Schlock Mercenary

Not for the lack of trying on his part.

I like Captain Landon a lot. I hope that he does decide to join the Toughs. I think he's sufficiently different personality-wise to not simply be a duplicate of any of the others, and yet, it would be nice to let Schlock have some competition/a playmate in the "bloodthirsty-but-likeable sociopath" arena.

I suspect he won't, though. Breya needs a scary enforcer-type, too.

edited 26th Mar '15 3:10:29 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Ehh, they're gonna get to work together for the next arc and then he's probably going to go away. I'll admit the last few pages made me like him more though.

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)

Kowalski just made a major mistake here, albeit through ignorance, because baiting an officer who ordered the use of a nuke-analogue isn't a good idea, especially not when they have a mercenary captain, an annoyed amorph and an angry polar-bear on hand.

edited 26th Mar '15 9:02:50 PM by MattII

Also he didn't get a back-report from Mako, so he doesn't know how much Sorlie likes the "having to kill him" option.

They don't know it's Kowalski, though, do they? I thought they just heard gunfire in a guns-free zone and went to investigate.

The Revolution Will Not Be Tropeable

No, there is no way they're randomly there. For starters it's whole another city, not Dom Atlantis. The pair's transfer was not as traceless as they thought and the group definitely was there to get them.

They were only unsure if the one surviving will be Kowalski or Emm and he had made it clear which one he is.

edited 27th Mar '15 12:55:38 PM by Adannor

I'm not sure I like this, Kowalski seems way too eager to be killed. I bet he actually sent two self-streams off, and he wants everyone to assume this one is the last while the second gets away.

Then again, Sorlie and co are probably expecting that anyway

Well if he's in that cryokit, they can always mindrip him.

They're sending him to Petey (if they haven't already), who's relatively ethical with the mindrips, and who doesn't over-use the trained psychopaths he may have in hand. Anyway, end of chapter.

= Spindriver =

Ookay, comparing Cindercone to a battleplate is like a well armed discus to a flimsy football. Mind you, considering she could hall a stack of battleplates... (if her hull was 1km thick she'd still be able to carry a bit over 110 cubic km, and more than twice that for a hull a mere 200m thick).

edited 30th Mar '15 7:46:12 PM by MattII

More like comparing a firecracker to an A-bomb, or a skateboard to a jetliner.

Anyways, I was thinking: Is Neosynchronisity the shortest-lived Toughs flagship (or ship period) to date? It lasted exactly one book before being destroyed utterly. Bristlecone also lasted them only one book as the flagship I guess, but they still have it (I think? Or did it get destroyed in the climax with Broken Wind?).

edit: Nope, Bristlecone got trashed in the climax, though not utterly destroyed (just not flyable). So yeah, that's two books in a row losing the ship they entered with. Not a good trend!

edited 30th Mar '15 8:01:12 PM by Brickman

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)

Well Neo wasn't the flag ship, that's Broken Wind.

Neo was the flagship for the Embassy. Also the rebuilt Touch-and-Go lasted just over a book as well (Part V of Book 11 and Book 13, she was sitting stationary in Book 12 AFAIK, so doesn't count).

General Tagon seems to enjoy himself at his new job.

"You can reply to this Message!"

So whatever happened to the laws saying that he can't hold any non-UNS military position for the rest of his life? Did that just... get dropped as a plot thread? Because I'm pretty sure his son declared him Commodore Tagon.

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)

I figure after the whole "My Son blew *another* Blatteplate" thing they just figured "Eh, in for a penny."

and the deal about the PTU hulls may have the UNS go into a polite "we ignore this" stance.

"You can reply to this Message!"

He couldn't do that and have a comfy life in UNS. However, Kerchak expatriated himself to Petey long before he did, and still pulled in an official looking position in the abduction case.

So yes, the UNS probably very much do not like what he's doing now, but he's Petey's now and they really do not want that conflict to blossom, so they let it lie.

Secondly, he wasn't UNS. he was in the Ceseschul forces.

Celeschul is as far as I understand it part of the UNS.

"You can reply to this Message!"

Nope, UNS stands for "united nations of Sol." While it likely has colonies and territory outside the Sol system Cesechul isn't one of them. They have different nations, governments, militaries all that. But they are very very close allies. Think US and Britain.

Kathryn refers to them being in "UNS Space" while in the Celeschul System.

That makes it a point toward it being part of it.

Also. Foreshadowing? :D

edited 2nd Apr '15 1:03:46 PM by 3of4

"You can reply to this Message!"

Someone misquoted, because Bala-Amin calls him Commodore.

Also, on the whole Celeschul ownership thing, they are 'technically' separate near as I can tell, but it's a similar degree of separation as was shared between Britain and the Dominions in WW 2.

edited 2nd Apr '15 1:40:06 PM by MattII

So I had a thought: since Para is apparently back on stage for this book (she was seen a few pages ago, after not appearing once all last book), I wonder if she's going to get an "opportunity" to meet with her former employers at the IFI. They can bond together over fond memories of planting bombs in their subordinates' heads.

Your funny quote here! (Maybe)

Well it's good to see the Tagons and Bala-Amin getting along.