Part 481: Political Vote 18 Results and Combat Theater Vote 16
Political Update 18 – The Great SilenceDuncan Kalma set another stack of file folders on his desk and settled into his chair with a sigh. He picked the first off the stack and began leafing through the dossier within. Kelly Michaels. Unit history, kill counts, successful missions, he barely glanced at any of it, settling instead on the psychological profile provided by ComStar’s Mercenary Review Board. Calm, collected, emotionally stable. No sense of humor. Clear signs of sociopathic tendencies. Kalma sighed, tossing the dossier into his ‘no’ pile, and reached for the next.
“You could just use a noteputer,” Jason Youngblood ribbed him from his neighboring desk. Jason rattled his own machine for emphasis, “that way, any you flag as a ‘no’ will immediately be moved into my ‘no’ folder like I programmed, rather than making me have to manually sort through your ‘yes’ pile.”
“I prefer paper,” Kalma grumped. “There’s just something right about the feeling of—”
“It’s just so anachronistic,” Jason cut him off. “How much are you spending on those, anyway? I know we can afford it right now but we’re not the Kell Hounds or the Gray—the Eridani Light Horse. We don’t have the storage for you to print off the dossier for every active independent registered with the MRB. How much is it going to cost to get that whole ‘no’ pile shredded?”
“Just let me have this,” Kalma replied. “We’ll do it your way next time, but I guess I just want to spend the extra time to really get to know our candidates. Our first company has to be solid, right out the gate, if we want a good rating with the MRB. And even then it’ll take a couple of successful missions to prove we’re reliable before we get anything good.”
“All the more reason to save money while we’ve got it,” Jason replied with a friendly laugh, “but since I’m mostly just giving you shit, I’ll stop bugging you about this. Just keep your ‘yes’ pile organized and we’ll compare names to my list. We’re still not going to know how they’ll work together until we see them in the field.”
“I just want to eliminate the crazy ones first. You want expensive: two hours of field time is going to cost more than printing every dossier in the MRB.”
“You’re not going to eliminate the crazy ones,” Jason countered. “We’re mercenaries. We’re going to have psychological issues—we just need to focus on eliminating people who are mentally incompatible with the job—that means nobody who’s got grudges with any of the great houses. Take this one: Dechan Fraser. He was in your ‘no’ pile—”
“Yeah,” Kalma grunted. “His dossier’s full of insubordination. He’s been released from six units. Twice for failing to listen to his lance leader in combat—”
“Twice when his `Mech was the only one to come out of a Clan ambush relatively unscathed,” Jason countered. “That takes skill. And guts—”
“Or cowardice.”
“—Have you ever checked our dossiers? We’re both tagged as ‘insubordinate’ too. We’re Mercenaries, Duncan. Dechan Fraser’s a thinker, he doesn’t follow orders blindly. I’m going to make a judgment call on this: I think this guy would make a good commander for third lance and I’d like to extend him an offer.”
Jason paused at Kalma’s dubious look. “If you’re going to put your foot down here, I won’t force the issue. But dossiers and psychological profiles won’t tell us everything. We’ve either got to pony up the cash to test some of these people on the field or we’ll have to make some instinctive choices. And my instincts tell me Dechan Fraser’s someone we can use.”
“Fine,” Duncan conceded. “We’ll give Dechan a shot the next time we’ve got the field reserved. Just don’t come crying to me if he can’t cut it.”
A) Trapped
Battered and beaten, the 30th Lyran Guards are one of the few units with enough command integrity left to resist in No Man’s Land, the tiny sliver of the Lyran Commonwealth that’s been completely severed from the Commonwealth proper by Task Force Serpent’s reckless advance. They’ve gathered the broken remains of every unit trapped in No Man’s Land to stage a last-ditch defense against the advancing Widowmakers on the planet Arcturus.
B) Kalma-Youngblood Mercenary Company, LLC
The newly minted millionaire Duncan Kalma (and his new friend, Jason Youngblood) have decided to heed the Bounty Hunter’s advice to turn their fortunes into something useful: the creation of a brand-new Mercenary unit! They’ve traveled to Galatea, the Mercenary’s Star, in the hopes of recruiting at least a company before Kalma-Youngblood Mercenary Company, LLC (Name Pending) take on their first contract!
C) Behind Enemy Lines
Carlos Marik, son of the Captain-General, has been fighting a one-lance Guerilla war against the forces of House Liao for the better part of half-a-year. Exhausted and short on ammunition, he and his men have been a thorn in the Confederation’s side while they await the increasingly vain hope of rescue. It’s all but certain that Duncan Marik will find some way to rescue his son, if only Carlos can find some way to get word out that he’s even still alive.
D) The Three Front War
With the bulk of the Draconis March’s forces held in reserve or reassigned to the new border with the Duchy of New Syrtus to free up troops more capable of working with the hated Draconis Combine, Duke Sandoval’s importance to the Federated Suns has never been lower. Seeking to prove his value and loyalty, Duke Sandoval has assembled a force of mercenaries and a few loyal regiments at a staging area in the periphery for an invasion of the Outworlds Alliance—a state that has theoretically joined the Draconis Suns as a protectorate but has since closed their borders to non-essential trade.
Combat Theater Vote
A) Trapped
B) Kalma-Youngblood Mercenary Company, LLC
C) Behind Enemy Lines
D) The Three Front War