----- 2 Years Later -----
Date: August 17, 2806
Location: Kentares IV
Title: A Light in the Dark Night
Author: Christopher Purnell
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)
Synopsis: Father Jerome Aguillar (formerly known as Father Jerome Zubalicarragui), who thought he’d seen the depths of mankind’s depravity during the Amaris occupation of the Phillipines, has come to Kentares IV five years after its liberation by AFFS forces to visit the ruins of Saint Anthony’s cathedral in the city of Gould. His counterpart from the New Avalon Catholic Church, Father Eduardo Esteban, reports that the Sword of Light paid special attention to hunting and torturing clergymen.
Father Jerome’s mission is to investigate reports of a ghostly apparition. A survivor of the Kentares Massacre, Mary Reynolds, tells him that she and other survivors had been hiding in the church when a DCMS officer beheaded one of his own soldiers. According to Mary, a shimmering, distorted apparition of a motherly-looking woman wrapped in ancient robes appeared. She believes that the Virgin Mary interceded to save the refugees’ lives.
Father Jerome discounts her story, as he continues to grapple with his crisis of faith. He recalls that his fellow Filipinos believed that God would protect them when they staged a protest march against the imprisonment of Pope Clement XXVII, and were brutally slaughtered, nonetheless. Whereas Mary and Father Esteban strongly believe that a miracle has taken place, Jerome remains cynical. He notes that his presence here is the result of Church politics – an olive branch extended to the New Avalon schismatics who had gone so far as to strike centuries’ of Terran Hegemony Popes from the rosters. (Father Esteban tells Jerome that “The Lord has uniquely blessed our realm [the Federated Suns]” and that the mainstream Catholic authorities in the Vatican are “cloistered fools.”)
The group drives through the shattered town to a recently-excavated cave system nearby where more victims were recovered, dropping Mary off at a refugee camp en route. Before they get to the caves, they get a request from a camp hospital, where a dying DCMS trooper has requested last rites. In the hospital, Father Esteban refuses to grant last rites to Private Nakamura, causing Father Jerome to rebuke him. “I don’t care what your so-called Pope has decreed, the Church ministers to all of humanity, not to a chosen few.” Jerome goes on to voice his rejection of Esteban’s idea of a pro-Davion deity in the face of so much massive suffering – where was such a God when the Kentares Massacre, the Amaris Coup, the dissolution of the Star League, and unrestrained nuclear bombings and biological warfare took place? Despite no longer feeling it in his heart, he gives the rote answer that God forgives all crimes, no matter how horrible, because He must.
Jerome sits with Nakamura, who admits having played a role in the massacre. He says that he was an Unproductive who was drafted into the DCMS as an infantry trooper. He grew suicidal after the killings, but was talked out of it by a Christian squadmate. That squadmate was the DCMS trooper killed by an ISF officer outside the church. Nakamura says he sensed a presence at the execution, and that it scared the ISF officer away. Afterwards, the squad took to the hills, and half committed seppuku. Jerome performs last rites and, after having heard Nakamura’s story, Father Esteban offers communion.
Jerome remains unwilling to declare the incident in Gould an official miracle (due largely to Church politics – not wanting to antagonize the New Avalon Catholic Church by claiming a divine intercession on behalf of a DCMS trooper, or the Draconis Combine by reporting that one of their traitorous troopers was Christian). However, he remarks that having convinced Father Esteban to perform rites for a DCMS soldier is a miracle in and of itself.
Notes: Father Jerome appears to have changed his name since the Huk massacre in the Phillipines. Perhaps in the 29th century, Jesuit priests change their names after a life-changing experience. The title of this work indicates that Jerome may have undergone such a transformation, pairing with that of Purnell’s earlier work: “The Dark Night of the Soul” -> “A Light in the Dark Night.”
Handbook: House Davion states that AFFS forces reclaimed Kentares IV in 2801. Yet, five years later there are still refugee camps, wounded DCMS troopers, etc. There must have been a substantial DCMS guerrilla force left behind after the regulars were driven offworld. Nakamura says he’s been working as a POW laborer at the camp for three years, implying that he was captured two years after the AFFS retook the world.
The mention of bodies found in caves is likely a reference to the “Kentares Massacre Journal” series on BattleCorps, which was uncredited, but I’m guessing was also Mr. Purnell’s work. (The journal mentions the city of Gould, and ends with the trapped refugees committing mass suicide as their air runs out.)
At one point, Jerome references the nuclear bombardment of Sarna by the AFFS, slapping down an attempt by Father Esteban to claim the moral high ground for the Federated Suns. This must have been some sort of deep raid early in the war – possibly even during the timeframe of the pre-war Towne Debacle, when CCAF, AFFS and DCMS troops all fought over Hegemony worlds. The timeline in Handbook: House Liao shows that the CCAF took advantage of the Davion preoccupation with the Combine to seize a number of Chesterton worlds and worlds in the Terran corridor. Davion attacks against the Confederation largely took place between 2809 and 2821 (in the years after this story), once the DCMS threat had been beaten back and Paul Davion had violently rejected Ilsa Liao’s peace proposal.
Father Esteban’s claim that Sword of Light troops viciously persecuted priests may have been the result of the events of “Broken Sword, Wounded Dragon,” in which a priest was intentionally spared by DCMS forces in order to provide confessional services to Christian troops (mostly Rasalhagians). The DCMS commander on the scene blamed the priest’s moralizing for his troops’ morale issues and the resulting degradation of their performance in the field, and then was killed by the priest after discovering civilians hiding in the church’s crypts. Presumably, the murder of a DCMS officer by a priest he’d earlier spared spurred other DCMS officers to seek revenge on any remaining priests in their sectors.
At this point, the New Avalon Catholic Church is headed by Pope Clement XX. Since the Catholic Church was headed by Clement XXVII when Amaris took over, that implies that the New Avalon schismatics unilaterally decided to strike a large number of previous Popes from their historical record (annulling at least the previous eight Clements, and possibly every other Pope appointed after the independence of New Avalon). When asked in a BattleChat whether this was simply a typo in the House Davion sourcebook, Line Developer Herbert Beas declared it to be a result of the schism.
As with many of Christopher Purnell’s works, this story delves into matters of faith and belief in the BattleTech Universe. In “A Veiled Betrayal,” he spotlighted the culture clash between Eleusis’ strict Islamic faith and the Hellenic polytheism (Diana and Athena worship) being promulgated by Canopian missionaries. In “The Dark Night of The Soul,” he examined the social and theological fallout from the massacre of devout Phillipinos who believed that their deity would shield them from the Usurper’s forces. It’s an area of the BattleTech universe that isn’t often explored on a personal level (with most of the page-time dealing with faith focusing on Blakist fanaticism), and Mr. Purnell gives it an excellent treatment.