"It
was a seemingly inevitable part of a Mercenary's life. In every unit, it seemed
that everyone had something in their past that they were not proud of, and
eventually, whatever it was, would catch up to them one way or another."
I have a fondness for Sonya Brie's terrible
pulp novels. They're not my "thing I'm not terribly proud of", but at
the same time, for all the dross there's still the odd nugget of truth within
them which makes me wonder. The quote above is one of the most that I've found
to be the most poignant since I took command of the Irregulars. Everyone does
have a past, and eventually it will come back to haunt them.
(God alone knows that Dad left me with
plenty of that)
Stepping back a moment before I get to the
point. While I can't say I have a full grip on what the QLF were trying to achieve
with their artillery attacks beyond 'random indiscriminate terror' (and suspect
that they were intending to use the nerve gas they'd been manufacturing) it
didn't work out for them. The Irregulars pushed them back, inflicting crushing
losses on their forces. Commander Zaryos and I are still working out the
details, but it’s looking like we might
have burned through most of the QLF’s operational strength already. They could be running on empty,
especially if theories that their units are being drawn from a cache are true.
The presence of several BattleMechs among
the QLF was a surprise, however. They hadn’t been known to use them before today, which makes me wonder just
how bad we’re hurting them if they’re bringing out machines they can’t support and clearly aren’t that familiar with. Either that, or they’re being backed by someone off-world who’s willing to throw them a lifeline.
Back to the quote. What happened today with
Takahashi is a prime example of that. On the surface, he’s professional, driven and by the book, which I
appreciate. He’s also a Drac from a
noble background, which makes me really wonder what he was doing on Galatea
looking for a billet. I’m beginning to suspect
that it may not have been entirely his choice.
Takahashi’s assault lance were in pursuit of a fleeing QLF artillery unit. It
was the usual mess of Strikers, Scorpions and Zukhovs that have been their
mainstays, we well as a Blackjack who’d demonstrated little tactical sense. By the
time they caught up with them in the badlands, they’d made a rendezvous with a War
Dog. The MechWarrior inside made it clear that he wasn’t one of the QLF regulars, instead calling out
Takahashi, saying that he was here for him and him alone. He challenged
Takahashi to a duel, appealing to his “Combine Honour” for the pair of them to
fight alone with nobody else interfering. Takahashi accepted.
Now as a hunch, I’m going to assume that the War
Dog’s warrior was a bounty hunter who was
after Takahashi for reasons unknown but likely relating to just why he was
hanging out on Galatea. If so, then his calling Takahashi out on a duel made
sense; it meant that he could take down his target without Lee and Randy
teaming up on his ‘Mech. It also had the
side-effect of letting those two pummel the QLF forces senseless without a
heavy ‘Mech at their backs,
which they gladly did.
The duel was… interesting. Looking at the BattleROM footage, it’s clear that the War Dog’s pilot had thought
this through. High ground and cover would limit the effectiveness of the Akuma’s “scattershot” approach, while allowing him to use his own
Heavy Gauss Rifle at range to soften him up and offset the weight advantage. It
worked well at first too, the rifle doing a hellish amount of damage to the already
battered Akuma. However, Takahashi
also proved to be rather resilient and determined, constantly advancing and
grouping his shots well. The Bounty Hunter made one big mistake in allowing
Takahashi to get close enough to use his full arsenal, which changed things a
lot.
From what I saw, the pair of them unleashed
full alpha strikes at each other. On the surface, Takahashi got the worse of
it, the Heavy Gauss shattering his Akuma’s leg. On the other hand, his missiles gutted the Dog’s side, appearing to gut the ammo bins
for the HGR (EDITOR’S NOTE: Three crits that
took out all the remaining HGR ammo. The one bin that wasn’t hit had already been emptied) as well as
sending up a massive heat bloom that screamed ‘cracked shielding’ to me. Both of them went
down, hard.
At which point, the Bounty Hunter asked if
Takahashi was willing to call it a draw and let him withdraw. He agreed.
During all this time, Lee and Randy had
burned through a swarm of QLF troops, crippling or capturing a good half-dozen
vehicles. Randy even intercepted some communications between the QLF and the bounty hunter; it seems that he’d showed up to target Takahashi, and they’d just assumed that he was going to bail them
out. By accepting his duel, Takahashi has effectively taken him out of the
fight. There’s a moment in the
BattleROMs where Lee’s Vulture pretty much runs between the two of them, which shows you
how much he cared.
Of course, this leaves the big question as
to why there was a Bounty Hunter after Takahashi, and who put them onto him in
the first place.
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