Manny Totske

Manny Totske
Personal
Affiliation	Free Worlds League Waco Rangers Tooth of Ymir
Career
Rank	Major
Profession	MechWarrior

Manny Totske was a mercenary MechWarrior during the Clan Invasion and Word of Blake Jihad eras.

History

Originally from the Free Worlds League, Manny Totske was described as a man with a lined face and salt-and-pepper hair, lean and fit. He enlisted in the Free Worlds League Military, serving two tours, then left and struck on his own about 3049. The next year, he joined the Waco Rangers.

He quickly integrated into the Rangers and took the Death Oath (the Waco Rangers' infamous feud with Wolf's Dragoons) like everybody else, even though he felt it was little more than an old joke. The Rangers became his family; he achieved the rank of lieutenant and led a lance. When Clan Jade Falcon attacked Coventry in 3058, both the Waco Rangers and Wolf's Dragoons were sent to defend it in the Battle of Coventry, but tensions erupted even before they joined the battle. Rangers CO Wayne Rogers blamed the Dragoons for the fact that the Waco Rangers and the Crazy Eights, a minor unit associated with the Rangers, were held in reserve. When they were finally sent into the battle, Totske's lance, from Leonard McCarthy's company, was deployed on a flank.

Totske's lancemates were Ariadne Sherbow, Parker LaBelle, and Hector Shirotan. Paranoid about the Dragoons and determined to one-up them, the Rangers ignored Caradoc Trevena's warnings about a likely trap and entered the Dales region, where heavy Clan Jade Falcon units rained missiles down on them. McCarthy ordered his men to stand their ground, fearful of the Dragoons laughing at them. A cockpit hit killed Sherbow instantly, and after Totske downed her killer, an enemy Masakari destroyed LaBelle's and Shirotan's 'Mechs, killing them both in seconds.

With "Mace" McCarthy's 'Mech apparently downed and their comm cutting to static in mid-sentence, Totske took company command and ordered the company to retreat, but it was too late. Surrounded and trapped, the Waco Rangers and Crazy Eights were falling one after another. Only the timely intervention of Trevena's forces — with assistance from Wolf's Dragoons, ironically — saved at least some Rangers and Crazy Eights. During the rest of the campaign, the remaining Rangers only played a minimal role. Totske then drank too much, trying to forget that day.

When the newly promoted Major McCarthy later summoned Totske to his office three days after the conclusion of the campaign, he blamed the disaster on his retreat order, demoting him to private. Totske wasn't in the mood to submit, and an argument began. McCarthy refused to recognize the Rangers' mistakes, and when he threatened to never let Totske pilot a 'Mech again, Totske punched him in the face, walked out, and cut his patch from his uniform.

After quitting, Totske traveled to Galatea and joined the mercenary group Tooth of Ymir. He spent thirty years with them, reaching the rank of Major, but felt it wasn't the same as with the Rangers.

By 12 January 3090, he had left his unit and begun the trip back to his home. During a stop in the Cracked Canopy, a Solaris City bar in the International Zone of Solaris VII, he ordered a drink and asked bartender Leo about a wall covered by all kinds of items (unit patches, photos, armor pieces, even old weapons). Leo told him it was the "Memory Wall", a commemorative place for remembering lost friends and destroyed units. Totske then produced his old patch from the Waco Rangers, and when Leo remarked that this unit was now in somewhat ill repute, Totske told his story for the first time, leaving the patch for the wall before departing for his home.

BattleMech

In the Battle of Coventry, Manny Totske piloted a Marauder.

Bibliography

• Tales from the Cracked Canopy: Blind Arrogance