#he's not a clanner

[lifeserieswarriors]

bullfrog / bigbst4tz

[doolallymagpie]

bobbie: everyone grunts over the radio, am i the only mechwarrior around here who knows proper comm etiquette? fucking hell

[neon-knights-mercenary-company]

In the isolated corner of the Mechlab, where Rowan de la Rosa was working on her cobbled together Marauder, it was fairly quiet. Even the loud whirring and buzzing of the fabricator was lessened.

So it was easy to hear the familiar clicking sound - of the specialty footwear of an SLDF prototype advanced cooling suit.

The chuckle, warm and happy, she hadn't heard in... Well, over a century for him. Less time for her.

Remus. Remus Kerensky.

"So," he says, raising his voice only a little to carry up to her, where she sat adjusting the Marauder's main gun. "You have had quite the experience, I heard, quiaff?"

Quiaff. That word, that Clanner word. He and the others of the Sixteen, they'd used it, well before the Clans came knocking. Hearing it from the invaders had been a shock. Much like seeing the enemy piloting echs much like those she'd fought alongside during the Restoration - those impossibly advanced machines they'd said, they lied, were Star League prototypes.

Rowan remembered the last time she'd heard it. Half dead on Satalice, what... 101 years ago now, but also just a few weeks ago.

He'd said "I will keep you safe, quiaff?" Hadn't he?

( @is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not )

“Remus?”

Rowan’s voice was barely a whisper, devoid of the fire and thunder she usually projected. To anyone else, it would have drowned in the wash of noise from the bustling ‘mech bay, but when Rowan glanced down, she caught the twitch of his ear.

“Remus, you old dog! Yeah- an Experience! Let me tell you, misjumping a century isn’t fun, I was mixing up my left and downs and greens all day after,” she said, trying to project some of that bluster that she typically wore like an old mask, but to her, it seemed to ring hollow. “Let me get down there so I can greet ya proper.”

Rowan stowed her tools and shimmied across the chassis, stepping gingerly over the cockpit to make her way to the gantry. Lowering the lift, she took a good look at Remus for the first time in far too long.

Striking red fur- still the same bloody shade as the day she met him- covered the man from head to paw. He stood, fuckoff tall in his SLDF cooling suit, seemly cool as a cucumber unless you knew the signs.

Like the fluffy, luxurious tail wagging a mile a minute behind him.

A grin crossed her face at that- genuine and bright, driving away some of the lingering doubt on her face. The lift hit the ground, and she stepped towards her old friend, opening her arms as for an embrace, before the doubt could take hold.

“God damn but it is good to see you again.”

[killer-orca-cosplay]

Meet me in the middle, says the unjust man. You take a step forward, he takes a step back. Meet me in the middle, says the unjust man. "Dezgra freebirth." Says the Clanner, turning the unjust man to a shadowed stain on the wall with an ERPPC blast

[c-billbaby]

"'Ello 'ello, me name is Alaric Wolf and I am First Lord of the Star League I is because I am on Terra and there's a throne 'ere and I is sittin' in it. Now you coves must do as I say."

"But Mistah Alaric, sir. How does owning a single planet what ain't been politically relevant in decades mean you is qualified to lead us?"

"Why I am the ilKhan of the ilClan! I reached Terra first so I is the clanniest clanner of all time, and am therefore the boss."

"But Terra is in the Inner Sphere, Mistah Alaric, sir. And the majority of the population does not follow clan tradition or ways and thus might be askin' about why they should care about what title you calls yourself."

"I am the boss! I won the big fight and I reached the finish line so I won and I get the trophy!"

"But Mistah Alaric, sir. This sounds to me like the ravins of a fascist dictator what is attemptin to exert sovriegnty over independent states who he not only did not defeat in battle, but who he did not even enter into diplomatic relationships with."

"I is on Terra, so I is the boss."

"Do you see yourself as having the right to rule due to the Hobbesian idea of a political contract in which so serve the needs of the people and rule with their consent? Because it seems as if you are practicing despotism as a Utilitarian concept, which according to Mill is only justifiable against barbarians, which is a very concerning view which would result in much contention and violence among rival states and the general populous."

"You shut your yap or I'll shut it for ya, you skag!"

"Come over here and make me!"

Gemma smashed the two dolls' faces together and made kissing noises. The rest of the mission briefing was cancelled soon after.

[matrim-cauthons-hat]

imagine, if you will, a periphery citizen, like literally just some mech-tech or something, who thinks 'batchall' is literally just the clanner word for challenge. after some clanners rofl stomp the local mech lance he was helping maintain, he thinks to try and get in good with who he assumes is going to be his new boses the only way he knows how, and challenges them to a drinking batchall. the clanners are perplexed by this, but one of them takes him up on the offer, whether out of any actual sense of taking on a challenge, or out of boredom, no one is sure, but a very strange and confusing friendship blossoms

[ross-hollander]

Incidentally...

Clanners go nuts for battle shonen. Kerensky didn't bring any into exile. I have personally witnessed an entire Cluster cheering themselves hoarse for the ninth season finale in the exact same show with the MC declaring that they would fight as long as they had will and breath, and then punching the bad guy so hard that he exploded. Which was how the other five seasons they'd binged that night also ended. I once heard that somebody bought a Mist Lynx with a crate of bootleg DVDs but I don't believe it.

[felis-artis]

What is Fireheart like jn this rewrite

In a simple way? Naïve. He doesn't understand what stalks his vigil, and when it pounces? The venom sinks deep into his bones.

He and his littermate Tiny were adopted to the same home, and they grew close. When Wildfire dies, Crowtongue loses a part of himself he wants back.

Wildfire does a lot of different things in his life. He advocated for half-clanners rights, and pushed for less systematic xenophobia within the clans. He was often pitted against Prairieclaw in ideology, but not as liberal as Bluestar.

This all blows up in everyone's faces. It turns out that peaceful political debate was not what Prairieclaw wanted.

Timberstrike captures Wildfire later on, and executes him at a Gathering upon becoming the Vigil of Shadow's leader. He laughs that the Vigil of Thunder will pay for exiling him, when he was just sharing his political opinions with Bluestar.

(As a side note, Bluestar actually starts to accidentally destabilize her vigil after this, in a desperate panic to figure out what Timberstar had told the Vigil of Shadows.)

Wildfire's life was valuable, for their great diplomatic skills, but their death pushed a message.

[is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not]

If you don't mind, answer a few more for a curious Clanner? 🟠💰⛓️📚

Thanks kindly. - @mechwarrior-rose

🟠= Restoring the Star League. It was by no means the perfect society, but it did lead to centuries of effective peace and cooperation among humankind. It was the ultimate goal of the Great Father, and one we now can bring to reality - and I have been honored to begin the military side of the process. I am the new commanding officer of a revived Royal Black Watch, will be running the new Gunslinger program and the first new Martial Olympiad, and apparently am on track to become the first Commanding General of the SLDF since Hohiro Kurita in the 3060s. To eventually take on the same position as the Great Father held... is an honor I can barely believe may be in my future. 💰= By far, the worst purchase I have made was the giant inflatable bouncy castle version of a Dire Wolf I purchased for Damien Caruso's fifth birthday. He was the son of the leader of Fursona's Fusiliers, Savannah Caruso. I had thought the purchase would enliven the party. It did. To the tune of at least ten injuries when we adult mercenaries decided to partake as well. And it turns out talons do not mix well with what is essentially a thin, continuously pumped balloon. Making, and subsequently having to see, Damien cry... was perhaps the worst crime I have ever committed. He didn't speak to his "Aunt Mysty" for two weeks afterwards. I felt horrible. ⛓️= I have taken several. The best, the one I miss the most, was Victoria. Victoria Jade Falcon, formerly Victoria Espinosa of the Aurigan Directorate.

I met Victoria in the course of the Aurigan Civil War; her actions in that war would later see her to be known as the Butcher of Perdition. We defeated her several times in that campaign. The first few times she was in her Catapult-K2, until Savannah took it out with a point blank Thumper shot from her Bull Shark.

Victoria survived that Thumper shot, incredibly. She faced us one more on Coromodir, at the hands of a modified King Crab. We took her prisoner, after she came to her senses - once her 'Mech was disabled, and the rest of her lance were dead.

As I fired the shot which disabled her 'Mech, I was allowed to claim her as a bondswoman, though I had to wait until 3050, once her prison sentence in the Taurian Concordat was carried out.

She served well as a bondswoman, and I freed her in relatively short order, during the latter stages of the Invasion. She soon after passed her Trial of Position and became abthaka, joining a second-line unit.

I have been told that she died defending the civilians of São Paulo, during the final battles of the Jihad on Terra. Apparently her last words were expressing a hope she had redeemed herself for what she had done on Perdition, all those decades before, and taking a Manei Domini Heavy Level III with her in the process.

Considering she ended up saving nearly 30,000 people with her sacrifice, I would say she redeemed herself... The Butcher of Perdition died that day, and the Savior of São Paulo was born...

I do miss her. 📚= I am a direct descendant of Elizabeth Hazen (not in the usual sense of her passing on genes used by the next in line, but directly via the original genetic samples she provided) - and also of Turkina herself. I pride myself on that heritage, and try to live up to it. Having the sword that one of my genemothers gave to the other helps me remember. Furthermore, I am a fan of the Great Father (moreso than of his son, the Founder), and of his SLDF our Clans descend from. I try to uphold the Great Father's ideals every day of my life. Lastly, I have always identified with the Royal Black Watch, of which Elizabeth Hazen was a part. I was enamored with the tales of their last stand at Gorst Flats, their campaigns against Amaris, and how, even after being hit with thermonuclear ordnance, the Black Watch survived, and did not give up.

[mechwarrior-rose]

From one mercenary to another. 🏆💳💚

💛Tell me about your ride. Your beat up Marauder.

(From @wolf-among-mechs)

Everybody always wants to talk about the Clanner side of things. Sometimes a little merc chatter is good for the soul.

This one's a little longer, so I'm droppin' it under a cut for everyone's health and well-being.

🏆 - I talked a little about Bloodnames in a prior answer--that I wanted my shot at the Hall Bloodname, but I never got it, and that now the whole thing seems a mite silly to me. But I guess I could talk more about the mess surrounding that.

Aslanbek Hall was the progenitor of the name, and they were all right. Most of those Operation KLONDIKE folks had a few wild hairs--had to, to be part of somethin' so titanically ridiculous. But Aslanbek just seemed like a normal person. The real hero of that line, to me, is Bracelen Hall. He was a nutter for sure. Test piloted over a dozen 'Mech prototypes, nearly got his face blown off a couple times by poorly-designed ammo feeds and bad capacitors and such. Then he tested Prototype A, and that was it for him. He'd found his ride. Went back into active service in a Sun Bear developed from the Prototype A model and never looked back. Barely anyone else saw the beauty of the thing, but he turned that gangly medium 'Mech into a monster on the field. Wound up commandin' Theta Galaxy. He wrote about how it was short-sighted to reward the warrior alone for victory in battle, when it was also the machine the warrior used, the technicians who tended it, the scientists who created it, the merchants who supplied them, the laborers who manufactured the parts. Bracelen was a brawler trained in a couple of martial arts forms, and he likened a victory in battle to a good punch. The punch don't come from the hand, nor even from the arm and shoulder. A good punch comes from the earth itself. The body's just a conduit for it.

When I was desperately scrabblin' for a chance to prove myself, I had it all wrong. I wanted to show my individual prowess. Now, don't get me wrong, ain't nothin' lacking in my prowess. I'm as good a fighter as any. But that ain't what it's about. It's about takin' the momentum of all the others behind you, of the techs and administrative staff and barkeeps and toilet scrubbers, everyone who's ever pushed your life a little further forward with their effort, and applyin' that momentum against a single point. Can't nothin' stand up to that. I punch a 'Mech, it ain't budgin'. But if everyone punches that 'Mech through me, well, that sonofabitch is comin' down hard. If I'd gotten that Bloodname, I never would've figured it out. I would have peaked right there, or even worse, gotten into politics to advance my career or some-such nonsense.

💳 - This one's easy, and maybe that's because my mercenary career is only a few years old. I had hitched a ride with Pandora's Box headed rimward through Marik space. I'd only been gone from Solaris for about six months. They had a down-low garrison contract on Second Chance, and I was to pay my way by spendin' a month or so runnin' patrols with them. The colonel of the planetary militia, who held the contract, was the biggest pain in my ass I'd ever experienced. And that's countin' the mob bosses I pissed off when I swindled 'em on Solaris. Of course I caught his eye. An Ebon Jaguar done up in Solaris nonsense catches anyone's eye. He split his focus between tryin' to put Pandora's Box into debt so they'd have to fold into his militia and tryin' to wheedle me out of my ride. I finally had to threaten him physically. He'd never been off-world, never seen a real Clanner before me, so I played it up just like the holovids. Lifted his scrawny ass up against the wall and shouted every half-Russian insult I could come up with, includin' a few made up for the occasion, and informed him that I was prepared to challenge his entire command to a Trial of Annihilation if he ever spoke to me again. I think the man actually pissed his pants. The mercenary commander, Colonel Black, wasn't too happy with me for potentially disruptin' her already piss-poor relationship with him, but last I knew as I was boardin' my ride off-planet, he was eatin' out the palm of her hand, and I credit that to my sterling efforts.

💚 - Clan Techs generally know better than to complain about their superiors' piloting, at least to our faces. So the first time I experienced that was in the Genyosha. The damn techs had the gall to tell me to favor my direct-fire weapons over the LRMs because the launcher was hinky. Tellin' me! A Clan warrior! How to fight! I was fit to be tied. Reminded them that of course I already prefer shootin' straight at my enemy instead of relyin' on dishonorable indirect fire. Told them that, if there was a problem with my LRMs, it was with the substandard ammunition, not with the launcher. Told them if they thought they could do it better than me, well, hell, they could muster up and earn their way to MechWarrior status and show me proper--unless they had the guts to challenge me for my own 'Mech right then and there.

Over the course of the next six months, I learned that you can piss off your commander, you can piss off your lancemates, but you damn well better not piss off your techs. I finally bought them all a big damn fruit basket and took 'em out for drinks, and we buried the hatchet.

Now, on Solaris, techs mostly don't care how beat up you get. It's duel culture. What my head tech, Aisling, complained about most was me bangin' up the decorative additions to my ride. Well, hell, Aisling, don't put 'em in places where they're gonna brush up against the scenery, then!

💛 - I think there might have been some turnaround here. The Marauder belongs to the woman I'm huntin'. I'll tell you more about my ride, but I'll talk about hers first, since it's piqued your interest.

That Marauder is old as dirt. Hell, might even have been an SLDF -2R once upon a time. She sure claimed it was. But when she and I faced off, it had been refit and rebuilt all to hell. Had a standard -3R loadout. Didn't look like nothin' in the bay. Marauders are pretty enough. Got that quiet menace about 'em. You see 'em all over, so they kinda lose their impact after a while. But when she got behind those controls, that thing came to life. She was her own lead tech. She knew every bolt and bundle by heart. She'd piloted that beast since she was old enough to reach the pedals. She didn't have no fancy motive system control computer, no advanced neurohelmet, nothin'. She just knew how to use the controls in advance of the desired motion. Could track all the various centers of gravity of each part of her machine in real time. Felt like she was runnin' two seconds ahead of everyone else, myself included. And you'd see it in her gait outside of the cockpit, too. She'd walk up to the bar, and you'd swear there was somethin' familiar about her, until you realized you'd just seen those exact motions in the last live match that had been broadcast on the bar's tri-vid.

I digress. The question was about the machine, not the woman. Though maybe I'd argue that there's functionally no difference.

So about my ride. My Ebon Jaguar. I took it as isorla off some unfortunate Smoke Jag who was awfully proud of her brand-new ride. She practically begged me to take her as a bondswoman, at least so far as the boundaries of honor would allow, I think so she could get her ride back. Well, honey, you just didn't use her to her potential. Sorry to disappoint. So I had my new ride painted up in Delta blues and greys and took her on the road to the Inner Sphere. She's nowhere near as quick as the Shadow Cat I rode before, but with all this ranged punch, she don't need to be. My stable on Solaris gave her a nickname: "Razorclaw". Now if that ain't the most stupid, generic thing to call a Clan 'Mech, I don't know what is. I didn't used to feel like 'Mechs deserved nicknames. They're just equipment. But lately I've been gettin' sentimental, I guess. Been wonderin' what I ought to call her. I suppose I'll figure out a good one someday, probably five minutes before she gets shot out from under me.

Well, damned if I ain't been particularly long-winded today. I beg your indulgence of an old warrior's reminiscences.

[necromanticowboy]

Older coworker said he was glad to have me along when shit went sideways on a job. So you bet your ass that means I’m expediting the clanner star I was planning on painting him for his next birthday.

[lirri-eats-eyes]

i got. way too into this. reminder i have no idea how to write a book and this is my own (inexperienced) opinion. i love the skyborn books and i think khoury is leagues better at writing than me i just think twig being half-crane is absolutely bonkers.

.

.

.

deep breaths. hold on.

so i went to check the books again to see what twig's other wing was and. CRANE. FUCKING CRANE????

idk why this was so surprising me to me. actually i do.

1) his cover wings do Not make it look like that. like. the book makes it clear that his crane wing is "snow white." chief neither of those wings are pure white.

2) that's so wacky. like. look at this mockingbird's wings for example

and now look at this crane's wings

DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT? THAT'S ABSURD. AND WE KNOW IN THE BOOKS TOO THAT THE DIFFERENT BIRD SPECIES HAVE DIFFERENT BODY SIZES, AND THAT TWIG IS NOTED TO BE "SMALL."

so what are we left with?? like what is he doing with his wings?? is he beating his mockingbird wing twice for every one crane wingbeat? did the doctor spend 2 mintues cutting off his mockingbird wing adn the remaining hour working through his crane wing??? what are you talking about, "his other wing is a crane wing?????"

are we supposed to believe that maybe his mockingbird wing is larger than normal, or his crane wing is smaller than normal, or both? That's still weird, they're completely different shapes!! how is he flying!!!

3) and finally. not to read too much into this but i find it morbidly funny that if we are to take skyborn species as a metaphor for race (which like. I know it's always a bad idea to make fantasy species a race metaphor, because making a race metaphor out of biologically different species is always a recipe for disaster, but i really believe that was what khoury was alluding to at the very least) twig is an example of a mixed-race character, and like. commonly the criticism people writing mixed-race characters recieve is that they only focus on the aspects of being one of those races and don't bother to acknowledge the unique experience of actually being both, and what that might mean for the character.

so it's just so funny to me that twig, THE metaphor for a mixed race character...is only ever presented as half-mockingbird. like i forgot he was half-crane and somehow made up a false memory that he was half magpie instead because it was that forgettable. his weird telepathic powers are his mockingbird trait. he is never ever mentioned flying weirdly due to having different shaped wings. he has a thing about being percieved as weak because he's small in the third book which uh. Like I don't think a crane clanner would have that problem. Him being half-crane is completely glossed over. Khoury didn't even have to know what it was like to be half Real Race and half Other Real Race. she could have just made up a fake culture for cranes and mockingbirds and then made up a fake experience that we could take as truth because no one in the world is actually half crane or half mockingbird.

and part of why I'm getting so deep into this is because of how fucking wildly different crane and mockingbird wings are. It really feels like khoury thought "man, cranes were cool" and didn't put any other thought into what that meant for twig's character. (or, maybe she planned to put more but then had to cut it out to fit three books, in which case, okay, fair. that wouldn't have been her fault.)

Because if we take skyborn books at face value as NOT a metaphor for race, it could potentially be really cool. A lot of the time fantasy species are better interpreted as different kinds of othering, and it would be interesting if maybe twig has trouble flying initially but learns from another piebald how to flap his wings in a different rhythm to balance them, and now it's a story about how piebalds are completely functional but since they're seen as unlucky, they're cast out and young piebalds have no guidance from older ones as they've been eliminated as a community.

even ignoring the egregiously different wing shapes, what about abilities? I can suspend my disbelief when it comes to twig's silly ass flying pattern, but in khoury's own world which she made up, she doesn't even let twig have an ability that's a combination of crane and mockingbird. it's only mockingbird telepathy. it would be so cool if twig got a weird combination of both, but no, for the purposes of the story he's effectively just a mockingbird, and that's sad

one more thing. twig getting his wings cut off...i really have to stop thinking about symbolism but man. now he's even more isolated. he was once a piebald and that should have been a Huge part of him but now that's gone. he's even more cut off from this collective species so involved in flying, and he'll never be recognised as that again. whadda hell.

[doolallymagpie]

I can think of all manner of upgrades Naomi would be doing on Bobbie's Shadow Hawk, up to and including the 3031 refit where she finally figures out Cortazar's "modular mount" system, letting her swap between the Gauss or the UAC on very short notice (and do very necessary repairs on that Sunfang, given that the barrels on those things tend to weld themselves shut eventually)

can't think of anything at all for Holden's Griffin, though, apart from the active probe system that already went in with the NGT refit

[wolf-among-mechs]

Well, now I got a few questions for you in return. Merc to merc, Clanner to... well, maybe someone twice removed from the Clan family tree.

🟡💛💳🌼🎵

Something along those lines yeah. It's... Complicated. Have a seat. I got a lot of stuff to talk about.

🟡 Where do I currently live. Where I have lived. I grew up on Hephaestus station. Lived a six months on the planet Milton in Lyran space in a dingy little apartment. Then... Dropships and barracks ever since. Had an RV to have my own space for a while. But then our company managed to acquire an Overlord to serve as our base and by our Steiner noble friend and lancemate we made it a lot more habitable with proper living quarters. The most of a home I have had so far.

💛What do I currently pilot. (OOC: It gets a little time fucky wucky here since Asuka here is part of an RPG campaign that hasn't gotten to the Clan Invasion yet. But this blog is an AU where she obviously got that far. Bear with me.)

I hate that my answer is that I am currently inbetween rides currently. My old clan ride got messed up so they are refitting a new one. So let me tell you about one of my favourites. My Marauder II. Designated MAD-5Xc formerly b. Nicknamed "Direwolf" by the crowds at the time. This was somewhat before the Daishis made an entrance in the inner sphere you see. You won't find it on any technical readout. Most our company refit mechs to suit our doctrines. The b model was built by Blackwell as part of a sponsored entry on Solaris in order to build the 'brand' as they were in negotiations with opening up sales to other clients than the dragoons at the time. It was built for me in particular to pilot which is why it has Triple Strength Myomers, a supercharger and a Guardian ECM system. Armed with an ERPPC and small pulse laser in each arm. Backed up by two SRM 6 launchers on the shoulders which always annoyed me slightly. I have always been adept at fighting things up close... Despite the fact that I have tried very hard to work from range.

It was refitted to have two LRM launchers instead but fitted slightly differently along with an Artemis IV system. Because the SRMs never really did really offer much when I had the ability to just run force and snap somebody's legs off by bullrushing them. Maybe you have seen an old holovid of what they called my glorykill on Solaris. Where I barrel into a highlander, snap its legs. Hammer the torso with the barrels furiously before rearing up and bringing the right barrel into the cockpit and fire the PPC as my voice echoes out over the comms and arena "AND STAY DOWN!" I was... A little bit upset at that man at the time.

I loved that mech. I wish I still had it.

My new ride is going to be a Kodiak. Though... Heavily customized. It is being refitted as I mentioned. It brings along a lot of what I enjoyed about the Marauder by removing the Autocannon and missile launchers for PPCs. A new myomer system, an active probe and jump jets. It will be designated Crinos... The reason it is taking so long is that it has a different headshape. More... Wolfish.

💳 Who is/was your most and least favourite client?

Hmm.... Tough. I had to think about my most favourite client. Probably Rasalhagians. They did not like us much when we first started, having bad experiences with mercenaries to start with but it mellowed out fairly quickly after they figured out that we were not a rowdy bunch

As for least favourite. I going to be weird and say probably Federated suns. Their lords have betrayed us four out of six times but at least people above them made steps to repair the relationship. We had one Baron I think he was who decided to turn on us and me specifically because I beat the snot out of his favourite officer in a perfectly legal martial arts tournament. He cheated first though.

🌼What do I think of the clans.

I was born into Wolf's Dragoons. Both mother and father were of the clans. Mechtechs both of them. I was probably going to become one too but I showed great aptitude with mech piloting. And fighting just in general. Probably owing to the fact I have inherited elemental genes from my fathers side. When they invaded the inner sphere I ended up among them. Not by my own will. I ended up prisoner and they after a while figured out that technically I was related to clan Wolf. I had to try for a bit to become a full member. I fought tooth and nail for that and got a trial of position and even managed to earn a blood name. I do not carry it though. During their invasion I came to understand myself through elementals and the clan. The severe mismanagement of operation REVIVAL made opinion of the clans thusly:

Eugenicists with little thought or preparation made for the totality of war. Admittedly I am also very annoyed at having been called freebirth over and over and over and being overruled time and time again despite the fact that I had more experience with the war in the inner sphere they were actually trying to fight. I also find their commitment to honour lacking. Rescinding it when they deem an enemy to be less than human or simply a problem and in the way. That is not to say all warriors of the clans are such nor do I treat them thusly.

I simply believe that they are flawed much like the inner sphere. There are heroes and villains under every banner in the Galaxy. The Clans, the houses of the inner sphere and mercenaries.

🎵 What is a piece of music you enjoy, that you would play in combat on a loop?

I was really hoping somebody would ask me this. I really was. Allow me to send a few sound files your way.

In the cockpit:

It keeps my heart pumping in the midst of combat. It has a really nice melody to me.

In my head:

(OOC: Warning for a bit gore. It is Doom 2k16 after all)

This feels a lot how it feels inside my during a battle.

But. Also an honourable mention to kuritan holovids, they based a villain on me. Well me and my old Black Knight. It sounded a bit like this.

I think after all of that. I owe you at least a few drinks.

[blackboxfaxes]

Trial

This is a narrative of an actual game that I played as part of my ongoing New Exford campaign

---

“Cyclops pilot! I challenge you! Let no one interfere in this matter!” Came a transmission over the clear.

“Spunky little fella, don’t you think?” Azisu Misakari asked her lance as the Jade Falcon Grendel leapt towards her. The Falcons had chosen a sharp sided canyon with a road through it as their Circle of Equals. Their intent was clear - while the Clanners had bid down to a pair of mechs, both of them were fast jump-jet equipped mediums, and the sudden elevation changes would give the Falcons an advantage against Azusu’s mechs, of which only Rebecca’s Catapult had jump jets. But still, the Grendel only massed half as much as Azisu’s Cyclops.

Maybe he hasn’t spotted the extra armor, she thought, grateful she’d passed her machine through the mechtech’s hands at the beginning of the campaign. As poorly armored as it had been, the Cyclops would’ve been easy prey for the Grendel had it been unmodified. 

“Lightning one, lightning two, this is Kabuto Actual,” Azisu said, the radio carrying her words to the Aerospace fighters orbiting just outside easy radar range. “Clanners look to be playing nice. Stay offsite unless I give the word. We’re fighting by their code today.” She flicked her radio to the open channel in time to hear the Jade Falcons’ Shadow Cat challenge her Grand Dragon pilot.  “You can take him, Janelle, you’ve got fifteen tons on him. Use it. Rebecca, Jacinda,” she ordered to her two unengaged pilots, as the clanners’ locations on the screen degraded into the static of ECM Suites. “ECCM mode, keep them easy targets for us, but hold fire unless they break zell. Janelle, weapons free, engage at will.”

Then pulse laser fire slagged off some of Azisu’s armor and she was too busy to focus on the wider war. The Grendel was staying in the air as much as possible, jumping from one copse of trees to another. Azisu was moving down the hills as well, lagging behind her other mechs. 

Janelle was already firing back at the Falcons’ Shadow Cat, though it was moving fast enough her PPC went wide. The Grendel jumped again, and another sequence of laser pulses ate into Azisu’s armor. Testing the range, she sighted on the grendel and squeezed a gauss shot downrange, but she misjudged how far it would jump between her pulling the trigger and the capacitors charging enough to fire. Her Gauss shot slammed through a patch of trees, turning one into splinters. 

Azisu forced herself to breathe slowly, calming her heartbeats, as she moved into wooded cover. She wouldn’t hit anything running and gunning, moving would only give the Grendel an advantage. Instead she dug her Cyclops’ feet into the snow. Rebecca was on the Grendel’s tail, keeping a massive array of missile launchers pointed at it in case Azisu released her to fire. In the distance, a PPC bolt streaked into the sky. Another missed shot from Janelle, then. 

Jump. Fire. Jump. Fire. The Grendel pilot had found his rhythm, and he was closing in, aiming for the point where his secondary ER lasers would be most effective. Azisu sent another gauss slug his way, mostly to remind him that she was still in the game, and followed it up with her Cyclops’ trio of lasers. He was getting closer, he’d opened the armor on her right arm, and she was watching his timing…

He jumped again. 

Azisu moved her crosshair to the point her intuition told him he would land on and pulled the trigger. Her gauss capacitors surged, drawing power from her mech’s reactor, and the Grendel slammed into the ground, knees contracting to absorb the impact of forty five tons of mech hitting the ground. In the briefest possible instant, Azisu adjusted her aim, bringing her gauss rifle a fraction of a degree to the right.

The gauss rifle fired.

The Grendel never recovered from its crouch, and Azisu gasped out loud as it tumbled to the ground. Whether by skill, instinct, or pure dumb luck, her gauss rifle had shredded the Grendel’s entire cockpit, scattering it across half a kilometer of canyon. Somewhere in the cone of shrapnel emitted from that cockpit, Azisu knew, was a fine red spray that had once been the pilot.

Azisu’s heart thumped in her chest, and she allowed herself a moment of relaxation before pulling up Jacinda’s gun camera. Her Crab was hugging the duel between Janelle’s Grand Dragon and the Shadow Cat, and Azisu’s combat computer quickly threw up a wireframe of Janelle’s Grand Dragon. C3 slave destroyed, a hole in the engine shielding, armor breached in at least two body parts, rear armor almost entirely gone. As she watched, Janelle’s lasers severed the Shadow Cat’s arm, three of its lasers falling to the ground, but it still had its primary pulse laser. Inferno missiles from Janelle’s mech slammed into the Shadow Cat, already running hot from so much jumping and firing, and in the infrared camera on Jacinda’s Crab Azisu saw the Shadow Cat spike white hot, but Janelle’s Grand Dragon was shredded. A shot almost anywhere would kill the mech, and Azisu needed Janelle’s mech active…

“Shadow Cat pilot!” Azisu’s voice cut through the radio in the clear. “Your starmate is dead. Half your mech’s firepower is gone. To succeed in this trial is now beyond your abilities. But honor is satisfied. Cease fire now, and we will allow you to retire without interference.”

There was a beat, a silence across the canyon, and then, as Azisu watched, the Shadow Cat’s remaining arm pointed into the air. Slowly, the mech began backing down the highway, away from the battlefield.

They’d won.

Azisu keyed her radio.

“Lightning one, lightning two, this is Kabuto Actual. Show is over, return to base. But get on the horn and tell base to get a Tonbo in here. I want this Grendel home ASAP. And, Kabuto Lance? We just out-trialed the Jade Falcon Clan. Drinks are on me tonight.”

[c-billbaby]

for the ask game:🟣💳💰🌼📚🛸

( @is-the-battlemech-cool-or-not )

🟣: Top three planets I ever been to, and in no real order, are Kooken's Pleasure Pit, which was not its legendary hedonistic self but rather a pretty place ruled by stuck up jerks that had it comin when we bombed their hot springs into a lake. Great fun, that. Next was Sarna, and specifically the Sarna Martial Academy which has still not entirely thrown off its old mercenary ways and whose students are hard working enough to love their time off, and low class enough to do it proper. Best parties ever. Then is Tharkad her own self, what treated me like dirty in the upper houses but was a right pleasure in the lower, and all of it smellin like fresh snow and flowers.

💳: Me most favorite client ever was this Freebie bloke what wanted us to take back his ancestral home from his evil uncle what killed his pa and stoled it. Sos we did and he payed us a handsome sum and was too dumb to check his palace treasury before we was on our way. If we had more clients like that we could retire! Worst client we ever had was the esteemed House Davion who pays us "on retainer" they says to play garrison on some shitehole called Palmyra along with AFFS goons when out of nowhere comes a sneak attack from the Dragon's own Sword of Light and they blast the Fedrats back to the stone age! We gets the order to regroup in the mountains but fuck a lot of that shite and we runs for it and never looks back. We never did get paid for that job on account of some nob got his tank kicked over and died.

💰: Dumbest purchase I ever made was tryin to build a horse race track in a swamp. Lotta horses died that season, due to drownin or steppin in sinkholes. Smartest purchase I ever made was tradin a planet for twn mechs, five power armors, and a dropship.

🌼: As for what I think of them clanners, they's just folk like anybody else. Sure they talk funny and they got their weird ways about em but in the end they bleed and breed and die like any of us... What? They don't breed? Like at all? DISHONORABLE?! So they do ot in thw butt or what?!

📚: I ain't much for book readin but if there's one old one I respect it's that Snord fella. Knee what he was about and did it or damn their eyes. Inspirin.

🛸: There's birds out there. People birds. And they can talk and they know things.