Supreme War Leader's movements were short and abrupt as he presented his plans to the gathered leaders from the clans. He gave every appearance of a being fighting a constant battle not to scratch an itch. The muscles rippled under his skin and at every second the Northwind clan Chieftain expected the Supreme War Leader to scratch, or twitch, or jump in the air and twist around, anything but what he kept doing as he laid out the battle plans. To control his natural bodies response to their races high metabolic rate and active nervous system implied impressive mental control. Of course snorted Northwind to himself, among so many Chieftains his identity was denominated by his clan name, only a being with enormous mental control would have managed to bring them to this point today. The brink of a cataclysmic war with an alien race so far beyond them as to be like onto the Spirits of his grandmothers day.

"We will advance along the flood plains of the West and North Rivers. From these positions we can establish our front positions and prepare for the assault on the mountain passes." 2 quick slashes of the pointer on the map.

His people hadn't had much contact with the Humans when they first arrived to the planet 10 years ago. They had met with one of the western clans initially and at the clan convention had made their case for settlement. The land that they had wanted was a southern spit that wasn't inhabited by any of the clans so they gave it to them. Northwind hadn't seen anything spectacular about them at the meeting, they had hinted at knowing secrets of making things beyond the clans skills, but had maintained that they would only trade at the level of the clans, that they wouldn't attempt to disrupt the markets and livelihoods of the People. They kept to themselves mainly at the convention, though they entertained any clan leader that visited them, and when the convention was over, having succeeded in their appeal they proceeded to settle in the south. If that had been the end of it, snorted Northwind again.

"The western advance will be conducted by the western clans tanks, currently headed east on the north side of the West River." Another slash, longer this time, no twitches yet.

The humans had quickly established a dominance on quality goods in the market. They made things like what other artisans made but they made them better, be it little improvements in design, functions, shape, or materials. Clans that couldn't adapt to compete with the changes lost their livelihoods. The Human leaders maintained that they were not working above the level of the People. They pointed to cases where because of their improvements new products had been developed by Clans to compete with them, and that all of the People benefited from this. If products keep getting better, like the climbing harness that the humans had designed which had replaced the old swing system his clans quarrier's had used before, then the People would live better lives. Too many clans who had lost markets disagreed and at the convention the council voted to attack the human settlement and steal their technology. That battle had gone differently then the council expected, and no useful technology was recovered. He had voted against the assault on the humans, what did he care for clans that couldn't adapt? The North was harsh and complainers didn't survive in the clans there. When the failure of the assault was established he had tried to counsel against lying to the Humans when their ship arrived to trade with the colonists. He had believed that any beings that had fought with enough violence to destroy over 10 times their number before falling would know if the Clans lied. 2 years later when the Human Military had arrived he had almost begun to believe he could have been wrong.

"When they arrive here, " quick stab at the board, "they will link up with the southern army who will advance along the centre to join the current positions maintained by the northern and eastern clan forces" Still no twitches.

The briefing had moved past all the preliminaries required to coordinate the 4 armies of the clans. Northwind as the elected war leader of the northern clans had long since reviewed and signed off on these plans. Unlike many of the other clans the northern clans had a tightly structured system. Every body contributed in the north. Life in the harsh lands where weather was as cold as could be tolerated by the clans was unforgiving. The northern clans had gravitated to the human technologies quickly and incorporated them naturally into their lifestyles. A tradition of education, as well as the pragmatic nature of a people with few natural advantages in their homes. When the humans had introduced refinements to the guns that had been developed by the people the Northerners were the first to recognize the potentials of the improvements the humans gave them. Cartridges made to a standard size replaced the irregular balls of metal that his men had been using before. The cartridges contained a charge that was enough to launch them a great velocity, replacing the encumberson powder bags that his men had carried before. As well it was safer to use the new recipe for the explosive powder that the humans introduced. The hunters of the north quickly mastered the human improvements and began to incorporate them into their gun designs. Still it wasn't them that created the automatic gun.

"The southern armies new weapons, while powerful, will not be of much use in taking the passes." the Supreme War Leader almost let a twitch out as he acknowledged this limit of the southern weapons.

While the clans of the north developed rifles of great accuracy and range, the southern clan began to develop weapons capable of hurling 100's and 1000's of bullets in a short time. These weapons weren't ready when they spearheaded the assault on the human colony, but from examining the wreckage of the colonies weapons the southern clans were able to achieve their goal. Northwind let out a final snort as he considered the demonstration he had seen of an automatic gun. The weapon was incredibly inaccurate, even if you aimed the first bullet the movements of the gun quickly pulled you off of the target, and had quite a short effective range. That hadn't mattered to the beast they had penned in for the test. The sheer volume of bullets meant that aim didn't matter, and the damage to the creature was the most violent thing he had ever seen. Killing an enemy in combat, or gutting a beast on the hunt did not compare, those actions seemed almost noble compared to the pile of meat Northwind saw lying in that pen.

"The southern and western armies will remain here," a circling motion on the map with the pointer, "while the eastern and northern clans armies take the two usable passes through the mountains." The pointer bounced between 2 spots buried in the mountains midway down the map.

Northwind thought of the automatic guns the humans were sure to have, and the idea of trying to push them out of a mountain pass dismayed him. So much so that he snorted a lot louder then previously.

"Northwind? a question?" The Supreme War Leader asked. This briefing was his show and the other army heads were not supposed to be interrupting him. The sudden flash of irritation at what he considered an ignorant northerner briefly broke his control and he twitched his left arm at his side.

"What if the humans have weapons? Automatics like they used at their colony, or even worse?" Northwind hadn't missed the Supreme War Leaders twitch, subtle as it was and his momentary pleasure at seeing the war leaders loss of control, distracted him enough that he actually asked the question that he and any other officer of decent ability was thinking.

"Northwind I'm glad that you asked, I understand that you may want to give others a chance to know the argument against this being the case." The Supreme Leader was starting to be more then irritated at this northern fool. Northwind was held in great respect though by many of the clan leaders, and the northern clans particularly shown by his being their war leader. He turned on all his charm and suppressing his bodies response to his emotions, worked the room of officers and clan leaders.

"The humans are very skilled. They have shown us many improvements on what we know, but it was only improvements on what we know. Even the automatics are something we would have created eventually on our own. The artillery of the Eastern armies is nothing more then really big forms of the cannons we have been using for centuries with better ammunition and blast powder. There is nothing the humans have used against us that is new to what we know. They come from the stars, and I say we could reach those stars if we wanted." he paused as he let the import of his words sink in.

"The losses we received at the colony were because they were still fresh, even surprised, and fighting on their own grounds. With our new weapons I think we could hold a clan house as well in the same situation." he paused again, "However this situation is different. They are tired, this is our planet and they can not live on it like we can. Their troops are weary, worn down by the weather that we thrive under." He waved a hand smoothly encompassing the rain beating down outside the command tent almost flaunting his musculature control.

"Their weapons are complex and better then ours," speaking now over a southern generals half-hearted defense of their technologies, "But let us remember the lessons we learned from examining them. They are too clever in creating their weapons, they will fail as they are too complex too stay running for a long time. No simple soldier can maintain such a weapon, and too many things will go wrong. Remember that we couldn't repair the weapons so that they worked again. One thing goes wrong and the humans loose their guns, then we'll stab them with simple steel if nothing else." The Supreme Commanders lips writhed in a bloodthirsty grin.

"There is something else to remember from the battle at their colony: the humans are few, even their forces on the planet now are a portion of the size of our armies. There are so many of us Northwind, that we will crush them under the weight of our boot heels" He finished by slowly raising and lowering a leg, miming his words. He felt confident now that the chieftains were with him. He could feel it in the way that they twitched in anticipation of action, aggressive movements, they were not afraid. That northerner fool may have even gained him more supporters.

"Now if there are no more interruptions," he paused, assured that there would be none, " we can continue. The tanks from the western clans will move through the western pass after it has been secured by the Northerners Meanwhile the southern forces will move to reinforce the Easterners at their pass."

The briefing continued on as Northwind watched his planet get closer and closer to a war he was sure they could not win.

-----

Keensight was Northwinds most trusted advisor. While Northwind had been raised the son of a Chieftain, Keensight was the bastard child of the a neighboring tribes Chieftain and as such had never been welcome in his village. He had been raised as Northwind's companion and often times relished his escaping the responsibilities his friend laboured under. But for an accident of bedsheets that path would have been mine, sighed Keensight. He hadn't been present at the briefing, having been at the Northern clan encampment coordinating the endless supply issues associated with fielding a force of 60,000. Life may have spared him the responsibility of rule, though looking at the clustered runners and radio men around him he doubted it, but it hadn't spared him from sharing the concerns of a ruler, he was too smart not too realize the consequences of the upcoming assault to the troops encamped about him. Many of them familyless bastards like him, others chieftains and their sons like the 2 approaching him now.

There was a mild bustle as Northwind instructed his son to clear the area and assume Keensight's responsibilities in administering the camp. When things were sorted out and the chieftains son was seated in the centre of the circle ensuring that units had rifle ammunition and rations, Keensight and Northwind grabbed rifles and a pack and headed out of camp.

The terrain they travelled through was marginally firmer then the swamps that fronted the camp to the south. They headed west towards the curving expanse of the West River as it began to drain into the swamps. Northwind took the exercise as a chance to let his muscles relax after the meeting, springing quickly, a stump then a rock, his body delighting as it compensated for the shifting of his landings along his path. Keensight was just as fast as he followed his leader, even burdened by the pack he carried, his life tending to more excursions like this then Northwind's.

The two men moved in relative silence, broken only by the occasional whuff of their breath as they bounded, until Northwind reached the shore of the West River. Here he paused and stretched in the sunshine beating upon the rock he stood on, the camp left well behind them. For a moment he was unburdened of his concerns, he caught a scent on the wind, his eyes searching for it's source until he saw the small family of water mammals just upstream of him. The young writhed in their burrow while the adults hunted the rivers edge for food. The fish were spawning so the rivers were well stocked and Northwind was rewarded with a quick flicker and splash for his observation. One of the parents (female from the size) had speared a fish with a quick snap of her tail, impaling it upon the barbed point. He watched as she quickly tore the fish to pieces and dropped the chunks into her burrow, the young squeaking as they fed hungrily.

"She'll take your foot if you aren't careful, her young would be feasting on a chieftains supper, and where would we be Longsight?" Keensight's voice cut through Northwind's revere, using the name that had been his when they were young. The name referred not to his eyesight, which was excellent, but to his ability to foresee consequences of actions. Then it had more to do with avoiding trouble with various authority figures, but his secret play name had proved more apt as he grew up and became a leader among the people. Keensight had a variety of names to choose from in addressing his Chieftain, in choosing this one he was trying to remind Northwind of happier days, when they played along the shores of the North River.

"I don't think she's interested in this stringy old body, I imagine she knows that I mean her no harm." As he had many times when they were younger Northwind turned his back on the creature and faced his friend in a crouch, trusting in his assessment of the river snapper.

"Aye , your likely right about old, but I wouldn't call you stringy, too many formal dinners for that. I agree you know animals, but what do you know about humans, Spiritkiller?" Keensight was following an old ritual, calling out Northwind's names and with them his selves. This name was the one he had earned in the clan wars, such was his ferocity in battle that many corpses couldn't be identified for burial, thus he killed their spirits.

"I know that they are not like the young warrior. The young warrior's body burns with the fire that only action can relieve. The young warrior is capable of incredible acts of glory, and violence, yes incredible violence too." Spiritkiller paused for a second, one hand spinning his knife rapidly, over the palm, across the top of his hand, into the fingers to fly spinning again, the blade flashing past his fingers at speed. He was unconscious of the knife, it was the way he had developed focus for his energy as a young warrior. "The young warrior doesn't think before he moves though, his actions often are too swift for thought at all. The young warrior has no control, no discipline."

"I asked about the humans, not the young warrior, Chieftain" Keensight continued the ritual, calling him the name the he himself will never where.

The Chieftain of the Northwind clan considered for a second, his body still in the pose of thought, the knife a still object for the moment in his hand. "The humans have great technology and wealth. The clans who trade with them prosper, while the clans that compete run a rougher course. Some succeed, but many fall. The humans disrupt the order of the People." Here the Chieftain paused for a second before beginning the lesson as it was taught to all the People when they were young. The lesson should have prevented the clan wars, but it didn't, and it hadn't prevented the Great Clan war either, they had been at an uneasy peace when the humans arrived and still were at peace with each other having turned their violence against the humans. This all passed through his head before he began.

"First the Family.

Then the Clan.

Next the Great Clan

and finally the People"

It was the lesson of service, every level responsible to all the other levels, with the 4 Great Clans (N,S,E,W) responsible to the People.

"The humans have forced changes and the clans are no longer equal, or don't see themselves and equal any more, nobody remembers the People, except as a way to further their own ends. Power has become the objective of our rulers and I blame the Humans for this."

"Are the humans to blame for this? Where would we be without them today Northwind?" Keensight completed the ritual by calling his friend back to his current name.

"If the humans had never come to our lands then I don't know where we would be? Back in our valley at home? In the winds and snows of the north? Or would we be on a battle facing the Southern clans now? Would the battle be any less deadly to us with out the human improvements to our arms? Would we still be facing a madness that will destroy our world?" Northwind was remembering when the Great Clan war had called him to battle. All clans competed, and some even battled, but the 4 Great Clans had held the Peoples Peace in general. Wars were short, and bloody, but never lasting or on a large scale. With the development of blast powder weapons more devices, some involving forces Northwind understood the way he understood the water, by instinct alone, some clans had started to achieve dominance over others, eventually they came to dominate the Southern and Eastern clans and in union of forces attempted to seize the fertile lands and technologies of the West. The Northern Clan had been slow to realize the scale of the wars that were looming, but when they realized Northwind's Father had been quick to sound the war horns and raise the armies of the North. They had thrown their weight onto the flank of the Southern and Eastern forces, together with the mighty armies and technologies of the West the other 2 Great Clans were stopped, and forced back over their borders. Peace came back to the planet, but it had been fragile then, and unlikely would it have been to survive even without the humans.

"Aye, the humans may bear no blame for this. We had a chance to remove this cancer from the People and we just put them back behind their borders and told them to be good. It would have been a matter of time before they rebuilt their forces and came to try again. The world has changed more in our lifetimes then in all of my family's history. The humans are just the final guests to a meal started when we were young. Blast powder, guns, our rifles, the Easterners artillery, the Westerners machines powered by lightening. Something they get from containers of a glowing seaplant has given them the powers of the storm. It brought them the railways, and now these tanks, with their guns that hurl shells without using blast powder. The humans didn't bring us these things, they may have shown us better ways of using them, but these are our own demons, and where I first thought the humans may have saved us from them, they will destroy us with them instead."

-----

Supreme War Leader's emotions warred within him as he headed to his private sanctum. The low, long building was one of the few in the camp, since the People generally preferred the socialism of tents to the isolation created by solid walls. Buildings were generally used for purposes where permanent walls were useful, the new manufacturing industries, and some administrative officing. Supreme War Leader was not unique in his desires for privacy, however he was one of the few with enough power and authority to actually have it. The building was ostensibly a prison for the holding of enemy prisoners, it did in fact serve in this manner for 1 human, however 1/2 of the building was given over to private quarters for the Supreme War Leader. It consisted of a variety of multifunction rooms connected by hallway to the prison and 1 larger room given over for the Supreme War Leader's private exercise. It was into this room that he headed now, his frustrations boiling within him.

Closing the solid wood door behind him he let loose a scream and leaped into the air. 10 feet he flew on the first leap, his scream pitching up and then down with his motions. Landing on a rolling exercise ball he leaped again before he had to adjust his balance. Flying left he brushed a low bench for seating and raced onto the wall. With a fresh scream his powerful legs pushed off of the wall, bouncing him off of the perpendicular wall in the corner and too the low desk he had set up for his use, there he paused, crouched on it's top, chest heaving. The brief but intense burst of activity had done wonders in relaxing his action hungry system. The anger raised in him by that Northern fool Northwind was almost burned out in the pureness of his exercise.

When Supreme War Leader was younger and fought in the clan wars he had earned his own battle name, Screamer. The name had been given to him for his bloodcurdling shrieks as he went into combat. Over many years Screamer had worked to achieve leadership of his clan, then of the great clans of the south shortly after the disaster of the Great Clan war, and now because of these humans he was the Supreme War Leader for the People, there was no being greater in power then him on this planet. Even the humans with their secret technologies, that are hinted to be beyond anything the People could ever make, won't dare use them against him. That much he had established from his conversations with the only other being in residence in the building. It was too one of those sometimes satisfying, oftentimes maddening conversations that he decided to go now.

Perhaps by talking to the human he had caged he could recover some of his equilibrium after Northwind's challenge of him during the briefing. The human had been captured by a scouting party, his camp had fallen victim to the 1 of Easterners artillery barrages. Apparently the Cheiftain in the scouting party had attacked during the barrage and despite receiving casualties from the bursting ordinance and the humans weapons they were able to overwhelm the 10 man squad of humans there. The human called himself Master Sergeant Tam Shisnu, a confusion of names to Screamers mind, so he just called him human, being the only representative of his people here. It was no surprise when he entered the prisoners cell to find him sitting cross legged in the centre, eyes closed in absolute stillness. The human had called it meditating when he asked him about it the first time. The maddening conversation that ensued had left him shredding pillows in his exercise room. Suffice to say seeing the human in absolute stillness, exercising a level of control over his body that Screamer could never hope to match, was infuriating. The human had remained unmoving during his entrance to the room, and while he dismissed the guard. He had tried yelling at the human before to no effect, the only way he had to end the humans meditation was to have the guards beat him, and the human would actively resist until beaten unconscious, the guards doing the beating may subdue the human, but the found themselves more often then not with broken bones or worse. Otherwise the human would sit unmoving, breathing barely detected, until it was finished with it's meditation. The rules were set to these meetings now, Screamer having learned to wait for the human, to suffer this shame in order to have the conversations he so desired. He consoled himself with the knowledge that the human was in his power, at a word the humans life would be ended, in this small room in his building, in a camp full of his soldiers, on a world he would soon control.

After a short time his patience was rewarded by the opening of the humans eyes. It was the only movement the human made. There was no surprise on the humans face in seeing the Supreme War Leader sitting on his small cot facing him. The human regarded him patiently, waiting for the Screamer to speak. Screamer hated this contest of wills, he was unable to match the humans patience and inevitably lost.

"We will attack soon. Your armies will be crushed under by the forces of the people." Screamer snapped as he gave in to his burning desire to somehow torment this creature. The human regarded him with level gaze, his absolute stillness a mocking challenge to Screamer's anxious mind. Screamer hadn't asked the human a question and he very rarely spoke except in direct response to questions.

"You humans say you have weapons that can destroy us?" Again silence from the human, Screamer fought back an urge to attack the human and tried a more direct approach. "Will your people use these weapons against us?"

"We will use weapons against you if you attack us." The human spoke his first words since the interview had begun.

"Yes, but I mean weapons that could destroy us."

"All weapons are capable of destruction."

"I mean super weapons, weapons that we don't have?"

"no" A single word, soft spoken against the strident tones of Screamer as his frustrations rose.

"Why won't you use these weapons on us?"

"Because you don't possess them."

"That is not an assurance, that makes no sense, if you have weapons that could destroy us you would use them. I think that you don't have super weapons." The human remained silent, so Screamer continued. "I've seen your weapons, they are differently made then ours, but I think that the people could make weapons like them. There are few of you each time we fight, I think that you don't have many people, and your weapons must be expensive." Again no response to Screamer's probes.

"When the armies of the 4 great clans march we will overwhelm your forces, there is no way that you can stand up to our numbers. Tell me why you wouldn't use weapons against us that could assure your victory?"

"Does a river snapper have a Buddha nature?"

The human had given Screamer a gibberish answer, he recognized the name of the god in the human religion, but why would a vicious river snapper have the nature of a fat friendly human god? With frustration he left the room, there would be no value to conversation with the human today.

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