Hall of the Khans, Warrior Quarter
Strana Mechty
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
2 October 3000
The star around which the home world of the Clans spun was low in the sky as its light lit up the western side of the Hall of the Khans. The
gothic architecture of the centre of their government was not of concern to the two warriors sitting on a simple stone bench that provided the only seating on
the balcony they occupied. The Hall had many private nooks such as this one - intentionally so since it provided for the private meetings and discussions that
would frame the debates that periodically rocked the Grand Council's chamber.
Gerik N'Buta's jacket, almost seamless black leather that closely resembled snakeskin, lay on the bench next to him and he could feel
the warmth of the stone behind him through his thin white shirt. The Khan of Clan Star Adder was short for a mechwarrior, but his skin had an almost ebon black
hue that was rare among the ethnic mix that had produced his sibkho, rare but highly prized by the N'Buta bloodline as that sported by their founder. His
colleague, Kershaw Lahiri was smaller too, with the slightly disproportionate head that marked him as a product of one of the lineages focused upon producing
pilots for the Clans aerospace fighters.
"Kerlin's proposal is a good one, quiaff?" Kershaw observed. "Foresightful as a Kerensky, for all that he is a
Ward."
"Aff," his elder agreed. "Wise, to see that our intelligence services lack the data necessary to truly evaluate the situation
within the Inner Sphere. Foresightful, to delay we Crusaders the chance to invade in our lifetimes."
Kershaw started. "So long?" he asked and stood from the bench to look at his senior in astonishment. "Five years, perhaps
ten..."
"Not less than twenty five years," Gerik advised him gently. "It will take no less than two years to properly prepare the
forces required and then a long slow voyage back along the Exodus Road. Three to four years merely to begin their expedition, with Kerlin slowing them all the
way."
"That is outrageous!" The saKhan of the Star Adders was some thirty-one years old. Holding a bloodname, much less a high political
office, would extend his career considerably, but the chances that he could still call himself a warrior when he reached the age of fifty-six were remote. The
notion that Gerik N'Buta, fourteen years his elder, might do likewise was simply laughable.
"He is right." Gerik's voice was calm and barely ruffled by regret. "I do not forgive him for this, of course. To see the
Hope of Kerensky fulfilled, to see the Inner Sphere myself... This I have dreamed of for many years, Kershaw. But... Kerlin is right. We need to know and we
need to prepare. Consider - we will be engaging in a campaign more than a thousand light years from our homes against enemies that will be superior, at least
in numbers, to our own forces."
The saKhan frowned. One might rise through the ranks of other clans through nothing more than skill as a warrior, but among the Star Adders
it was expected that a senior officer understand more than elementary tactics. "I do not know what demands that would make upon our logistics," he
admitted at last. "We would need to establish a forward base... years of work."
Gerik's eyebrow crooked at the suggestion. "That is certainly one possibility," he agreed. "The fact is that no Clan has
ever considered such a feat of logistics or a conflict waged on such a tremendous scale. Perhaps the Star League's would-be successors have fragmented and
will fall readily to us one at a time. Or perhaps they have not - the reports we have gathered have been few and far between, never from reliable sources. And
even if it means that I will not live to see our return, I cannot commit to any plan that would expose us to possible disaster."
"Disaster?" Kershaw asked. "Is that not a trifle alarmist, Gerik?"
"Is it?" Gerik watched the younger man struggle with the question. "We do not know, quineg?" He shivered slightly and
noticed that the sun had dipped below the horizon and that the wall he leant against had cooled significantly. Standing, he shrugged on his jacket.
The aerospace pilot chuckled. "You are getting old, my Khan," he chided.
"Can I convince you to come back and warm my bed while we discuss this further," the forty-five year old leered mockingly and
rolled his eyes when Kershaw shook his head. "You must be right. When I was your age all you young warriors loved my company."
"You are simply not my flavour of choice," Kershaw defended himself, moving to open the door back into the hall.
Gerik shrugged. "You are almost as staid as some of the civilian castes," he protested, following his junior Khan.
"There is no need to be insulting," grumbled Kershaw. "On another subject, some of the scientists tell me that the Goliath
Scorpions are onto something new in the lasers field," he commented, shifting the subject less likely to attract attention in the more crowded interior of
the Hall of the Khans.
"Oh?" Gerik said, lechery forgotten. "That must have slipped past me. What are they talking about?"
"How would you like an extended range laser with twenty percent more power and range, but only eighty percent as heavy as the old
Newharts?" Kershaw asked with a grin. "I can assure you, I would like a pair of those on my Kirghiz."
Gerik's smile was that of a predator. "Hah! I like the idea very much, Kershaw. We will want to have those ready for when our
respective offspring are able to begin our Crusade into the Inner Sphere."
"We shall have to get hold of them first," cautioned Kershaw. "The Khans of the Scorpions are well aware of the advantages of
such weapons. They will not relinquish them lightly so I wish to take my Keshik and obtain them myself."
"Kershaw," the elder Khan warned as they descended one of the broad, shallow steps that connected the many galleries of the Hall of
the Khans. "There is a time and place for a Khan to take the battlefield. Any Star Colonel can bid a simple trial like that. How else will they learn
enough to step into our shoes one day?"
"Hn," Kershaw grunted unhappily. "I have hardly had any time in the cockpit since I last tested to keep my warrior
status." He considered for a moment. "Since I have been outbid, how about sending Edwina Banacek? She has been spoiling for a fight since the whole
business with the Coyotes, and if she sharpens the Seventy-Third any more, they will start cutting themselves."
Gerik chuckled. "You must be really annoyed with the Scorpions. You know they are firmer on Zellbrigen than we are and Edwina makes the
two of us look like Jade Parrots."
Kershaw squawked derisively and then sneered at the scowls directed at him by a pair of warriors in Jade Falcon colours. "I think that
Edwina might be quite useful," he said. "If she can handle this business with the Scorpions then she might be just the person to build us a permanent
opposing force to train against?"
"Are Kappa Galaxy not enough for you?" asked Gerik. The secondline Galaxy was often used as a proving ground for newly graduated
warriors, somewhere where they could show their merits before being moved up into the frontline units. What units were not on detachment elsewhere often
provided opposition for warrior tests and Trials of Position.
Kershaw shook his head. "Kappa is organised in the manner of all Clan soldiers," he explained. "To prepare to fight the Inner
Sphere we need something like the unit that Khan Ward proposed, a force organised and equipped like the old Star League Defense Force, like the troops of the
Inner Sphere, for us to test our fangs upon. And we need them to fight dirty, because if the old SLDF manuals in our archives are any guide, they would use any
tactic or weapon that worked. We must assume that the Inner Sphere will do likewise."
"Edwina is the right person for that," Gerik snorted and gestured for Kershaw to precede him into his office, an anonymous little
room like any of a hundred others in the Star Adder wing of the Hall. There was no decoration inside, only a desk with one simple chair behind it and a small
computer sat on the surface. "I do not think that our good friends in the other clans would approve however. After the Coyote scandal the last thing we
should do is give them ammunition to use against us."
"That is the beauty of what I have in mind," Kershaw explained. "I said earlier that we would need a forward base. When we
find a suitable world, we can establish the training unit there and unless the other Clans stumbled over it, they would never know what we are doing
there."
"You mean to keep it a secret?"
"Absolutely. A secret colony, one that can fill many roles for us," nodded Kershaw enthusiastically. "Imagine it, Gerik!
Factories to support and replenish our touman. Farms to feed them. Training grounds to prepare them for the battles to come. And all placed only a few jumps
short of the Inner Sphere, so that we can stage from it directly into the invasion."
The Khan nodded. "You have vision, Kershaw. But you must find a suitable world first, and colonising it without the other Clans knowing
will be hard."
"We have twenty-five years," Kershaw said simply. "Even by taking small and discreet actions much can be accomplished in such
a span of time."
"A quarter century at least," the Khan agreed. "Perhaps more. It is unlikely that either of us will lead the Star Adders when
that day comes. Tell me your plans, Kershaw."
Kershaw gathered his thoughts. "We can begin simply," he said. "Obtaining the lasers is a good start - once we have them, we
can pressure our scientist caste to start applying their principles to other weapons. If Scorpion scientists can create such a weapon then we must drive our
own to surpass them in creativity. When the time comes for the technicans to retool their factories to produce the new weapons, we can easily hide the parts
for additional factories. In the meantime though, we need to find our forward base. Eric Lahiri -" The Star Adder's Naval Adjutant and effectively
commander of their fleet of warships and jumpships "- was in the same sibko as I. She can slip a small flotilla out of sight and send it out to find a
suitable place to begin from."
Gerik nodded. "Somewhere near what was the Rim Worlds Republic, or perhaps the outer reaches of the Draconis Combine," he advised.
"We should not extend ourselves too far, but areas near the border between the Combine and the Commonwealth will probably be well
patrolled."
"That would make sense," agreed Kershaw. "We can keep things small for now. When Edwina has done with playing with the
Scorpions - and any other clan whose scientists are developing useful weapons - we can assign her to help the Wolves train their spies. It is an honorable
assignment and will let tempers cool but few of our cousins will see it in that light. No one will be surprised if she drops out of sight after a task like
that - they will assume that she was disgraced and chose to become solahma. She and those like her will be at the heart of our preparations,
quiaff"
"Aff." Gerik looked at the desk in front of him. "There is another possibility that this forward base should be considered
for."
"What?" Kershaw asked.
Gerik smiled humorlessly. "If the other Clans decide one day to destroy us," he said. "Then it might well need to become our
last refuge. Make sure that it is a worthy world of such a destiny, Kershaw. And well hidden also."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
Strana Mechty
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
2 October 3000
The star around which the home world of the Clans spun was low in the sky as its light lit up the western side of the Hall of the Khans. The
gothic architecture of the centre of their government was not of concern to the two warriors sitting on a simple stone bench that provided the only seating on
the balcony they occupied. The Hall had many private nooks such as this one - intentionally so since it provided for the private meetings and discussions that
would frame the debates that periodically rocked the Grand Council's chamber.
Gerik N'Buta's jacket, almost seamless black leather that closely resembled snakeskin, lay on the bench next to him and he could feel
the warmth of the stone behind him through his thin white shirt. The Khan of Clan Star Adder was short for a mechwarrior, but his skin had an almost ebon black
hue that was rare among the ethnic mix that had produced his sibkho, rare but highly prized by the N'Buta bloodline as that sported by their founder. His
colleague, Kershaw Lahiri was smaller too, with the slightly disproportionate head that marked him as a product of one of the lineages focused upon producing
pilots for the Clans aerospace fighters.
"Kerlin's proposal is a good one, quiaff?" Kershaw observed. "Foresightful as a Kerensky, for all that he is a
Ward."
"Aff," his elder agreed. "Wise, to see that our intelligence services lack the data necessary to truly evaluate the situation
within the Inner Sphere. Foresightful, to delay we Crusaders the chance to invade in our lifetimes."
Kershaw started. "So long?" he asked and stood from the bench to look at his senior in astonishment. "Five years, perhaps
ten..."
"Not less than twenty five years," Gerik advised him gently. "It will take no less than two years to properly prepare the
forces required and then a long slow voyage back along the Exodus Road. Three to four years merely to begin their expedition, with Kerlin slowing them all the
way."
"That is outrageous!" The saKhan of the Star Adders was some thirty-one years old. Holding a bloodname, much less a high political
office, would extend his career considerably, but the chances that he could still call himself a warrior when he reached the age of fifty-six were remote. The
notion that Gerik N'Buta, fourteen years his elder, might do likewise was simply laughable.
"He is right." Gerik's voice was calm and barely ruffled by regret. "I do not forgive him for this, of course. To see the
Hope of Kerensky fulfilled, to see the Inner Sphere myself... This I have dreamed of for many years, Kershaw. But... Kerlin is right. We need to know and we
need to prepare. Consider - we will be engaging in a campaign more than a thousand light years from our homes against enemies that will be superior, at least
in numbers, to our own forces."
The saKhan frowned. One might rise through the ranks of other clans through nothing more than skill as a warrior, but among the Star Adders
it was expected that a senior officer understand more than elementary tactics. "I do not know what demands that would make upon our logistics," he
admitted at last. "We would need to establish a forward base... years of work."
Gerik's eyebrow crooked at the suggestion. "That is certainly one possibility," he agreed. "The fact is that no Clan has
ever considered such a feat of logistics or a conflict waged on such a tremendous scale. Perhaps the Star League's would-be successors have fragmented and
will fall readily to us one at a time. Or perhaps they have not - the reports we have gathered have been few and far between, never from reliable sources. And
even if it means that I will not live to see our return, I cannot commit to any plan that would expose us to possible disaster."
"Disaster?" Kershaw asked. "Is that not a trifle alarmist, Gerik?"
"Is it?" Gerik watched the younger man struggle with the question. "We do not know, quineg?" He shivered slightly and
noticed that the sun had dipped below the horizon and that the wall he leant against had cooled significantly. Standing, he shrugged on his jacket.
The aerospace pilot chuckled. "You are getting old, my Khan," he chided.
"Can I convince you to come back and warm my bed while we discuss this further," the forty-five year old leered mockingly and
rolled his eyes when Kershaw shook his head. "You must be right. When I was your age all you young warriors loved my company."
"You are simply not my flavour of choice," Kershaw defended himself, moving to open the door back into the hall.
Gerik shrugged. "You are almost as staid as some of the civilian castes," he protested, following his junior Khan.
"There is no need to be insulting," grumbled Kershaw. "On another subject, some of the scientists tell me that the Goliath
Scorpions are onto something new in the lasers field," he commented, shifting the subject less likely to attract attention in the more crowded interior of
the Hall of the Khans.
"Oh?" Gerik said, lechery forgotten. "That must have slipped past me. What are they talking about?"
"How would you like an extended range laser with twenty percent more power and range, but only eighty percent as heavy as the old
Newharts?" Kershaw asked with a grin. "I can assure you, I would like a pair of those on my Kirghiz."
Gerik's smile was that of a predator. "Hah! I like the idea very much, Kershaw. We will want to have those ready for when our
respective offspring are able to begin our Crusade into the Inner Sphere."
"We shall have to get hold of them first," cautioned Kershaw. "The Khans of the Scorpions are well aware of the advantages of
such weapons. They will not relinquish them lightly so I wish to take my Keshik and obtain them myself."
"Kershaw," the elder Khan warned as they descended one of the broad, shallow steps that connected the many galleries of the Hall of
the Khans. "There is a time and place for a Khan to take the battlefield. Any Star Colonel can bid a simple trial like that. How else will they learn
enough to step into our shoes one day?"
"Hn," Kershaw grunted unhappily. "I have hardly had any time in the cockpit since I last tested to keep my warrior
status." He considered for a moment. "Since I have been outbid, how about sending Edwina Banacek? She has been spoiling for a fight since the whole
business with the Coyotes, and if she sharpens the Seventy-Third any more, they will start cutting themselves."
Gerik chuckled. "You must be really annoyed with the Scorpions. You know they are firmer on Zellbrigen than we are and Edwina makes the
two of us look like Jade Parrots."
Kershaw squawked derisively and then sneered at the scowls directed at him by a pair of warriors in Jade Falcon colours. "I think that
Edwina might be quite useful," he said. "If she can handle this business with the Scorpions then she might be just the person to build us a permanent
opposing force to train against?"
"Are Kappa Galaxy not enough for you?" asked Gerik. The secondline Galaxy was often used as a proving ground for newly graduated
warriors, somewhere where they could show their merits before being moved up into the frontline units. What units were not on detachment elsewhere often
provided opposition for warrior tests and Trials of Position.
Kershaw shook his head. "Kappa is organised in the manner of all Clan soldiers," he explained. "To prepare to fight the Inner
Sphere we need something like the unit that Khan Ward proposed, a force organised and equipped like the old Star League Defense Force, like the troops of the
Inner Sphere, for us to test our fangs upon. And we need them to fight dirty, because if the old SLDF manuals in our archives are any guide, they would use any
tactic or weapon that worked. We must assume that the Inner Sphere will do likewise."
"Edwina is the right person for that," Gerik snorted and gestured for Kershaw to precede him into his office, an anonymous little
room like any of a hundred others in the Star Adder wing of the Hall. There was no decoration inside, only a desk with one simple chair behind it and a small
computer sat on the surface. "I do not think that our good friends in the other clans would approve however. After the Coyote scandal the last thing we
should do is give them ammunition to use against us."
"That is the beauty of what I have in mind," Kershaw explained. "I said earlier that we would need a forward base. When we
find a suitable world, we can establish the training unit there and unless the other Clans stumbled over it, they would never know what we are doing
there."
"You mean to keep it a secret?"
"Absolutely. A secret colony, one that can fill many roles for us," nodded Kershaw enthusiastically. "Imagine it, Gerik!
Factories to support and replenish our touman. Farms to feed them. Training grounds to prepare them for the battles to come. And all placed only a few jumps
short of the Inner Sphere, so that we can stage from it directly into the invasion."
The Khan nodded. "You have vision, Kershaw. But you must find a suitable world first, and colonising it without the other Clans knowing
will be hard."
"We have twenty-five years," Kershaw said simply. "Even by taking small and discreet actions much can be accomplished in such
a span of time."
"A quarter century at least," the Khan agreed. "Perhaps more. It is unlikely that either of us will lead the Star Adders when
that day comes. Tell me your plans, Kershaw."
Kershaw gathered his thoughts. "We can begin simply," he said. "Obtaining the lasers is a good start - once we have them, we
can pressure our scientist caste to start applying their principles to other weapons. If Scorpion scientists can create such a weapon then we must drive our
own to surpass them in creativity. When the time comes for the technicans to retool their factories to produce the new weapons, we can easily hide the parts
for additional factories. In the meantime though, we need to find our forward base. Eric Lahiri -" The Star Adder's Naval Adjutant and effectively
commander of their fleet of warships and jumpships "- was in the same sibko as I. She can slip a small flotilla out of sight and send it out to find a
suitable place to begin from."
Gerik nodded. "Somewhere near what was the Rim Worlds Republic, or perhaps the outer reaches of the Draconis Combine," he advised.
"We should not extend ourselves too far, but areas near the border between the Combine and the Commonwealth will probably be well
patrolled."
"That would make sense," agreed Kershaw. "We can keep things small for now. When Edwina has done with playing with the
Scorpions - and any other clan whose scientists are developing useful weapons - we can assign her to help the Wolves train their spies. It is an honorable
assignment and will let tempers cool but few of our cousins will see it in that light. No one will be surprised if she drops out of sight after a task like
that - they will assume that she was disgraced and chose to become solahma. She and those like her will be at the heart of our preparations,
quiaff"
"Aff." Gerik looked at the desk in front of him. "There is another possibility that this forward base should be considered
for."
"What?" Kershaw asked.
Gerik smiled humorlessly. "If the other Clans decide one day to destroy us," he said. "Then it might well need to become our
last refuge. Make sure that it is a worthy world of such a destiny, Kershaw. And well hidden also."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.