Date: February 20, 3027
Location: Solaris VII
Title: Warrior: En Garde
Author: Michael A. Stackpole
Type: Novel
Synopsis: Justin Xiang surprises Fuh Teng as he and his technician, Tung Yuan, work on their Vindicator’s PPC assembly, and says he wants to fight for Teng. Teng rejects him, explaining that he has no money to hire pilots, having spent all his resources to repair the Vindicator after the death of his brother. When Yuan speaks in Capellan, Justin responds by taking an R-4721 PPC Inhibitor and handing it to Yuan, as requested. He notes that the device will cripple the PPC, and concludes that Teng has been ordered to lose the fight. Teng confirms that the local tongs have made this request to protect their profits, and expresses hope that he will be allowed a chance to win when it suits the purposes of those running the Game World.
Justin thanks him for his time, then knocks him out with a blow from his prosthetic fist. Justin then tells Yuan to remove the inhibitor and prep the Vindicator for a new pilot, and to find a bookie to take a long odds bet for the upcoming fight at Steiner Stadium.
That evening, Enrico Lestrade and Gray Noton sit together in a private box at Steiner Stadium, where the fight between Fuh Teng and Billy Wolfson is on the ticket. Both Noton and Lestrade are aware that the fight has been fixed to give Wolfson – one of Philip Capet’s “Capellan Mafia” stable (officially the stable of Lord Brighton) – an easy victory, and to give Noton a massive payout through gambling winnings. Lestrade tells Noton he’ll be able to meet Wolfson later, as he’s invited the match’s winner to join them afterwards. He also notes that Contessa Kym Sorenson is with them in the box as well.
Pleased with the arrangements, Noton orders a Steiner PPC at the bar (four shots of grain alcohol, cut with two shots of peppermint schnapps). Sorenson joins him at the bar and orders a PPC as well. Gray explains that there are variations aligned with each House. While Steiner is with schnapps, Liao uses plum wine, Kurita – sake, Davion – bourbon or tequila, and Marik – ouzo. Sorenson has hers Marik style.
They turn their attention to the match in the arena, which resembles an ancient Roman coliseum, where three Medium ‘Mechs battle six Light ‘Mechs. Noton explains how the arena works – pointing out the detonator grid (a fine wire mesh) that prevents missiles from hitting the stands and siphons off PPC energy, and the windows made of high-impact plastic – the same used in ‘Mech canopies, which stops shells and reflects lasers.
The warm-up act finishes, and everyone prepares to watch the main event – Billy Wolfson in a Hermes II against Fuh Teng in a Vindicator. Wolfson enters to great applause, clearly the crowd favorite. Xiang, in the Vindicator, ignores the cheering and verifies that his prosthetic hand has successfully been wired into the control panel, having learned to pilot a Vindicator in simulator runs at the Sakhara academy. He notes the Hermes II’s autocannon, recalling the efficacy of the Rifleman’s on Kittery, and also its liquid-fueled flamethrower.
The match commences, and Xiang and Wolfson maneuver and hammer at each other. Xiang concentrates on Wolfson’s flamer, breaching the fuel tank. He opens a channel and warns the Davion warrior to surrender, but Wolfson refuses, citing his 100,000 credit bond against surrender. When Wolfson charges, Xiang dodges and tears its autocannon ammunition feed out with the Vindicator’s left hand, with the accompanying gyro damage sending the Hermes II flopping to the ground. Xiang ignites the leaking flamer fuel with his Small Laser, forcing Wolfson to eject.
In Lestrade’s box, Noton is horrified, having lost his entire payment from the Kittery job betting on the supposedly fixed match. He further expects to have to spend 15,000 credits to have Teng killed and to arrange a cover-up. Some of the nobles in the box, who also lost, complain that they were cheated once it becomes clear that Fuh Teng is not in the Vindicator, but Noton angrily corrects them, noting that the betting slips only name the ‘Mechs involved.
When Justin arrives in Lestrade’s box, many of the nobles angrily demand he leave, but Lestrade plays the role of the gracious host. Doris MacDougal of Firgrove accuses Xiang of cheating, noting his earlier treason against the Federated Suns. Sorenson comes to Xiang’s defense, and Lestrade invites any nobles who remain disgruntled to leave.
Xiang angrily tells Sorenson he doesn’t need her protection, and she counters that she was just using him to needle the other nobles, whom she regards as boors. She tells him she has been exiled by her noble father because she has made no secret of feeling that the Capellan Marchers are parasites on the Federated Suns. They become friends (and perhaps more) on that basis.
Sorenson introduces Xiang to Gray Noton, who congratulates Xiang on his win and comments that his unorthodox tactics should take Solaris VII by surprise.
That night, after the reception, Sorenson enters her Hurricane aircar, and uses the car phone to call into a computer server and deliver a message, “Contact.” After she hangs up, the door opens and Xiang joins her in the car – leaving his room at the Morpheus Hotel to join Sorenson at her apartment.
Notes: Justin must have caught a command circuit to get from New Avalon to Solaris VII in only 20 days, since the in-system travel alone would have taken two weeks. I suppose Hanse could have justified it by saying he wanted Justin out of his realm as quickly as possible.
The liquid-fueled Flamer on the Hermes II is (like the Firestarter’s), clearly intended by the artist to work as a Vehicular Flamer – running off a limited supply of ammunition, rather than what became the standard BattleMech Flamer, which has unlimited shots by channeling heat from the fusion engine.
The naming of the two MechWarriors as being from Teng Stables and Brighton Stables confirms that there are far more stables active on Solaris VII than the major and minor ones named in the sourcebooks. Even a group with only one ‘Mech can describe itself as a stable.
Justin notes that Vindicators once turned House Davion back on Tikonov, so it is fitting that he use one to embarrass the Federated Suns on Solaris VII. This is a nice shout-out to the TRO:3025 entry for the Vindicator. In my BattleCorps scenario “Conquer the Kremlin!,” I wanted to equip the Capellan forces with Vindicators, but had to scrap that because there have never been official record sheets (a scenario requirement) for the original configuration, which was all that was available during the AFFS’ siege of the High Kremlin.
There’s another hilarious (in hindsight) “future of the eighties” moment, when Sorenson hears the dial-up modem screech as she calls in to her MIIO contact from the car phone. Heck…car phones.
Everyone on Solaris is playing a role. Kym Sorenson is a MIIO agent assigned to infiltrate Lestrade’s inner circle and, now, assigned to keep tabs on Justin. It’s possible that her mission was to monitor Justin in the first place, but since she first made contact with Lestrade on January 14, and Hanse and Quintus only started formulating the plan on January 8, she would have had to already be in place on Solaris VII.
Chandra Ling’s Maskirovka seems to have developed a habit of severely undervaluing its agents and assets. The Mask cell on Solaris VII is headed by a disgraced exile who spends his days drowning his sorrows in kincha and hiring mercenaries for ineffective pinprick strikes against the Capellan March, and who is more than happy to sacrifice the lives of loyal Maskirovka MechWarriors to cut costs on his operating budget. This may be a reflection of Ling’s leadership, since she’s involved in the 3026 plot to kill Tormana Liao and replace him with a surgical double. This is in keeping with the philosophy of willing sacrifice for the Capellan state, but in the 3050s, Sun Tzu accurately points out that terminating Maskirovka operatives to punish them for failure doesn’t motivate the rest – it just deprives the state of its already limited assets.
The existence of such a device as the R-4721 PPC Inhibitor is interesting. The only legitimate use of such a unit would be for live fire training exercises – the PPC equivalent of putting paintballs in the autocannons and dialing the laser power down.
Speaking of PPCs, this scene introduces the House variants on PPCs. Noton has to explain them to Sorenson. Of course, the real purpose is to convey worldbuilding info to the reader, but it seems like Sorenson is effectively milking her cover identity as a clueless young noble to get Noton and others to explain everything to her, hoping they’ll let slip some actionable intelligence. (Not a bad bet, where Enrico Lestrade is concerned.)
Interestingly, the Capellan March seems to be far more culturally differentiated from the rest of the Federated Suns than any other region. Not only do they use tequila as their PPC mixer, but there seems to be a prevalent attitude in the Crucis March and the Draconis March that the citizens of the Capellan March are a drain on the resources of the nation. I suppose the Crucis March has remained fairly static for the duration of the Succession Wars, and the Draconis March has lost ground, but rallied back to a point close to its original borders, but the Capellan March has, through martial success, added more than a hundred worlds over the centuries, seized at gunpoint from the Capellan Confederation. There must be substantial suspicion harbored about the loyalty of these “liberated” citizens. Given the existential threat posed by the Draconis Combine (demonstrated with terrifying effect in the First Succession War), it may also be felt that resources used beating on the hapless/toothless Capellans would be better directed towards ending the ever-present threat posed by House Kurita.
Oddly, many of the characters on Solaris refer to “credits,” rather than S-Bills, C-Bills, or other currency. I suppose, since the C-Bill originated as the “ComStar Letter of Credit,” it may have become commonplace to call the C-Bill a “credit” as well.
The use of the term “aircar” for Sorenson’s Hurricane implies its ability to fly. An aircar was parked on the roof of the Davion summer palace in “The Sword and the Dagger,” and one is seen flying over what is presumably Hilton Head in “The Spider and the Wolf.” Though a standard sci-fi trope, flying cars never seemed to fit the technologically degraded Successor States, and they were quietly forgotten after the first generation of sourcebooks and novels. Despite the visuals from “The Spider and the Wolf” and the odd parking spot in “The Sword and the Dagger,” we can probably assume the Hurricane to be a luxury civilian hovercraft.
Noton’s description of the windows of the spectator box as using the same “high impact plastic” used in ‘Mech canopies suggests that there was no common reference for early authors. While Stackpole put forth the idea that the viewports are bulletproof plastic, William Keith describes them as purely cosmetic, with pilots relying on 360 degree viewscreens in the cockpit. These days, the most common description of the viewports is “ferroglass”. It’s entirely possible that all three versions are used on different ‘Mech models, given the proliferation of technologies and the spit’n’baling wire nature of field repairs as technology failed.
As described, the detonator grid seems fairly low-tech and vulnerable to catastrophic failure, since different sections protect against only certain types of damage. Sure, the fine wire mesh stops missiles and PPC strikes, but what happens when a laser cuts through it first, then lets a flight of LRMs hit the stands? I recall that one of the Easter eggs in the Crescent Hawk’s Inception game was the ability to target an “Enemy Spectator” in the stands during an arena match at Starpad, blowing a hole in the perimeter and allowing Jason to flee with a stolen Locust.