Part 794: Let's Read Warrior: En Garde - Part 4

Let’s Read Warrior: En Garde (part 4)

Book 1
Chapter 7
New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Suns
27 December 3026

This is odd, compositionally. I never noticed that Chapter 7 took place before chapters 5 and 6 before. It’s not a bad choice, I’m just used to thinking of the events of a Stackpole novel as linear. Anyway, they’re waking up Justin Allard. He was sedated for the trip to New Avalon, apparently (that’s a long time to keep someone sedated; especially on a JumpShip). We also get treated to Justin’s hallucinations as he wakes up, but they’re pretty tame honestly.

Justin wakes up to bandages over his eyes and immediately worries that he’s blind. He asks the doctor to remove the bandages protecting his vision since the drugs he’s on cause pupil dilation. We then learn that Justin thinks in excessively military terms [quote: “Any problem I can see, I can defeat.”].

Justin then learns his arm has been lost and replaced with a godhand ROBOT HAND.



Book 1
Chapter 8
New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Suns
8 January 3027

Politics! In most other series, this chapter would be boring or wouldn’t fit. In BattleTech? It’s par for the course, and fits perfectly.

This chapter also takes place before chapters 5 and 6, although we’re narrowing the gap. We’re introduced to Quintus Allard and Hanse Davion. Quintus nods at a guard and then Hanse comments that he looks worried. We find out he’s got a message from Duke Michael Hasek-Davion, and that Duke Michael has sent ‘representatives’ to New Avalon. Representatives whom Quintus Allard has detained for ‘routine medical checks.’

King Arthur Hanse and Merlin Quintus call for Sir Lancelot Ardan Sortek and they discuss what Mordred Duke Michael is up to. Ardan is immediately suspicious and knows instantly that Duke Michael is involved without Hanse saying word one to him. Anyway, they play the disc and are assaulted by Michael’s personal logo (which is a lion) on a field of green. Ardan comments that it’s looking very Capellan, and Hanse wonders if Michael has been talking with Max Liao (spoiler: yup).

Anyway, Duke Michael then calls Justin Allard a traitor and has assembled a mountain of circumstantial evidence to prove it. He then threatens to pull the Capellan March out of the Federated Suns if Justin isn’t tried for treason because

Anyway, Hanse then seriously considers whether or not Justin actually is a traitor, and consults Quintus about it. He’d rather be certain than not, and Hanse is many things but a fool isn’t one of them. Hanse then decides to use Michael against Max Liao, but we don’t learn his evil plan just yet. Moustache twirl. They decide to feed Michael some slightly inaccurate troop data, to see how Max Liao deploys his defensive forces and see if there really is a leak in the Capellan March (spoiler: there is). Chapter over.