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A bit too unClanlike with a lack of Trials (Trials that could have solved the problem) and the refusal of one.

Scorpion Trial Grounds
Roche, Clan Homeworlds
June 26, 3030

Angela Tazegul glared at Nikolai, ignoring the Clan’s saKhan who stood between them.  Nikolai gave her smile and brief bow.  “Loremaster, it is good to see that you have recovered your strength,” he said.

“I will kill you today, Djerassi,” she hissed.

“You are welcome to try, Loremaster.  Need I remind you that over the last four years you have fought no Trials, except for your annual qualifications.  I, on the other hand, have fought seven against Scorpion Warriors and four versus other Clans, outside of my qualifications testing, and I won them all, Loremaster.  Today, you will remember why a Scorpion Warrior is the deadliest creation in all of creation, Loremaster.”  Nikolai’s smile broadened to a grin.  “And the not Scorpion bureaucrats.”

David Ben-Shimon cleared his throat.  “Enough of this bickering, Warriors of the Scorpion.  It is beneath you both.  Angela Tazegul, Loremaster of the Goliath Scorpions; you have demanded a Trial of Refusal and Grievance against Nikolai Djerassi, who has accepted your bid.  As is his right, he has chosen augmented combat.   Star Colonel Djerassi, your Grizzly awaits you.   Loremaster Tazegul, your Gargoyle likewise stands by.  Have either of you any final words to say before you are escorted to you chosen vehicles?”

Both remained silent, and the saKhan nodded.  “Then go.  And let the Scorpion grant victory to he whose cause is favored in this Trial.”

*****************************************************************

The VTOL dropped Nikolai off beside his powered down Grizzly.  He quickly climbed the rope ladder to the cockpit and hauled himself onboard, buckling the safety straps and powering up the 70-ton war machine where it stood.  The dim red emergency lighting brightened as the fusion plant came to life, but the veteran warrior waited until his screens had stabilized.  He ran through a hurried checklist, and when all systems had been confirmed as green, he retracted the ladder and lowered, then sealed, his cockpit.

He walked the Grizzly forward and examined the harsh and broken terrain closely.  The Scorpion Trial Grounds encompassed nearly nine hundred square kilometers of waste lands, filled with steep-sided rocky gullies and treacherous shifting sands.  Buttes and mesas reached towards the sky, but a few specks of green revealed precious water.  Underground perhaps, but the trees and brushes didn’t lie about such things.

His master display showed a map image of the 30 kilometer by 30 kilometer box, divided into nine grid squares 10 kilometers to the side.  Somewhere out there, in the Wastes, was Angela Tazegul.  But before he could kill, first he had to find her.  Many Clans of Kerensky considered it odd that the Scorpions would conduct such a Trial on an open field; the Jaguars especially preferred to land, deploy into a line, and then open fire on their chosen.  But for the Goliath Scorpions, the hunt was as much part and parcel of the Trial as the kill.

Nikolai made certain his restraining harness was tight, and then moved the throttle forward, and the Grizzly began to eat up terrain.

*****************************************************************

The blazing heat of day had turned into a cold, bitter chill shortly after Roche’s golden sun dipped beneath the horizon.  Nikolai stood motionless, his Grizzly almost powered down, his radars off-line.  Only his thermal sensors were sweeping the wastes from his perch against a massive obsidian boulder that still radiated the heat of the day.

The sensors beeped and Nikolai zoomed in.  There you are, Loremaster, he thought with a tired grin as he made out the form of her Gargoyle moving across the landscape, her arms ready to fire, twisting left and right in search of Nikolai.

Nikolai carefully back up, never bringing his power plant above 10%, and then he dropped to the shelter of the rocks below.  Bringing his engines and weapons fully on-line, he moved around the butte and into the narrow crevice of a shallow canyon.  If the maps were right, this route should bring him out behind her.

*****************************************************************

Nikolai waited, and he could hear the thump, thump, thump of his opponents Gargoyle as it drew closer and closer to him.  Sand and dirt and small debris rained down on his Grizzly from above as her foot impacts shook the very earth.  And then she was past him.  Nikolai turned his power back to full, and the stepped down upon the jump jet controls; the Grizzly soared out of the canyon on four blazing jets of fire, twisting around until Tazegul’s Gargoyle was centered in his targeting sights.  The reticule turned green as the computer locked onto her back, but Tazegul had spotted him and was twisting wildly in an attempt to spoil Nikolai’s aim.

But the veteran Star Colonel anticipated her moves and he slowly squeezed first one trigger, and then the second and he pushed the throttle to the stops charging forward towards her.

With a shrill whine, the right arm Gauss Rifle spat an iridescent penetrator that connected solidly against her left rear armor, and it crashed through.  Meanwhile the static electricity of a PPC buildup ionized the atmosphere in the cockpit, and then a blazing azure bolt tore through the night sky, removing the armor on the center torso’s rear—and Nikolai smiled as Tazegul’s OmniMech suddenly increased in temperature.  He had caught the engine shielding with that blast.

He pressed down his thumb on the firing stud and four ER Small Lasers spat green lancelets of light that spattered off her right arm, right left, and right torso—but the fourth shot went home in the gaping hole the Gauss Rifle had gouged in the left torso.  Her targeting computer blinked yellow as his combat computer estimated the damage.  Good enough, Nikolai, thought.

But Angela Tazegul was no mere bandit—she was a Loremaster of Clan Goliath Scorpion.  Fighting to keep her feet under the withering fire Nikolai had laid into her, she twisted around shot a ruby beam that hammered into his chest, followed by a series of cyan bolts, that raced along his arm.  But Nikolai’s armor held.

He stood on the jump jet pedals again and the Grizzly flew past the Loremaster’s OmniMech, even as he spun around to stay in her rear; this time he didn’t wait for a computer lock, but squeezed first one and then the second trigger as he felt the shot line up.  Another PPC bolt lit the night sky, and it tore through her (mostly) intact right torso rear armor, and then the crash of the Gauss Rifle as the slug broke through the sound barrier slammed into her center torso rear—and Angela Tazegul fell forward, her Gargoyle toppling the twenty meters to the bottom of the narrow ravine.

Nikolai froze as he heard Angela cry out in terror, and he fired his own jets again landing on the floor of the ravine.  Her Gargoyle lay broken on the ground, one of its legs snapped in two (the weakest point of that design) and her cockpit was shattered open.  But black shapes were moving on the floor of the ravine, and small arms fire lit her cockpit.

The Scorpion Warrior activated his floodlights, and he drew in a deep breath as he saw the swarm of juvenile Goliath Scorpions leaving their nests in the walls and flooding over the downed OmniMech.  In the flash of the laser light from within that broken cockpit, he could see stings dashing forward, and claws ripping flesh.

Nikolai heard the rustling of claws on armor outside his own cockpit and he turned to look an adult Goliath Scorpion directly into its golden eyes.  But the Scorpion didn’t strike, it looked at Nikolai, and then it turned back to the fallen Loremaster, who still wailed.  Nikolai activated his targeting computer, and he trained his ER PPC on Tazegul’s cockpit.   Then he pulled the trigger and ended her agony.

...clearly a safety hazard.

Haha. Nice.

Sometimes fate and nature work together to wipe out the weak like Tazegul.

She just ruined his day and maybe any future progney. (OUCH) More Please

GWS Lei Kung
Zenith Jump Point, Sheridan
July 18, 3030

“We thank you for your courtesy, Star Admiral da Silva.  Rest assured that Clan Goliath Scorpion intends no aggression towards your Clan; once we recharge we will be continuing towards Roche,” David said to the image of the auburn haired woman warmly.

She smiled at him in return.  “I could not help but notice that half of your convoy is adorned in Hellion colors, saKhan Ben-Shimon.  Can I presume that they are rather furious at this moment?”

David grinned in reply.  “They should be, Star Admiral da Silva.  Their station commander bid poorly—and lost.”

“STATUS CHANGE!” barked out the rating manning the sensor console aboard David’s flagship.  “Pre-emergence neutrino emissions have spiked!  Emergence in five, four, three, two, one.”

Both David and the Star Adder looked down at their monitors as a Hellion WarShip blinked into existence, followed by a second, and third, and fourth, and fifth, a sixth, and then a seventh.

“Set Condition Two throughout the ship—pass that order to the rest of the Star immediately!” David barked.  “Bring weapons on-line, but fire only on MY orders!  Quiaff?”

“AFF!” shouted his officers.

“saKhan, aerospace fighters are manned and ready for launch,” his flight controller reported.

“Hold them in their bays on full alert,” David answered calmly.

The woman on the screen lifted her head and shook it ruefully.  “Furious indeed, they are, saKhan Ben-Shimon.  That must have been some Trial.”

“Star Admiral da Silva, we have no intention of involving your Clan in this dispute.  But perhaps you should remove your ships to a safe distance.”

The woman laughed.  “saKhan Ben-Shimon, Sheridan belongs to the Adders.  Neither you nor the Hellions will be starting anything in this system; not today , not ever.”

The transmission cut off.  David shook his head.  “If I were thirty years younger, I would try to seize her as abtakha.  She’s got spirit, my Scorpions.”

Laughter echoed across the bridge.  “saKhan, I have a ship count now:  seven vessels in total, the battleship Cage’s Pride, cruisers Chaos Sailor and Taney, the carrier Pack Leader, and the destroyers Cold Hunter, Impaler, and Radiant,” Star Captain Henriquez calmly said from the tactical console.

David nodded with a frown as he considered the Hellion force just now beginning to recover from their jump.  They must be absolutely furious, for that concentration of force represented better than half of their total Fleet—and probably three-quarters of their Fleet’s firepower.

“Have we been hailed?” he asked.

“Neg, saKhan, but . . .,” the comm rating said as he held his hand to his earpiece.  “The Adders are hailing them . . . on broadcast, not tight-beam.”

“On speaker.”

“Ice Hellions.  This Star Admiral Andrea da Silva, commanding Adder Naval Reserve Alpha.  State your intentions immediately.”

“Star Adders.  Our fight is not with you.  We seek to reclaim our stolen property.”

“Hellions.  This system belongs to the Adders.  We have granted the Scorpions the right to recharge their drives—you will not initiate a confrontation here.”

“The cowards!  They hide behind the skirts of the Adders!  They fear to face us in a true Trial, one not filled with deceit and treachery!”

“Open mike,” David ordered with a set face.  “The Scorpions won this convoy in a properly declared and fought Trial, Hellions.  We acted with honor and courage—your commander bid poorly and he lost.  Know that the Scorpions do not cower behind anyone, and if you permit us to recharge, we shall agree to take the battle elsewhere."

“Lies, Scorpion!  You stole our property!  Return our ships or we shall finish this here and now, with your death the only outcome!”

“Ice Hellions, you will not engage in the Sheridan system—not unless you seek to provoke a confrontation with Clan Star Adder!” da Silva barked.  “We have granted the Scorpions safcon to recharge their drives, and no one—no one—will violate that which we have freely given!”

“Sir, the Hellions are launching fighters,” Star Captain Henriquez said softly.

“Damn prideful fools,” David lamented, and then he set his jaw and stood, ignoring the protest of his joints.  “Ice Hellion Fleet:  I, David Ben-Shimon, Star Admiral of the Goliath Scorpion Fleet, saKhan of the Clan Goliath Scorpion, commanding officer of the Scorpion Flagship Lei Kung, do hereby demand a Trial of Grievance against you for your insults against the Warriors under my command!  For this I bid only my Flagship.  I offer you, as prize upon your victory, if victory is yours, the possession of the convoy which my Clan has, under the Martial Code of Kerensky, honorably claimed!  Further, as is my right as a Khan of Clan Goliath Scorpion, I demand from you, a prize of equal value should I prevail.  Your battleship, Cage's Pride, is roughly equal in value to the convoy and its cargo.  Either accept this Trial, or cease your claims of ownership over these Goliath Scorpion vessels.  The Adders may bear witness to our actions today.”

Silence filled the airwaves and the Scorpion bridge was utterly still.

“You demand much, Scorpion,” the Hellion replied.  “We offer no prize to you for reclaiming what is ours.”

“Then by the Martial Code of Kerensky, you forfeit that claim, Ice Hellion.  Decide!  I grow weary of your . . . caution.”

“The Adders will enforce the results of this Trial—on both parties.  I swear by the Great Father himself,” da Silva added.

Second ticked past, and then minutes, before the unseen voice once again transmitted.  “Done.  I shall destroy your honorless ship, Scorpion.”

"Hellion, you are welcome to try," David snarled.

Proper.

I wonder if freeze-dried Ice Hellion with vacuum sprinkling tastes any good after taking a Scorpion roasting?...