Cowputts,

I write to you on behalf of the Bear Clan, on a matter of great importance to
my Clan.

We, the Elders of the Council of Bears, gathered a week ago, in a hidden valley,
to discuss the future of our Clan. I know you must be wondering now, why we did
not assemble in our Hall, and I will tell you, but allow me to begin at the
beginning.

The mother of all Bears came into Tartarus 158 days from today, and in the time
that followed, she watched over her cubs, and nurtured them, untill they grew to
be strong warriors.

The Bear Clan was born, and after some time, they entered the War that rages
across Tartarus. We gained both enemies and allies, all of which were roughly
the same age as the Bear Clan, and with which many battles were fought.

The most notable enemies were the Highlanders, Signores, Twilight's Bloom,
Autarch, and Slithy-Toves. There were many scirmishes with other Clans, mostly
allies to these Clans, or Clans which fired without warning at passing Bears,
but none which any greater battles were fought.

Our only lasting ally became the Get of Fenris. A good and proud ally, which
has always stood by our side since our first meeting with them. Today we have
allied ourselves with the Binar Clan as well, but they are but a young Clan,
not yet capable of striding into War with the Bears.

We remain on good terms with many other Clans, mainly the former members of the
Fellowship of the Burning Wheel, Clan Fallen Pride being the most significant.
And Rehyd Inkscyl also.


After a great War against a trio of enemy Clans, it was time for the Bear Clan
to prepare for summer, and consolidate its position on the Battlesphere. We had
lost almost all of our 15th generation Bear Warriors, because we were shifting
our breeders to the south, and to harvest the orange biomass. The journey south
left the younger Bear Warriors without support, and eventually they were
overcome by the many enemies.

At this point in time, we had no intentions of building a Clan Hall, but once
we found how much we appreciated the war in Tartarus, we decided to do so. Thus,
it was at a relatively late time that we put our Hall down in a Valley in the 
western region of Tartarus. Our Hall is of generation 83 this day, which is not
too impressive, but our most advanced breeder is generation 66, which makes up
for it to some extent.

Our consolidation and rebuilding is finally coming to an end. We are beginning
to field an army of generation 51 Warriors.


As we came south, and settled in the area west of your Clan, we saw your
warriors fight a host of other Clans. You treated us with respect, informing us
of your borders, and warning us of the dangers of entering the area over which
you battled. We learned that your Clan could be trusted, and to this day, you
have never fired upon any of our Clan.

Thus, it was decided that we would approach you, as you are the only Elder Clan
which have shown us such honour, with the exception of Gothalius.

There are several reasons for why we have decided to approach you. The reason we
have decided to do it now however, has to do with the Slogs.


The Slogs and Gout-Leg appear to be engaged in war with each other. The Gout-Leg
seems to be pushing back the Slogs to their home in the south-west. This attack
will be stopped in time however, and the Gout-Leg is well aware of it.

Now, foolishly, we thought we had build our Clan Hall in a place where we it
would not easily be disturbed. One of the Slogs Clan Hall titans strode past on
the other side of one of the lakes surrounding our Hall, and detected it with
its high tech computers. We thought it would ignore our Hall and continues on
its way towards the Gout-Leg attackers, but to our dismay, it turned and headed
straight for our Hall.

We held our breath. There was nothing we could do to stop this titan, as it was
far bigger and more advanced than anything we have ever been able to field. To
our relief it did not open fire, but instead placed itself between the three
Clan Halls located in our Valley.

After a day or two, we sent a messenger to the Slogs, telling them that we were
somewhat uneasy about having such a powerful titan within firing range of our
Hall, and asked what their intentions were.

Their reply was very civil, and they explained the situation as if it was all
in the interest of peace. This following passage is taken from their missive:

"We have found that by keeping a few of our medium size war titans patrolling
the area that our neighbors are far less likely to try sneak attacks upon us
and it keeps things in a friendly basis.  The titan you are seeing near to
your hall is one of the medium sized titans of which I speak.  My large war
titans (range 11 with 30 weapon chambers) are in the southwest defending my
homeland.  Clan Dynamic tried a sneak attack on my clan hall (didn't even
get close) and one of these effectively wiped out his ability to fight as a
clan all by itself."

At the time, we thought that this was a very subtle and diplomatic threat. After
some discussion in the Council, we soon agreed that we had effectively been
taken hostage by the Slogs.

Our first thoughts were to approach the Slogs again, and politely ask them to
move their titan out of firing range of our Hall, but that they should feel
free to patrol anywhere within our lands, as long as they did not take up
positions from where they could open fire on our Clan Hall.

We waited a bit however, and comtemplated the situation. Then, to our horror,
we found the Dynamic's Clan Hall, completely surrounded by Slogs, and abandoned,
it seemed, by the Dynamic. The Slogs was using it as a punching ball, letting a
young titan play with it, scoring ranking, experience and points galore, while
older titans stood guard over the area, ready to crush any resistance.

Now we became worried.

A few days later, one of our scouts came across the Hall of our ally, Fenris.
As the scout climbed over a mountain, passing the Hall, it found a Slogs titan
standing there, well withing firing range of the Hall of Fenris. At that moment,
we realized how cunning and powerful the Slogs really was.

At the time of writing, the Slogs are holding at least five Clans, the Bear Clan
included, as hostages. Probably more that we do not now of.


Thus it was, that we gathered in secrecy, the Elders of the Bear Clan, and
discussed our options.

We could either live with it, and hope that the Slogs would not grow restless
once they finished playing with Dynamic's Clan Hall. This did not seem like a
very good idea.

We could try to improve our relations with the Slogs, and possibly ally with
them. Though this may seem to be a solution, in reality it is not, since we are
confident that the Slogs would continue to hold us hostage, even if they
pretended to be our friends, and that we could not convince them to move away
from our Hall.

In the end, we decided to turn to you, knowing that the leaders of your Clan
have proven themselves wise and capable. We ask your advice on the situation,
and also if you would consider helping.

We understand that you are still pursuing the Titanhawk for what they did to
you, and will be grateful if you would but advice us on what course of action
to take. But if you could help us out of our predicament, we would owe your
immensely, and we would swear undying friendship to your Clan.

As it is, we can operate freely, as long as we do not come nearer to the Slogs
home, and thus we can send our titans to do battle against your enemies. We are
aware that the aid we can provide you in any battle is relatively small,
compared to the might of your own titans, but if you would accept our offer,
you need only to direct us to your enemies, and we shall fight them unto death.


As for the information on Titanhawk that you requested, we can only see a single
of their titans right now, and you have one of your own titans in a position
where it can see it as well, so there is nothing we can tell you now, but we
will order our scouts to do their utmost to track down any Titanhawk activity.


Respectfully,

Katarak the Warrior, Master Tactician of the Bear Clan.