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[Reconius]

I was fourteen when they streaked through our base.
My father had been training me on the basics of Battlemech piloting and care, on one of the two Scourge 'Mechs we owned. We spent so many happy hours sitting in the field, hammering wooden targets he made to pieces. Those Hours brought us together, and I never expected to watch his 'mech go limp as Bandit Ravens weaved through our camp, sending an unending stream of SRMs and Lasers straight at him until he fell. His Cockpit was on fire. He tumbled forward, landing in front of the statue that i was. I saw him crawl out of the cracked glass, screaming, as fire tore skin from his bones. All I could do is stare as the flame faded him from reality. His outstretched hand and mutilated face never left my mind. that was four years ago.
The bandits left me to survive, they didn't even take anything. They simply murdered my Father, and left. The next four years were a living hell. Training up to eight hours a day. Every night, clouded with the pleading arm and wretched face, it's shrieks still rupturing the silence of my mind. I was strapping myself into our surviving Scourge when they returned.
There was five in total, with purple and black rough coloration being blocked by the rolling hills thick snow that kicked up wherever a foot laid down. In a line, the two outermost let loose a screaming salvo of LRM 5s, that swirled into a spiral before smacking into the arm i had raised as defense. Lurching forward as the throttle was pulled, i let loose a Gauss round. It smacked into the left leg of the middle Raven, knocking it to the ground with a satisfying skid, struggling to get up with the remaining leg. The inner middle Pilots had rocketed into the sky with the blue flame of jump jets lingering behind them, sending a wall of SRMs my way. They tore into my torso, leaving no major damage. I retaliated with a quad beam of medium lasers at the left raven as they sailed down to the ground, dealing minimal damage. I seized an opportunity as they accelerated from their slow stop, sending a nickel-iron shell into my target. It landed on the right torso, and i let a wicked smile escape as the SRM rack, freshly loaded, burst into a fiery orange explosion.
The right pilot had now sped behind me, and tore into my backside with every weapon he had available. I viciously swung my right arm behind, colliding with the unsuspecting pilot, knocking him to an icy casket. A swift Gauss shell finished him, with only a moments silence before the familiar screams of LRMs were back again. Strafing left was an easy enough dodge, but the surviving duo pulled over a snowy ridge and hacked at me with typical medium lasers. The battle raged on for several minutes, mostly just the twin ravens circling me as Gauss shot after shot was fired, landing in nothing other than snow. I finally landed a hit, directly in the pelvis of one of my tormentors. His leg movement went dormant,and the entire metal machine toppled to the ground. When his partner saw the lifeless carcass, i swear I could feel his terror. He turn tail and began to zig-zag away. I still don't know why i loved feeling his pure terror so much, it was inhuman. But tearing him down as he scampered away was so fulfilling. watching him fall. burn. die.
Seeing all the fallen 'Mechs gave me some form of piece of mind. I was finally able to sleep comfortably at night, the dreams had stopped. and Next to where the fragments of my Father lay eternally, were burnt armor shards from each and every raven.