Malvina did not care for the hows and whys. “Send them to me. It looks like we are facing– stravag!”

The Clan curse was all the warning Noritomo received. Malvina cut out in a burst of static, and he was still trying to patch back through to her when the Stormhammers struck from a nearby wood.

Four… five lances. More, possibly. Threat icons littered his HUD in a tangle of red identification tags. Light tanks and personnel carriers hammered into his front, slicing across to separate his battle Cluster from the besieged Steel Wolves and Tharkan stragglers. Heavy armor and a few limping ’Mechs followed.

A Catapult. An Ocelot.

A converted ForestryMech.

A pair of Fox armored cars skated up on their drive fans, slamming in on either side of a wounded Kinnol and pinning it in place. Their light weapons could only pick at its armor. An SM1 Destroyer powered up after, slid around behind, and gutted the Kinnol with two savage blasts of autocannon fire.

Another team tried that with him, spreading a line of Infiltrator battlesuits around him, jamming two Demons in against his legs. The Ocelot raced forward with a JES tactical carrier in support. Noritomo kicked out violently, caving in one Demon’s cockpit with a well-placed foot. His weapons spat long streams of death at the Ocelot, pairing up autocannon and lasers. It staggered the thirty-five-ton machine, but did not drop it.

Then, hearing the metal strikes of armored claws grabbing into his armor, Noritomo lit off jump jets and rocketed up and out of the potential trap.

He carried a pair of swarming Infiltrators with him, the infantrymen clinging desperately to his ’Mech’s legs. One fell off just short of the ground, and was buried beneath the Gyrfalcon’s left foot as it landed. The other was peeled away by a pair of nearby Skandas, using their lasers like surgical scalpels. Noritomo held a small island of sanity in the growing chaos. A few tanks and a Shadow Hawk IIC rallied to him as his reserve Trinary slammed into the fight behind him. He pulled in a Condor as well, and some Elementals.

He could hold. He felt that in his bones. He’d prepared for this. But the Jade Falcon spearhead looked as if it had been blunted as well. Comm traffic among senior warriors was frantic. On his tactical map, he saw identification tags for Malvina’s command roll backward, several of their icons fading as battle damage took its toll.

Her Shrike held up, it seemed, but no telling for how long.

If Malvina Hazen fell, the Jade Falcon desant fell with her.

Lasers and particle cannon flared around him, spearing into and out of his small formation. A JES strategic carrier rolled up, added its four-pack of LRMs into the mix, spreading overlapping waves of fire and destruction over a Stormhammer Hasek MCV. Return fire was just as savage all along his battle line, but discipline held. These were his people, his warriors whom he’d readied for battle and promised honor as well as glory.

And now Noritomo Helmer had to abandon them.

“Bogart, rally and hold. Lysle”—he spotted her bright tag circling in on his left on his heads-up display—“gather two points of Elementals and load them on the fastest APCs you can find.”

He read off a list of warriors, gathering in the Shadow Hawk, the Condor—not the JES carrier—and some Skandas. Also a pair of nearby hoverbikes he could use as pathfinders. He sent the hoverbikes, moving fast and furious, out in front and then led the column charge himself as he broke from the battle and pushed northeast.

Only to find a Ryoken II and a Catapult blocking his way, holding the entrance to a shallow river valley.

The Ryoken was familiar enough, even through his streaked ferroglass shield. Anastasia Kerensky. The Catapult bore markings from the Stormhammers’ Tharkan Strikers. So did the small handful of tanks that gathered around the feet of the avatars.

Before weapons had a chance to fly, Kerensky’s voice tripped over the open frequencies. “What forces challenge for this valley?” she asked in mocking tones.

Stravag woman. She was toying with him, obviously enjoying herself as she sought to batchall in the middle of a firefight. She could certainly hold him up. And would have, except for Beckett Malthus.

“Galaxy Commander Beckett Malthus issues challenge,” the Falcon leader said calmly, his command crawler edging up behind Noritomo’s massed troops. He brought a Warhammer IIC and a trio of assault tanks with him. Their very presence seemed to enforce an eye of calm in the battle’s maelstrom. The main firefight pushed slightly to the southwest as the assault Star formed up. “Face me, Anastasia Kerensky, or not. But Star Colonel Helmer is passing through.”

“Bargained well and done!” The Ryoken II wasted no more time in formalities. It leaped forward on jets of plasma, particle cannon streaming out, attacking the largest threat, which was the Warhammer IIC.

“Ignore them!” Noritomo ordered, watching as the Ryoken arced overhead, leaving him an easy run for the valley. The Catapult might slow him, but it could not stop him. “To the Khan!”

It was the first time he had used Malvina Hazen’s adopted title. It brought with it a shiver, and the desired effect. With the defenders’ attention divided between his force and Malthus’ assault Star, there really was no chance of stopping him. His small force slammed through the Stormhammers like a sledgehammer through brittle wood. Hardly a fair fight—with little honor to be gained for sure—but against the danger to Clan Jade Falcon as a whole, he could let that go.

It cost him one Skanda. And it left an open path to Malvina Hazen.

Noritomo Helmer had unfinished business with the Stormhammers’ leader, it seemed.

Tara Campbell’s Atlas staggered to one side, crippled by a Gauss slug that hammered in over its left knee, crushing the joint and the lower-leg actuator.

Bending her wounded knee down against the ground, she saved herself from a nasty fall. Pulling her crosshairs from the fallen Shrike, she grabbed the Kelswa assault tank and fed it back a Gauss slug of her own and followed up with paired lasers as well as a six-pack of short-ranged missiles.

The desperate salvo ripped armor from the length and breadth of the ninety-ton assault vehicle. Then a squad of Lyran Rangers bulked forward, spreading a line of Infiltrators around the wounded tank while two Rangers escorted an engineering unit. The struggle was short and fierce, and left the Stormhammers in control of the wounded Kelswa. The Infiltrators escorted it back while the Rangers took one pass each at the rising Shrike.

Then they got the hell out of the way of the assault ’Mechs.

“Tara, fall back. Rally to Miliano!”

Jasek had all but thrust her small command lance aside as his Stormhammers took over the central line. He was insistent. He was also beginning to annoy her.

“Not …finished. Yet.” Her breath came in ravaged gasps as her fusion reactor spiked yet again and drove the cockpit temperatures up another few degrees. Sweat poured from her face and ran in heavy beads down her bare arms and legs. Only the cooling vest kept her going, lowering her body’s core temperature.

Jasek’s Templar struggled forward against a blistering Jade Falcon defensive line. Mostly medium lasers and light autocannon, but when rallied against a single target, it could do a great deal of damage. A pair of Manticore II tanks and a Hasek mechanized combat vehicle chased after him, prodding at the hole he opened up in the Clan lines.

“You’re not going to do anyone any good by running that Atlas into the grave. Tamara, take care of this!”