know which other Khans brought her reforms to the ilKhan's attention, so that she may challenge them to a Trial of Grievance. Nicholas denies her request.
After McEvedy departs, Nicholas informs Widowmaker Khan Karrige that he has dealt with the Wolverine situation of which Karrige had complained. However, he criticizes Karrige's use of intrigue by placing a spy in another Clan, a major breach of etiquette by Nicholas' standards. Karrige expresses gratitude for Nicholas' assistance, and takes another tack, characterizing the Wolverines as demonstrating a pattern of violation of Nicholas' regulations that encourages competition among the lower castes, rather than leaving the resolution of all conflcts exclusively to the Warrior caste. Karrige and Osis tell Nicholas they are worried that their own lower castes will demand reforms similar to those enacted by the Wolverines. Nicholas tells them that, should any disputes arise, the Circle of Equals is the proper venue for their resolution. He tells the two disgruntled Khans to step up their Trials against the Wolverines and prove the rightness of their claims on the field of battle. However, given a spate of defeats in the Circle at Wolverine hands, Karrige instead suggests that Nicholas authorize enhanced monitoring of the Wolverines, to better detect further violations of Clan ideology.
Nicholas agrees, though he specifies that such a new intelligence gathering organization will monitor all the Clans for violations of his doctrine, and bring them to his attention for proper resolution in a Circle of Equals.
A month later in the city of Bearcat, Wolverine Star Colonel Franklin Hallis puts a newly made Pulverizer through its paces, noting its superior performance over his previous ride, a cobbled-together FrankenMech (a Shadow Griffin). He takes it into combat against Star Colonel Ferris Ward from Clan Wolf, who has come to challenge for the Wolverines' Bearcat genetics repository and research facilities. Khan McEvedy warns Franklin that a spate of recent challenges have set the stakes to be as economically damaging as possible to the Wolverines, suggesting ulterior motives beyond simple demonstration of combat prowess and inter-Clan bragging rights. Despite the Wolves breaking their bid and calling in their entire pre-cutdown force, Hallis manages to take them out by setting the tar swamps ablaze and forcing the Wolves to shut down.
Khan McEvedy ponders the aggressive Wolf trial, and worries that this means that Nicholas' Wolves have joined the Widowmakers and Smoke Jaguars in the list of Clans conspiring to weaken her Wolverines. She briefly thinks back to Andery, thinking that he could have done something about his brother. Determning to take the offensive in this growing shadow war, she announces her intent to launch some challenges of her own against the Widowmaker enclave on Dagda, and tasks Hallis with rooting out the spies that have been leaking confidential Wolverine information to outsiders.
On 15 July 2822, a conclave of anti-Wolverine Khans holds a strategy session at the Widowmaker enclave. Widowmaker Khan Karrige chews out Khan Jerome Winson of the Wolves for having lost the latest challenge against the Wolverines. Khan Osis of the Smoke Jaguars argues that the Wolverines have only won by using new technology not available to other Clans. Clan Coyote Khan Kesar Jerricho (Dana Kufahl's replacement, following her recent self-exile) semi-innocently inquires whether the ilKhan has sanctioned this anti-Wolverine working group, much to Karrige's annoyance. The Clan Fire Mandrill Khan suggests something more aggressive, but subtle. Inspired, Karrige says that he has something in mind that will cause the Wolverines to harm themselves and expose themselves as betrayers of the Clans.
The Widowmakers' mole inside the Wolverines is a technician named Karl. As a member of a lower caste he was largely overlooked by the warriors. However, now that Khan McEvedy's tracking method has led back to Karl, Star Colonel Franklin Hallis and Star Captain Trish have been shadowing him, hoping to learn his techniques. After Hallis determines that they have learned as much as possible from observation, they detain Karl and take him to a padded interrogation chamber, where Trish sets to work with relish. After five days of "enhanced interrogation," Hallis reports to McEvedy that Karl was a Widowmaker civilian who retained his old loyalties when absorbed into Clan Wolverine after the 2817 Trial of Possession. He volunteered to become a mole for Khan Karrige, and has been building a network of informers among lower castemen originating from other Clans, showing that a widespread attempt to infiltrate Clan Wolverine is underway. Hallis advocates purging the Wolverines of all inductees from other Clans, purifying the Wolverines and thereby rooting out the infiltrators. Those purged would be consigned to the Bandit Caste. McEvedy concurs, and informs him that she is also stepping up production of the Stag and Mercury II, as well as expanding the Clan's transport assets and accelerating sibko training programs.
Treachery's Stage
- published on 18 November 2006
| “ | In the darkest traditions of the Clans a decision can cost far more than prestige and honor. A decision can cost lives, and sometimes those lives are very dear indeed. | ” |
Book Two, "Treachery's Stage", covered 10 June - 7 October 2823. At the center of the story was the struggle over the Brian Cache that sparked the Clan Wolverine Trial of Annihilation saga.
The Switchback Directive
- published on 22 December 2006
| “ | Khan McEvedy's Trial of Refusal ended in a loss for the Wolverine Khan. Seeing that the way of the Clans is being shattered before her very eyes, McEvedy realizes that it's only a matter of time before Nicholas Kerensky comes for her and her Clan. It's up to her to do what she can to preserve the Wolverines--even if it means crossing the Grand Council. First, though, she needs time: time to prepare, time to act, and time to flee. | ” |
"The Switchback Directive" ran from 8 - 24 October 2823. Wolverine Khan Sarah McEvedy faced down the other Khans and ilKhan Nicholas Kerensky in a series of Grand Council sessions. The story also described the first shots fired as the Wolverines seceded from the Clans and the fateful use of nuclear weapons.
Asunder
- published on 16 January 2007
| “ | Wolverine Khan Sarah McEvedy is dead. Her Clan is on the run. As saKhan Franklin Hallis works to implement her Swichback directive, Nicholas Kerensky is gathering the Clans for a new purpose, a new trial: Annihilation. The Clans have been torn asunder; what happens here will shape the Clans for centuries to come. This is the story of the Wolverines, of fate, and the Founder's hand... | ” |
The final chapter in Betrayal of Ideas was "Asunder", which described events that took place from 25 October 2823 - 10 January 2840. What was once Clan Wolverine largely fled from Clan space. The story offered tantalizing hints as to the fate of the Wolverines without confirming that they had, in fact, survived.
Featured Characters
Featured BattleTech
BattleMechs
WarShips
Bismark, Mustang, Hunter's Pride, Michigan, Avalanche, Rough Rider, Black Justice, Buccaneer (cruiser), McKenna's Pride Munich Maverick Saratoga
DropShips
- unspecified DropShip Huron
Other
- Shelby Foote, a "shuttle" of unspecified type (implicitly, a Small Craft)
Features Places
- Arcadia (also Liny, a moon of Arcadia)
- Brim
- Charlie 425 A
- Circe
- Gamma 12901 FQ
- Gamma 1551 AV aka "Barbados"
- Gamma 25098 3W
- Strana Mechty
- Wayside (mentioned)
- Zulu 11981 TZ
Notes
- At one point[1] Sarah McEvedy reminisces in internal monologue about Jason Karrige being "still bitter over that loss in battle", explicitly an incident during the Pentagon Civil War. She had put it behind her while he had taken it personally. The exact nature of the incident/battle is not elaborated upon. In Operation KLONDIKE, Clan Widowmaker was assigned to Dagda and interacted mostly with Clans Goliath Scorpion and Burrock, while Clan Wolverine was on Circe sharing an operational area with Clan Snow Raven. Historical: Operation KLONDIKE repeatedly states that the purging of Wolverine-related records made it difficult to determine their exact actions during KLONDIKE, but it does say that the Wolverines were not considered as reinforcements for the Widowmakers on Dagda (in the siege of the Black Brian). Thus, the incident between Karrige and McEvedy must have stemmed from something that happened between the Widowmakers and Wolverines on Strana Mechty, while the Clans were staging for KLONDIKE. The 2717 Trial of Possession where Clan Wolverine captured a base and technician Karl from Clan Widowmaker has been speculated as possibly being that incident. It would have been one of the first Trials of Possession ever.
- Although a Khan of Clan Fire Mandrill takes part in the conclave, his or her name is not given in the text, leaving it open if it is Raymond Sainze (whose characterization in previous sources does not seem to fit well with his ideas and behaviour here) or Laura Payne who appears in this story.
- The story was controversial with some BattleTech fans[2] because Pardoe wrote the story of Clan Wolverine's annihilation differently from how it had been presented in the past: The reviled "Not-Named Clan" was revealed to have actually been acting noble and honorable; they were singled out for genocide by Nicholas Kerensky for opposing him, to make an example of the Wolverines and to rally the other Clans behind him.
It should be noted, though, that then-Line Developer Randall N. Bills had previously written the first two parts of the Founding of the Clans trilogy that already portrayed Nicholas Kerensky as a manipulative sociopath who built a personality cult around himself and was readily prepared to kill or instigate civil war among his people to further his agenda of creating an all-new society; however, Fall from Glory, the first part, would not be published in english until November 2007, long after Betrayal of Ideals, and the second part was only ever published in its German translation and remains unpublished in english. - Blaine Pardoe has written extensively about the American Civil War, and has been known to frequently insert references to the Civil War into his works. The shuttle Shelby Foote from this story was apparently named for real-world historian Shelby Foote, who rose to prominence with a work on the Americal Civil War and passed away in 2005. Another nod to the Civil War era seems to be the WarShip named General Stuart.
- According to the author in his postscript to the story, the historical forceful disbanding of the order of the Knights Templar served as an inspiration for the story.
References
- ↑ Part 1, PDF document p. 5
- ↑ See BattleCorps discussion thread about the series