Chapter Seven

Tiki Province

Circe

Clan Space

22 July 2823

Point Commander Cale tapped the secondary display controls as if to bump them into alignment. The sensor readings didn’t make sense. No matter how tough BattleMechs were, they could develop little quirks. This long range reading had to be some sort of malfunction. A Star of Jade Falcon BattleMechs was in the Tiki Province—if the signals were correct. That made no sense. With all of the turmoil of the Culling, it seems odd that they would make such a bold insertion into our lands.

The Tiki Province was a large Clan Wolverine holding on Circe. It had changed hands two times over the years in Trials of Possession that had followed the recapture and liberation of the Pentagon worlds. The Steel Vipers had originally secured it during the civil war. Then the Jade Falcons had controlled the province for a short period of time, as had the Fire Mandrills. They had lost control of it to the Wolverines near the end of the Pentagon Civil War.

The region was unremarkable except for the fact that it bordered the Jade Falcons in the Uthar Province and the Ghost Bears in the Ta’Kal Province. Both Clans had not shown any interest in the Tiki Province or the Wolverines there. On occasion the Ghost Bears would come on a visit, never the Jade Falcons. Now, if Point Commander Cale was right, a Star of Jade Falcon ’Mechs had crossed the Rita River that marked the border with Ta’Kal and Uthar, and were nearly five kilometers inside Wolverine-controlled lands.

He recalibrated his sensors. Negative. They were still there. Odd. No issue of a battle challenge, no communications that would have been expected with such an incursion. Why would the Falcons be there? Cale’s mind danced with possibilities. He had heard rumors of recent aggressiveness on the part of other Clans. Was this an example of that? How dare they simply ignore the border and enter the Wolverines’ territory?

Point Commander Cale couldn’t ignore the intrusion. Orders had come down to report any odd activity on the part of other Clans; and this certainly qualified. At the same time, he would have to investigate this in greater detail. “Kicker Star, this is Kicker One,” he signaled to his unit. “I need conformation scans of the following coordinates,” he keyed in the locations where he read the Jade Falcons on the border.

There was a pause. “Sir,” came the voice of Sandi in her Mongoose. “I am picking up a Star of BattleMechs. Transponders show them as Jade Falcons.”

“That is what I saw, Kicker Three,” he replied.

“So what do we do?”

He punched at his battlecomputer and queried the data. “I am sending a relay message through to the HPG and on to Strana Mechty per orders—letting them know about this. In the meantime, prepare to move out. We need to get out there and see what is going on. The Jade Falcons have not come to this province in a long time, and now they to show up armed and apparently ready for a fight. If they have come looking for it, I am more than happy to deliver...”

It took six hours to reach the border region in the Rita River Valley, mostly due to the thick undergrowth that ground their trek to a virtual standstill. The valley was deep, even though the Rita was a wide and shallow river with sandy beaches surrounded by dense, woods. The valley was rife with twisting gorges, and the terrain was almost impassible. The roads in the area were really just hand-hewn trails used by the loggers that came and cleared out the resources they needed. There was an iron mine in the area, but only a few hundred workers of the laborer caste worked there.

Point Commander Cale kept the Jade Falcons on his sensors. They didn’t seem to be moving, or even taking up defensive postures. They were stationary to the point where he wondered if it was a trap of some sort, a lure to bring his Star out. It could be a trap, he had heard that the Falcons tended to press the limits of their honor. A year or two ago, he never would have thought of it, now he was concerned enough to consider it. The rumor mill had told him to be wary, and he was.

Kicker Two, Visith, spoke on the secured frequency. “They are five kilometers ahead at the top of the ridge in a heavily forested area. We should be showing up on their sensors as well.”

Sandi joined in. “Sir. We can fan out in a horseshoe formation, encircle them with the river and valley to their back, and push them down and out.”

“Hold that chatter, Kicker Three,” he replied. “That is not our way. No battle challenge has been issued.”

“What is your plan, sir?”

Good question. Cale stared at the dense forest of trees that he would have to navigate to get to them. “They should be seeing us and we know we can see them. Let us ask them what they’re doing here.” Sometimes it is the simple things that work best.

He broadcast in the open. “Attention, Jade Falcon incursion team. I am Point Commander Cale of Clan Wolverine, Beta Galaxy, One-oh-second Strike Cluster, Bravo Trinary Striker, Third Star. Please state your intentions.”

The pause was long, over a minute. They weren’t moving, at least that’s what the sensors said. He wondered if his message had caught them off guard, if he had avoided some trap that they had planned, or if there was more going on than he knew.

Finally, a voice came back, irritated and arrogant at the same time. “This is Star Captain Phillip Buhallin of Clan Jade Falcon, Gyrfalcon Galaxy, the Gyrfalcon Eyrie Cluster, Alpha Trinary, Alpha Star. Our ‘intentions’ are to sit and wait for you to issue your batchall.”

“Batchall?” It was a phrase he was not familiar with.

“Affirmative. Your battle challenge. Have you Wolverines turned your back on all of our traditions, query negative?”

“Negative,” Cale replied. “I am sorry that you are the one to ignore traditions and borders. You are in our territory. This is the Tiki Province. You, as the aggressor, are to issue a battle challenge to us. Not the other way around.”

Again a pause. “It is you who have crossed the border, Wolverine. This territory and the Brian Cache are the property of Clan Jade Falcon. This territory has been in our possession for years. If you desire this material, you will need to issue a batchall to us.”

Cale paused at the other man’s words, drinking them in slowly. Brian Cache? That made his heart race slightly. The maps did not show a Brian Cache located anywhere near this area. It struck him as odd. Brian Caches had been common during the civil war. Cale had seen two of them up close. They were carefully concealed bunkers filled with weapons, expendables, repair parts, and gear for military operations. Most had been created when General Kerensky, the Great Father, had attempted to demilitarize the Star League Defense Forces when they had first arrived on these worlds.

Brian Caches represented additional equipment and armaments that could help any Clan. There had been stories of hidden caches that had been uncovered, and the brutal fights that had occurred as a result of those. Now the Jade Falcons were saying that they had one there, on Wolverine territory. “Our maps of this area show that you are five kilometers over the border. You crossed the Rita River to reach this ground. Anything that you have discovered is not yours to defend, it is on the property of Clan Wolverine.”

The Jade Falcons hesitated, then began the bravado and bluster. “We are not afraid of you. Our records show that we are still within our territory, and that it is you that has crossed the border.”

“Negative. You are incorrect.”

“Impossible, I am Jade Falcon.”

“Regardless,” Cale countered. “You are on our ground. You will need to issue the battle challenge. And until this matter is resolved, I suggest strongly that you move away from that Brian Cache lest you be labeled as bandits and looters.”

Anger tinged Star Captain Buhallin’s voice. “I do not take orders from tree-hugging surats or Wolverines. Your suggestion is acknowledged and ignored. This is our holding and our property. If you want it, you will have to challenge us.”

Cale didn’t trust the Falcons, not at all. This seemed contrived, a ploy to lure them into conflict. He was not going to fall for it, not alone, not on the borders where no one would validate his actions as appropriate. Not with a fate of a Brian Cache potentially in the balance—though Cale strongly suggested that it was nothing more than a piece of fiction aimed at getting him to overreact.

“We seem to be at an impasse then, Star Captain. I will not challenge you for something that is ours to begin with. If you will not challenge me, we must agree to disagree.”

“This does not resolve our claim.”

“It does,” Cale said smiling, “Until reinforcements arrive.” He toggled off the channel and opened up a transmission to his command post in Zypher City. “I need a priority one link to Khan McEvedy and her command staff. We have a critical situation here, and she asked to be informed of such instances. Authorization Code Furburner Two One One Alpha.”

“Sir, what are we going to do about the Falcons?” asked Sandi.

“We are not going to do anything until I hear from the Khan,” Cale responded. “As tempting as it is to start a fight with the Jade Falcons, this is a gray area in terms of how we deal with them. I wish to hear from Khan McEvedy.”

“And then?”

“Then we will kick the Jade Falcons’ collective asses.”