"Never!" Dorete's eyes sharpened. "The Clans have given us peace."

"But only for ComStar, and only for thirteen more years. Besides, we're located above the truce line. The Clans have already been carrying out limited attacks and raids into Federated Commonwealth space, and they'll be back in full force when the truce is over. When that day comes, your sons will be of an age to fight."

"Old enough to die, you mean."

"No, not if they're prepared."

"Preparation did not save Jon."

"Dorete ..."

"No, Kommandant, no. You don't understand, do you?" She looked away, her eyes glistening with tears that threatened to spill down her pale cheeks. "Your universe has been swept away. Things are changing. Takashi Kurita is dead. Hanse Davion is dead. Jaime Wolf is out of the picture. Morgan Kell is retiring. The old ways are no more. I will not have my sons trained to preserve old ways that have killed billions."

Nelson's nostrils flared. "They are Jon's sons, too, Dorete. Think of him."

Her lower lip trembled. "I do, all the time." She whirled and retreated into the house, her shoulders already beginning to heave with silent sobbing.

"Grandfather, why is mommy crying?"

Nelson choked down the lump in his own throat. "Because she misses your father very much." He knew that Dorete hated relying on him, but she had suffered a breakdown after Jon's death. Nelson had gladly taken her and the boys in, but Dorete's feelings of helplessness and abandonment fed on each other. He was the only object for venting her frustration and he accepted the role. As much as her actions hurt him, he knew they were motivated by her love for his son and he could dishonor neither that nor Jon's memory. "She loves your father very much and it hurts her that he is not here."

As he dropped his body wearily onto the porch steps, the twins approached him. Joachim planted the tiny Phoenix Hawkon Nelson's left knee and set another 'Mech beside it. "You had a BattleMaster. "

Nelson nodded. "Just like that one there. A BLR-3S BattleMaster."In the background he heard the bleat of the visiphone, but ignored it. "I captured it while still a cadet at the Nagelring and kept it all during my service in the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth. Now I'm here with you, and my 'Mech is in Dobson, with the First Kooken Reserve Militia."

"Can we see it?" The twins looked at each other, their eyes widening in anticipation. "Please?"

The creak of the screen door hinges cut off Nelson's reply. "Come inside now, boys," Dorete called.

"Mom," they pleaded in tandem.

"Now."

They obeyed but only reluctantly, leaving the toy 'Mechs balanced precariously on Nelson's knee. Bracing himself for another stinging blast of Dorete's venom, Nelson didn't turn around. "I would have said no, Dorete."

"That was the duty officer in Dobson," she said coldly. "You're being called up, Kommandant."

"What?" As Nelson turned and stood up, the plastic 'Mechs spilled off his knee and onto the ground. "What's happening?"

"Need to know, Kommandant." She stared straight through him. "You're to report immediately, and it's not a drill." She tossed him the keys to the aircar. "Go."

He looked at the house. "The boys ..."

"I'll tell them." She pressed her lips into a thin line. "Go."

Nelson Geist nodded and moved quickly away from the house, barely aware that the heel of his boot had ground the toy BattleMasterinto the dirt.

* * *

These are no ordinary bandits.Riding high in the forward seat of his BattleMaster,Nelson Geist looked out over the battlefield. Once-green meadows had been churned into a black and brown quilt of smoldering grass and torn sod. In the valley below him the shattered remnants of the Kooken Reserves fought a delaying action. In theory, the Robinson Rangers were somewhere behind them, re-forming after a brutal battle that had lasted more than twenty-four hours.

During his briefing, Nelson had learned that bandits had been spotted coming in fast toward Kooken's Pleasure Pit. The Grave Walkers and the Robinson Rangers were the Pit's active garrison, but the Grave Walkers could not reach the Rangers' location in time because they were stationed such a distance away on the southern continent. That was how the Rangers had happened to call up the Reserves, for the bandits arrived with ships enough for a regiment or more of BattleMechs—though the possibility that allthose ships could contain 'Mechs had seemed inconceivable. No bandit group had that many 'Mechs.

Coming in, the bandits boldly announced themselves. An audio-only message from a woman who identified herself as the Red Corsair challenged the Rangers to come out and prove themselves. By itself, such bravado would not have been unusual—Nelson knew that most bandit leaders had a loose board or two between their ears—but the gesture was a chilling reminder of the Jade Falcon challenge that had preceded the fighting on Wotan.

Nelson made a call to the Catapulton his left. "Spider, suppress the Vindicatorover on the right flank. Two barrages."

"Roger."

Slowly and reluctantly the Reserves gave ground. The bandits came on hard, surprising Nelson by pressing their attacks even after his command lance began a barrage of long-range missile fire against them. It made no sense for the bandits to keep on coming once the command lance had spread its missile umbrella. Unless... A sinking feeling tugged at Nelson's heart.

A 'Mech appeared over the hilltop on the other side of the valley, instantly attracting his attention. But for its bright scarlet paint scheme, it looked remarkably like his own BattleMaster.The main difference was that the red 'Mech mounted a particle projection cannon in each of its massive hands. In a show of incredible skill, the pilot pointed each PPC at a different target and then fired.

One azure lightning bolt drew a broken line from the weapon muzzle to a war-worn Locust,hitting one of the 'Mech's birdlike legs. The particle beam boiled the leg's armor away, then melted the ferro-titanium bones. The Locustspun about before crashing wildly to the ground.

The second PPC bolt flogged a humanoid Dervish.The blue beam whipped away what little armor remained on the 'Mech's right arm, devouring a medium laser and a short-range missile launching pod. Unbalanced, the Dervishfell, too, then stayed down as another bandit 'Mech flogged it with laser fire.

Nelson flipped his holographic display from vislight to infrared. The computer compacted the 360-degree circle around his BattleMasterinto a 160-degree arc in front of him. He expected to see the red BattleMastershining bright as a beacon in a black night, but the 'Mech showed very little heat after having fired two PPC beams. That 'Mech should be white hot!

That the other BattleMaster'sheat profile remained a cool blue gave Nelson a real fright. In the three hundred years that the Clans had lived apart from the Inner Sphere, their weapons technology had progressed well beyond what the Inner Sphere knew or could produce. The Clans had weapons and advanced heat sinks that made their 'Mechs run cooler and hit harder than could their Inner Sphere counterparts. It was just that technological edge which had let the Clans overwhelm the forces of the Inner Sphere on almost every world they deigned to attack.

Nelson dropped his golden crosshairs onto the scarlet BattleMaster'sdark outline. The dot in the center pulsed fast, confirming a target lock. Nelson tightened down on the trigger of his right joystick, sending a line of twenty long-range missiles streaking out, one after another, from the launcher in his right arm.