Chapter 3

  Word of Bke DropShip, Upper Atmosphere

  Aur

  Lyran Alliance

  13 February 3075

  The rest of the night was frantic with activity as the Bkists swept through the base, rounding up survivors and silencing any pockets of resistance they encountered. Meanwhile Karnov VTOLs had nded, letting out teams of Bkist Technicians who had gone through the base, jump-starting whatever equipment they could. When all was said and done, a full nce of Lyran BattleMechs had been powered up, piloted by Manei Domini MechWarriors, along with a load of machine parts, weapons, uniforms, and dozens of other things.

  Eden had dutifully helped load the supplies onto the Karnovs, all the while keeping an eye on the base’s central proving ground where the surviving Lyrans had been gathered. Adept Janos had addressed the survivors from his Deva OmniMech, offering them the same choice they offered any prisoners: join Bke’s ranks, or receive His grace.

  The staccato report of machine guns had echoed for some time afterwards, accompanied by screams and pleas for mercy.

  Once the guns had fallen silent, the Lyrans who had chosen to join Bke were loaded up alongside the Tau soldiers and the liberated equipment. Eden had carried along numbly.

  Such is the way of Bke, she told herself. Those with faith and the strength to serve are accepted with love. Those who ck faith must be silenced for the good of all.

  Once the Karnovs had lifted off with their cargo the BattleMechs and ProtoMechs had set off overnd, leaving the hollowed-out base behind them. A Bkist DropShip had been waiting for them at the rally point with its engines hot; as soon as everyone was onboard the ramp had closed and the ship had fired its engines, lifting them off into the night sky.

  Once everything was locked down Eden had been left to wait until Janos could debrief her. With the new equipment and converts to review, she expected the Adept would not have time for her until morning. She had unplugged herself from the Eivlys, but lingered in the ‘Mech bay. She felt incomplete when she was disconnected, like part of herself had been taken away. She preferred to be near her ProtoMech, even if she was exhausted from the mission.

  She spotted a man walking by, still dressed in his stolen Lyran uniform. Recognizing him as one of the truck drivers, she stormed over to him.

  “You,” she snapped, and the man turned to face her, his eyes going wide. “Listen to me very carefully, Frail. Your kind are charged with keeping each other in line. If you see a Technician distracting me during a mission, you are to silence him, instead of allowing him to waste my time. Understand?”

  The man gave her a shocked look and clumsily saluted. “Y…yes, ma’am,” he choked out.

  She gred at him a moment longer before turning on her heel and going back over to the ProtoMechs. She sat down on a crate and closed her eyes. The truck driver at least knew his pce. A Frail’s role was to do as he was told by his betters.

  “You know most pilots have other ways to unwind post-op.”

  She opened her eyes to see Raven standing next to her. In the activity of the drop bay she hadn’t heard him approach. She shook off her surprise quickly.

  “The ProtoMechs are in need of repair. You should have been here and working before I arrived,” she chided.

  “Give me a break, you’re not the only one who had a long night. Anyway I can’t do anything until I get a few Astechs in here. Don’t wanna pull the wrong plug on these things,” he casually replied.

  Eden said nothing, knowing he was correct; the other Dobermans were permanently sealed in their machines, in medical comas now to relieve the pain of the fresh battle scars on their metal bodies. It would not do to cost the Order a Canis Domini soldier because of a foolish Technician accidentally disconnecting the life support.

  Raven sipped from the steaming cup of coffee he was carrying. “Hey, clear something up for me. Some guys were betting you were going to just roll a nuke through the gates of that base and call it a day. No one figured you’d go to the trouble of actually shaking it down like that. You have any idea what’s going on?”

  “I do not know, nor do I care to know,” Eden answered.

  “The way I reckon, there must’ve been something in that base you wanted,” he went on, oblivious to her annoyed tone. “I mean, this Lyran equipment’s not bad, but it’s junk next to the high-performance stuff I’ve been seeing around here.”

  “I do not know,” she repeated.

  “Maybe not, but you are curious about it,” he quipped, pointing at her.

  She shook her head dismissively. “Perhaps the Precentor wished to make a statement to the Lyrans. As for materiel, the Shadow Division is on extended deployment, far from any home base. We must provide our own supplies.”

  “Beats having a supply line all the way out from Gibson…and I guess you guys need something to practice on.”

  The sound of guns and screams returned, unbidden. Eden closed her eyes and covered her mouth, fighting back bile as her stomach churned. She knew she should be used to it, having seen the same scene py out on other pnets. Yet it was like her mind couldn’t get over –

  – “I’ll see you in hell,” the man growled, and the DropShip bay lights switched to red, along with a kxon warning of depressurization –

  – She returned to reality with a jerk, her heart racing until she saw the bay lights were still the usual pale white.

  “Terra to Eden, you still there?” Raven was asking.

  I need rest, that is all, she told herself. I am on the right path. I am loyal to Bke.

  “Leave me,” she tiredly ordered. “Get to work, here or somewhere else.”

  Raven did not move to leave, but instead sat on a crate near hers. “Withdrawal’s a nasty thing, isn’t it?”

  She twitched. “I do not know what you are talking about,” she said, pointedly looking away from him.

  “Seems like there’s a lot you don’t know tonight. You want to tell me what’s going on? Your brain activity was all over the pce.”

  He paused, letting that sink in while she tried to ignore him. After several seconds she sighed in defeat.

  “I am training my body to surpass its limits. What you saw was merely me pushing past my old weaknesses.”

  “Uh huh,” he replied, unconvinced. “So what’s really going on?”

  She ground her teeth together in annoyance and turned to gre at him. She might be a lowly Canis Domini, but she was still one of the Master’s chosen servants. Frails had no right to question her. However, the way he was looking at her now, patient and without fear, was as disarming as it was maddening.

  “Perfecting my body is difficult,” she finally admitted. “There are transient errors in my impnts which I am working through. The Order provides chemical assistance to keep my mind stable and focused, but it also leaves me clouded. I do not think, I do not remember.”

  Raven was silent for a moment, considering that. “Isn’t that the point?” he finally asked. “You took my head off about calling you an old name. Isn’t the whole idea that your past doesn’t apply anymore? You’re just a good little servant?”

  She shook her head. “If the drugs just took away my praeteritum, they would truly be a blessing. But they take away everything. Without them, I remember too much. With them, I remember nothing. I am no one.”

  Raven swept his eyes over her, noting how pale she was, and how her hands were trembling despite her efforts to control them. “How long you been going clean?” he asked.

  “...Two weeks,” she quietly answered, rubbing at her forehead. “Two weeks since I had the choice to do so.”

  “So what’s your pn, then? You can talk about breaking limits and whatever else, but we both know you’re headed for a crash. And if you go to pieces I’m sure I’ll pay for it.”

  She sighed quietly and leaned forward, resting her head in one hand and saying nothing.

  “You don’t have a pn,” Raven said, not as a question. “You’ll just ride this out until your wheels fall off.” Eden remained silent. “Why? If it’s killing you to do this, why stay with it?”

  She was quiet for several seconds before turning her head to look back at him. “Do you know what it is like to have nowhere to belong? The person I was before this…the one on Canopus. She would look at the sky and dream about a life up there. But her future was just to grow old, be forgotten, and disappear into a bottle one day, just like her mother.” She shook her head and gestured around her. “The Word of Bke gave me a new life. Their methods may be extreme, but I can be so much more here than she ever could have been. I can make the gaxy a better pce.” She shook her head. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you this. I should not speak of my praeteritum.”

  “It helps to let that sort of thing out from time to time,” he answered with a shrug, before considering her for a moment. “You’re not like them, you know. If you totally bought into this ‘making the gaxy better’ routine they wouldn’t have you in with the dogs.”

  She sighed again. Canis Domini, Hounds of the Master. Her assignment. Her calling. Or so she’d been told.

  “Perhaps. But I have already said I do not have time for this conversation,” she said. “Leave me, Frail.”

  He shrugged. “All right,” he said, standing up. “One other thing, though…if you don’t want to get caught sabotaging your own equipment, you’d better edit your machine’s battleROM combat recorders. Sooner or ter someone’s going to review them.”

  Eden cursed under her breath. “I do not - ”

  “- know what I mean, sure,” he interrupted. “Just saying, with the connection you people have with your machines, I’ll bet someone like you could crack the encryption on the battleROMs, given a few minutes alone with them. Could cut out records of alerts about circuit faults, weird pilot brain activity, that sort of thing.” He looked at his paper cup. “I’m going to get another coffee. You want one?”

  Eden studied him carefully, looking for signs of deception or manipution. She finally shook her head. Raven held the paper cup up to her in a mock salute. With an annoyed groan Eden stood up and headed towards the Eivlys, accepting that her night was not over yet. When she looked over her shoulder, Raven was already gone.

  *End Chapter 3*

  Thanks for reading!

  This story first appeared in Magistracy Monthly's September 2025 volume. Go check out Magistracy Monthly, it's a really good BattleTech fan zine: https:///magestrixriley/posts

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