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Pulp Fedcom
by Andrew Borelli |
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12 DEC 3031
Epsilon Eridani IV, Federated Commonwealth
Hello, young man. My name’s Tom O’Byrne. Boy, I sure have heard a lot about you. I was with your father in a Kuritan concentration camp, and I was there with him when he… passed away. Like a lot of people in the same situation, we sort of promised each other that we’d take care of certain responsibilities if something happened to the other. As it happened, I’m coming to see you. I’ve got something for you.
This is your father’s wristwatch. This is an ancient device from Terra. See, you probably haven't learned much about this yet, but everybody in the Inner Sphere - every family across the galaxy has a common ancestry on old Earth. Even you. Your family didn't always live on Eridani IV, you see. And this watch has been in your family for quite some time.
Your great grandfather, Jackie Carter, was given this watch on the same day he shipped out to fight the Draconis Combine. That was in the First Succession War. He wore this thing every day he served in that war. Finally his tour ended, he did his duty, he came home to your great grandmother, and he put the watch in a desk and forgot about it.
Well eventually Jackie’s son Augustus, your grandfather, was called on to serve the Commonwealth. He went off to fight the Combine again, leaving his pregnant wife behind on Donegal. This time they called it the Third Succession War. Jackie gave the watch to his son as a good luck token.
Unfortunately, Augustus wasn’t as lucky as his old man. He was a tanker, see, and he got assigned to the garrison on Skondia. Three days before the snakes attacked, your granddaddy asked a drinking buddy of his, a dropship gunner by the name of Waushau, to deliver the watch to his infant son - your father - who he had never seen before.
Every man there was facing death. And they knew it. None of those boys had any illusions of getting off of that planet alive. Three days later, your granddaddy was dead. But Waushau kept his promise. When the war ended, he made sure your grandmother got the watch.
This watch was on your daddy’s wrist the day he got shot down over Vega during the Fourth Succession War. Your father knew that if the snakes caught him with this, well, they would take it away. The way your daddy saw it, this is your birthright. He’d be damned if he was gonna let any filthy Drac get their greasy hands all over your birthright. So, he hid the watch the only place he could... where the sun don’t shine.
For seven months, your father held this uncomfortable chunk of metal up there. Finally he died of dysentery, he gave me the watch. I hid this thing up there for two months in that hellhole on Proserpina.
Eventually the Combine and the Fedcom got around to trading prisoners, and I got sent home to my family. And now, my young man, I give the watch to you.
-Major Tom O’Byrne (Ret), 71st Light Horse Regiment, 1/3 101st Air Cavalry, Eridani Light Horse, speaking to nine-year-old Dutch Carter |
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