John sat down in his seat after securing the still sleeping Lucy beside Mia, the day having taken so much out of her that even that manhandling didn't disturb her slumber. Mia looked at him questioningly, but he just ignored her for the moment, his thoughts churning.

  What is Cn Steel Viper? A Star Commander?

  These were not familiar to any of the memories he was given when he came into this world.

  His mind chewed on that for a bit as he thumbed through the list of attachments he could add to the Pelican and found a heavy lift magnetic crane he could purchase for 5000 gatcha tokens. He spent those without hesitation, thinking that having the ability to pick things up would be a very useful thing to have in many worlds. Two rounded pods materialised on the Pelican's wings, presumably the crane's winches. Nodding, he lifted the craft into the air and deployed the cables with the aid of the HUD in his helmet.

  Four thick cables descended, and with a little coaxing, he managed to get all four to stick to the Centurion. "Ready for a ride, Old Man?"

  "I have no idea what the heck is going on here, but I am too darn old to care. You are buying all the beer tonight, Lad."

  "Hah, will do. Though you might need to have a nap first."

  "Yeah, probably. Whew, whatever is in that pill you gave me definitely has my blood pumping. I might ask Trix if she wants to dance tonight."

  "You're as bad as Freddy."

  "Hey, I am nothing like that phinderer!"

  "Speaking of, I am going to head back to Bckstone. I need to get Lucy to the hospital."

  "Is she okay, Lad?"

  "She is... stable. I did the same thing with her that I did with you, so she isn't in any immediate danger, but will need prosthetics."

  "John, we really need to have a talk. Go on, drop me off and get back there. I'll hitch a ride with the dropships. This cache can wait until another day. We need some time to lick our wounds and mourn our losses."

  "Right. See you there." John ended the transmission. He hadn't forgotten that Dar and Jerome had died, but other matters were pressing for his attention, and he hadn't had time to process it yet. His entire nce was out of commission now, though he could get Freddy back on his feet at anytime.

  Looking at the state of the rest of the Guard mechs, the entire unit was out of commission for the foreseeable future. Most of them had more open air showing off their internal structure than armour covering it up. Other than that massive Charger, they would all need a significant amount of time to be repaired. It could be months before they were back to full strength. Longer if they couldn't get new Mechwarriors.

  He dropped James off, and after a quick farewell, he put the Pelican's nose in the air and started to climb. He was making a slower ascent this time than he did on Azeroth, so as not to disturb Lucy.

  "You are both an Aerospace pilot and a Mechwarrior, Lance Commander John Wayne?" Mia asked behind him, having remained silent since she had given him her name.

  "Among other things. I have lived a long life and had to do many different jobs."

  "I see. Have you always lived out here?"

  "No. I was in the Federated Commonwealth for most of my life. I came out here to retire."

  "Retire? I do not quite understand the meaning of this word. I assume you do not mean to go and rest."

  "No. Retire, it means to stop working and just enjoy your remaining years. Some of us old people choose to work part-time to stay busy and keep our minds occupied. Actually, all the Bckstone Guards are like that, old warriors who couldn't keep up with the young ones anymore, but still wanted to fight when the need arose. Like today."

  "I believe I understand. Where I am from, if a warrior grows too old, they will move to training or garrison units to continue to serve or a Sohma unit to seek glory of death upon the battlefield. If they manage to grow too old for that, they will be moved to a civilian caste." She said, sounding a bit forlorn.

  He left her to her thoughts for a few minutes as he checked his navigation again. He levelled the ship off a couple of hundred miles in the upper atmosphere, then angled the ship towards Bckstone. It wouldn't take them more than thirty minutes to cover the distance from this altitude.

  "Sohma unit?" He prompted her.

  "It is where dishonoured warriors, or ones who remain undistinguished, go to die. They are provided with only the minimum weapons to do jobs beneath our frontline warriors, such as pirate hunting or being shock troops to soften an objective."

  "Sounds like a bit of a waste. Sending your most experienced warriors to die just because they got a little older."

  "It is our way. However, seeing you and your Commanding Officer in battle today is making me question that wisdom a little. You would be considered too old to even be part of a Sohma unit. At best, you may have found a home in the mercantile caste back home."

  "Too old? I admit I'm too old to do this every day now, but I will have you know I was campaigning right up until I hit sixty."

  "Sixty? You- you were still in a frontline unit at sixty? H-how old are you, Lance Commander John Wayne?"

  "Sixty-five. Why? How old did you think I was?"

  "Forty, at most." She replied without hesitation. "Our Sohma units are filled with warriors in their thirties. Only a few very distinguished warriors are still on the frontlines past forty."

  "Your culture sounds very different from any I have ever heard of. How did you manage to fall in with the Greater Valkyrate?"

  "Surrat! She is a dezgra! She offered to help us, but stabbed us in the back the moment we let our guard down. Even the Dark Caste would not be so dishonourable."

  They talked for another ten minutes or so, John coaxing small tidbits of information out of her, and reading her thoughts at the same time. He had been running his Scouter skill the entire time she was talking, taking notes on what she said and thought with his mental notepad. What he was picking up there was… interesting.

  There was a whole area of space well beyond the periphery that was poputed with these people who called themselves Kerensky's Chosen, or the Cns. They were the descendants of the Star League Defence Force that had retreated from the Innersphere over two hundred and seventy years ago in a mass exodus.

  Now that her guard was seemingly down and appeared to be in a talking mood, he decided to start to be a little more direct.

  "You seem to follow a strict moral code. Are all cns like that or just the Steel Vipers?" He asked, seeing if he could fish out some more information by feeding back some of what he had learned to her.

  "Aff*. We all follow these rules, more or less. Each Cn has their own traditions, but we all follow Kerensky's teachings. Our warrior caste rules the cn, followed by scientist and merchants below. Honour can be found in many ways in Cn Steel Viper, but none...greater than... why am I telling you this? How do you know about the Cns, Lance Commander John Wayne?"

  "I know many things, Star Commander Mia Bckwell. It comes with age and experience. Though I would like to know more about them if you are willing to share."

  "How? How do you know my rank?"

  "I know a little about you, Star Commander. I know you were a Ristar within your cn, a rising star bound for greatness, until five years ago. Then, after a defeat, your jumpship had a misjump, and you ended up stranded. Then the pirates captured you and sold off most of your people into svery, leaving you to be the pything of Susie. Now, as much as you want to return to your people, you fear you have grown too old, that you will be unable to regain your honour before being shuffled off into one of these Soholma units to die." John dropped what he believed was a huge truth bomb on her from all the notes he had taken.

  Scouter might just be my real MVP skill, not Piloting... it is a hard call. Still, it is hard to believe someone who is in her mid twenties would be worried about being sent to a retirement unit to die... this culture is absurd.

  "I... We are not supposed to speak of the cns to outsiders, particurly not stravag from the Innersphere. I have dishonoured myself even further."

  "Why? We are just talking, it's not like anyone is going to believe me that there is a huge group of people living who are descendants of General Kerensky's exodus, living outside of the Innersphere."

  "Neg. There is much you do not know, Lance Commander John Wayne. May I sit in silence before I dishonour myself further?"

  "Sure. Just sit tight, we will be nding shortly." He replied, reading her thoughts.

  They are pnning an invasion of the Innersphere at some point! Holy crap, no wonder she doesn't want to talk about it.

  He would definitely need to talk with her more in the coming days. He had an inkling that this would be tied to the end of this short story that the system had told him this world was about.

  Winning is not an option, not at this time.

  Your goal here is to survive.

  How you do that is up to you.

  He gnced behind him at his two passengers. Lucy opened one eye briefly, before closing it again, which let him know she was awake for at least part of that conversation. Mia appeared to be mentally fighting with herself, not understanding why she had said so much to him.

  He returned to flying the Pelican, deep in thought himself.

  Bckstone City

  John had nded in the Guards compound instead of at the starport and had Mia carry Lucy out of the Pelican while he wrangled his other prisoner. He could tell Mia would not harm her, as she had already accepted herself as a sve, or a bondsmen, as her thoughts called it, having already been fairly broken mentally by her treatment with the pirates. He could probably take that colr off of her, and she would just follow him around, not necessarily docile, but having accepted her fate.

  Susie, however, was quite different. She tried to attack him when he opened the door, pnning to escape. He activated her electrocuffs, which brought her to her knees in front of him. He didn't bother punishing her further and just drew his sword. "Walk."

  He colred her and locked her up in a cell, taking the keys with him this time. He didn't want someone to have the chance to let her walk free.

  We really need a better way to detain people here.

  He changed Mia's colr to one of the guard's, but didn't bother locking her up. He needed answers first, and didn't want someone accidentally selling her to one of the brothels before he had a chance to. Other than the princess, all the pirates they captured would be headed to mines or brothels in the next few days, and frankly, she was nearly as beautiful as Lucy. He didn't want to have to hunt her down in one of those establishments to get more answers.

  "Follow me." He ordered her after taking Lucy from her.

  "Would it not be more prudent for you to lock me up as well?" She asked.

  "Yes, but I assume you would rather not be sold to a brothel. That is the fate of most female pirates out here, if not killed outright. Men are sent to the mines, to never see the light of day again, and women are sold into sex work. If neither can do the job, they are killed. We have very little tolerance for pirates in the Oberon Confederation, to the point that their treatment is barbaric, but it is the new king's policy."

  "I understand. No, Lance Commander John Wayne, as much as I deserve it, I would prefer not to have that fate." She replied, sounding somewhat relieved.

  "Good. Though I will want more answers from you ter, for now, just follow me to the hospital."

  It took some time to walk there, having been stopped by Maggie yet again as he was moving through the hangar. She wanted to know about the Pelican and how the operation was going. She gnced at Lucy's legs and grimaced as he filled her in on the details of the day. She shouted for one of the techs to run and grab a wheelchair for her, then turned back to John.

  "Well, the Marauder is up and running now. It isn't pretty, but it works. Suzy Q should be good to go tomorrow. We can have the Hunchback ready in two days with the gyroscope from the one you downed yesterday. As for the rest of the unit, it will take a significant amount of time to repair everything. I take it James will be back ter?"

  "Yeah, he and Trix are overseeing the remainder of the operation. With the Star League cache there, we will have to return soon to start cleaning it out as well. There is a lot of stuff to talk about, but we need to head to the hospital now."

  "Alright, luv. Say hi to Franky for me." Maggie replied, then gave Lucy a pat on the shoulder before turning back into the hangar, shouting at someone else.

  "She is an interesting woman," Lucy said, now seated in a chair.

  "That she is. Too damn smart to be out here in the back end of nowhere, but she is, and has a weird fascination with Freddy's beard."

  "Beards make a man look distinguished."

  "Hah, he looks as if he lived in the mountains for the st twenty years."

  "Everyone has a type they like. I like yours just fine." She said, smiling up at him.

  "Thanks, Sugar." He said, then kissed her.

  Mia just watched the interaction, the curious look on her face unnoticed by either of them.

  * - Affirmative. The Cns hate contractions like Don't or I'd, but would make new words that were contractions instead. There is a whole list on

  BattleTechWiki:Glossary of terms used by the Cns - BattleTechWiki

  but I will try to keep it to a minimum other than aff, neg, quiaff, quineg. Yes, No, Do you agree? Do you disagree? And maybe a few more. If there is a word you don't understand that I don't put a * by, it is probably just a curse of some sort, like I did with Abby cursing in German.