Difference between revisions of "Old Legends Never Die"
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==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
| − | In what seems to be an editing error, the planet [[Tellman's Mistake]] (in the [[ | + | In what seems to be an editing error, the planet [[Tellman's Mistake]] (in the [[Free Worlds League]]) is mentioned twice in the story, in at least one case clearly referring to the planet on which the story is taking place. There is also a passing reference to furniture made by the [[Omniss]], a faction from the Outworlds Alliance. After the story first came out an official ruling was made that all references to Tellman's Mistake were in error, and that the story is indeed set on Novo Tressidas as indicated in the epigraph.{{cn}} |
[[Category:BattleCorps publications]] | [[Category:BattleCorps publications]] | ||
[[Category:Short Stories]] | [[Category:Short Stories]] | ||
[[Category:Works by Louisa M. Swann]] | [[Category:Works by Louisa M. Swann]] | ||
Revision as of 19:01, 12 April 2015
| Old Legends Never Die | |
|---|---|
| Product information | |
| Type | Short story |
| Author | Louisa M. Swann |
| Pages | 24 |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | BattleCorps |
| First published | 4 March 2005 |
| Content | |
| Era | Civil War era |
| Timeline | 5 April 3064 |
Old Legends Never Die is a short story by Louisa M. Swann that was published online on BattleCorps on 4 March 2005. It was also published in print in the second BattleCorps print anthology, First Strike in 2010.
| “ | Out in the Periphery, tales abound about lost cargoes, abandoned Star League stations, and phantom JumpShips crewed by shadows and spirits. But the locals know that sometimes the tallest rumor has its germ of truth, and, sometimes, even the oldest legends can come back to haunt the living. Story by Louisa Swann. | ” |
Plot summary
The first-person narrator is the daughter of Silas Bell and Rachel Bell (née Murdock), a pair of space pirates. Over the course of the story it is gradually revealed that Silas Bell was involved in the vanishing of the DropShip Nova Hunter, but suffered a bullet to the head in the action. He married his first mate Rachel Murdock afterwards and the couple happily proceeded to "plunder, rape and murder" until Rachel Bell gave birth to the narrator. Silas Bell suffered from pain and decreasing sanity from his head wound and eventually shot himself in 3054.
The narrator took over his Fortress-class DropShip and pirate crew, and continued a smuggling business while her mother set up a tavern, "Lost Tavern", in the edge of a ten-kilometer desert plateau on the edge of Silas' Outpost on Novo Tressida in the Magistracy of Canopus. In 3064, the narrator temporarily helps out at the bar and is confronted by a group of offworld treasure hunters led by one Connie Clark who ask her about the Nova Hunter and the treasures it carried. Fortran Merrick, an old friend of the Bells and now consort of the narrator's mother, briefly discusses the old legend with her.
The narrator returns home to find her mother murdered and Fortran Merrick knocked down, apparently by Clark. BattleMechs are closing in on her grounded DropShip, apparently believing it to be the legendary Nova Hunter. She immediately resumes command of her smuggler/pirate crew, fends off the attackers and they escape into space. Aboard the ship, Merrick takes her captive and informs her that he killed her mother and intends to find the treasure of the Nova Hunter. The narrator manages to shoot him and also Buck Jackson, her lieutenant, who had assumed command of the DropShip. Having reaffirmed her rule over her crew, the story concludes with the notion that the Fortress is in fact not the Nova Hunter and that Silas Bell, even if he knew where the treasures ended up, had taken the secret to his grave. The Nova Hunter and the whereabouts of its treasure are in fact just a fading legend, just like the Paymon's Staff.
Featured BattleTech
BattleMechs
- ABS-3R Anubis (Peg)
- AWS-9Q Awesome
- FS9-C Firestarter (Lars)
- Tarantula (Buck Jackson)
- Vindicator (the narrator's 'Mech)
DropShips
Notes
In what seems to be an editing error, the planet Tellman's Mistake (in the Free Worlds League) is mentioned twice in the story, in at least one case clearly referring to the planet on which the story is taking place. There is also a passing reference to furniture made by the Omniss, a faction from the Outworlds Alliance. After the story first came out an official ruling was made that all references to Tellman's Mistake were in error, and that the story is indeed set on Novo Tressidas as indicated in the epigraph.[citation needed]