World building/Storybuilding: BattleTech+Pern
I said I would do it, and so here we go.
Pont the first: IIRC from *Dragonsdawn*, a one of the reasons that many of the original Pernese colonists were willing to leave their lives behind and try to make a go at down-teched pastoralism on a resource-poor planet out beyond the edges of settled space was because a big chunk of them were veterans of a brutal interstellar war. Also, because it was Admiral Benden's idea, and after the leadership he showed during said war, they were willing to follow him anywhere.
Well, that sounds familiar. So the original colonists being a segment of the Exodus Fleet that misjumped to ~2,000 years into the past somewhere in the Deep Periphery makes sense. And really, who but the SLDF is going to have a sapient supercomputer and the ability to turn small psychic flying lizards into Dragons? I'm gonna leave out the dolphins, though.
You are perhaps asking, wait, if you are leaving out the dolphins, why are you including AIVAS? Well, because I want to not just have Peen exist in BT, I want it to be RELEVANT, and since it's a single, resource-poor largely pre-industrial world, that means I need to give them as many advantages as possible, and an advanced AI with all the knowledge of the Star League goes a long way towards that goal. For the same reason I am considering having Yokohama be a WarShip. Although it's been sitting in orbit without maintenance for 2500 years, it probably isn't in fighting shape even before they used it to move the Red Star (can you do that with KF Drives, BTW?). I also considered that they have basically a Brian Cache at Landing, but again over 2500 years with no maintenance, and also that might be a bit much
Anyways. It's noted that the Dragonrider playbook was adapted from space fighter tactics, and AIVAS still recognized them as such in the Ninth Pass, so theoretically Dragonriders can be retrained as ASF pilots. Although, I am not sure that's needful: I vividly remember an illustration in The Dragonlover's Guide To Pern that show Ramoth as being roughly the same size as a jumbo jet. Ramoth is, of course, the biggest dragon ever, but there's no indication that she has gigantism, so one presumes the other Golds, while smaller, are of roughly similar size, that the Bronzes are only somewhat smaller than that, and the Browns only slightly smaller than that. Who knows about the Blues and Greens? But anyways, something that big dropping on your head out of *between* (stupid phone not letting me italicize on Tumblr) is going to ruin pretty much any Mech's day, even if they weren't also able to breathe fire or yoink you off to *between*, and maybe do other TK tricks.
Ok, so. As you might imagine by what I have said thus far, I am figuring that, on the Pern side of things, the planet is rediscovered during All The Weyrs of Pern, or perhaps slightly after if we leave out AIVAS deactivating itself. Not sure what's a good time on the BT side, or by who or how, and no idea what comes next.
Hence my asking y'all. Please help?
