Part 430: Combat Theater Vote 15 Results

Combat Theater Vote 16 Results:
- King of the Pirates goes home with the gold and 44 votes!
- 26 voters were surprisingly interested in The Next Generation of ProtoMechwarriors!
- Maelstrom and Kalma-Youngblood Mercenary Company, LLC score tie in last place with 11 votes each!


“There aren’t many Consorts left, now. The Lady Death took most of `em Tortuga Fusiliers is a different story, but the Fusiliers’re rats.”

The fire crackled and popped as one of Jag’s companions tossed in another branch from one of Tortuga’s rare trees. Jag shut his eyes as the branch caught, releasing a cloud of acrid-smelling smoke before finally catching alight. The balding man with long, oily gray hair on the other side of the fire coughed, then started prodding absently at a canned ration with labels Jag didn’t recognize. Without looking up the other man started shoveling the unappetizing-looking food into his mouth.

“Rats with guns,” the man said, after swallowing a bite or two.

“Aye,” Jag nodded. “And I’m no better. But I’m sick of the Consorts—a man can’t get ahead under Lady Death. I ain’t bringin’ up a daughter just to have the Consorts and Fusiliers take eighty-percent of my earnings between them. A man’s gotta look out for his family. And it’d be nice not to have to worry about the fucking Fusiliers tryin’ to steal my `Mech once a month.”

Redjack Ryan snorted, “What makes you think things will be better under me?”

“You promote men?” Jag asked, but didn’t wait for an affirmative nod. “You can’t be any worse than what we’ve got, and fresh faces are only bad for business for the first month or so—and you’ve brought a lot of new faces with you. Besides, a man can’t get ahead in the Consorts—I’ve tried—and the Fusiliers are a joke. They play petty kings when the Queen’s away, but the moment she’s back they turn into walking footrests for anyone who pilots a machine with a bone paintjob. And then they take it out on us unaligned-types. We were ready to make a move when you first landed, and I’ve got no issues being an early collaborator.”

If his words amused Ryan, the other man didn’t show it. He just continued eating with the same plodding disdain of a man utterly disinterested in his meal. Jag couldn’t blame him, he’d eaten plenty of distasteful things in his time—but he wasn’t familiar with any meat or vegetable that took on such an unappetizing shade of gray even when illuminated by firelight. The sparse trees on Tortuga never burned cleanly, the wood itself stored water deposited by the rare rain or snow and so the wood never stopped smoking until most of it had evaporated. As the last of the smoke started to clear Jag pulled down the scarf-like cloth most natives wore to protect their faces. Wood smoke was toxic in large quantities—he’d warned Ryan but the other man hadn’t seemed to care.

“Well, collaborator,” a hand touched Jag’s shoulder. “Collaborate. What are we facing when we hit the city?”

Jag didn’t turn to look at the speaker. Although she’d never spoken in his presence before, a voice that young could only be one person and Jag could still picture the shockingly-young face of Susie Morgraine-Ryan. only a year or two older than his own daughter, Tessa. The eye patch and nasty pink scar that marred the left side of Susie’s face left him silently hoping his own daughter would fare better when she started piloting the Ravager in actual combat. Jag wanted to get it back in reasonable condition first—and for that he needed an Autocannon. At least with Redjack’s crew he’d have a chance to take one from that traitor, Arroca.

“There’re only about four or five Death’s Consorts left—”

“Four or five?” Susie’s sneer was audible. “You’re—”

“Not letting me finish,” Jag interrupted. “There are four for sure. I can’t say how it compares to the stuff you’ve brought since I haven’t seen you in a fight, but you can bet on them having the best Tortuga’s got to offer. Meager as that is. I can give you a full rundown of their machines. The one I’m not sure of is Charlotte Walker’s Marauder. She got her side torso blown off in outing before the Lady Death got herself killed attacking New Avalon—Lady Death was pissed at the time so Charlotte’s one to recruit if we don’t wind up killing her—The Consorts are outfitting her `Mech with some new weapon I don’t know anything about but I don’t know if they’ve got it up and walking around yet. So four, maybe five, Death’s Consorts.”

“The rest of our opposition will be whichever Tortuga Fusiliers Blind Sal can scrape out of whatever bars she can find. The Lady Death invariably names Sally Guignard the ‘planetary governor’ whenever she’s away. Supposedly because Sal’s a “good manager” but I think there’s another reason,” Jag held up the pointer and middle fingers on his left hand and curled them around each other descriptively. She’ll have Arroca with her for sure and the Spooky Twins—a pair of ex-Snakes who think they’re ghosts or demons or something—and Jin Seong never leaves the city so he’s almost certainly going to show up. I think Severiano’s in town too. He’s a Firestarter pilot. I don’t think I need to explain what that means.”

“There’re a few more that could show up: Remy Vizeau’s piloting his mother’s Orion—she got herself killed in a bar brawl a while back—he’s young and stupid but his machine’s good. He’s also one of the worst pilots I’ve ever seen so he might just keep his head down. Avksentiy Spartak’s nearby as well, but he’s a lazy fucker. A couple of the indeps might jump in to help whoever they think’s winning—they ain’t gonna know you’ve got most of a Battalion in reserve. Since we’re in the city, I expect roving bands of looters and dispossessed and `Mechwarrior hopefuls. They probably won’t shoot at anyone in good shape, but if you go down near a pack of ‘civillians’ they’ll be on you like—”

“Like a pack of rats,” Redjack Ryan interrupted, finishing Jag’s sentence. “So what do you think of our collaborator, Susie? Do we keep this one?”





King of the Pirates

(unless otherwise noted, all buildings are Light and ground height +2 (so height 2 on flat ground, and height 3 when they're on hills).



Unit Lists
Ryan’s Rebels



Tortuga Fusiliers / Death’s Consorts



Possible Enemy Reinforcements



Other Threats





Mechwarriors
Cloud Potato
OptimusShr
Voyager I
Tank Boy Ken
apostateCourier
sizuka2
Trundel
Zest
fool_of_sound
GruntyThrst
Hobo



Alternates
Foulbrood
Infected
Arujei
SolusLunes
Psion
Losanda
hooman
Ba Donk a Bonk