Battletech, 'Mech, Battlemech, MechWarrior, and all material non-original relating to the Battletech Universe (Such as nation names and history and animals) is copyrighted by Wizkids LLC. They reserve all legal rights, and I do not contest them. Nor should you, if you're smart.
Neo Tokyo – Dunno if the name itself is actually copyrighted, but the concept is from the anime movie/manga miniseries Akria, by Katsuhiro Otomo. Akira is copyrighted by MASHROOM Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. English version distributed by Dark Horse Comics. I'd suggest you not fuck with them. The have mojo.
Mobile Infantry – The BOOK Starship Troopers, by Robert A. Heinlein (This man was a GOD of Sci Fi and a talented writer as ever lived. Read some of his books, and you'll see). I don't know if this is actually copyrighted, but whether it is or not, I give credit to where credit is certainly due and again, make no claim over this. The man was a genius.
Rodger Young – Young, Rodger W., Private, 148th Infantry, 37th Infantry Division (the Ohio Buckeyes); born Tiffin, Ohio, 28 April 1918; died 31 July 1943, on the island New Georgia, Solomons, South Pacific, while single-handedly attacking and destroying an enemy machine-gun pillbox. His platoon had been pinned by intense fire from this pillbox; Private Young was wounded in the first burst. He crawled toward the pillbox, was wounded a second time but continued to advance, firing his rifle as he did so. He closed on the pillbox, attacked and destroyed it with a hand grenade, but in so doing was wounded a thrid time and was killed.
His bold and gallant action in the face of overwhelming odds enabled his teammates to escape without loss; he was awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor.
The above two paragraphs appear at the end of Heinlein's Starship Troopers, as he had picked the name of the vessel in that book to honor the courageous sacrifice of Private Young. Although I am shamelessly mimicking Heinlein's own use of his name for the same reasons, I feel that to pick any other name for the main warship in my story (especially one mentioning the Mobile Infantry) would be a meager substitute, at best, and so I place the same two paragraphs here so that the truth behind the name shall go on. The name is used without permission by me, and I don't pretend to have done it justice. I apologize to his family if any offense was taken, for it was not my intent.
God bless you, Private Young, wherever you are.
Magma Wolves – From the movie Chronicals of Riddick (Dunno if that's the real name. I just saw them animals in the prison planet, and the name came to me.)
There is also a hidden reference to The Simpsons somewhere in the story, but I'm not tellin' ya where. ;)
Notes on names:
Farkas: "Wolf" in Hungarian.
Reyka: I honestly didn't know that was a Hungarian name. The character's name was originally going to be "Mrs. Reyla," but I thought that it sounded too close to "Kayla" (Mikula's sister, who was introduced soon after), and so I changed the L sound to a K sound to help distinguish them from each other, and also to make the name fit more into the way I imaginged Lurapi to sound. (Growls and other gutteral sounds.)
Gatón: Derived from "Gato" which is Spanish for "cat." (I was taking a Spanish class in college when I started writing this, so go figure.)
Lupar: A variation on Lupine, which means, "Wolf-like."
Ronnie Cordova – From http/ The ship is named after one of the main protagonists in that strange, strange, strange movie miniseries.
Chris Metzen – Used without permission, but indended only as an homage to the man. Who is he? Read the back of the StarCraft: Brood War manual.
Turnabout Intruder – The name of this ship comes from the last episode of the original Star Trek TV series. It just seemed to fit… And besides, Star Trek got me hooked on sci-fi, so nya. ;p
MJOLNIR armor – The Seabee armor in the story is based off of a BT-type armor called Mjolnir, which I made using HeavyMetal Battle Armor and based it off of Halo's MJOLNIR. Basically, the only resemblence is visual, with the BT armor's abilities being more for stealth and maneuverability rather than bein' some alien-slaying ass-kicking armor. (Death to the Covenant!)
The name of the planet is an inspiration from Mark Stanley's Freefall webcomic. ( http/freefall. ) Namely, the "Bowman's Wolf" which is the direct inspiration for the Lupar race. Mr. Stanley's "Florence Ambrose" character is just a fascinating and endearing one, and the writing he puts into the story and background is wonderful enough that I was deeply inspired, and I couldn't help but adapt the Bowman's Wolf into Battletech.
My apologies to him for not doing his comic or his characters justice.
Musical notes: Although this is written media, rather than a movie or somesuch, I tend to think of this story as having its own soundtrack. So I suggest listening to these songs to help you understand the mood I was going for. (Yes, I listen to all of these and have 'em on my drive. My tastes are diverse.)
Blizzard: Terran 1, 2,
and 3 tracks from StarCraft – For most non-battle scenes involving
the humans of the Republic. (I'm a Southerner. P )
John Anderson: Seminole
Wind, Long Hard Lesson Learned, Bend It 'Til It Breaks – For most
scenes in the first few chapters, usually Chapters 1-8.
Metallica: Fuel – For
the heavy action scene in Chapter 12. (You know what I'm talkin'
about.)
Metallica: Turn the
Page (cover of Bob Seger's song) – For just about any travelling
scene.
Martain O'Donnell:
Brothers in Arms (Halo Soundtrack) – For the liftoff from Bowman's
Planet in chapter 18.
Martain O'Donnell:
Rock Anthem for Saving the Universe (ibid) - For the Mobile Infantry
raid on Tanzano.
Basil Poledouris:
Klendathu Drop (Starship Troopers Soundtrack) – For the
assault on the forces attacking Hercor in Chapter 22.
Basil Poledouris: The
Hunt for Red October Soundtrack – For naval scenes in general,
combat or no.
Bill Brown: Rainbow Six
3: Raven Shield Main Menu music – For the scenes just prior to the
beginning of the WMD raid on Tanzano.
Bill Brown: USA06 (C&C
Generals soundtrack) – For Tanaka's Lance assaulting the Blakests
outside of Tanzano.
Linkin Park: Numb,
Breaking the Habit, In The End, Pushing Me Away – For battle scenes
towards the end of the story.
Klaus Badelt: Pirates
of the Carribean Soundtrack – For any naval scene involving
battling.
Dance Dance Revolution:
Butterfly – Credits section (Just sounds like the kind of music
you'd hear in the credits of a movie)
O-zone: Dragostea Din
Tei – Credits section
Also: Anything by Frank Klepacki, the talented man behind the music from Westwood studios' Command & Conquer series. And anything by Richard "DarkspARCS" Nelson. Their music pretty much fits in anywhere, depending on the song, and I listened to their stuff as a background kind of music on WinAmp while I wrote.
URLs:
http/ - Frank Klepacki
http/ - Bill Brown
http/ - Richard "DarkspARCS" Nelson
All original material and characters belong to me, Richard Andrew Szuhay, and they may not be used without my expressed written permission. All non-original stuff belongs to their respective owners, and I use them without permission and make no claim whatsoever to their creative output nor to any legal rights pertaining to or directly regarding any 'borrowed' material. As I have not done anything to actively undermine their financial capabiliteis, nor have I taken claim for anything that I did not create myself, the use of previously copyrighted material falls under the Fair Use Act of 1976 and its amended articles. So any whiny fanboys who got a problem with it can go screw yourselves.
I would like to give my thanks to some people: To James Bartlett (a.k.a. "Drys"), for encouraging me to put this up on the internet and for being supportive of my writing. To William Pennant (a.k.a. "RsBlackHawk"), and David Heise (a.k.a. "Xwinger7"), for listening to my bitching about things unrelated to the story that nevertheless kept me too pissed to write 'til I vented. To MaSaKaRi, the Owner/Admin of Battletech Mod Productions (http/ who let me try my hand at some script writing in one of his side projects, no matter how short-lived it was (It helped me to sharpen my skills). To the entire population of Regulars at the now-defunct MechWar3D forums, whom I'm glad to call friends, despite our differences of opinions. And last but most definitely not least, to all the readers who gave such wonderful and positive comments and reviews. Knowing that people actually read and liked my story is one of the best feelings I've ever had, and it kept me writing.
Thank you all.
-Stats-
Begun: January 2004
Hiatus: Febuary
2004-June 2004
Finished: August 22,
2005
Words: 484,967
Reviews: 141+
Frags: 89
Average Lifespan: 5:21
Flag Captures: 23
Power Cores Destroyed:
10 (4 Assisted)
Most Favored Weapon:
Flak Cannon (54 Frags)
Least Favored Weapon:
Shield Gun (2 Frags)
Rank: WICKED SICK
Title: Flak Monkey
About the Author
R. Andrew Szuhay, born in June of 1981, in Orlando, Florida, United States of America. He has remained living there despite the heat and hurricanes because he cares not a whit for cold weather, and he will likely never live above the Northern 30th Parrallel.
Currently attending Valencia Community College in preperation for moving on to a university so that he may get a degree in Geology (Or Engineering, or Physics… I'll play it by ear), he also works a retail job that sucks the ever-loving life from him. This has resulted in a hatred for the general public that has grown into an obsession with taking over the world like a James Bond supervillan. Fortunately for mankind, he is too lazy to bother with such an undertaking, and his army of Robo-Ninjas are usually called on only to rent movies from Blockbuster or to fetch Chinese food.
He is also a shameless sap of a hack writer, who like all writers, thinks that he can make money at it someday. (Yeah, right)… And apparently, he is stuck in the third-person mode. HELP!