Ep25

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

## Summary

Attending a party on Borgen’s Rift to celebrate the end of the Third Succession War, Talon meets up with Rio and Valravn is called out as a traitor, before facing off against The Hands.

## Play by Play

The Marauders are down a mech warrior as Jackal has been temporarily blinded due to a laser cannon shot to the cockpit.  Dr. Patel assures the team that he will have most of his vision back in a month but in the meantime, Jackal has been heavily sedated and made comfortable.  Talon finally receives communication from his old friend Rio but in a different form than he was expecting, an invitation to a fancy party celebrating the impending end of the Third Succession War.  Confused but trusting Rio’s instincts, Talon recommends that they head to Borgen’s Rift to attend the gala.  In the meantime, Barnett has found that The Hands appear to be a brother and sister team who move around a lot taking care of various problems for The Benefactor.  They are assassins and military commanders so they are able to handle operations too sensitive for normal mercenaries.  They also have a very strange code for communication that Barnett has not yet been able to crack that contains the Greek word Roh.  Hoping to gain more information from Rio, the Marauders prepare for a fancy dress party on Borgen’s Rift, despite Valravn’s concerns about recent transmissions regarding her mother might make things difficult for her with other members of House Kurita.  After a week of travel the Yojimbo arrives at Borgen’s Rift.  Disembarking, the team is met by an old “friend” in the form of Anna Maria Centralla who has arrived to welcome them on behalf of the Magistracy.

As they travel to the hotel, Centralla fills them in on who they might come into contact with during the party that evening.  There is a Kuritan envoy for a elderly gentleman name Furakowa, the Kappellans have sent a mercenary envoy with distant ties to royalty, the Free Worlds League has sent a wide variety of representatives specifically a Senator Cassius, while House Davion and House Steiner have sent lower ranking officials that Centralla has no information on.  Equipped with listening devices from Barnett, the Marauders and Kenneth spread out to try and find Rio.  Talon breaks off and finds the Kuritan envoy for Furakowa, who turns out to be a old man who is tired of war.  After having to bite his tongue in the face of some very provoking comments from another member of the envoy, Talon finally finds Rio and heads out to the balcony to talk in private.  Valravn, Coryphee, and the Lord Commander have struck up a conversation with Centralla and Marina Lao of House Lao, a former mech warrior in her own right.  Rio switches on a white noise generator which causes Talon’s earpiece to cut out, much to the concern of the rest of his team.  Valravn goes to investigate but manages to be spotted by a guard for House Kurita who calls her out as being the foul spawn of a traitor, namely her mother.  He attempts to attack her but is quickly dispatched by the expert swordsmanship of Valravn while his fellow guard is dissuaded from joining in by Marina Lao.  Sensing that blood on the floor is their signal to exit, the team hurries to retrieve Talon who has gained some insights from Rio.  There is a secret branch of Comstar known only as Rom who is responsible for off the books ops such as manipulation, disruption, torture, terrorism, and more.  What is more concerning is that while Comstar has a religious bent, Rom is decidedly more fanatical and is attempting to change the political landscape to make it fit into some secret grand scheme.  Their documents often contain the word Roh and Talon takes this opportunity to have Rio look at the codes that Barnett has not been able to break.  Rio is able to deduce that The Hands are on Casilda for the next three weeks before moving on to Free World’s space.  The team has limited time to intercept them as the journey to Casilda will take about three weeks so they leave the party and Borgen’s Rift immediately to being their journey.

On the icy planet of Casilda the Marauders make their stand against The Hands.  While the brother and sister only have two mechs on the field, they also have several heavily armored tanks.  The assassins of The Benefactor turn out to be twin siblings who have more than one screw loose.  The Marauders begin to fire and give The Hands some problems but the Whim of the Wind takes severe damage and is unable to move.  Moving quickly to save Florian and Getta, Valravn charges in and destroys the sister’s mech causing her to take refuge in one of her nearby tanks.  With continued attacks of Florian and The Whim of the Wind, and the approaching threat of air strikes, the Marauders make quick work of the remaining Hand and take them both prisoner.  Florian gets an undamaged Von Luckner which she sets to work naming and the Yojimbo sets course back to Lockdown to deposit their newly gained prisoners.  Barnett receives a message from Centralla about armistice on New Abilene.  General Kam has been released and sent to what remains of the Third.  Concerned about how Jackal will react to this news and what this means for the rest of them, the team asks Barnett to track Kam and see what he is up to.  Barnett agrees and is also confident that he will finally be able to find out why The Benefactor is so interested in Zathras.  Finally getting a quiet moment, Talon decides to share a part of his past with the rest of his lance and the Lord Commander.  He reveals that he spent two years as part of the ISF and offers to use his contacts and influence to help Valravn’s mother escape Kuritan Space, an offer she gladly accepts.

## Media

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npxTfWpPnzA&index=9&list=PLHKocVDXoWBvk0-skvvtUaMiFoo1MYPd9