‘Hang on. Dolby!’ she called. ‘Hold them off for five minutes, and I'll have a hole for us to move through! Attention all Arrows! Arrow Two is in command! Hold tight and pour it on! I'm going to open a door for us off this ridge!’

She triggered her jump jets, keeping her 'Mech low to the ground in a series of bounding hops that carried her down the slope. Behind her, the ridgetop was blotted out by black smoke and a rain of dirt and sky-borne debris.

‘Arrow Two! This is Seven! I'm hit bad!’

‘Arrow Two! Arrow Four! The heavies are moving! We're taking fire from the east!’

‘Arrow Two! Respond, please!’

Tracy brought the Dutiful Daughterto a halt at the base of the ridge. She could hear the panic rising in the voices of the cadre apprentices. Ahead, she could see a pillar of smoke where one of the 'Mechs they'd engaged a moment ago was now burning.

And yet..

‘Arrow Two! Arrow Two! Come in. please!’ Thatvoice was touched by stark terror. Who was it... Lannetti?

‘Lannetti! This is Arrow Leader! What's the problem?’

‘Arrow Leader! Dolby's 'Mech is down! I think he's dead!’

Oh. damn...

And with that moment's anguish came a greater one. I've gone and done it again, wandering off on my own after half the Kurita assault force.

She spun the Dutiful Daughterat the base of the ridge and fired her jump jets. In a long, sailing bound, she skimmed to the crest of the ridge.

Smoke choked the sky. where missile trails snarled and tangled amid the pale flash of laser beams. She spotted Dolby's Stinger.collapsed against a boulder on the east slope. Close by, the other Stingerwas holding off a Pantherin an unequal duel that could not last more than a few seconds.

She jumped again, bringing her 'Mech in for an unsteady landing just up the hill from the Panther.Her large laser burned, sloughing half-molten chunks of armor from the Combine Mech's left pauldron and torso plating. The remaining Stingerchose that moment to charge, and Tracy saw the numbers that identified it as Lanneti's Mech. He caught the heavier Pantheras it turned to face its new attacker, colliding with it in a crash that sent the Pantherteetering backward, its feet clawing for a foothold in the loose gravel.

Tracy's second shot tore into wiring and internal structure exposed by the earlier shot. Flame belched, orange against oily black. The 'Mech's head flew apart and its pilot ejected, leaving dead metal burning on the ridge below him.

The heavies were at the base of the ridge to the east, already starting up. Shouting orders, Tracy urged the wavering line of trainee pilots around to face this new threat.

‘We've got to get out of here!’ she heard someone wail.

Tracy was about to respond, but Carolyn Lannetti's voice cut in before she could decide what to say. ‘Stow it and fight, Foster! We've got Tracy back with us and help's on the way! Isn't that right. Tracy?’

‘Right you are. Arrow Five! Move to your left...behind that big rock. Target the Orion!Carolyn...help me with the Dragonon the right...’

Again, white flame speared down the side of the ridge, catching the heavy Kurita Mechs as they began to lumber up the slope. The Dragonlost a right arm and the autocannon it mounted. The Orionwas limping, with black-molten damage showing at its right hip and knee. Unable to get a clear shot, they withdrew again toward the factory buildings across the plain.

Then the pair of Locustson the west gave warning of another charge.

The battle continued that way, with long minutes dragging into an eternity of an hour. The 20 minutes promised by Carlyle had long since gone by, as the Gray Death ran into a heavy concentration of Dieron Regular Mechs somewhere to the west How long it would take to break through this new barrier was anyone's guess, but the Arrows could not hold out much longer. All of the Mechs were redlining their temperature gauges, the heat overloads from continuous weapons fire threatening to shut them all down. The Waspshad long since run out of missile reloads, and enemy fire had smashed Greg Babbage's Locustinto uselessness. The apprentice had escaped from his Mech unharmed, and during a lull, he had managed to pull the bleeding and unconscious Vic Dolby from his crippled Stingerand to drag him to the shelter of an overhanging boulder. The five remaining Mechs flattened out in a close ring, belly-down on the ridgetop. and continued to fire at everything that moved below them.

Tracy snapped off a shot from her large laser at the damaged Hunchbacktoiling up the slope below her, saw sparks flashing from damaged circuitry exposed in the machine's torso. Heavy-caliber autocannon shells cracked into the boulders around her.

Briefly, she was aware of screaming coming over the tac com. When she shifted her Mech's position slightly, she caught sight of Foster's Wasp,ablaze like a gigantic torch for a horrid handful of seconds Then the Waspexploded in flaming, ragged chunks of metal.

Tracy tasted bitter defeat. She was gasping with the stifling heat that pervaded her cockpit, a heat that had long since overpowered her cooling unit and left her weak and dizzy. Heat cramps spasmed in her calf and stomach muscles. The Dutiful Daughterhad received massive damage, her jump jets ruined, her shoulders and upper torso shredded and torn by shell and beam. With Foster's death. Tracy's team was down to four Mechs. a Locust,a Stinger,a Wasp,and her own Phoenix Hawk.Not one of them had escaped heavy damage.

I should have kept going, once I was clear of the line,she thought I could have broken the Kurita line then. I lost the chance when I went back to be with them.

Had she not returned, though, how long would the MechWarrior apprentices have lasted, without her experience to steady them? There was no answer in might-have-beens, and it was too late lor the handful of them to attempt to break through the Kurita line now. A fresh salvo of missiles smashed among the rocks and she drew a bead on a Kurita Catapultin the valley to the west.

A Catapult!They've got reinforcements now! So long as Tracy and her men faced only a company, they'd had a chance. To attempt to lace down a 65-ton Catapultwas another story. She saw her laser bolt catch the ponderous Catapultin one leg. watched metal burning without slowing the machine's advance in the slightest.

A Trebuchetfollowed. Oh. God, no!

It looked like the Trebwas in trouble, however. Its left arm was missing, and black smoke spilled from its side. Tracy became aware of other Mechs, all marked by the starburst-on-sun of the Dieron Regulars, all damaged, all retreating.

Toward her!

‘Hey, Arrows!’ she snapped. ‘On your toes! Fresh meat!’

More and more Kurita 'Mechs appeared among the rocks along the slope below them. There were at least two companies there, most of the 'Mechs battle-damaged. At the moment, all were spilling in nearly uncontrollable contusion toward the east

And Arrow Detachment occupied the ridge squarely in their path.

‘Arrow Leader! Arrow Leader! This is Skull Leader!’ The familiar voice was much clearer now and very, very welcome.

‘Colonel! Where are you?’

‘Two klicks west of your position, and closing! We have you spotted on the ridge west of the factory. Sit tight and don't move! Just keep firing from your position!’

‘Acknowledged, Colonel. We're burning them down!’

On the face of it Arrow Detachment was in a terribly exposed position, smack in the path that the fleeing remnants of the Kurita battleforce were taking. They had been roughly handled in a series of lightning engagements among the mountains to the west, and by now, their pilots were probably thinking only of saving their 'Mechs...and themselves. When the 'Mechs in the lead of the Kurita column began to take fire from the crest of the ridge separating them from the Mifune factory complex, their last reserves of discipline vanished. At almost precisely the same time, four of Carlyle's 'Mechs came smashing up from the south, having looped around the fleeing Mechs' southern flank to strike them from the side. Taking fire from three directions, the Dieron Regulars' last shreds of control evaporated, and individual BattleMechs began to scramble for safety across the rocky ground along the ridge side to the north.