The Dust Devils AU is the alternate universe that provides the setting for stories about the Dust Devils mercenary command, and related characters. The universe draws heavily from and is fairly close to the canon of (in descending order of priority) HBS's BattleTech PC Game, Classic Battletech RPG/Tabletop, and Mechwarrior Online. There are, however, a few key differences.
Culture, Politics, & Economics[]
The AU attempts to dilute (and if possible remove) elements of BattleTech's inherent white/western supremacy that they still haven't quite shook off, sadly. Examples include the inclusion of characters of non-European descent who are not outright villains, and further softening the over-the-top police state atmospheres of the two Successor States that just happen to be the major East-Asian-descended empires. This AU endeavors to establish the Successor States as being not "more good" or " more evil" than one another, but more possessing differences in values that have upsides and downsides for their citizenry.
Draconis Combine[]
The Draconis Combine is reshaped to be more similar to a feudal version of the Caldari State from EVE Online, where zaibatsu (mega-corporate conglomerates) and their subsidiaries are run by noble families, but all are subservient to the Will of the Dragon.
While much of a citizen's identity and life are tied to their employment with these entities, that loyalty extends in both directions as a mutual benefit. While upward mobility is theoretically less available than in the civil and economic models of the Federated Suns or Lyran Alliance, there is also less treatment of workers as expendable and exploitable, to the point where abusive wages and working conditions can bring such shame to a corporate entity's ruling family as to destroy their place in noble society.
Culturally, there is still a strong emphasis on nationalism (which can and does result in outright xenophobia), loyalty, and responsibility to one's place in society, but this sentiment is fostered more through constant popular cultural reinforcement (via the zaibatsu-run media conglomerates) and lifetime indoctrination (via the education system) than fear of punishment by all-powerful authorities, more-or-less similar to tactics employed by the wealthy and powerful in their "more libertarian" neighbors.
The Dust Devils AU maintains the antagonistic relationship the Combine has with Wolf's Dragoons. However, though the DCMS has always had a slightly strained relationship with the mercenary industry as a whole, the AU does not include a Draconis Combine that is so short-sighted and terrible at understanding the basic military and political realities of the Inner Sphere as to condemn and ban the entire profession due to a feud with a single unit. As such, Takashi Kurita's blanket "Death to Mercenaries" edict and its after-effects are absent from the Dust Devils AU. Both the DCMS and private entities within the Combine have made and continue to make use of mercenary forces whenever doing so would further their aims.
Capellan Confederation[]
The Capellan Confederation remains a feudal socialist dictatorship where citizenship must still be earned through service to the State, but similarly to the Draconis Combine, this requires far less enforcement by the brutal secret-police arm of a paranoid megalomaniac at its head.
Civic virtue is highly valued in the Confederation, and those who earn citizenship are proud of their contributions and actively participate in the political process. The servitors, while not having an official voice in governance or as many choices in terms of career or civil mobility as the citizens, are also not cartoonishly abused or undervalued as they are in canon, benefiting from a number of civil rights protections and social safety nets that do not exist in many of their rival Successor States. Hereditary nobility, entitled by the ruling Liao dictatorship, are allowed more freedoms and comforts than the average citizen, but also bear more responsibility, both to the Chancellor and to the State, than the "lower" classes. All are aware that these responsibilities must be upheld, as what was given can most certainly be taken away.
Collectivist sentiment is, culturally, far more valued and emphasized throughout every level of society than individualism as a necessity for the Confederation's continued existence in a hostile and hungry galaxy. Indeed, the very real and constant depredations of their historically more-powerful neighbors provides all the incentive most Capellans need toward nationalism and collective loyalty. While the most powerful media outlets are state-run and can tend toward outright propaganda, dissenting voices are not often violently suppressed, but rather tend to fail to find traction between the outsized reach and funding of state media and the general popular apathy toward disruptive social upheaval that may create disunity and embolden the "Davion Demons".
Organized crime and corruption of course exist, but are not tolerated to the extent of the Combine's yakuza or the mafiosos and syndicates of their neighbors; the Confederation actively seeks to stamp out crime, making the Triads within their borders less widespread, but also more skilled and dangerous, having been tempered through such struggle.
The Word of Blake[]
The Word of Blake "Jihad" in the Dust Devils AU has had its Islamophobic appellation removed, and is instead referred to as the Fifth Succession War, or as the Blakists called it, The Great Castigation, as they were ultimately attempting to punish the House Lords for dissolving the Star League and terrorize them into reforming it under Blakist rule, the same basic motivation for the four previous Succession Wars.
The Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission[]
In the Dust Devils AU, the MRBC filled the void left by the collapse of the MRB much more quickly, and is a larger and more dispersed organization, in line with its presentation as the gold standard for management of contracts, finances, and information for the professional soldiery industry of the entire non-Clan Human Sphere. Though still headquartered on Outreach, rather than conducting all operations from a single world within a single Successor State (under the control of a single mercenary unit), the MRBC maintains additional large-scale facilities on Arc Royal, Galatea, and Westerhand, as well as a number of satellite offices on worlds throughout the Inner Sphere and Periphery.
Outreach[]
The headquarters of both the MRBC and Wolf's Dragoons, Outreach is the still the central hub of the mercenary trade in the Dust Devils AU, and maintains at least the same facilities and services as in canon.
Arc Royal[]
Arc Royal maintains similar facilities and services as noted in canon, but under a cooperative administration agreement between the Kell Hounds and the MRBC, allowing for the provision of the same catalogue of services as on Outreach, if not the scale. The Arc-Royal Combat Training Program originally administered by the Hounds was taken over and expanded upon by the MRBC into a true mercenary university in the vein of the Outreach Mercenary Training Command.
Galatea[]
In the Dust Devils AU, Galatea rebounded more quickly from its decline after the collapse of the MRB due to the more aggressive expansion and commitment to neutrality of the MRBC in this AU. Boasting services on a scale on-par with Outreach itself, including the Galatea School of Professional Soldiery, Galatea's mercenary star still shines as brightly as ever.
Westerhand[]
Under the reformations and reinvestment made during the tenure of Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao, the MRBC received a number of financial incentives and grants to expand operations on Westerhand to a true Hiring Hall worthy of the name in 3055. Though lacking a formal training academy, negotiations are underway toward the establishment of one, and the draw of the Quarterly Games goes a long way toward making up for any decrease in the interest of recruiters that may have otherwise resulted from the absence of such facilities.
Satellite Offices[]
Though a unit seeking MRBC-guaranteed services such as large-scale repair and training facilities, arbitration, and a large pool of skilled candidates will still be required to travel to one of the main hubs, the satellite offices are quite capable of providing unit registration, contracting, talent acquisition, financial services, connection to local MRBC-affiliated vendors (and purchasers) of materiel, and access to the MRBC's Mercenary Unit Database and bounty listings (which are kept reasonably up-to-date via HPG from the headquarters on Outreach).
- Solaris, Lyran Alliance
- Hardcore, Magistracy of Canopus
- Lushann, Outworlds Alliance
- Herotitus, Rimward Periphery
- Tukayyid, Free Rasalhague Republic
- Hachiman, Draconis Combine
The Clans[]
Readers fond of oppressive, militant eugenicist space fascists (or their advanced recon force) being portrayed in a sympathetic or heroic light are unlikely to enjoy their time in the Dust Devils AU, and it is suggested that such readers try taking a wrench to the ol' KF-Drive and triggering a misjump to an alternative reality. Maybe there'll be sentient bird-people there!
This AU digs a little deeper into the likely repercussions of an elitist society that worships their military and finds "waste" a cardinal sin on how that society functions, as well as how they would treat those they conquered. It is unlikely that the Clan's eugenics program would be confined to their "trueborn", and mandatory termination of "flawed" pregnancies and sterilization of those with undesired genetic traits would very likely be a standard medical practice. For the conquered, those who are unable or unwilling to integrate and contribute to Clan society would face exile into the "bandit" caste at best, mass-termination at worst.
As such, in this AU, the peaceful integration of the Free Rasalhague Republic into the Ghost Bear Dominion never takes place; rather, the last holdout FRR worlds were finally conquered during the Fifth Succession War. Similarly, the Raven Alliance doesn't exist, and instead the Outworlds Alliance effectively ceases to function as a working state due to conquest and occupation of most of its worlds by Clan Snow Raven, which continues to operate much as it always has in the role of military overlords ("we both prefer aerospace" being such an incredibly thin foundation for the whole "similar cultures" concept of canon; the Outworlds Alliance resisted the militarism of the Star League and suffered for it, making it more than a little nonsensical that they'd welcome it back with open arms). As such, citizen resistance continued to be a challenge for the Clans for many years.
Timeline[]
Some standalone events are shuffled a bit in the timeline, while some conflict periods are either expanded or contracted, mostly for narrative flow of the main characters in the AU, but also to pave over a couple of plot holes or out-of-character actions for the major players. A few examples include:
- The events of the HBS BattleTech game's main campaign and most Flashpoints are part of the AU, but have been moved forward in time, taking place from 3040 when the Aurigan Directorate overthrows the Aurigan Coalition to 3045 when the Coalition is restored. As such, the Of Unknown Origin Flashpoint campaign takes place in 3047.
- Operation BIRD DOG/BULLDOG is not a 5-month cakewalk in this AU, and instead a hard-fought campaign stretching from early 3059 to mid-3060. The Great Refusal takes place late 3060.
- The FedCom Civil War begins in early 3062 and ends in 3066, and Victor Steiner-Davion isn't such a poor general that they take a half-year break for a personal loss. Though shorter than the canon version of the conflict, the fighting is more intense and widespread, chewing up units at a faster rate, which contributes to the shorter duration.
- The Word of Blake Protectorate forms early in 3064, as it doesn't take the Blakists nearly ten years to decide to take advantage of the state of the Chaos March and start snapping up worlds through both diplomacy and force. The Wolf's Dragoons' Allied Mercenary Command forms shortly thereafter in November of the same year. After a two year cold war, the WoB-backed assault on Outreach takes place on June 1st, 3066, with the AMC's retaliation and subsequent destruction taking place shortly thereafter.
- The Fifth Succession War begins in late 3066 after the Second Star League dissolves in the wake of the FedCom Civil War and the Capellans' conquest of St. Ives. Rather than the Successor States taking nearly ten years to get their act together and focus on the enemy that nuked their capitals and dropped bioweapons on their people, they attempt to resist individually for the first few years of the conflict but with only marginal success amid the chaos and renewed aggression from those Clans who viewed the Great Refusal as no-longer binding with the dissolution of the new Star League and the Truce of Tukayyid expired. Devlin Stone's Coalition forms in late 3070 after the full threat of the Blakists finally sinks in. The counterattack against Blakist-held worlds begins shortly after, and after a brutal total war, Terra is taken and the Republic of the Sphere formed in 3073.
New/Altered Nation-States[]
The Dust Devils AU contains (or will contain) interstellar political entities that either do not exist in canon and canon states that have had their histories and territories significantly altered.
The Kingdom of Umoja[]
The Kingdom of Umoja is an isolationist Periphery State located Anti-Spinward of the Marian Hegemony and Magistracy of Canopus. Protected from Inner Sphere observation by the Emerald Veil Nebula, few inhabitants of the Inner Sphere are aware of the existence of the Kingdom, and those that do assume that the Umojans are simply another backwater "lost colony" with a culture and technological level similar to other hardscrabble frontier worlds.
The Aurigan Coalition[]
The Aurigan Coalition exists in a more influential position in the 3060's of this AU, having expanded and strengthened its hold on the Reach rather than mysteriously fading away. As such, there is a ripple-effect in that the entire Magistracy-Concordate New Colony Region/Fronc Reaches storyline never takes place in this timeline.
Technology[]
Some things that are LosTech in canon, in this AU (such as functional cooling suits and neurohelmets) were not lost. Additionally, some things around scale, the way DropShips and JumpShips work (primarily that DropShips require less fuel for a fusion drive and JumpShips about half the time to recharge), the function and availability of some technology, timeline of when certain technologies became available, etc. have been adjusted here and there to make more narrative sense/be more fun, rather than worrying about rules balance for a tabletop game.
Gender Relations[]
It's a lot more queer and a lot less weirdly misogynistic around these parts. For example, the author solemnly swears that they will not spend an inordinate amount of text in an in-universe news segment describing how "pretty" a woman reporter is while never, ever doing the same to describe a man.