Part 745: Let's Read Ghost War - Part 4
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 4
Chapter 7
Ghost War posted:
Something about chickens and flamethrowers. Wait, no, sorry.
The fish sees the bait, not the hook.
—Capellan Confederation saying
Mmhm. Yeah.
The GGF take Sam to a coffee shop this chapter. It’s to spy on the Space Police, in theory. Rather than doing anything productive Sam muses endlessly about ComStar again. He then contemplates how great the Republic is and how effortlessly it manipulates its population into eating up political horseshit. I wish I was joking but stuff like this:
Ghost War posted:
I know that could be read very cynically, primarily because it does involve the manipulation of the populace. That manipulation, however, was not the sort of ham-handed coercion Reis practiced. Taking action in those causes made citizens feel good about themselves. Those who were already Republic citizens were inspired to continue good works, and those who were not threw themselves into such causes to earn their citizenship.
Goes on for pages. I don’t give a shit how morally upstanding your oppressive dictatorship is, Devlin Stone is still a poor man’s Dr. Doom. The only interesting thing we learn is that the HPGs themselves are actually satellites that ground- or moon-based installations transmit to. That’s a new one on me, whoops.
Oh, and then we learn that in spite of all of the Republic’s effort to break up ethnic groups, there’s still a strong undercurrent of racism because all the Republic successfully did was plant little enclaves of ethnic groups all over their predominantly white utopia. ASIANS
Anyway, he eventually gets told to tail the Douchebag of the Sphere, which he does (getting caught pretty much instantly, getting him beaten up by her bodyguards). Sam taunts her, and says once he’s free he’s “going to run to the Capellan Confederation where at least there’s some freedom left.”
Sam then gets released, kicks the shit out of his GGF driver and dumps him in a trash can. He then gets pissy about being used as ‘bait’ to lure out the Douchebag’s security detail and then the chapter ends.
Chapter 8
Ghost War posted:
Though the enemy be only like an ant, regard him like an elephant
—African saying
Oh c’mon, you’re not even trying now.
Sam immediately demands to see the Boss, who the GGF mooks call Mr. Handy. Just like a Mr. Johnson in Shadowrun. Like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Handy gives other dicks jobs. A Mr. Handy-job, if you will. Stay classy, book.
Ghost War posted:
So time dragged on slowly. I really didn’t care that they didn’t like me. I actually enjoyed the fact that they feared me. That’s the funny thing about intellectual folks—and it’s only the educated who can get behind causes like endangered species. While they might be willing to embrace violence to further their cause, it’s always some imaginary ennobled form of violence. It’s clean, the one-punch knock-out, where you ask the other guy to say “uncle” and then you accept he’ll act according to his word.
Fuck you.
Anyway, Mr. Handy shows up and Sam demands to know the entire plan to ‘reassure himself’ that he’s not being used as bait. Mr. Handy, being
Anyway, it then jumps to the mission planning stage where Sam meets his team: Wirejaw (the woman he punched), a Japanese man, an Aryan (in case you needed more reason to hate
Sam is going to be driving a MiningMech, one of the only types of AgroMechs that actually makes a little sense, and the plan is to hit the police station and steal all the guns. Sam then says they’re going out to dinner and takes everyone to what is obviously a dead-drop point so he can tell the Douchebag what their plan is so they can all get caught.
Chapter 9
Ghost War posted:
One must plow with the horse one has
—Steiner saying
Yeah, I’m calling bullshit on this “saying.”
Sam goes to get some Space Coffee with one of his teammates and they case the precinct house while they do it. He then goes to Space Starbucks to get his Space Coffee where the sizes are giant, titanic, and leviathan.
Sam antagonizes the barista (he antagonizes everyone) and we then learn what a sick mentality he has.
Ghost War posted:
It’s at that point one usually has to make a decision: will dealing with this person make my life more miserable, or her life more miserable? I saw it as a draw, but ordered a bunch of baked goods to go. While it was a zero-zero thing for her and me, I knew Letitia wold consider the stuff as evil as a rare steak, and that was one in the win column for me.
Letting that sink in…
Our hero can only be happy if he’s actively making the people around him miserable.
Anyway, after making all of his companions thoroughly miserable with baked goods, coffee, and processed sugar, there’s a two-day time skip and Sam starts musing about the limitations of BattleMechs. I actually like this bit, since Stackpole knows his way around fictional giant robots. It’s written simply but Dark Age was an attempt to pull in newer readers which is why the main character is an insufferable manchild.
Sam’s MiningMech has been decorated in Christmas lights and tinsel because IndustrialMechs are apparently commonly used as parade floats.
Prior to their raid, Sam divulges what everyone does to fight their nerves. Of course the Japanese man meditates because all Asians are mystical people with few ties to the physical world and Space Racism. The MiningMech’s name is Digger, so we’re getting closer to the ‘teaser’ at the beginning. Hooray. The first thing Sam does with the MiningMech is carve up the sidewalk and break a water main because he’s a terrible pilot.
Turns out the space police precinct house is full of space police.
Of course it’s a trap (because Sam leaked the op to Janella). Janella arrives piloting a Centurion and of course they have to fight because, ah. Uh.
Anyway, exciting
Ghost War posted:
Had it not been for the condescension in her voice, I might have just shut Digger down, but I couldn’t. Without replying I cut west. Now, if you’d been reading closely, you’d be wondering why I would go west when there wasn’t a roadway there. It was precisely because there was no roadway there that I chose to go that way. While there wasn’t a road, there was a wide alley used for deliveries and I started charging down it as fast as Digger could go.
Semantics.
Anyway, the teaser happens and I’m not going to repeat it. Sam gets caught by the Space Police.
Only 30 chapters to go!