IDGL-12

=Ian Davion, Golden Lion=
==Chapter 12 – Sunburn==
===Battle of Meistmorn===
07/28/3040 - 15:22 - Location: Meistmorn - Doneveal II, Federated Suns
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"Watch your flank.”
Tancred Sandoval's black and red Warhammer WHR-6K 'Lucy' took a solid shot to the head from the hostile white painted DCMS Battlemech currently code-named “Wolf Trap.”  The round destroyed the head armor.  Shrapnel tore into his armored cooling vest ripping it open and exposing the tubes which now leaked electric blue dyed cooling water.  His dual PPCs ripped into the attacker followed by twin flights of missiles from his wing man Garilbard.  “Tancred, you alive in there?”
“I'm still breathing.  I can't tell if its coolant or blood soaking my uniform though.”
“Bloods warm, coolant shouldn't be.”
“Not in this mech.”
“Keep it together.  I'll take Point.”
The Archer stepped forward its blocky damaged form covering the critically damaged Warhammer.  Wolf Trap turned on its serpentine route firing once more at Lucerne Hammer.  This time using the newly rediscovered cluster munitions that released a cloud of explosive sub-munitions with proximity fuses.  One of them detonated right outside the cockpit and Tancred saw the shrapnel fly right past his face and then darkness. 
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===Aftermath of Battle and Reflection===
04/18/3041 03:47 - Location – Fort Ballycastle, Lexington, Federated Suns
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Captain Tancred Sandoval, Count of Lucerne, and DMI MI2 Analyst, woke with a start that scared his fiance Princess Yvonne Davion.  He ran his hand along the scar that the sub-munition gave him that day a long scrape that ripped the top of his ear and blew his eardrums out as well.  The eardrums had been repaired but he hadn't bother to cover the scar or make his ear whole again.  She grabbed his other arm with both of her hands, “Are you okay, Tancred?”
“I'm fine I promise.” he told her
“That's the second time this week.  I'm worried.  Doneval again?” Yvonne asked
“Yes, just can't forgive myself for living when Garilbard died.”
Yvonne folded down the picture of the three of them at Sakhara during graduation.  “He was a good man, Tancred.  Did what was tactically prudent.  His Archer took the hits when you were down and he didn't fall without taking four Dracs with him.  He earned all ten medals.”
“Posthumously.” he commented
“It's War people we love die, people we will never know die, we mourn, and live to honor their memory.”
“You know I can't do that.” he told her
Yvonne embraced him, “You have to move on Tancred for both of us.  Accept he's not coming back and make the best of it.  We're together but you don't seem with me lately.”
“Its just work, Yvonne.  The DCMS keeps putting us on the back foot there has to be a way to put an end to that.  You're father taking a back seat isn't helping.”
“My father despite his own ego cannot carry the Federated Suns alone Tancred.  He needs help we all do.  He has mother and a whole court of advisers.  You have me and us and that will have to be enough for now.”
“I'm sorry, Yvonne, I need to take a walk.  I'll be back.”
She sat up and turned on the light to reassure herself he would be able to find his way back, “I'll be here.”
Captain Sandoval worked his way cautiously through their house nestled in the woods of Fort Ballycastle near a large pond.  The world was a scenic and temperate one and the Fort was currently in its autumn season.  Vast stands of timber trees imported from Terra lined the streets and small streetlights provided warm pools of yellow light that Tancred swam through.  He cut through a well-trodden trail in the woods only marked by reflectors and arrived at one of the many dispersed bunkers located a safe distance about a half hours walk from the residences.  
This one was a secure communications bunker with a small mech bay constructed nearby.  Tancred could see the tops of the antennae towers through the trees and the trail gradually turned to gravel and led to one of the many roads cut through the woods.  A guard walked toward him while the rest of his squad manned their stations, “ID”
Tancred presented his ID to the man, “Working late again, Count Sandoval?”
“Something like that, Corporal.”
“Alright then, sir.  You can enter.  No one else is currently inside according to the roster so if you hear anything tell us.”
“I will, Corporal Tailor.”
Tancred walked toward the Mech Bay and entered through the smaller door in the massive hanger doors.  His slate gray Warhammer 'Lucky', Yvonne's white Phoenix Hawk 'Stella', and a pair of the new Watchmen Mechs from Robinson still in their gray primer coats stood menacingly above him.  He stood at the foot of 'Lucky' and banged on it, “Just making sure you're still here, Lucky.  One of these day's we'll get you out again.”  
The mech had been torn to shreds on Doneval, but he lived and had spent the past year repairing it with surplus parts from War Reserve Ballycastle in his spare time.  He could have had the Repair Depot on-planet fix it up but he wasn't necessarily in hurry to get back in the field.  There were better ways to damage the Dragon and he was certain one of these days he would find the right tactic, the right battleplan, the right anything.  Once he found that; only then would he would finish the fight on Luthien.
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