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I, Kerensky
by Roguebaron |
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Outskirt Hogye, Engadine,
Melissa Theater, Lyran Alliance,
May 3, 3058
I did not understand the concept of blackmail. If they wanted something, it would be easier for them to come to me and ask. I did not understand why they had to do this heinous, cowardly act. Kidnapping and holding Evee for ransom would only complicated matters. She did not have anything to do with it.
I hated being blackmailed.
The note did not say anything about ‘it’. But I did not remember if I owned anything that worth Evee. Except maybe the mech in the woods. It was the only thing that glued everything together. I was, possibly, a weapon trader or a thief. I stole the mech, then went to Engadine to hide. Now owner of the mech found me and wanted it back. Or somebody just heard about me, and wanted to take advantage. Megi knew about this, but she did not want me to know that she did. Maybe she wanted a piece of it for herself. Or maybe she was planning something.
Two questions, though. One, how come I did not remember any of it? Two, what did I do, really?
It was not that Evee meant something to me, but I could not let her take my responsibility. She should not be in this conflict in the first place. She should have been in her flight home to New St. Andrews. I would never forgive myself if she was hurt because of what I did.
I was tired, I could not think clearly, but I did not want to lose time. So I rested for two hours, then set a course to the hangar. I hijacked one of the Cutlass battle armors, grabbed a laser rifle and the neurohelmet for the Commando, stole Cedro’s tools, then tiptoed out of the hangar toward the woods. I did not wish to fight, but the nolans were still there.
It was almost dawn when I arrived at the rune. It was dark and quiet, as if something was waiting for me. I checked the infrared scanner, trying to pick up any living creatures within 100-meter radius. I could only see heat traces from bugs and small arboreal mammals. There were no signs of humanoids, big or small. Grabbing the rifle on my right and the infrared scanner on my left, I entered the rune.
While walking on the dark rune, I started to second-guess my decision. This did not sound very smart. What if the kidnappers were talking about something else? What if this mech was not the only one that I brought to Engadine? What if there was something more precious than the war machine, and that was what they wanted? Evee would be dead for sure. But I had no way to know all of those things. This was the best possible way to save her, and I had to do it.
And there it was, the rugged machine, standing alone in the dark, still leering at me as I walked slowly toward it. I wished it could speak, so I could ask it questions. I could check its battleROM and see if it did have something about me, providing I could start it up. I did not keep my hopes up because battlemechs were protected by voice-recognition system. But I learned from Cedro how to bypass the system. If the neurohelmet were compatible with the mech’s system, then I would have no trouble hijacking the mech.
Once again, I was so engrossed in my thought that I forgot to check my infrared scanner. By the time I realized that I was not alone, it was too late. Something launched itself at me. I took a glimpse and realized it was a humanoid, but it was too small to be a nolan. It was human. He swung his hand at my face. I flinched, but I was not fast enough. A loud bang exploded in my head, and I careened to the ground.
He must have hit me with a rock or a metal rod that scattered all over the place. My visor broke, and my helmet died. I stripped my helmet and got my laser gun, but the attacker had retreated. Through my infrared scanner I spotted him crouching behind a metal formation, waiting for another opportunity to strike me. Then I remembered him. He must have been the strange guy that claimed the mech was his.
“I mean you no harm,” I tried to lure him out. “I come here for the mech. It is mine.”
Just as I expected, he jumped out of his refuge with a thick metal bar in his hand. “Why didn’t you die?” he screamed while swinging the bar like a mad man. “Go away! Die! Die! This mech is mine!”
When he was close enough, I ducked and shoved the butt of my rifle into his midst. He screamed a muffled scream, teetering and retching. I grabbed his left arm and twisted it backward. He yelped and went to the ground, writhing as he tried to free his hand. But I was not about to let him go. I pressed my right knee on his ribs, and he gasped, then stopped moving.
“Who are you?” I asked, releasing the pressure on his ribs a bit.
“Damn you, invaders!” he grumbled. “I die today, but someone just like me will kill you tomorrow!”
“Invaders? Why are you calling me invaders?” I pressed his ribs. “Do you know me? Just tell me who you are.”
“You’re not getting anything from me, invaders! Die! Die!”
I do not think I would get anything from this man, so I cocked my hand and punched him as hard as I could. His head flailed to the back, then stopped moving. I frisked him, but I could not find anything in his clothing, if it could be called clothing. I dragged him and laid him on a flat surface that looked like a box, then started to climb the mech. Normally, I would sit down and ponder why he called me “invaders”. But not today.
My Cutlass battle armor was too big for the cockpit, so I stripped it before entering. The cockpit was a mess. This mech surely went through a severe beating. Half of the gauges were busted, cables dangling from the ceiling, and an acrid smell of burning rubber floated in the air. But it was intact. I sat at the command couch, trying to think about what the mech had gone through. It certainly came off world. Nothing in Hogye’s database had any resemblance with this one, and nobody mentioned anything about it.
After a while, I tried to start the mech. It rumbled and coughed, sputtering and shuddering before the engine ran nominally. I reckoned it was quite a while since its last run. The computer beeped, and although half of the gauges were smashed, it worked fine. A minute later, a female voice crackled through the speaker, “Voice identification initiated. State your name, rank, and serial number.”
Preparing the tools to bypass the voice-recognition system, I answered halfheartedly, “Whatever.”
I would never be prepared for what happened next. The console rang, the cockpit turned bright by series of blinking LED, and in the end the female voice delivered the thunder, “Reactor online… sensor online… weapon one online… weapon two online… weapon three offline… weapon four online… all system nominal… Welcome aboard, Star Commander Kerensky.”
Kerensky. The mech just called me Kerensky.
I choked, I could not breathe. I felt my lung was filled with sand. My heart jumped to my throat, and my stomach twisted so hard I felt it was about to burst. My ears rang. I had to lean on the command chair for a while, waiting for my brain to take control of my body. Sweat ran down my face, even though it was not hot in the cockpit.
I was a Kerensky.
As I calmed down, I closed my eyes and tried to digest this abrupt change. My entire theories about my past were wrong. I was not even from the Inner Sphere. I did not have parents. I was born from a eugenic system along with hundreds other warriors. I was created, breed, and programmed for just one purpose: to fight. I did not have a life. I would never have a life. Fighting was my life.
I was a Clan.
That explained my violent nature. That was why I tended to solve every problem by fighting. That was why I did not flee from the two nolans when I got a chance, and instead went on to kill them. That was why I had clear vision of the battle, and could take any measure necessary to win against overwhelming odds. That was why I acted, spoke, and looked different than anybody else.
I had no choice but to accept this. It was a fact. But this fact opened up a myriad of questions: what were all these mech parts? Was I any part of them? Who was I? Why did I come to Hogye? I would not have come to Engadine as a Clan warrior with no reason. Like I said, Clanner did not have a life but fighting. Why did I forget about everything? And what was Megi planning all along? Did she intend to bury this fact forever?
These questions burnt my brain so bad I had migraine. I grabbed my neurohelmet, but the jack was not compatible. I guessed Clan mech used different parts. I opened a panel under the dashboard and disengaged the cables that connected the mech control system to the neurohelmet jack. I manually connected them to my neurohelmet, then donned it. The circuit was not fully compatible, but it was sufficient to get control over the mech’s body. I grabbed the joystick and increased the throttle. The mech creaked when it started to walk. The lack of handling had taken its toll on the mech’s joints. It walked like a zombie. But it walked.
I could not wait to see Megi, so as soon as I cleared the rune, I put the throttle to maximum. The mech galloped in a limping gait, partly because the legs were not equally lubricated, partly because my neurohelmet was not designed to handle Clan technology. The mech’s arms flailed comically to maintain balance. It was already sunny outside when I took the mech to a rocking run.
As it trampled the ground in an uneven pace, I took a quick look at the mech’s armament. It sported two large lasers on the torso, one on each side. The arms hosted two massive LBX-20 cannons, again one on each side. The one on the right was not operational. The armor level was dangerously low. I could see the armor tracker blinking on the main screen. There was a bay for jump jets on each leg, but there were none installed. And surprisingly, this mech was quite responsive. The handling was not that much of a difference than the Trebuchet, although I would bet this mech weighed almost twice than the medium mech.
I could imagine what the people of Hogye would react if they saw this mech. I was right. They froze with their eyes wide open and mouth agape. Nobody moved as I maneuvered on the street and parked it right in front of the capitol. I climbed down to see Megi, but she was already there. Her reaction was more of sorrow than surprised. I guessed she knew this day would come sooner or later. She shook her head in defeat, moaning, “Oh, Parker…”
“This mech recognized my voice,” I gave her a stern look. “The computer called me Kerensky. You know about this, did you not? You know my past. You always knew but you deny me. Your claim that you found me lying on the snow… that is not true, is it? Why, Megi? Why do you do this to me?”
Megi looked at the crowd that started gathering around us. “My office,” she said and walked into the capitol. I followed him into her office. She locked and dead-bolted the door, then sat on her chair. She took a long pause, then started her overdue explanation.
“I was a Rasalhague commando soldier when we first encountered your kind. Skyami and I were among the best commando units. We were trained to wage all kinds of combat, and we were good at every one of them. But none of them helped us when Wolf razed Rasalhague Republic in 3049. Thousands of Rasalhagians died, and the unfortunate ones were taken as bondsmen and bondswomen.
“I was quite lucky to be taken bondswoman by an honorable warrior. Skyami, however, should better die. His bondsmaster treated him like a toy. Constant physical and mental abuse for 2 years finally broke him. He became mentally unstable, and his bondsmaster planned to kill him. I noticed this, and I encourage myself to talk to my bondsmaster. He sympathized with Skyami, and challenged Skyami’s bondsmaster in a Trial of Possession. He won, and he cut our bondcords. He let us go. That day, I swore I would return his favor in any way possible. However, Skyami had been permanently damaged by the treatment of the ruthless Wolf Clanner. So I took him to Hogye, Engadine, far from the razzle-dazzle of wars, hoping to spend the rest of our lives peacefully.
“That night, you came to Engadine. Your dropship crashed and burnt in the middle of the wood. At that time, we were plagued by the nolans, so nobody came out and searched for what was going on. The Hunt Lance never cared of what happened. It was two days later that you came to Hogye asking for help.”
“I asked for help?” I stuttered. “So you did not find me? Why did I not remember any of this?”
“You came to me wearing your Wolf uniform,” Megi sighed. “That triggered Skyami. He blew your head with a wooden plank, then took off to the woods. He never came back. I took you to the infirmary, and when you woke up, you did not remember anything. Skyami’s blow damaged your brain, so I coined the story about you getting found in the snow. I am sorry, Parker. I really am…”
I could only imagine what happened that night. Some of the dropship’s crew, my Clan comrades, might have survived, but the nolans feasted on them. That was why I did not find any single trace of human being on the rune. The rune was my dropship, and the nolans cleaned up every single humans, even those who died on the crash. I did not even know how I could survive such a brutal environment.
“You could have told me,” I mumbled. “Why are you keeping this from me?”
“I’m lying to the entire town,” Megi averted her eyes. “Nobody knew about you, except what I told them. They only knew that Skyami found you. You don’t understand, Parker. These people hate Clanners. They blamed their lost of prosperities on you. Hogye was a rich town once, where noblemen from all over Inner Sphere gathered here for the Rooting. The Clan invasion changed them into sick, dependent society.”
“But I gave them back everything!” I roared. “You are going to have the Rooting this December. Is that not enough? You do not have to lie anymore!”
“I have to!” Megi yelled back. “I swore I would return the kindness of my bondsmaster!”
“By lying?”
“Yes, even lying, because after this…” she paused to hauled a massive breath. “After today, no one will remember what you’ve done for us. After today, you’re just a Clanner. An outsider. A cancer. The root of their misery for the past 5 years. You were perfect, Parker. You’re young, you’re strong, you have heart. You could’ve been a better replacement for Fercyn. You could’ve lived the rest of your life as a simple, happy countryman. But it doesn’t matter anymore. You were born out of a tube. That is how you’ll always be remembered in Hogye.”
I would never see it coming. I used to respect Megi, but the latest events led me to believe that she was conniving. I would never think that she went through all the hassle, even risking my trust in her, just for saving me from my own stupidity. I felt horrible. The Wolves surely never trained me in this field, because I did not have any insight of what she might be thinking. I did not know anything about human emotion. That was my flaw as a Clanner, and it ruined everything Megi worked so hard to keep.
“So now you have to think about what you want to do, Parker, because you can’t stay here anymore,” Megi’s voice was morose and full of regret. “Going back to the Wolves might be your best option. However, if you decide to stay in the Inner Sphere, you have learned a lot about our society. Take this event as a reminder on how you judge people. Unlike Clanners, Spheroids don’t always use their brains in making decisions.”
“I understand,” I dipped my head to my chest. “But I do not remember being a Clan. I do not remember how to be a Clan. I do not even remember my Clan name. As far as I know, I am Parker, an unlucky Spheroid.”
Megi gave me a sympathetic look. “Then see Phelan Kell. He’s a Spheroid that had lived in Clan society. He can teach how to be a Clanner again. He might know who you really are, since he’s also a Wolf Khan.”
I realized that it was my only choice for now. I got up, walked toward Megi to shake her hand, but instead she hugged me. That was the first time someone ever did it to me. I felt warm. I did not want this to end. But I knew it had to.
“I am sorry,” I whispered. “And thank you for everything.”
“The honor is mine,” Megi replied. “Take care of yourself.”
When I walked out, the people were still there. But their expression was different. They were cold, bitter, and full of hatred. I knew I was no longer welcomed in Hogye. So I climbed up my mech and rode it out of Hogye. When I reached a hill, I paused for a moment to look at the small town that I had lived and learned to love. It was still vivid in my memory how I gambled with my death to defy the CAMR. It was all history now.
Then I remembered that I still had an unfinished business to do. |
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