----- 9 Years Later -----
Date: October 30, 2863 [See Notes]
Location: Sakhalin [See Notes]
Title: Pearl’s Ghost
Author: Randall N. Bills
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)
Synopsis: A 3067-dated Loki report reports having obtained the original copy of a leaflet being circulated by Free Skye activists in the Lyran Alliance. Analysis of the original letter accompanying the leaflet indicates it was made on Kannon during the early Third Succession War.
The leaflet itself (written in a particularly jagged gothic font) decries the Lyran Archon, protests about high taxes and endless wars, and goes on to claim that the renowned Lyran war hero Angela Franks, in her day, also hated the Steiner Archon. It attaches what purports to be an original page from Angela Franks’ personal journal, which appears to have been written on the morning of her final battle.
In the journal entry, Franks notes that she misses her home on Kannon, where she grew up, and the carefree days of her childhood. She muses that she joined the LCAF to make a difference, and viewed her service as “one more show for the fans.” She says that she became disillusioned with the disconnect between Archon Elizabeth Steiner’s righteous speeches about defending the Commonwealth and the brutal reality of killing and death on the battlefield. She’s furious that she’s been used by the high command to recruit millions of other Lyran youths to feed into the meatgrinder.
She says that she’s coughing up blood from ulcers due to her angst, and plans to die in battle against the Combine today. She hopes that her death (in front of the cameras) will destabilize Elizabeth Steiner’s war effort.
Notes: The date of the journal entry is “Tuesday, 2865” which is only slightly more useful than “The Mesozoic Era, Around Teatime” in terms of concretely placing the date. The Steiner SB notes that the Stealths ran into trouble on Sakhalin “in October of that year” when they came up against a Kuritan Assault battalion and took roughly 50% casualties before managing to extract, and were subsequently disbanded. That would put the events as “Tuesday, October 2865.” The only problem is that “that year” is given in the Steiner SB as 2863, two years earlier, calling the journal’s authenticity into question. If we go with the House Steiner account as canon (which I prefer, because otherwise the LCAF assault on Sakhalin would take place during the brief interval of "peace" between the Second and Third Succession Wars), then “Tuesday” becomes either the 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, or 30th. The 30th would be suitably near Halloween for me, given the "ghost story" nature of her tale, so I’ll go with that.
This went up about a month after BattleCorps went live, and was presented as an experiment in merging fiction with a sourcebook-style section, and an embedded link asked readers for feedback. There were a few pages of comments – “Who is the Black Pearl?” “I hope to hear more about the Black Pearl in the future!” “We couldn’t read the font.” “Love the concept, and the execution.” “Big fan of the format.” “I liked the immersion factor.” “Too mysterious.” etc. Overall, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but the format was never repeated.
Kannon is mentioned just once, in passing, in the original Steiner SB, as one of the worlds threatened by the Combine at the outset of the Third Succession War (in 2866). LCAF high command decided not to reinforce it and instead ordered the troops already onworld to hold as long as possible, then retreat and abandon the world to the Combine. Handbook: House Steiner adds that it was rendered uninhabitable by the subsequent Combine attacks, and the administrative capital for the former Kannonshire was relocated to Yed Posterior (making the district…Posteriorshire?)
Sakhalin fell to the Combine in 2860, and the LCAF sent the Stealths and two heavy regiments (3rd Donegal Guards and one other) to retake it in 2863. In October 2863, the Stealths took 50% casualties when they ran into a Kuritan assault battalion, and the Stealths were permanently retired. This chronology certainly calls the veracity of the letter into question, since it’s dated two years after the Stealths were disbanded. Either Franks put the wrong date on her own journal entry, ComStar Precentor Gerald Steiner-Nelson got the date wrong in his Steiner SB account, or the letter is a careless Free Skye forgery. My guess is “forgery” since the 3067 Loki report notes some irregularities in the ink used - plus the fact that the paper was made in the early Third Succession War, when Franks died late in the Second Succession War. In addition, it’s essentially a suicide note, and yet she doesn’t once mention her child(ren?) or spouse – just wistfully pines for her father and lost childhood. (We know she had at least one child since one of her descendants was the Commandant of the Royal New Capetown Military Academy in 3025.)
In the May 2013 BattleChat, Line Director Herbert A. Beas II confirmed that the “Black Pearl’s Journal” was a Free Skye forgery, characterizing it as “pure propaganda.” Why would Free Skye have wanted to create such a forgery in 3067? Given the pervasive respect shown towards Franks throughout Lyran society (Kommandant-Generals in the LCAF have a Black Pearl named for her on their “Second Steiner Cross” and the 10-pfennig coin bears her face), an authentic-looking missive from such a renowned/beloved source expressing anti-Archon/anti-Steiner leanings might undercut Archon Peter Steiner-Davion’s support and lead to a renaissance of popular support for the Free Skye movement. Furthermore, Kannon was once a provincial capital of the Federation of Skye, and a reminder of Elizabeth Steiner’s decision to abandon it to Combine predations would potentially reopen old wounds for Skye patriots.
According to the House Steiner SB, Angela Franks was a beautiful holostar who also commanded a battalion of the Stealths and was Colonel Winfield’s XO. She was born on Kannon to a family from Donegal and earned the title of “Black Pearl” as a teen actress. She raised war bonds and became a cadet at Sanglamore in 2853. She clamed a Kuritan BattleMaster in combat and took command of the Stealths’ heavy battalion. During a brutal fight on Sakhalin, she anchored the rear-guard and smashed numerous Kuritan ‘Mechs. During the fighting, her cockpit was destroyed. Nonetheless, when a Kuritan Warhammer approached to inspect the wreckage, the BattleMaster’s lasers fired again, killing the Kuritan battalion commander. This was captured by a Lyran news crew, giving rise to legends of “The Ghost of the Black Pearl.”
