Chapter 40[]
Clover Spear - The Story of the '56 War[]
Unpleasant News from Dover[]
Guest Quarters, Royal Palace
New Avalon, Federated Commonwealth
April 29th, 3057
"Hello Katherine." Omi looked up from the bonsai cherry tree that she was examining in the apartment room that she had repurposed as a miniature garden. "I somewhat expected you to visit now that Victor-chan is on light duties and can handle some of your burden. I am glad that he can now be a pillar of strength for you, as you are for him and me."
Katherine walked over to Omi's workbench and leaned heavily against it. "I wish that I could come here just to talk to you. But I need your advice on matters of state. We just received word of events in the Combine that are... disturbing. If this continues, I will have to act."
Omi closed her eyes and sighed deeply before opening them to stare into Katherine's eyes, seeing a matching concern reflected within. "Shikata ga na. The same reports no doubt that were waiting for me with my morning tea."
Katerine nodded somberly as Omi took up a set of shears and prepared to cut through a flowering branch of the bonsai that was growing in variance with the Keeper of House Honor's aesthetic vision of the whole.
Omi positioned the shears against the wood and adjusted them minutely as she whispered in a voice choked with unshed tears. "Dover then?"
"Ja. Dover." Katherine responded
The cherry blossoms on the branch fell.
- Story Section written by Yellowhammer
Flashback to Unpleasant Moment[]
Wairdel City
Dover, Kajikazawa Prefecture
Benjamin Military District
Draconis Combine
April 20th, 3057
The spring rains that day were black as pitch. Soot from the fires that had ravaged the city and were now barely under control in several districts as well as fallout from the nuclear weapons detonations at the factories in the industrial suburbs of Onyx and Kalkedony had tainted the rain.
Destroyed Battlemechs littered the rubble-strewn-streets of one of the major industrial centers of the Combine. Some were painted the camouflage of the 6th Benjamin Regulars. More were the charcoal gray of the Ryuken. Most were the flat red of the Sword of Light, the elite of the DCMS.
Tai-sa Kiyomori Minamoto gasped in pain as one of the faceless infantrymen in chemical warfare gear forced him along at the head of the column of survivors of his Teak Dragon and the Jade Dragon with a ungentle rifle butt. Fire sped through his body in a wave from where it impacted his broken collarbone from where he had ejected from his Hatamoto-chi just ahead of the ammunition explosion that had claimed Flower-gatherer and he half stumbled, his shackled hands twitching helplessly as he shuffled along in his leg cuffs.
A turn in the road, and he saw one of the few undamaged buildings ahead with guards around it along with a lone battlemech in the gray of the Ryuken. One of his eyebrows twitched behind his stoic facade as he identified the hulking 'mech as a new Naginita command Assault Mech, with clear fresh repairs from the savage combat of the last three days to go with the soot patterning the three heavy missile racks that it was equipped with.
"Inside traitor!" With that punctuated with another rifle butt to the back from the ashigaru infantry he was forced through the loading dock door and gagged at the stench within. Merciful Buddha, what died here, it is worse than....
His thoughts whirled to a halt at a memory of a celebration after his decoration with the Order of the Dragon for his successful defense of Luthien. He had traveled to a vacation estate on Annapolis then, to live as his ancestors would as samurai on distant Terra during the Shogunate. The stench brought back memories of those moments when the wind turned there to the high-tech castle where he had stayed. It reminded him of the the scent from the fields where gaijin peasants used their own waste to fertilize the rice paddies in the traditional way with oxplow and hand carts...
A sudden stabbing light filled his eyes as the door behind the last of his men boomed shut. Blinking tears out of hiss eyes, he saw the dim shape of a large cistern where some sort of fencing had been removed from around it. A figure stood in front of the spotlight, and his eyes adjusted enough to see that it was a woman clad in the ceremonial robes of the Coordinator. Her amplified voice echoed in his ears.
"Put them in! Officers last!" she ordered
Chaos followed as with cattle prods, savage blows, and brute force teams of infantry grabbed one prisoner after another and threw them over the low edge of the cistern to land with a strangely muffled plop in whatever lay beneath. Called out prayers, screams, and shouts of defiance followed from it, and soon fell silent.
Minamoto stood stoically as the double handful of junior officers soon followed, until he stood alone. As the infantry approached him, he bowed to the shadowy figure and then shuffled forward to the cistern of his own accord. He spoke in a calm voice into the ringing silence.
"Kurita Miyako, I presume?" he asked
A fractional nod answered him.
"That which blossoms/falls, the way of all flesh/in this world of flowers" he spoke calmly as he saw the vat of human excrement and sewage that his men had drowned in waiting for him. "I die so that the Combine may live. Sayonara, Kurita-san."
With that he dove headfirst to his awaiting doom.
- Story Section written by Yellowhammer
Reflections to a terrible Reckoning[]
Guest Quarters, Royal Palace
New Avalon, Federated Commonwealth
April 29th, 3057
Omi placed the shears down beside the cherry tree and took a deep breath before picking up a watering can. "I do not know what happened to Miyako-chan, Katherine-chan. I can speculate...."
Katherine spoke quietly, "Please do. Of all of us, you are the only person who knew her. If any of us can truly know someone else."
Omi tested the moistness of the soil in the pot with her fingertip as her brows narrowed in thought. "If I had to speculate, she loved her father...Uncle Isoroku... dearly. Seeing... what happened on Benjamin to him and Minoru-chan may have..."
Omi trailed off and bit her lip before carefully watering the soil. "Far be it for me to say ill of my kin, but love and hatred are closely aligned, neh? We both know, both feel, the demon within that cries out for blood. To feast on others' pain to satisfy the ache in our souls that can never be sated save with the sight of those who have gone onward before us."
Katherine nodded slowly, her voice shadowed. "Like I felt when I saw what happened to Kali Liao on my orders. But you and I both know what happens if our will loses control of our demons. Like Claudius the Cruel or Jinjiro did."
"Hai. Like Jinjiro on Kentares."
- Story Section written by Yellowhammer
Message to Avon[]
Stratford
Avon
Nova Cat Occupation Zone
April 30th, 3057
Star Colonel Sofia Rosse took her neurohelmet off as the canopy of her Mad Dog II unsealed. She breathed in the cooler air of the Mech bay then smiled at the two techs coming to assist her out of the cockpit after the all-day field exercise.. "The replacement hip actuator and left side fire-control linkages work perfectly Mara, Judith. They are as quick to respond as an Ice Hellion's ability to leap to conclusions. Unfortunately, my left side laser is tracking improperly, my shots were a half-meter wide."
The technicians smiled at each other as they helped her to the lift. "We shall correct the laser focusing. A message from the Khan for you came while you were on exercise." With that, Mara handed over a tablet.
Sofia's smile widened as she saw the scarred face of Trent whom was the reason that Sofia's Choice had needed the new hip actuator and the left side had to be rebuilt thanks to their duel last week where she had tracked down the two Stars that he had manged to lead in a breakout from the pocket where the Jaguar Cavaliers were destroyed. Claiming him as my isorla was wise, he uses his head for more than supporting his shoulders. He will make a strong abtakha for the Clan. She tossed her neurohelmet underhand to Trent, who automatically caught it.
"Assist the Technicians in their checks of Sofia's Choice, Trent. My left side laser is not zeroed properly, so I order you to take her out to the firing range and correct that under their direction."
With that command and her turn away to show a 'blind eye' to the ex-Smoke Jaguar's glee at doing a Warrior's work, she unlocked the tablet.
<<<MESSAGE BEGINS>>>
From: Khan Severen Leroux
To: Star Colonel Sofia Rosse, CO 1st Nova Cat Guards.
Subject: Preliminary Orders.
Report status of the Hand of Fate immediately. Forward projections of strength for 10, 20, and 30 days after receipt of message to Khan's office. Begin preparation and planning for assault on Meinacos as part of Operation CAT'S FANG WAVE ONE. Latest DCMS intelligence survey included as attachment.
<<<MESSAGE ENDS>>>
- Story Section written by Yellowhammer
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