Hamilton Planetary Guard prisoner interrogation log (extract)

Agent Kryztov Hussan (Hamilton Planetary Guard): Let’s be honest here, mister Nurzal. Those alarms? That was a group of your QLF ‘comrades’ trying to get in here to kill you. Not extract, kill.

Biebol Nurzal (QLF):  You’re bluffing.

Hussan: Am I? You’re a self-proclaimed cell leader, Biebol. You should know that you’re too valuable to be left in our custody. And you should know that it’s a lot easier to leave a dead body then to try to smuggle out a wounded man, especially in the middle of a gunfight.

[Pause]

Hussan: Now your associates weren’t very successful. Two of them are dead, and we have three more in custody. They might be willing to talk, especially as they saw one of theirs chopped in half with a Vibrokatana. That sort of thing can loosen a few tongues.

[Pause]

Hussan: And if they give us something useful, well, that means you’re less valuable to us. That mean we’ll downgrade your protection, which means that you’ll be more accessible to your QLF ‘friends’. Now as touching as a reunion might be, I suspect you don’t want that.

Business Leader slain in terrorist bombing

(Hamilton Newsweb Archives; November 23 3132)

Kazan City – Authorities have today confirmed the death of Sayyid Niyazi, a prominent local business leader, in what appears to be a random terrorist attack.

After being missing for several days, Niyazi (47) was confirmed killed by a roadside bomb or landmine. According to a police statement, Niyazi was driving alone when his groundcar struck an explosive device on or about the 8^th of November. The explosives completely destroyed his vehicle as well as his body, leaving only trace DNA evidence and behind. An extensive police search recovered the vehicle two days later, but at the time no evidence of his death could be found or confirmed.

Bart McGraw, MRBC Report

Irisz - I think I tracked the identity of the hunter who came after Takahashi.  Fortunately, his 'Mech was nicely distinctive. It doesn't tell us much about who posted the bounty immediately, but we could track back from there.

-NK

McGraw, Bart

Date of Birth: 21/09/3108

Homeworld: Cygnus, Fronc Reaches

Affiliation: Independent/Bounty Hunter

Rank: None

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

"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)

Audio Log File #75213-Rho

Major Irisz Magyari: I can guess why you asked to see me.

Commander Roxana Zaryos: I think we both can agree that we should be honest with each other here. After what’s happened in the last few days, I can’t see anything that will be gained by doing otherwise, and I certainly think that we both want the same things here.

Magyari: Given what my men discovered, I can agree entirely. Commander Zaryos, I’m not the sort of mercenary who’s going to rigidly stick to a contract and not deviate from it an inch, and I’m not going to sit idly by and do nothing because it’s not what I’m being paid for. What the QLF showed was a capacity to do a lot more than we had anticipated, and I want to prevent that from happening.

Zaryos: Understood and appreciated, Major. However, I would like a full accounting of exactly what happened today.

Magyari: As long as nothing I say goes beyond this room, and there are no repercussions on my men. I take full responsibility for their actions.

Zaryos: Entirely fair. Of course, right now, punishing them is the last thing on my mind. My people have been hamstrung by integration into the League, and SAFE oversight is strangling a lot of our efforts to infiltrate and gather information on the QLF. They achiever a massive breakthrough. I still need to know how they did it.

Breaking News: Terror in Kazan City

(Extracted from the Hamilton Newsweb)

Terrorists believed to be connected to the Qizilqum Liberation Front struck Kazan City in an attack apparently directed at key government and military officials. However, support from mercenaries hired by the Hamilton planetary government allowed planetary guard forces to swiftly resolve the situation while limiting losses and damage.

Details are still unclear, but it appears that at approximately 2000 hours Kazan City time, a force of at least a dozen QLF insurgents stormed the Kazan City convention center, interrupting an event in progress. Securing the building and shutting off the power, the QLF forces took those inside hostage, including district governor Rashid Zaydid, Planetary Guard district commander Roxana Zaryos and mercenary commander Irisz Magyari.

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Reading my great-great grandmother's journals were rather helpful to me when I unexpectedly inherited command of the Irregulars. In some ways, her situation mirrored mine, and she was likely even less ready to lead than I was. However, in reading them, two other things also became apparent to me. The first was just how vain and self important Sel could be at times, and yet how well she did in spite of it.

The second was just how much trouble her men would manage to get into, and how difficult they could make her life. Even when the unit was on a quiet, low-key contract they could still cause trouble. Looking back at it, I'm beginning to wonder if the feud with the Roughnecks wasn't caused by some of them picking a fight or inadvertently insulting someone else.

Today's events reminded me a lot of some of her stories.