The Price of Duty
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| The Price of Duty | |
|---|---|
| Product information | |
| Type | Novella |
| Author | Jason Schmetzer |
| Pages | 75 |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Catalyst Game Labs |
| First published | 26 July 2021 |
| Content | |
| Era | ilClan |
| Timeline | 13 August - 29 October 3151 |
The Price of Duty is a novella written by Jason Schmetzer, the story was initially released as a standalone ebook in 2021, and republished in the Gray Death Rising Anthology in January 2024.
Contents
From the publisher's description[edit]
| “ | A STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE…
Former hauptmann Ronan Carlyle is a man without a nation. After his former commanding officer declared herself governor-general of a reborn Tamar Pact, Ronan, a loyal Steiner officer, led a group of soldiers and techs including his sister, Isobel, back for [sic] Garrison for reassignment. But on Garrison, his troubles multiply. The senior Lyran officer brands the 26th Arcturan loyalists traitors and cashiers them, stranding nearly 200 former LCAF soldiers, technicians, and crewmen on a Lyran world with no way off-planet. Forced to scrounge up a way to survive, Ronan and Isobel hatch a plan to get the former LCAF members back to their homeworlds by salvaging ’Mechs. But when a Lyran scout battalion goes AWOL over an off-world mission squashed [sic] by their commanding officer, the LCAF is shocked to discover the Arcturan loyalists have built up have [sic] the largest contingent of combat equipment outside the militia. Ronan’s people need cash. They have skills. And there’s history in his name… Thus, the Gray Death Legion is reborn. First as a way to get funds for his people to leave. But they fight the Lyran unit—winning by use of unorthodox tactics—and discover they don’t want to disband… instead, the reconstituted mercenary unit wants to find its next employer… |
” |
Plot Summary[edit]
In August 3151, on Arcturus, siblings Ronan and Isobel Carlyle received notification that their unit, the 26th Arcturan Guards, which had just retaken Arcturus, was defecting from the LCAF and re-forming the Tamar Pact. Both were stunned, and when their superiors ordered them to choose loyalties, the siblings decided to stay loyal to the Lyran Commonwealth, and were forced to leave the planet, along with other loyalists. On Garrison, officer Jennifer Kipping received the 26th loyalists and oversaw their arrest, as they were all considered defectors, and their story of the unit's defection wasn't believed.
Days later, Garrison's LCAF commanding officer, General Bondayehr, decided to cashier the 26th loyalists, despite Kipping's opposition. When she informed her old comrade Ronan, he was devastated.
Ten days later, Ronan, his sister and most of the cashiered loyalists were working at a salvage yard. As they lacked the funds to return to home, the loyalists banded together in searching the place, a property of the Carlyle's, to obtain the funds. But when they found a Gargoyle OmniMech, and Ronan decided it might finance all their tickets home, his sister told him that their people didn't want to leave, instead forming a mercenary unit.
When a recon battalion of the local Lyran garrison defected to free former Clan Jade Falcon worlds on their own, Kipping contacted Ronan and his offered his unit a contract to stop them.
After deciding to rename the new unit the Gray Death Legion, the Carlyle family's disbanded but once very prestigious unit, the siblings accepted the contract and mobilized the unit. They intercepted the defectors and the units clashed. Despite being much smaller than the defectors, the Legion managed to halt their advance and sabotage their key vehicles, suffering no losses and causing few.
With their mission now impossible to accomplish, the defectors surrendered.
Days later, Ronan meet general Bondayehr, who tried to deny them their fee and salvage, but Ronan show him his copy of their contract and left. Not long after, the two Carlyles met with one of their former officers, now a leader of the reborn Tamar Pact, who told them where they could find more recruits, and offered them a contract with the Pact, an offer which they seriously considered.