TBntG-3 Chpt 60

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 60 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==Not With a Bang..==
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Mary jinked Baby III to the side. The advanced Dragon responded, the VR system better than anything she'd ever experienced—making the long ago years of Brannis's new 'mechs feel like pre-space autocars. 
And why am I here? Oh right, the Clans had agreed to 1/2 war loads and pauses to remove injured. The UMC had tried for full simulation, but the Clans argued that for it to be seen as a real trial, there had to be at least some risk. Intelligence agreed that they were very aware of who had more recruits, which was why they weren't pushing for full warloads. But they had demanded that the CINC also participate in the trial for Unity City. 
 
Bang! Mary glared at the yellow indicator on her armor. Some young whipper snapper had paired off with her. 
 
I suppose it's another sign. The other thing the Clans had wanted was an old fashioned fight. No THOR strikes, no artillery barrages. It might be a formality, but it was worth it, and part of that included going back to the days of dueling, and Mary Cheng, who had become part of the Chair Service because you never had time for anything but paperwork was dealing with some up and coming Clan warrior in a Timberwolf. 
 
She fired off smoke rounds, dodging back, and flipping the switch on her Mod III PPC to plasma. The newest version included a "Carronade" mode where you'd dump hydrogen pellets into the PPC bore, which gave you a short-ranged plasma blast that had a lot of kinetic energy coming behind it. 
The cannon fired, and a globe of plasma, not as powerful as it would normally be, roared through the smoke. But the Timberwolf jock spun like he'd seen it coming before she knew she was going to do it. The right side of the mech got toasted, armor flaking and the leg going limp, but it wasn't the dead on shot Mary had wanted and now he was raising his own weapons. For a moment the 'mechs were liked by missiles and lasers and then…
 
<{"Reactor failure. Shutting down."}>
 
"Dammit!" Mary snarled. She was going to catch hell for this. She'd managed to take down one Puma, but the Timberwolf had… 
 
Wait. It wasn't moving. 
 
"You are shutdown, quiaff?" the voice on her coms was young. 
 
"Aff."
 
"So am I. I had not considered such a short-range weapon."
 
"I almost did… not." No sense pissing him off with slang. "It is rare that we get that close." 
 
"Aff."
 
"First battle?"
 
There was a pause. "Aff. I was sent with my sibko to fight on the front line. Then I was to be transferred to Luthien, but the war ended. It was decided that our skills were more suited to this conflict."
 
People dueling, and nobody wanting to die, as opposed to human wave attacks, nukes and bios. You were lucky. Enough youngsters have died. 
 
Not that Mary would say that to him. She wasn't that old to forget how she'd react to someone telling her that.
 
"I will be part of the honor guard for our new capital. I will live on Earth like the Great Father." There was a pause. "But… I don't know much about it."
 
"Can you sight see?"
 
"Sight… see?"
 
"Go out, when you are not on duty. See Terra. Do you know that there are buildings in the Middle East that were built over five thousand years before we first left this world? You can go there, look at them." 
 
"Our trainers did not waste time on such things…" There was a pause. "So old? How did they build them?"
 
"By hand. Mud bricks." Mary paused. "I wonder if any of them ever looked up to the sky and dreamed of traveling through those stars." 
 
"I do not know if I could go…"
 
"Why not?" Because Will is setting up trips for every place from Disneyland to Ur. The Clans had fought to take a part of humanity's cradle and now that they did, it would be a shame to not show it to them…
 
And if their hothouse society melted like sugar under hot water… Well. 
 
"I am Bethann, of Clan Wolf." The warrior paused. "Our Khan has spoken of changing the way things are done, so maybe I could visit those places. They had warriors, quiaff?"
 
"Aff. Did you ever hear the epic of Gilgamesh?" 
 
"Neg." 
 
"I'll give you a book." The Wolves were a lot more liberal. "It was the very first version of your remembrance, telling the tale of Gilgamesh and his quest."
 
"For what?"
 
"He became afraid of death and sought immortality." Mary paused. "I suppose he succeeded in a way. Six thousand years later and people still read his epic and talk about him." 
 
There was an instant beeping and Mary glanced as the computer came alive with notes. "It looks like you won this one." 
 
"That would mean we won three battles to your two."
 
"Yep." 
 
"It was a good… honorable battle, Mary Cheng. Some of the older warriors think you could become the source of a new bloodname." 
 
"I cannot say yes, but that is an honor." The kid was young and was complimenting her in the only way he knew how. Mary wasn't about to snark.
 
"And… I would like that book, if you would…"
 
"I'll get it to you."
 
With that, they waited until the recovery units arrived.
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The five battles that determined how much the Clans would pay for Unity City were some of the most publicized battles in the conflict, mainly because the venues were chosen and nobody had to worry about either side shooting at civilians. The Clans had a victory they could shout about, and the UMC had the victory that mattered. Ironically, fears of casualties in the conflict were largely misplaced. The largest intake to local hospitals came from an offhanded comment by an Elemental to a Texan that the Inner Sphere suffered from bland food and had no idea of what spices were for. This insult could not be born and over the course of the challenges, increasingly hot peppers were tried, and pride demanded nobody gave in.The Clans may have taken Unity City, but the genetically modified hot peppers of Terra claimed the victory over the Clans, with "Billy Bob" McConnell claiming victory, right before he was hauled off by irritated paramedics, along with nearly 100 Clan and Inner Sphere combatants to have their stomach linings regenerated…From: After the Storm, the Five Years between the Fall of Luthien and Formation of the Union of Sovereign States.
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