BattleTech: Elements of Treason: Opportunity by Craig A. Reed, Jr.

RIPE FOR THE TAKING… Dissatisfied with Archon Melissa Steiner’s leadership of the Lyran Commonwealth, Vedet Brewer, Duke of Hesperus, overthrew her rule in 3143 and claimed the mantle for himself—only to be unceremoniously removed from the position two years later. Brewer and his troops fled to the far reaches of Lyran space to lick his wounds and reevaluate his future, wandering the Commonwealth in search of potential allies and opportunities. His travels finally led him and his First Hesperus Guards to one of his old haunts: Melissia, a former Lyran provincial capital, a world he has not returned to in two decades—the perfect place to put down new roots. But the Clan Jade Falcon occupiers have already departed, and in their absence, two opposing factions vie for dominance: one seeks a new future for Melissia, the other desperately clings to tradition and the old ways. All political avenues have failed, and a grinding war between commoners and aristocracy is their only discourse. For