Fanfic / By the Horns

By the Horns (second thread) by Stephen T "master arminas" Bynum (story only thread) is a Battletech fanfic.

Back in 2596, the Taurian Concordat was on its last legs, having fought the 20-year Reunification War against the might of the Star League but ultimately failing to prevail. Admiral Helena Vickers, last surviving flag officer of the Taurian Concordat Navy, ordered her battleship TCS Samantha Calderon on a final counterattack against the enemy in order to buy time for an escaping flotilla.

Fate has other plans for them, however, and a misjump sends them four centuries into the future, to 3025. With the knowledge and expertise on board, including a full data core, the future of the Concordat may be changed entirely.

But what fate gives, it can take away, and the news that the Taurians have a Warship anew quickly spreads to the rest of the Inner Sphere, drawing much unwanted attention...

This fanfic contains examples of the following:

• Actually Pretty Funny: Thomas Calderon can't help but laugh so hard he's pounding the table on front of him when Helena Vickers gives him an epic chewing out over his initial defense plan.
  “THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is how you fucking tell me NO when I am wrong. All right, Marshal Vickers—issue the orders for redeployment.”
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Word of Blake or at least what would become the Jihad, show up much earlier.
  • Before the revision The Clans are brought to the attention of ComStar nearly 25 years before the Inner Sphere learns of them in canon.
• Batman Gambit: The knowledge about the core was deliberately leaked in order to force the other Successor States into rushing to get at it on the Concordat's schedule.
• Black Box: The HPGs by design. The Saucy Sam engineer working on it is almost violently angry about how little sense it makes. He knows that the circuit he's working on does nothing, but if he takes it out the entire thing shuts down. Eventually his superior reminds him that he just needs to operate it, not figure out how it works.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Dropship Titan, only designed to work in Deep Space, deploying into an atmosphere to stop a nuclear weapon from being launched at a Medical center. They knew they would die doing so and did it anyway.
• Busman's Holiday: Phil Sheridan was supposed to be on Tauron on holiday, not getting involved in secret operations.
• The Chains of Commanding: Hanse Davion has to condemn 10,000 Loyal Federated Suns soldiers to being declared Outlaws and Pirates in order to save one of the most important deals of his Nation's history.
  • Edward Calderon orders the TDF to engage what's left of The Sixth Syrtis Fusiliers instead of bombarding them from orbit as the TDF needs the salvage. He is almost literally paying for Battlemech's and weapons with the lives of his troops.
• Didn't See That Coming: The mere idea that the Successor States, much less the Periphery Powers, could ever figure out how the HPG works is regarded as laughable by Comstar. Of course, this lead directly to...
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?
• Enemy Mine: Capellan, Davion, Free Worlds League, Kuritan, Lyran and Canopus secret agents end up working together to prevent an attack on the data core.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Thomas's spymaster reports that at least two foreign intelligence agents have correctly guess that the College is a feint for the location of the Data Core. However they now believe that a nearby nature reserve is the true location. Thomas gets an incredulous look on his face before remarking there is literally no one there as it's completely untouched. The spymaster says they think the inexistent hidden facility there is just that well hidden.
  • Before the revised chapters Vesar Kristofur's rant to the First Circuit about the Clan might have been true when Clan Wolverine fled, but is completely ignorant of both the Warden Faction that had since formed among the Clans, and of Clan Diamond Shark's and Clan Ghost Bear's treatment of non Warrior Caste members.
• Everyone Has Standards: The last survivor of the attempted nuclear bombing run realizes there are non-combatants at his target, and decides to instead take out the TDF Titan instead.
  • Victor Li tips off Phil Sheridan that the Death Commandos were going to nuke the University where the (unknown to them) decoy Data Core is being held. He then joins the Enemy Mine scenario amongst all the Foreign intelligence agents to stop it To go against one's own government, even passively, is a death sentence in the Capellan Confederation.
• Expy: Maxwell Danford to Max Smart of Get Smart.
• Flock of Wolves: Taurus quickly becomes this. At one point a MIIO and Maskirovka agent run into each at the same convenience store and start to draw on each other before stopping themselves. Not only does neither one have orders to take out the other, it would interfere with their mission. Then a MIM agent runs into the store because a SAFE agent pissed off the cops, and the cops are looking for Intelligence agents. At which point the three get corned in an alleyway, and a ROM agent shoots the cops to save them out of professional courtesy.
• Fun with Acronyms: Taurian Institute of Technology and Science (TITS) and Samantha Calderon Academy of Research and Sciences (SCARS).
• Gambit Pileup: Every single Intelligence agency in the Inner Sphere and Periphery, except for SAFE is gunning for the Data Core and Warship. Either to take it for themselves, or to prevent it from falling into someone's hands. Just as planned by Thomas's spymaster and son.
• Godzilla Threshold: Michael Hasek-Davion's plan to use a nuclear bomb on his own surrendering forces and frame the Taurians for it resulted in the Taurians nuking his HQ.
• He Knows Too Much: Done by a ComStar man to the technicians, who is stopped before he can get them all.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The deep space only Taurian Dropship Titan deploys into an atmosphere to try and stop Michael Hasek-Davion's plan to nuke surrendering forces and civilians. They wind up taking two nukes that were meant for the non-combatants
• Humiliation Conga: McCarron's Armored Calvary suffers this in spades during their attempt to capture a Taurian world for the Capellans. Given what the group has gotten up to in canon, it's hard to feel sorry for them.
• I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: Phil repeatedly laments the fact that he's just a data analyst. The closest he gets to action before he had to get involved in the Data Core Heist was most likely jogging to catch a taxi.
• Implausible Deniability: Edward Calderon's entire plan to get Federated Suns reinforcements hinges on this. Everyone knows exactly what's going on but legally speaking Edward did not in fact have Federated Suns armed forces land on Taurian soil. Just a whole lot of Mercenaries with suspicious training, uniforms, and military hardware.
• Improperly Paranoid: Mc Carron's Armored Calvary expected sabotage and managed to get the codes for Mech's looted directly from the factory. However they didn't expect a second lock out code, and no one has chemical weapon detectors for non-lethal chemicals. Their Mech Warriors now can't pilot as they have full body irritation from weaponized and aerosolized poison ivy.
• Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: Discussed and Lampshaded by the MIM agent in the Enemy Mine situation up above. That once they stop the nuke and make their own copies of the Data Core, what's stopping them from backstabbing each other? Maxwell, agent of SAFE laughs and says that's all a part of the spy game. At which point everyone shrugs and accepts it's going to happen before they start planning.
  • Averted at the last second as Maxwell had six blank data cores ready to go so that no one had to backstab anyone else to get a copy.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Thomas Calderon issues orders to prevent any leaks about the Saucy Sam. The very next chapter is the point of view from a ROM spy Drop Ship that was in the area and managed to get a visual of it.
• In-Universe Nickname: "Saucy Sam" for the Samantha Calderon.
• Kangaroo Court: Zigzagged. This is what awaits any of the troops that followed Michael Hasek-Davion and only if they surrender. However the trial would be rigged in favor of leniency as they were loyal troops before they had to be declared pirates due to to avoid an open war. And the fact they're offered the trial in the first place is more than most pirates ever got, even in real life.
• Kansas City Shuffle: How the Taurians hide the Data core. They make everyone think it's in a University. Now normally that wouldn't be enough to get them to fool them, but they 'covertly' transfer military forces into the area and position them in a manner they can respond to any attack in mere minutes. The actual Data core is in a underground base with literally only one entrance that was considered a massive waste of money, time, effort, and resources when it was first made and never used up until this point as it bankrupted the family that built it.

• Morton's Fork: The Head of ROM is faced with one. Either take a course of action that will kill tens of millions, making him the perpetrator the greatest atrocity since the Kentares Massacre, or refuse and be replaced by someone who would happily do the same. The outcome would be the same either way.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The surviving ComStar technicians quickly defect to the Concordat as they were being executed by their own security forces.
• My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever: When several foreign intelligence agents are all running from Taurian Law Enforcement, one flat out says he just has to not get caught before someone else as the cops are looking for only one agent.
• Mythology Gag: At the first meeting about Samantha, the leader of the Far Lookers asks if funds are going to be cut from them again, referencing canon Thomas's tendency to do so.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Turns out that at least some of the competent SAFE agents are masters of this. By pretending to be a bit of a bumbling fool, Agent Danford manages to get proof that someone is going to nuke the location of the Data Core.
• Occam's Razor: Invoked in order to get the Successor States to act on "more plausible" but wrong information.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Hanse Davion realizes that if Thomas Calderon is directly making a deal with him, it's a very big deal and agrees to the proposal immediately.
  • The Taurian Defense Force accepts that Hanse Davion is serious about the Davion Invasion of New Vallis not being authorized by him when he turns over the complete composition of troops and military hardware of the invading units. Something which intelligence agencies in real life have gone to extreme lengths to get even partially.
• Oh, Crap!: A ComStar guard has this reaction about a Taurian unit's insignia, previously unseen outside of museums, moments before they attack.
  • The Sixth Syrtis Fusiliers bombers have this reaction when the Non-Atmospheric Dropship Titan not only deploys into an atmosphere to intercept them it's gaining on them.
• Papa Wolf: Thomas Calderon is willing to swallow his pride and go against every fiber of his being to protect his son. Even if it's making a deal with Hanse Davion.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Hanse Davion, out of all the Inner Sphere powers, is this when it comes to the Gambit Pileup in progress. He's not only the least militant and callous about his plans but he calls the whole thing off the second he gets an offer for the Core from Thomas Calderon himself.
  • Thomas shows how much more level headed he is the story by allowing all six of the foreign agents to leave in peace rather then execute them for their help in preventing two WMDs from being used on his Capital.
• Resign in Protest: Admiral Helena Vickers threatens to do this rather than go with Thomas Calderon's original plan for the deployment of their forces.
  • Averted later on. Thomas even asks her if she's going to resign after a second argument over troop deployment. She says no because the plan he's choosing isn't one she would, but is still a rationally thought out plan. She would resign over bad plans, not different plans.
• Running Gag: The jokes about SAFE's incompetence. Which changes to "SAFE isn’t always incompetent" when Maxwell manages to pull something off.
• Spit Take: A ComStar member has this reaction to catching sight of Samantha.
• So Proud of You: Thomas to his son Edward when Edward bankrupts himself to personally pay the ransom of all the Davion Prisoners of War rather then allow them to be mistreated.
• Take a Third Option: When faced with immediate humiliation and financial ruin, or a complete shut down of the HPGs in his nation, both of which would kill the Taurian Concordat, Thomas Calderon instead seizes all the HPGs in the Concordat by force.
  • The Head of ROM is face with two choices. Either be replaced or enact the greatest atrocity seen since the First Succession war. He decides to Purge the First Circuit for overstepping their authority as the Primus is still alive, just in a coma.
• Taking You with Me: Larson, the last bomber left decides to take the TDF Titan out with him rather than nuke the Red Cross at this target.
• Title Drop: "Don’t push us into going further, or by the Horns, you will regret those actions forever.”
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: How SAFE managed to get plans to the Taurian Research lab that the (fake) Data Core is stored. A contractor that made the escape tunnel for it kept plans and wracked up gambling debts to some legbreakers. SAFE paid off his debts in returns for the blueprints he shouldn't have kept.
• Villainous BSoD: The Primus of Comstar has a heart attack when the Taurians capture an HPG and make a live call to Terra taunting the organization about it. The rest of Comstar's upper echelons just lose it.
• Villains Out Shopping: More like Secret Agents out shopping. But at one point several field agents from various intelligence agency all run into each other at the same convenience store.
• Written by the Winners: Vesar Kristofur history lecture about The Clans is heavily tainted by the hatred and resentment that the Clan Wolverine survivors have for them.. At least before the revision changed his speech.

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