Tales from the Cracked Canopy: Blind Arrogance
Sarna News
Tales from the Cracked Canopy: Blind Arrogance | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short Story by Craig A. Reed, Jr. | |||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Shrapnel issue #1 | ||
| Pages | 13 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| Era | Clan Invasion Era | ||
| Timeline | ca. April 3052 — 12 January 3090 | ||
| Series | |||
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First in a loose series, Tales from the Cracked Canopy: Blind Arrogance is a short story by Craig A. Reed, Jr. that was published in the first issue of Shrapnel on 15 June 2020.
The story introduced the Tales from the Cracked Canopy series format that is used as a framing device for the narrative. In Blind Arrogance, Manny Totske gives the Waco Rangers' perspective on the events during the 3058 Battle of Coventry from the novel Malicious Intent. He tells how the Waco Rangers were effectively annihilated on Coventry, a defeat that sent the once-famed unit on a downward spiral which would culminate in the infamous part the unit's remnant played in the Scouring of Outreach.
Contents
Plot summary[edit]
In the Cracked Canopy, a Solaris City bar in the International Zone, an old MechWarrior orders a drink of Red Isle Scotch and asks Leo, the bartender and narrator, about a wall covered by all kinds of items (unit patches, photos, armor pieces, even old weapons). Leo tells him it's the Memory Wall, a commemorative place for remembering lost friends and destroyed units. The client then produces an old Waco Rangers patch from a pocket, and when Leo remarks that this unit is now in somewhat ill repute, the MechWarrior — Manny Totske, formerly of the Waco Rangers — tells his story:
Manny had joined the Rangers back in 3050, when they were a respectable unit, and took the Death Oath (for the Waco Rangers' infamous feud with Wolf's Dragoons) like everybody else in the Rangers had, even though he felt it was little more than an old joke.
When Clan Jade Falcon attacked Coventry in 3058, both the Waco Rangers and Wolf's Dragoons were sent to defend, and 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, Manny's lance, from Leonard McCarthy's company, was deployed on a flank. Manny piloted his Marauder; his lancemate Ariadne Sherbow a Griffin, Parker LaBelle a Whitworth, and Hector Shirotan a Dervish.
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. They encountered heavier Clan Jade Falcon who units rained hundreds of missiles down on them. McCarthy ordered his men to stand their ground, fearful of the Dragoons laughing at them. A cockpit hit killed Ariadne instantly, and though Totske downed her killer, an enemy Masakari destroyed Parker's and Hector's 'Mechs, killing them both in seconds.
After radio contact with McCarthy was replaced by static in mid message, indicating he had been downed, Totske took company command and ordered them to fall back, but it was too late. Surrounded and trapped, the intervention of Trevena's forces – with assistance from Wolf's Dragoons – was the only thing that saved at least some of the Waco Rangers and Crazy Eights. During the rest of the campaign, the remaining Rangers only played a minimal role. After the end of the campaign, tensions were so high that Trevena knocked Colonel Rogers out cold without speaking a word.
When newly promoted Major McCarthy later blamed the disaster on Manny's retreat order and refused to recognize the Rangers' mistakes, Manny punched him in turn, walked out, and cut his patch from his uniform.
After telling his story, Manny mentions how he had spent thirty years with the Tooth of Ymir, and now he is returning home. He thanks Leo for listening, and leaves the patch for the Wall.
Weeks later, Leo put the patch up on the wall, along with a picture showing all of Manny's dead lance members, and a fragment of 'Mech armor as a headstone listing the years of the foundation and destruction of the Rangers with the phrase "Blind Arrogance killed us", musing how Wayne Waco's hate had infected his unit, how his successor Wayne Rogers let that hate become arrogance, and how the real Rangers were destroyed on Coventry, the attack on Outreach being only the last twitch of the unit's corpse.
Featured characters[edit]
- Manny Totske
- Sedge
- Caradoc Trevena
- Wayne Rogers
- Leo
- Leonard McCarthy
- Ms. Silver (mentioned)
- Wayne Waco (mentioned)