Counting The Days

Note: I am proud to present a contribution from Kat Wylder, a fellow writer in this forum. For you who don't know Kat Wylder, you can check his work Black Wolf (complete) and Nebelung (in progress).
This story is the prequel of Black Wolf which took place two and a half years before the events in Black Wolf. This prequel will give light to some of Randi's dark past. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Lukina, satellite of O'Dellia
The Periphery
Day 2 of Bondservice

"Why must I endure this?" Randi murmured as she stared down at the console of her worn, old 'Mech blankly.

"Pick up the pace, Clanner! We've got a lot of ground to cover."

"Aff, lead." She fingered the throttle of her aging Jenner lightly and fell into formation behind Captain Jamar.

"Stop using that slang. I want to hear 'roger' from you, not that Clan crap. Understand, bondswoman?"

"Roger."

"Good."

As she trotted along behind her new commander, Randi could hardly suppress the contempt welling up inside her. It was a strong, somewhat sickening sensation that began in the pit of her stomach and was slowly working its way up into her chest.

'Freebirth!' she cursed at him mentally. 'Audacious and stubborn jackal of a man. Who does he think he is?! A militia captain, nothing more, and he acts as if he had an entire army at his beck and call. He certainly thinks that I am.'

From the very first day she spent with the militia, it seemed that Capt. Jamar was determined to make her miserable. He was not at all familiar with the concept of having a bondsman except for one thing: her duty to serve him.

Her OmniMech, a jump-capable Timber Wolf, or Mad Cat, as the freebirths called it, had been immediately confiscated along with all her personal effects. She was given strict orders not to leave her quarters between lights-out to the wake-up call. She was confined to a handful of corridors in the H.Q. Jamar had even threatened to have her shot on sight if she were caught off-base when not on duty. She was given no bond cord, no meal, and never addressed by anything but "Clanner".

She could suffer all of this easily, no matter how humiliating it was. However, the Captain had more in store for her. As soon as she was cleared by the medic for active duty the next day, she had been made to sit and wait in the MechHangar. She sat for three hours alone in the hangar staring at her 'Mech as it was hung up on the racks and its Clan insignia was sanded off.

The thought of it made her blood boil again. She cursed Jamar and cursed the code of honor that demanded she remain as his bondswoman.

"Clanner, heads up," the hated party said. "It's time to start earning your keep."

Randi glanced down at her radar scope. She breathed a sigh of relief when she found that the lone enemy in range was a Flea. While she would execute Jamar's orders, she dreaded having to do so. The one task she most feared was firing upon her own Clan.

'Perhaps I should say 'former' Clan,' she thought grimly, as she darted off to meet the Flea.

The tiny BattleMech caught sight of her and took off in the opposite direction. Even an outdated chassis like the Jenner was a frightful sight to the pilot of a 'Mech which had barely enough arms to fight off a squadron of helicopters.

Randi chuckled and gave chase. As she sped across the rocky field after her prey, she could not help but be amused at how quickly it fled. A Clansman piloting an equally light 'Mech was only half as likely to run, unless given specific orders not to do so.

"This is pathetic," she said aloud. A smirk melted a bit of her frozen expression, but it quickly faded back to ice. 'The sheer cowardice of these freebirths is disgusting. They will not stand and fight like man and women, but run away like cattle. They truly are in need of our rule and guidance.'

Guidance would have to wait. For the time being, at least, she was taking orders from these cowardly people. She lowered her crosshairs over the bobbing and weaving Flea and fired her SRMs. A chunk of armor and a spray of the missiles' casing flew off the light 'Mech, missing the side of her Jenner by mere centimeters.

Ahead of the two 'Mechs, the landscape began to dip. The infertile ground ended abruptly about 300 meters ahead and dropped down several meters into a rocky glacier valley. There was a narrow rock arch spanning the valley, however, and it looked just big enough to traverse with a Flea. Knowing she could lose her quarry, Randi opened fire on the unstable arch. It crumbled easily and plummeted into the scarred valley below.

Cornered, the Flea turned to face her and began to fire all of its scant weaponry at once. This was, perhaps, the worst alpha strike Randi had ever seen. She hit the trigger on her joystick and dragged the glowing red beam of her laser clean down the center of the BattleMech's torso. Its armor started to bubble and steam as it ran down the various planes of framework and exposed myomer. While she continued to fire, chipping away at the armor, some of the molten metal seeped down into a crack in one of the Flea's legs. The insectoid machine jerked strangely and struggled for balance as the actuators and myomer inside its leg became encased in metal that did not belong there.

"I-I surrender!" a terrified voice yelped across the comm. "Please, don't shoot, I--"

Something inside her paused to listen to the plea of the frightened and probably quite green pilot. She came to a halt in front of the battered tin can of a 'Mech and ceased fire.

"Just let me go! You can have the 'Mech, just don't kill me!"

The Flea was far too damaged to run away and posed no danger to her or Jamar's lance. Randi hit the comm. "Power down your 'Mech and exit the cockpit. I will spare you."

Not a second later, her bondholder's angry voice rang over the comm, brash, loud, and indignant as ever. "Hey, Clanner, what are you doing? Destroy that scout!" Capt. Jamar barked.

"Sir, the MechWarrior has surren--"

"I said destroy it!"

"I-- Roger" Randi lowered her targeting reticule over the Flea again and squeezed the trigger.