FaRtaL Chpt 1

==From a Ristar to a Lady - Chapter 1 -==
<<No Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
----
Forward Base Epsilon Five
Garstedt, Clan Smoke Jaguar Occupation Zone
11th August, 3059
“Beep… beep… beep!”
The communications panel on the watch station console started its incessant bleating. Star Captain Avryl Showers quickly swiveled her chair from where she was watching the camera feeds covering the valley approach to the Forward Base and mashed one hand hard on a button.
“Receiving!” She barked, then released her hand on the button. Her bracelet, adorned with ancient discolored coyote bones, jingled mildly on her wrist. It was one of the few possessions she truly felt was her own, ever since winning it as isorla after a raid on an old Coyote cache. Many laughed at her and called it old and ugly, but she somehow liked it ever since laying eyes on it.
Static fizzed for a second, before it faded out, replaced by a tired voice. <<“Star Captain Showers, this is Star Colonel Layse Wimmer.”>> The Star Colonel commanded the 143rd Garrison Cluster. “We are pulling off Garstedt. Galaxy Commander Corbett wants to preserve what remains of the Jaguar’s strength. We will regroup back in the homeworlds.”
Avryl’s blood ran cold. Neg!
She pressed the button again, “We can counterattack, quiaff?”
<<“Neg, we cannot. The filthy Spheroids are too many in number. We will be outnumbered four to one in every fight, and dying for nothing gained. Your orders are to quickly pack up everything you can and egress using the Snik protocols. There will be dropships waiting for your unit. Avoid combat at all costs. Every unit and warrior we can get out counts. Do you acknowledge and obey?”>>
Avryl gritted her teeth. “Aff, I obey.”
<<“Wimmer out.”>>
Avryl took a moment to seethe silently. The clan had fought so hard, paid so much! And to lose everything they had gained… it was unacceptable!
But her superiors had spoken, and she would obey her orders. There were already Spheroid forces on the ground, and more were inbound from the jump points. She had been determined to make them pay for every inch of ground, but her superiors clearly had other plans.
Before she could punch another button, the door to the watch station opened. Star Commander Pence Lamongue stepped through. A thin, hard man, abtakha from the Burrocks. Avryl trusted his abilities in battle, but nothing else beyond that. If only they had more loyal and skilled warriors… otherwise she would not have tolerated his borderline insubordinate behaviour. As it was, her unit was comprised of such outcasts and dezgra of the clan, since it was a raiding unit assigned to the most dangerous missions behind enemy lines.
But it was her unit. She was proud of them and what they had managed to achieve. Even if she did not like individual members.
Pence smirked, “Thought I heard the communicator sound off down the corridor, and came along to check it out. New orders, quiaff?”
“Aff. Snik protocols, we are pulling out.” She did not bother to explain further, and turned to make an announcement over the public system to the warriors, technicians, and essential personnel from her command.
A horrible burning sensation stabbed through her chest, and she felt a sharp pain percolating through her lungs, making her limbs lose strength. She fell over the console, her body twisting around as she slumped to the floor, and saw Pence with his sinister smirk holding a laser pistol.
She tried to speak, but the blood coming up her throat blocked her vocal cords, and she could only cough, the terrible pain in her chest continuing to spread. She could feel blackness around the edges of her vision.
She was dying.
Pence crouched down in front of her. “Sorry, it would not do to have you waking up the others and running off so easily. Would be bad for the deal I made.” His eyes were cold and mocking as he actually took out a tissue and gently wiped blood off her mouth. “So much for the Black Lotus, ristar of Clan Smoke Jaguar, feared along the border for her daring and skill. I owe surkai.” His tone was mocking. “Just not now.” He stood up and walked out the door.
Avryl could feel her death soon, but she somehow managed to push herself up against the console on unsteady, wavering legs with all the strength she had remaining to her. No telling what Pence would do, but at least she must warn the others. She could just see the button that would alert the whole base, but everything was going dark…
The last thing she knew was her hand coming down on the alert button.
----
Kalinski Estate, Inman
Milligan PDZ, Woodbine Operational Area
Draconis March, Federated Commonwealth
4th January, 3061
“Ahhh!” Avryl woke with a gasp. She jerked up with a start, her head turning to the sides, and her eyes immediately scanned her environment for threats, and more importantly, for where Pence could be.
Something was wrong. Instead of the spartan, sterile ceiling she expected of a military installation or a dropship, she saw a brightly colored ceiling, lit by orange-red sunlight streaming in through the filtering curtains. Not the bright yellow of Garstedt’s primary. Or the cold breeze from the windows that was completely different from Garstedt’s hot, arid climate.
Her hands went unbidden to her chest, seeking evidence of the exit wound caused by the laser beam, but found nothing but the white shift she seemed to be wearing. She lurched upright, ignoring the tiny pricks of pain from her back from the sudden movement.
Avryl stared around her surroundings. The room spoke of excessive opulence, furnished with expensive looking woodworked furniture, extravagant gold chandeliers hung from the ceiling, soft cushions on several recliner seats around the room…
Come to think of it, I have never been on a bed this soft, she thought, one hand pushing down experimentally, her fingers easily sinking into the soft material, a stark contrast to her time in the sibko, when the beds were almost as hard as rocks to toughen up the trainees. Even as a warrior, the beds were slightly better, but not by much.
Wherever she was, the clan surely could not afford such extravagance! She planned to have strong words with whoever had prepared these quarters for her.
I need to get up, find out what is happening. She shifted her legs off the bed, planting her feet down on the cold floor. I should be an infirmary, or a field hospital, or a patient room, not this… whatever this is!
The moment she tried to stand up, she fell heavily to the floor. Stunned at the weakness in her legs, she clutched at the mattress to try to pull herself up.
“What is wrong with me?” Avryl gritted her teeth and tried to stand up again. Her head turned around to look for possible places to support her legs as she walked, and she froze.
“Huh? What the…”
She could see herself in a mirror. And the image that she was looking at was definitely not Star Captain Avryl Showers, bloodnamed officer and ristar of Clan Smoke Jaguar, with shoulder length brown hair, dusky complexion, and piercing pale brown eyes that verged on the color orange.
It showed a pale girl with long black hair, barely out of her teens. Bright blue eyes stared back at her, framed by a face that would be considered beautiful by any measure. Her lips were pale though, and her features were a bit gaunt.
She blinked. The image blinked simultaneously.
She used a finger to poke her own face, and when the skin and texture felt all too real to her, she started to feel around the edges of her face, trying to find some loose skin, something, anything, that would peel off this falsehood and reveal her own face. But there was nothing.
She screamed mentally. What is going on? She looked at her left wrist. Her coyote bone bracelet and codex were missing.
The door clicked open. She turned to see a startled looking woman in some form of a uniform.
“My lady! Forgive me, I didn’t know you were already awake!”
Summoning all her strength, Avryl staggered to her feet, teetered the few steps to the woman, and grabbed her by the arms.
“Where are we? Tell me everything? What has happened to me!”
The woman seemed panic-stricken. “My lady, I don’t know what you are talking about! You were in an accident and have been unconscious for three standard days since the New Year Celebration!”
Three days? Three days could not even get her from Garstedt to the jump point, unless the dropship pulled some serious Gs. I need information.
“What is this place?”
“Do you not know, my lady? This is your lord father’s estate, on Inman!”
Inman? Where in the Founder’s name is that? Am I still in the Inner Sphere? Or somewhere else entirely? Or even some other time?
“Lord? What lord?”
“Pardon? It’s your father, Baron Kalinski!”
Avryl stared at the woman, aghast. She had no real father, no clan trueborn born of the iron wombs had. Certainly, they had genefathers and genemothers, the genetic donors who contributed their DNA, but not real parents in the traditional sense.
“What about the war? The Clans…”
The woman was close to tears. “My lady, I don’t know what you are talking about! The war with the Clans ended last year! The Smoke Jaguars were destroyed! Annihilated, they said the correct term was!”
The words struck Avryl right between her eyes.
Clan Smoke Jaguar? Annihilated? What she had fought so hard for? The clan that strived above all else, to reestablish the rightful Star League?
Avryl fainted.
----
Rason Estate
Innerman City, Inman
4th January, 3061
Newly appointed to his position, Viscount Finn Rason stared at the verigraph in front of him, wishing that it would spontaneously combust in front of him, removing a particularly onerous obligation.
The paper refused to cooperate, however, and stayed stubbornly there.
“This is just ridiculous,” he grumbled. He was a decorated soldier, a veteran of Operation Bulldog, the short but brutal campaign to evict Clan Smoke Jaguar from the Inner Sphere. He had just been honourably discharged from his position as a Captain in the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth so that he could take up his father’s position as ruler of Delacambre, one of the Trivet worlds.
But now he was to obey his father’s last instructions, simply because of some arcane arrangements made before he was even born? And even backed by the Count of Inman himself, his signature on the will. If he refused, he could very well be stripped of his title and rank. Count Haynes had the power to do that.
And this dictate, this missive was simply too outrageous.
He was ordered to marry, and not just marry anybody, but the infamous Anastasia Kalinska, sole heir to Baron Kalinski of Altoona.
Oh, sure, she was renowned for being the most beautiful woman in the Trivet worlds, maybe even the whole Draconis March. Hair as dark as night, skin soft and pale, a perfectly formed face, eyes that shine like stars, a figure with curves to die for. But she was just as notorious for her shitty personality. She was nicknamed the ‘White Lotus’, but from what he could glean from the rumour mill, the term also held a negative connotation.
And given that she was even romantically involved with Baron Renard Haynes, the son of Count Haynes, Finn had the feeling the old Count was trying to save his son from a possible scandal by supporting this. Since his own father had passed on, the family’s obligations now fell to him.
Apparently, young Baron Haynes had broken up with Lady Kalinska during the recent New Year’s Day celebrations, and the young lady had been so distraught that she tried to commit suicide by jumping into a nearby lake. Her attempt failed, and she was supposedly recovering at her home.
If Finn had felt bad about the arrangement before, this made it worse. He was getting married to somebody who did not even understand the value and sanctity of life. To throw it away, just like that?
Father, what have you gotten me into? He leaned back in his chair, sighing. I’d rather be in my Templar on field exercises.
----
5th January
Avryl tapped the surface of her tablet, scrolling the screen down as she read the relatively short piece of news, very recently obtained from the merchants of Clan Diamond Shark, now plying their wares around the Inner Sphere.
They traded in information too.
“...The remnants of Clan Smoke Jaguar were finally crushed on their homeworld Huntress. Soon after, during the Great Refusal on 23rd April 3060, ilKhan Lincoln Osis and what remained of his command unit were defeated. The most brutal and cruel of the Crusader Clans, Clan Smoke Jaguar, was no more.”
“What is this stravag nonsense!” She flung the expensive tablet across the room, not caring when the fragile screen shattered into tiny shards over the floor.
Even that slight exertion of effort left her panting, but her emotions were also running wild. “What about restoring the real Star League? What about avenging the lost peoples of the Inner Sphere? Punishing the Scavenger Lords? Lies!”
She had fought so hard for the clan. She even sacrificed her own honour to serve, commanding an unit of cast-offs on near-suicidal mission after mission. Only for all of it to come to naught?
She descended into another coughing fit, prompting the maid at her door to come rushing in.
“My lady, if this continues, you will faint again! I’ll call the doctor!”
The maid held her close to her own chest, while the background faded off into a blur. Avryl could hardly stay conscious, her body seemed like collapsing upon itself. Ah… what a weak fragile body this is. I am powless.
The next few hours were spent in a tortured haze, the pain in her chest and the fever robbing her of what strength she could muster. She laid on the bed, struggling to breathe, panting.
Anastasia Kalinska… no, that is not my name. That is the name of this body I am in.
Even in her feverish state, Avryl could not help but run over what facts she had managed to glean from the maids.
She was Anastasia Kalinska, sole daughter and heir of Baron Boris Kalinski, the ruler of one of the baronies on the mining world of Altoona. She lost her mother at a young age and lived on Inman with her father ever since. During the New Year Celebration a few days ago, she had thrown herself into a lake and was at death’s door for three days.
“Ana…,” She heard a man weeping. “Ana…”
That is not my name, she wanted to say.
“Don’t worry, Ana, daddy’s here. Everything will be all right.”
But it is not all right. My Clan is dead. Gone. Annihilated.
“Have to… go…” she murmured. To Garstedt. Huntress. Strana Mechty. Anywhere her clan once was. She should have died with her clan, with her people. She did die. So why was she even here now, in a body that was not even hers?
The man cried, “Ana, what do you mean by ‘go’? Why do you keep saying you have to go? Please don’t leave your daddy behind…”
Through her puffy eyes, Avryl could see a reedy middle-aged man with blond hair, his face etched with lines of worry and concern, leaning over her.
“Who… are you?”
The man’s face twisted with pain. “You don’t even recognize your own father? The doctor said you lost your memory…”
Avryl could only look at him with pity. Why are you looking at me with such affection? Just because you share blood with this body?
Oh yes, she understood the importance of blood. The Clans ran on it, revered it in all its forms. Blood for battle. Blood for their forebears. When the blood is spilled, the Bloodname is earned.
But this was different. The love of a father for his child… is that what a father should be? She could feel his trembling hands clasped over hers, as though willing life into her frail body.
“Ana, please!” He sobbed.
She could hear faint footsteps approaching. “My Lord, it is time for the meeting at the Count’s manor.”
The man whimpered, “My daughter is so sick, how can I even think about other matters?”
Maybe… for this man…he lives for his daughter. Just as I once did for my Clan.
Avryl steeled her resolve, and tried to squeeze back against the man’s hands.
“Ana!”
My feelings of rage and betrayal are mine alone. I shall not let my anger cause this body to die. Her eyes blazed with determination. Furthermore, even if the clan was annihilated, I must find out what happened to the others!
The names of those in her command filtered through her consciousness. Victories and defeats, good times and bad. She needed to find out if they had managed to survive, what happened to the remnants of her clan.
And to do that, I must live on as Anastasia Kalinska!
----
*; Note from the Author: Otome isekai is always fun because of the fish-out-of-water aspect. This recasts the web novel series 'From a knight to a lady' into the Battletech universe. I thought, what could be more different than a pampered noble-born lady? Easy - a trueborn warrior of the clans, created by eugenics and trained from infancy to be the pinnacle of martial skill.The original web novel had a creepy 2nd ML (go read the story, what Khalid did was absolutely disgusting), but I changed him to a straightforward antagonist.It's also a practice in world-building (the system mechanics drove me nuts, especially Altoona), and taking a closer look at the socio-politics of the neglected Outback.Note that when writing the buildup to the FCCW, the writers never quite explained a major plothole - the IS victory in the Great Refusal was under a comms blackout by the SLDF itself, so the IS never knew what happened until they returned to the IS and they were directed to Luthien for the celebrations.But the clans were not beholden to keep it secret. Maybe the embassy on Strana Mechty tried, but really, why should they keep such an important event from their IS holdings at all? And given the HPG links from the Clan Homeworlds to the IS... the Clanners in the IS should have learned of the results within a week. And given the way IS intel agencies are keeping tabs on the clan OZ, something will have leaked out.In fact, we know Kat SD got intel from Vlad long before they returned to the IS. And I don't see why the Nova Cats, for example, won't blast messages ahead to their IS holdings. Ditto for the Ghost Bears. The Diamond Sharks, in my story, sold bits and pieces of it, but perhaps they did accede to the embassy demands to only release it after a certain date, and to leave out certain information.
----
<<No Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
Chapter 1