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Yakumo posted:drat, and here I thought my right torso was the one that was going to fall off since I was giving the Summoner right side shots in exchange for not having to run. Oh well, I'll take that trade any day given the massive firepower difference, especially since the Summoner really wasn't that badly banged up. Good luck with the rest of this one. I hope it's just uneventful cleanup but you never know with this game. You lived, they didn't. kingcom posted:RIP that awful dark age book lets read. It's not dead-dead, just on pause. It's hard to muster enough enthusiasm to keep reading Michael Stackpole's Post 9/11 Fascism Fetish The Novel.
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Aug 31, 2017 04:09
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Uncle Chandy is the best Kurita, for the record. Sure, he might basically be a supervillain, but sometimes he uses his supervillain shenanigans to gently caress over people who are way worse than he is, at least later on in his life. Also he's such a great contrast to every other Kurita in existence. Also, really, "is a supervillain" applies to basically any BTech character with any political clout that is also in possession of a functioning brain, IMO.
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Aug 31, 2017 04:18
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PoptartsNinja posted:I can't make this stuff up. Sometimes it's just too unbelievable, haha. I will check out your patreon again then!
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Aug 31, 2017 04:28
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Fraction Jackson posted:"is a supervillain" applies to basically any BTech character with any political clout that is also in possession of a functioning brain, IMO. Case in point: Lord Amaris from several missions ago. With the shades of gray universe Battletech dwells in, is it any surprise we tend to like competent villains? Fraction Jackson posted:Uncle Chandy is the best Kurita, for the record. Not emptyquoting this.
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Aug 31, 2017 04:29
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anakha posted:With the shades of gray universe Battletech dwells in, is it any surprise we tend to like competent villains? When your alternative is usually Victor Davion, almost anyone gets cheered.
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Aug 31, 2017 04:55
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Defiance Industries posted:When your alternative is usually Victor Davion, almost anyone gets cheered. Ahem, Victor Steiner-Davion. The Lyrans had a hand in his failure. Granted, he did lose Arden Sortek's Victor on his very first assignment and proceeded to gently caress up the Lyrans, Davions, Comstar and the Republic of the Sphere for good measure. Also he boned both Kuritans, Mariks and erm, Clan Wolf's Khan. I would have to check Daoshen Liao's birth certificate to check that he wasn't spawned by Victor. gently caress me, Battletech really doubled down on the hosed up bloodlines. I'm just surprised there still isn't a Gray Death descendant still running around.
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Aug 31, 2017 05:04
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drat, normally I gobble up these let's reads, but a few years ago this thread actually prompted me to buy this novel, and it's still on the shelf waiting to be read.
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Aug 31, 2017 05:16
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Jew it to it! posted:Ahem, Victor Steiner-Davion. The Lyrans had a hand in his failure. Granted, he did lose Arden Sortek's Victor on his very first assignment and proceeded to gently caress up the Lyrans, Davions, Comstar and the Republic of the Sphere for good measure. Also he boned both Kuritans, Mariks and erm, Clan Wolf's Khan. I would have to check Daoshen Liao's birth certificate to check that he wasn't spawned by Victor. Melissa was a bad parent, but people routinely call him Victor Davion because A- He only ruled the Lyran Commonwealth for about a year and in that time he made a number of decisions that greatly alienated the Lyrans B- His time in government was characterized by an exclusive interest in the military arm, which his parents (through mutual incompetence) had managed to get people to identify as a Davion institution. I could write pages about how Hanse and Melissa ruined Katrina's legacy of military modernization because they were too impatient and heavy-handed but Victor just rode that wave. C- He spent most of his adult life on New Avalon
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Aug 31, 2017 05:16
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PoptartsNinja posted:I know I haven't finished the Lets Read of the Dark Age book (ugh), but I'm going to Lets Read the first Caballeros novel. I'm going to be putting the money I take in on Patreon this month toward Hurricane Relief charities (as well as as much of my own income as I can budget), so if it encourages even one other person to donate to charity it's worth it. Hey thanks for spreading the word PTN. I'm in one of the places in Houston that actually made it through the storm okay--I had power and internet through almost the entire storm, and food and water to last--and *more than 30 inches of rain fell on my house over the weekend*. To the best of my knowledge helicopter and boat rescues are ongoing just a couple dozen miles to my south. Two friends have probably lost their houses. It's been a weird weekend. So it doesn't get forgotten amidst the drama of the Houston metro area flooding, Rockport took landfall and got battered by winds. Harvey also moved further up along the coast and continued dropping enormous amounts of the Gulf of Mexico onto cities stretching into Louisiana. In case anyone wants opinions, my money has gone to the Houston Food Bank. I'm still trying to figure out a better big-picture charity to donate to because I don't trust the Red Cross, and frankly Houston has money pouring into it right now, but the flooding in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal is going to need attention too. Hope that's not too much of a diversion.
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Aug 31, 2017 05:40
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PoptartsNinja posted:[b]Let’s Read 'The Raid 3056' was the very first thing to enter my head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB-a91k65cw
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Aug 31, 2017 05:42
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Chapter 9 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 27 August 3056 Cowboy, Buck Evans, and some others invade a local bar. There’s some holographic J-Pop idols singing on the jukebox, and Cowboy beats it up until it stops playing music (he is a jackass  ). Zuma, chief of the Caballeros’ Astechs, gets conscripted into helping the bartender set up some right-proper country western music, the Caballeros settle in for some drinks.Archie Weston, Not A Spy is here, hanging out with Cowboy (uh-oh) who dragged him away from Bob Garcia before he could learn too much about the regiment (double uh-oh). The third (and final) member of a group consisting of Cowboy’s only friends is introduced, a bearded cowboy named Rebel Perez. Rebel Perez is Jewish, and has a voice “like sand in a BattleMaster’s hip actuator.” Rebel Perez doesn’t talk much and he’ll be dead by the end of the book, but Cowboy’s friend count will not be diminishing. He will always have precisely two friends, and when one of those dies another will step in to take his place. Cowboy tells Archie he’s going to teach him how to talk “like a Southwesterner.” Fortunately Cassie’s here, so when (at Cowboy’s prompting) Archie approaches Macho Alvarado, one of the unit’s norteños, and introduces himself with “Odale, Cabrón” Cassie can step in. Someone who actually speaks Spanish can correct me, but I’m pretty sure this was a typo and should’ve been orale Cabrón. Which I think means literally: “Hi, Cuckhold!” and is basically an invitation to fight. Cassie stops Macho and then immediately breaks Cowboy’s nose for trying to get the MI4 spy who got sent to spy on a Spanish-speaking regiment despite not knowing any Spanish killed. Cassie is pissed not because an outsider almost died. She does not care about Archie, she’s pissed because if he had died it would’ve made Don Carlos look bad. The only thing she cares about is the regiment, and as far as Cassie is concerned, Don Carlos is the regiment. Archie can’t read Cassie, which bothers him because he’s a womanizer. He is not a very good spy. Cassie casually discusses killing Elementals with boiling sugar and lye, which she calls Kitchen Napalm. I’m not sure if this is a real thing, but it’s another glimpse at Cassie’s broken psyche. She could look you in the eyes while burning you to death and not feel a thing. Cassie explains more of the regiment’s nuances, but it basically boils down to: anyone not of the 17th is a gringo.  The mind of a perfectly healthy and normally-functioning individual. Wait, no, Cassie is a nutjob. She’s an eternal outsider so she can explain aspects of the 17th’s culture that those who grew up nowhere near the Southwest (like myself) that an insider would never even think of needing to explain. Captain Kali MacDougall shows up, she’s the stereotypical tall blonde cowgirl with big breasts. Cassie immediately beats a retreat, leaving Archie with her. Cassie does not like Kali. Kali makes her uncomfortable because Kali cares about something that Cassie doesn’t. Kali cares whether Cassie lives or dies. Cassie wanders the city to think, she doesn’t understand why Kali makes her uncomfortable. She yells at some drunks and glares at some of the local police, who walk around armed with shotguns because that’s just how the Draconis Combine rolls. Chapter 10 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 2 September 3056 Cassie is scouting a parking garage, from which she can see the entire HTE Compound. One of the other scouts she’s brought with her jokes that he could kill everyone in the compound with a Zeus Sniper Rifle. He couldn’t, but a character from one of the later novels probably could. We finally get confirmation that Patsy Camacho is dead in this chapter. She’s as close as the 17th had to an actual typical BattleTech character: A brilliant pilot in a Phoenix Hawk who took on a Clan star by herself to buy time for the regiment, and died for her troubles. Cassie asks some questions of their local handler, and learns that Uncle Chandy owns all the buildings around the complex, each one worth about as much as a battalion of `Mechs. She then immediately asks for her handler to take her to see Uncle Chandy. She doesn’t get to interview him, but does get an interview with the Mirza Peter Abdulsattah. They make small talk for a bit which Cassie has no patience for, and she immediately reveals that she knows he’s Uncle Chandy’s spymaster. The Mirza is not an Arkhab, but he is an Arab in a position of authority in a novel who is not portrayed as a villain. This was pre 9/11, and he is the Jaws to Uncle Chandy’s Hugo Drax. But at the same time, the 17th Recon are now the guys in the yellow jumpsuits. Cassie wants to booby trap the surrounding buildings, the Mirza admits it’s already been done, but then invites Cassie to share her ideas with him anyway just in case she’s spotted an angle they’ve missed. Chapter 11 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 2 September 3056 Pleased with herself, Cassie gets ambushed by Archie Weston as she’s leaving the Mirza’s office. She does not notice his approach, which is the first real vulnerability she’s shown. When Cassie stops acting and starts thinking, she starts hesitating and loses track of her surroundings. She does not see this as a good thing, partly because her crazy old martial arts teacher would beat her for inattention. Cassie is irritated enough to subtly suggest that she knows Archie is a spy, but Archie doesn’t catch it. Archie has a British accent, which is apparently rare enough to be a “curious” thing. She talks about taking down Bobby the Wolf’s Wolverine on Larsha, then mentions Patsy. Archie blunders right into that minefield by asking when he can expect to be introduced to Patsy Camacho, and Cassie tells the full story of Patsy’s death. She took down a Mad Dog and an Adder in her Phoenix Hawk in typical BattleTech Main Character fashion before dying. She was also Cassie’s only friend. Cassie’s teddy bear. I told you Teddy Bears were a theme. Cassie was Patsy’s sidekick, and without Patsy Cassie is slipping farther and farther into misanthropy. Cassie leads Archie to see Zuma, likely so she can use Zuma to scrape the barnacle that is Archie Weston off her rear end, and introduces him to Lt. SG Annie Sue “Avengin’ Annie” Hurd. Mmhm, she was a canon character. Zuma Gallegos is very Mexican in appearance, right down to a tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his back, but he’s Cowboy Payson’s cousin. Another nice little touch.  Annie is innocent and overly credulous, she talks for a bit and then leaves because “Bunny Bear” will start to miss her. Bunny Bear is her Teddy Bear. Teddy Bears. Theme. Still not ready to talk about what that theme is yet. Archie notes that the 17th seems to have a lot of antipathy towards Mechwarriors, and Cassie casually drops that she doesn’t get paid to like them, she gets paid to kill them. Archie distracts himself from his increasing discomfort by asking Zuma where his nickname came from. It’s short for Moctezuma, because Zuma is “head Aztech.” Archie asks Zuma to play a song on his guitar, he plays once about a Captain Carlos Camacho who fought wild Indians in Chihuahua.  Historical revisionism. There is a song for Carlos, and one for Patsy, but Don Carlos won’t let Zuma perform it. Don Carlos has not gotten over Patsy’s death. For all that the books say they are about Cassie Suthorn, she’s not the exclusive viewpoint character—and the real main character of the trilogy is the 17th Recon Regiment. Carlos is the mind of the 17th Recon, Patsy was its soul. Cassie is merely the Regiment’s eyes. Cassie asks Zuma if there’s a monkey pit she can use, and he directs her to HTE’s motor pool. She practices a few katas in the oil pit because fighting on unsteady ground was her Guru’s specialty. This is the part about Cassie that is the most overtly magical / fantastic. There wasn’t a lot known in the early 1990s about Pencak Silat, and Cassie’s Guru is described more like a madman than anything. She seeks out the worst possible terrain to train in and then actively seeks out the same sorts of lovely terrain on the battlefield. Chapter 12 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 2 September 3056 We’re introduced to Lt. Colonel Gordon Baird, the regiment’s intelligence officer. Cassie can’t resist getting digs in at him. The regiment is having a command meeting, but Don Carlos isn’t really paying any attention. He’s lost in his depression. This chapter proves the back cover a lie, Cassie isn’t the only one who thinks Uncle Chandy is paying a lot of money for some fancy gaijin wall ornaments. Kali thinks the same, as does Bobby “Navajo Wolf” Begay. Bobby’s also a madman who named his `Mech Skinwalker, so the other Navajo Mechwarriors shun him. It’s pretty much akin to a modern air force pilot insisting on the callsign “Cannibal.” Anyway, Cassie wants to go underground, drop off the grid to blend with the locals and do some real urban scouting. Cassie “feels” something’s off and the rest of the regiment agrees to Cassie’s request pretty much instantly. Shame on you back of the book cover, shame on you. Cassie surprises herself by thinking about Archie with something other than sheer and utter contempt, even though she’s made him for an MI4 Spy. This disturbs her because he is an outsider. Gavilan “Gabby” Camacho finds faults with the plan because Kali is backing it, Gabby’s got issues with women. Patsy was a brilliant Mechwarrior and he… isn’t. He isn’t taking her death well either, because he never got a chance to beat her at anything, and he’s taking it out on the other women Mechwarriors who are better pilots than he is. Don Carlos has stopped paying attention again, and Cassie worries that the Regiment won’t survive much longer with him barely making it through the day.  Still, he trusts Cassie, and allows her to do whatever she feels she needs to keep the Regiment safe. After the meeting, Kali confronts Cassie in the hallway. Kali won’t let the tension stand between them. She’s about to force herself into Cassie’s bubble, but we’re 28% of the way through Close Quarters and that’s good enough for tonight. Paingod556 posted:'The Raid 3056' was the very first thing to enter my head. That's going to be more true than you realize, but Close Quarters was written in 1994. Cassie Suthorn is basically the Cassandra Cain batgirl... except Cassie Cain was introduced in 1999. Cassie Suthorn is an action hero from a time period where women were just starting to be allowed to be action heroes. Her only other contemporaries were Buffy and Cammie from the Street Fighter movie. Even famous female action heroine Xena, Warrior Princess didn't premier until 1995.
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Aug 31, 2017 05:58
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PoptartsNinja posted:That's going to be more true than you realize, but Close Quarters was written in 1994. Cassie Suthorn is basically the Cassandra Cain batgirl... except Cassie Cain was introduced in 1999. Cassie Suthorn is an action hero from a time period where women were just starting to be allowed to be action heroes. Her only other contemporaries were Buffy and Cammie from the Street Fighter movie. Even famous female action heroine Xena, Warrior Princess didn't premier until 1995. Samus Aran?
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Aug 31, 2017 06:00
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Defiance Industries posted:Samus Aran? Possible but unlikely, Cassie's not that sort of character. Kali is.
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Aug 31, 2017 06:07
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I guess I don't see the difference between Samus and any of the examples you listed
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Aug 31, 2017 06:55
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Welcome to the wonderful Cappellan Confederation. Where we have conscription, child rape, penal battalions, and more! Have you ever wanted to toil in deplorable conditions for low pay under a mad tyrant who is a racial stereotype from a movie made almost two thousand years ago? Boy, do we have your number! And all your other belongings. Because you belong to the state. The Cappellan Confederation: We're the Good Guys, Honest!
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Aug 31, 2017 08:15
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PoptartsNinja posted:That's going to be more true than you realize, but Close Quarters was written in 1994. Cassie Suthorn is basically the Cassandra Cain batgirl... except Cassie Cain was introduced in 1999. Cassie Suthorn is an action hero from a time period where women were just starting to be allowed to be action heroes. Her only other contemporaries were Buffy and Cammie from the Street Fighter movie. Even famous female action heroine Xena, Warrior Princess didn't premier until 1995. Hmm, this doesnt quite sit right, but yeah they're rare if you're looking at film only as a source. I'd cite Ellen Ripley and Sarah Connor as prior examples though, 1986 (as an action character, in Alien it's more a survivor archetype), and 1991 respectively.
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Aug 31, 2017 09:23
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It wasn't meant to be a complete list.
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Aug 31, 2017 09:40
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Robert might finish off the green helo this turn with his LBx. Looks like Drumf is the safest, still pristine and in the safest position of the three remaining helos. Would be funny if he scooted away scot free, every subordinate massacred. RA Rx fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Aug 31, 2017 |
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Aug 31, 2017 10:10
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Zaodai posted:a movie made almost two thousand years ago I didn't know there were making movies circa 1050
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Aug 31, 2017 10:22
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Artificer posted:OPFor just got Battletech'd. The new Btech multiplayer beta had something similar happen. An Urbanmech jumped onto my pristine assault mech as I thought I was wiping the enemy out and he hit his head and BAM, battle lost. It was so fun.
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Aug 31, 2017 10:41
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Yakumo posted:. . . oh well, I'll take that trade any day given the massive firepower difference, especially since the Summoner really wasn't that badly banged up. Good luck with the rest of this one. I hope it's just uneventful cleanup but you never know with this game. Hey Buddy, you straight up murdered Star Commander Hippity Hop and lived to tell the tale (once you get your memories back from the concussion), in-spite of the weight and damage-taken difference. I'm sure he thought he was safe, with his move and jump modifier, plus being in a 'pristine' Summoner. Good Show. Fraction Jackson posted:Uncle Chandy is the best Kurita, for the record. Uncle Chandy is arguably my favorite cannon BTech character, with Anastasius Focht coming in as second. How can you not like a man who sought to take down the Clans by exporting 'Kawaii Culture' at them. Ain't no Victory like a Cultural Victory.
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Aug 31, 2017 11:07
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That was the most :battletech: kill I've seen, that poor stone rhino.
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Aug 31, 2017 12:34
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Given how messed up my mech is, planning to just focus on the secondary objective for now. Does going down two hexes in elevation also cost 3 MP or just one? I'm planning to get up onto the berm at 0805 and then climb down into the boat pens.
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Aug 31, 2017 13:19
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Kickass Harpsichord posted:. . . does going down two hexes in elevation also cost 3 MP or just one? I'm planning to get up onto the berm at 0805 and then climb down into the boat pens. Don't have my books with me right now, although if I recall correctly from the beginning of the mission, its 3 MP to either climb up or down from 0 -> 2 or 2 -> 0.
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Aug 31, 2017 13:29
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If memory serves it is indeed 3 MP (1 for the hex movement and 1 for each z-level difference) and I confirmed it with a quick look in my total warfare.
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Aug 31, 2017 14:56
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Wafflecopper posted:I didn't know there were making movies circa 1050 And that's why you're not a citizen. Now back to the acid mines with you!
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Aug 31, 2017 15:00
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W.T. Fits posted:Also, how many times now does this make it that the biggest, nastiest, scariest 'Mech on the OpFor has succumbed to :battletech: and been one-shot by a lucky head hit? Poptart's dice were blessed by Khorne.
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Aug 31, 2017 18:59
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One time a player was about to get killed by a sudden headshot and he just put in a note saying "here have a point of Edge," then rerolled.
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Aug 31, 2017 19:05
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I got killed by an early headshot and lived to tell the tale.
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Aug 31, 2017 19:28
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CourValant posted:How can you not like a man who sought to take down the Clans by exporting 'Kawaii Culture' at them. He actually got the idea from a play the Lyrans ran in the Succession Wars, trying to stop the Combine by flooding their markets with cheap consumer goods, thus making them dependent on the Lyrans. He guessed (correctly) that unlike the Combine, the Clans weren't smart enough to just put blanket embargos in place. It was actually more successful than the Lyran attempt to duplicate it, since Combine consumer goods are much shittier and therefore actually within the reach of a Clan civilian.
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Aug 31, 2017 23:10
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Defiance Industries posted:He actually got the idea from a play the Lyrans ran in the Succession Wars, trying to stop the Combine by flooding their markets with cheap consumer goods, thus making them dependent on the Lyrans. He guessed (correctly) that unlike the Combine, the Clans weren't smart enough to just put blanket embargos in place. It wasn't that the Clans didn't place an embargo on the imports (Clan civilians are little more than slaves and aren't allowed luxuries, period. Their society simply doesn't produce that class of goods for them. The latent demand drove a massive black market which worked to destabilize the 'worker class', through both subversion and education about outside world. This was all feasible because the good were provided at a loss to Clan space). And that is why I'm a citizen of the Commonwealth and would be a native of New Kyoto if I had to live in the Btech universe. Good ramen aside, there is no better warfare than economic warfare; why conquer with bullets and lasers when you can get them to willingly work for you, to handover their wealth and be another line item in your ledger. Zaodai might have the acid mines, we have the latest gaming systems and holovid bundles.
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Aug 31, 2017 23:37
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I wouldn't want to live in any part of Battletech space. Even being assured that you get to be a giant stompy robot pilot and some degree of plot armor wouldn't be worth it. If I wanted to live in a Battletech style state, I could just move to Southeast Asia or something. All the tech of the 80s, today! Live in a hovel under totalitarian rule! Maybe buy importance in the local area because you have the equivalent of $42 American dollars! I certainly wouldn't want to live in the CapCon. I back them because they're so horribly, amazingly disgustingly written. They're the most hack writer villains ever, but without the excuse of being a one shot villain that dies at the end of the story to never return. They aren't the random thug Batman dangles from a cliff to get information and is never seen again. I'd say they're the Joker, but people take the Joker seriously. I really can't think of a good supervillain analog. It'd be like Batman swinging by every few story arcs to the conveniently located evil-Chinatown populated entirely by rapists and drug dealers. He can't shut the place down for reasons unknown, but he can stop by and give them what-for so you get a few pages of him fighting 50 guys and kicking all their asses without them landing a hit, and then expound about how terrible all the people living in Evil-Chinatown are, and how he's amazing for beating their asses so convincingly. So I can't help but root for them, because at some point, you want to see racist, evil Charlie Brown actually kick the football for once. If only to see if the entire universe explodes because of it.
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Aug 31, 2017 23:47
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That's a p. good reason.
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Sep 1, 2017 00:10
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It's a fine reason, and I see no problem with it. I feel similarly - though not as extremely, or justifiably - about the Free Worlds League, the Successor State whose entire arc has largely been "well, they sure do exist" except in the times when they're falling apart due to civil war or their leaders have been replaced by body doubles. They should be great and yet they're always either getting punked or getting ignored or being used as an object lesson in why society falls apart unless you devolve all power into the hands of the elites, who know better than you, you peasant.
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Sep 1, 2017 00:39
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Chapter 13 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 2 September 3056 We’ve been on the same day for three chapters and it’s been six days since the Caballeros landed on Hachiman. The Caballeros have already convinced the owner of the bar they took over to rename it from the Permissible Repose to the Sagebrush. Cassie and Kali get hit on by Cowboy, who has two black eyes and a broken nose thanks to Cassie. Kali asks Cassie why she hates her, Cassie says she doesn’t and Kali calls bullshit. Kali’s about four years older than Cassie, which puts her at 29 although that’s never explicitly stated. Cassie is terrified at an existential level because Kali actually seems to like her (and Cassie likes her back), which is completely at odds with the façade she’s put up in the nine years she’s been with the 17th Recon Regiments. Deep down Cassie is convinced that she can’t have friends because her friends always Annie Sue “Avengin’ Annie” Hurd gets mentioned again, which leads the conversations back to teddy bears.  That is why Teddy Bears are a theme. They are an emotional safety net in a cold and uncaring universe, and Cassie hasn’t had one since she was three. This is about the point where the 9th Ghost Regiment barges in. Cowboy immediately picks a fight, gets punched in the gut, then punches Buntaro Mayne into the jukebox. Cassie makes no move to help, so long as the violence stays “friendly” (aka nonlethal), but she doesn’t exactly need to since Lainie’s next in the room and orders her ghosts to stand down. It amuses me that Kali is described as “tall” when she’s 5’6.” Cassie introduces Lainie by name and rank, because the Ghosts are sporting their unit patch and Cassie has had six days to do her homework. Buntaro Mayne and Cowboy bond over trying to crush each others’ fingers, pushing Cowboy’s friend count to a whopping four (this won’t last). Lainie is only a Tai-sa, a Colonel, the Combine’s rank for a Battalion Commander, because the DCMS hard-liners would be scandalized if a Yakuza were promoted to general. Not much else happens, but this chapter establishes that the Ghosts are pretty good people who get along with the Caballeros. They bond over their mutual hatred of the Clans. Chapter 14 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 3 September 3056 One day later. A lot of BattleTech novels have week or sometimes even month long jumps between chapters, but it’s important to stress that everything in Close Quarters happens on a very compressed timescale. The final chapter of the novel happens on 2 November 3056. It’s easy to see that the Caballeros are not going to have the time for adequate preparations before poo poo hits the fan. Especially compared to the likes of Ideal War, which starts in May 3054 and ends in March 3055. The average BattleTech novel usually spans six months to a year, the Caballeros are covering the same ground in two. Anyway, Lainie’s been called in for a meeting with her Oyabun, who is an rear end in a top hat. He hates the reforms Theodore Kurita has made to Draconis Combine society, this will be a running theme in the Caballeros novels. Lainie’s Oyabun wants to know what she thinks of the 17th, and takes her casual “they’re foreigners” as dismissive. He views Uncle Chandy hiring the 17th as a disgrace, and Lainie suggests it’s simply a move to inflate Chandy’s ego. Thinking of the Caballeros, Lainie immediately starts thinking of Kali—Cassie had no real impact, she marked Kali as the more capable (and more dangerous) of the pair. Lainie is not wrong. Lainie’s Oyabun begins a tirade against Chandrasekhar Kurita, because of the latest scandal.  I find this funny as hell, considering this is a problem in modern day Japan. The book casually uses eta for the Combine’s ‘nonproductive’ caste, of which the Yakuza are suggested to be a part, and this is one of the things about the trilogy I don’t like. It’s born from several misunderstandings caused by a Samurai novel from the 80s, whose title I can’t for the life of me remember. Eta is not a term to use casually, and it irritates me the same way using “rape victim” for easy pathos does. The Oyabun suggests they’re part of a plot to kill Chandrasekhar Kurita, because OpSec doesn’t matter when you have an opportunity to gloat in front of an underling. Meanwhile, Cassie has gone undercover as a penniless street urchin, and tricks a Yakuza into getting her a job at a club. Chapter 15 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 4 September 3056 Cassie is working in a bar frequented by the Yakuza, after tricking a mid-level Yakuza into vouching for her by pretending to be Mitsuko, a “potato” from a Combine backwater. She owes him a debt, which she repays with a very fancy and expensive pen she stole from one of his bosses instead of paying with sex as he’d been expecting. This makes the Yakuza mark she tricked angry, so Cassie turns him in to the person she originally stole the pen from. Cassie also notes that if her mark tries to lay a trap for her she’ll kill him, but that’s par for the course for Cassie. Deadly violence is always her first (and only) resort. Afterwards, Cassie patrols the spaceport, trapping pickpockets so she can pay them to be informants, and casually murdering a pimp to take over his stable of prostitutes so she can use them to gather information for her as well. According to the prostitutes there’s some tough customers coming through, the kind who don’t speak much and don’t pay money to gently caress prostitutes. They don’t know what that means, and neither does Cassie, but spoilers: they’re ISF. Chapter 16 Masamori, Hachiman Galedon District, Draconis Combine 5 September 3056 Kali is amused that Cassie has murdered a pimp and taken over a stable of prostitutes, but cautions that Don Carlos’ wife would not approve. Cassie is paying the money the prostitutes are making her into the regiment’s Injuries & Disabilities pool—the 17th has single-payer healthcare. They discuss the 17th’s situation and Cassie reveals her plan to find someone who knows a guy who knows a guy who has information she wants. They also discuss Uncle Chandy, and Cassie displays her first genuine human emotion:  Kali then discusses the dead pimp, and Cassie says she had no choice (which is Bullshit). Kali calls her on that, because she knows Close Quarters Cassie Suthor doesn’t have a “stun” setting. Cassie tries to deflect her by saying the murder was done for the sake of the regiment.  And this is what I’m referring to when I say that Cassie is a fundamentally flawed and broken human being. They bump into Archie Weston on the way out but Kali can tell Cassie is trying to dodge him and covers for them. Cassie admits Archie bothers him (because he’s an obvious spy), but they’re startled by distant fireworks. We then get the best line in the novel.  They return to the barracks and Kali surprises Cassie with a Teddy Bear. I’ve pulled a lot of quotes out of this chapter, but it’s fairly dense even if it’s not entirely subtle.  Cassie Suthorn, killer of BattleMechs. So utterly and completely destroyed by a teddy bear (an object that should be meaningless to her) that she spends the next several hours contemplating destroying a stuffed animal with her Kris. Because Cassie’s only resort to external stimuli is violence. Cassie suffers a complete emotional breakdown over being gifted a stuffed animal.
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Sep 1, 2017 00:50
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If only the teddy bear had an auto-shotty, maybe she'd feel better about it.
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Sep 1, 2017 01:09
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Zaodai posted:Welcome to the wonderful Cappellan Confederation. Where we have conscription, child rape, penal battalions, and more! Have you ever wanted to toil in deplorable conditions for low pay under a mad tyrant who is a racial stereotype from a movie made almost two thousand years ago? Boy, do we have your number! And all your other belongings. Because you belong to the state. For someone who likes to cheer on the CC, you've sure made me want a timeline wherein they get systematically dismantled.
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Sep 1, 2017 01:21
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vorebane posted:For someone who likes to cheer on the CC, you've sure made me want a timeline wherein they get systematically dismantled. That's the reason they're written that way. They're designated villains. They exist only so they can be beat up by the good guys and nobody will feel bad regardless of what they do. It's just that it's super hamfisted and poorly done, so I want to see them win out of some measure of spite, I guess? They might as well have just made them orcs or something else non-human.
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Sep 1, 2017 01:23
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See, it's worse than just "The Capellans are Evil", it's also that they're weak. They don't even get the dignity of being a legitimate threat! The 3028 War would have happened with more or less the same results the first time the Davions got a leader with half a brain. If all it takes to destroy you is your opponents digging up someone smart enough to understand Logistics 101, you're not a real threat! And I say this as a long time Davion guy who's high school Battletech Buddy played Liao. The Cappies were screwed from the get-go.
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Sep 1, 2017 01:31
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jng2058 posted:See, it's worse than just "The Capellans are Evil", it's also that they're weak. They don't even get the dignity of being a legitimate threat! The 3028 War would have happened with more or less the same results the first time the Davions got a leader with half a brain. If all it takes to destroy you is your opponents digging up someone smart enough to understand Logistics 101, you're not a real threat! And I say this as a long time Davion guy who's high school Battletech Buddy played Liao. Yeah, that's why my analogy wasn't that they were even supervillains, they were just random mooks the hero would kick the poo poo out of en masse. A joke faction, where the punch line is "everybody else gets in a line and punches the poo poo out of you."
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Sep 1, 2017 01:43
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