CS3056-41

=Chapter 41= 
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==Clover Spear - The Story of the '56 War ==
Heav'n has no rage, like love to hatred turn'd,' 
'Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorned"William Congreve (1697)
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===Unpleasant News from Dover===
Guest Quarters, Royal Palace
New Avalon, Federated Commonwealth
May 1st, 3057
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Omiko Kurita smiled and kissed the cheek of the sleeping man next to her. Idly she brushed a lock of golden hair behind Victor Steiner-Davion's ear before sighing inaudibly. As attractive as sleeping next to the man she loved was to her, and as tired as she was; her duty, as always, was the greater burden.
"What is the most important duty?", she whispered to herself into the stillness of the night-shrouded room. Then Omi carefully slid from the bed, making sure not to disturb Victor as he slept. She closed her eyes as she slipped on a simple robe over her nude body and finished the quotation from the Chinese philosopher Mencius in a hushed voice. "One’s duty toward one’s parent."
With that she slipped into her study, nodding to the guard at the bedroom door, and booted up her computer. She then shivered briefly as she felt the warmth of Victor's flesh against hers cool. As much as Omiko Kurita wished with every fiber of her being otherwise, even tonight on the night when Victor had been cleared medically to sleep in her bed, her father had appointed her Keeper of the House Honor. As always, in the age old conflict between duty and desire, between giri and ninjō, her honor demanded that her duty must come first.
For the duty of the Keeper of House Honor was plain. As was the honor of House Kurita.
She must act to guide her cousin back from the brink of madness before it consumed her.
The computer screen blinked with the insignia of ComStar, and Omi clicked on the button to open a HPG message form to be sent to Miyako. She glanced out the window next to the desk at the shapes of tree branches moving in the wind on a moonlight night and began to type.
* Story Section written by Yellowhammer
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====Letter to a wayward Cousin====
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Although the wind
blows terribly here,
the moonlight also leaks
between the roof planks
of this ruined house.
Cousin.
I congratulate you on your victory over the Dragons of Jade and Teak. However, your HPG broadcast of the execution of those captured by the Ryuken, while no doubt educational to the citizens of the Combine, has caused consternation among the nobility of the FedCom. None here would dispute your right to the throne, nor challenge the Coordinator's power and right to punish her enemies for state treason. However, the mass execution of technicians, medical personnel, and other noncombatants was alarming to many on New Avalon and has provoked debate over whether policies toward the Combine should be adjusted if such matters continue.
Furthermore, executing skilled samurai who loyally followed the orders of traitorous superiors is wasteful, when the Dragon needs all the loyal warriors that she can muster to get revenge upon the Jaguars and the Black Dragon Society for their injuries to our family. I am no warrior, and you are of course, but our ancestors allowed such soldiers to expiate their mistaken loyalties in self-sacrificial actions against our enemies in prior conflicts.
I do what I can to rally support to your cause, but I am but one voice amongst many in the FedCom....
* Story Section written by Yellowhammer
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===The Angry Dragon continues her War===
Coordinator's Quarters
Overlord Class DropShip, DCA Hiryu 
Felicitous Travel Spaceport, Xianyang
Xinyang Prefecture
Benjamin Military District
May 12th, 3057
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Miyako Kurita's hand clenched on the message the Pillarine Adept had given her as her eyes narrowed to icy slits. Slowly she read the lines that had been penned on distant New Avalon and then her voice came out in an icy controlled whisper. "I...see. Inform your mistress that The Dragon shall take her counsel and meditate upon her words. Now go."
With that, the Adept bowed and departed silently. Miyako waited for the hatch to close before her face twisted in grief and pain and she flung the message to the ground and stepped on it savagely. Her voice came out in a jagged-edged scream of anguish as she released what was inside her.
"'Moderate my actions to avoid stirring up trouble with the FedCom!' As if my dear cousin would not cut the hearts out of the slayers of our kin alongside me!!" Miyako stalked across the cabin to where her father's portrait gazed on her sternly from a shrine and grasped it, hugging it close to her chest as her hot tears fell upon the hologram that was all that was left of the most beloved person in her universe.
Gradually her voice stilled as she regained control, and then a savage smile blossomed on her face as she whispered in triumph. "No, her blood cries for vengeance as surely as mine does! The Steiner-Davions are busy with the remnants of Liao and Marik as always is too weak to do what must be done. The Jaguars have been broken to heel by my samurai as they count their dead, and that means..."
She walked to the holotank and reverently placed her father's portrait where it could observe her at work. A touch of the controls revealed the Combine, with the gray gash of the Jaguars' thrusting down from Luthien to their current positions at Bicester and Philadelphia. The blue of the FedCom covered the bottom of the map, while the dividing line between the red of the loyal and the yellow of the traitors stretched from Irirzun to Ijima as the Benjamin Military District bled over to Galedon. A touch of the controls caused red arrows to strike into Galedon.
"Yes, yes. Once the Ryuken have rearmed and refitted, we shall strike to Hachiman. The factories there will supply our forward base, and Chandrasekhar is on our side. Meanwhile, the other prong..."
Another arrow thrust down from Pesht to Midway. "I pull the remaining loyal units off the Clan front from around Pesht - the Jaguars are lamed and dying - and they take Midway. When Midway falls, nine in ten dropship yards in the Combine are mine and I can then consolidate to advance upon Galedon and New Samarkand. And then..."
Her eyes glittered like chips of ice. "Then I can make the traitors suffer as I have suffered. Father, you will hear their screams."
;* Story Section written by Yellowhammer
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===Shadow of the Nova Cat===
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Bug Eye Class Surveillance, CNCS Mata Hari
Pesht
Pesht District
May 12th, 3057
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With a brief radiation bloom hidden by the emissions of Pesht's primary, Mata Hari materialized at the L1 point for the innermost planet. On board the Bug-Eye surveillance ship, Star Captain Jeanne looked around the cramped command deck, and nodded.
"All stations report!"
"Position confirmed, Star Captain. We have arrived in Pesht. Plotting survey burn now to pass us in range of the planet ballistically."
"Gunnery turrets standing by for engagement, no targets." reports weapon officer
"ELINT board reads green. No radar transmission sources in range."
"COMINT is picking up chatter. Beginning decrypt of intercepted communications. Internal HPG is green."
"Engineering reports drive green, beginning trickle charge of K-F core, Lithium-fusion batteries green. Ready for maneuver."
"Optics report minor alignment motor issue with the telescope. Beginning repairs."
"Aff. Begin maneuver burn to put us on a hyperbolic ballistic course past Pesht III. The Khan took these ships as isorla after Tukkayid so that the freeborn Spheroids would not fool us again. We are the eyes and the whiskers of the Nova Cat and without us our strike against the Dragon will not go true. The Great Father and the Founder showed us how to learn the weaknesses of a target when they destroyed the Traitor Amaris and reclaimed the Pentagon Worlds. We had forgotten the lesson, but now we learn it once more. Prepare a tightbeam laser whisker to micropulse the message to Belle Boyd letting them know that their relief has arrived."
* Story Section written by Yellowhammer
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