Kyrillos Taliadoros vs. Thandi Palane

Whet your appetites and let the match of the centuries begins, no pulsars, bombs, or distance weapons allowed.

Who wins and why?

My vote.

Go to your corners.

In this corner, bred talent, Kyrillos. <> In this corner, raw talent, Thandi.


Kyrillos is a bodyguard because he was engineered to be.

Thandi is a bodyguard because she wants to be, therefore her mind, body, and heart are in unison. You can engineer the human body to be adept at something and even tweak the mind to be an asset. But the heart is another thing. Thandi's heart is in it as well.

Thandi has a level of experience unmatched by the Mesan. Her skills are forged in the heat of many battles.

Kyrillos battles for a cause. Thandi battles for a reason.

Kyrillos was born to be tough. Thandi was born tough.

It'll come down to the two oldest adages 'mind over matter' and 'who wants it the most.'

The tale of the tape goes tooooo ... Thandi Palane.

If that ain't enough to convince, consider this. Before the battle, Victor would have already spoken to Kyrillos, "You harm one hair on her head and I'll put my foot so far up your ass you'll need a brain surgeon for removal."




.

SharkHunter wrote:Whet your appetites and let the match of the centuries begins, no pulsars, bombs, or distance weapons allowed.

Who wins and why?

What about non-distance weaponry? Kyrillos Taliadoros has built-in weaponry (similar to the GAUL's extrudable knife in Cauldron of Ghosts). Thandi doesn't have any weaponry other than her ability to use her body as a weapon (like Master Tye in the short story From the Highlands, but with the advantage of some genetic engineering her ancestors did, plus the accelerated evolution on her home planet).

Vince wrote:

SharkHunter wrote:Whet your appetites and let the match of the centuries begins, no pulsars, bombs, or distance weapons allowed.

Who wins and why?

What about non-distance weaponry? Kyrillos Taliadoros has built-in weaponry (similar to the GAUL's extrudable knife in Cauldron of Ghosts). Thandi doesn't have any weaponry other than her ability to use her body as a weapon (like Master Tye in the short story From the Highlands, but with the advantage of some genetic engineering her ancestors did, plus the accelerated evolution on her home planet).

Well, by long distance I meant things like Honor's pulsar in a finger, hand pulsers, "old style chemical burners", plasma rifles, tri-barrels, or goofy things like spitting poison. S'pposed to hand t'hand, as Mr.Oversteegen might say, so the extrudable knife is still a hand weapon, and likely he's been scanned so she knows about it. For example, maybe they are chained together a la gladiator style with two weapons in the room, or like the scene in Crouching Tiger they can each grab their choice of hand weapons.

--snip--

cthia wrote:My vote.
The tale of the tape goes tooooo ... Thandi Palane.

If that ain't enough to convince, consider this. Before the battle, Victor would have already spoken to Kyrillos, "You harm one hair on her head and I'll put my foot so far up your ass you'll need a brain surgeon for removal."

.

Rolling on floor, slapping said floor laughing... Maybe it would be better if he says that to Aldona, minor variation"on the off chance he manages to so much as draw more than a little bit of blood, I'll put my foot so far up YOUR.... After I shoot him, of course. Enjoy the match, Ms. Superspy.

Plenty of textev of Thandi kicking ass and taking names, in some quite hairy situations too.

Not so much with the Taliadoros clones. They're unproven, however much anyone talks up their custom-tailored genes, combat implants and training. And, let's face it, bodyguards don't have a high survival rate in the honorverse!

Palane...for the same basic reasoning that Honor killed Burdette, who had much more fencing training than her.

Taliadoros has been trained to kill...and Thandi Palane is a killer.

Nuff' said.

Hutch wrote:Palane...for the same basic reasoning that Honor killed Burdette, who had much more fencing training than her.

Taliadoros has been trained to kill...and Thandi Palane is a killer.

Nuff' said.

Well said.

As Burdette, Kyrillos would fight to win.

As Honor, Thandi fights to live. Profound difference in motivation.

cthia wrote:My vote.

Go to your corners.

In this corner, bred talent, Kyrillos. <> In this corner, raw talent, Thandi.


Kyrillos is a bodyguard because he was engineered to be.

Thandi is a bodyguard because she wants to be, therefore her mind, body, and heart are in unison. You can engineer the human body to be adept at something and even tweak the mind to be an asset. But the heart is another thing. Thandi's heart is in it as well.

Thandi has a level of experience unmatched by the Mesan. Her skills are forged in the heat of many battles.

Kyrillos battles for a cause. Thandi battles for a reason.

Kyrillos was born to be tough. Thandi was born tough.

It'll come down to the two oldest adages 'mind over matter' and 'who wants it the most.'

The tale of the tape goes tooooo ... Thandi Palane.

If that ain't enough to convince, consider this. Before the battle, Victor would have already spoken to Kyrillos, "You harm one hair on her head and I'll put my foot so far up your ass you'll need a brain surgeon for removal."




.

My version. Thandi is not a bodyguard. Thandi is an assault marine, with specialization in close quarters assault and hand-to-hand mayhem. That means she is at least as prepared to cheat as he is, AND that she starts off assuming that her opponent will be as capable as she. Same conclusion, though.

dr

Come to think of it, anyone on Torch would love to have a Mesan for lunch.