First things first; I offered Takahashi the field second in
command role and he accepted it. It's not that much of a good deal for him;
added responsibilities with only a small bump in pay, but he seemed willing to
take it on. I think he'll do a good job of it, given his experience and the
talent he's shown so far. He's also very unlikely to run off and do something
reckless and halfway to suicidal, which is why I picked him over Will Owens for
the job. I think the only issue is that Dae-Hoon will not appreciate me
promoting a relative newcomer over him, but there's a certain logic to it.
After all, Takahashi's going to be there in the field, not dropping shells on
the enemy form a couple of kilometers back.
Best case scenario is that he gets angry about it and quits.
That would actually solve a lot of problems in one go, even if it does mean
that I'd lose an experienced artillery commander in the process,
Unfortunately, what I am losing is Ransom. As soon as we
were down on Galatea, there were AFFS representatives pretty much knocking down
my door to headhunt him. It seems word of what happened on Fletcher is already
spreading (Major Petrie was clearly impressed) which means the Feds are looking
for experienced and skilled operators to do... Whatever it is he does (I have
some good ideas, mind you...) and hopefully do something to turn around their
situation.
I will miss him, even if he was only with us for a short
period, I understand why. Given his past and the ongoing mystery related to his
family's command. I don't want to see him go, but I cannot compel him to stay
either. It's a pity, as he's a great pilot and possesses a wide array of other
skills, and he was definitely getting along well with several of the unit's
members.
The good news is that I was able to throw him a small bone
on the way out; it wasn't much, but if it provides some clues, even incredibly incoincequential
ones, as to what happened to his family's unit, then it's something. I found a couple
of references to the Highland Gryphons in Annika's personal journals, albeit
post-dated and referring back to some event in the past. Unfortunately, those
events are in the mass of redacted material that forms a yawning black hole in
our past.
What I do know is that, based on known historical record and
those parts of our history that aren't missing, is that our two commands were
on the same side during the Jihad. They both worked for the Coalition, and they
both fought during operations SCOUR and SCYTHE. What I don't know is if they
worked together or even were present during the same planetary campaigns or
even on the same battlefields, but it is a good start. I have a few openings
there that I can investigate, and Nikola says he might be able to turn up
something as well.
Great unsolved mysteries of our time aside, Ransom is
definitely determined to enjoy his last days with the unit. He got dragged into
one of Takahashi and Randy's insane archery contests (along with Shona) and
wound up not only winning it, but also doing such with considerable flair. So
while he cleaned up in the prize pool (oh, and Zhen also made off like a bandit
on the betting) the big win for him was a date with Maria. Given the way the
pair of them were acting this morning, I'd say that it went very well.
I'll also miss his (adopted) daughter Akumi. She was just
the cutest little thing, and the way she got along with Maria was adorable and hilarious
at the same time. The pair of them became sparring partners, something that I
can tell they both enjoyed immensely beyond Maria's usual desire to pick a
fight with anyone (When you're the second tallest person in the unit, you do
that a lot) and laugh about it later. And watching Akumi wail on Maria with her
practice sword was hilarious.
Although apparently I'm not to let Maria's mother know of
this, as she'll start trying to guilt-trip Maria over the fact that she hasn't
presented her with a half-dozen grandchildren yet. Not that I'd know anything
about that either. Ahem.
I have feelers out on recruitment, although it might be some
time before we can get something solid. The current market is insane, with
units forming and collapsing at a rate that hasn't been seen since the Clan
Invasion. There's a large pool of recruits, but finding actual quality is
getting hard given the air of desperation that's settled into the market. There’s
a lot of people out there who are only on the market because they have nowhere
else to go, and a lot who are hiring the first warm body that they will take.
The last thing I want to do is fill gaps with rookies for the sake of making up
numbers and instead wind up hurting our overall unit quality and cohesion.
That's what my father did and that worked out so well for us.
Anyway, I should be getting ready for a 'meeting' of my own.
This isn't business at all, though I could raise the Highland Gryphons issue.
Merc units with long memories and all that.
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