Fanfic / Davion & Davion (Deceased)

Davion & Davion (Deceased) is a BattleTech fanfic written by drakensis in 2017 and 2018 ("Book 1: Idealist" was written for the 2017 National Novel Writing Month). The first draft of "Book 2: Loyalist" was completed by Christmas 2017 and finished posting by April 2018. "Book 3: Secessionist", which concludes the trilogy, had its final chapter posted on the Spacebattles.com forum for review on April 24, 2018(The fact that this was also the day of the release of the BattleTech video game is not exactly a coincidence).

After dying in 3052, Hanse Davion dreams of his distant ancestor John Davion and awakens as a ghost haunting him in 2760, before the fall the Star League. Forewarned of the events of the future, John and Hanse combine their forces to try to avert the collapse of civilization into the Succession Wars. Unfortunately the arrogance and apathy of many of the Star League's leaders makes this an uphill struggle.

You can find it on fanfiction.net here. Copies on PDF can be found through links here and there's link to the Technical Readout here

As of early 2019, the story was the most favorited Battletech fanfic on fanfiction.net.

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Davion & Davion (Deceased) provides examples of:

• Ace Pilot: Curiously averted. While the FSN goes all in on carriers, not a single serving aerospace pilot is ever mentioned by name.
• Action Girl: Alexandra Davion, an officer in the jump-infantry who likes to lead from the front.
• The Alcoholic – Ewan Marik
• Alliterative Title
• All There in the Manual – Book 1 ends each chapter with an in-universe ‘sidebar’ discussing the setting. In addition a Technical Readout document exists for some of the designs that appear.
• Anti-Air: John Davion goes out of his way to obtain Blackjack battlemechs and Partisan tanks to fill this gap in his army.
• Apocalypse How – The Amaris Empire was apparently so ruthless in 'defending' Lockdale that the planet can no longer support its population, adding a humanitarian crisis to the war.
• Armor-Piercing Question – "What was stopping that man from having us detained or executed?"
• The Atoner: John Davion feels immense guilt at the action and inaction on his part that would have contributed to the fall of the Star League and the outbreak of the Succession Wars.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: During the Amaris Coup, General Kerensky discovers that the SLDF is coming to regard John almost as highly as they do him. So he inducts John into the SLDF as a General. This both honors John and keeps his influence in the SLDF in check by firmly establishing his place in the Chain of Command.
• Bad Future: The history separating John's era and Hanse's. John's primary motivation on learning of it is to avert this.
• Bar Brawl: Instigated by Pritchard’s tank crew, investigated by Moreau.
• The Battlestar: The New Syrtis-class carriers, backbone of the Federated Suns Navy, combine large fighter complements and respectable firepower.
• Bittersweet Ending: John fails to save the Star League but ultimately prevents much of the devastation of the First Succession War(and the formation of Comstar and likely the Clans, and thus by extension the Second and Third Succession Wars, the Clan Invasion, and unknown to them both, the Jihad), Hanse finally moves on, and John's granddaughter Victoria will bring a new hope for peace.
• Boring, but Practical: To strength his armed forces, John prefers simple and affordable solutions over new and expensive advanced designs like new battleships.
• Break the Haughty: The events at the first Robinson offensive from the Combine serve to deliver a swift gutpunch to the proud Combine and in particular Jinjiro Kurita, as the Dracs get their fleet caught in a brutal meatgrinder.
• Capital Offensive: While this is a goal through the Terran Hegemony campaign, several readers were quite vocal complaining that Kerensky didn't bypass Hegemony worlds to strike directly for Terra.
• The Clan: House Davion includes not only John, his wife Edwina, son Joshua and daughter-in-law Mary, but also Joshua's cousin Mark and a large number of other branches (Halder-Davions, Cameron-Davions, Green-Davions, Davions of Beaumont…).
• Curbstomp Battle: The AFFS - and particularly FSN - pulls these repeatedly on the Capellans and Draconians, and even occasionally against the Star League Defense Force.
• Decadent Court: Unity City seems to be host to one and both House Marik and House Liao appear to rule over them.
• Disappeared Dad: Barbara Liao has two sons but no known husband or partner in canon or in this Alternate Universe. Word of God for this story is that Barbara has no acknowledged consort and chooses not to identify the father(s) because she finds the media speculation amusing.
• Distant Finale: The final chapter ends with John's granddaughter Victoria forming a new alliance with the Terrans, Capellans, Pentagon/Outworlders, Taurians, and Canopians.
• Driven by Envy: The source of Robert Steiner's hatred of Aleksandr Kerensky.
• Dying Dream: Hanse gets three: The one that starts it all, an encounter with a mortally-wounded Victor from his original timeline, and the final one when he finally passes on.
• Easy Logistics: Averted extremely hard. Much of John and Hanse's planning involves ensuring that the AFFS can get as much equipment and supplies as possible, complete with emergency doomsday caches and hidden backup shipyards being constructed; in addition, Operation Oxbow is aimed at crippling the supply lines of his foes once hostilities are an inevitability, and it succeeds at bringing the Liao offensive to a dead halt and greatly weakening the Kurita pushes at Robinson. One of the supply raids was fortuitous enough to uncover a hidden cache of nuclear missiles, which the Suns were using up faster than they could produce as a result of their ASF heavy carrier doctrine relying on nukes for anti-ship warfare. Hanse and John even discuss this briefly, as the former has never seen such a large force of battlemechs that are mostly of several uniform and standard builds with no hint of customization or cannibalized parts anywhere, and he even praises the mechtechs from his time for being miracle workers at keeping post-Succession Wars mechs anywhere near functional.
• The Emperor: Stefan Amaris is the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Star League.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Combine's reputation takes a hit after Minoru has the workers in the Canaan Mines on Robinson gassed and the news gets out. John Davion shapes public opinion in favor of the Suns by publicly denouncing the atrocity and executing Minoru after capturing him. This also spurs the Capellans to fight cleanly under the rules of the Ares Convention, and is instrumental in getting the 'Cappies to surrender in good faith after being cut off from their jumpships after a failed raid against a Suns shipyard, as well as ultimately shaping their relations such that Balthazar Liao is comfortable making an mutual defense pact with the Davions in the epilogue. As another consquence of the incident, the SLDF units under an ex-Combine General turn against the Kurita House, and while they are ultimately defeated, they bleed the fleets of the Dracs even more.
• Exact Words: The AFFS is only allowed to claim battlefield salvage from the Rim Worlds units rather than their SLDF allies, to prevent them from gaining advanced SLDF technology (more to appease other states than because the SLDF doesn't trust them). Of course, the Rim Worlds are equipping their units from Terran factories, meaning they're every bit as advanced.
  • The treaty that formed the Star League said that the position of First Lord would always go to a descendant of the first First Lord, not the heir of the first First Lord. This causes a Succession Crisis when the position of Director-General of the Terran Hegemony falls to a Cameron who is from a different branch of the family, which means that he does not have the right to claim the title of First Lord by right of birth.
• The Fettered: Aleksandr Kerensky remains duty-bound despite every temptation... and provocation.
• Femme Fatale Spy: The downfall of Thaddeus Marik
• Fix Fic: John Davion, upon finding out about the Succession Wars and the loss of advanced technology afflicting the future of the Inner Sphere, decides to tap Hanse's foreknowledge to try and head off the worst of the incoming conflict and decline from affecting the Federated Suns.
• For Want Of A Nail:
  • Once the Amaris Coup kicks off, John apologizes to Hanse, realizing that their plans could cause him to have never been born. Years later, during the Succession War, Hanse realizes that John's grandson should have been born a month before. Fortunately, it seems to have no effect on Hanse's existence or memories.
  • Hanse's concerns about the Word of Blake lead John's plans to keep Toyama and Blake separated, and his ultimately keeping the Sun's HPG network under their own control when they secede from the Star League spurs other Great Houses to do the same, preventing Blake from ever gaining the total control of the HPG network needed to make Comstar possible.
  • John's choice to keep his relations with the SLDF friendly and assist directly with the Amaris Coup result in multiple things - Kerensky ends up making him a general and including him in the chain of command, making him 'one of them'; his good relations with DeChevilier ensures that when the good general ragequits his commission and leaves, the resulting Exodus doesn't quite go as far as the Clan Homeworlds and instead forms a Pentagon Alliance inside the OWA that remains friendly with the Suns, and ultimately allows him to peacefully absorb a large portion of the SLDF that sided with him into the AFFS.
  • Due to the change in the circumstances behind the inevitable conflict between the Draconis Combine and the Federated Suns (with the Combine acting on behalf of the Star League to force a seceding Suns back in), instead of Minoru Kurita perishing at Kentares IV to a AFFS sniper as in the original timeline causing Jinjiro to snap and launch the infamous Kentares Massacre, rather Jinjiro is lost in a misjump attempting to extract his forces from a brutal ASF meatgrinder at Robinson, and Minoru is later captured when he attempts to assault Robinson himself later, and John has him publicly executed for allowing the miners at Canaan to be gassed, turning his death into an Inner Sphere-wide warning that atrocities against civilians will not be tolerated by the Federated Suns. They still die, but the circumstances around their deaths is very different from the original timeline.
• Gender Is No Object – The SLDF and AFFS both mix genders without hesitation.
• Glory Hound: A major complaint about AFFS mechwarriors during the Periphery Uprising, leading them to neglect their support troops and their actual missions.
• Gold Digger: subverted by Peregrine Johnston who certainly married into money but is clearly in love with her husband, who shares her fondness for making more money.
• Good Is Not Soft: John Davion genuinely wants to be at peace with his neighbours... but it's possible to push him too far.
• Grew a Spine: Helena Cameron.
• Insistent Terminology: See Powered Armour.
• Informed Judaism – other than their names there’s not much that identifies the Sandovals as Jewish.
• Invisible to Normals: Only John can see and hear Hanse.
• Iron Lady – Barbara Liao
• Just You, Me, and My GUARDS!: A downplayed example, Both John and Minoru had their bodyguards, but Minoru was spoiling for a one-on-one duel. John was not, however, and also brought over two dozen tanks to the fight.
• Magnificent Bastard: In-Universe, Hanse Davion's sharp mind and foreknowledge of upcoming events allows John Davion to appear like a brilliant mastermind in how he orchestrates plans and sets up seemingly-prescient beneficial business deals, earning the respect of many nobles and awe from intel officers who see him turn Hanse's analysis into brilliant intel insights. For example, being unable to red-flag Amaris's cunning plans to Richard Cameron, he rolls with it and instead co-opts Amaris's plotting, using similar business cutouts to covertly build up his forces, and then right before the coup, he makes a sizeable loan from Terran banks known to be in collusion with Amaris, such that when the coup actually does go through, he is immediately able to seize those bank's assets and 'confiscate' their funds, nullifying his loans from them in a blink; he later slowly drip-feeds the money he "steals" from Amaris's plotting via this scheme into the war economy so he can prop up the logistics trains needed to support the campaigns to liberate the Terran Hegemony.
• Memetic Badass: In-Universe, John's reforms turns the MIIO into the scariest intel/spy/black ops organisation in the Inner Sphere, as their perceived effectiveness turns them into the boogymen of all the other spy organisations. It gets to the point where some of the agents were actually poised to abduct Thomas Kurita-Davion from Terra itself on the day that Zabu ordered him gassed at what would become the final the Star League Council Meeting.
• The Metric System Is Here to Stay
• More Dakka: At Robinson, during the confrontation between John Davion and Minoru Kurita, John lures Minoru into an ambush with the help of an improvised decoy, then obliterates his Otomo bodyguard and forcibly dismounts him by applying 30 Alacorn IV tanks, each sporting 3 AC/20 autocannons. Every volley from the tanks would fill the killbox with 90 bursts of brutal autocannon fire. Several of the Otomo were piloting fairly lightweight Light and Medium mechs. When Minoru tried to flee the ambush, he had the rare chance to see Otomo mechs flat-out disintergrate from being pummeled by firepower that would have torn apart Assault mechs.
• Nuclear Weapons Taboo: Averted. The Ares Conventions aren't in effect and nukes are used in space in their hundreds. While more restraint is shown on the surface, the Rim Worlds Republic commanders are noted to use Atomic, Biological and Chemical Weapons with abandon to try to offset the SLDF's advantages in numbers and training. The AFFS uses their nuclear arsenal strictly on military targets and primarily as anti-ship weapons in space combat.
• Old Money: Count Johnston, who inherited one of the largest fortunes in the Federated Suns.
• One-Steve Limit – doubly treacherous with the potential for confusion between Thomas Green-Davion and Thomas Halder-Davion
• Orwellian Retcon: Poor Janos Grec's family originally escaped the Amaris Coup only for this to be retconed that Grec chose not to invite them to New Avalon for Christmas 2766 as other SLDF troops would be without their families. He had no way of knowing the Amaris Coup would take place, cutting him off from them.
• Parental Substitute: John Davion to his cousin Mark. Stefan Amaris to Richard Cameron.
• Pet the Dog: Takiro and Minoru Kurita clearly dote on little Zabu Kurita.
• Powered Armor: The SLDF jealously defends its monopoly of these with their Nighthawk Powered Armour. The Federated Suns justifies their own top secret programme as Battle Armour - entirely different.
• Praetorian Guard: The one remaining regiment of the Eighteenth Royal Mechanized Infantry Division becomes this for Aleksandr Kerensky
  • The Davion Guards, the elite regiments of the AFFS, provide guards for First Prince John Davion.
  • Minoru Kurita is protected by the Otomo, warriors picked for their skill and fanatical devotion to House Kurita.
• Rank Up: A fair number of characters experience this, being stars in a story spanning decades, but the most prominent examples are Susan Sandoval and Ethan Moreau, who first appear as junior Lieutenants in the AFFS and SLDF, and rise rapidly through the ranks, making General within just over a decade.
• Refuge in Audacity: John Davion plays on this multiple times during Book One.
  • In particular, borrowing over half a trillion Star League dollars from Terran Hegemony banks(particularly those Hanse said supported Amaris) on the eve of the coup. Normally no one would dare to default on Terran loans but with the Coup about to happen, John has an ironclad reason to decline to repay the loans.
• Rescue Romance: Helena Cameron ends up falling for the MIIO agent who extracted her from Terra. After losing the election for Director-General of the Terran Hegemony, she happily hoofs it back to Davion space, marries him, and opens a bakery.
• Russian Guy Suffers Most: Aleksandr Kerensky's lot in life is not a happy one.
• Shout-Out: The title itself is one to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), with a similar situation.
  • Mary Kaga and Weiss (White) Plains are KanColle references. Marge Pritchard’s entire crew are named for Hammer's Slammers characters.
  • Fuu O'Hare is a double reference to Fubuki from Kancolle and Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars!.
  • Davion's mechwarrior bodyguards Patril and Kosigan are missing their Vorish titles.
  • The SLN forces at Saturn include the warships Reuben James and Battleaxe, two ships that played a notable role in Red Storm Rising.
  • Alexandra Davion's jump-trooper squad includes Jack, Danny, Sam, and (possibly) a big quiet guy named Murray.
• Soldier vs. Warrior: With no major wars in a generation, a divide that becomes evident. John Davion goes out of his way to stamp out the warrior ethos from the AFFS, a lesson that not everyone learns.
  • The lesson gets driven home on Robinson when John teaches it to Minoru Kurita.
• Space Navy: Every state has them, with the Federated Suns Navy being the most prominent in the story.
• Spirit Advisor: Hanse becomes one for John, lending his considerable cunning to his ancestor's efforts.
• Spoiler Title: Book Three's title gives a lot away about what the efforts of the first two acts will come to.
• Standard Sci-Fi Fleet – the Star League Navy. Most other navies are too small for a full range and tend to focus on two or three designs, filling out their ranks with obsolete SLDF ships such as the Aegis-class.
• State Sec – Amaris’ Office of Planning and Doctrine sounds innocent enough. It isn’t.
• Succession Crisis: After the Amaris coup, the council gets into a dispute over who the next Star Lord should be, as the elected Director-General of the Terran Hegemony is not a descendant of the Star Lord, but from a branch family (see Exact Words above). John Davion eventually gets so disgusted with the infighting that he announces that not only will he not nominate or back any candidate - which actually makes things easier, as it leaves an odd number of members in the council to work things out, preventing ties - if they don't elect somebody by the end of the year, his nation will secede from the Star League on the grounds that it was no longer a functioning government.
• Tank Goodness: The AFFS and SLDF both use large numbers of armoured units, notably the Demon tanks prized by Marge Pritchard. House Davion are very fond of their Merkava and Alacorn tanks. So fond, in fact, that Minoru Kurita isn't taken down by John Davion, but by a battalion of Alacorn Mark IV tanks.
• The Catchphrase Catches On: Magic Bushido Hands was coined by readers in response to House Kurita's sometimes questionable thought processes. It's since spread as a phrase beyond even Battletech threads, also applied to WWII Imperial Japan.
• Theme Naming: Each act is a single word used to describe John's stance. "Idealist", for his decision to work towards keeping the Star League intact instead of simply preparing the Federated Suns for the coming storm; "Loyalist", for his steadfast support of Kerensky during the Coup, and "Secessionist", after his final gambit to keep the Star League together ends with him pulling the trigger on it himself.
• Three-Act Structure: The story is divided into three novel-length books, with the first, Idealist, acting as set-up prior to the Coup and the second, Loyalist, covering the confrontations of the aftermath. The third book, Secessionist, covers the disintegration of the Star League..
• The War Room: Quite a lot of them, with more than half a dozen factions sometimes using multiple headquarters.
• Turned Against Their Masters: As in canon, the most critical strategic success of the Rim Worlds is successfully seizing control of the SLDF's Space Defense Grid across the Terran Hegemony during the coupe. The M3 and M5 'Casper' automated warship drones essentially even the playing field against the overwhelming might of the SLDF and ensure that by the time the guns finally fall silent, the SLDF is a pale shadow of itself.
• War Is Hell: By the liberation of Terra many of the SLDF are worn down to the point of medical relief for PTSD after some incredibly brutal fighting lasting years - albeit still a much better outcome than the timeline Hanse remembers due to he and John working hard to end the war quickly.
• The War of Earthly Aggression: The Outer Reaches Rebellion freed the colonies from Terra, leading to the formation of the states that later formed the Star League under Terran leadership and waged the Reunification War against the Periphery states. A great deal of the politics of the setting stems from these.
• Wham Line: The ending of Loyalist 21: "...by the start of next year, then the Federated Suns will, with sorrow but resolution, secede from the Star League."
• Youngest Child Wins: Zabu Kurita, the younger son of Minoru Kurita, becomes Coordinator rather than his older half-brother who is missing, presumed dead.