The Fourth Succession War is over. Can you believe it yet? I can't even be glad for it yet because I can't realize it. I don't remember what peace feels like, do you? Nights where you sleep deeply and dream of something besides the aerospace raid warning. No more worrying that the messenger is coming from defense to tell you someone you love isn't ... there any more. No more worrying about your Aunt Sylvia who went to the wrong place on vacation. YOU CAN ACTUALLY SIT THERE AND REPAIR YOUR 'MECH! YOU CAN EVEN PUT PAINT ON IT WITH SOME HOPE IT WILL STAY THERE! Rationing still continues, but small frivolous items appear next to the preweighed packets. There were newvids from Oriente beside the too-small boxes marked "Sugar for individuals for one week". I remember the crowds in the square watching the public vidscreen last week. Suddenly it didn't seem like a time to be alone. We listened to Archon Katrina Steiner say "I will fight no more forever." Here on Atreus they don't believe a Lyran would say that. Everybody taped it. Captain-General Janos Marik gave a speech to his people which I don't think has appeared outside the Free Worlds League. "Let us regard ourselves as challenging them in peace as we did in war. Let them attempt to excel in peaceful commerce ... and let us show them how well a free people which has not begun a recent costly war can corner the market ... on peace. If good intentions are to become a saleable commodity, in this as in all things we can outproduce the Lyrans. The terms of the treaty are honorable; the entire text will be made public. I have therefore signed it in your name. The bottom line is this: no more of our citizens will die this year." It's true that the Free Worlds League has suffered the least in this war; anyone who's seen the gray ruins of the Capellan border planets knows how much more serious it could have been here. Other reporters for BattleTechnology will interview leaders across the Known Sphere. But Janos Marik said it for me, "No more of our people will die this year." The Fourth Succession War is over. There will be local conflicts, but the system-wide disruption which has wrenched and altered each of our lives is done. In this issue, Bob Carter, a Wolf-watcher from way back, reviews the bravery of Wolf's Dragoons. Sandusky Sorrell gives us recent news of Galts Grenadiers. We are privileged to print an interview of Princess Melissa Steiner-Davion in wartime. A certain private viddiary was made available to us (see page 32), which is the reason I will not be here on Marik when this issue hits the stands. Lt Rhys Fairchild gives us an overview on VTOLs. We publish for your amusement the winning paper in the Halas Scholarship Competition. And the usual mix of technical information, simulatorstats, and... last but not least, your reminiscences of how the war began. Rest up, warriors. You deserve it. Back to BattleTechnology 9 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1990 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com