Journal Extract #75771-Rho

The return of the Irregulars to Galatea has Kept me rather busy. In addition to my usual babysitting duties, I've been keeping an eye on them as needed, and there has been a few interesting things to report. The first is that it's clear that they suffered A few losses along the way; not only are there a few gaps that were hard to hide, but Magyari almost immediately began putting out feelers for new people. That could be useful to us immediately.

I'm still trying to get the details of where they were and what they did, but the other interesting thing is that they offloaded a pair of strays that they seemed to pick up along the way. One of them was outwardly pretty harmless and, I'm also going to say, probably not really worth our time. The second, however, turned out to be a lot more interesting and came very close to causing a massive and only narrowly averted disaster for us. But more on that to come.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

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,

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

We're away from Fletcher; I’m writing this while we're accelerating, so my thoughts are probably not at their most rational. I'm tired, I'm worn from the battle and I've got g-forces adding to everything else that's on my mind.

That last fight was a mess, to put it bluntly. The First Liao were dug in hard and were willing to fight to the death to stop us from getting to our objective. They had hardened walls, TAG-guided Arrow missiles, gun turrets, Battle Armour and plenty of top of the line and Stealth armoured 'Mechs to make our lives miserable. We had a few tricks of our own; using Artillery to root our their units and demolish their fortifications, airdropping Battle Armour and the like, but it still hurt hard.

From the personal journal of Bruce Wolf

Bloody hell. Meeting someone again that you have not seen in ten bloody years is always going to be awkward, but seeing Ivar again after so long was definitely a right mess.

Me and Ivar knew each other from back in the early Steel Wolf days. The pair of us trained together and it’s fair to say that there was a bit of a rivalry between us. I mean, we were not at each other’s throats all the time, but we definitely did get along like a house on fire. And while we ended up in different Trinaries, I could tell that he was always looking to have a go at me. And when he got left behind I knew that he’d be mad as a cut snake.

So when I ran into him ten years later, I knew that there was going to be a bit of blue happening there. I mean he did not immediately spit the dummy at me, but I knew he was not going to be happy about going from Clan Warrior to Cut Lunch Commando and then all the way to Dole Bludger while I at least got a shot at getting all grouse on Terra, Skye and wherever else. I mean, even if it did not work out as planned, I got to have a go while all he did was pick his nose.

Ivar Wolf

Just doing my job and all - NK

Given how much we're trusting him with, I thought that it might be worth knowing a bit more about our would be ally, Ivar Wolf. I agree that he is still our best bet at cracking Fenris Isle, but I also think that it's worth keeping an eye on him. While I feel that he has no love at all for the Cappellans, it's not like he has a clean background as you'll see

Ivar was born Ivar Grodenko on Buchalu in 3106. He comes from a blue collar family that, even despite the Republic's best efforts, was only just on the edge of the poverty line. While never proven, there's evidence that Viktor Grodenko, his father, was involved with organised crime. Young Ivar himself seems to have struggled with his schooling and even had a juvenile criminal record at one stage. After leaving high school, he landed a factory job that seemed to keep him mostly out of trouble, but there is no indication that he tried to attain (or had any intention of attaining) Republic citizenship. Apparently he was bought in for questioning at least once by local authorities, but no charges were laid.