Audio Log File #75819-Rho

Voice 1 [Female; 50s; accent suggests Capellan March or Taurian]: So following up from your last report, there's something that caught my eye, and I'd like to know more about it.

Voice 2 [Male; 40s; no discernable accent, native English speaker]: Go on.

Voice 1: You said that Magyari's date was from another Merc unit. I wanted to know more about that; who they were, who they're with and the like.

Voice 2: I figured you would, actually. I have a few things for already.

Voice 1: Such as?

Voice 2: As mentioned, the mystery date was Terry McKinnon, the possible heir to McKinnon's Marauders. It's complicated, but I can give you the short version of it.

Voice 1: I'm listening. Give me what you have, already

Voice 2: I can dig up the MRBC file on the Marauders, but I can give you a few things straight away. They're an old unit that have been around for over a century. They were nearly wiped out during the Clan Invasion due to a Combine noble trying to screw them over, but they managed to bounce back through some rather audacious recruiting. One of the then heir-apparents, James McKinnon, headed on Solaris and started by picking up people from there, and managed to make it work.

Voice 1: And what does this all have to do with Magyari?

Voice 2: I'm getting to that, actually. It gets interesting after they leave Solaris, as the unit goes back onto the Merc market. I did some poking around already, figuring you'd ask something like this, and found some oddities.

Voice 1: What sort of 'oddities'?

Voice 2: There's a couple of moments where the unit 'vanishes' during the thirty-fifties, and it seems that those can be connected to ComStar of all things. These came about after the unit was charged with War Crimes, then broke out of prison, picked a fight with the Dragoons and then managed to get the charges dropped. What actually happened was covered up and all the records vanished with the destruction of Outreach, so we'll probably never know, but it seems that they made friends with ComStar as a result

Voice 1: Okay, now y'all have got my attention

Voice 2: That seems to have turned into a long-term alliance. They wound up getting involved with a blow-up with the Word on Epsilon Eridani that's been hushed up as all hell, but that seems to have had some flow-on during the Jihad. They went back there during the Jihad as a part of the Coalition’s liberation of that world, where what do you know, they were fighting alongside Magyari's unit.

Voice 1: I see. And that would be after...

Voice 2: Exactly. Again, details are scarce, but it appears that Annika Magyari and James McKinnon came to some sort of agreement that went beyond simply working alongside each other. That's going to take some digging to get to, but it's an interesting start.

Voice 1: Anything else?

Voice 2: Apart from the unit spawning one of the great novelists of the 31^st Century, not much that I can immediately find. That and those gaps are the most interesting

Voice 1: Keep digging then. I want everything you can find on this little affair of theirs. Speaking of, I want to know more about this McKinnon she's seeing

Voice 2: Jealous much?

Voice 1: Just get on with it. You said it was complicated.

Voice 2: Well yes. Thomas McKinnon is the unit’s current commander. He's in his sixties and while he's still active, it's clear that he's looking to retire and pass the unit in to his son, Damien. What complicates things is that Terry is also his, albeit illegitimate via an old fling and the older child to boot.

Voice 1: [Muttered]

Voice 2: What's that?

Voice 1: Go on

Voice 2: Terry apparently walked into the scene after Thomas had already planned to pass the torch to Damien

Voice 1: Okay, I can see how that would cause some dynastic strife.

Voice 2: At the moment, it looks like Terry isn't in line to inherit the command unless something happens to Damien.

Voice 1: So he's free to carry on an affair with the commander of another unit with no complications.

Voice 2: Exactly. I doubt that this is intended as any sort of alliance or attempt to build a combined dynasty. Rather, I'd wager that the pair of them are dating because they are romantically attracted to each other, as unlikely as it seems.

Voice 1: If that was intended as a dig at me-

Voice 2: Not at all. Merely an observation.

Voice 1: Of course. [Pause] So this is very interesting. Could be something we could use. Though I'd like to find out a bit more about this arrangement between the two commands and, if needs be, what it was they did during those missing gaps.

Voice 2: I'll get to work then.

Voice 1: Because if she gets... Yeah, that could be a problem.

Voice 2: What was that?

Voice 1: I ain't paying you to stand here gawking. Get to work.

Voice 2: Of course.