Part 812: Let's Read: D.R.T. - Part 4

Let’s Read: D.R.T. Part 4: What a bitch

This chapter opens with a picture.

Well, ok, last chapter ended with this picture but it belongs in Chapter 6 so whatever.





Chapter 6
Nadir Jump Point, Luthien
Draconis Combine
16 February, 3057

Welcome back guys, it’s been a long four months.

Apparently the trip to Luthien was uneventful, which apparently was ‘quietly dreaded.’ By whom? Jeremiah Rose of course.

Anyway, because House Kurita is trying to hide who’s going to Wolcott from the Smoke Jaguars (who I guarantee don’t give a shit), Rose and company aren’t allowed to talk with anyone outside their mercenary company / Captain McCloud’s dropship crew. Now, the logical person might assume that this isn’t a problem since nobody in the Black Thorns have any family except Jeremiah Rose (and the only family he cares about is right there with him), but for some reason the lack of contact with the outside world has everyone grumpy.

And by ‘everyone’ I mean ‘Jeremiah Rose is annoyed that he can’t gloat at the Highlanders.’ Everyone else pretty much keeps busy and… oh shit. Riannon is the viewpoint character. Goddamn it.

Ok, nevermind, the scene shifts to Jeremiah’s perspective and he spergs out for three pages about Luthien’s recharge station and how rare those are. We then learn that Reannon won’t arrive for another fourteen hours so not only did we unexpectedly shift perspectives we jumped thirty light years to do it.



They dock, and the ‘senior staff’ are invited. That means Rose, McCloud, and someone else pretty much at random. I kinda want them to bring Badicus O’Shea, but the huge angry scottsman from Samurai Jack hasn’t gotten any face-time so far. No, I’m calling it now, Rose is going to bring Antioch Bell. Meanwhile, Riannon will dock alongside them in bay Rhoku.

… Rhoku? I think you mean Roku, book. At least Roku is Japanese for ‘six.’ Sometimes.

Anyway, turns out I was wrong, only Rose and McCloud are going. Rose thought about bringing Antioch, but believe me going without him would be just the same as going with him since he has less personality than a cardboard standee.

So Rose spends a lot of time thinking about McCloud and their “on again, off again” relationship. You declared your lover for each other in the last book and there haven’t been any rocks you haven’t put there yourself, Jeremiah. Stop being a condescending douchebag and—oh. Great.


Ok, blatant oversexualization? Check. I can kinda forgive it since they are in a relationship, but honestly it’s just pandering. And second…

The Black Thorns have a dress uniform?

WHY DO THE BLACK THORNS HAVE A DRESS UNIFORM?!

Ok, thread challenge for fifty bonus points: Design the Black Thorns’ Dress Uniform. Make it as Space 90s as possible.

Right, the book. Sorry, I’m getting distracted because this chapter is boring as hell. Anyway, we’re introduced to Uroshi, a Kurita character who exists solely to lead people through the station because the hallways are all identical and there’re no signs or markings because House Kurita is retarded of “Operational Security.”

… I’m sorry, getting potential rescue crews lost in your space station is a terrible idea. The Clans know those stations, the Clans have a dozen of them. The Clans can build more.

THEY are not going to get lost, Theodore. Your soldiers? Some of the most inept in the Inner Sphere. They’ll certainly get lost. So yes, I refuse to believe this is actually a security feature. Most likely, House Kurita just has crews painting this part of the station and Jeremiah Rose is just a gullible idiot.

Even Rose is so bored of this chapter he’s thinking about other things right now. Mostly he’s thinking about his future with Captain McCloud, which will be especially poignant when he gets trapped behind enemy lines in twenty chapters and has to fight his way back to her steal a bunch of shit and make wheelbarrows full of money.

Anyway, Rose is slightly miffed to find out that the two people here to hand him his marching orders are both Chu-sa rank or, quoth Jeremiah, “roughly equivalent to a light colonel in the Davion system.”



Anyway, Chu-sa Langley and Vaynes start talking and Rose immediately suspects a problem. We then find out that the Smoke Jaguars are spawn camping Wolcott and killing anyone who pops into the system, so they’re using pirate points and extreme security measures and is this chapter over yet? Anyway, Rose listens but—

Ahahahahahaha!

Jeremiah Fucking Rose doesn’t know what a ‘pirate point’ is, so Captain McCloud has to explain it to him in the smallest words she can manage “layman’s terms.” Langley and/or Vaynes (they’re interchangeable) then says that it takes two of the foremost logistics experts working on two of the fastest computers in the Inner Sphere to keep up with the logistical necessities of Wolcott. Rose then contemplates how big a challenge this must be when he and the logistical genius Riannon have so much trouble keeping the Black Thorns supplied.

If that isn’t proof enough of Riannon’s uselessness, nothing is. Chapter over. Langley and/or Vaynes then tells Captain McCloud that if she wants to make the trip in to Wolcott, she’ll have to have an ISF crew. THEN the chapter ends.




Chapter 7
Nadir Jump Point, Luthien
Draconis Combine
16 February, 3057

McCloud is pissed. Jeremiah tries to explain things to her, but since he’s a simpleton it doesn’t go well. McCloud is so pissed she’s turning purple and veiny, which of course Jeremiah notices but politely refuses to comment on I guess? Anyway, Jeremiah gradually calms her down and she accepts an ISF crew since they’re mostly gunners except for the guy who’s going to sit on the bridge ready to shoot her if she disobeys any orders pilot the ship to Wolcott if her bridge crew suffers a tragic boating accident.

Anyway, McCloud storms off and Jeremiah then apologizes for her being a complete bitch, even though her reaction is pretty understandable while Rose is a sociopath. Fortunately, House Kurita’s colonels are sociopaths too so they chuckle. We then find out that McCloud basically has the ISF agents sleep at the gun stations, which they seem perfectly ok with.

Rose then conducts a staff meeting and tells everyone to go sit in their `Mechs for the jump just incase the dropship gets hit so, y’know. They can die slowly over the course of multiple days of drifting in deep space rather than in a few minutes when they suffocate on hard vacuum. Then the chapter ends.

And y’know what, goons? Aside from this and the last chapter, the book’s been moving at a pretty quick pace so far. Next chapter we’ll even be on Wolcott!

… So remind me again why I’m reading this when it’ll take us until Chapter 19 to get to anything somewhat interesting?