BattleTechnology Question: Where were you when the Fourth Succession War began? In August of 3028, Bennett's Cavaliers were on Robinson, en route to our base in the Periphery. Our ships were loaded with salvage from a four month extended raid into Kurita space, and most of the troops were looking forward to a little R&R. Before leaving, I stopped by a local bar with two of my officers, Maj Charles Yamamoto and Capt Angelica Taylor. As I sipped away at a strawberry margarita, I examined the orders I had received at AFFS Headquarters. They consisted entirely of the message "Stay Tuned". We were rather used to vague orders, as we operate semi-independently of the AFFS. This message, however, disturbed me a bit. As I tried to figure it out, the overhead holo played the infamous toast of "I give you the Capellan Confederation!" Instantly realizing the significance of the statement, we all choked on our drinks and raced back to the AFFS building. Within a day we were on our way to the zenith jump point with orders to support the third wave of Operation Rat. The Cavaliers were a bit disappointed to lose a six month vacation, but we all figured that life was about to become very interesting. We couldn't have been more right. Sincerely Yours, Col Jonathan Bennett, Commander, Bennett's Cavaliers Where was I? I had been brought to the Davion-Steiner wedding, as part of the Archon's escort. I had just been introduced to Col. Jaime Wolf, or rather, he had recognized my name and had congratulated me on our victory over the 25th Lancers, when we were called to attention for the cake, and the Prince made his little speech. I swallowed my Steiner PPC in one gulp. My only thought at the time was "The Capeilans are up the greatrer tributary of life without a means of propulsion.". --Col. Gunther Harold Bellows Commander, Samos' Swordsmen I was on detached duty to NAIS to assist in weapons testing on the ALI-1A Alliance. We heard numerous cadets cheering, and soon word of the invasion got down to the test range. At long last these upstart Capellans would be put in their proper place. --Lt Col Sheila Marie Bellows Elite 472nd Assault Battalion, Samos' Swordsmen Note: BattleTechnology's understands that Lt Col Bellows is Currently #2 on the ranking list of the MechForce (a Known- Sphere-wide battlepreparedness group of mechwarriors). She, with her husband Col. Gunther Harold Bellows, founded Samos' Swordsmen. The unit went to a great deal of trouble to send us recordings from a classified location on the frontlines with a request that we include their statements to mark the anniversary of the unit's founding. Congratulations. I'm what you call a ronin, a masterless samurai. My LAM "Captain Fantastic" and I had been punished with a nowhere duty on the planet Icar in the Trellshire system of the Lyran Commonwealth. The planet is so poor that if the government had any money they'd pay you to take it over! Well, there I was standing on a mountain ledge overlooking the starport when the sky lighted up with the exhausts of a dozen DropShips hitting atmosphere. My LAM was in flight mode..it soon resembled a great metal bird of prey, legs outstretched to a takeoff position. I knew something was up. I depressed the thruster pedals on the flor and took to the air. Reconfigurating to fighter mode, I streaked to what would turn out to be my unit's ticket to extermination. --Ssgt Michael M Terry Where was I? That's right, my Merc unit, the Devil's Brigade, was working for the snakes. I had just come back from a field test on Styx, where we were stationed. Back in '27, we helped the snakes ambush a big Lyran convoy in the La Grave system. The convoy fled to the planet to fight. The snakes were still fighting at the Nadir point against stiff aerospace support, so they sent us down after them. I spotted a beautiful BNC-3S Banshee variant; whoever was piloting it was one incredible pilot, but aside from that the Lyrans were a pushover. Although we had salvage rights I was sure the snakes would take this baby if they found out, so we hid the ruined 'Mech on board the Oceanus. A year later of red tape, scrounging, and constantly borrowing the colonel's Tech, pulling every favor that I ever had just to get the parts for Woody, I was just climbing out of the canopy hatch after the field trial when Mark came running up screaming War. All I could think of was: now the Brigade could carry out their blood feud with the Federats in earnest. With Woody in top condition, I could ram the Lyrans own 95 tons of walking death down their stinking allies' throats. --Maj Randall N Bills, Devils Brigade Due to the high level of creative participation, and the high volume of good entries, this write-in forum is extended for at least another month. ComStar Census will return next issue. 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