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Eye of the Beholder

From BattleIntelligence
Eye of the Beholder
Short story by Ben H. Rome
Publication
Published14 September 2006
PublisherBattleCorps
Pages12
Chronology
EraJihad era
Timeline6 January 3068 — 31 January 3068

{{#set:Era=Jihad era}}{{#set:Start date=6 January 3068}}{{#set:End date=31 January 3068}}

Eye of the Beholder is a short story by Ben H. Rome that was first published online on BattleCorps on 14 September 2006. It was later republished in print in the third BattleCorps anthology, Weapons Free, in 2012.

Teaser Text

“ Luthien is in the throes of civil war. Precentor Alice Phuong, commander of the Word of Blake armada at the scene, knows that she must tread softly; her actions, and those of her subordinates, could have far-reaching repercussions. Though she tries to make this clear to them, sometimes the ambitious don't always do as they should... ”

Plot Summary

With orders to "move at her discretion", Alice Phuong, situated aboard the Black Lion-class WarShip Blake Ascendant in orbit over Luthien, has to decide if and how her powerful forces shall intervene on the planet, with the Draconis Combine beset by the Black Dragon Society. After careful deliberation with her senior officers she formulates a battle plan; she hopes to rescue the DCMS from the Black Dragons and then repair the wrecked planetary HPG, putting the Word of Blake in the Combine's good graces.

Precentor Christopher Schmidt, her ROM contact, is to drop his Blake's Wrath unit onto the Luthien Armor Works complex to make contact with the defenders there and inform them of the Word's intentions. Although distrustful of the Toyama Sect member, Phuong sets the plan in motion.

An epilogue to the story is a news item from a pirate media on Luthien dated 31 January, reporting how the Word of Blake attacked both warring factions on Luthien. Nuclear warheads were detonated at the LAW complex during a supposed white flag meeting with the local defenders, while other Word of Blake forces simultaneously attacked the Black Dragon-associated 2nd Sword of Light.

WarShips

Space Stations

  • Bastion-class space defense station

Notes

A sequel to Eye of the Beholder was planned and plot hooks placed to tie in with the sequel in at least two publications, but no sequel has yet appeared. The author confirmed the original plans for the sequel on the Catalyst Game Labs official forum:

“ Ahhh, now I remember. Those were supposed to be setups for the follow-up story to Eye of the Beholder. Which I never got around to.

Suffice to say, the nukes were set off by the Black Dragons deep in the LAW-Luthien facility; it was a failsafe originally built into the complex as a last ditch "****** you" to any would-be conquerors.

The BDS set them off. The sequel story was supposed to show the Blakist ROM team actually catching wind of the plan and trying to stop the action, but failing at the last minute.

”
  — GhostBear (A.K.A Ben H Rome), BattleTech Line Developer, 10 Oct 2013
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