[dcs_p]He poured another cup of the bitter concoction and offered it to Sasha. It took a
moment for her to notice the gesture, but when she finally opened her eyes she
nodded to him. Moving with a careful uneven stride that betrayed the stiffness of
her joints, Sasha drew the cup from Rally’s hand. Unlike Rally, she sipped the
hot tea slowly.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]He waited for her to speak, holding his own tongue for another moment before
finally giving in. “I know this match bothers you. You don’t believe he can
actually win, do you?” Rally’s eyes narrowed, prying for any clues Sasha’s face
might give away should she choose to lie.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]”Of this I am sure.” She hadn’t even noticed Rally’s second grammar slip. “Mike
Strider could not beat Devon Carns if he were given a Timberwolf as a handicap.”
Rally shook his head. “I would not wager on that myself, but my confidence in
Devon is unmatched. Not one of the Inner Sphere pilots can beat him.”[/dcs_p]
…
[dcs_p]Norbert “Set your hair on fire” Owens had been born with Spondyloepiphyseal
dysplasia congenita, itself a unique form of an extremely rare genetic condition
that lead to what most commonly knew as dwarfism. Though most people with
the condition were known on ancient Terra as ‘midgets’, citizens of the Inner
Sphere had gradually given up the word for SDCers. Abbreviations had proven
more politically correct whenever the subject had come up, and all found the short
form of the scientific term the easier to pronounce. For the Clans, the condition
was even rarer. Clan members were usually awestruck at Norbert’s uniqueness
as a Mechjock.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Mike had come to Norbert’s aid in 3058, when the young pilot was retiring from
life with the Smithson’s Chinese Bandits, one of the more famous mercenary
groups that the Inner Sphere Houses regularly employed. Norbert excelled in
close combat, especially the use of flame weapons. His Assassin had been
custom built to carry six of the flamers, which he’d used to great effect over the
second half of his military career. It was because of this special talent and his
shaggy bright red hair that Norbert had earned the nickname “Set your hair on
fire”.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Not a man to be forgotten, Norbert had seemingly returned from the dead after
his Mech exploded during Strider’s Strikers first mission. Many members of the
unit had suspected he might be the Marik spy that had sent messages back to
the Free Worlds League. Though Norbert despised such accusations, he also
lacked hard proof that he was entirely innocent and entirely Norbert Owens. He
shared his survival secret with few. Only rumors seemed to suggest how he’d
survived the ammunition explosion that ripped his Mech apart – something about
his cockpit’s ferroglass shattering first and the explosion knocking him a dozen
meters from the burning carcass of his Mech. When one considered the odds, it
really was a pretty hard tale to swallow.[/dcs_p]
[dcs_p]Norbert opened the door of his barracks room to find none other than Strider
standing before him. He wasn’t too good with reading other people, but it didn’t
take a genius to see Mike was jittery as a cracklebeetle in rainy season.[/dcs_p]