The Warrior's Spirit (Finale)

Later

The soft beeping noises slowly brought Mason back to his senses.  He was in a hospital, he knew that much.  The lights were dim, but he was pretty sure he could someone breathing with difficulty.  “Who’s there?” He called out into the darkness.

“If you’re going to pass out under pressure like this, they might just re-evaluate into a civilian caste, Mason.”  

“Thane?”  

“Mhmm.”  The old technician rolled his chair closer to the hospital bed.  

“I’m glad you’re alive, but how could you do that?  How could you put yourself in the way of that much harm?”  

“Well, it was an easy decision to make.  Mason, I am an old man, and my time is ending soon.  Maybe next year, or the year after.  I’ve had a good life, and the clan has provided for me, taken care of me, and given my life a meaning.  I would do anything for it, even give up my life for the clan.”  The old man put his hand over Mason’s and Mason noticed the roughness of his callouses, the irregular bends in the older man’s finger joints.  

“You let them drop a gantry on you.”  

“Part of a gantry.  Honestly, the Gauss capacitor hurt a hell of a lot worse, i had static cling for two weeks.”  

“That’s insane, who in their right mind does that?”  

“I did, because i love my people, and i love what they could represent to the Inner Sphere.  The Jade Falcons see themselves as the bringers of civilization and a return to the glory days of old.  They are so wrapped up in their Crusader ideals that they are going to make mistakes dealing with civilians and the populations of the worlds they take.  They see themselves as glorious liberators who should be greeted as such.”  

“But that’s not what the people of the Inner Sphere are going to think.  Most of us believe in freedom, and choices.”

“I wish i believed that, but so far my limited experiences with your culture have not been so egalitarian.  I have seen worlds where the strong force the weak to bow and scrape to their ‘lords and masters.’  People have to work themselves to the bone meeting impossible quotas to fuel war efforts, and children die from a lack of basic nutrition and medical care.”  

“There are bad things about the Inner Sphere, but there are good things too.”  Mason tried to sit up.  

“I do not doubt that you believe that.  I hope someday that you can prove me wrong, but right now, i am certain that our way is the better way.”  

“Your culture is run by warriors who are genetically engineered to be the pinnacle of human capacity.  How can you trust them to have your best interest at heart?”  

“The Warrior caste is the beating heart of the clans, and the Trueborns especially are its soul.  I heard a story from a Goliath Scorpion a long time ago, about the origin of the eugenics program.  From what i understand, when the second exodus occurred, the Founder had with him two battlemech divisions, the 146th, and the 149th, and less than a million civilians.  Can you imagine the whole of civilization reduced to less than a million people?  I can’t imagine it.”  

“The Eugenics program?”  

“Right...i don’t know if you heard the parts of the history lesson where they told you that the worlds we settled were barely human tolerant, and that’s true.  If we hadn’t possessed Star League terraformers, we’d have all died on those rocks.  I can’t imagine why the Great Father decided that those would be the worlds to settle, but i choose to believe that he knew if we were ever going to come back to the Inner Sphere, we would have to be better, stronger, and faster.  We’d need hard worlds to breed hard warriors.”  

“You’re rambling, Thane.”  

“I’m sorry, did you get a gantry dropped on you today?”  Mason smiled and bowed his apology to the older man.  “The Founder in his nigh infinite wisdom, according to the Scorpion, sorted out his people and divided society into the prototype structure of our modern clans.  One of the most important decisions he made was to create a master genetic repository that we could grow more people out of, if we were forced into a situation.  People who were resistant to the diseases we encountered, and who were of a generally healthier stock.  Now certain conditions, diabetes, the markers for most cancers, and other genetic anomalies that affected health and well being were screened out, and those genes were omitted from the banks.  The Warrior caste and the Scientist Caste got ahold of it eventually, and it turned into the immortality of the warrior caste that it is now, but that came after.”

“How can you let them dictate your fate to you?”  

“You mean like a distant lord sitting on a capital world deciding that today is the day his or her troops will march on planet X to raise his or her banner over the world in glorious victory?  

“That’s different…” Mason started.

“You are a very smart young man, and i know that you have the potential to go far in the clan, if you choose to.  I hope that you will take those steps and become a member of the warrior caste.  Just listen to the words that they are trying to teach you, make up your own mind when you want to.”

“What about the ones who don’t agree?”  

“With what?”  

“The way of the clans?”

“Chalcas.”  

“Chal what?”  

“Chalcas...it’s a word that means, not the way of the clans…”  

“What about those people?”  

“Well, that’s a complicated question...but the simple answer is, our society does not have the space or the resources to take care of people who are incapable of contributing to the clans in some capacity.”  

“You cast them out?”

“In some cases, some clans are much more aggressive and hostile towards the nonconformists.  The Jade Falcon policy, as  i recall, is right out of the Remembrance.  ‘Those who break faith with the Unity will go down to darkness…’  We are a collectivist society, working together to survive.  If you aren’t a part of the survival plan, then you are a detriment to everyone around you.”  

“What about the sick or the infirm?”  

“Have you ever seen a sick Clansman, Mason?”  

“Well...no.”  

“Give us a chance to show you our ways, and i promise i will let you try and show me your ways.”  

“I still think this a giant steaming pile of horseshit.”  

“You’re entitled to your opinions, but i hope you can see the way forward.”  The old man patted him on the hand.    “You get your rest, i heard you and Mackenzie are going to get to practice with real mechs tomorrow.”  

“That sounds like a delight.”  Mason rolled his eyes.  

“Mason…”

“Yes, Thane.”  

“Thank you for proving me right about you.  Most other warriors would have left me to die underneath that gantry.  Thank you for being a better person than most.”  

“You’re welcome Thane.”   

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