_Chapter_Art.jpg){kind=link}
Chapter 74[]
Can you tell me where can we start over?[]
CJFS Emerald Falcon, Nightlord Class Battleship
In planetary Orbit
Kowloon, Lyran Alliance
3067
[In the ship's Hyperpulse Generator Comms room...]
"...had to do a mild amount of rework, but we retained the positive traits." the Scientist-General was reporting to the Khans on the Ngo project.
"How much work?" Khan Marthe Pryde asked.
"I had to rework some of her DNA using templates, my Khan. It will not cause inbreeding issues, just some tweaks to heritable traits to remove the damaged genes that cause the syndrome."
"Which Bloodlines did you sample for this?" she asked
"I used samples from reaved and inactive legacies, Jae Hyuk and Shambag." he confessed, "Nothing from the active rosters, both are asiatic types, the trait alterations were minimal and should only result in good health."
"Well, not an ideal solution, but acceptable for the time being." Marthe stated, "What were your impressions of the woman herself?"
"She was a remarkably good patient." he said, "The work was intensely challenging, being tapped for this project was a great honor, almost like my skill is finally being challenged and appreciated."
"I felt it necessary to find something for you to actually pioneer, Etienne. I know about your little cabal of bored scientists and getting you out of administration and back in the lab seemed a more useful thing than having you shot." Marthe said candidly, "You will remain on Kowloon, in Hue, you may work on whatever projects you can find resources for, as long as you continue to push boundaries."
"You want me to push boundaries?" He was stunned.
"If you are pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge you are not conspiring with seditious elements, and progress gives prestige to the Clan." she told him coldly, "I intend to use you for that until you cease to be useful...oh, and you will publish and advertise your success in the Spheroid media, as a CLAN success."
The bottom dropped out of his stomach. "You want me to publish my work for the Spheroids?"
Marthe smiled nastily, "Yes. It will be reviewed at first, then edited if necessary. With our announcing and demonstrating the superiority of the Jade Falcon Clan in ways beyond warfare will have a powerful psychological impact on the Inner Sphere-My long term intent. This is that they will surrender to us willingly, even eagerly. To become part of Clan progress and Clan society. You will participate in this as a condition of your continued parole."
"Honor thy Clan..." he muttered, "Seyla."
Office of the Khan
Jade Falcon Capital
Sudeten, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone
Marthe closed the link.
"Science? Really?" Samantha Clees scoffed, "What is this strategy, Marthe Pryde?"
"Winning." Marthe stated, and looked over her shoulder at her SaKhan. "I do not merely intend to settle for an occupation zone, nor for mere drips and drabs of conquests. I intend to win. Jade Falcon will be the IlClan without bleeding ourselves dry, without resorting to the chorus of compromises and stupid tricks that led to being humiliated thrice over by Vlad Ward. I intend to achieve complete victory for the Clan. That means not wasting efforts on temporary gains when we can take them by the imagination and hold it in our claws. We will bring the True Star League back and it will be Jade Falcon that does so. Not the Wolves, not the Bears with their compromises and mediocrity. We will do it."
She stood from her seat, "..and to do it, well, we need to dominate the discussion in every sense. I have a strategy, and it involves these moves...did you know that nasty little duchess writes?"
She drew out a printed pamphlet, and tossed it to her SaKhan. "Neg."
"She does. The dedication in this book on economic strategy states..." Marthe looked to the ceiling, "We have lost so much knowledge in wasteful conflict, that we no longer have names for the things we've forgotten how to do."
"I fail to see the connection." Clees says
Marthe sighed, "Intellectual Superiority." Marthe told her, "We have technological superiority, but the gap is narrowing. We must show them we are smarter and wiser in addition to being stronger. Only then, will they understand that they must submit."