BattleTech: Children of Kerensky by Blaine Lee Pardoe

Author:Blaine Lee Pardoe
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2020-10-19T05:00:00+00:00

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CAMP OVERSTREET

SARGASSO

JADE FALCON OCCUPATION ZONE

11 AUGUST 3145

The prisoners of war stood in a ragged formation, braced against the cold wind that swept the northern continent. Most had little more than their jumpsuits, some stained dark maroon with blood. Snow pelted them, and their breath blew into the light breeze as a thin vapor. They were dirty, smeared in sweat and splattered with mud. All looked angry at having to stand with their hands clasped on their heads.

Their anger did not matter to Malvina. Their attempt to break out of Camp Overstreet had cost the lives of eight solamha warriors and a number of lower caste laborer guards, with another dozen in the infirmary. Of course their attempt at escape failed, look at them. They are filth… Lyran filth that killed Jade Falcons.

The new guards kept their weapons trained on them as she walked over to the Star Captain in charge of the sector, Dittmar Hazen of the Sixth Falcon Striker Cluster. He saluted her. “Chingis Khan, I was not expecting you.”

“What happened here?”

“Several of the prisoners overpowered one of the guards. They used his pistol to kill the perimeter sentries and the rest of the prisoners attempted to make an escape. I led my Command Star back here and recaptured the escapees.”

Malvina stared into Dittmar’s rigid face, then at the dejected prisoners. “That is not what happened here,” she stated.

“I do not understand.” Dittmar said. “My report was accurate.”

“From your perspective,” she sneered. “You fail to look for the root cause of your failure, Star Captain.”

“I await your enlightenment, Chingis Khan,” he said.

Do you? “Dittmar Hazen, why did you take prisoners of war?”

“They surrendered to us at Kaiser.”

You are a fool to not see it. “They surrendered, and you took them prisoner.”

“Affirmative,” he replied. “It was honorable.”

“Honorable? Two days ago, these Lyran troops were fighting and trying to kill us. These prisoners you captured turned on Jade Falcon warriors and killed them. They died not in battle, as every solamha desires, but in ambush by failed warriors who did not give them a shred of honor.”

Dittmar had no words. She saw the embarrassment in his face. “You would have me kill warriors that were surrendering? What of my honor as a Jade Falcon?”

“Your honor cost the lives of eight of your trothkin,” Malvina spat back. “Worse yet, I arrive here and see that you have the rest of this filth standing here before me. They breathe air still, yet eight Jade Falcons lay dead. Are you even a member of this Clan? Do you have no loyalty to those who have died?”

“My loyalty is and always will be to the Jade Falcons, Chingis Khan,” Dittmar replied through gritted teeth.

Malvina chuckled. “You say those words as if you believe them, yet your failure speaks volumes. That makes this only sadder and your failure more pathetic. “You have failed your Clan today. Your fellow warriors demand justice. I challenge you to a Trial of Grievance right here, right now.”

Dittmar realized his fate with her words, she saw the color fade from his face.

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