Antioch shrugged, offering the ghost of a smile. "I'm still alive." He paused and Rose nodded. "I think my left thumb is broken, though."
Rose tried to examine the digit in the passing street lights, but he couldn't see well enough to tell if it was broken or dislocated. He looked back at Bell, who only shrugged.
"Captain, Ajax reports increased activity at the compound. Still no sign of the Elementals or the additional 'Mechs."
"Hawg, get us into the compound. Tell Rianna to follow. Esmeralda should guard the approaching streets until we've got the compound secure. Tell Ajax to remain in position."
As Rose watched, Esmeralda kicked in the main gate to the compound and stepped back. Two short-range missiles flew out of the compound, but both warheads hit a factory on the next block. The Phoenix Hawkstepped into the gap with its left arm extended, firing a long burst of machine-gun fire, punctuated by a single shot from the medium pulse laser. The missile fire stopped and Rianna disappeared into the compound, followed closely by Hawg with his human cargo.
The two 'Mechs moved past the two small outbuildings and toward the main building at the far end of the courtyard. Rose kept his eyes on the outbuildings, but when the doors remained closed, he turned his attention back to Rianna.
"This is Rianna Rose, executive officer for the Black Thorns. The rebels occupying this compound are ordered to lay down their arms and surrender. You have thirty seconds."
"Hawg." Rose pointed to the main building. "Set us down. Bell and I will enter the station." Hawg set the two men down and returned to a standing position as Rose and Bell drew their pistols and sprinted for the cover of the near wall.
As Rose watched, a single man charged out a side door and muscled a missile launcher to his shoulder.
"Follow me, free men. We will return to the glory of the Star League." Both missiles flew up toward the Phoenix Hawk.Rose could hear the high-pitched whir of the anti-missile system, but the system was empty. One arced over the Phoenix Hawk'sshoulder, but the other glanced off the 'Mech's head. Both of the side-mounted antenna were blasted away as the warhead punched through the thick armor.
Rianna's response was immediate. She triggered the machine gun and swung her 'Mech's left arm in a long arc. The huge bullets tore through the wall of the ComStar facility and kicked up spikes of dirt as the slugs raced toward the missile-carrying man. The infantryman threw down the launcher and turned toward the door, but the machine gun caught him before he took another step. His body spasmed uncontrollably as the bullets punched through him. Rianna released the trigger of the machine gun, and the man fell into a boneless heap. Shifting targets, she fired a single burst from the pulse laser through the open door. Rose heard screams from inside. "You have fifteen seconds."
The main doors opened and two missile launchers dropped into the courtyard. Men and women emerged from the two doors with their hands held high. More Preservationists stepped through the smoldering frame of the side door.
Rose rushed past the two groups and the motionless body. In the poor light he could barely make out the features of Hoffbrowse, contorted in pain and fear. Without a second thought, Rose continued toward the main doors. As expected, the Demi-Precentor in charge was at his desk, seemingly oblivious to the deaths around him.
"I wish to send an emergency message to Hauptmann General Stella Dmowski of the Kelenfold Command. I request the message be sent right now."
The seemingly unflappable Demi-Precentor looked at the two hard men before him and then at their sidearms. He wordlessly stood up and ushered them into the sending room. Five minutes later the message was on its way.
"Now what?" asked Bell.
"Now we wait for a reply." Rose looked toward the silent Demi-Precentor, who nodded. Evidently he was not a Preservationist.
It took more than six hours to receive a reply, time which the Black Thorns passed looking over their gun sights and preparing a defense against any counterattack by the Clans. Esmeralda moved inside the compound, but Ajax continued to prowl the streets searching for signs of the Jade Falcons. Dawn was just breaking when the Demi-Precentor handed Rose a message. He read it once, then sprinted into the courtyard.
"The cavalry is on the way," he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Bell looked at him as if annoyed. "Who needs them?"
"We do, unless you want another night like the last one. A regiment's on the way."
"I'm not sure that will be necessary," Antioch said. "The spaceport reports that the Clan DropShip blasted into orbit ten minutes ago. They seem to be heading back to their JumpShip." Antioch let Rose stand there for a few seconds with his mouth open before continuing.
"It's over. We won," Bell said, and relief washed over Rose like a warm wave. A grin spread over his face, which Bell returned in kind.
"Councilwoman de Vilbis is calling the Clan arrival an invasion and the Preservationists a terrorist organization. Rianna called for the police to pick up the prisoners.
"We did it, Jeremiah. We beat the Clans."
Then Rose's smile began to drain away as though someone had pulled the plug. "You're right, Antioch. We beat them, but at what cost? The price for this planet was just too high."
"Captain, this is Command Two. I have an emergency call from the Mother of Mercy hospital. Captain McCloud requests your immediate presence."
Rose felt his eyes fill with tears as he listened to Rianna over the Phoenix Hawk'sexternal speakers. Bell's smile was back in full force and Rose couldn't help but mirror it.
Perhaps, he thought, the price hadn't been so high after all.
Glossary
POLITICAL TERMS
After the fall of the Star League General Aleksandr Kerensky, commander of the Regular Star League army, led his forces out of the Inner Sphere in what is known as the first Exodus. After making their way beyond the Periphery, more than 1,300 light years away from Terra, Kerensky and his followers settled in a group of marginally habitable star systems near a large globular cluster that hid them from the Inner Sphere. Within fifteen years, Civil War erupted among these exiles, threatening to destroy everything they had worked so hard to build. In a second Exodus, Nicholas Kerensky, son of Aleksandr, led his followers Jo one of the worlds of the globular cluster to escape the new war. It was there on Strana Mechty that Kerensky first conceived and organized the system that would one day become known as the Clans.
Though Wolfs Dragoons originated among the Clans, they have repudiated their allegiance to the Wolf Clan. Nevertheless many Clan traditions, concepts, and customs still prevail among the Dragoons.
CLANS
Out of the ashes of the civilization that Kerensky's forces tried to create rose the Clans. The Clans are a warrior society that is rigidly divided into castes, with the warriors as the elite. To create this warrior caste the Clans use genetic engineering, using the genes of prestigious living and dead warriors to produce potential new ones.
COMSTAR
ComStar, the interstellar communications network, was the brainchild of Jerome Blake, Minister of Communications during the latter years of the Star League. After the League's fall, Blake seized Terra and reorganized what was left of the League's communications network into a private organization that sold its services to the five Successor Houses for a profit. Since that time, ComStar has also developed into a powerful secret society steeped in mysticism and ritual. Initiates to the quasi-religious ComStar Order commit themselves to lifelong service. After the climactic battle between ComStar and the Clans on Tukayyid, ComStar splintered into two factions: the reformed ComStar and the arch-conservative Word of Blake.