CYTM23

=Chapter 23=
==Can you tell me where can we start over?==
Jade Falcon OZ
3054
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"...the Clan should move fully into the Liberation zone."  Henry was on his fifth Fusionaire in the little recreation club facility. "It makes the most sense-shorter times for repair and refit, shorter logistical chain, faster response to changes in tactics, and a stronger position over-all."
"YOU have never been to the Homeworlds, Henry."  Phillip said, "There is history there.  Strana Mechty."
"I counter with there being history here, and Holy Terra...besides, the best way to get them to surrender is to show them what they have lost, what voluntarily submitting to the Clan will bring them."
''
"Where would we be if that happened? Police? Please...Oh hey, Shelby, you have heard our Star Captain's rant about relocating to the Inner Sphere before, quiaff?"
"He never shuts up about it except when we are either in battle or coupling." Shelby sat down with a pitcher of local beer.
"Not true!" Henry said, "I talk about lots of stuff besides that!"
"WE KNOW!!" the others rejoined.  Phil began, "To be fair..."
"To be FAIIIR" Shelby said automatically.
"TO BE FAAAAIIIIRRRR!!" and Henry joined in operatically before making the termination gesture.
"To be fair, it is not a bad notion." Phillip said, "The wealth available here is astonishing. The Clan can benefit every bit as much as the poor dumb Spheroids who do not know what they are missing...but the notion has a couple of central flaws. That including the damage it can do to those other. A lesser Clans who just are not fortunate enough to be Jade Falcons yet.  I believe a move will have to wait for the conquest of Terra, in order to provide a suitable meeting ground for the Clans who remain to fully engage in their tributes to the most likely ilClan, which is our Clan."
''
"The ilClan!" Henry said, "May it be Clan Jade Falcon!"
"Seyla!"
"Henry...Hank, I was in the comm shop this morning. There was a news intercepts, your little sister is making headlines." Shelby said.
"Wait, you have relatives?" asks Phillip
"Do not be so astonished, Phil.  Our Star Captain is blood-related to a planetary Duchess." said Shelby
"Duchess-what?  Patrick was in line-" Henry's good mood evaporated.
"Not after the Wolves took Tamar." She said, "Patrick Ngo is confirmed dead as of the conquest of that world. It was in the compilation brief they were preparing for the Star Colonel.  Just think, if we had not been taken on Blackjack, you could have been the Duke of Kowloon."
"No way..." Henry looked a little ill.
"You are related to one of those Inner Sphere nobles?" Phillip looked a little concerned and his voice had a slight quaver.
"Henry here, our Star Captain, is a direct line descendant of Colonel Tranh Truk Ngo, the Elbar Impaler himself." Shelby said easily, "DeChevalier's war diary mentions them several times."
Phillip frowned, processing this, then brightened, "All of a sudden, everything makes so much more sense!"
Henry didn't look pleased, "No, it does not." he said, "Tranh Truk Ngo refused the call to Exodus, and..ah...he did not have nice things to say about it."
"How do you know this?" asked Phillip
"My grandfather showed me the recording of their last conversation when I was twelve.  I would rather not think about that, and would like very much if you would leave it alone, quiaff?"  He stood up, "I have to take a piss."  and walked away.
"What do you know?"  Phillip asked, "Why is he so...reluctant about a distinguished ancestry like that, dating to the war against Amaris?"
Shelby propped her elbows on the table, "THis is recent, like, only after he decided to let himself be bonded...he used to talk about it in barracks with me while we were dating at Blackjack..."
"and?" Phillip inquires
"He said his people see the SLDF that went on Exodus with Kerensky as deserters and traitors. That they blame the SLDF for the First Succession War. They blame Exodus for...they use terms like 'deserter' and 'abandonment'. It is..like cultural, understand?  Now, he has sided with the descendants of that same SLDF, chose this side over that side. Not everybody sees things that way, but his family does."  she licked her lips, "I should have kept my mouth shut."
"SO...why did you speak?" Phillip asked.
"Hank has this old security footage from his school days-or he had it, anyway, he used to show it around to get laughs." she informed him, "His little sister at age eight, beating up an eleven year old boy so badly she got kicked out of boarding school for bullying."  she held her fingers apart, "Little tiny thing, and the boy was big for his age.  He used to make jokes about his 'mean little sister' and now she is the Duchess of Kowloon...I thought it would make him smile a little since we are all basically waiting for the shoe to drop."
"I have seen him fighting in battle, and in trials...there is someone meaner?" Phillip asked rhetorically, "I would meet this young woman!"
"Kowloon is above the truce line, Phil, you might." Henry's tone was hard as he sat back down.  "All it would take, is for the Clan to decide to go there. of course, the problem with that, is that it is far outside of our corridor, and we have other hash to settle first, like retaking our property from the savashri Steel Viper ******."
"The Star Colonel is working up a raid, maybe?" Shel suggested.
"He is. again, the problem is resources and permissions." Henry said, "The Khan is fine with close raids, our nearest access point is multiple jumps out and the planet is non-strategic."
"No glory and no gain." Phil summarized.
"Correct. Kowloon is at least two waves worth, but...if we brought the entire Clan and Touman, we could take everything above the truce line by the time the deadline runs out in 3067."
"Your plan?" Shelby asked.
"Not my plan.  Nathan Roshak's plan, I am just helping with the staff work...shit. pour me another one Shelby.  First objectives will be to push the Steel Vipers the hell out of our way, and that is on the level of inter-clan politics at this point-the Khans do not feel we have sufficient cassus belli to stomp the tin-snakes and send them back to the barrens."
"What has to happen to get that?" Shelby asked.
"Simple enough-we have to have an ilKhan that will overturn Ulric Kerensky's orders to admit the Reserve Clans, secure our frontage on the Wolf side so the damn wardens do not interfere. Then start taking everything we are able to while technically upholding the Clan's agreement on the Truce, because without that cassus belli. The Clan can be brought up as going rogue, and given that the Cease fire was negotiated in bad faith, by warden scumdogs..." He took a drink, "...there needs to be a meaningful way to conform to the letter of the agreement, while still conducting the Crusade."
----
"Why are you so...adamant about the Crusade, Henry?"  Phillip asked as they stepped out into the cool night air for the walk back to barracks.
"Why? When you walk into a medbay, what do you see?" Henry asked.
"Usually I am not walking unless it is for a diagnostic physical, but I see medtechs and medical equipment." Phillip said.
"What I see, is three centuries of lost knowledge that should have been able to return decades before it finally has, because warden scumdogs blocked that return."  The three paused at an intersection.  "I see technical advancements in life-saving methods that the inner sphere never had the chance to develop because they bombed themselves into barbarity. Advances that save lives every day, could be saving more lives. Except the damn Wardens do not want to bring it to the trillions of people who need it the most.  When I look at the Clans, I see order imposed on chaos, conflict that is controlled and structured instead of haphazard genocidal madness."  He checked each way and they started walking again. "I see a rule of law that works. Who has kept it from being brought to the masses? The scumdog Wardens did."
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