Aur
Lyran Alliance
23 January 3075
Two hours ago, the JumpShip had materialized at the jump point.
Less than hour ter, as its DropShip had been making final preparations to unch, its sensors had detected the arrival of an Invader-css JumpShip just over twenty thousand kilometers away. A meeting of officers had been hastily called, and they’d come to a decision.
Forty-five minutes ago the DropShip Sword of Ramiel had detached and fired its engines, burning at 1G of acceleration. The newly-arrived Invader saw the Sword coming, but thought nothing of it, assuming it was a simple merchant Leopard on its way to the system’s main pnet. The Invader captain sent a standard warning of proximity and went back to business as usual, unfolding his ship’s jump sail to soak up energy from the star.
Ten minutes ago the Sword had flipped over and started a hard deceleration burn, pushing its reactor to the limit and crushing its crew with over 3 G’s of thrust.
Seven minutes ago the JumpShip had put out a call on the general channel asking them to confirm their destination.
Five minutes ago the DropShip had stopped answering messages, instead flooding the comm channels with Bkist gospel.
Moments ter the Sword had opened its main bay doors, unching a pair of NL-42 Battle Taxis that split off and began their own deceleration, opening their nding gear like cws ready to tch on to prey.
They deployed into a crucible. A single Union DropShip was attached to one of the Invader’s docking colrs. Rather than disengage and fly off, the Union had chosen to defend the JumpShip. As soon as the Sword of Ramiel started unching its payload, the Union opened fire. Long-range missiles and PPCs nced around the incoming ships, digging into the Sword’s armor and plucking at the Battle Taxis. The JumpShip itself soon added its asteroid-defense PPCs to the fray.
The Sword of Ramiel kept approaching despite the intense fire. It opened one of its aerospace bays, where half a dozen mechanized forms waited. As the DropShip came close enough to practically scrape paint off the JumpShip, the forms leapt through the open bay door and into space.
All around them a battle raged in the dead silence of vacuum. Weapons fire fshed between the Battle Taxis, the two DropShips, and the JumpShip. In that chaos the six small ProtoMechs, each no more than half the size of a BattleMech, went practically unnoticed. They burned their jump jets as hard as they could, slowing their still-rapid descent as the JumpShip’s hull came up at them. They nded heavily onto it –
– She was knocked to the ground as the bigger girl shoved her out of the way. She had always been too small to fight back. The big girl smirked as she picked up the half-eaten burger they’d been fighting over, and shoved it in her mouth –
– Cwed feet and hands tched tightly onto the JumpShip’s armor, sticking the ProtoMechs fast in pce.
“This is Adept Janos. Doberman Group, confirm nding,” a soft voice ordered over the commline. One by one, the ProtoMech pilots responded.
“Ash, nding good.”
“Baker, all ready.”
“Charlie, secure.”
“Daisy, nominal.”
“…”
“Fox, ready to go.”
“…Eden, what’s your status?” Janos demanded.
Eden’s mind was still spinning from the hard touchdown. Memories of the other girl eating the lunch she’d pulled out of the trash were fading as she tried to refocus.
“This is Eden…needed to re-synch after the nding. All green now.”
“Good, all clear,” Janos’s voice replied. “Sword is withdrawing to the edge of the engagement zone. You have your orders. Bke’s blessing be upon you all.”
Eden’s voice joined the chorus of affirmatives. Charlie’s Chrysaor was already moving past her, getting into formation with Ash’s Roc and Daisy’s Ghoul. She fell into line behind them along with Baker and Fox. They were a newly-outfitted team, with refurbished Cn ProtoMechs operating alongside Ghouls, the Word of Bke’s new production model. Eden’s Eivlys was even newer, an experimental prototype that stood head-and-shoulders above the rest of the pack, lumbering along like a great beast being shepherded by the other five.
Their movements were smooth, almost animalistic; each pilot was directly connected to their machine, moving it as an extension of their body, instead of with the crude joysticks and pedals BattleMech pilots used. For the same reason they did not speak to each other. Through their shared commlink they could feel each others’ emotions and intentions, surpassing the need for words. However, they could still hear Janos’ voice over the general channel.
“Adept Vassilev, status of the nders?” he asked.
“Nailer One making touchdown on Target Alpha portside,” a gruff, staticky voice reported. “Nailer Two taking heavy fire from Target Bravo, and we’re seeing fusion pnts inside. Send the Canis to support us.”
Canis, the High Dominus term for Hounds. The ProtoMechs responded without needing to be ordered, digging in their cws and leaping off the hull. They ignited their jump jets a moment ter to burn towards the Union.
Eden’s heart pounded as they closed in, equal parts excitement and terror echoed from the other Canis. A JumpShip was a valuable prize, with its ability to move people and equipment between the stars. The orders had been to seize this one, and the DropShip along with it if possible. Eden knew it would not be an easy mission. The DropShip was the size of a building, bristling with guns made to take out full-size BattleMechs, and they were barreling right towards it with no cover and nowhere to run to. Their leap-and-burn maneuver was their only hope of getting close enough to threaten it; if they stayed on the JumpShip hull the DropShip might risk firing on them and trusting the JumpShip’s armor to absorb any shots that missed. Moving through space like this, the JumpShip’s delicate sor sail was their backstop. The Union’s captain wouldn’t risk hitting that unless he was out of options. Eden just had to hope they got under the DropShip’s firing arcs before anyone onboard got desperate enough to take a shot at them.
For now the Union was concentrated on repelling the Sword of Ramiel and the incoming Battle Taxis, one of which was touching down on the empty docking colr on the far side of the JumpShip while the other tried to find a nding zone to deploy its marines against the DropShip. The bulbous nding craft was returning fire on the Union with its sers, but its hull was dotted with multiple holes and melted spots.
Eden felt a warning from Fox, and looked down to see one of the Union’s bay doors was swinging open. Almost before the door was clear, a giant metal form was stepping into view.
Bke save us, she thought despite herself.
It was a Hatchetman. Middling weight as BattleMechs went, but it was still heavily armed, and true to its namesake, carried a giant hatchet that would split any of the Dobermans open like an eggshell. Even worse, from its position at the base of the DropShip, the ‘Mech could aim its arsenal up at the incoming ProtoMechs without endangering the jump sail.
Eden’s moment of sheer terror was broken by Ash’s unspoken command to scatter. The ProtoMechs broke formation and split off in different directions as the Hatchetman’s LBX autocannon spoke. She saw sparks fly off Fox’s armor from the buckshot-like shrapnel. The impact drove his Ghoul off-course, away from the DropShip. Eden’s heart lurched inside of her, Fox’s anger and her own fear intermingling as she watched him hastily fre his jump jets, trying to recover before he floated into the DropShip’s firing arcs.
At a snapped order from Ash she turned her attention down to the DropShip. An icon appeared in her vision as Ash tagged the DropShip’s bay door, already starting to close now that the Hatchetman was clear.
Eden fired her jump jets and powered toward the door at full-throttle, joining the rest of her team as they fired at the Hatchetman. Lasers bit deep and short-range missiles bsted off armor, but the ‘Mech quickly returned fire on the group, carving armor off Baker’s legs with a ser and peppering Eden with more autocannon shrapnel –
– She was eight years old. Her mother had been coming home from the casino every night drunk, usually broke and angry. One night she heard her parents yelling in the kitchen. She snuck in to hear them screaming about something she couldn’t understand. Her mother hurled a beer bottle but her father ducked, not knowing his daughter was quietly standing behind him. She had just enough time to see it coming before the bottle smashed into her temple and half her vision disappeared in a hail of gss shards –
– Eden snapped back to reality in time to adjust her jump jets, fighting the momentum of the autocannon rounds and banking towards the JumpShip’s hull.
The Hatchetman was stepping forwards to meet them, lumbering slowly on feet that were anchored to the hull with magnets. It cocked its arm to swing its hatchet at Eden like it was swatting a fly. Yet as the ‘Mech shifted its weight to swing, it was blindsided by Ash and Baker, who dumped SRM and ser fire into it. The impacts were enough that it missed – barely – the huge hatchet going past Eden and smming into the JumpShip’s hull.
The Hatchetman’s pilot was clearly unused to zero-g operation. The ‘Mech had leaned into its swing as it would have on-pnet, but without gravity its own momentum threatened to drag the ‘Mech off its feet. It overbanced, leaning heavily on its hatchet to try and recover. It was enough of a distraction that Eden was able to nd in front of it while the rest of the Dobermans provided covering fire. She dug her cws into the JumpShip’s hull and leapt again, bsting past the ‘Mech and towards the open bay door behind it –
– “Hey!” the man’s voice called out behind her, and Bug ran, his wallet clutched in her tiny fingers. Her friends had given her the nickname for her size: a Bug, too small to swat but just big enough to get a little bite here and there. She was getting better at taking those bites; her mark hadn’t noticed her snatching the wallet out of his pocket until she was already several paces away.
She knew he wouldn’t chase her far. To him, it was only money, and he had tons of it. Most of the visitors to Canopus were wealthy beyond her imagination. But to Bug, getting away with the wallet meant getting to eat well tonight –
– Eden’s Eivlys was barreling straight towards the rapidly closing opening. She snapped back to reality in time to dig her cws into the hull, screeching to a halt as her ten-ton bulk jammed into the bay door.
She felt Ash barking orders at the rest of them. With her vision expanded to 360 degrees, Eden could see behind herself as Ash, Baker, Charlie, and Daisy swarmed the Hatchetman, opening fire on it from all angles.
For her part, Eden braced her powerful arms against the DropShip’s massive bay door as it tried to close. It felt like she was holding up an avanche. As if that wasn’t enough, the Hatchetman wasn’t alone: the birdlike shape of a Locust BattleMech was standing on the Union’s internal ramp, pnted in pce to intercept any intruders. It opened fire as Eden struggled to hold the door, pockmarking her armor with dozens of slugs from its array of machine guns. She returned fire with her shoulder-mounted ser and missile uncher. To the MechWarrior’s credit he only paused a moment before resuming his assault, this time adding his own ser to the mix. Eden shivered in pain as she felt the megajoules of energy slicing past the Eivlys’s face.
Behind her Fox’s Ghoul finally caught up, nding in a crouch next to Eden and adding his Heavy Small Laser to her counterattack. The Locust was a light ‘Mech, which relied on its movement speed to stay out of enemy fire. In the confines of the DropShip entrance it couldn’t use that speed. The pilot must have been expecting marines, which the ‘Mech could have held back a battalion of with its machine guns. Faced with Eden and Fox instead, the Locust was a rge, lightly armored target facing opponents that could absorb its attacks.
The Locust pilot changed up his tactics. The ‘Mech took two steps forwards and snapped its leg at Eden, who was unable to move out of the way without losing her grip on the door. The ‘Mech was only a little taller than her Eivlys, but it was still twice her mass, and she felt every kilogram as its foot smashed into her chest pte –
– “Watch where you’re going!”
Bug the pickpocket had become Charlotte the waitress. Her new gss eye was better than her eyepatch had been, but it still did nothing for her field of vision. She hadn’t seen the drunk stagger away from the bar until he’d crashed into her. She went sprawling, her tray of drinks smashing on the floor.
As she started picking up the mess she looked over to the sound of giggling from one corner of the bar, where a group of girls was sipping fruity drinks and talking with each other. They looked like holo stars, with perfect faces and dresses that cost more than Charlotte made in a year. She knew they were ughing at her, especially at the headband she wore sporting cheap pstic cat ears. It was a pale imitation of what they wore at their jobs.
Charlotte knew one day she’d get up the nerve to ask those girls where they worked –
– the Eivlys stood its ground, digging into the deck ptes and holding fast while Eden re-synchronized with it. Next to her, Fox staggered in pce as well, trying to process the mix of feelings coming off of her.
The Locust was staggering in pce, its own kick knocking it off-bance as it failed to dislodge the ProtoMech stuck in the ship’s door. Knowing she couldn’t take another kick, Eden released her hold on the door and grabbed at the Locust’s leg, still stretched towards her. She sank her cws into the ‘Mech’s ankle, turned, and fired her guns into its other leg.
Fox saw what she was doing fired into the Locust’s leg as well. Its armor melted under the assault, along with the internal structure underneath. Had they been in gravity, the ‘Mech would have fallen over as its metallic bones gave way. In zero-g like they were, it was helpless to resist as Eden stepped back through the door, dragging it along by its other leg. With her no longer holding it, the DropShip’s door had finally begun to swing shut, only to jam again as Eden wedged the Locust’s hip under it. The ‘Mech writhed and struggled to get free, but with no arms to speak of and its one leg crushed under the door, it was effectively pinned in pce.
“Entry point secure,” she announced over the general channel.
The Battle Taxi had finally managed to make a nding on the JumpShip’s hull, close enough that the DropShip’s guns couldn’t target its doors as it deployed its contingent of Tau marines. The Tau deployed rapidly, loaded with weapons and cumbersome zero-g maneuvering thrusters. The Hatchetman quickly moved in to block them, with a burst from its autocannon reducing many of them to shrapnel floating off into space. Regardless, the Tau powered on towards the DropShip and its barely-open bay door.
The Hatchetman tried to continue firing at the troopers, but quickly found it could not ignore the ProtoMechs. With careful bursts from their jump jets they were swarming around it, constantly moving so the ‘Mech couldn’t focus fire on any one of them. They nipped at the ‘Mech from every angle while staying barely out of reach of the massive hatchet. Before long it became obvious the MechWarrior inside was getting frustrated. The machine was overheating from firing its sers over and over, and it fought to stay attached to the JumpShip hull every time it fired its autocannon.
Seeing an opening Eden moved in closer, firing at the Hatchetman and scoring a scattering of hits from her missile uncher. She tried to dodge the counterattack, but her bulky form wasn’t as nimble as the other Dobermans, which slowed her down by a precious half-second. The armor on her left arm vaporized under the Hatchetman’s sers, exposing the internals to the vacuum. Eden screamed as she felt her arm freeze from the inside out –
– Her head hurt from the new impnts, and controlling the prosthetics was tough, but she got noticed now. Every other week she was working at a different club, with a different stage name. She just had to keep herself from thinking about how much the impnts had cost, and how the bank now owned a piece of her body –
– Safety locks engaged to keep the damage isoted, but her left arm was rendered a useless lump of metal. The pain rippled through her mind. Around her the other Dobermans hesitated as well, momentarily losing focus from their shared link. It was only for a heartbeat, but it was long enough for the Hatchetman to take a step and swing its hatchet, colliding solidly with Baker. The Ghoul ProtoMech crumpled around the impact. Armor colpsed and its ft face imploded, the sensor “eye” lights flickering out. It careened off into space, motionless save for coont spraying out of the ruptured armor. A moment ter one of the DropShip’s guns targeted the ProtoMech, utterly destroying it in an instant of brilliant energy from a PPC.
The Dobermans sensed Baker’s life signals stop, repced with a sudden, disturbing stillness. The feeling barely had time to register before Ash ordered them to regroup. Eden afforded the Tau marines a brief gnce to see that the survivors had moved past her and begun squeezing through the opening in the door. Then she and the other ProtoMechs pounced on the Hatchetman.
Lasers fshed, missiles unched, and the autocannon spoke. As the Hatchetman turned away from her to shoot at Daisy and Fox, Eden risked diving in to point-bnk range. She smmed onto the ‘Mech’s shoulders, her feet digging into its armor the same way they had with the JumpShip. The MechWarrior inside must have seen her Eivlys filling his view on one side. It was too close to use her weapons, but she cwed at the head armor with her good arm. Her vision went red as rage filled her, reflected and magnified from the other Dobermans. Her world seemed to stretch out around her –
– Bug sat on the roof of her building, staring up at the night sky and trying to tune out her parents’ shouting. She wondered when she’d be able to leave all this behind and go somewhere important. Where she might become someone who mattered –
– The Eivlys’ cw ripped into the Hatchetman, tearing off sheets of armor –
– “The people want exotic,” the dancing girl was telling Charlotte. “They don’t want bh. I know the upgrades are expensive, but you’ve got to have more than this,” she said, gesturing at Charlotte’s tiny body –
– Sensor and life support gear flew into space as she tore through the armor. The Hatchetman tried to grab her, but Fox held its arm down –
– She wore very little at her job, and for the right tip she’d wear even less. Every time she changed jobs, she changed names, and every job demanded some new compromise –
– “Eden, disengage!” someone was shouting. “Pull back now! It’s going to” –
– “Too many people on-pnet,” the singer admitted, her beautiful voice tired and mencholy. “Too many girls all with the same dream. No room for you here, my little matryoshka. But there is a Circus DropShip leaving in next few days, maybe I can get you a spot” –
– Something was grabbing her, pulling the Eivlys off of the Hatchetman. She felt the acceleration of thrust and saw the JumpShip pulling away underneath her. She released her hold on the ‘Mech and reached back to grab at her new attacker, stopping as she realized it was Daisy. The Ghoul ProtoMech had its arms wrapped around the much rger Eivlys, pulling it free as the Hatchetman’s whole head disengaged from its body, rocketing into space and threatening to take Eden with it.
Eden allowed herself to be pulled away from the ‘Mech’s headless body. Sensing she had regained control, Daisy released her and the two of them fired their jump jets, descending before they could drift into the DropShip’s firing arc.
“JumpShip exterior secure,” Ash gruffly reported over the general comm channel. “Tau have made entry. Orders?”
“Regroup and assist Tau action onboard the DropShip,” Janos’s voice replied, calm and comforting as always. “Also I see instability in your connections. All units, adjust emotional regution.”
“Sir, I have it under control – ” Eden began to protest.
“That is not what I have seen. I need the best from you, Acolyte Eden. Adjusting now,” he said, triggering an override code he had over her ProtoMech.
“Wait – ” she began, before systems triggered and chemicals filled her brain. Before she could finish her sentence, her thoughts faded. Everything went numb. The world was reduced to shades of gray and her past lives faded away, leaving her a cold, empty shell.
Eden heard herself agree with the orders, but did not recognize her voice. Her metal body was practically moving on its own, operating off of reflex from her flesh body while Eden watched, disconnected from the world. She lumbered forward awkwardly on her three remaining limbs, following the other Dobermans as Ash and Charlie forced the tortured bay door open enough for them to get through. Inside the Locust had already been silenced, the Tau soldiers having efficiently cut the cockpit open. Eden thought she saw freeze-dried blood against the canopy window, and she felt nothing. She was looking at broken equipment, nothing more.
She knew a fight was waiting for her inside. She knew the Union could have as many as ten more BattleMechs waiting in its main bay, any number of which could have gotten their reactors warmed up by now. She knew her armor was ground down in multiple pces and her ammo was limited. But she also knew this was her mission.
“Canis unit, take point! Engage!” she heard the Tau commander order.
Eden obeyed the command, just as she’d been trained to. She was one with the machine, and she had her orders. That was all that mattered.
* * *
Everything after entering the DropShip dissolved in a gray blur. Eden was floating in her own mind, trying to remember where she was, or even who she was. She concentrated, struggling to focus on the memory of the st hour –
– Her name was Diamond, one of many stage names she’d taken on over the years. She sat in a small service hall in the Circus DropShip, with her knees pulled against her chest. She looked up at the sound of soft footsteps, heard in stereo through her regur ears and the fuzzy prosthetics on her head. One of the singers, a tall girl named Natalia, was padding over to her.
“There you are,” Natalia said. “Are you all right?”
Diamond looked away. Her makeup was smeared on one side of her face, and a bruise was already forming on her cheek.
Natalia sat down next to her. “They threw him out. Good and rough, too. He won’t be coming back.”
Diamond nodded, but said nothing.
“I don’t believe him, you know,” Natalia finally said. “When he say you steal from him, I am sure he lied.”
Diamond sighed and lifted up her hand, holding a watch between her fingers. It was too rge for her skinny wrist, and gems glittered around its face. “Old habits die hard, I guess,” she mumbled.
Natalia gasped. “Why would you?”
“Because he grabbed my ass without tipping me first,” Diamond said through clenched teeth. “And anyway, he wouldn’t even have noticed if his private thug hadn’t been standing right there.”
“They will fire you for that,” Natalia warned.
Diamond just nodded somberly. “I know, it’s just a dumb mistake. I couldn’t resist…I found someone who can set me up with one of these. A real one,” she said, tapping her gss eye. “High-definition camera, lifetime batteries, the works. It just costs more than I’d make in a decade. And that’s the kind of money these people drop on one hand of poker. You know what really gets me? This damn thing’s a fake!” she said with a bitter ugh, throwing the watch away.
Natalia put one arm around her thin shoulders and squeezed her. “What will you do now, my little matryoshka?” she asked. “New name again? How many does that make?”
Diamond wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to beg Natalia for money, but couldn’t let herself sink that low. Natalia always pulled in a small fortune when she went on stage to sing, but she had had even more done to herself than Diamond had. There was no telling how much of a bill the woman was paying off.
“I keep starting over and it keeps falling apart,” Diamond whimpered. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
Natalia squeezed her again. “You are strong, matryoshka. Most of us only live one life. You live many, one after another. Pick yourself up from nothing, over and over again. Think, you have so many of yourselves behind you, holding you up. Maybe next self will be strong enough to live, with so much help inside her,” she said, tapping Diamond’s chest.
Diamond held in another bitter ugh at that, and nodded. “Thanks,” she whispered.
“Now, I know someone who can help,” Natalia went on. “There is person I give private performance to. Come here from Aspropirgos, say he looking for people. Military work, I think. I know, I know, you no like fights,” she said, holding up a hand as Diamond took a breath to protest. “But maybe not so bad. He say they need special people to make gaxy safe. And he say they pay extra to people with cybernetics,” Natalia went on, tapping the ears on top of Diamond’s head. She withdrew a business card and held it towards her. “Maybe not what you want. But maybe next ‘you’ will find a pce.”
Diamond took the card between her fingers, giving Natalia a small smile. A voice inside of her shouted at her to throw the card away, but the st few years had taught her how to silence that voice. There was another chance, another risk, and likely another name waiting for her. At this point, she was ready for anything –
– “Eden. Acolyte Eden, do you read?”
She became aware of the weight of the ProtoMech on her. “Y…yes,” she replied.
“Good. Disconnecting you now.” And her world was torn in half.
Unplugging from the Eivlys was a moment of pure torture. In an instant her metal and flesh bodies separated, going from one being to two. Her mind was forcibly ripped out of the shared link she had with the machine and the rest of her team. Her senses shrank from the multi-range sensors of a ProtoMech to the weak perception of her flesh body. Even through the numbness of the chemicals lingering in her brain, the experience still left her head spinning.
The Eivlys’ overpping chest ptes had swung open and umbilical lines feeding her power and oxygen were disconnecting from sockets on her interface suit. Her body, curled up in the fetal position, spasmed as her nervous system tried to adjust back to just controlling just the flesh. Unable to breathe, she frantically grabbed at her suit helmet and pulled it off, breaking the seal with a hiss of depressurization. She sat there gasping, soaked in sweat and her whole left side feeling like it was on fire. She held her left hand in front of her face, gingerly twitching the fingers and clenching a trembling fist. In the disorientation of unplugging, she wondered where this arm had come from. It felt real, but she remembered her own arm being lost in the vacuum…
“Welcome back, Acolyte Eden,” a voice said in greeting. “Any problems?”
She blearily turned her head to look. Her vision was bisected, one half the familiar view of a flesh eye, and the other half much more detailed, though the colors were washed out. She could already feel a headache coming on as her brain tried to combine the two views.
Her eyes managed to focus on a man in technician’s coveralls. She couldn’t find her voice right away, but she managed to form her left hand into a thumbs-up. The technician stared at the hand for a moment before smirking a little and making notes in a datapad, checking the readouts from the ProtoMech.
“Your interface looks calibrated within parameters, blood pressure and brain activity all green. Let’s give you a booster to be sure,” he said, reaching for a brace of hypodermics on his belt.
Eden knew it was protocol to give her a cocktail of neural stabilizers and painkillers after a disconnect. The way her body was hurting and her head was spinning it would probably help. Even so, she raised one hand to stop him. It felt like the clouds on her mind were only just clearing, and she knew the injection would bring the clouds back.
The tech gave her a curious look and took his hand off the hypodermics. “Still getting your mix right? Stop by medical after your debrief, they can adjust your dosage.”
Eden nodded at him and climbed out, pushing her body to float down to the deck in the microgravity. She leaned against the Eivlys’ foot, magnets in the feet and fingers of her suit holding her in pce, and took stock of where she was.
She could see they were back in the Sword of Ramiel’s drop bay, so the rest of the boarding action must have gone well. Her eyes flickered around, picking out the gantries holding the other Doberman ProtoMechs. By Bke’s grace they were all there except for Baker, though the machines were clearly battered and would need repairs before they went out again.
“Salvete, Acolyte. Are you well?”
Her eyes widened slightly at the soft voice. No longer filtered over the comm, the voice was even stronger: a subtle, comforting vibration that simultaneously disarmed you and made you take notice. She turned to see a powerfully-built man in a robe floating next to her.
She immediately bowed her head in deference. “You honor me, Adept Janos.”
He raised a hand pcatingly. “Ad otium, child. Be at ease. Duty demands I check on the Master’s Hounds.”
“I am…well,” she answered clumsily, unable to remember the words in High Dominus. Janos smiled at her effort.
“I sensed you struggling during the mission. You were fighting against your praeteritum.”
That term she recognized. Praeteritum, your past. She clenched her hands against the leg of the ProtoMech.
“The Eivlys is a new technology. My impnts are still adjusting to it,” she replied.
Janos considered her for a moment. “The Master demands the utmost from His servants, and that includes His Canis Domini. He has trusted you with this new weapon, Acolyte Eden. He felt you were worthy of it. While His choice is above question, I would still want to see you prove such worth, else He may find a new use for you.”
She followed his attention as he gestured to the rest of the Dobermans. They were being docked in their gantries with teams of technicians floating around them, checking readouts and chemical levels. Their pilots would not be disconnected; their flesh was permanently fused into the cockpits and sustained with onboard life support.
Eden repressed a shiver at the sight. The Canis Domini recruited from loyal servants who had failed the Master. They underwent an ascension that removed the weaknesses of their flesh, including limbs, organs, and anything else deemed “nonessential” before they were given a second life in the strong body of a ProtoMech. Among them, Eden was unique: the Eivlys was specifically made so that the pilot could disconnect from it, and her flesh body was small enough to fit in the cockpit without needing to be modified. She knew she was the field test for the Eivlys; if she failed that test, she could guess what fate awaited her.
She bowed her head at Janos again. “Yes, Adept. I understand.”
His hand touched her head, tousling her hair as he petted her. His fingers touched the hard nubs of prosthetic sockets in her skull; no longer used to control robotic ears, they had been retrofit to help her plug into the ProtoMech.
“Your praeteritum holds you back. You are losing yourself in memories that no longer matter,” Janos said. “You must divest yourself of this burden. Focus on your true self and your duties to the Master.”
A connector in Janos’ fingers linked to the sockets, stimuting Eden’s pleasure center and sending tingles through her skin. She nodded at him again, and he continued petting her hair a few more moments until he looked over at a heavily-muscled man in Tau combat gear floating over to him. “Ah, Adept Vassilev. Congratutions on another successful mission.”
Vassilev scowled at the praise. “We need to talk, Adept Janos. The Canis were not performing up to spec.” He did not so much as gnce at Eden.
“I was just addressing that,” Janos replied calmly. He took his hand off of Eden’s head and snapped his fingers at the nearby tech, who handed her a hypodermic. Eden took it in her small hand and chanced looking up at Janos, only to find he had already floated away, giving Vassilev a calm look while the Tau growled out compints. She lowered her head and held the hypodermic to a socket in her suit before mumbling a word of thanks to the tech.
She went through the motions of after-action maintenance, pulling her battleROM recorder and then kneeling in front of her ProtoMech, joining the other Dobermans as she quietly whispered prayers to Bke and the holy equipment gifted to them. She went through the prayer by rote, her mind unable to focus on it. When she thought too hard she started to slip out of the moment and forget who she was. Even now she was feeling the lines between her past and present blurring.
Eden the Canis Domini was busy with her duties, seeing to her metal body before her flesh body could rest.
Diamond the Canopian entertainer watched herself compromise a little more.
Charlotte the serving girl told herself at least now she had a new eye.
And Bug, the little pickpocket girl who had once looked at the stars with hope, quietly hid the unused hypodermic in her palm, until she slipped it down the waste chute.
*End Past and Present*
Thanks for reading!
This story first appeared in Magistracy Monthly's September 2024 volume. Go check out Magistracy Monthly, it's a really good BattleTech fan zine: https:///magestrixriley/posts
"Ghoul" and "Eivlys" ProtoMech images are provided by Real Mech is Love: https://x.com/realmechislove
"Eden by the Eivlys" image is provided by Oswald: https://x.com/Oswald81288433
If you liked this story, check out my other work, including MechWarrior: Wild Rose, a long-form fanfiction novel about the scion of the Bck Thorns: https:///series/559158/mechwarrior-wild-rose/
Battletech and MechWarrior are the property of Catalyst Game Labs.
A gallery of images for my stories is compiled on my Ko-Fi page. Donations are not required, but they are appreciated, and help me pay the artists to make more images for this story. (Thanks Derek, Eadbald, Ageless Games, Umbrawar, and Gdius for all your support!)
Follow me @lucendacier on X for story updates and the occasional BattleTech meme.
Audio version of this story is avaible at https://lucendacier.podbean.com/ , and on Apple podcasts.
Audio with images is avaible on Youtube, which also includes music I found out on the wilds of the Internet.