Editing Fall Down Seven Times, Get up Eight

{{InfoBoxProduct
| image               = BattleTech-Fall-Down-Seven-Times-Get-Up-Eight-Generic.jpeg
| name                = Fall Down Seven Times, Get up Eight
| type                = Novella
| author              = [[Randall N. Bills]]
| development         = 
| primarywriting      = 
| pages               = 52
| cover               = [[Klaus Scherwinski]]
| interiorart         = 
| illustrations       = 
| publisher           = [[BattleCorps]]
| productioncode      = 
| year                = 12 April 2005;<br />16 May 2011 (re-release)
| ISBN10              = 
| ISBN13              = 
| MSRP                = 
| content             = 
| era                 = [[Star League era]] ([[Age of War]])
| timeline            = [[2415]]–[[2461]]
| series              = [[Proliferation Cycle]]
| precededby          = [[Nothing Ventured]]
| followedby          = [[A Dish Served Cold]]
}}
'''''Fall Down Seven Times, Get up Eight (Proliferation, Part IV)''''' (full title), by [[Randall N. Bills]], is the fourth story in the [[Proliferation Cycle]]. It narrates how the [[Draconis Combine]] (then under the rule of [[House Von Rohrs]]) first obtained [[BattleMech]] technology.

==Teaser text==
===Original release===
{{quote|''House Kurita struggles to capture plans for the most powerful warmchine ever built...but does so under the albatross of a Coordinator intent on reshaping his realm into a mirror of his hate.''}}
===Re-release===
{{quote|''The samurai of the Draconis Combine will not allow themselves to be outdone by the ''teki'' of the [[Federated Suns]] or [[Terran Hegemony]]--the BattleMech shall be theirs!''}}

==Plot summary==
Almost-thirteen-year-old [[Takeda Tesuo]] cannot dissuade his older brother [[Ito Tesuo]] from leaving the family to remove another mouth to feed when their small [[goji]] farm falls on hard times in [[2415]]. This leads to an estrangement between the two brothers, who proceed to follow different life paths while the Draconis Combine is struggling under [[House Von Rohrs]]'s rule.

Ito Tesuo, always caring for his friends and family and driven to succeed for them, joins the secret service. An [[Internal Security Force]] analyst by [[2435]], he is among the first to realize BattleMech production on [[Hesperus II]] for what it is and subsequently becomes the ISF's highest-ranking field operative. However, over the course of more than two decades, his work is repeatedly hampered by his superiors, especially the [[Coordinator]], and Ito is increasingly frustrated and disillusioned. In [[2459]] he is finally recalled for having ultimately failed to obtain BattleMech plans for the Combine.

Meanwhile, younger Takeda Tesuo, driven to succeed on his own, joins the [[Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery]] and graduates from the [[Sun Tzu School of Combat]] top of his class in [[2428]]; however, by this time he has a strained relationship with his family (claiming that he ''has'' no family) and reacts angrily when he receives a letter from his family upon graduation. After a brilliant career battling on over fifty worlds for the DCMS, including guerrilla warfare on [[St. John]] in [[2439]], he is eventually chosen to command [[Draconis Elite Strike Team]] One in [[2457]].

In [[2460]] the brothers meet again for the first time in 45 years. Takeda chastises his older brother for being a failure and accuses him of treason for questioning the Coordinator, then reveals that his soldier team will succeed in one quick strike in what Ito and his ISF failed to obtain in 20 years. Ito, an intelligence expert with twenty years of experience on the security of the Hesperus complex, unsuccessfully tries to convince Takeda of the futility of the attempt, then uses old acquaintances to arrange one last mission: A raid on the [[Lyran Commonwealth]] 'Mech factory at [[Coventry]] by DEST Two.

DEST One performs remarkably well, but is still overmatched and destroyed by the Terran Hegemony defenders on Hesperus. Takeda is killed by a defending BattleMech, admitting that Ito was right with his last thoughts. Meanwhile, DEST Two succeeds in stealing the plans.

After the raids, Coordinator [[Kozo Von Rohrs]] is decidedly unhappy that his own plan failed while a disgraced ISF officer managed the feat successfully by commandeering another DEST team. When Ito realizes that the blame for DEST One's failure will be laid at Takeda's feet to absolve the Coordinator, he offers his life to ensure his beloved brother's memory will not be sullied. Von Rohrs accepts.

== Featured characters ==
* [[Ito Tesuo]]
* [[Takeda Tesuo]]
* [[Kozo Von Rohrs]]

== Featured places ==
* [[Alkaid]] (mentioned)
* [[Hesperus II]]
* [[Kaznejoy|Kaznejov]]
* [[Lovinac]] (mentioned)
* [[Moore]]
* [[New Samarkand]]
* [[Oshika]]
* [[Pandora]]
* [[Pesht]]
* [[Skye]]
* [[St. John]]

==Featured BattleTech==
===JumpShips===
* ''[[Trader (JumpShip class)|Trader]]''-class JumpShip (''[[Imperious (Individual Trader-class JumpShip)|Imperious]]'', ''[[Star of the North (Individual Trader-class JumpShip)|Star of the North]]'')

== Notes ==
* Ito Tesuo's final exam to join the ranks of the [[ISF]]–having to battle an imported [[Pesht Predator Ape]] with a spear–appears to have been dropped from subsequent admissions criteria. The ''[[Intelligence Operations Handbook]]'', p. 62, describes ISF cadet training in [[3055]] as an intensive infantry combat program, grueling psychological and intellectual assessments, and classes in psychological warfare, weapons training and cultural familiarization. It notes that [[Voice of the Dragon]] candidates so rarely encounter combat situations that they are given a less intensive weapons course. No mention is made of a "trial by combat" final exam.
* Despite the clear evidence of the [[Lyran Commonwealth]]'s involvement in the theft of BattleMech technology (having deployed their ''[[Mackie]]'' clones on [[Loric]] in 2459), Lyran troops are shown fighting side-by-side with Hegemony security forces in the battle against DEST One on Hesperus II in 2461.
* The 2019 EPUB cover art is erroneously credited to Franz Vohwinkel rather than Klaus Scherwinski (signature visible).


[[Category:BattleCorps publications]]
[[Category:Short Stories]]
[[Category:Works by Randall N. Bills]]