The Mech Touch

6077 Culpability

The courthouse continued to becfilled with angry and indignant noises.

A clear majority of the attendees strongly objected to the decision of letting Taon get away with his heinous deed!

If his crwas deemed accidental in nature, then Taon would only receive a relatively minor punishment all-considered.

Unintentional friendly fire was still a relatively serious mistake, especially if it endangered a fellow Larkinson's life.

However, accidents always took place on the battlefield. The larger the battle and the more chaotic the fighting, the greater the chance of mechs striking other friendly mechs.

In truth, they happened so often that most Larkinsons simply shrugged it off. The damage was usually relatively minor as many living mechs enjoyed plentiful protection nowadays. They could take a lot of hits and still remain intact enough to evacuate to the rear.

However, an accidental strike from a quasi-first-class super- heavy hyper-velocity transphasic gauss cannon at close range far exceeded the scope of typical accidental friendly fire incidents!

That alone turned Taon's crinto a much more serious controversy. The Larkinson soldiers clearly wanted the special tribunal to make an example out of the recently ascended expert pilot!

The chief judge allowed the people in the courthouse to vent their emotions for a dozen or so seconds. Then, she picked up her gavel and slammed it down!

BANG!

The entire chamber instantly fell into silence as hidden devices precisely neutralized the voices of everyone who was not authorized to speak.

"Order, please. Letcontinue. When we formed our judgment on Taon Melin-Larkinson's first charge, five of us have judged him innocent, while two have deemed him guilty."

The Larkinsons wondered which of the judges had sided against the majority opinion.

"When we determined the culpability of Venerable Melin- Larkinson's initial charge, we took into account the factors that rationalized his action. First, we recognize that the mission was inadequately conceived and planned. The two expert candidates chosen for this mission were clearly not as prepared to deal with the Emperor Tree as everyone thought. Not enough safeguards and backup plans have been made to prevent or address any instances where the expert candidates unwittingly fell under the sway of the calamity plant that has been codenamed 'the Emperor Tree'. Is it the fault of the accused that he fell victim to the mistakes of his superiors? Not necessarily. Put yourself in his shoes and think whether you could have done any better."

Jannzi provided a well-reasoned argument that successfully cooled sof the heated emotions among the Larkinsons.

At the very least, few clansmen believed they possessed the mental fortitude to resist the unreasonably strong mental manipulation of this dastardly exoplant!

"The commanding officers and the staff officers involved in the planning and the actual execution of the mission have definitely made mistakes." Jannzi continued on with a stern expression. "Although our special tribunal is not tasked with bringing them to account, it is our opinion that they are only guilty of being overconfident. They have allowed their biases against the supposedly 'primitive' and 'ignorant' native flora and fauna of untamed planets to underestimate the threat they can actually pose to our troops. We hope than none of our officers will ever make this mistake again."

The words of Venerable Jannzi applied to every Larkinson who assumed responsibility, but they were particularly directed towards Swordmaster Ketis and Venerable Joshua!

The physical projections of the two adopted grim and contrite expressions as the couple took this rebuke to heart.

"Returning to Taon Melin-Larkinson's first act of striking another Larkinson with a deadly attack, the consequences of this misdeed are particularly severe despite its accidental nature. Our rules and regulations make a strong distinction between friendly fire that result in minor injuries and friendly fire that result in severe injuries. In addition, a result that leads to death as an outcis always treated as a heavy crregardless of whether the accused is culpable. In this particular incident, we were not entirely certain whether to judge the outcas severe or fatal. Technically, Venerable Lanie Larkinson did not perish. From a more practical perspective, she was as good as dead, and only a literal miracle caused her to scramble back to life. Ultimately, we have judged according to the letter of the law, which states that Venerable Melin-Larkinson's deed only resulted in severe injury towards a fellow clansman."

This was clearly not a popular opinion, but most Larkinsons were able to accept the argumentation used by the special tribunal.

"With regard to the culpability of Venerable Melin-Larkinson in relation to this charge, our tribunal is of the opinion that he is not responsible. His only failing is that he fell for the Emperor Tree's deception, but if an expert candidate was susceptible to this covert move, then it is too much to expect him or anyone else to do any better. We have definitely judged that Taon would never deliberately strike the back of another friendly Larkinson mech by his own volition. Anger towards him for pulling the trigger is completely misplaced. Save your ire for the Emperor Tree, who bears most of the culpability for this tragic deed."

Taon slightly relaxed as he managed to get off easy on one of his charges. Even though he had grown so morose and uncaring that he did not particularly care about farce of a special tribunal, he was still cognizant enough to recognize that it would be a lot harder for him to start his crusade if he bore the stigma of deliberately backstabbing a fellow soldier in the field.

Before the chief judge could address Taon's second charge, one of the other judges frantically waved his hand and attracted people's attention.

"Hey! I want to say my piece as well! I don't agree with this decision!"

It did not take much thought to recognize that Venerable Vincent Ricklin held a dissenting opinion. He and his companion judge were probably the only ones who voted against this judgment.

Jannzi looked annoyed. "Sit down and stay quiet, Venerable Ricklin-Larkinson. You may share your dissenting opinions after I have announced the entire verdict."

"I can't wait that long! Who made it so that I have to wait until you finally complete your lengthy saga? I want to say my own piece before everyone moves on from this matter!"

Though Jannzi could clearly deal with Vincent by squelching his voice, she ultimately sighed and waved her hand in his direction.

"Very well. You may proceed, but keep it short."

"Great!" Vincent said before he surprisingly assumed a more serious demeanor. "Everyone, I want to add my own opinion, not as an expert pilot and champion, but as a former grunt who struggled to fight and survive in the trenches like many others. I still remember the times before and after I joined the Larkinson Clan where I fought alongside hundreds if not thousands of comrades. I did not always pilot a melee mech in every battle, but whenever I did so, I always trusted my fellow soldiers who piloted ranged mechs to check their fire and be careful about attacking when their guns were at risk of striking friendlies."

The pilot of the C-Man spoke not just for himself, but every other melee mech pilot in the clan. Each of them held similar stances.

"I have also piloted my fair share of ranged mechs, so I know what it is like to be on the other side. Every decent mech pilot goes through 10 to 15 years of academy training just to be able to master all of the basic skills and rules of piloting a mech. I know first-hand that instructors literally hammer every cadet on trigger discipline, rules of engagement and other related stuff in the first couple of years. All of this is necessary to prepare ranged mech specialists for times when they are deployed in battle and positioned behind their melee mech buddies."

Mechs were powerful war machines that could inflict a lot of collateral damage. Skill and discipline were necessary to minimize the damage they could do to the environment… and other friendly mechs.

"You're not my mother, Jannzi! I am getting there! Sheesh! Anyway, what I want to say is that it is the responsibility of the pilot who commands a gun that can strike at anything to exercise a lot of control over where he is leading his shots. It is better to withhold your fire than to pull the trigger when there is even the slightest of risks of hitting a friendly mech in the back. From the description of the mission, the Zeal obviously pointed his really big gun in the direction of the Elegant Rage. Maybe you Ylvainan artillery pilots have becused to calling for Ylvaine's help to thread the needle and make sure your shots precisely avoid every Larkinson mech and land a precision strike on an enemy unit, but this is really reckless behavior that should no longer be tolerated."

"Such occasions are the exceptions rather than the rule." Jannzi said in order to be fair. "The mech pilots of the Transcendent Punisher mechs generally avoid opening fire at targets that are too close to friendly mechs as the explosion radius of their shells are often considerable."

"I admit that it doesn't happen too often, but when Taon made the Zeal point his huge Devora Cannon in the vague direction of the Elegant Rage, a red flag should have popped in his mind that it is a really bad idea to open fire. According to Taon's own testimony, he recalled that he angled the Zeal's main gun forward and a lot further downwards. It was his fault that he forgot that this was where the Elegant Rage occasionally flew in order to get rid of enemy units that approached from this direction."

That made everyone more thoughtful. Melee mech pilots had a greater tendency to take Venerable Ricklin's side.

Jannzi tried to close this particular argument. "Ultimately, Venerable Melin-Larkinson did not perceive himself to be breaking from established behavior at the the committed his incident of accidental friendly fire. If he acted in error, then it is because the commanding officers and rule makers of the Larkinson Army have failed to tighten the rules and regulations. We recommend that they correct this circumstance as soon as possible."

Commander Casella Ingvar glowered as Jannzi issued this opinion. The mech commander had indeed neglected the potential for disaster with regards to this issue.

The chief judge finally addressed the second charge.

"Venerable Taon Melin-Larkinson could have ended his culpability shortly after he realized that he made a grave mistake. It is abundantly clear that he recognized shortly after the Elegant Rage had been struck that he had turned himself into a liability on the battlefield. He understood that he had been compromised once. That means he could be compromised again. The best possible decision he could make was to retreat right away. He did not. Instead, he made one of the worst choices by lingering in place and turning himself into a target from a vengeful Larkinson mech pilot."

It was not yet tfor the special tribunal to cast their verdict on Lanie's deeds, so the chief judge kept her gaze on Taon.

"An altercation ensued where the Zeal was put at a heavy disadvantage by an Elegant Rage that was empowered by forced resonance. Another miracle occurred where Taon Melin-Larkinson successfully broke through to the rank of expert pilot. Yet it is during this critical process that he committed his second misdeed. He personally confessed that he has killed the living personality that occupied the Zeal, thereby turning his battle partner into an empty shell that no longer holds any independent life. He did so without authorization from a legitimate authority figure of the Larkinson Clan or the consent of the Zeal himself."

The air grew tense as the chief judge was about to announce the special tribunal's answer to Taon's second charge.

"We are of the opinion that Venerable Melin-Larkinson is innocent of the crof murdering the Zeal in times of battle."

"WHAAAAT!"

This sentence completely exploded the Larkinson Clan!

It was not just the Larkinsons themselves who were indigent at the special tribunal's verdict.

The living mechs and particularly the third order living mechs of the secretive Anima Order especially objected to this judgment!

"THIS IS NOT JUST!" The Everchanger complained!

"ARE WE NOT EQUAL TO HUMANS?!" The C-Man roared!

"ORDER!" Jannzi banged her gavel yet again! "Letfinish my explanation!"