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{{InfoBoxFiction
| name = Local Color
| image =
| author = {{ref label|authors|see notes}}
| pub_date = 2009
| product = ''[[Handbook: Major Periphery States]]''
| type = Short story
| publisher = [[Catalyst Game Labs]]
| illustrations = [[Doug Chaffee]]
| pages = 5
| era = [[Civil War era]]
| startdate = 12 September [[3067]]
| enddate =
| series =
| precededby =
| followedby =
}}
'''''Local Color''''' is the introductory fiction piece for ''[[Handbook: Major Periphery States]]''.

== Plot Summary ==
In a September [[3067]] trivid broadcast of ''Scoop!'' Vidzine, 120-year-old retired [[periphery]] [[MechWarrior (pilot)|MechWarrior]] [[Temperance MacCaulay]] narrates her personal history to interviewer [[Denise DeValera]].

According to MacCauley, she was raised on [[Tumbleweed]], a periphery mining outpost where she learned to service and later pilot [[IndustrialMech]]s. In [[2960]], when she would have been around 13 years old, the world was pillaged by pirates from the [[Tortuga Dominions]] who caused widespread death and destruction, leaving MacCauley with a desire for vengeance against all predators like them and setting her on the path to become an [[Errant MechWarrior]].

On [[Illyria]], she was a tech to one [[Ty Falco]] who one day offered her his family [[BattleMech]], "Gray Lady", if she would take his place in an upcoming death match that Falco - a drunkard on a downward spiral - wanted to back out of. MacCauley won the match through "blind luck", in her words, and got to keep the 'Mech (apparently, a ''[[Centurion (BattleMech)|Centurion]]''; see below). She then embarked on a military and [[mercenary]] career, working for the Illyrian militia, then on the [[Lyran Commonwealth]] border against [[Oberon Confederation]] raiders, then in the 2980s with [[Interstellar Expeditions]] exploring the [[deep periphery]]. In [[2995]] she returned and took up work on [[Cadiz (TC)|Cadiz]] where she fought off the [[Horsemen of the Apocalypse]] pirates under one "[[Black Maria]]" at some point. After a while without much happening on Cadiz she hired on with the [[Arms of Thor]] mercenary unit for around a decade, then left the unit on good terms to pursue a solo career and became a trainer on [[Logan Prime]] just after [[Marius O'Reilly]] took power in the [[Marian Hegemony]] in [[3009]]. MacCaulay was with the militia when they repulsed O'Reilly's invasion of Logan Prime.

In the [[3010]]s she was with an [[Outworlds Alliance]] pirate hunting force against [[Helmar Valasek]]'s pirates.

On [[Astrokaszy]] in [[3026]], a young [[Lyle Steadman]] hired her as bodyguard and fixer for hunting treasures in the periphery. Their adventures ultimately resulted in some wealth, and MacCauley, after returning to the [[Inner Sphere]] sometimes after the [[Fourth Succession War]], sold the worn-out "Gray Lady" and acquired another (unspecified) BattleMech which she named "Lady Day". With her new 'Mech, she joined the 'Mech games on [[Hardcore]] to "christen her in the field".

By [[3035]] she was training militias on remote worlds in [[Magistracy of Canopus]] while the Canopian military was occupied with the "[[Andurien Secession|Andurien situation]]", including a stint as a MechWarrior academy trainer where she met - and was impressed by - [[Emma Centrella]]. She later helped smuggling Emma Centrella off Hardcore and return to depose [[Magestrix]] [[Kyalla Centrella]], which MacCauley in her memoir described as her last exploit before going into comfortable retirement on [[Luxen]] in the Magistracy, making use of the advanced medical technology available there to enjoy a long life as the periphery's oldest living Errant.

== Featured Characters ==
* [[Denise DeValera]]
* [[Temperance MacCaulay|Temperance "Temper" MacCaulay]]
* [[Caesar of the Marian Hegemony|Caesar]] [[Marius O'Reilly]] (mentioned)
* [[Helmar Valasek]] (mentioned)
* [[Emma Centrella]] (mentioned)
* [[Magestrix of the Magistracy of Canopus|Magestrix]] [[Kyalla Centrella]] (mentioned)
* [[Wilkie Jones]] (mentioned)
* [[Ty Falco]] (mentioned)
* [[Liz Bennett]] (mentioned)
* [[Li Jun Park]] (mentioned)
* [[Marti Winter Moon]] (mentioned)
* [[Lyle Steadman]] (mentioned)
* "[[Black Maria]]" (mentioned)

== Featured Units ==
* [[Arms of Thor|Thor's Arms]] (mentioned)
* [[Magistracy Royal Guards]] (mentioned)
* Illyrian Militia (mentioned)
* Logan Prime Planetary Militia (mentioned)

== Featured Places ==
* [[Andurien]] (mentioned)
* [[Astrokaszy]] (mentioned)
* [[Cadiz (TC)|Cadiz]] (mentioned)
* [[Canopus|Canopus IV]] (mentioned)
* [[Far Edge]] (mentioned)
* [[Hardcore]] (mentioned)
* [[Illyria]] (mentioned)
* [[Logan Prime]] (mentioned)
* [[Luxen]]
* [[Santander|Santander's World]] (mentioned)
* [[Tango]] (mentioned)
* [[Taurus]] (mentioned)
* [[Ten-A-Two]] (mentioned)
* [[Terra]] (mentioned)
* [[Tethys]] (mentioned)
* [[Thraxa]] (mentioned)
* [[Tumbleweed]] (mentioned)
* "[[Brass Monkey]]" (mentioned)

== Featured BattleTech ==
=== BattleMechs ===
[[Image:Temperance MacCaulay HBMPS.jpg|thumb|right|"Gray Lady" depicted as a ''[[Centurion (BattleMech)|Centurion]]'']]
While the exact type of neither "Gray Lady" nor "Lady Day" was specified, art going with the story depicts a woman (presumably MacCauley) working on a 'Mech that has ''Gray Lady'' written on it. The 'Mech's visible head section in that picture is clearly that of a ''[[Centurion (BattleMech)|Centurion]]'', with distinctive details virtually identical to the ''Centurion'' as depicted in the original ''[[Technical Readout: 3025]]'' and shown from the exact same angle.

== Notes ==
* {{note|authors}} [[Diane Piron-Gelman]], [[Herbert A. Beas II]], and [[Joel Bancroft-Connors]] (additional writing) are credited as the authors of ''Handbook: Major Periphery States''. It was not indicated who wrote the introductory story.

[[Category:Short Stories]]

Local Color - Revision history

imported>Frabby: /* Plot Summary */