Ep15

**This page contains major spoilers for the story. You have been warned!**

## Summary

Down two mech warriors, Talon and the Lord Commander hold trials for three new recruits with some surprising, and some not so surprising, results.

## Play by Play

Reeling from the death of Beta and the betrayal, and then poisoning of Diva, the remains of the Marauders regroup on the Yojimbo.  Talon sends Valravn off the ship for some time to clear her head and get her emotions under control, especially when it comes to the Lord Commander.  He also has a bit of a confrontation with his superior officer himself, having just seen two of his lance struck down in front of him.  Talon demands to know why the Lord Commander killed Diva, especially in what he considered a cowardly method, when Talon was willing to execute her as a traitor himself if the facts had been presented.  The Lord Commander detailed how Diva was part of the Sanglemore Academy, a military academy for the Lyran Alliance part of House Steiner, and was one of the Lokis.  Diva was a spy, assassin, and terrorist and the Lord Commander preferred to simply remove her from the picture rather than put the other members of the lance at risk by presenting Diva with the evidence against her.  Talon allows that the Lord Commander might have had cause to kill Diva but he reiterates that in future he needs to be kept in the loop with what information the Lord Commander has in order to successfully lead the lance.

The Marauders are still down two mech warriors and the Lord Commander has put Lord Mulligan on the case to search for possible candidates.  Lord Mulligan has come up with two possibilities, some of the “best that New Abilene has to offer”.  The first is a warrior going by the call sign Jackal who was previously part of a mercenary crew who has served the Senate admirably in the past.  Unfortunately, Jackal has some mental stability issues owing in part to being dug out of his mech a day and a half after his last encounter, as well has seeing his entire lance be murdered in front of him by General Kam.  Jackal is eager to try out for the Marauders, almost as eager as he is to see General Kam die.  The next candidate is a new “senator” going by the call sign Boomer.  A slightly strange man who names his grenades, carries numerous matches on his person, and killed his own father, Boomer is also looking forward to trying out for the Marauders.  Neither of these two candidates are particularly impressive to Talon or the Lord Commander and things are looking bleak when there is a crash from the kitchens.  One of Laurent’s mech techs, Viking Lass call sign Razorhawk, is eager to try out as she has repaired so much damage to mechs she is sure she would make an admirable mech warrior.  Heading to the simulator, the Lord Commander decides that Jackal will field the Atlas, Razorhawk will be in the Urban Mech, and Boomer will pilot the Vindicator.  Talon will act as the lance commander while the Lord Commander will be acting as the leading as the opposing force.  LaVale sets to work preparing the simulation and the new “talent” prepares for battle.

The simulation starts and, unsurprisingly, things do not go as expected.  The new recruits are rash, impulsive, and in many ways totally insane.  Talon does his best to get them to focus on the mission at hand, rescuing a transport of civilians, but the other “mech warriors” are more concerned with shooting things.  The Lord Commander also takes this opportunity to call in backup of his own in the form of the Beta System, an A.I. version of Beta to fight along side him.  Both Razorhawk and Jackal take a turn leading the lance and each end up face down on the ground, or in Razorhawk’s case the water.  Somehow, whether through blind luck or some semblance of skill, the motley crew of recruits is able to defeat the Lord Commander.  However, in spite of this victory neither Talon nor the Lord Commander are ready to hand out any jobs just yet.  They thank each candidate for their time and tell them that they will be in touch, or not as the case may be.  The Lord Commander stresses to Lord Mulligan the need for competent mech warriors, something that he is told might not be possible due to the Marauders’ reputation as well as the short amount of time that they have to hold auditions.  General Kam is on the move again and it will not be very long before they must face him again in combat.

## Media

* Youtube (remove this bracket text and add the link)