An Emissary of Heaven

An Emissary of Heaven
Product information
Type Short story
Author Steven Mohan Jr.
Pages 15
Publication information
Publisher BattleCorps
First published 9 March 2007
Content
Era Succession Wars era
Timeline 7-10 July 3029

An Emissary of Heaven is a short story by Steven Mohan Jr. that was published online on BattleCorps on 9 March 2007. It was also published in print in the fourth BattleCorps anthology, Fire for Effect, in 2013.

Teaser text[edit]

Gennady Lukin. Formerly of the AFFS. Now stuck on the FedCom border world of Breed, driving a zeppelin for a moving company. IndustrialMech pilot Jessica Porter doesn't think much of him; she doesn't know what he did to get kicked out, but surely it couldn't have been anything good. Little does she realize why he left... and what it'll mean when the Snakes come to pay Breed a visit.

Plot Summary[edit]

A faulty cargo cable breaks when Gennady Lukin's cargo zeppelin is to deliver a eighteen-ton marble angel sculpture to a cathedral. As the statue is falling, Jessica Porter jumps to intercept it with her forty-ton ConstructionMech and the momentum of the impact prevents the shards from the shattering statue from injuring the onlookers.

Shortly afterwards, enemy DropShips land and Breed comes under attack from the Draconis Combine, and the defending Second Robinson Rangers are pushed back. In a bar, the construction workers discuss the fighting. When one man curses the Combine for attacking, Lukin points out that it was Hanse Davion who started the war. He accepts a hit from a drunken patron before withdrawing although he could easily have avoided the blow or downed his assailant, then withdraws with the remark that he will pray for the assembled people. Confronted by Porter he tells her that he retired from the AFFS because he could not bring himself to kill anymore and declares that he owes Porter a debt for the lives she saved.

Porter and her fellow construction workers devise a plan to help the Robinson Rangers. She tries to call in her favor from Lukin, but he refuses to help her and continues to load up luxury cars (his transport business was hired to evacuate them from the fighting area).

The workers set a crude trap for the Combine forces pursuing friendly 'Mechs through the city, but against the power of proper BattleMechs their plan falls apart soon and Porter finds herself facing a Panther in her ConstructionMech. She desperately calls for help from Lukin whose zeppelin is floating overhead, and he finally drops his cargo of luxury cars on the attackers, saving Porter. His zeppelin is shot down in response. Porter subsequently feels responsible for his death and guilty because she convinced him to fight once more after all.

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