"No!" he howled in response. I will not give up. I am not fighting for Deirdre or my parents or posterity. I am fighting for me."I will not be beaten!"

Kai heaved himself to his feet and concentrated on breathing his pain away. Across from him, Malthus slowly stood and massaged his right leg. Kai used his sleeve to wipe the blood from his nose, then slowly beckoned the Elemental forward. "Come on. We should end this before it is too dark to fight."

Malthus came in at him cautiously, slightly favoring his right leg. Kai knew his only chance to defeat the Elemental came in knocking him out, yet to strike such a blow would be to leave himself open to hideous punishment by the Elemental. It doesn't matter, it has to be done!

Kai waited until Malthus planted his right foot, then leaped forward. He led with his left foot, then snapped his right foot up and around in a kick that pinned Malthus' right ear to the side of his head. He saw the man's head twist around, but he knew from the feel of the kick that Malthus was just moving to try to lessen the effect of the blow.

Malthus' right fist swatted Kai from the air. He hit the ground solidly, crushing his right arm into his ribs and knocking the wind out of him. He bounced once and began a lazy roll through the air. Kai heard thundering in his ears and saw flickering lights high in the evening sky, but could make no sense of them or the noise.

He stabbed his right leg down to try to land on his feet, but something tangled itself around his foot, then slipped sideways. As he brought his left foot down, he saw his pack and gunbelt bind his feet together just as the plateau disappeared from beneath him.

Unable to breathe, he could not even scream as he fell into the darkness.

* * *

Khalsa saw Dave Jewell drop off the plateau as his gunner finished blowing apart one of the Elementals. Behind him, in the crew compartment, the jump master screamed, "Go, go, go!" over and over again. The jump infantry, their jump-pack exhaust burning a brilliant argent in the evening sky, made an easy descent to the plateau.

The pilot flicked on the helicopter's external spotlights and lit the plateau brighter than it would have been at high noon. He nodded to Khalsa.

The demi-Precentor adjusted his headset microphone. "This is Demi-Precentor Khalsa of ComStar. By command of Primus Myndo Waterly, our Blessed Order is taking control of Alyina. Wherever they served on our world, all of your men have been rounded up or, regrettably, killed, Star Captain Malthus. You are now our prisoner."

Malthus slowly climbed to his feet and shook his head to clear it. "Stravagdog! Come down here and I will pluck your heart out with my bare hands!"

"Tsk, tsk, Star Captain. Is that any way to speak to your host?" Khalsa rubbed his hands together, then scratched at where dead flesh from beneath the cast still flaked off. "I could have my men kill you where you stand, but I don't think you want that. And don't think you are alone in having been disgraced. Operation Scorpion is rounding up you invaders from all over the place."

Khalsa killed his external microphone. "Call the other helicopters to come in and get their prisoners. We will take them back to Dove Costoso until we have to send them on to the main center at Valigia." The pilot nodded and Khalsa smiled again. "Operation Scorpion, I love it." He pointed down at Malthus. "Sting, I got you!"

30

Avalon City , New Avalon

Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth

1 May 3052 (Day 1 of Operation Scorpion)

Hanse Davion kneaded the pain in his left shoulder with strong fingers as he looked up at his wife. Still the slender slip of a woman he had married a quarter century before, she wore a mask of anger he had seen only rarely in all those years. It should have made him bristle and want to fight back, but knowing the well from which her anger was drawn, he could not blame her.

"Hanse, you cannot let Victor go ahead with this plan! No matter what Morgan says, we both know it is a desperate operation with a good chance of catastrophic failure." Melissa Steiner-Davion looked at her husband with gray eyes a shade lighter than false dawn. "If you let him go through with this, you are killing him."

Hanse levered himself out of the chair and took her wrists in his hands. She tried to pull away, but he held her firm. "Melissa, please. I love Victor as much as you do. If I believed this plan was suicidal for him or his people, I would abort it immediately. You know that. You also know I cannot stop him."

"Oh, you Davion men." She turned away as he released her arms. "Hanse, here in our private chambers, I have learned of the passions that run soul-deep in you. Every time I watch you viewing battleroms from the front, I see you wanting to be out there in the thick of the fighting. Sometimes I think you Davions have been bred for the battlefield the way some dogs are bred for hunting."

Melissa crossed to a window, where the moonlight washed her pale hair with silver. "With you it is more than desire, it is a hunger."

"Then your fear is not that Victor will be killed," Hanse said, "but that he will come to glory in killing, is that it?" At her shudder, Hanse immediately regretted his words. He softened his tone. "I know you hoped to curb any Davion propensities for war by raising Victor more as a Steiner than a Davion. Yes, the Steiners have proved themselves in war, but their strength has ever been in negotiation and administration of their vast holdings. Steiners are statesmen first and warriors second."

She turned quickly and swiped a tear from her cheek. "Is that wrong? Is it a crime to hope that my children and my grandchildren would live in a time and universe where war was a secondary option? No, I was never trained as a MechWarrior so I do not fully understand the relationship between you and your machines. You speak of them like friends, like faithful companions who get ripped apart or killed and then resurrected to fight again. Sometimes it sounds as though you MechWarriors believe it is not you who do the hitting and killing, but your 'Mechs."

"That reduces war to battles of hardware versus hardware, yet we both know that is a false concept. You Davions glory in the call to war. Your brother Ian, Victor's namesake, died in a battle for a parched planet that meant nothing to him or those he fought. He should have been nowhere near Mallory's World, yet that is where he died. And you, when New Avalon was attacked twenty years ago, you immediately joined the battle and never thought of summoning aid!"

Her hands balled into fists, and Hanse felt his own heart tighten painfully. "Now my son, my Victor, has concocted a scheme that will take him deep into enemy territory on a mission that might do nothing more than collect a box containing Hohiro Kurita's remains. It is not worth the risk."

Hanse worked his left hand into a fist, then forced it open to try to ease some of the tightness in his chest. "I will not argue with you the relative merits of this mission's goals. While you point out that Hohiro may no longer be alive, the rescue effort alone will be significant to the Combine. That one act, performed by Victor at Omi Kurita's request, could seal the agreement Theodore and I made, extending it to the next generation and perhaps beyond."

He took in a deep breath and forced it out slowly. "Ian died on Mallory's World because he would not ask his soldiers to undertake any task he would not perform himself. He died defending his men. He held off the Kurita forces pursuing them, knowing he would die. He must have sensed something even before going off on that mission because he forced me to promise I would not come after him."