Date: December 24, 2796
Location: Kentares IV
Title: Kentares Massacre Journal - Week 13
Author: Uncredited
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)
Synopsis: The narrator reports that the refugees' sole MechWarrior, Richie, recovered from his dysentery. After he briefs Richie on what the patrol saw, the Javelin pilot opens up about his feelings of inadequacy - positing that he could use his 'Mech to crush every DCMS infantry patrol within sixty kilometers.
The narrator refrains from telling Richie that the Javelin has no missiles for its launchers, and that there are still five 'Mech regiments on Kentares. He doesn't have to - Richie already knows.
Notes: A running theme of the Kentares Massacre is that many of those involved (on both sides) feel powerless, and that they should be doing something. Even if that action is suicidal - they feel they have to do whatever they can, despite the personal consequences. Locally, this has resulted in the deaths of the militia troops in week two, the death of half the foragers, and Richie's feeling that he should be out using his AFFS training to kill Dracs, rather than lying in a cave, being a burden.
Individually, of course, these impulses are self-destructive. The optimal recourse would be to hide, scavenge, and hope to make it through unnoticed. However, these vignettes are intended to reflect the national espirit that arose in the people of the Federated Suns in response to the Massacre. Whereas a string of massive military defeats had left the AFFS broken in spirit and crippled with defeatism, the urge for vengeance led troops - individuals, then squads, then entire regiments - to load up and vector for the front without orders and, once there, to fight with resolve and determination unseen in the first decade of the war. Without organized logistics, or proper support, many surely gave their lives in futile attacks, but they kept coming (helped, no doubt, by the vast fleets of JumpShips that still existed at this stage), and began to drive the DCMS troops back by sheer weight of numbers.
By contrast, on the Combine side, the shame of the genocide being waged on Kentares warred with all the deeply ingrained cultural teachings about honor. Despite their feelings of duty to Coordinator Jinjiro, the soldiers of the DCMS were less willing to engage in a suicidal charge for glory and honor - what honor could such a charge bring, when Jinjiro had already asked his warriors to surrender their honor in service of his cruel vengeance? (We even see Combine troops acting directly contrary to orders and taking actions to protect small pockets of civilians on Kentares IV).
In truth, it is this sort of drive to resist that the publisher of the work hopes to elicit in 3073, during the Word of Blake's siege of New Avalon. The message is not "hope." That would be counter productive - as we'll see, the refugees begin to feel hope and plan for the future, and die anyways. The message is "Resist!" If all Federated Suns citizens were to rise up and hurl themselves at the Word of Blake, heedless of the personal cost, then the Blakists would be engulfed by the sheer numbers and ferocity of the Suns, and victory could be achieved.
How Capellan of them... >:D