From the personal journal of Carrie Bull

On Solaris, it was all too often the case that the outcome of a match would be decided before the fight. I’m not talking ludicrously one-sided matches where it’s obvious that one side doesn’t have a chance (see the infamous Carl “Bossmonster” Kaled versus Herbert Wilks match, for example) but those where someone had a vested interest in seeing one side or the other lose and was going to do everything he could in order to make it happen. Usually that somebody is a criminal, and usually they’re very unsubtle when they decide to lean on their target to make it happen.

Eckhart Stein may not have been a criminal (may) but he certainly was on the slimy side of things. His offer to me seemed innocuous enough, but his second one definitely was the sort of “gentle persuasion” one associates with Solaris Mobsters, even if the threat wasn’t immediate. So when we found out that the Royals were hiding out in some resort town, I was actually hoping that he’d be there with them, if only so I could give him a little bit of a ‘talking to’ about things.

LIC Force Report 6459-8-D/Kamenz (extract)

Based on confirmed battlefield losses and cross-referenced with the known force strength at the point of hiring, it is considered that the Liberty City Royals no longer represent a credible threat or a viable combat force. A brief summary of their current situation is given below in order to elaborate on this assessment.

At present, the Liberty City Royals are believed to possess the following combat assets:

*Six BattleMechs; HMH-6E Hammerhands (Badly damaged, no longer combat effective), CRD-5K Crusader (Moderately damaged), BZK-D1 Hollander III, BLD-7R Blade, MLR-B2 Mjolnir, Koshi 3
*A seventh BattleMech, a PXH-4W Phoenix Hawk was known to be in their possession but has not been seen since they fled the spaceport
*Two Winterhawk APCs
*Two squads of Battle Armour

From the personal journal of Irisz Magyari

Oybin, southern Saxony; Kamenz

"It's inevitable that your employer will go behind your back and pull something without letting your know in advance what they're doing. The only real question is when it will happen and how bad it will be".

I don't remember if that was from Sel's journals, or one of Sonya Brie's terrible pulp novels. Either way, it's a depressing truth of the mercenary trade, as we've learned today. The only good side to this is that it's an employer stunt that hasn't immediately hurt us.

I'll get to that in a minute, however. The good news is that the Royals are no longer a threat to us. I'm not going to lie here; I didn't like Royale from the moment I met him, and when they turned on us there was a part of me that had suspected this would happen all along. I'm also going to admit that the opportunity to deliver a little payback for what he did to us felt good, to say the least.

Victoria Planetary News Internal Memo

From: Frank J. Harris II (Programming department)

To: Randy R. Georges

Subject: Expanding the scope

Randy, we just (well, as of me sending this, which could mean anything to you!) got the first package of material you sent back. The boys were looking at it, an, well, we love it. There's some great stuff in there. Very raw, very visceral, very dynamic material that's bound to grab the attention of the viewers and the sponsors. You've done a great job there so far, and this project has a lot of potential.

Also, that bit you pulled with the VTOL and claiming to be a government spook? Great stuff.

From the personal journal of Carrie Bull

I haven't updated this in a long time. I've had a lot of things on my mind, and that's left me with not much time to think. Though, in truth, I noticed that I wasn't that succinct in keeping it up to date before now.

I admit now that I didn't know Uncle Charlie that well. We hadn't seen each other in years, and we weren't that close. I didn't realise that I was his closest living relative either, so it did come as a shock to me to learn that he'd died and left me his BattleMech. His only wishes were that I use it as I saw fit, but there was a certain logic to joining the Irregulars, and taking his spot in the command lance. It was a chance at a regular paycheck, something that has been in short supply since I left Solaris. Besides, I think he'd be happy that I did. His Scourge may not be Mean Machine, but it’s a pretty sweet ride no less.

From the personal journal of Cecelia Stanley

You know, some days I hate those guys in the assault lance. And some days I love 'em

They're an assault lance. Their job's to stand there and get shot at. I do get that, and I appreciate all that. It does mean that they give me a lot of work to do. Nikola's Carronade seems to come back from every damned fight minus most of its armour and an arm. Not even the same arm each time, either. And don't get me started on trying to keep the Vulture together. I swear, the Foxes must have purposefully engineered it only to use proprietary parts.

But then they also have their moments of genius, and I'm not just talking about Randy's taste in drinks (which is, incidentally, impeccable. I don't know if it’s something he learned in Journo school, but the guy can pick a drink for every occasion). Like take what they came up with today which was genius and might just have been the breakthrough we've been looking for in ending this trainwreck of a campaign.

Quitting while you're ahead, or just plain quitting?

From Solaris City Sunrise, 27 October 3144

Chet Robwell: Now in Games news, the big story of the morning is the sudden resignation of Carrie Bull, not only from Team Red Truck but the games as a whole.

Joe Esposito: That’s right. Red Truck manager Pete Vogel announced her resignation at a press conference this morning. What’s interesting is not just that Bull didn’t give a reason for her resignation, but that she wasn’t even at the conference at all. Now while we can’t say for sure, rumour has it that she has already moved out of the TRT compound, so it looks like she’s really gone.

Robwell: If you ask me, it looked like Vogel himself was caught by surprise there. There are many words that I could use to describe his performance out there this morning, but ‘polished’ and ‘practiced’ are not among them.

Esposito: You and me both, Chet. In fact, I’d say he was about as surprised as everyone else was with this development.

Robwell: And he can’t be happy. He just saw Red Truck’s strongest prospect  since the, uh, change in management here on Solaris waltz off with nary a word to be said. Let’s be fair here, the last few years have not been kind to that team.