Part 782: Let's Read: Main Event - Part 24

Let’s Read: Main Event (part 24)



Chapter 24
Houston, Borghese
12 June 3055

Days elapsed since book start: 306¼
Mercenaries recruited since book start: 6
Mercenaries recruited off-screen: 1
Things accomplished since book start: 1 (Rose took a nap, Rose got a Charger)
Protagonists introduced since book start: 7
Protagonists mentioned but not yet introduced: 1
Antagonists introduced since book start: 3
Antagonists defeated since book start: 0
Chapters spent on Northwind: 5
Chapters spent on Solaris: 10
Chapters spent on Outreach: 4
Chapters spent on Borghese: 13



McCloud, being a transport Captain who hasn’t transported anything for six months because of Jeremiah Rose, is preparing for a run to a nearby planet. Rose immediately suspects Rachel will never return and so settles in to have a chat with his new BFF Alexander Graham Antioch Bell. Bell, incidentally, is pretty much a non-character. He exists entirely so Jeremiah Rose will have someone to exposit at.

Jeremiah Rose then begins waxing existentially, and delivers this gem:


I know, Rose. Nor do you understand anyone else. Nor will you ever have the capacity to. We then learn more about his relationship with McCloud and that things are great while they’re on the ship (and Rose has nothing to do) but the moment they land he gets so wrapped up in his ‘Mercenary Leader’ thing that he doesn’t talk to McCloud for weeks.

Antioch then points out that maybe, and he’s speaking hypothetically, but just maybe Jeremiah Rose doesn’t actually love Rachel McCloud. He then points out that if Jeremiah is really concerned, he should, and this may be a stretch and be as difficult for you all to understand as it is for Rose to understand, but…







HE MAY WANT TO POLITELY ASK CAPTAIN RACHEL McCLOUD NOT TO LEAVE.

Jeremiah immediately responds with ‘but I offered her a position in the unit! ’ and our friend Obvious Foil points out that that is, in fact, different from asking a person you care about not to leave. Rose recognizes that there is a semantic difference but refuses to actually do anything; then immediately starts thinking about his old unit in the ComGuards and how he was sleeping with one of the soldiers under his command.

…

…

I…

This is the first time I’ve ever noticed the implications of that one little sentence. That is grossly unprofessional. I know Battletech has always been a bit free with the ‘X is sleeping with Y, and not necessarily for a good reason’ but I can’t imagine any military ever tolerating a situation like this. Except maybe Sparta’s military. And yes, I understand the ‘soldier under his command’ was a woman, but that doesn’t excuse it. It just makes my head hurt.



We then cut to Crenshaw at his ‘second home’ (he is rich, remember. That makes him immediately untrustworthy, he’s a stand-in for the fat bastard back on Solaris now). Crenshaw is entertaining Hauptmann Morgain. Nothing will come of this, I’m certain.

Crenshaw then admits to being the leader of the pro-Clan faction, and asks for Morgain’s help. Being a good officer, Hauptmann Salander Morgain laughs in Crenshaw’s face genuinely considers Crenshaw’s offer then decides to be the first public supporter of the pro-Clan faction.

He then asks, out of the blue, what will happen to the Black Thorns’ gear. Crenshaw suggests that Morgain would be an adequate caretaker for it, once Rose has been eliminated.

… Wait, what? They weren’t talking about the Black Thorns as anything other than a ‘may have to be talked to once power changes’ sort of thing, and now suddenly they’re plotting to kill everyone so Morgain can keep the `Mechs? Anyway, Morgain then leaves and Crenshaw has a sinister conversation with...

… one of the people who hired the Black Thorns in the first place? Is this supposed to be a ‘dun-dun-duuuuun’ moment? Because it falls so flat it makes Hayden Christensen look animated. Who the hell is Hoffbrowse again; and if even I can’t remember, why do we care?

Regardless, chapter over (it’s a short one (they all are)).