I'm a gamer, Battletech, Dungeons & Dragons (all the way from 1st Edition to 3.5, I bought some of the books for 4th but didn't care for it, and I haven't checked out 5th yet) the (Palladium Books) Robotech Role-playing game, the original D6 (and later, D20) Star Wars and the various White Wolf systems each held my attention the longest for whatever time I was playing them.
Sometimes, particularly with Battletech and D&D the gaming hobby and the reading interest were both active at the same time. (For the record, I'm working my way through the Legend of Drizzt novels *Again* for you Forgotten Realms fans out there.)
I will say though, that I loved the Battletech universe, in all its infinite complexity. Battletech was your basic tabletop war-game type of thing (there was also an associated RPG, called MechWarrior, which I also played with gusto, having versions of my characters for both.) The basic idea was you had cardboard cutouts on a hex map (or Miniatures on a table) and shot it out in combat rounds fairly similar to most other such games with dice rolls primarily to determine who hit what, etc. It's similar to Warhammer 40K today, though it was a less expensive habit.
But for me,,,it was the thousand years of history and the world-building around it that sucked me in. The idea was that, at one time, when humans ventured out into space, six major interstellar nations formed, with a number of minor ones around the edges of human space. The six main powers (The Capellan Confederation, the Draconis Combine, the Federated Suns, the Free Worlds League, the Lyran Commonwealth and the Terran Hegemony) eventually formed one big power, called the Star League. The Star League conquered all the small states around the edges, and eventually was destroyed from within by treason (conveniently, originating from one of the conquered outer states) and though the usurper of the throne was defeated and killed, there wasn't much saving the whole thing after that. So, the Star League military just...left...taking its great fleet of warships and transports, dependents and massive amounts of supplies and disappearing off into the unknown. We'll come back to that in a few minutes. Not very long after that, the previous main powers, minus the Terran Hegemony (which was destroyed and divided up among the others) fought several devastating wars, the first one in particular using nuclear weapons and orbital bombardment often. Whole worlds were devastated and much technology eventually was lost. Fast forward 300+ years, unifying two of the states (Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth) and add another power (the Free Rasalhague Republic) with much of the lost technology being rediscovered and put back into service. We're good, right? Nope! All the sudden the descendants of the Star League military return to re-establish the legendary realm of their ancestors by force of arms, and they do succeed at taking a large swath of human space for themselves before being defeated (incidentally, by a military force equipped entirely with Star League technology and fielded by the primary communications authority, known as Comstar, which also controls Earth) and after that a 15-year cease fire is declared.
(In case any Battletech fans read this, I left out a lot of details for the sake of brevity AND all that was from memory.)
That said, of the five main characters I used, two were from and all the others fought against the Draconis Combine, which was based on Japan incorporating elements of the Samurai era and WWII era Japan...with a few other cultural groups incorporated into the mix.
One of my favorite novels set in the Battletech universe was Black Dragon, by Victor Milan. It's the end of a three-novel series. What that novel series is about is a regiment of mercenaries called Camacho's Caballeros, itself based on the culture of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, primarily working with elements of Combine society...but also fighting against others.
It's a fucking great series, if you can find it. I need to see if I can find some of that stuff in E-book form or whatever myself.
Black Dragon was about the mercenaries and various elements of Combine intelligence services and society plus elements of the military defeating a plot to overthrow the Coordinator (leader) and replace him with a figurehead and a council of reactionary leaders.
Enter one of my favorite characters from the overall universe, Subhash Indrahar AKA The Smiling One. He's the leader of the Internal Security Forces, i.e. the main intelligence agency. Formerly an accomplished Kendo martial artist, mystic and warrior in his own right and both then and at the time of the novel an art collector and avid socialite (hence his nickname) he is now an old man crippled by age and disease who uses an electric wheelchair to get around.
This old dude finds a way to track down several of the main conspirators and the kid they intend to place on the throne as a figurehead. As it turns out, the majority of the people involved in this conspiracy are conspiracy theorists, criminal elements, fakes, radical conservatives, the odd cashiered (with a couple still-active) military officers and various rejects. Is this sounding scarily similar to the modern situation of the United States of America yet? Good!
The Smiling One tracks down two of the main conspirators, a fake martial artist/monk and a cashiered military academy professor who's basically a walking reactionary stereotype, aboard their Jumpship (that's a basic interstellar Starship without any military capabilities besides transport) very quickly figures out just what he's dealing with, makes nice for a few minutes, and gets them to bring the prospective figurehead before him.
The kid, however, is just a young military cadet who's trying to do his job, whatever it is at the moment, as best he can.
This is one of those moments upon which the arc of the universe bends.
The Smiling One looks at the kid, and speaks to him, in the process reads his mind with his mystical powers. He says to him "You are a strong, sound young man, and your spirit is clear. Why have you consented to be a part of this treasonous scheme?" Upon being told that it was because of duty, the Smiling one shakes his head sadly and says "The rest of us have outlived our usefulness to the Dragon [the symbol and metaphorical nature of the Combine is that of a dragon] but your death will be a tragic loss."
What! "Who is going to die?" the colonel shouts.
With the laugh of a strong, young warrior, Subhash Indrahar replies "All of us."
At that point, panels fall open on his wheelchair, revealing two rocket launchers. He fires at a large view-port, causing a hull breach which sucks all of them out into space, with the Smiling One still laughing the whole time.
What's the point, I mean aside from the fact that that's my favorite scene in the book?
One of the things science fiction has taught me, and one of the things studying history also has taught me, is to resist tyranny. Funny thing, but Christianity as I was taught it said much the same thing.
Resist.
Even when it seems hopeless.
Resist.
Do whatever you can...and do it until you die.
Resist.
Because even if you are old and broken down, even if you fail, even if you Die...
...YOU will be free, as in the end the Smiling One was free even of the limitations imposed upon him by age and bad health, that one last operation ended with him being sucked out into space while laughing like the strong, young warrior he had once been in body, and that he still was in his soul.
Resist.
Because it's what we are, it's what the United States of America was founded on. Even if our nation as we know it breaks apart or is destroyed...let us not go down being known for people like Donald Trump, but being known as the people who fought against him and the racists and right-wing nuts and goddamned Nazi wannabes that put him into power.
Resist.
Because that's what freedom, real freedom, is. It's not shit-headed obstructionism of an imagined tyrant who is seen as such only because of the color of his skin and the fact that he's not in your party. It's resistance against actual, no-shit tyranny.
Tyranny is when one party loses an election, and then rigs the deck to remain in power, as happened in North Carolina today. Tyranny is when Electoral College members get death threats for saying they will not vote for Trump or when one who resigned because he felt Trump was not 'Biblically' qualified (and would not vote for him) has people threatening to rape his wife and daughters and then kill him.
Whether it's the tyranny of one man at the head of a government or the tyranny of the mob and petty warlords, it must be opposed.
I don't know how the hell American so-called "Conservatives" became so stupid as to elect these evil, power-mad men to office, whether we're talking about the North Carolina Republicans or Trump and his cabinet of CEO's and cashiered Generals, but *I* will resist them as best I can.
I don't know how these people became so evil that threats of rape and murder are something they think is OK. I don't give a damn what you think, it's not.
Resistance is not futile, resistance is necessary.
Even if all it means is that we are remembered for having the courage to do it.
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