This Too Shall Pass

Shrapnel Magazine 010 (Cover).jpg
This Too Shall Pass
Story information
Author James Lee
Type Short Story
Product Shrapnel Issue 10
Content
Universe Date 26 November 3057 - 29 August 3058
Preceded by All Good Things

This Too Shall Pass is a short story by James Lee that was published in the tenth issue of Shrapnel.

Plot summary[edit]

In December 3057, the DropShips of the mercenary group Twenty-first Centauri Lancers leader, Colonel Evelena Haskell, were overseeing their arrival at Nestor, when they received a call from their home planet. The message was sent by a Precentor of the Word of Blake, who informed Haskell of their dependents' capture. The Precentor ordered the Lancers to land on Nestor and, to keep their families alive, to isolate themselves on the planet. Evelena, dying of worry about her son, had to comply.

Once on-planet, the Precentor refused to tell her why the Blakists were doing this, and repeated her orders. The colonel informed her people, and they reluctantly obeyed her orders to cooperate.

In April, the Blakists departed, and Precentor Suzanne Mulvanery informed her that the Lancers were free and could go to their home system, Gibson, to recover their dependents.

Once on that planet, Evelena is received by Precentor Elliot and allowed to see her son, who accused her and the Lancers of having committed war crimes, showing her the newsfeed which painted the Lancers as rogues who had stolen Terra from ComStar in Operation ODYSSEUS. Haskell explained to her son that it wasn't the Lancers' doing.

After departing and sending their families far away with an escort, the Colonel led her troops back to Gibson to take revenge. There, they assaulted the Blakist base, razing it to the ground and downing any Blakist 'Mech they could find. Haskell personally killed Elliot in combat.

In August, after the Lancers had reached Outreach, they surrendered to the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission. After a quick investigation, the Lancers were exonerated of any crime. Wolf's Dragoons commander J. Elliot Jamison read Evelena a message from Jaime Wolf himself, who supported all her actions.

After leaving the meeting, the colonel's DropShip is boarded by a ComStar officer, who explains to her that his people don't blame her for her acts, and makes her an offer to continue their contract on Tukayyid. She accepts the offer willingly.

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