FOREWORD

Without a revolutionary theory, there cannot be a revolutionary movement.

~Vladimir Lenin

I’ve been asked while sitting on a panel at conventions, in many letters and emails, and just hanging around talking with friends, “Where did Catlayst Game Labs truly get its start?”

Everyone wants to believe it was some grand strategy, born from the think-tank that surrounded FASA. An internal movement, or revolution, which refused to die even as the doors were being closed on one of our industry’s greatest fiction legacies. (Which does lead to the amusing image of a band of misfit writers, all wearing berets, sitting around a French café plotting our next great undertaking.)

Sorry. As much as I love telling a good story that involves twists and turns, complications and overcoming enormous obstacles (and berets), that just isn’t the case. Not really.

It began with an idea.

A theory.

An abstract thought, based on the analysis of a set of related facts.

Fact: I had just finished writing Endgame, the “last” of the BattleTech novels, supposedly bringing to a close seventeen years of fiction narrative.

Fact: FASA was closing its doors, and there was no more BattleTech fiction on the horizon.

Fact: We still had stories we wanted to tell.

And I couldn’t help thinking about how I had wrapped up Endgame, setting the hook for a new, large plotline for BattleTech’s long-standing main hero. (Sorry, no spoilers. You’ll have to read the book.)

So there I am. It’s 2002 (or thereabouts) and I remember I was making a long drive to somewhere, talking out loud about all of this as a way to stay awake. I’m spinning off random thoughts concerning the growing trend of e-publishing and the already-built market of BattleTech readers, and the financial realities that might—just might—allow someone to take on such a project so that I could tell one last story.

Which was when my wife turned to me and asked, “So... why don’t you do it?”

Mon dieu!

And there it was. The idea that solidified a revolutionary theory, and began a movement. The moment that made possible everything that followed. That shove out the door (and over a cliff).

Everyone can blame my wife.

BattleCorps.com launched in 2003 and barnstormed into 2004. Behind the scenes, we raced around trying to learn everything we needed to about running a small business. Fortunately, I had help from a talented group of people just as committed as I, and between the lot of us we managed to keep things going, and growing, over the next several years. We kept on several veterans, but we also recruited an entire host of new writers. Jason Schmetzer. Phaedra Weldon. Kevin Killiany. And, of course, Steve Mohan, who came on strong and refused to let any of us slow him down. They gave us new units to cheer for in the Taurian Defense Force and a Federated Suns air cavalry squad. Introduced us to such unlikely heroes as a patriotic thief. And took us through the final moments of a desperate battle over Mars.

These are the stories you will read in this anthology.

First Strike is dedicated to these new literary commanders. Without their willingness to dedicate their talent to a large and complicated universe, to brave withering fire and charge the lines with a take-no-prisoners attitude, this revolutionary movement could never have survived.

It is my great privilege, in fact, to showcase three of Steve Mohan’s early BattleTech works. Stories that earned him so much fan support and eventually landed him his first published novel for BattleTech, A Bonfire of Worlds, which is publishing in 2010. We’ve also included a never-before-published follow-up to his fan favorite piece, Of War and Peace and Cherry Trees. I hope you enjoy it as much as I.

Bravo, Steve. Or perhaps I should say bien fait! (Your beret is in the mail.)

The heavy hanging chains shall fall

The walls shall crumble at the word

And freedom greet you with the light

And brothers give you back the sword

~Aleksandr Pushkin