(no subject)
12/12, 3057
My mech's navigation systems have confirmed it. This is indeed Terra. I am both elated and saddened by this news. I have believed my whole life that my clan was destined to take this most precious of prizes and become the IlClan. Being the first clan warrior to set foot here should have filled me with emotion that made me unashamedly weep. Instead, I feel only dull oppression around my thoughts. I am unable to think of a single scenario, save the dishonorable use of nukes and the extremely unlikely idea that the commander of the forces here would agree to a trial of possession, that would allow me to take the planet. And being so far from the occupation zone, I cannot even report on the defenses here to the keshik. I face a long future hiding out here, waging a hopeless guerilla struggle. Perhaps I can disguise myself as a laborer and buy passage aboard an outbound jumpship. It is a distasteful idea but may be the only possible one.
First priority is to secure the dropship wreckage. I estimate some fifty kilometers remain between myself and the wreckage of Prowler. It is going to be a long campaign.
Resnick put the journal away in its slot under his seat. He had been running the last day on empty, subsisting on crazed determination and Wagner's sweeping notes. There was very little out here on the Siberian steppe to interest one's mind. He would abide, he told himself, with the wolf's patience. The steady thump of his 70-ton Summoner omnimech's movements was too familiar, too steady a droning. He struggled to keep his eyes open.
Within half an hour, he was upon the smoking hulk of Prowler. Noone would survive such a crash. That was not what grieved him. Rather it was the fact that he knew the captain's bravery would go unrecorded. Of course, before he found and destroyed the dropship's memory banks, he would recover her giftake. If he ever made it back to the homeworlds, her sacrifice would be known.
And then something pinged on his radar. It was as large as the largest dropships, yet it appeared to be moving at ground level. It soon emerged from the predawn dew and Resnick blinked. It was indeed as large as the largest dropships, dwarfing both his own mech and Prowler yet it was long and appeared to be hovering. It was, to his incredulous eyes, the largest hovervehicle ever manufactured. And it was coming right towards him, with more mechs neither he nor his mech's computer recognized moving beside and upon it.
It was White Chalice.
There was no choice now. He couldn't do his duty by Nova Captain Fetladral and run away from this thing. He opened up a common frequency.
"This is Star Captain Resnick and I claim this dropship wreckage for Clan Wolf. Who dares to face me in single combat for its possession?"
A desperate ploy by a desperate man.
[OOC: Open]