BattleTech: Prometheus Unbound: The Proliferation Cycle #2

Battletech: Proliferation Cycle #2

by Herbert A. Beas II

THE STRUGGLE FOR BATTLEMECH SUPREMACY CONTINUES...

Fifteen years after the Terran Hegemony first fielded the Mackie, the very first BattleMech, the Great House has been running rampant over the other Houses in the Inner Sphere. Any who try to fight the Terrans and their death machines are utterly defeated. but there are other ways to level the battlefield...

And the Lyran Commonwealth is about to employ one of the oldest strategies in the book: if you can't beat 'em, steal from 'em. A crack commando unit is assigned their most perilous mission yet: infiltrate a heavily-defended Terran world and steal the plans for the Terran BattleMechs. Besides the odds being stacked against the, the leader of this team has his own demon to deal with—one that stands twelve meters tall, and shakes the ground when it walks...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

66 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2019

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightmare or Reality
I don't know whether it was an effective recreation of fog of war, a problem with the writing, or a lingering side effect of a hard knock to the noggin' I took a few weeks ago, but I found this novella requiring me to go back and reread to see when we'd switched from current time to recollections of a previous nightmare.

The main story revolves around the commander of a unit going undercover to gather intel about how the enemy is building these horrific, unstoppable killing machines--war mechs.

Colonel Simon Kelswa leads the squad. He has concerns about an imbedded intelligence officer, Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick frequently goes off plan, and seems to have a taste for killing. The mission goes sideways and Kirpatrick has to blow up the ship they came in on, and four of their squad-mates along with it.

He sees it as the cost of war, Simon has the more idealistic goal of bringing back his whole team alive. Things devolve into a fist fight in the middle of a hot zone with incoming enemies including mechs.

Afterward Simon reports to the head of the Steiner house, and tenders his resignation for his cowardice and action-freezing fear when facing the Mechs. Instead, he is reassigned to the task of taking the gathered intel, and figuring out how to kill them.

Another story in the BattleTech universe where no one ever gets in a Mech. But, it does capture a taste of the plight of lowly infantry in a world armed with BattleMechs.

[Joe Pranaitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Herbert A. Beas II brings us the second tale in the Battletech Proliferation Cycle with Prometheus Unbound. Fifteen years have passed since the Hermogy let lose their BattleMech the Mackie on the universe and now an infiltration team from the Lyran Commonwealth are sent in to get the deigns. During the mission they run into a Mackie but they have to high tale it back to their dust off point. Most of the team doesn't make, two of them do and it is those two who will even the odds for the Commonwealth. The one survivor Krikpatrick made sure to come out alive and tell his tale. I'm looking forward to the next chapter in this cycle. I highly recommend this novella to all science fiction Mech fans.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book focused on a more intriguing aspect to the early days of BattleMechs versus the first book in this Proliferation Cycle of novellas. And that was the fact that the BattleMech, or at least the Mackie, was first created by a particular faction. So how did the rest of the factions of the Inner Sphere get their hands on it?

This short story features one heck of a corporate espionage mission as these Lyran agents set about liberating the Terran Hegemony of their BattleTech research data in order to acquire the technology for themselves. And of course, this lets the proverbial genie out of the bottle - or in this case gives man FIRE.

[David Hitchcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s interesting to read this and other stories from the early (pre-?) mech days. This and the previous story are fairly light, and short. They describe the action and try to draw you in but I only got halfway in. It’s good enough I’ll read the next story in the series but I’m not sure I’d enjoy full sized novels like this unless they developed more characters and background to support the action.

[John Somers · Rating 3 out of 5]

13/20.