The discipline of his comrades amazed Shin. No one moved or broke formation. It was maddening for Shin to watch them from afar as they stood there, taking barrage after barrage, but it had to be a thousand times worse for those in the BattleMechs. Even though the attacks mainly peeled off armor, Shin knew he would have been hard pressed to remain in his place. Even so, rigid adherence to Theodore's plan was the key to victory, and that knowledge would have kept him doing his utmost to hold and wait.

Ashai joined Shin atop the hill. "Look, Sho-sa,the Otomo are hurt."

A quick glance confirmed Ashai's observation. The long-range attacks had devastated the Otomo ranks. A dozen 'Mechs were down and many others looked fit for nothing but salvage. Even before the battle had been fully joined, the Combine's northern flank had started to crumble.

Shin noted that he and Ashai were not alone in observing the collapse of the Otomo. Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs surged forward. The Otomo stood furthest away from Imperial City, and the charge redirected the attack off its original line. The Smoke Jaguars broke into a gallop, increasing their speed as the Otomo's return fire came spottily and poorly aimed.

Ashai couldn't keep the fear from his voice. 'They shoot like old women! It is a wonder they don't run!"

Shin smiled. "Watch, Chu-i.Watch and learn."

The swiftest of the Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs punched through the Otomo line. Their lead element had made it to the third and final rank of Otomo 'Mechs when the first Clanner hit a vibrabomb. In a flash of fire and steel that blew away the lower half of his right leg, it stumbled and went down, bowling over an Archer.

The Archerexploded. Shrapnel sprayed down in a forward arc that lifted the downed Clan 'Mech off its chest and blasted away its left arm. Like a string of firecrackers, the other Otomo 'Mechs started to explode as well. From back to front, each of the blue war machines detonated. The thin armor over the chests of the 'Mechs burst outward, showering the enemy with a hail of death.

At the first explosion, Shin hit the ground and pulled Ashai down with him. "Theodore refitted industrial 'Mechs with armor to make them look like BattleMechs, then loaded them with explosives. A new variation on the old Trojan horse strategy. Instead of letting them take the horse into their castle, we had to lure them to our herd, but it worked nonetheless."

Into the chaos marking where the false Otomo regiment had stood, the real Otomo Mech Warriors and the Second Legion of Vega charged. Their sudden appearance from the hills beyond the Kurita line clearly shocked the Smoke Jaguars. Their whole line had to stop to regain its drive toward the Kurita center. As they sought to regroup to do this, the Combine's line let loose with all the long-range weaponry it had.

What the attacks lacked in organization, they made up for in intensity. Individual Clan 'Mechs fell here and there, but the damage was far more widespread than that. Scant few of the mottled gray paint jobs escaped without revision. On the northern flank, where the Legion and Otomo blasted into the Jaguar's wing, the sheer force of their assault routed the Clansmen. As they began to push the Jaguar formation back in on itself, Shin could imagine the Genyosha doing the same on the other flank.

The thunderous flutter of a helicopter's rotor alerted Shin and made him roll over onto his back. A Combine copter touched down roughly a hundred meters back behind the line of hills, and he and the scout team ran gleefully to the streamlined craft. Once they had boarded it and were strapped in, the pilot got the chopper airborne again.

He kept the craft low, but when they bounced up over hills, Shin got another look at the battlefield. The Jaguar formation had been compressed into a wedge shape. The point of the wedge had engaged the First Sword, and the flanks were being hard-pressed by the other Combine units. Still, despite having given ground early and having suffered losses to the Otomo trap, the Clans had consolidated their position.

Just then, Shin thought he saw something in the smoke behind the Clan lines, but a hill cut off his view. It took him a precious ten seconds to convince the pilot to pull up his craft, and then the man did so only reluctantly. As the copter came up, the battlefield again came into view, but it no longer looked as it had only seconds before.

The movement Shin had caught in the smoke had been the charge of the Nova Cats. Their 'Mechs were black as death except for the brilliant blue star pattern in their center chests. Funnelling through the middle of the Jaguar wedge, their troops had sliced straight through the point of the wedge. Their charge carried them through the First Sword's line almost as though it were not there. The Jaguars split their wedge in half, forming up in parallel lines, then began to drive the Combine troops toward the east. At the same time, Clan aerospace fighters swooped in low to strafe observation posts.

Shin pulled the headset and mike away from the co-pilot and put it on. The screeching static of jammed radio frequencies drilled into his head. "Hanson," he said, noticing the pilot's name on his jumpsuit, "take this chopper directly to headquarters in Imperial City, now!"

"I have orders."

"To hell with your orders. The Clans are breaking through. If we don't let the Kanrei know what's going on,

Imperial City is lost. And the whole of Luthien with it."

41

Consulate of the St. Ives Compact, New Avalon

Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth

5 January 3052

"No, Candace, I don't think you're silly to be worried about Kai." Coming up behind her, he rested his hand on her right shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "After all, he is a warrior stationed in a war zone."

Candace glanced up at Justin's reflection in the mirror of her vanity table. "We have been together too long, my dear, for me to not hear the hesitation in your voice."

Justin smiled and bowed his head. "You know, had you not been inclined to seek a diplomatic solution to the differences between the Capellan Confederation and the Federated Suns so long ago, I do believe you could have turned me against Hanse Davion."

Candace reached up and pulled his hand into her own. "Are you not worried for our son?"

"Of course I am."

"See."

"But he's with the best forces we have. He's in a 'Mech equipped with the latest technology. And he's probably the finest Mech Warrior who ever strapped himself into a cockpit." Justin disengaged his hand from hers and walked across the suite to his dresser. "To be quite frank," he went on, "I worry more about Victor Davion and his apparent disregard for his own safety. Yes, we all cheered the 'Fighting Prince' during the battle for Twycross, but poor Hanse's heart was in his throat the whole time. I'm certain Hanse watches Victor go into battle and remembers his brother Ian's death."

Candace turned in her chair and pointed at him with a black eyeliner pencil. "You are correct that Victor is impulsive, but Galen Cox and Kai are there to calm him down. And to protect him, too. But who protects those who guard the Prince?"

Justin scooped up two cufflinks from the top of the dresser and returned to her side. Holding them out, he smiled sheepishly. "Could you?"

"Getting old, my love, or does your arm need new batteries?"

The diabolical glint in her eyes sparked a laugh from him. "Neither old nor in need of new batteries am I, Duchess. Cufflinks never were easy for me, even when both my hands matched." Justin stood rigid as she dutifully fastened the cufflinks. "And if my lady requires a show of my youthful vigor, might I boldly suggest she invent a way for us to leave this reception as early as possible."