Sweet Mother of Kerensky (D15 EN, Yuri's Quarters)

[James Hall]

"Honor is not nonsense. Just as it wasn't nonsense for those Black Dragons to take their lives, this isn't nonsense either. I may just be a technician, but I have honor." This may be the most proudly anyone on the ship has ever seen James stood.

"It's a wolverine." James looks disgust just saying it.

[Yuri Creed]

"Honor's all well and good when it makes sense."

Shaking his head Yuri rose.

"If it'll get you to talk straight, Mr. Hall, I'll hit you. Any preference where?"

Glancing toward the doctor, he nodded for him to go on, "Do we have any information on the dropships? This signal sounds like a problem for later, if there's company coming."

[James Hall]

"Your choice."

[Dr. Reinhardt]

"Two of them are Checkered Black and white, the third is painted plain White, I've asked Professor Novak to take a look at the Gravity sensors more closely first thing in the morning, and Mr. Jones to makes sure The director has been informed that company is coming. A leopard can hold a lance, given that the other two are smaller then the Union I doubt you are looking at more then 5 lances total, possibly less"

[Yuri Creed]

"Small than the Union... or no bigger?" Yuri was trying to sort out his memory of different classes and put the list together in his head.

Then he made an axe hand and brought it down on James' head with a sharp thump. "There. Now talk sense man."

[James Hall]

James runs his head. "My real name is Sidney of Cl..., formerly Clan Snow Raven. They are the Not-Named Clan. The traitors who nuked my Clan's capitol city. I thought the Clans had destroyed them all. But apparently, some have by escaped and survived out here in the corpse of the Usurper's dominion." Fitting place for such traitors.

James brushes his hair back. "I know you think I have gone daft, but did I ever seem that way before? Because I recognize what this must sound like to you. But it's simply because you have never heard anything about the Clans before. The Clans...." James looks at the three others and takes a deep breath. He was just a technician. But he knew value of the information he was giving out even if they didn't. He was about be one of the greatest traitors his people has ever known. Mata would never be allowed back. He hated himself. He failed her. He failed his Clan.

But... he was never going to go back, was he? Why the hell would they care about a technician? He wasn't even a trueborn who failed to stay in the warrior caste. Here, he was often treated as an equal. Improper, sure. But would the Clan care what he had to say? Would they see Mata as anything more than a freebirth who didn't even grow up in a sibko? He looked at Mata and brushed her hair back softly. She was the last thing he had left. She was all that mattered.

He looked down at his daughter who gave him a confused look in return. "I don't know if I should go on. I could stop here. Let them think me mad from working to hard. Mata. If I go on, you can never go back to our people. I will be one of the most vilified traitors are people have ever known. But I don't even know if you would be accepted if I stayed silent. You are freeborn and weren't raise in a sibko. You would likely be relegated to a garrison unit and never have a chance to earn a Bloodname."

Mata looks up at her father. "I do not even know what that is."

James gives a sad smile and kisses her lightly on the forehead. "Well, that is my answer." If it meant becoming a monster to his people, then for her, for the chance that she could have a happy life, he would do it.

He turned back to the other two. "We are the descendants of the SLDF that followed General Kerensky. My people.... changed. Which is why you probably don't understand my sense of honor. Mata's mother, Alice Crow, was sent here to see what Inner Sphere has been up in the following years. She lead a star and brought me as her tech. We were a mercenary group. But we were betrayed by our first clients. Some Alice's men escaped. Alice and me did not."

Mata's eyes go wide.

"It's not important that you believe me about that. It is important that you believe that the Not-Named Clan cannot be trusted. They are as twisted as the Usurper was. I fear that these colors match the dropships. Black and white like the creature. It is just too convenient that these ships appear here. The pirates were already here. The Black Dragons followed us. Who would they be but the others brought by the same signal? I hope I am wrong, but we must be prepared to fight something far worse than that what we have faced before. If they still have their mechs running, it will easily match the lostech we have found. Possibly even mechs that were invented after the Exodus. Thank the Great Father that they were annihilated before omnimechs." He looks at Creed. "Feel free to think I am mad. It's probably better for me. Just, please, prepare for me being right."

He turns to Reinhardt. "I regret my words before we entered. You are a good man, and I trust you. I was trying to walk the line. To be loyal to my people and the Fortunate Ones. Well, my bonds are broken to my people. I release you from any promise you made me. You are my friend. Though this is still dangerous information. Spies from my former Clan are still out there. I believe other Clans have sent spies as well."

[Dr. Reinhardt]

"Definitely not larger then Unions, there is some margin of error, we haven't had our experts look at it yet, so it could be Unions possibly, which would up the enemy force the 7 lances, 8 if they do the assembly thing the Dragons did." He pauses listening to James, "So your saying you have information on where Kerensky's fleet has been hiding for the last 300 years?"

[James Hall]

"Vaguely. I know the general direction, but not how to get there. Most of my knowledge is the history. The Clans. The culture.Some of the planets. The politics to some extent, though being part of the Technician Caste I was never a part of them. That was left for the Warrior Caste who rules."

James decides to explain his previousbehavior. "Isorla is a kind if battlefield spoils. The civilian castes can be claimed as such. Hence, my wish for Commander Yuri Creed to hit me and claim me as such. Now, by the ways of the Clans, I belong to him and can give him whatever information he desires."

[Yuri Creed]

Yuri listened to the entire thing, frowned, and then sat back down.

"Just Technician... I don't much like the idea of owning anyone."

Rubbing at this nose, he added, "But let's say I believe even part of what you told me... I don't think these pirates are advanced - I mean, look at how easily they were defeated previously... and then this message... something tells me there may be some gaps in what we know. As for all the rest of it... I've heard some tall tales, and that beyond takes the cake."

Glancing between the two, he added, "Let me presume you aren't insane - the most likely story is you've been told some tall tales... or perhaps there really are some fragments left behind, I can't say. What I do know is there are hostiles on approach, if they are the same pirates as before, then we can assume hostility. That means I have work to do."

A slow breath, and he added, "I don't pretend to understand what you're trying to tell me, Mr. Hall, but we can discuss this later - for now, I think we may want that Battlemaster up and running. I've been working on some plans for tomorrow, so this just pushes that schedule up."

Groaning, he glanced at Mata, and added, "And I don't know if you had a home out there somewhere or not, but I know you're a good tech, so what I need now is not some sort of Esorlae or slave or anything, I need a master technician who can get a Battlemaster up and running in two days."

[Dr. Reinhardt]

"If it helps any the incoming dropships are Black and White, and the ....Wolverines? in the message were wearing Blue and Orange, it may be that we are dealing with two different groups, one that Technician Hall is concerned with as a threat, and one that is an immediate threat in coming."