----- 3 Months Later -----
Date: October 22-28, 2796 [See Notes]
Location: Kentares IV
Title: Broken Sword, Wounded Dragon
Author: Edward McEneely
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)
Synopsis: Tai-sa Tokutaka Ito commands a Rasalhague Regulars infantry detachment, sweeping a farming district for any survivors. He notes the wear and tear the extermination effort is placing on both men and equipment – the general issue swords are losing their edges and breaking, while suicides are on the rise. In addition to ground sweeps, the DCMS is utilizing satellite imagery and recon aircraft. On August [October] 26th, his unit uncovers a cave that had sheltered hundreds of civilian survivors, gunning them down as they make a last, desperate charge. Despite receiving a congratulatory haiku from the Coordinator, Tokutaka is worried that some of his soldiers have begun asking atonement from their enemies, or going mad.
Within Tokutaka’s operational area, Father Connolly attempts to carry on the work of the Church of St. Augustine on Kentares IV. Rumors of horrible massacres taking place elsewhere on the planet have reached his ears, and large numbers of Catholic Rasalhagians have come to him seeking absolution for their sins. It is for this sole purpose (in the interests of troop morale and combat effectiveness) that Tokutaka has allowed him to live. Unbeknownst to the DCMS, a handful of Kentarean survivors and an AFFS MechWarrior (Leftenant Smalls, a former Javelin pilot with the 7th Crucis Lancers who was left behind when she was shot out of her ‘Mech fighting a rearguard action during the retreat offworld) are hiding in the crypts under Father Connolly’s church.
Tai-sa Tokutaka returns to Father Connelly’s church and accuses him of having poisoned the minds of his soldiers by driving them mad with guilt and preventing them from doing their duty as samurai. Pushed too far, Connelly tells Tokutaka that God knows that they are sinning, and that duty to God overrides duty to any officer, king, or other man. During the argument, Tokutaka discovers the entrance to the crypts and fires through the trapdoor, exchanging fire with Lt. Smalls. The Kuritan loses an ear, but kills the AFFS trooper.
Connelly kneels by her corpse to grant absolution. Tokutaka comments that she died honorably, in battle, as a soldier should, and demands to know if there are others. Connelly, having palmed Smalls’ pistol, informs Tokutaka that he’ll never know.
Notes: It’s interesting that Lt. Smalls speaks reverently about her pistol as a “Star League model” and “not cheap knockoff stuff you see now.” It’s only been twelve years since the Exodus, and given the rampant stockpiling done by the Great Houses from 2760 onward, one would assume that tech-shortages wouldn’t be an issue just yet. Granted, she does refer to it as “Terran-built,” and those would have been largely off the market since the Coup (now nearly 30 years past).
According to Handbook: House Davion, Coordinator Minoru Kurita died on August 9th, 2796, and his son Jinjiro ordered the massacre on September 11, 2796. The massacre ran for five months, through February 15, 2797. The Kurita SB notes that it was in the second month of the massacre that military discipline began to waver. Thus, the date for this story should probably be October 22-28, rather than the dates given (August 22-28), which would have the massacre taking place before Jinjiro ordered it. Of course, hard facts for the massacre have been somewhat loose since the beginning. The Wasp entry in TRO:3025 says that the massacre started in April 2796, and the Javelin entry says that it was the 2nd Crucis Lancers fighting on Kentares in March 2796, rather than the 7th. Most likely, Mr. McEneely based his story date on the April-September 2796 timeframe implied in the Wasp TRO:3025 entry or the vague “late summer” reference in the House Kurita sourcebook.
In 2009, BattleCorps posted a powerful series in its news section – the Kentares Massacre Journals. Presented as a diary unearthed in 3072, it chronicles the final months of a small band of survivors on Kentares IV who take refuge in an abandoned mine. Some try to fight back, and die. Some try to negotiate their surrender, and die. Some go to scavenge for food and come across poisoned caches left by the DCMS. Whole cities are bombed into rubble, with the schools and hospitals saved for last. Those in the mine begin to die from dysentery, once the water purification tablets run out. Starvation also takes its toll. Finally, a DCMS ‘Mech finds the hideout and collapses the entrance. As the air gets thick, the remaining survivors consume the last of their supplies, write the final journal entry, and then commit suicide en masse.
Hiding underground seems to have been a common tactic for those that survived (understandable, given the use of satellites and aerial recon). Ten families survived after DCMS Talon Sergeant Tarna Oza forced them into a mine and then blocked it with her ‘Mech for 20 days. Other survivors were let go by remorseful DCMS troops, or survived by following in the wake of the sweep teams, trying to stay a step behind them (though how these latter groups avoided the satellites and aerial recon, I don’t know). Not all the DCMS troops were remorseful, however. TRO:3025 recounts that First Sword of Light Wasps practiced systematic butchery in hard-to-evacuate high-density population centers, including hospitals and high-rise apartment buildings, backed by “waves of Jenners and other fast ‘Mechs.”