Stephen Mohan Jr. - Battletech - Echoes of Disgrace

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BATTLECORPS

ECHOES OF

DISGRACE

By Steven Mohan, Jr.

BATTLECORPS

Echoes of Disgrace • Page 2

The House of the Absent Sun

Matar, Draconis Combine

29 June 2825

Some dark creature of the night slashed at Junshi Ukawa with

sharp claws, sending molten white streamers of agony shoot-

ing up through his body. Ukawa bent away from the pain, tried

to scrabble clear, but the thing was on him in a second, all black

scales and gaping jaws and needle-sharp talons.

“Please,” Ukawa whispered.

The thing cocked its elongated head, regarding him with a single

unblinking eye.

Then, quick as lightning, it bent, tearing through Ukawa’s ten-

der belly with those razor talons, snatching at the bloody mess of

Ukawa’s guts, and squeezing.

Ex-Tai-i Junshi Ukawa of the Unproductive Regiment woke with

a gasp, his heart fluttering in his chest like a wounded quail, his

body slick with sweat, unable to quite remember the night terror.

Maybe he just didn’t want to.

“Another nightmare?” asked the little girl sitting on his cot.

“Shut up,” snapped Ukawa.

He managed to force himself into a sitting position against the

brutal protests of his muscles. He had taken to sleeping on the

cold stone floor ever since they’d put the girl in with him, leaving

her the cot.

(It didn’t make much sense, because the girl never seemed to

sleep, but then it was just one of many things in Ukawa’s tenuous

existence that didn’t make much sense. In the end, he let her have

the cot anyway because it seemed like the decent thing to do.)

Sleeping on the cold, hard stone left him aching and bent. It was

like taking a beating every single night, which was why, Ukawa

supposed, the guards had put the little girl in his cell. It must’ve

greatly amused them to torment him without even lifting a hand.

“The nightmares won’t go away until you talk to someone,” said

the little girl.

BATTLECORPS

Echoes of Disgrace • Page 3

“I said shut up!” Ukawa screamed.

The girl shrugged and said nothing further. She wasn’t really a lit-

tle girl, she was somewhere between twelve and fourteen, though

she’d never volunteered her age and he’d never asked. She was

pretty in the way that only youth can be, shoulder-length blond

hair, hazel eyes, just a girl, but starting to show the shape of the

woman she’d become. Ukawa could never remember what she

called herself: Turner or Tucker or Tanner or some other gaijin

name.

The scrape of stone against stone jerked Ukawa’s attention to-

ward the cell door. A woman stepped inside, a woman Ukawa had

never seen before. She was lovely, skin the color of cream set off

by green eyes and flaming red hair. She was dressed entirely in

black, with no insignia to offer a clue as to who she might be or

what she might want.

And she was young.

Ukawa wasn’t sure exactly how long he’d spent in The House of

the Absent Sun, twenty years or maybe thirty. At first, he’d tried

to keep track of each day by lightly scratching marks in his cell

wall, but the guards beat him for it. Counting days provided a sour

kind of hope and Ukawa had come to realize that hope was the

one thing that would never be permitted here. So he didn’t know

precisely how long he’d been imprisoned, but he did know it had

been many, many years.

So many that this improbably beautiful woman must’ve been a

child when Ukawa had committed the terrible act that had led to

his disgrace.

The woman raised an eyebrow. “Rough morning?”

Ukawa blinked and then remembered he’d just been screaming.

“Iie,” he said and then stopped abruptly because he wasn’t sure

how to address her.

The girl looked up, but said nothing.

“I trust your accommodations are comfortable,” said the woman,

“no complaints?”

Ukawa blinked again, wondering if this woman was real.

Wondering if his endless captivity had finally driven him mad.

“What do you want?” Ukawa asked evenly.

BATTLECORPS

Echoes of Disgrace • Page 4

“I’ve come to offer you a glorious thing Tai-i Ukawa. The chance

to serve the Combine again.”

The little girl frowned.

“I am disgraced,” said Ukawa, skepticism shading his voice.

“Even disgrace may be washed away if you have the will to serve

your Coordinator.”

Ukawa’s throat tightened with emotion. To be made whole again.

In all the years he’d been in The House of the Absent Sun he’d

never for one second stopped dreaming of this moment, even

though he’d never for one second believed it would ever really

come. “What do you want me to do?” he croaked.

“The DCMS is planning an attack on the Federated Suns world of

Scheat. We want you to lead it.”

Ukawa suddenly found his mouth was dry. “You want me to

fight?”

The woman smiled, a bright, beautiful smile. “Of course. What

do you imagine can wash away disgrace other than blood?”

“Why me?”

“It will be dangerous,” admitted the woman. “We cannot afford

to spare a frontline DCMS unit. Your ‘Mechs will be older and there

won’t be much support. Frankly, many of you will not survive. But

it is another chance to serve the Combine. And for those who do

make it back, your honor will be restored.”

“This is a bad idea,” murmured the little girl.

But neither Ukawa nor the woman looked at her.

BATTLECORPS

Echoes of Disgrace • Page 5

Matar Planetary Militia Headquarters

City of Rain, Matar, Draconis Combine

15 July 2825

Elation flooded Ukawa’s soul, like the bright afternoon sunlight

that gleamed off the alpine meadow, turning the field of gently-

swaying grass a brilliant laser-fire green. The blue-gray mass of

Eisenberg rose up behind the field, the mountain’s flanks clothed

in the dark green of evergreen forests, its summit capped by fresh

white snow. Ukawa almost imagined he could taste the sharp bite

of the cold mountain air.

It was only a simulation, of course, but for the very first time

Ukawa believed the chance he’d been given for redemption was

real.

It had been hard to believe before. Even when they pulled him

out of the prison and quartered him with a collection of other pris-

oners and misfits, Ukawa still didn’t quite believe it. This would

be just like his tormentors: offer him a banquet of hope and then

whisk it away just before he took his first bite.

That’s what the little girl had told him before they’d pulled Ukawa

out of The House of the Absent Sun. And Ukawa had listened to

her. He didn’t know what dark crime had landed her in his cell,

but he had discovered that she spoke with an insight beyond her

years.

But now!

Surely the DCMS wouldn’t train them for an attack on the

Federated Suns unless they really intended Ukawa’s company to

strike at the enemy planet.

No, this was real and Ukawa was not going to let this opportu-

nity pass him by.

The mission objective was to take down the major economic

centers of Scheat one by one, starting with the mine just outside

the city of Valorie. If resistance was light, the Chain Gang would

serve as the vanguard for a more concerted attack by a DCMS

regular unit. If resistance was heavy, Ukawa’s company would do

as much damage as possible against the day a full scale assault

could be brought against the world.

Ukawa didn’t know what kind of resistance they’d find.

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BATTLECORPSECHOESOFDISGRACEByStevenMohan,Jr.BATTLECORPSEchoesofDisgrace•Page2TheHouseoftheAbsentSunMatar,DraconisCombine29June2825SomedarkcreatureofthenightslashedatJunshiUkawawithsharpclaws,sendingmoltenwhitestreamersofagonyshoot-ingupthroughhisbody.Ukawabentawayfromthepain,triedtoscrabbleclear,but...

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Stephen Mohan Jr. - Battletech - Echoes of Disgrace

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