Warning klaxons blared inside the cockpit and Harry tasted blood on his upper lip. He felt his 'Mech spinning and saw the Valkyrie'sright arm whirl away through the fire curtain around him. The left-arm armor had also been breached, but the chest armor still held. Loss of the right arm meant that his laser had gone the way of his compatriots.

I still have missiles!Harry clung to that hope as his Valkyrietottered and fell. Extending the 'Mech's left arm, he tried to post off the ground, but the machine had become too unstable for him to accomplish such a miraculous maneuver. He did manage to alter his fall so that he did not land face-down. I can still punch out!

The Valkyriehit the ground with the considerable force that might be expected of a thirty-ton object propelled by copious amounts of high explosives. Its most important yet fragile component rattled around in the command couch like a lone pea in a can. Before he could hit the ejection system, Harry's head slammed again into the command couch, hitting with enough force to crack the neurohelmet and the skull beneath it.

Harry Pollard died in a cage, but he died happy.

Nestled in a dark room, with the bowl of the sky simulated above him in glittering detail, Nelson Geist heard the Kell Hound aerofighters scream skyward from the Old Connaught base. His fingers curled into fists as a needto be part of the fight burned in his veins. They deny you the chance to fight, but they will need you yet.

A bright rectangle opened on the horizon and Nelson recognized Bates's silhouette. "Kommandant Geist, we've got direct gun-camera feed here. They've got Red right where they want her. Want to see the end to it?"

The gaunt man shook his head mechanically. "No, thank you. They'll need my work when she escapes."

"She's not escaping. We have three regiments to oppose her one. She can't get away."

Nelson waved the door shut. "When she escapes, they'll need my work."

Bates shrugged. "Suit yourself."

He closed the door, leaving Nelson in his perforated darkness. "I am." He hit a button on the keyboard of the computer display unit he was using and constellations shifted as he centered himself on another world. Just because they won't let me help them doesn't mean they don't need me. And it doesn't mean, when the time comes, that I won't be ready to help them.

* * *

The forty kilometers from Old Connaught to Denton passed in 3.25 minutes for the Kell Hound fighters. Caitlin would have preferred flying higher and faster, but remaining on the deck gave them a shot at surprise. The foothills, though not terribly high, provided enough of a radar-shadow that fighters with their radar in air-to-ground mode might not notice them until too late.

A minute and a half out Raven Flight shot over the Kilkenny. Caitlin used the bridges as a check against her computer-generated map, smiling to see that they were dead on course. As the land sloped back up toward the foothills, she nudged the throttle forward. Only thirty seconds from Denton she began to pick up passive radar tracks from the enemy fighters.

She flipped her weapons-control on and saw all four of her lasers and the PPC in the nose go green. All dressed up and someplace to go!The secondary monitor showed another flight coming in behind her and she knew from the designation that it was the Clanners. "Luck, Carew," she breathed cautiously. Opening her radio channel she brought her Stingrayup and over the foothills. "Go, Ravens, go!"

Caitlin dropped her crosshairs on the boxy shape of a Roguerising lazily out of a strafing run. Kicking her rudder right she slipped into his six and let him have it with everything her Stingrayhad to offer. From his lack of movement she knew she'd hit him before he knew he was hunted.

The PPC strung a blue line from the Stingray'snose to the ship's fuselage. Starting just behind the cockpit and ripping back along the craft, the hits bisected the stabilizer between the halves of the split tail. One medium pulse laser pumped more fire into the scar while the other chipped away at the armored engine cowling in the aft. One of the two large lasers pulsed a green energy rod into the left wing, melting armor into a ceramic rain that fell on Denton while the other cored the engine.

A brilliant shower of sparks shot out of the engine as a drive unit failed, sending the Rogueinto a slow roll that marked its loss of power. The craft began to pull back to the starboard side, then it simply disintegrated. It happened so slowly and carefully that it almost looked to Caitlin like a computer diagram being exploded to show what the Roguelooked like inside.

A wall of heat hit her. She glanced at her auxiliary monitor and saw the heat spike up into the red zone and remain there despite her heat sinks coming on line. She shook her head to fight off the desire to faint in the heat and she overrode the fighter's computer-mandated desire to shut down. Too much, too fast. Gotta watch it, kid.

She pulled up and came over in a looping turn that let her bleed off some heat and build up some airspeed. Gotta be more careful, Caitlin.She smiled as she saw the Rogue'sfragments continue to fall. But that was one hell of a first impression we made.

* * *

With the fighters' arrival imminent, Dan Allard gave the order for the Hounds to move forward out of the

Clonarf bunkers. Huge doors cranked open and the 'Mechs best suited to antiair operations came out first to take out any unwelcome bandit pilots on a strafing run. Once they had secured the canyons and draws where the openings to the mountain bases had been hidden, the scout units headed out.

Phelan headed his Wolfhoundstraight north, and saw from ground level what had been fed to him from watching stations on top of the mountains. One Overlordhad grounded on the edge of Denton, while the other had moved out toward the foothills and the M5 leading north to Old Connaught. As the first of the fighters withdrew, both ships disgorged their armies. One flew north, beyond the foothills, while the other shifted south and landed in Denton.

Phelan started a search program on his onboard computer, and it locked on to a target in the furthest group of bandit 'Mechs. He ordered up magnification on his holographic display and was rewarded with the image of a scarlet BattleMaster.Punching up a tightbeam radio configuration, he focused it on that 'Mech.

"In the name of the ilKhan of the Clans and in the name of Prince Victor Davion, I order you and your people to surrender now. If you do not, your command will be destroyed."

The return message came immediately as a picture filled his secondary monitor. He saw red hair splayed out over the shoulders of a cooling vest and bright eyes peering through the triangular viewport of a neurohelmet. "Those better than you have already tried, wolfling."

Phelan shook his head, "There are none better than I am. There are none better than the Kell Hounds. We outnumber you three to one. Surrender."

"Only a Wolf would offer surrender, and only a Wolf would accept it." Her eyes narrowed. "Though you do not deserve it, I will grant you a warrior's death."

Her confidence, though strong and angry, seemed unnatural to Phelan. She cannot believe what she is saying. She is covering surprise, but how solid is that cover?"I do not offer you surrender for myself," he started slowly, "but I offer it at the request of Nelson Geist."

Her eyes widened for a moment before the image went dead, that hit home!He shifted over to Tac One. "Colonel Allard, it's a fight to the finish. No quarter asked or given."