Part 740: Let's Read Close Quarters - Part 8
Chapter 29Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
30 October 3056
Cassie’s nightmares are back, which she hadn’t expected. It’s not a great time for them, since she’s undercover at Percy’s. She doesn’t have Blood Drinker and she can’t practice martial arts here, so her only emotional outlet (violence) isn’t an option available to her. She blames Kali for this, but knows it isn’t Kali’s fault.
She’s feeling off-kilter because the part of her that isn’t a sociopath actually likes Percy, even though he’s a mark. He’s genuinely kind, even though he acted entirely out of boner-induced chivalry. Percy asks about her and she spins a tale of working to pay for her brother’s electrical engineering classes since her father died and her mother very ill. Percy vows to help her imaginary family.
Through subtle manipulations, she pressures Percy to friend-zone her for the time being, which is pretty fantastic. Percy leaves, and Cassie feels shame at manipulating an enemy and a mark who is actually a genuinely good person.
Chapter 30
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
30 October 3056
Cassie and Percy go horseback riding. They’re having fun, but Ninyu Kerai arrives via helicopter. Fortunately, Ninyu Kerai is a monk and cares nothing for women, so he pays Cassie no mind. He does question whether she’s a spy and demands her questioned, but Percy won’t have it, deflecting Ninyu Kerai by suggesting she can’t learn anything useful to him. He knows he’s a twit and actually uses it to his advantage.
Ninyu accedes to this, the ISF will be striking on October 31st so anything Cassie learns is of no consequence. To celebrate, Percy takes Cassie to Tanadi Towers to meet with its owner, Marquis Redmond Hosoya. They sell “Jasmine”s brother to Tanadi, and she plants a secret camera under a chair.
Cassie hopes Percy’s not ‘in’ on whatever Hosoya is up to, then wonders how a camera with no audio will know if treason is being discussed. Cassie does not yet understand what she’s actually doing here. Shadowrun successful!
Chapter 31
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
30 October 3056
Percy is very distracted when they return to his castle, so Cassie knows something’s going down as soon as immediately. The news is showing the Caballeros as belligerent idiots (they are, for the most part
), and the sociopath in her thinks Percy is responsible. She knows it’s actually Ninyu Kerai’s doing though. She suspects Yoritomo, Percy’s butler, is one of the Mirza’s plants.Cassie’s paranoia gets the better of her, she’s certain she will be discovered any second and in her nervousness she blunders into Yoritomo who isn’t the Mirza’s plant. He threatens to kill her but fortunately the 17th Recon’s rescue team shoots him dead. They’re wearing Wobbie uniforms because fuck the Wobbies. They leave some dead recently-murdered Wobbies behind as proof.
Cassie asks Uncle Chandy if the bug she planted will have time to do any good, Chandrasekhar suggests it’s all in god’s hands.
Cassie knows!
… but she doesn’t. Not really.Chapter 32
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
1 November 3056
el Dia de los Muertos. A helicopter tries to fly over the HTE compound’s walls and the Caballeros shoot it down after broadcasting several warnings. The news claim the 17th Recon Regiment has gone mad in a pay dispute and is holding Chandrasekhar Kurita hostage. Chandrasekhar immediately orders all non-security workmen sent home as this time he expects the attack will be a BattleMech fight with the 9th Ghost Regiment.
Lainie is ordered to attack. She doesn’t believe it but it is her duty to comply anyway. The Ghosts actually can’t win this, statistically, the 17th Recon Regiment has them outnumbered. But the Ghosts have better technology and are generally better shots, which leaves things more even than Lainie likes. Especially since the 17th has Artillery and the Ghosts do not.
The Oyabun demands to see Lainie before the battle begins.
Chapter 33
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
1 November 3056
Cassie and Scout Platoon are called away from preparing for the main fight. The bug Cassie planted has already
The Chairman of Tanadi has been consorting with
Kali catches up with Cassie who has been avoiding her again. Cassie blames Kali for almost dying at Percy’s, even though it’s thanks to Kali’s influence that Percy’s life has been spared.
This is what Cassie’s story is all about. This novel isn’t about her, but this is her struggle and it’s not going to be resolved fully in one book.
Anyway, Lainie’s Oyabun demands she chop off her little finger, because injuring a subordinate immediately before a battle is a great fucking idea. Lainie does what’s required of her and tells Sumiyama to keep her little finger in dry ice because she’s coming back for it when this is all over.
Cassie has an emotional breakdown in her quarters after the confrontation with Kali, but actually feels a little better after—and not just because she’s about to get to murder a metric fuckton of ninjas.
Chapter 34
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
2 November 3056
The Ghosts march on HTE. Lainie calls on the 17th to surrender, but can’t guarantee they will be treated honorably. Cassie leaves right as the Ghosts begin their attack. Cassie has a one-on-one with Don Carlos who gives her a hug because she was his daughter’s friend and he’s pretty sure one or both of them is going to die. And now we come to the real crux of the novel, the whole foundation upon which the 17th’s troubles are built, and the reason Cassie’s in this mess to begin with.
Cassie at the start of the novel wouldn’t have called Don Carlos on this. She would have held her tongue and worried. Cassie calls Don Carlos on this, reminding him bluntly that Patsy made her own choices.
Don Carlos wanted his son to be the best, and never gave his daughter any praise for her excellence. He thought she killed herself in a last-ditch effort to please him. Cassie demands that Don Carlos let go of the blame and live for
Cassie and 15 volunteers begin their infiltration of the ISF tower. Victor Milan is a pretty good action writer, but his BattleMech combat is fairly lacking. I may gloss some things over since the combat is relatively unimportant.
A BattleMaster eats an Arrow IV and dies. Arrow IVs will consistently be inordinately powerful in this trilogy, but most `Mechs will be going down in only a few documented hits so it’s fine. Lainie can’t retaliate because the closest the Ghosts have to Artillery is a pair of Stalkers and her own Mauler.
Chapter 35
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
2 November 3056
Ninyu Kerai watches from the penthouse of the Coordinator’s Rest Hotel. He’s irritated that he can’t lead the battle directly but his father’s orders are clear.
Raven in her Raven is on the run from a Ghost pursuit lance. A Locust, and Jenner, and two Whitworths are hunting her. She lures them into Macho’s BattleMaster and then hides.
Lainie eats a PPC hit and kills a 17th Recon Quickdraw. The 17th commits to hit and run attacks to delay the Ghosts and whittle them down. A ghost in a Panther tries to jump Kali’s Atlas from behind but gets grabbed by a BattleMaster and punched to death.
Kali is fighting her first battle as an actual company commander, her company takes 5 Ghosts but loses 2 in the process. She does not know how to deal with this yet.
A Hatchetman kills a Ghost Locust, Lainie sends No-Name to stop it with his Grand Dragon. The Hatchetman advances like a classic Kurita, relentlessly with no worry of its own safety.
No-Name’s real name is never revealed, but Lainie calls him Samurai at the end.
Cassie’s scout platoon takes a stray laser hit meant for Rebel Perez’s Awesome, and two of them dies instantly before they ever see the ISF. Rebel Perez, Cowboy’s former 3rd friend, dies fighting the Ghosts. Cowboy is upset, but Buck keeps him from suiciding in. Cowboy had 4 friends for a while, but now he’s down to three again. Balance has been returned to the universe.
Cassie sorely wants to get in and take out a Ghost BattleMech, but she has a job to do and she chooses to do it rather than giving in to her urge to commit violence. Cassie reminds most of Scout Platoon that following her will get most of them killed, and if they want out now’s the time. There are no takers, but Cassie is wrong.
Following her will kill all of them. This is a running trend.
Gabby is upset. He’s out of ammo, lost his weapons, and one arm has been blown off. That’s not why he’s upset, and for once he realizes it: he’s ashamed of his failures and more ashamed that he betrayed his own father. He wants to reconcile but he does not know how. He radios his situation in and gets ordered out of the fight. In a moment of maturity he turns command over to Kali and withdraws as ordered. Gabby has grown as a human being. A little.
Chapter 36
Masamori, Hachiman
Galedon District, Draconis Combine
2 November 3056
The 9th Ghosts send a company on a flanking attack via the river. The River is too swift to be easy to navigate except when the tide turns to counter its outflow, and Lainie has not devoted a heavy force to the attack. But she has devoted a mobile one.
Annie Sue Hurd in her Rifleman engages a heavy lance by herself. She’s too slow to withdraw but tries to put down an enemy JagerMech before she dies. Lainie almost eats an Arrow IV, but one of her Ghosts jumps in the way and dies in her place, which is why the Bodyguard pilot skill / optional rule exists in Tabletop BattleTech. Buntaro Mayne’s Phoenix Hawk has lost its arm. Lainie sends him and three light `Mechs to chase and kill Raven’s Raven.
Annie Sue Hurd dies fighting the heavy lance. Raven leads the Ghosts into a parking garage, her Raven is small enough to fit under the deck.
Kali has asked Zuma to sing a song to inspire 1st Battalion. Zuma wants to sing Patsy’s song but won’t without Don Carlos’s permission. Carlos rejects the request. Already Cassie’s passionate entreaty is fading from his mind. She isn’t his daughter, after all.
The parking garage Raven is in is one of Uncle Chandy’s. When she lures an enemy Jenner into position she blows a charge and drops a floor on it. She almost escapes but Buntaro Mayne takes out the Raven’s hip. Kali has the bulk of her command back to base, but Bobby the Wolf is out headhunting and Cowboy engages Buntaro’s Phoenix Hawk with his wasp. They get into a punching fight rather than using guns, because they’re both idiots.
They take each other out and crash into the Sagebrush, so they head in to have a drink since they’re both out of the fight. Gabby commandeers a Scorpion, and leads a group of `Mechs on a flanking attack through the tunnels. Only short `Mechs can make it through, so the Scorpion is the biggest `Mech that can fit. He has stepped out of his [sister’s] Shadow [Hawk]. He’s still not mature, but he’s more experienced than the lieutenant who was going to be leading the flanking attack.
We’re 90% through, so we’ll be finishing up in one or two more updates.