Honorverse favorite passages

He stepped aside from the locker. "This really isn't my line of work. So I'll let the two of you choose whatever weapons you think most suitable."

Pierce reached eagerly for a light tribarrel—about the heaviest man-portable weapon made (short of a plasma rifle, at any rate)—with a thousand-round ammunition tank. The tank was coded for a mixed flechette, armor-piercing, explosive belt, and the Marine's eyes glowed with anticipation. But—

"For Pete's sake, Ned!" Rolla protested. "You'll slaughter everybody on the bridge with that thing. You know how to fly a seven-million-ton SD? I sure as hell don't."

"Oh." Pierce's face looked simultaneously embarrassed and frustrated. "Yeah, you're right. Damn. I love those things."

"Just take a frickin' flechette gun, if you really need to splatter people wholesale," growled the StateSec sergeant, plucking a hand pulser out of the locker himself. "At least that way you won't blow any essential hardware apart, too! Or have you forgotten how to aim at anything smaller than a moon?"

"Teach your grandmother how to suck eggs," retorted Pierce.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rallo's doing, Yuri realized dimly. He'd double-tapped both of them. Yuri hadn't known the StateSec sergeant was that quick and expert a shot.

Brrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Before Gallanti's body could even begin to slump, Sergeant Pierce's short, lethally accurate three-round burst flung her five meters against a bulkhead, the deadly flechettes literally shredding the body along the way. No one else was standing there, thank God. Thank Pierce, actually; even in the shock of the moment Yuri understood that the experienced veteran had made sure he had a clean line of fire. Although at least three of the bridge's officers and ratings were frantically scraping bits and pieces of Gallanti off of them—now one of the ratings started vomiting—nobody else had actually gotten hurt.

"Ned," Yuri heard Rolla complaining, "can't you do anything neatly? What do you use when you go fishing? Missiles?"

"Jesus, Andreas!" Hayne Duvalier, Captain Reynaud's liaison to Venizelos's customs party, stared at him in patent disbelief. "You wouldn't really have fired into him. . . would you?"

"Yep," Venizelos said. "But—" "I'm only doing my job, Hayne."

"I know, but for Chrissake, Andreas! We haven't enforced the com regs out here in— Hell, I don't think they've ever been enforced! ACS never had the manpower for it."

"I know." Venizelos turned his chair to face him. "In fact, since I got here, I've started to realize that a lot of things that should have been done never have. I'm not faulting Captain Reynaud and your people, either. It's not your job—it's ours, and we haven't been doing it. Well, we're doing it now."

"Somehow I sort of doubt your captain's going to thank you for all the ruckus it's going to raise," Duvalier said dubiously.

"Maybe not, but she gave me my orders, and one thing I can tell you about Commander Harrington, Hayne—when she gives an order, she expects it to be obeyed. Period."

"Sounds like a real hardass to me," Duvalier grumbled.

"Oh, she is," Venizelos said with a smile. "In fact, I'm just starting to realize how hard a hardass she is. And you know something, Hayne? I like it."

Evilnerf wrote:
My favorite. I would pay good money for a whole book about Ned Peirce and Jamie Rolla.

He stepped aside from the locker. "This really isn't my line of work. So I'll let the two of you choose whatever weapons you think most suitable."

Pierce reached eagerly for a light tribarrel—about the heaviest man-portable weapon made (short of a plasma rifle, at any rate)—with a thousand-round ammunition tank. The tank was coded for a mixed flechette, armor-piercing, explosive belt, and the Marine's eyes glowed with anticipation. But—

"For Pete's sake, Ned!" Rolla protested. "You'll slaughter everybody on the bridge with that thing. You know how to fly a seven-million-ton SD? I sure as hell don't."

"Oh." Pierce's face looked simultaneously embarrassed and frustrated. "Yeah, you're right. Damn. I love those things."

"Just take a frickin' flechette gun, if you really need to splatter people wholesale," growled the StateSec sergeant, plucking a hand pulser out of the locker himself. "At least that way you won't blow any essential hardware apart, too! Or have you forgotten how to aim at anything smaller than a moon?"

"Teach your grandmother how to suck eggs," retorted Pierce.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rallo's doing, Yuri realized dimly. He'd double-tapped both of them. Yuri hadn't known the StateSec sergeant was that quick and expert a shot.

Brrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Before Gallanti's body could even begin to slump, Sergeant Pierce's short, lethally accurate three-round burst flung her five meters against a bulkhead, the deadly flechettes literally shredding the body along the way. No one else was standing there, thank God. Thank Pierce, actually; even in the shock of the moment Yuri understood that the experienced veteran had made sure he had a clean line of fire. Although at least three of the bridge's officers and ratings were frantically scraping bits and pieces of Gallanti off of them—now one of the ratings started vomiting—nobody else had actually gotten hurt.

"Ned," Yuri heard Rolla complaining, "can't you do anything neatly? What do you use when you go fishing? Missiles?"

hanuman wrote:Cthia, it was a novella in one of the Worlds of Honor anthologies, I forget the title of either. Basically, Cachat gets sent to one of the outlying provinces of Haven to stabilize the region and ensure its loyalty to the new regime. This is after the Theisman coup. Yuri Radamacher is posted there as People's Commissioner at the time, which is where they first met and Yuri's antagonism towards Cachat begins.

You'll have to read the story for yourself, otherwise you'll just cry again

Hutch wrote:

hanuman wrote:Cthia, it was a novella in one of the Worlds of Honor anthologies, I forget the title of either. Basically, Cachat gets sent to one of the outlying provinces of Haven to stabilize the region and ensure its loyalty to the new regime. This is after the Theisman coup. Yuri Radamacher is posted there as People's Commissioner at the time, which is where they first met and Yuri's antagonism towards Cachat begins.

You'll have to read the story for yourself, otherwise you'll just cry again

The title is "Fanatic" and it is essential reading for further understanding the individual that is Victor Cachat.

And it also has one of the great last lines ever...

hanuman wrote:Cthia, it was a novella in one of the Worlds of Honor anthologies, I forget the title of either. Basically, Cachat gets sent to one of the outlying provinces of Haven to stabilize the region and ensure its loyalty to the new regime. This is after the Theisman coup. Yuri Radamacher is posted there as People's Commissioner at the time, which is where they first met and Yuri's antagonism towards Cachat begins.

You'll have to read the story for yourself, otherwise you'll just cry again

Tenshinai wrote:I don´t think "antagonism" is the right description. Yuri more recently seems more in awe than anything else, about Cachat.

hanuman wrote:

Tenshinai wrote:I don´t think "antagonism" is the right description. Yuri more recently seems more in awe than anything else, about Cachat.

He definitely does NOT like Cachat on a personal level. Yes, he's in awe of the man, but his dislike stems from what Cachat did to Justice. It doesn't matter that Cachat had no choice in the matter, or that his actions made it possible to purge the worst StateSec elements in the sector (man, what is the name of the province?). Yuri KNOWS all of that, he just doesn't care. What he cares about is that Cachat had hurt Justice. That is the very definition of 'antagonism'.