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==Chapter 17 - Best Served Cold==
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Cameron-Class Battlecruiser Sarah McEvedy, Zenith Jump Point
Rasalhague, Clan Wolf Occupation Zone
November 5th, 3051
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The shuttle, painted a mottled gray and bearing the crest of Clan Wolf, settled into the docking bay.  The space doors closed, the bay was repressurized, and the access hatch slid open.  Lilly McEvedy, flanked by a Point of Ferals in their W2 Battle Armor, strode into the docking bay.  The shuttle's ramp lowered, and ilKhan Ulric Kerensky emerged, accompanied by a Point of Battle Armor-clad Elementals.
Ulric wore an impressive dress uniform, light olive and dark brown with red highlights and a cape, trimmed in genuine wolf fur.  Lilly found it ostentatious.  She wore black and gray Wolverine fatigues, the only decoration her rank pins on the lapels, the Clan Wolverine patch on her left shoulder, the Remembrance Cluster patch on her right.
Ulric approached and bowed gracefully.  "You must be Star Colonel Lilly McEvedy.  Khan Natasha Kerensky's description was detailed, though it hardly does you justice.  I am ilKhan Ulric Kerensky, permission to come aboard?"  Ulric straightened, an amused smile playing beneath his neatly trimmed goatee.
With great effort, Lilly resisted the urge to wipe that smile off his face with her fist, and nodded as respectfully as she was able.  "Permission granted.  I have orders to escort you to our Khan.  Follow me."
"My honor guard may accompany us, quiaff?" he asked Lilly
"Affirmative.” Lilly replied, spinning on her heel and marching out of the docking bay.  The heavy clomp of ten armored feet told her the Elementals, at least, were following.
Apparently without any undignified rush, Ulric managed to fall into step beside her, and the Ferals formed an honor guard around them and the Elementals.
"An impressive ship.” Ulric said.  "Your Clan flagship, if I am not mistaken, quiaff?"
"That would be classified military intelligence.” Lilly replied curtly.
"I am merely making conversation, I intend no disrespect.” Ulric said smoothly.
Lilly suppressed a snarl.  If she didn't know better, she'd say Ulric knew exactly how much his attempts to be charming were pissing her off, and he was enjoying it.
The trip to the Khan's office seemed to take forever, with Lilly deflecting or ignoring Ulric's attempts to "make conversation."  Through it all, his sly smile never wavered.
He is enjoying this, the bastard.
Finally, Lilly knocked on the Khan's door, opened it at the command of "Enter.” and ushered Ulric inside, motioning for the Ferals and Elementals to wait in the corridor.  Stepping inside, she closed the door.
Ulric didn't break stride as he approached the Khan's desk, but seemed to take in the room's Spartan appointment at a glance and give the faintest nod of approval.
From behind her desk, the Khan rose.  "I am Jennifer McEvedy, Khan of Clan Wolverine."
"Ulric Kerensky, ilKhan of the Clans, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."  Ulric flashed the briefest of looks back at Lilly, immediately noting the family resemblance.
"Be seated.” Jennifer said coolly.  She waited until Ulric sat before sitting herself.  "Why have you come, Ulric Kerensky?"
"Straight to the point, then.” Ulric said.  Lilly still stood near the door of the Khan's office, but if Ulric was unnerved having an angry Wolverine at his back, he gave no sign.  In fact, he still seemed to find the whole thing entertaining.  Even Natasha Kerensky, the infamous Black Widow, had been unsettled at coming face-to-face with Clan Wolverine, but Ulric. . . 
Ulric seemed to think it was funny.
What does he know that we do not? Lilly wondered.
"Khan Natasha informed me of your request.  I am here to commence negotiations to the end of you -- shoving the truth down our throats until we choke, I believe is how the Star Colonel put it."
"Why should you want to offer any assistance to The Not-Named Clan?" Jennifer asked, her voice dripping with sarcastic scorn.
"The truth is always in everyone's best interest.” Ulric replied innocently.  "Why should I rest before seeing it brought to light?"
"I do not buy it.” Jennifer shot back.  "You have an angle in this, Ulric Kerensky.  What is it, what do you have to gain?"
''
"The truth, as I have said."''
"Then dispense with your half-lies."
Ulric paused, sizing up Khan Jennifer McEvedy once more.  He stroked his goatee, beneath it, his smile widened.  "Very well.  The unvarnished truth it shall be.  Bargained well and done."
Ulric paused, seeming to collect his thoughts.  "If Star Colonel McEvedy's report to you was as thorough as Khan Natasha's was to me, then you know the Clans have been split into two distinct political factions."
Jennifer nodded.  "Wardens and Crusaders.  And let me agree with my daughter's assessment;  We really don't care."
Ulric nodded.  "Understandable.  But for me to explain why I am interested in assisting you, you must understand;  I am a Warden, and the Crusader agenda is toxic to me."
Jennifer shrugged.  "Then go fight over your ideology, kill each other off, and leave the rest of us out of it."
For the first time, Ulric frowned.  "That would be wasteful, and surely you are not so divorced from our founding that you do not understand how awful wastefulness is."
"And invading the Inner Sphere is less wasteful. . . how, exactly?"
"I did not say that.  In fact, it is part of why I find the Crusader agenda so offensive.  But allow me to explain.  In the two-hundred fifty years since you left--"
"Since we were Annihilated.” Jennifer corrected harshly.
"--the Clans have grown arrogant, self-confident.  Self-destructively so.  We fight according to the honorable rules of Trial laid down by Nicholas Kerensky, and we win because of our technological superiority over the forces of the Inner Sphere.  But already they are narrowing that advantage, and have learned to use the batchall and zellbrigen against us.  We have suffered defeats, been turned back, lost warriors and equipment.  Should the invasion continue as it is, it is only a matter of time before the tactics and strategy of the Inner Sphere destroys the Clans. . . or the rage of the Clans at being dishonored destroys the Inner Sphere."
"We are neither of the Clans nor the Inner Sphere.  This matters not to us."
"I don't believe that.” Ulric replied.  "We have a technological edge on the Inner Sphere -- one you seem to share -- because the Inner Sphere lost much in two and a half centuries of brutal, total warfare.  The Clans are as practiced at the type of war the Inner Sphere brings as we are at decorating pastries."
"If you have a point, Ulric Kerensky, please come to it."
"You have met my Khan, Natasha Kerensky.  She is nearly eighty, hopelessly outmatched by warriors eight and nine generations improved on her in our breeding program, yet she continually bests them in all fields of battle.  The young man with her, Phelan Wolf, is a freeborn from the Inner Sphere, and one of my most promising ristars.  With these two exceptional warriors, I mean to strike at the very foundation of Clan society, to prove the perceived superiority our breeding program affords is precisely that:  perceived superiority."
"So what?"
"You also seek to strike at the foundation of Clan society, the veneration of Nicholas Kerensky and his vision, the awe in which he is held, his status as a savior and prophet and messiah.  I am no fool; I know he was but a man, and had his flaws and ambitions, his prides and prejudices, and I know your people paid the price for them.  I will help you set the record straight; you will help me save the Clans from themselves."
"And what if we're content to watch the Clans destroy themselves?"
Ulric smiled.  "You seek justice for the crimes done to your people.  How does becoming the monsters the stories make you out to be advance that goal?"
To Lilly's surprise, Jennifer smiled in return.  "Is being a good judge of character a trait for which the Clans select?"
"It should be." Ulric responded
"What do you propose?" Jennifer asked.
"I expect the invasion will take a significant.” Ulric's grin widened, "and entirely unexpected, turn within thirty days.  Cease your attacks, pull your troops out of the Occupation Zones.  The Grand Council has decreed I should put a stop to the threat of so-called bandits purporting to be of The Not-Named Clan, this will see that task completed.  Then, by the middle of next year, I should be able to get you in front of the Grand Council, to say to them whatever you wish."
Jennifer looked at Lilly.  "Thoughts, Star Colonel?"
Lilly grappled with herself.  The thought of retreating, of running, was repellent.  Yet she knew she had enjoyed success so far because of isolating and smashing small units with superior tactics and firepower, then vanishing before an overwhelming force could react.  But since Turtle Bay, since she'd changed strategy from striking hard then fading away to destroying every Jaguar unit she could find, the increased pitch of combat had taken its toll in machines and warriors.  Despite being assigned another reinforced Trinary of heavy and assault 'Mechs, Pochtli tanks, and Ferals, the repairs to her equipment were increasingly slapdash, her warriors fatigued, injured, even killed.  The Inner Sphere and Clans had both taken almost a year off from the fighting and come back with fresh troops and improved weapons.  The Wolverines had not.
Perhaps it was time to rest, resupply, and rearm.
"That. . . is acceptable, my Khan.” Lilly said at last.
Jennifer nodded.  "Then, as you say, it is bargained well and done.  We will return to our staging area and await your word."  Jennifer's icy blue eyes glittered dangerously.  "Do not betray us, ilKhan Kerensky.  Be it the last thing we do in the universe, we will make you regret it."
Ulric Kerensky grinned wolfishly.  "I wouldn't dream of it, Khan McEvedy."
As Lilly escorted Ulric out of the Khan's office, they found the Elementals and Ferals engrossed in deep discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of their respective BattleArmor designs.  Technical specifications and jargon flew past faster than laser fire.
"I believe the saying goes, 'I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship." Ulric said with a grin.
Lilly wondered if the ilKhan's Crusader opponents wanted to punch him as frequently as she did.
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