"Aff. Though eleven 'Mechs are no small loss."

Down below, the three pilots had been brought to shore. Still on the BattleMech breakwater was Point Commander Danton, who, with two other Elementals, had cast the line to the ComStar side of the river, where it had been secured. At a signal from Danton, who had released the pitons on the breakwater 'Mechs, the line, with Danton and the other two Elementals clutching it with short attached ropes, was raised and made relatively taut. Now it stretched from shore to shore. Elementals immediately clamped their short ropes onto the line and began to slide across the chasm. When Danton stepped off onto the other side of the river, the line was filled with crossing Elementals, spaced at precise distances from one another.

Aidan did not have time to watch the entire Elemental crossing. "Jade Falcons, proceed to Robyn's Crossing," he said into his headset mike.

He led the march, with Joanna's 'Mech on one side of him, Marthe's on the other.

"I had a strange thought," Marthe said suddenly over their private channel. "A very strange thought."

"What?"

"It is as if the three of us, you, Joanna, and me, were back on Ironhold—cadets and training officer proceeding down a Crash Camp road."

"A very strange thought, Marthe. Best to forget it."

"I agree."

Now that Marthe had planted the seed, it was Aidan who could not shake the image from his mind. Fortunately, Robyn's Crossing was not far away.

31

As Aidan had suggested to the Falcon Command Group, aerofighters were now strafing the positions still held by ComStar units at the wrecked bridges. From what Aidan's sensors could tell him, they were doing considerable damage. That was good. With that support Aidan was confident enough to detach the 'Mechs of the Second Falcon Cluster to Plough Bridge to assist the Jade Falcon assault there. Marthe led her troops off toward their objective at a dust-churning run.

But the Falcon Guards were still several kilometers from Robyn's Crossing. Overhead, a Star of aerofighters had joined them, providing some cover against ambush on the way to the bridge. Aidan thought he and his men must be an impressive sight, more than a Cluster of BattleMechs and Elementals charging along the riverside, battle-ready and formidable.

* * *

To Diana, in the midst of the 'Mech throng, the Falcon Guards looked like chaos on legs. It was all she could do to keep her Hellbringerfrom bumping into other 'Mechs or avoid stepping on the swift-running Elementals. And it was all she could do to keep from being nudged toward the fearful Prezno River. This was not being a warrior, she thought, but more like being a techno-athlete. It took skill, yes, but it was manipulation not battle. And it was for battle that she longed. Except for the skirmish on Prezno Plain and some combat during the retreat, this campaign had not yet really given her a taste of what it was to be a warrior.

Tukayyid was her first real war, and she thought it should be the kind of thrill she had imagined so often since the days when the other village youngsters had laughed and teased her for saying she would be a warrior when she grew up. So far her military career had consisted of minor skirmishes on backwater planets, mop-up operations, and the little war experience she had received as a Falcon Guard. She was eager to get to Robyn's crossing and some close combat.

Perhaps it was these thoughts distracting her that made Diana's 'Mech nearly stumble. Though she quickly recovered her balance, she saw in her peripheral vision a particularly violent stretch of Prezno River that might have been her watery grave. No, she told herself firmly. It would not happen that way. She had already survived one near-plunge into the river. If she was going to die in this battle, it would not be by drowning, but among the flames and explosions of the field, a Clan warrior fighting alongside others of her kind.

* * *

To Marthe, the expedition along the riverside had a kind of military beauty to it, something equivalent to the pleasure a warrior might take in the study of a good war map or a passage from The Remembrance.There was an aesthetic to a legion of Clan warriors going forward toward their destiny. Here were OmniMechs, the most fearsome BattleMechs ever created, piloted by genetically engineered warriors whose whole lives were devoted to the way of war. Running speedily and gracefully alongside them were the two-and-a-half-meter-tall Elementals, also the products of genetic engineering, their bodies in armored suits that made them awesome compared to footsoldiers anywhere else in the known universe. Overhead were magnificent aerofighters, also manned by pilots who had been genetically bred for such tasks. The image, as she imagined it would appear to enemy warriors who must counter the Clan attack, was pleasing, artistic.

Keeping her BattleMech abreast of Aidan's and Joanna's, Marthe thought the three of them made a fine vanguard against their ComStar foes.

* * *

To Joanna, the advance had neither strategic, aesthetic, nor emotional significance. Like an old-time foot-soldier, she was most concerned with the performance of duty. Were all the units in their proper places? Had the techs loaded all the ammo before leaving the camp on Prezno Plain? Had she forgotten something vital in the short training time she'd had to whip this misbegotten crew into shape?

She wondered why she could never lose this habit of thinking like a training officer. There were times when she felt that training was, finally, her specialty. The Bloodname she had never won, the minor battles she had fought, the hatred inspired in her by almost all other humans—none of it mattered when she was satisfied with her performance of duty.

Star Captain Joanna, who had never won her Bloodname, who now was among the aging warriors, could not know that among so many soldiers, she was the ideal Clan warrior. Clan military theorists as far back as Nicholas Kerensky himself would have admired her total dedication. On a battlefield she carried in no weight that could not in some way be used in the combat. Even her hatred, deep as it ran, was useful to the objectives of warfare. And in the entire Jade Falcon Clan few warriors could build up a killing growl like Joanna.

* * *

Riding along on the side of a Gargoyle,just behind the vanguard BattleMechs, Star Commander Selima saw the upcoming battle from an Elemental's point of view. Elemental training emphasized the transitoriness of life. No Elemental truly feared death because he or she knew that death was an honorable fate for a warrior. Not that an Elemental would seek a suicidal end in combat. No, an Elemental fought to the last moment, never letting up, never letting a fatal wound stop him from firing one more time or making one more thrust. If they embraced death, it was only because Elementals knew that, whether it came abruptly or slowly, sooner or later, it was onlydeath. Even Clan MechWarriors did not quite understand the Elementals' ways. Needing to survive to fight again another day, a Clan warrior did not quite share the same easy acceptance of death.

Selima, a man more serene than most Elementals, had become an officer because he inspired loyalty, even among the crude and quarrelsome Elementals. Looking about him now, at the towering 'Mechs, at the other Elementals clinging to their own BattleMech rides, he saw the upcoming battle as merely another moment in his life. Like all Clanspeople, Elementals were taught that it was the great mission of the Clans to return to the Inner Sphere, where they would conquer its worlds, and restore the glory of the Star League. Yet the idea of the Star League, with its history and significance, had little meaning to an Elemental. As Clan infantrymen, Elementals simply did as they were told. They had been bred that way.