Spotlight: Gupta Sanga

[DeJaVu]

[12 February 3070; SBC] Four years ago, on 12 February 3066, Gupta Sanga was killed during a grudge match in Cathay’s Jungle Arena, fighting against Zelazni Stables regular Adam Grady. Sanga, fighting in his trademark Wraith, almost managed to defeat Grady, who was fighting in a refurbished Dragon. It was only a last-ditch autocannon barrage by Grady, who’s ’Mech was shredded by laser fire, that penetrated the Wraith’s cockpit, killing Sanga instantly.
Sanga made his name in the mid-sixties by fighting his Wraith in a devil-may-care manner that often left his opponents injured. The media, whom Sanga hated with a quiet intensity, made him out to be Cathay’s Black Knight, an avatar of the ancient goddess Kali herself. Sanga, who never granted a single interview, neither embraced nor discarded the moniker, and with the public’s mind changed by what the media told it, never bothered to be anything but what he was: a killer.
Of the twenty-nine opponents Sanga faced after gaining a license, thirteen were killed and a further six disabled. Sanga was particularly fond of the Death-From-Above attack, using his Wraith’s phenomenal jumping ability to strike heavily upon his opponent’s upper chassis. Of those thirteen kills, eleven were the result of crushed cockpits.
While there were many outcries against Sanga and his violent tactics, the ferocity of the FedCom Civil War masked many of his more obvious attacks, and it wasn’t until the death of Adam Grady’s cousin Menander that Sanga was challenged. Grady’s grudge match had specific terms—if Sanga was defeated, he would never again fight in the arenas.
Grady did not live to relish his victory, however… in the ’Mech pens after the bout, a freak ammunition explosion destroyed the jitney Grady was riding on, killing him.