Phelan Kell is not stupid. This attack would be suicide unless ..."Hettig, ETA for Beta and Gamma Battalions to reinforce Alpha?"

"Ten minutes, Precentor Martial."

Focht clenched his fists. "Hurry, Durkovic. Scatter them now, or Alpha Battalion will be a memory by the time your reinforcements arrive."

* * *

Compared with his feelings at the beginning of his assault, Phelan was overjoyed with having survived more than one exchange with the battalion he had been asked to ambush. Another shot with his large laser took the Black Knight'sright arm off at the shoulder. The others in his Star had inflicted more damage and the infantry had been completely routed, but the 'Mechs being sent after them were closing fast.

The brilliant blue of a PPC bolt lit the valley for a second, then darkness closed in again. Red and green light stabbed from one end of the valley to the other. The stuttering flame of an autocannon burst and the torchlight of rockets being sent skyward contributed to the hellishness of the landscape. Real lightning mocked all the artificial illumination while smoke and fog mixed into impenetrable curtains that hid the combatants from each other.

Phelan sighted back along the lines of laser beams, shot, then ducked and dodged. Slowly but inexorably he gave ground before the company bearing down on his people. From what little he could see of them in the inky blackness, they had avoided taking major damage, but even he knew that was a slim source of hope. After days and days of battling, his Star's 'Mechs were not running at the top of form. The armor he'd lost in the fight for the pass still had not been completely replaced, so his right leg remained vulnerable.

A thick, searing bolt of lightning hit high on the ridgeline at the far end of the valley. Its light burned tall shadows on the smoke and fog, then sank the valley into even greater darkness when it vanished. Phelan squeezed his eyes shut against the afterimage, but when he opened them again, he saw spots of light dotting the ridge. He blinked his eyes and wished his neurohelmet would allow him to rub them, then he kicked magnification into his vislight display.

Natasha and the rest of the Cluster had arrived.

Leaving their identification lights on, the Wolves poured a withering volley of fire down into the valley. Natasha's Dire Wolflet fly with everything it had, and beside her, Ranna's Warhawkblasted ComStar troops with twin PPC bolts. LRM impacts and explosions ripped through the valley like a string of volcanic eruptions. Red beams and blue lightning raked back and forth through the ComStar forces. Phelan saw fire sputter from the muzzles of autocannons, then seconds later, the cacophony of reports and explosions reached him.

Phelan punched up his tactical channel. "Get set, Ax Star. We've got the back door here. Either they come through us to escape, or they drive deeper into our territory. Either way, it won't be pretty."

* * *

The Precentor Martial watched as the Thirteenth Wolf Guards fell on the 282nd Division's Alpha Battalion. Gamma Company, caught between Phelan's Star and the newly arrived reinforcements, faced a choice of running through a gaundet to rejoin the rest of Alpha Battalion as it pushed on through where the canyon started running west or else finding another way out. He smiled as Acolyte Durkovic started his people heading up through the gap Phelan had used to ambush the troops.

"Good, Durkovic, good. You will force them to hunt you down." Focht keyed his line to Hettig. "How far out is the rest of the 2/82nd?"

"ETA one minute, but outriders are picking up Clan activity."

From his vantage point, the Precentor Martial looked up the slope at Natasha Kerensky and her Cluster. His image of her 'Mech vanished in a microsecond of static, then reformed, shifting slightly to the left as the computer shifted to the datafeed from a 'Mech that still existed. On his right, he saw the smoking ruin of a Thug.

All around him Alpha Battalion broke and started to run. Though a veteran of a hundred battles, Focht still felt his stomach twist into knots as the Clan forces descended into the valley. He knew retreat was the only possible way to survive, and he hoped the retreat would drag Natasha's troops blindly on to where the rest of the 2/82nd could turn the tables back on them. Still, given that the 2/82nd was composed totally of green troops, he expected the Thirteenth Wolf Guards to smash through them.

"Damn the storm, I can't put air up! Hettig, can we shift the 97247th artillery assets to this fight?"

"Yes, sir. The range is at the edge of their capabilities, but they can drop something in."

"Excellent. Sow the 2/82nd Alpha Batt's line of retreat with clusters. Do it now."

"Artillery allocated."

* * *

Precentor Susan Litto accepted the printout, then punched the open-channel button on her intercom system. "Sector 91534, four volleys of clusters, all batteries. Make the trajectory high because we have a mountain to go over."

"Got it," she heard Gunner Bob Rule drawl. "We have friendlies in that sector?"

"These will take thirty seconds to get there. My guess is, one way or another, by the time they get there, the answer will be no."

* * *

When the artillery barrage hit, the Precentor Martial saw that all but one lance of the 2/82nd Alpha had cleared Sector 91534. The artillery shells opened above the valley and distributed a liberal supply of fist-sized submunitions. As the little bomblets tumbled through the air, a plastic casing kept the titanium ball bearings studding the high-explosive in place. Already primed, the bomblets exploded on impact.

Most went off when they hit the ground.

Many went off when they hit a charging Clan Mad Catdead on its nose. For one second, it looked as if the Omni-Mech had run full force into a wall of fire. Smoking, armor scales dropping like feathers from a wounded bird, the 'Mech stumbled forward, then pitched over onto its face. The second volley shrouded the 'Mech with a blazing cloak and lifted it into the air. When the smoke cleared, the Precentor Martial saw a twisted, glowing hulk where he last had seen the Mad Cat.

The next two volleys failed to catch anyone, but did force the Wolf Guards to pull back. Quickly typing on a phantom keyboard, Focht shifted his view from Alpha Battalion's rear guard to its lead element. "We should be linking up with the rest of the division just about now ..."

As the Wyvernsupplying the Precentor Martial with videofeed came around the canyon turn, he saw Clan 'Mechs pouring through a gap and blasting straight through the rest of the 2/82nd Division. Like knights of ages past, the sheer weight of the Clan charge bore it into and beyond the ComStar lines. 'Mechs went down, bowled over, to be crushed beneath the feet of enemy and comrades alike.

Silhouetted higher up on the canyon wall, other Clan 'Mechs supported the charge with murderous laser and LRM fire. One OmniMech, a monstrously huge Gladiator,attracted Focht's immediate attention. Typing furiously, he made the computer magnify it and clarify the image. In the backlight of a ruby energy burst, he saw the Clan's wolf-head crest and five stars emblazoned below it.

Five stars! That 'Mech belongs to a Khan. Natasha is behind them. Is this Ulric?

Before he could paint the Gladiatorwith a computer tag and relay it out to the troops, a ComStar Highlandertrotted up beside the Wyvernand thrust its right arm at the Gladiator.The Clan 'Mech began a slow turn toward the new arrivals. In a burst of argent energy, the Highlander'sunderslung Gauss rifle sent a silver ball sizzling out.