KNIVES IN THE DARK… Captain-General Jessica Marik is holding the reborn Free Worlds League together by the might of her indomitable will, and has managed to keep all of the interstellar nation’s foes at bay. But even the strongest and most inspiring leaders have chinks in their armor. After a personal tragedy, Jessica vanishes from the public eye, leaving no hand on the tiller of the fractious nation as multiple hostile neighbors drag them into open warfare. Beset on all sides, the League must navigate the flames of war with no direction from the top, leaving Warden-General Nikol Marik, Jessica’s youngest child, in control of the League’s military forces at a time when the nation needs her mother’s leadership the most. Nikol steps up to the challenge, however, as this is the moment she has been preparing for her entire life. But forces in the shadows seek to capitalize on the chaos and bring the Free Worlds League to its knees from within. The threat of coups and assassins sets the League on edge as Nikol strives to maintain the unity her mother had fought so hard to achieve, even if it means putting herself in danger. But she is not alone. At her right hand stands General Wilburn Kirkland, commander of the Ducal Guard, Jessica’s personal bodyguard regiment. Together they must discover who the League’s true enemies are, and hunt them to the ends of the Inner Sphere if necessary...

BURIED IN THE ASHES OF WAR… Freelance explorer and treasure hunter Dr. Brooklyn Stevens has made her career finding lost artifacts from Inner Sphere history, but during the waning days of the FedCom Civil War, a job offered by the academic organization known as Interstellar Expeditions affords her the chance to pursue the find of a lifetime: a missing planet, one lost in the ravages of the brutal Succession Wars. But the world of Jardine did not only die in fire—it was erased from stellar maps entirely, and Brooke’s employer wants to know why. She must hunt down the only known link to this forgotten world: a dangerous predator native to Jardine, whose initial discoverer was silenced under mysterious circumstances. Someone wants this planet to remain buried—and they will go to any lengths to ensure that Brooke’s quest to uncover the truth of Jardine’s disappearance ends in tragedy...

FIGHT FOR THE FUTURE! Shrapnel: The Official BattleTech Magazine surges onward, waging wars that will decide the fate of the BattleMech-dominated future of the 31st century and beyond! Follow a quest for quick cash that yields unusual Star League relics. Commiserate with an aging MechWarrior convinced he is cursed with the devil’s luck—which is about to run out. Listen to the tale of how mercenary commander Ace Darwin obtained his iconic ’Mech—but how much of his story is true? Within these pages, you will visit Terra after the dawn of the ilClan era, venture into the postwar period of the Aurigan Coalition, and travel to the far-flung worlds of the Scorpion Empire in the Deep Periphery. Then you will dive into the intrigue and vice of Solaris VII in the beginning of a new, four-part serial novel. Choose your plan of attack with technical readouts, after-action reports, a deep dive into plasma technology, a treatise on covert-ops poisons, and a look at Free Worlds League politics, along with playable scenarios and more—all loaded into your autocannon by both BattleTech veterans and new voices from the Inner Sphere: Blaine Lee Pardoe Craig A. Reed, Jr. E. Clark Avery Jason Schmetzer James Bixby M. W. Hayden Mark Hill Daniel Isberner Alexander J. Roth Ken’ Horner James Kirtley Wunji Lau Eric Salzman Joel Steverson Stephen Toropov

BURDEN OF PROOF… For too long the planet Stewart, the ancestral home of one of the oldest dynasties of the Free Worlds League, has remained in the clutches of Clan Wolf, locked behind a mutual nonaggression pact between the Wolf Empire and the League. But the Wolves have unexpectedly abandoned much of their territory, leaving many systems ripe for the taking. The news of the Wolf Empire’s poorly defended border spurs Count Gavin Stewart and the Silver Hawk Irregulars to take back his family’s homeland while the Wolves are away, but his invasion threatens to destabilize the entire region. Recognizing the long-term danger, Captain Trenton Marik, Gavin’s longtime friend, must travel to Stewart and convince Gavin and the Irregulars to withdraw before the Wolves return home in force and strike back. But rumors of a conqueror claiming Terra—an ilClan, which demands all Clans bend the knee—stir up divided loyalties within the League’s Clan Protectorate province, and the Protectorate’s warriors must choose between fealty to the League or obedience to the ilClan. And the best path to proving their loyalty is to swiftly punish all who would dare invade the Wolf Empire…

DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR Major Michael Crown, leader of the Crown Crusaders mercenary battalion, has finally hit the big time: not only are the Crusaders fighting in the campaign to liberate the capital of the Federated Suns’ Capellan March, they are under the command of the First Prince himself, Julian Davion. But when battle plans against the Capellan Confederation go awry and the specter of blame falls on the Crusaders, Michael must make a desperate deal to prove his loyalty to the Federated Suns and save his unit from extinction. That deal leads to an unusual post in the distant Davion Outback, where true friends are hard to come by and devious enemies could be masquerading in plain sight. Michael and the Crown Crusaders must navigate the untamed wilds of the Periphery March if they are to have any hope of surviving long enough to regain the First Prince’s trust and cleanse the stain on their honor. (NOTE: This is the same novella that was distributed to the BattleTech Mercenaries Kickstarter campaign. If you received this story through the campaign, you do not need to buy it here.)

DISSENT FROM WITHIN… Sea Fox Clansmen are space-bound, nomadic warrior-merchants who live and die aboard their naval vessels, going planetside only to negotiate a new deal or for combat—often the same thing for a Fox. Divided into five autonomous Khanates, they are led by the Khan of Clan Sea Fox. Their mission: to make deals and acquire the revenue needed to expand Sea Fox's honor, glory, and power... For more than a decade, ovKhan Sha Clarke has watched his Spina Khanate achieve greater wealth and fame than any other. A burning passion drives him to free Spina Khanate from the shackles of Clan Sea Fox—no matter the cost... Fiercely loyal to Clan Sea Fox, ovKhan Petr Kalasa knows Sha is plotting rebellion, but even he cannot guess the lengths to which the other ovKhan will go to achieve his goal. Attempting to stop his rival, he baits Sha into a one-on-one duel. The result is a disaster that vividly demonstrates how much Petr will have to sacrifice to put an end to Sha's machinations. Yet his suspicions of Sha will not let him rest. Petr has lost one battle, but—as the Clan as his witness—he will not lose the war...

FOUNDATIONS OF BLOOD... Julian Davion—Prince’s Champion of the Federated Suns—is a warrior who has lost his way, struggling to find his destiny amid political turmoil and the shifting fortunes of war. But while Julian's First Davion Guards have restored order on Terra, the Republic is closing its borders, keeping its core intact while leaving farther-flung worlds to fend for themselves. But the Republic is not only being attacked by external threats—it's being undermined from within, and the hunt for the seditionists continues. Ex-knight and now-Senator Conner Rhys-Monroe still leads the fight to destroy the Republic from within. To stop him, Julian must pull together a disparate band of warriors from across the Inner Sphere, and keep them together long enough to achieve victory. Terra lies at the center of their titanic tug-of-war, where Julian struggles to keep his political and military footing in a shifting situation that could explode into all-out war at any moment...

ANCIENT EVIL STALKS THE KURAI FOREST... The planet Dumaring in the Draconis Combine had been at peace for decades, until strange raids began against the populace’s livestock. A dutiful warrior and officer of the DCMS, Chu-i Uchida, was tasked with ending the attacks, but his hunt for bandits led him into the foreboding Kurai Forest. What he found in the dark wood would defy explanation and leave him a shadow of his former self. Now, only his son can regain his honor, clear his name, and find the truth…no matter how horrifying it may be...

SOMETHING LURKS IN THE SHADOWS… During the chaos of the Word of Blake’s Jihad, the MechWarriors of the Federated Suns will go to any lengths to defend their nation from the Blakists’ unholy terror—including making deals with the devil. But that devil might just be a literal one: an all-black Marauder, hidden for several decades, that carries an aura of dread that infects everyone who encounters it. Many blame it for causing unexplained disappearances, technical failures, and even madness. But what is the so-called Dark One? Is it merely a ghost story told to scare pirates on the edge of the Periphery, or does something truly evil live beneath its cold, blackened armor? This anthology collects the first three of Lance Scarinci’s stories about the Dark One, along with a brand-new fourth story exclusive to this volume.