The Let's Play Archive

Battletech

by PoptartsNinja

Part 787: Let's Read: Main Event - Part 30

Let’s Read: Main Event (part 30)



Chapter 30
The Cedars, Borghese
14 July 3055

Days elapsed since book start: 338¼
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: 8
Protagonists mentioned but not yet introduced: 1
Antagonists introduced since book start: 3
Antagonists defeated since book start: 1
Chapters spent on Northwind: 5
Chapters spent on Solaris: 10
Chapters spent on Outreach: 4
Chapters spent on Borghese: 13

Rose gathers the members of the Black Thorns for a damage assessment. Hawg’s heirloom Zeus is trashed (gyro destroyed and 3 engine hits). Badicus was nearly killed when the Shadow Hawk’s ejection seat failed and the Shadow Hawk is a total loss, so he’s out of the fight. Esmeralda’s Crescens Warhammer lost a leg and suffered a cockpit fire and she’s badly burned. Knowing how Rose likes to handwave repairs, they’ll probably have the Warhammer running in time for the exciting climax.

The Valkyrie and Raven are both fine, since neither did anything during the fight. Ajax, incidentally, successfully saved the pilot of the BattleMaster. You are a terrible Sneaky Capellan Murder-Master Ajax! What, with your genuine human compassion and willingness to disobey orders to save the life of a downed enemy at great personal risk (Ajax is my second favorite character, he only talks when it’s important to do so and for the most part stands around in the background. I like to imagine he’s wondering what he did to deserve a unit like Jeremiah Rose and I hope after the events of D.R.T. he got offered a position with Wolf’s Dragoons or something).

The Shadow Hawk is repairable, but in terrible shape (they sell it offscreen before the next book). They talk about jury-rigging the Warhammer’s leg back on but claim it’ll snap right off if the `Mech tries to run or anything.

Rose then reveals that normally he’d have asked his sister for a status report on the command lance, but decides to fuck delegation and deliver the report to himself… himself. Yeah.

The Phoenix Hawk didn’t suffer any damage, so it’s fine. The Charger’s been torn up by Rose is going to Plot Device the actuator damage away (probably by focusing his ki and yelling at it), and the Charger’ll be moving full speed again in time for the climax.

We then learn that Rose has gone more than 40 hours without sleep (SHOCKER) and yet still feels ‘surprisingly alert.’ He then gives a ‘rally the troops’ speech, which… y’know, fuck it.



Main Event posted:

“All right, that means we’re down to six pilots and four `Mechs.” He paused and walked into the midst of the group. “I can live with that.”



… That is Jeremiah Rose trying to be inspiring.

He then declares that Esmeralda is the new Marauder II pilot (it has no cockpit, so they’d have to jury-rig something using the Warhammer’s intact but fire-damaged cockpit I guess?), Hawg gets the BattleMaster. Rose th… GODDAMN IT.



Main Event posted:

“Black Thorns, I have the privilege of announcing that a new recruit has offered his services to the unit and has been accepted for immediate duty.

“Welcome aboard, Antioch Bell.”

Now it was Bell’s turn to be amazed. “I didn’t volunteer for anything. Besides, even if I did, my side was taking shots at you this morning, remember?



Rose, that’s not acceptance. In fact, I sense quite a bit of reluctance on Antioch Bell’s part. He asks the Black Thorns if they’d like to offer a spot to Bell, and then… Argh, THIS IS NOT HOW THINGS WORK.



Main Event posted:

“There you go, Mister Bell. A fine example of military protocol in action. You’ve been accepted by the Black Thorns, whether you want it or not. Consider yourself drafted.



So, after press-ganging the only other not-terrible character in the book into his unit, Rose then decides to discuss the Clans with his unit for the readers’ benefit. Rose decides that there’s probably only a Trinary back in Houston, and thinks he can engage those superior numbers with four badly damaged `Mechs, a stolen BattleMaster, a pressed Banshee, and a looted Marauder II. This battle more than doubled the Black Thorns’ firepower, but his pilots are all exhausted.

The plan? Suicide into the Clans while one person tries to get to the HPG to send a warning to the Federated Commonwealth. Rose then doles out repair assignments, giving the badly injured Badicus O’Shea the most dangerous one (ordinance retrieval from downed `Mechs). He then demands that his new slave mercenary, Bell, brief him on the pro-Clan faction in Houston.

Not done with his illusions of godhead, Rose then assigns Rachel McCloud to a `Mechbuster Fighter. The `Mechbuster is an atmospheric (not AeroSpace) fighter that’s essentially an AC/20 with an engine. In combat, it will be the highest priority target on the field since it can’t take cover and has to get close enough to leverage a big gun. We don’t get to see McCloud tell Rose to go fuck himself (she doesn’t), because the chapter ends.