Pancho Salas
| NPC | Enemy | Trivia |
Pancho Salas is an NPC in Arknights. He is the antagonist of Dossoles Holiday.
Background
Pancho is an old veteran of the True Bolívarians, one of the three factions of the Bolívarian civil war. For years, he had been fighting against the Leithanian Singas dynasty and the pro-Columbian Coalition Government together with his comrade Lieutanent Pugh Silva. However, eight years ago, in the year 1089, an insidious plot against him that led to a bloody defeat, which cost the lives of his friend and three thousand soldiers, woke him up to reality. He realized that all the three factions of Bolívar were nothing more than a band of corrupt leaders that will never bring peace and independence to the nation. After leaving the army out of disappointment, he brough his only son Ernesto and the adopted daughter of his deceased comrade Rafaela Silva to accomplish the mission on their own without outside aid.[1][2]
The Salases wandered around the nation for three years before they decided to settled in the city of Dossoles. But the longer Pancho stayed there, the stronger his detest grew. He was disgusted by the city's outward materialism and its rampant, ignored criminal activities. He was also bittered to see the fact that Dossoles was built on the flesh and blood of the victims murdered by the three factions. In order to wake the people up of the harsh reality outside, Pancho disguised himself as a helper of Mayor Candela Sanchez while having Ernesto to be her assistant so that the two could secretly bring in their supplies. In the meantime, he reluctantly received aid from Leithaina in secret even though he hates his arch-enemy to the bone. His ultimate goal was to make Dossoles his war base against the three factions.
During his stay in Dossoles, Pancho acted as a captain for the city's grand cruise ship. By learning its seafaring technology from Iberia, he secretly built up his personal naval fleet. He built a large, amphibious screw-propelled motorboat for his own with a ram on its bow and a main gun that could fire out streams of pressurized saltwater at high velocities, as well as deploying autonomous gun turrets and demolition watercrafts to provide combat support. If his motorboat sinks, Pancho will hold back his enemies on foot by wielding an anchor on his right arm and a grenade launcher firing armor-eroding rounds on his left arm. In addition to these, the sight of the former colonel taking down his foes or falling in battle is enough to inspire Pancho's comrades to fight harder.
Story
Dossoles Holiday
Prior to the opening ceremony of the Warrior Championship, Pancho's presence had already attracted the media's attention since he had rarely appeared in the public while being the captain of the cruise ship. In response to Eureka's question, he replied that he decided to be a speaker of the Championship because he wanted to return favor for the mayor. When being asked about the participants, he commenmted out that they were only interested in rewards and that the fighting spirit of the Bolívarians has gradually degraded. He closed his interview by telling the citizens and tourists to enjoy the show as if it will be their last.[3]
Pancho met Ch'en and Yühsia after the two accidentally ran into the preliminaries of the Championship while dealing with the bar's hooligans. The Lungmen duo were surprised to see him being Ernestos' father. The old man gave the two a golden statue not only as a reward for the scrimmage, but also as an encourgement for the girls. He also wished them good luck in the official matches.[4]
On the outside, Pancho acted as one of the speakers for the Championship; behind the scence, however, he and Ernesto and Rafaela were working together to implant bombs around the city as part of their plan to wake up the locals. Even then, he did not wish his children to be dragged into such a dangerous affair despite the two had already pledged loyalty to their father. Knowing that Candela will be a tricky person, he ordered Rafaela to flee together with his step-brother if anything goes wrong during the riot.[5]
During the last section of the triathlon, Pancho hijacked the city's television system and proclaimed his terrorist attack. He mocked Candela for erasing the people's will through the outward materialism.[1] He also had the VIPs in the cruise ship, most of them being the representatives of the three war factions, kidnapped while forcing some of them to work for him.[6] When Ch'en and Yühsia infiltrated the ship to rescue the VIPs and implat bombs inside it, the former encountered Pancho, and the old veteran was angered to see her helping the greedy mayor. But before Pancho could attack her, Ch'en lep off the ship and fled together with Yühsia on a motorboat. Even though Pancho led his naval force to pursue the girls, everything was furtile. In the meantime, Yühsia decided to give Pancho and his men a "surprise" by igniting the bombs she set up in the ship.[7]
After the cruise shp was blasted by Yühsia's bombs, Pancho and his men came to the shore, encountered Candela, and somewhat willingly surrendered themselves. Surprisingly, Candela invited him for a dinner even though the old sailor knew that it was meant to be a mockery. Candela jokingly pointed out that Pancho had actually accepted financial support from Leithanien despite claiming himself to be free from all the three Bolívarian factions. In her opinion, he should have find her to achieve his great champaign in the first place so that he would not be fallen miserably. Pancho boasted that he was at least more just than her; on the other hand, Candela replied that she is never interested in either the affairs of the three factions or those self-proclaimed "justice." All she cares is the meaning of this city.[8]
In the aftermath, Pancho was incarcerated for his terrorist attack. Surpringly, most of his men, including his son and daughter, were pardoned by Candela due to her previous favor on the old veteran.