MechWarrior Log - Brody.J - Musa's Vizier

Grand Vizier to Caliph Musa

 

 

Hadji was becoming increasingly nervous as we climbed out of our technical and moved closer to the guards on the gate of Musa’s palace. They were making a good attempt at lounging around but were eyeballing everything, at least in a cursory manner.

 

As it turned out his fears were well founded. I was trying to think of a way to get us all inside when Jakari laid a huge haymaker on Hadji’s jaw and started shouting about having captured a spy. Hadji, who was sprawled in the dusty street looked up at him with blood running freely from his mouth and said ‘What are you doing?’ Jakari ignored him and kicked him in the face still shouting about bringing the spy to the Caliph.

 

The guard had of course noticed what was going on and become hyper alert to the situation. Not speaking English they were struggling to understand what was going on but seeing Jakari beat the shit out of Hadji  was enough, along with all the noise he was making, to get one of them to scurry off and find someone who did... especially once Jakari had thrown the now unconscious Hadji over his shoulder and was headed for the gate.

 

I have to say it was not the way I would have handled our entry but it was effective. I found myself wondering if perhaps Jakari had planned this all along? Hiding in plain sight can only be effective a small percentage of the time and this time our luck was like one of Ras Hafun’s whores... well and truly ridden. We were ushered at gunpoint into the palace and the differences between Muhktar’s and Musa’s compounds were immediately evident. Musa’s palace was an oasis of cleanliness compared with the filth and squalor outside the three metre deep mud brick walls.

 

Musa’s Vizier met us in a pleasant courtyard along with half a dozen heavily armed militiamen. His English was good and as this was Jakari’s play I waited in the background while he played his hand with the vizier. Jakari told him how we’d been separated from our ‘mechs and tasked with trying to earn them back by bringing the spy, indicating Hadji, here to spy on Musa’s Caliphate. The Vizier didn’t look like he was buying it to begin with so I chipped in with how we had been welcomed as guests, treated well and encouraged to eat and drink our fill at Muhktar’s table before falling into a chemically induced stupor.

 

The Vizier asked how we had then been separated from our ‘Mechs and I replied it was difficult to form an argument with an assault rifle’s muzzle holding your tongue down. We offered him our services in exchange for his aid in getting back our ‘Mechs and in the meantime we would do what we could to bring Muhktar down.

 

While he may not have completely bought our story he offered us the hospitality of his Master’s home. We were taken to a new area of the palace where slave girls washed our feet and were offered a change of clothes... more than welcome after wearing the borrowed stuff we’d been wearing all day.

 

The slave girls soon disappeared and we were left with four guards and the vizier’s assurances that we had the freedom of the compound... a freedom that we soon took advantage of by indicating to the guards that we wanted to see the ‘Mechbays.

 

The three of us left our ante-room following the lead of our guides as they took us deeper into the complex. We walked through a picturesque garden and came across a group of four ‘MechWarriors lounging in lawn chairs in front of an improvised ‘Mech hangar. Jakari continued on towards the hangar and its contents while Thornton and I checked out the guys we had been sent to secure or destroy.

 

The four ‘MechWarriors looked to each other in an effort to try and gauge who we were and what it was we wanted. The silence stretched between us and I knew the longer we could hold it the more likely we would be to gain the upper hand. It wasn’t long before they cracked. A guy in a ridiculous cowboy hat and some sunglasses stood up from his chair and said “and who the fuck are you??”

MechWarrior Log - Brody.J - Arrival at Musa's palace

Caliph Musa's Palace

The commander of our troop of guides was Hadji, he seems to be one of the few of Muhktar’s men that can manage to speak more than a handful of words of English. We arranged to meet him and his crew outside the ‘Mech bays just after dawn.

 

As we ran through our start-up checks we could see Hadji’s technical with its rear mounted 50 cal and half a dozen guys hanging off the back of it. I checked with Hadji if they had a communicator and he smiled as he shook his head and said ‘CB!’... Christ on the bloody cross no wonder no-one has managed to bring this planet to heel.

 

We rolled out and followed the technical as it made it’s way through the streets of Ras Hafun and headed for the desert at a reasonable pace following Hadji's lead. We kept an open channel between the three of us though none of us really were up to much by way of conversation.


The day wore on and within six hours we had made it to within thirty minutes of the edge of the Caliph's land. To go any further by 'Mech would run the risk of discovery. I powered down and dismounted so that we could talk to Hadji about what we could expect in Musa's Caliphate. He spun us the usual crap about how the people here were worse than dogs, that their idea of recreation was to sleep with their mothers or fathers or possibly both.


Needless to say we didn't get a great deal of any use from him. We all agreed that running in on the back of a loaded for bear technical was a bad idea so Thornton set to work removing the 50 from its mounting. The driver went nuts! Anyone would think that Thornton had told him he'd slept with his favourite wife... an insane thought on so many levels!


Hadji placated the driver and when that didn't work so well beat him into submission and within ten minutes the gun and ammo were sat on the deck and the technical was ready to go. We took some of the Militia's desert gear and got back into the truck. Hadji wished us luck and wasn't too impressed when we told him he was coming. He told us his face was known there but Jakari told him that wouldn't matter.


The last thirty minutes later and we were inside the Caliphates perimeter. another ten and we were outside of the Caliph's palace staring up at the mud brick façade.

MechWarrior Log - Brody.J - Mission Briefing

Briefing Room

The room was filled with a hubbub of noise, Col. Ferguson and Capt. Hausa were both waiting for the noise levels to subside and for the last few stragglers to enter. They waited longer than I’d have been prepared to but then I am not the Colonel and I didn’t look like I’d gone ten rounds with a bottle of the rotgut shit they brew on this dung ball.

 

The Colonel launched into a briefing on the neighbouring Caliphate run by a guy called Musa. His forces stretched to conventional, run of the mill militia arms and armaments until a matter of weeks ago. A group of MechWarriors landed nearby and had sold their services to Musa. The Colonel’s sources were sketchy on what ‘Mechs they were riding but the mission was clear enough, secure them or destroy them.

 

She then went on to say that Jakari, Thornton and I had been selected to carry out this mission. Which drew some looks from other members of the company, most notably from Arturo who seems to think he should be running the show instead of the Colonel. He is certainly a more able tactician than Branka seems to be and doesn’t follow orders blindly like Jared seems to... the man shows no invention or intuition at all, Still the Colonel has placed her faith, however misguided, in the man... I wouldn’t trust him to intuitively empty the trash let alone run the company!



So that was it, just the three of us and a handful of the local militia that Muhktar was prepared to spare to get us to the Caliphate as planetary data seems to be a luxury that none of those jostling for power seemed prepared to stretch to. As the rest of the black shields departed Arturo lingered behind and once the last body had disappeared out of earshot he said in a quiet, conspiratorial tone 'Looks like a tough job, I'll be impressed if you can handle it'


He then tried to sow some more seeds of doubt about the Colonel's management of the unit. Not something we were keen to have anything of. I asked him if he was angling for the top job and he tried valiantly to evade the question... he thinks he is as slick as the hair oil the locals use but he just comes across as a greasy motherfucker. My gut tells me to neither like or trust him at all!


With our briefing complete we all retired to prepare for our early start. My room, barely more than a cell really, was cool and quiet and about as far removed from what the caliph jokingly calls his court as it is possible to get and still be inside the walls of the compound. I stripped down to my shorts and was just drifting off when a loud knock stopped me short.


Opening the door I was confronted by a guard who muttered in broken English that the Caliph wanted to see me. I dressed quickly and soon discovered that the Caliph wanted to see the three of us. While we have been in his presence before this was a first, especially for this late in the day. Coming into his audience hall he sat upon his throne while his vizier stood just to one side. He started spouting the usual platitudes and I could almost feel the smoke being blown up my arse!


After all of the tedious, overly dramatic bullshit was over and done with the vizier got down to business and said that the Caliph had decided to give us each a gift in honour of the service we were giving him. He presented each of us with a very attractive sex slave and then bid us a pleasant respite before we undertook our great adventure. I looked across at Jakari and Thornton seeing undisguised lust in the eyes of the first and a cold, near nothingness in the second's.


I took the girls hand and led her back to my quarters, sat her down on the chair and went and took a shower. Once that was done I brought her a glass of cool water, climbed into the sack and fell quickly asleep. When I awoke she was gone.

 

 

 

MechWarrior Log - Brody.J - Arrival

 

 

Ras Hafun, Astrokaszy... what a shit hole! Truly the flea-bitten armpit of the universe and filled with the vermin and parasites you would expect on a hot, backwater dust ball with the motto take by force and hold by luck! Petty warlords who style themselves as nobility with a tenuous grasp on law and order and far less a grasp on honour.

 

Our journey here on the tramp freighter Prince of Florin, a misnomer if ever I have heard one, proved largely uneventful and Captain Wesley, while grumbling initially at my changing the terms of our deal, proved a competent and above all discreet skipper... Always a handy thing to know who you can rely on once you’ve bought their services.

 

My fellow absconders seem keen to keep themselves to themselves. Thornton spends most of his time with the youngster he travels with tinkering with ‘mechs or some other bit of technology and Jakari... well, he likes to keep his vibro-blade clean which is reasonably commendable. Still both are interesting characters... an introvert and an anti-social narcissist. I’d still rather have both on my side than against me.

 

Our meeting with The Blackshields in Ras Hafun went as well as could initially be expected considering we walked three heavily armed ‘mechs off of the freighter. Col. Ferguson was initially very cautious of our motives as any good commander should be but Captain Wesley had been right, they were open to new recruits, especially those that brought heavy firepower and a no questions asked attitude with them.

 

It took a while for us to earn the trust of the Colonel and the rest of her ‘mechwarriors but once that had been established to a fine degree we were summoned to the briefing room and tasked with our first mission.