Part 768: Let's Read: Main Event - Part 10
Let’s Read: Main Event (part 10)Chapter 10
Solaris City, Solaris
7 August 3054
Days elapsed since book start: 107
Mercenaries recruited since book start: 2
Mercenaries recruited off-screen: 1
Things accomplished since book start: 1 (Rose took a nap)
Protagonists introduced since book start: 4
Protagonists mentioned but not yet introduced: 1
Antagonists introduced since book start: -2 (Warwick and Scoggins likely won’t see any comeuppance for the murder)
Chapters Spent on Northwind: 5
This chapter opens with a new character.
… Wait, what?
A colossal drunk Scottsman exits a local pub, being escorted by a whore.
Main Event posted:
“You’ll be lucky to survive the night, let alone the match, O’Shea. Elaine is more than a match for your oafish advances.” Roars of laughter followed the insult. O’Shea staggered in feigned shock.
“You wound me, but I have no time for the likes of you.” O’Shea spun around, as if to leave, but instead lifted his kilt to the building. Pausing only a moment, he jumped out of the direct line of fire as several bottles and a full mug of ale flew through the doorway and into the street. Jeers chased the giant as he hustled away […]
… h-have I gotten my books missed up? Are we reading about someone interesting? Well, no and kinda. Meet Badicus O’Shea or, as I like to call him, the man who should have been Jeremiah Rose. Anyway, pretend I didn’t call Badicus by his first name, since we haven’t learned it yet. Badicus laughs about his ‘crude joke,’ which is one he’s pulled before apparently. He also towers over Jeremiah Rose, he has a full beard, and pilots a Warhammer. He is basically “The Scottsman” from Samurai Jack but with a Battlemech.
In other words: he’s a fun and interesting character so he’s going to get sidelined by chapter sixteen and <redacted> kill him in the next book.
Anyway, his girlfriend cautions him to get some rest before the fight tomorrow. Badicus scoffs, since he thinks Warwick is an imbecile. Someone (Jeremiah Rose) then tells Badicus that he’s underestimating Warwick.
Main Event posted:
O’shea judged the speaker to be in one of the adjacent doorways, but he couldn’t be sure which one. Adrenaline kicked in as he reached instinctively for his trusty Sunbeam. Maybe those last three drinks hadn’t been such a good idea after all. He slipped the safety strap off the pistol and scanned the sidewalk.
“Knowledge of your foe is half the battle,” came the voice.
FUCK YOU, Jeremiah Rose.
Badicus, of course, assumes that Rose is an assassin sent to kill him. He’s pretty confident, since he’s “one of the fastest draws on Solaris” (of course.
); but he’s not concerned even though he knows his teammate was just killed three days ago.Anyway, he stands there doing nothing for a few minutes and is about to decide the entire conversation is a figment of his imagination when Jeremiah bushwhacks him. Badicus decides he would’ve been knocked out if he were less drunk; but stays standing and tries to fight back.
Rose, being a drunk and well-rested sociopath, kicks his ass.
Rose declares ‘nothing personal’ (which is code for: he’s the hero so it’s totally ok for him to be a colossal dickhead and beat up a future member of the Black Thorns) and hits Badicus with… wait a second.
Main Event posted:
“Believe me, there is nothing personal in my actions,” the voice said. Then, in a blur of motion, both [Rose’s] hands reached out and clapped O’Shea over each ear. In the fraction of a second he remained conscious, O’Shea could not help but notice that the air trapped in his outer ear made a sound just like that of a landing DropShip. The pitch of the engines increased as the attack forced the air past his eardrums and into his middle ear. When the DropShip landed, O’Shea lay unconscious on the street.
… that probably would’ve ruptured his eardrums. Jeremiah, why must you ruin everything you touch?
We then finally get the reveal that this is Jeremiah Rose; which was pretty blatantly obvious even without me spoiling it.
Rose then tells Elaine that Badicus will be ok “in about an hour.” Since he’s Rose, he’s right; but that’s still stupid since he’s not a doctor. Rose is surprised when Elaine has drawn a gun on him, and laments that Solaris VII’s gun control laws seem ineffective. Elaine laughs and reveals that she is an assassin sent by Warwick.
Main Event posted:
“You really seemed to care for O’Shea back at the bar.” Rose kept his eyes on Elaine, shifting his view between the pistol and her eyes.
“I’m a natural actress. Could you really like, let alone love, a man like that?”
YES. Badicus O’Shea is the ONLY GOOD CHARACTER the Black Thorns will ever have.
We learn that Rose is “irrationally” afraid of Needlers, but he decides that after wussing out and not fist fighting a gun on Northwind that he must reestablish some man-cred and so lunges at Elaine. He of course, gets hit in the shoulder (ETA until he bleeds to death: 5 minutes). Rose gets hit again in the ‘left ribs’ (gee, it’s a good thing the needler spread missed his heart and lungs (ETA until he bleeds to death: 2 minutes)). Rose recovers Badicus’ laser and kills Elaine on the spot with a single shot.
He then shoots her again, just to be sure; and runs away into the night to avoid being beaten up by lieutenant Viets again.
Then the chapter ends.