uh yeah mechs are cool

Nicolai Malthus starts his career by killing a superior with a Death From Above attack so he can raise from the rank of Star Commander to the rank of Star Captain. The reason he was a Star Commander, he was the only survivor of his Sibko. So you know... Dude was unhinged from day one.

The man's reputation gets him slotted as a special unit of Vandervahn Chistu, the fucking saKhan of Clan Jade Falcon, the second highest leader of the clan, as one of the leaders for Project Revival, better known as the Clan Invasion. Chistu is hoping Malthus's ambition will help the Jade Falcons reach Terra faster; Chistu desires to be Khan and be recognized as the great warrior he is, by all of the clans and only as the Khan, not its shadow would he be able to do that.

Malthus is given a unique cluster that operates independently of the Clan's touman command. However Chistu gets tired of dealing with him directly and pawns him off on to his protégé, Star Colonel Kristen Redmond. And the two hate each other, both trying to win Chistu's favor.

Malthus unit was the FALCON'S CLAW! They cut through the outer worlds of the Inner Sphere quickly before running into Adam Steiner. It was at this point where fact and fiction blend together. Adam did lead the Somerset Strikers, running guerilla warfare strikes against the Jade Falcons. Malthus finding a foe beat him repeatedly enraged him and he took to chasing them down, "Like Ahab after the white whale." Since this hit-and-fade style was outside a traditionalist like Malthus, he couldn't force the system to give him a win and left Adam Steiner mocking him the whole way back.

So, if you have been paying attention, we have Crazy Man, a crazy man who regularly abuses the system of honor dueling, a hated rival, a saKhan wanting results, a bitter rival, and finally, a small irregular force making the ELITE CLAN WARRIORS look like the chumps they were.

Suddenly Malthus looses his support and has to do with the limited forces he still had as all future support was denied. In a do or die, he tries to make Adam Stiener pay for the string of defeats; by this time, the war had swung around, and Adam no longer had to rely on old machines and was able to hit back just as hard, if not harder. Loosing his entire unit the Falcon's Claw to a freebirth, inner sphere retrobate was the end.

Striped of command and busted down a rank, Malthus was sent to a solahma as a Star Commander; Chistu made sure that the free birth and old solider were well aware that their new commander had every opportunity to earn fame, glory, and a warrior's death and failed in ways they couldn't imagine ending up as their commander.

Adam Steiner gets Archon's vote, and the heroic resistance of the Somerset Strikers becomes a famous holodrama.

Malthus hears all of this and finds the holodrama where he is the meme we all know and love; he does exactly as stated.

He Challenges the Archon, the president of a foreign nation, and the production company to a Trial of Grievance. The Commonwealth justice system is confused and doesn't really do that, chooses the Common Wealth's favor stalling action, and responds by telling him he'll need to fill out paperwork. Malthus does so, thinking it will get him his Trail to become Archon and reclaim his honor.

Which is how he finds himself in the middle of a civil damages court case that will be remembered as one the strangest and likely funniest court cases post Clan Invansion. The judge rules against him after he rants and raves about the holodrama running him in the Jade Falcon Clan. Incensed, he challenges the Judge to a Trial. The Judge tells him no, likely laughing at him. Enraged, I like to think Malthus says the line: "You dare refuse my Batchall!?!?"

And becomes violent, alone, in the middle of a Lyran Common Wealth Courthouse. I don't give elementals good odds on that one. Malthus spends six months in prison before the Jade Falcon finally repatriates him from the Common Wealth.

He is given two options, Join the Clan Watch or find his final honor in a solahma infantry unit. Malthus agrees to become a member of the Watch and serves faithfully for a decade before earning final honors during the Society's Revolt during the Reaving.

I basically summarized the events in Battletech Legends, which I highly recommend for all the cool people and lore it has. Like here is the Summoner used by Malthus:

Man cannot catch a break and it is hilarious.

Also fun fact, the Legends art of Malthus' Summoner has the correct paint scheme, but the incorrect configuration. It ought to look like this:

This is because the art in Legends I is terrible all-round - ugly as fuck character art, and every 'Mech in their most basic(for IS 'Mechs) or Prime (for Clan 'Mechs) configurations, even if what was being described on the page was a wildly different configuration.

tl;dr redditors acted out in-universe rituals to resolve (minor) irl disagreements, more beneath the readmore