Part 744: Let's Read Ghost War - Part 3
Let’s Read Mechwarrior Dark AgeA Brand New Era, A Brand New Saga!
GHOST WAR
a BattleTech novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MICHAEL A. STACKPOLE
Part 3
Chapter 4
Ghost War posted:
A donkey that travels abroad, will not return a horse.
—Hebrew saying
Ah, the obligatory ‘tell new readers how shit works’ chapter. Blah Blah Blah JumpShips for some reason all so the main character can mention that he feels worse today than he’s ever felt when Jump Sick. He’s super depressed about losing his job cutting down Space Trees with a giant robot, which isn’t going to make a goddamn lick of sense once we actually find out what his real motives are.
Sam then laments about the good old days when he could just fuck off to Outreach and get hired as a mercenary to make money when times were tough, which is a joke since he’s dispossessed. He then spends more time fellating Devlin Stone’s “nobody gets BattleMechs” policy. There’s also a bit of Hanse Davion ass-kissery too but my eyes are kinda glossing over so I’m not paying much attention. Nothing happens this chapter.
So of course Sam winds up in a bar full of old veterans, buys one a drink, and it turns out the man he buys the drink for just happens to be the only person in the bar who can help him (and who doesn’t get too pissy when Sam threatens to steal the forestrymech and murder the entire Police HQ. Our hero). He directs Sam to the local rescue mission and then the chapter ends.
Chapter 5
Ghost War posted:
It’s easy to cut to pieces a dead elephant, but no one dares to attack a live one.
—Yoruba saying
Uh-huh. I love how none of these quotes are even remotely pertinent to the chapter they’re in.
Sam is living life as a homeless day-laborer doing shit work for shit pay and getting drunk on the proceeds. He continues bitching about Superchief until he gets kidnapped by the GGF Ecoterrorist Division. They’re not masked, which Sam decides is a bad thing since it means they’re likely to just kill him. The woman he punched in the face is there (because of course she’s one of the ringleaders) and Sam kinda broke her jaw with that punch so she’s pretty (understandably) pissed.
They’re also wearing local Space Police uniforms, just because a fascist police state would just let people buy those. They immediately start yammering about the mottled lemur’s intelligence and the like, so Sam makes them think he’s primarily money-motivated. They hire him on the spot because
Chapter 6
Ghost War posted:
The cat and dog may kiss, but are none the better friends.
—Federated Suns saying
Sam is mildly annoyed that the Hanoi Hippy Hilton only has health food for its guests (I admit, I actually do find that amusing). After taunting the woman whose jaw he broke with kindness Sam goes to bed. This scene feels pretty unnecessary. His captor’s on painkillers for her broken jaw so Sam immediately contemplates ways to beat her up even more.
The GGF have taken and replaced his clothes and we then learn that Sam is “pretty much pure medium” so in lumberjack terms he’s fucking tiny.
Anyway, Sam immediately puts his captor on the spot by claiming she blames herself for Sam’s murdering her people in their botched raid. It’s really self-indulgent but he’s a Stackpole protagonist so nothing he ever says is incorrect. Turn up creepy factor to 11!
Ghost War posted:
I could have done a variety of things, from grab [her hand], twist it around and drive her to the floor, to use it to drag her forward and plant a kiss on her. The latter certainly would have been pandering, and would have even been an assault, given the state of her jaw. As it was I opted for the easiest of choices and let her turn away to sulk in silence.
OUR. HERO.
Sam then considers whether his captor is a mole from the Space Police, weighing the possibility vs. the chance she’s not. Sam then wonders if he accidentally killed the Space Police’s mole, and then contemplates whether the GGF have a mole of their own or even, gasp, a double agent.
Sam then considers whether he’ll be used as bait or the follow-up for the next operation. I wonder. he’s the bait he’s the bait he’s the bait, get on with it already! He gets picked up in a truck for watch-and-wait duty and then the chapter ends.