Date: September 10, 2954
Location: Homer
Title: Seeds of Loyalty
Author: Philip A. Lee
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)
Synopsis: Samson feels a thrill of anticipation as he starts his day, but takes care to banish his smile as he performs a ritual bow at his personal Shinto shrine, meditating by mentally reciting the litany of his ancestors back to his bloodline's founder, Andrew Izumi.
At the Kardaan Memorial Airfield, he sees a crowd gathering, including a handful of Sea Fox merchants and dozens of Snow Raven pilots, along with several VIPs. Samson greets Cloud Cobra Khan Patrick McCloud and his entourage of Clan Council members. The Khan tells Samson he expects to see good things at the demonstration.
Samson then proceeds down the runway to where four prototype Pella-class aerospace fighters await. Should the demonstration be sufficiently impressive, the Sea Foxes have agreed to broker the sale of production models to the Snow Ravens, netting a supply of HarJel for the Cobras in exchange. Samson is joined by Pilots Marcella, Quentin and Tomas. Tomas, who had piloted a 95-ton Xerxes in Clan Coyote, states disapprovingly that he finds the design too small for his tastes. Samson replies that he hopes Tomas' different outlook will help make the demonstration better.
The quartet take off for low-altitude maneuvers, though Samson notes Tomas struggling to keep his Pella stable (not accustomed to the greater impact of crosswinds on the lighter airframe). The group perform a simulated strafing run against a Star of Medium 'Mechs, achieving better-than-expected results. However, during a vertical climb, Marcella experiences technical difficulties when an access panel comes loose, rendering her controls unresponsive. Her fighter continues on a ballistic trajectory directly towards the VIP observation platform.
Samson is uncomfortably reminded of an event in 2934, when ilKhan Corian Tchernovkov died in a crash while piloting an unfamiliar aerospace fighter. Post-crash analysis by the Snow Ravens proved that the vessel had been assassinated by Tchernovkov's successor, Cloud Cobra Tobias Khatib, leaving a stain on the entire Clan's honor. He orders Marcella to eject, but she reports the canopy jammed and the ejection system offline. Trying to warn the Khan also fails, as the tower reports the channel is flooded by static - making Samson certain this is an intentional assassination attempt. With lasers powered down for the demonstration, he cannot even shoot Marcella's sabotaged craft out of the sky.
However, the autocannon rounds are live - included to provide proper combat weight, but not intended for use. Samson orders the other fighters to join him in combining fire on Marcella's craft, targeting the starboard wing. The combined fire sends the Pella into a flat spin, veering away from the reviewing stand and exploding just 500 meters from the crowd. Samson orders the airfield sealed off and all ground crews detained.
Samson mentally wrestles with the fact that he is the first Cloud Cobra Warrior to willfully kill another Cobra, and whether it was justified to trade Marcella's life for that of the Khan. His angst is interrupted, however, by Tomas' report of inbound DropShips - a Carrier and several Unions.
Khan McCloud says there has been no formal batchall, but that he is mobilizing all of Alpha Galaxy, launching fighters from Telinov Airbase to support them, but holding back anything else (including the OmniFighter ready group of the 214th) from Kardaan Memorial airfield (likely due to the potential that they were sabotaged as well).
The Carrier launches its fighters just as Quentin identifies its IFF as Coyote forces of the 19th Battle Cluster of Clan Coyote's Beta Galaxy - Tomas' former unit. Samson orders his wingmen to approach the Coyote forces, but not to engage unless fired upon. Tomas speculates that this attack is retaliation for the death of ilKhan Corian Tchernovkov, who had been elevated from Clan Coyote.
Entering range, the Coyote fighters (Gothas, Xerxeses and Avars) mass fire, destroying Quentin's fighter. Samson orders Tomas to take evasive action, while pondering why the Coyotes had abandoned zellbrigen. Tomas is just as outraged, though Samson notes that he uses the pronoun 'our' when referring to the Coyotes. Tomas shoots down a Coyote Avar and Samson takes down the other, but ends up with the Xerxeses and Gothas on his tail. His Pella critically damaged, Samson is forced to eject, ordering Tomas to "give them hell."
Drifting down in his parachute, Samson sees 'Mechs battling in the streets of El-Ghaza, while Tomas downs a Coyote Xerxes before being shot down himself. As when he was taken bondsman two years previously, Tomas glides the wreck of his fighter safely into the desert sands. Samson sees no more of the battle, as he hits the ground going too fast and is knocked out.
He awakens to find Tomas treating his broken arm. Tomas reports several Clusters of Coyotes are advancing on El-Ghaza. Looking towards the Cloud Cobra capital, he sees several dogfights in progress above it. Tomas suggests they find the Coyote forward command post, where one of the Khans will be commanding the offensive. Just after nightfall, they make contact with Coyote Elementals. Samson identifies himself as Star Colonel Samson Izumi and requests safcon to speak with the Khan. An APC picks them up and conveys them to the command post.
At the command post, they are brought before Khan Judas Levien, who gloats that Samson's air show provided him the opportunity to repay the Cobras for their earlier treason. Tomas speaks up - telling the Khan that he has much to answer for. He notes that Tobias Khatib had acted on his own volition and been appropriately punished decades earlier. An assassination attempt against the Cloud Cobra Khan - his Khan - makes him equal in depravity. Samson challenges the Coyote Khan to face him in a Circle of Equals - offering, as the stakes, to withdraw the Black Sheep against the Coyotes calling off the invasion. Judas finds the offer of a Cluster against two Galaxies unacceptable, and offers the 19th Battle Cluster instead.
The two men fight unaugmented, with Levien having his arm bound behind him to match Samson's broken arm. Samson smiles, subtly, since Levien is unaware that Samson has maintained his ancestor's mastery of aikido. He soon gains the advantage, due to his skill in unarmed combat, and puts Levien on the ground. However, Levien is quick to seize any advantage, and kicks Samson in his broken arm, then draws a combat knife and slashes at the arm. Bleeding and dazed, Samson wonders what sort of flower will be planted for him in the Black Sheep's arboretum.
The fight is interrupted by Tomas's shouted demand to initiate a Trial of Possession for the right to take Samson's life. Levien demands to know why Tomas thinks he can interrupt the sacred rite, and Tomas responds that Levien has already abandoned tradition by attacking without a batchall. Tomas blocks Levien's attack and disarms him, turning the fight into a brutal exchange of close-quarter blows until Tomas lays him out flat with a right hook.
Levien accepts defeat and tells Tomas to kill him, but Tomas refuses - saying he does not need to kill the Coyote Khan in order to win. Samson and Tomas leave together, with Samson confirming that, having been defeated, he will have the 214th remain grounded for the duration of the fight.
Notes: This was a superbly written and intense scene - kudos to Phil Lee!
I guess this story actually fills both the Cloud Cobra and Coyote slots in Phil's "Great Work" to do stories for each Clan. It really conveys the sense of what The Way means to the Cobras, and also conveys the unyielding arrogance of the Coyotes during their reign as "top dog" of the Kerensky Cluster.
Given the political shenanigans for which the Snow Ravens are known (see "Davion, Caleb"), I honestly had expected the story to have gone in a completely different direction. Having Snow Ravens prove that Faction A sabotaged Faction B sounds like a good basis for a game of "Let's You and Him Fight." I'd actually assumed that the Snow Ravens had sabotaged the Pella, arranged the assassination attempt and manipulated the Coyotes into attacking on false pretenses (having assassinated the Coyote ilKhan themselves decades earlier and framed Khatib for it). I was actually quite surprised when it turned out that the Coyotes were the legitimate aggressors, having been led on the warpath by a revenge-obsessed Khan.
No wonder the other Clans took any opportunity to strike at the Coyotes in the 3000s, if they gained those 20 enclaves with similarly dishonorable tactics. Perhaps the Coyotes' technological edge resulted in a dulling of their Warrior ethos - relying too heavily on the latest doodad to emerge from the Scientist Caste's bag of tricks. (Alas, Acme Widgets only produces the J-series of utility vehicles, so we're denied the possibility of a good Warner Bros. in-joke by naming a Coyote MechWorks after Wyle E.'s favorite mail order outlet.)
The Pella was well described, and I was surprised, when doing research, to find it was an original creation for this story and isn't referenced in any of the official materials - not even the MUL. I wonder if it will be included in TRO: Golden Century (which seems like a logical fit), or if it will be relegated to the "Never Seen" thread. I presume the Coyote Watch took care of the actual sabotage.
I was surprised to learn, in this scene, that Samson had a bloodname. Usually, when a Clan character is introduced, their bloodnamed status is immediately established to convey their bad-assedness to the reader. In fact, as you'll note in the entries above, I initially assumed that he wasn't bloodnamed, adding a twist to the relationship with Tomas - having a non-bloodnamed Star Colonel superior to the bloodnamed Warrior in both rank and skill, thereby calling into question the actual significance of the bloodname. Leaving it out at the beginning allows the titles to be disregarded and the story to focus on the interpersonal dynamic, rather than on the relative genetic hierarchy.
I was somewhat confused by both Samson and then Tomas challenging Levien to a Circle of Equals. Shouldn't the proper terminology be to challenge him to a Trial of Grievance or Trial of Possession in a Circle of Equals?
Who was in charge of handing out names in Levien's sibko? The name Judas was a bit spot on for his dishonorable tendencies. Who were his sibkin - Benedict, Quisling, Ephialtes, and Gaius?