Diana Vásquez

Diana Vásquez
Personal
Died	18 April 3058
Affiliation	Seventeenth Recon Regiment
Career
Rank	Lieutenant, Senior Grade
Family
Children	Marcos Vásquez

Diana Vásquez was a member of the Seventeenth Recon Regiment, also known as Camacho's Caballeros.

History

Born on one of the three Southwest Trinity worlds, Diana Vásquez was recruited from the population of the Southwestern Worlds by the Seventeenth and by June 3056 she was piloting a Catapult BattleMech equipped with Arrow IV launchers, nicknamed Huntress, and provided long-range artillery support for the regiment. While Vásquez was a MechWarrior by trade, she also had an engineering degree.

Described as shy, sweet and pious with the voice of a delightful little girl, Vásquez was a slight, brown and very pretty woman, with large dark eyes, heavy black hair, expressive hands and a habit of wearing extravagant local flowers in her hair. While she was considered quiet and retiring by nature, to the point that people sometimes forgot she was present in a group or room, some considered Vásquez to be the most attractive woman in the Caballeros. No-one in the regiment doubted Vásquez's sincerity, and she was well-known for refusing to be drawn into any of the quarrels that erupted within the regiment. In June 3056, Vásquez had the rank of Lieutenant, Senior Grade, but by October 3056 she had been promoted to Captain. Vásquez served as commander of long-range artillery support for the Caballeros for years, and was one of the most respected MechWarriors in the regiment; not only did she reach out and strike at the regiment's enemies from long distance, but even in situations where the battle had moved to envelop the Caballero's rear elements, Vásquez always remained calm and available to support the regiment, even when she was forced into either jumping out of danger or dueling opponents directly with the Huntress' medium lasers.

When the Word of Blake launched an attack on the Hachiman Taro Enterprises facility on Hachiman on 15 October 3056 following false evidence released by the Draconis Combine Internal Security Force, Vásquez and the Caballeros senior Astech, Richard "Zuma" Gallegos worked to protect the Caballeros non-combatants into air-raid bunkers underground. Those dependents were mostly children under the age of twelve. Both Vásquez and Zuma were known for spending a considerable amount of time with the regiment's children in the Caballero's nursery, and both were parents themselves, although Vásquez's two-year-old son was away at a sportsplex where one of the Caballeros' 'Mech battalions was stationed at the time of the attack. The Federated Commonwealth news reporter Archie Westin and his assistant, Mariska Savage were sheltering in the bunker when two Word of Blake insurgents disguised as Hachiman Taro Enterprises security staff entered the bunker and attempted to use the noncombatants as hostages. Much to the shock of Westin and Savage, Vásquez and Zuma attacked and killed the Blakists, with Vásquez killing one Blakist with a shot through the left eye while Vásquez was holding a baby in one arm, and the Blakist had a gun to the head of four-year-old Lucy Aragon. Vásquez and Zuma subsequently explained to Westin and Savage that the regiment had a strict policy of not negotiating for hostages, and that the regiment would rather have seen the hostages killed than negotiate.

“	We didn't risk nothin', Ms. Savage. If they had taken us hostage, Don Carlos would've pumped a couple hundred liters of gasoline in here and fired down a flare. Or somebody else would have. We don't negotiate for hostages. We rescue them, or we bury them. Ain't no middle ground.	”
	— Richard Gallegos, 15 October 3056

By November 3057, it had been noted by members of the regiment that Vásquez had been spending a lot of time in the company of Colonel Carlos Camacho, leading to speculation that they were romantically involved. These rumours were accurate, despite Vásquez and Carlos' discretion.

On 12 December 3057, Vásquez intervened in a protest outside the Turanian Transport Company Complex in Port Howard, the capital of Towne. The Turanian Transport Company was one of a number of businesses purchased by Chandrasekhar Kurita, employer of the Caballeros, as a guise for moving the regiment to the world in anticipation of an attack by Black Dragon forces and their allies in the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery. Provocateurs attempted to provoke a clash between Townians and the newly-arrived Caballeros; those provocateurs included an individual known as "Wolf Girl", a highly-skilled employee of Howard Blaylock, who launched a spectacular SRM strike on the Locust piloted by Lieutenant Leo "El Pipiribau" Archuleta from the back of a sliding motorcycle. As the crowd moved to mob the downed Locust and possibly attack the complex, Vásquez moved out on foot to address the crowd via megaphone; her voice and appearance caused the crowd to falter and allowed the Caballeros to gain control of the situation - helped by Caballero scout Lieutenant Senior Grade Cassie "Abtahka" Suthorn distracting one of the main agitants by sticking a concealed firearm in his back to disrupt his attempts to inspire a riot.

On 19 December 3057 insurgents attempted to attack the Caballeros via a truck stuffed with explosives left outside the hotel in Port Howard that the Caballeros were using. The attack led to the death of Lieutenant Janine "Mariposa" Esposito when the bomb exploded while she was jumping the truck clear of the hotel in her Valkyrie; when the initial alert issued by Cassie Suthorn went out, Vásquez responded by collecting the regiment's children from the day-care center on the bottom floor of the hotel and evacuated them via the hotel's back door. A decision was made to move the Caballero noncombatants away from Port Howard to a location believed to be safer, the Copper Queen Mine located in the western Eiglophians mountain chain. The Copper Queen Mine was another property owned by Chandrasekhar Kurita, and Vásquez was chosen to be in command of the party moved to the mines, which was escorted by two lances of 'Mechs transported under cover, including Vásquez's O-Bakemono.

After the invasion of Towne by a number of regiments of Black Dragon troops and allied Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery regiments, the Caballeros retreated into the wilds to wage a guerilla war with allies from the local militia regiments and surviving loyal planetary guard forces. The concealed Copper Queen Mine site had been dubbed Camp Mariposa by the Caballeros, and while the base remained hidden, Vásquez had taken the opportunity to train Dolores Gallagos, wife of Zuma, in the basics of piloting her O-Bakemono, which Vásquez had named El Cuco - "the Bogeyman". On 18 April 3058, Colonel Camacho made the decision to send Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Baird to Camp Mariposa to join the noncombatants, both to rest and to stop him spreading dissent amongst the regiment with his persistent doomsaying about the Caballeros' chances. This would prove to be an unfortunate decision for the Caballeros.

Later that same day, elements of the DCMS forces attacked Camp Mariposa, and despite the efforts of the defending forces including conventional fighters commanded by Leftenant Sondra "Ice" Prynn that cost the DCMS a number of aerospace fighters and 'Mechs, Vásquez and the noncombatants were captured. The DCMS forces had been able to locate Camp Mariposa because Baird had betrayed the location in a misguided attempt to secure the Caballeros an escape from Towne. Howard Blaylock, who had been installed as Planetary Governor after betraying the planetary militias and aiding the Combine forces in their invasion, ordered Vásquez's execution by firing squad that same day. The execution was conducted in front of both planetary media broadcasters and twenty of the Caballeros' children, who had been captured at Camp Mariposa. Faced with death, Vásquez responded by encouraging the children to sing a song with her, and was executed while singing that song to la Virgen de Guadalupe.

Colonel Camacho responded to Vásquez's death by launching a long-planned attack intended to demoralise and shatter the Combine forces and their allies, as well as recover the captured hostages. Vásquez's name was used as a mark of vengeance by many of the Caballeros during the attack, both in English and Spanish; Dolores Gallagos, who piloted the Bogeyman during the attack, dispatched missile salvos from the O-Bakemono with a cry of "The power is on the way. ¡Diana, la Capitana, y venganza!"

BattleMechs

Diana Vásquez piloted a Catapult nicknamed Huntress. She later piloted an experimental O-Bakemono.

Notes

• Diana Vásquez's son Marcos is described being a "two-year-old" on 6 September 3056 and a "four-year-old" on 10 November 3057 making his likely date of birth sometime between 7 September and 9 November 3053.

Bibliography

• Close Quarters (novel)
• Hearts of Chaos (novel)