"Blaine Lee Pardoe - Battletech - Battlecorps - Betrayal Of Ideals Part 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pardoe Blaine Lee)

was that several generations of the Warrior caste were beginning
to emerge. The original Khans that Nicholas had chosen were be-
ginning to dwindle, replaced with younger Warriors–Warriors that
had not fought in the civil war. They did not have the bonds that
tied the Clans together.
This was not the image that Sarah McEvedy had envisioned.
Time had changed Nicholas and the rest of them. His own
cropped, salt-and-pepper hair told part of the story, the scars
BattleCorps Foundations of Fate • Page 


on his body and neck told the rest. Nicholas had always been a
dreamer, always cast in his father’s shadow, always struggling to
leave his own mark in the universe. He had with the formation of
the Clans. Now there were no enemies to fight. Nicholas and the
Khans had to face to the reality of a warrior people without a foe.
Sarah walked around the construction site and the mud built
up on her boots. They became heavy, and no amount of effort
seemed to shake the clay off. After a moment or two she ignored
the extra weight. The construction workers, each from different
Clans assigned to the building project, watched her out of the cor-
BattleCorps



ners of their eyes. The Wolverine Khan could feel their stares. Not
too many Khans bothered to come and watch the lower castes
work. McEvedy felt she had an obligation to come and bear wit-
ness to the work being done. This is where we will lead our people,
it is only fitting that we come here to watch it be built.
She made her way on the walking path down the hill to the com-
mand post that had been converted years before to the seat of
government. The ramshackle buildings, a patchwork of temporary
shelters, had seen better years. Contrasted to the work going on
above them on the hill, they seemed like where paupers lived rath-
er than a center of government.
She stomped hard on the paving stones to get the mud off
as she entered the structure. Hanging her uniform coat up, she
noticed that several of the other pegs held coats worn by other
Khans. Would they be joining us for dinner as well? She looked at
the patches on the shoulders. The Widowmakers. That would be
Khan Jason Karrige. Khan McEvedy winced at the thought of Khan
Karrige joining her and Nicholas for dinner. Karrige’s Widowmakers
were a little extreme, even by Clan standards.
The other jacket was a little smaller and more appealing. Joyce
Merrell, Khan of the Snow Ravens. Her presence would be much
more pleasant. While Khan Merrell was far from being an ally of
McEvedy and her Wolverines, they did share the same values and
she appeared to be open to new ideas and thoughts, as opposed
to Karrige and his Widowmakers. Merrell was one of the shrink-