1/1 Dragoons Wild Horses: Redemption

Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not personally own Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, Tenchi Muyo, BattleTech, nor the Star Kingdom of Manticore. All these wonderful works are the ownership of other people. I'm just borrowing them for a short time to write this little story, and I bow to the greatnesses that wrote these wonderful things. I'm a poor and humble warrior who loves to write about things he enjoys.

More than a thousand years from now, mankind will have settled the stars. With the invention of the K-F Jump Drive, mankind was able to cross the great void between the stars in mere moments, rather than the decades that it took previously.

As mankind spread out they formed great stellar nations. These nations eventually became known as the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere. Together these nations formed the Star League.

Then a new war machine was created, the battlemech. Standing up to 15 meters in height and weighing as much as 100 tons, these new weapons became the new king of the battlefield.

Mankind embraced these new weapons, and more traditional things, like infantry and armor, fell to the wayside as nations strove to build up their 'mech forces. The pilots of these new war machines, called 'mech warriors, became the new elite branch of the military.

Then IT happened. Old hatreds, that were thought to have been forgiven many centuries before, sprang up even stronger than ever. Combined with greed and corruption, wars broke out, as mankind practiced its most ancient of arts.

Soon the minor border skirmishes between the member-states escalated. Terra was taken over after the assassination of Lord Cameron, the leader of the Star League, marking the beginning of a long and bloody civil war.

After many years of fighting many bloody battles, billions were dead and a half a dozen worlds were nothing more than irradiated balls of rock. With Terra restored to its ownership as an independent planet, the Great Houses started to argue over who would be the next leader of the Star League.

The known universe once again fell to war as no one could agree. General Kerensky, the leader of what remained of the Star League military, became disgusted with the attitudes and beliefs of the Great Houses. He gathered together ninety percent of his forces, their dependents and civilian support structure, and left the Inner Sphere, vowing that his people would one day return, either to aid a new Star League, or to rebuild it themselves if need be.

What was not recorded in history, but actually lost when the only computer core that had the knowledge was destroyed in battle, was that at the same time as General Kerensky was leaving, a scientific colony left as well. Named Project Manticore, they left to conduct top secret studies for the Star League military and were to report their findings to a single computer core.

After settling on the third planet of the alpha component of a binary star system, they settled into working. Having made several ground breaking discoveries within the first five years of the colony's existence; they sent their reports to their masters. After another two years of no replies, a small expeditionary force of two vessels embarked to discover what had happened to the Star League.

Upon their arrival in the Inner Sphere, they discovered their former home to be engulfed in war. A war that would become known as The First Succession War. The commander of the expedition decided to return home with this knowledge, rather than to notify one of the nations of the colony's existence and skills. He felt it best to stay hidden and to reappear to aid the Inner Sphere should they need it at a later date if things became truly dire.

When they returned home, the colonial leaders agreed with the commander's decision and decided that they were truly on their own. The colony, well versed in Terran history, modeled their new government after the old British government.

Since the formation of the Star Kingdom of Manticore, they have grown much larger. They now encompass five systems and seven inhabited planets.

Then, in the year 3045, the Clans came. Clan Ghost Bear took over the planet Mersedas at a great cost to their touman. The Royal Army was able to evacuate with minimal losses to the division stationed on Mersedas. One lone squadron covered the retreat. Leaving their injured and dead behind as they fell back. The commander, Lieutenant Colonel Ranma Saotome, was condemned, despite his best efforts and the successful retreat of the division.

This story is about his redemption. This story is about his unit, its people, and his commander. This story is about their struggles, and battles against the best the Clans and the Inner Sphere have to offer. This story is about war, peace, death, life, hatred, love, wealth and power. This story is about the 101st Assault Division of the Royal Manticoran Army, the Screaming Eagles. This story is about the 1st Battalion, 1st Dragoons Regiment, the Wild Horses.

NOTES: So there it is. My delving into the realms of BattleTech and Honor Harrington. Two of my favorite things really. Hope you like it a lot. Comments are always welcome, flames though will be used to keep terrorists away from the important areas of the International Zone in Baghdad, Iraq. Thanks again fore reading.

P.S.: Yeah I know I haven't put anything out in a while, and this isn't in any of the other two stories that I've been working on, but between moving the wife to Texas, training for a new deployment, which I'm on at the time of this posting, and buying my very first home, I really haven't had the time that I would have loved to have in order to truly write on those stories. And to top it all off, I don't have the files I need out here in order to write more. I deeply apologize to those who are awaiting further chapters of Flux Corps or Anything Goes Air Piracy. As soon as my muse allows me to, I will write more and post it, I promise. Until then, please be patient and understand that my muse is very temperamental, and I must spend a lot of time with her in order to appease her.

CptDave