<div class="floatleft">(http://www.infinitelibraries.com/images/vanya.jpg)</div><em>So much for un-remarked-on observation.</em>Ivan smirked to himself quietly as not one, but two of the redheads took notice.<em>And the less scary ones, too... good to know that treating a trinary-level officer like a long-term companion from the technician or scientist castes still carries the same kind of consequence around here, as it would have with my own pack.</em>"Yes." He nodded to Cass politely. "Although I suspect we will not be working together, unless you are infantry or I succeed at winning a Trial of Possession for a BattleMech in the very near future." He frowned briefly, thinking. "I am remembering correctly that non-salvaged OmniMechs are still rarities and at best available as prototypes to select warriors?"<br/><br/>When Ranna inquired about the records, he looked at her again. "Ma'am, I am not even certain what the files /say/ about me. I suspect that they cast the Trials of Possession for food, a gun and ammunition in the worst possible light, describing me as an armed robber of some sort. Similarly, they would describe my - properly offered, I might add - batchalls for Trials of Refusal to be taken into custody as resisting a lawful arrest." He sighed. "I guess I better start at the beginning. About a year and a half or so ago, the ilKhan ordered that all sibkos old enough to be taking their final Trials within the next three years were to be transferred to the Inner Sphere under custody of saKhan Phelan Ward. For some reason, the ship carrying my sibko and several others was separated from the fleet in a jump, and shortly thereafter came under heavy attack. I am not certain who else made it into the escape pods - mine was empty except for me when it was launched. I made my living as well as I could where I landed - which is to say, I rather quickly figured out I had no local currency, no local identity, did not even exist in any of the official records, and fell back on what I know to do. Fight. Did not take long for law enforcement to take notice - for one, the group I fell in with tended to win territorial disputes, and for another, like I said, there were a few Trials of Possession for bare necessities. I am not going to go into much detail of what I got up to in that time - let us just say that I have a new appreciation that not all members of the Dark Caste are rotten and in need of extermination. Either way, I eventually ran afoul of enough policemen that I could not escape capture. I suppose in pleading guilty to at least those charges I /did/ personally commit, I earned the right to be considered for military service in lieu of a prison sentence. I suppose they hope to reform their delinquent sibbies in that fashion. I do not know what negotiations sent me here, rather than to a unit of regulars, but I suspect my rap sheet might have something to do with it."<br/><br/>Ivan didn't look particularly remorseful - but then, from the sound of it, he had not, to his mind, committed any of the crimes he was accused of. Or more to the point, did not view them, under the circumstances, as criminal infractions.