OBT Forum

What about Silver Spear?

That was the Op I was talking about, The Royals that left still have troops, there were a hell of a lot more than 7000 of them  , so the Spear can still go off, also Big K probably starts training his own SAS to make up for the Terran Blackhearts departure.

I just didn't envision such a hatred between the SLDFers and the Terrans. But you are weaving a fine story so don't let me stop you.

I could easy see it though. Not from the SLDF, initially - although being on the reciving end of enough hostility and now terror will change that, but certainly from the terrans. Particulary against any Royal formations, IMPO the exodus in canon SDBT have been way to friction less (or perhaps just not described yet). Not just desertion but more damaging hauling along millions of tons of useless, for the SLDF, military hardware that the TR desperately need not to mention some very symbolic warships completed recently in Terran yards should totally poison SLDF-Terran relations even with the TR authorities trying to calm things down.

I can see it happening.

This departure wouldn't be the dignified parting of the ways (mostly) as when the Southern officers departed the US Army right before the Civil War- with parties and heartfelt farewells and the poignance of seeing an old friend across the battlefield.

This is after a loong bloody no-quarter war.  Those staying behind to defend the Republic are going to be veerrryyyy angry at the deserters.  Stealing the production lines, munitions, and equipment, not to mention the ships, WarShips, fighters, & 'Mech so desperately needed by the surrounded HAF...    I'd have no problem either stealing some of it back or blowing it & them to kingdom come.  The deserters aren't my brothers & sisters anymore.

I got to say that is what is so great about our little group here. Alone I don't think I would have had such an incident but it does make for a more realistic story after you think about it. Would have been almost too clean or perfect the other way. Life is messy and this is a nice mess BTA created.

Messy is my middle name.   

The DeepDowns, Landing
Chesterton, Terran Hegemony
04 July, 2784

Sammie’s place was one of those dive bars you find all over the DeepDowns; Landing’s poorest district.  On any Friday night the place was packed with local gangsters, slumming college kids and blue collar workers from the Wrench; the capitol’s industrial district.  Sammie a retired Tong enforcer knew that his patrons were a volatile mix so while he didn’t discourage the occasional fight or two, weapons were no allowed, checked at the door with a pretty coat check girl backed up by two no necks with no sense of humor about such things.

And God help you if you waited outside on the street to hammer somebody after they left, the last guy who did was rumored to have ended up in Eda Mame’s dumplings…The slender young rake in the oversized leather jacket thought with a small smile.

Ricky Lo pulled a deep drag on his cigarette, glancing with overdone nonchalance at the dye job redhead sitting in the booth across from the pool table.  He knew Paula McDonnell liked him, but he didn’t like his odds of navigating the gauntlet of her friends.  

Have to get her alone later, he thought, at least she likes my flash, referring to the purple lock of hair that dangled down his forehead.  That same lock of hair marked him as Jengali, in Chesterton-Capellan usage the word meant street scum.  Paula and her half friends were from families that could trace their ancestry to the Capellan Barduc or Sword-Nobility that had ruled Chesterton when it had been a jewel in the crown of the Confederation(Although Ricky didn’t think the Confederation had a King but whatever.).

Still Paula and her friends slummed in the DeepDowns far away from their college dorms in the Heights for one simple reason; here the other half of their friends, mostly middle class Davy kids who went to similar schools could mingle and relax without creating a scandal.  The political concerns made Ricky’s head spin.

“Hey Ricky, gimmie some fire; Tuan?”  Norrie Cassias, Rick’s best friend and their gang’s second story man grinned at him.

After Ricky obliged him, Norrie slipped a slim packet into Rick’s leather jacket.  Ricky nodded coolly, his cut from last night’s job, after the tong took its cut of course, should be…

“Seventeen for each of us, not bad for four hours work, hey?”  Norrie’s grin was infectious and Rick seeing Paula catch it decided not to play it off, he winked.  She blushed prettily and her friends as one glared daggers at him and turned to chatter their opinions.  None of them good Ricky knew.  He’d been dry too long; the Terrans brought in by the new Davy girl had cracked down hard on both the Tong and the old bitch’s cronies.

Nobody knew where they got their info but the District Attorney was making his shit stick.  Seventeen hundred in D-bills (Not as good as dollars but less easy to track.) meant debts paid and maybe even a bit of pretty for Paula…if he could get past her friends.  He was so caught up in his good fortune that he missed the entry of a dozen or so of those same Terrans.

Oh Shit…Ricky thought.

He didn’t see how the fight started, Vince and Su-Lin were both hot heads and they always hung out together near the front of Sammie’s.  They were however his crew so with a look at Norrie the pair dived into the brawl.  In the back of his mind he saw Sammie taking bets.  The Terrans looked tough as hell, all of them wearing that Tiger chop somewhere on their persons, but they were outnumbered severely and well in any bar fight the out of towners were always singled out for a pounding.

Ricky and Norrie were holding their own back to back when a roughly handsome Asian man snapped Ricky’s hand out of the air and flipped him on his back.  Looking up he saw the man wink at…Paula!  Red filled his vision and he leapt up to charge at the man.
He never saw the punch that put him back on the ground.

“Jeez Mr. T, you know he’s gonna feel that through to next week.”  Someone laughed.

“Bite me Lieutenant ‘Rat.”  Ricky heard the other man say in badly accented Anglic just before he passed out.

Nine or so hours later he woke to Sammie placing a steaming mug of tea on the table next to the cot Ricky was lying on.  He was in the bar’s back room, on an all too familiar cot.  Sammie as usual had looked out for him.  Steeling himself for the usual lecture about getting out of “The Life” Ricky was surprised when the big man handed him a small card that damn Tiger stared back at him.

“What’s this?”  He asked sipping on his tea.

“A way out, Kid, you impressed somebody last night.”  Sammie replied.  He gave the younger man a telling look.

“Is this where you tell me this is my ticket out of the DeepDowns?”

“Damn straight, boy, you’d be a fool not to.  These Kitty Kats ain’t that Green bitch, even you can see that.”

As he left Sammie paused and looked over his shoulder saying;

“You think about it Ricky, and when you’re done get your tools, we’ve got some carpentry to do.”

Nodding and thinking about the earlier mayhem in the bar he readied himself for a full day’s work ahead.

Maybe, he’s right… Ricky thought as he rose to wash up.

Bah, Rat'll be feeling better when Lizzie finds him 

Hate? They are leaving the people they should protect.
How would you react?

And to deal with the gangs, you beat them and recruit the best?
It reminds me of another game (a cookie for anyone who gets the reference  ).