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.

From the personal journal of Bruce Wolf

So the newcomers have been with us a bit now, and had their first, real, live mission. And what can I say but crikey, it was a bloody success! They took down umpty-dozen of those QLF mugs and captured their Grand Poo-Bah. Now that’s that is some bloody good fighting! I mean, we all still miss the old guys, and what happened to them, well, that’s that is what you should expect from dezgra Falcons, but at the same time, these new blokes seem to be shaping up all right.

Of Drinks and Dogs

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was overheard in the Irregulars’ common room, during a discussion between Takahashi, Lee and Randy. After a few attempts to get a a “real drink” from Bruce Wolf, Takahashi related the following tale)

There was, at one time, a lady that I was quite enamoured with and due to some opposition from her maternal grandfather we had complicated meeting arrangements.

We had found a location that suited our purpose and she was using the excuse of walking her Sapsaree (it's a dog, you know) to leave her family's house. One evening, in the autumn, it was becoming too cold to leave the animal outside so she brought it in with her.

Now Sapsaree are known for being gentle, playful, loyal and protective. This example of the breed was all except the first. I'll never know whether the hair had covered the beast's eyes, but it went for me as soon as it entered the room. Though only medium size, Sapsaree are quite strong. In my valiant efforts to fight the thing off without doing it a permanent injury I fear that I completely lost the lady's respect. It's not helped that the breed's nickname is "ghost hunting dog" perhaps she

believed me to be some kind of bakemono.

I only saw her once more after that, in completely different circumstances, and I fervently hope that she didn't recognise me.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Any further explanation was cut off by Takahashi’s passing out)

Hamilton's Ten Worst Buildings (extract)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following post was discovered by Randy R. Georges during his investigation into local politics)

Previously in the Architecture Blog, we’ve looked at buildings that were the wrong design for the right time, and ones that were the right design for the right time. Today’s building is that most unique of types; the wrong building at the wrong time built for the wrong reasons.

The Kazan City convention centre was first proposed in 3129 to fulfil a need that simply didn’t exist. Kazan City had no existing major convention space and was neither a major tourist nor business destination. On paper, the idea was to create a convention space that would draw people and business to the city, but at the same time, there were a lot of questions as to if a convention centre alone would be a major draw. Regardless, district Governor Sukhrab Kentau was convinced that the project was a good idea, and had thrown the weight of the district government behind it.

Kazan City politics

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The following blog post was discovered by Randy R. Georges during his investigation of the local media)

So how’s this for a thankless job? Be the governor of a region that’s both economically depressed and the hotbed for a terrorist/revolutionary/whatever movement? And on top of that, have somebody further up the food chain bring in outside contractors as a way of telling people that hey, you can’t do your job so we’ve hired someone to fix your mess for you.

Want that job? Because I’m beginning to think that Rashid Zaydid, the governor of the Kazan district, certainly doesn’t.