Lieutenant Sinclair. We intercepted a private channel between Star Colonel Ratache Osis and his aide. Stand by for playback:

…smashed, Drey. The entire facility. Without those greenhouses, we will be hard pressed to feed the incoming forces.

You warned him, placing the decoy site so near our agricultural project.

Aff. I did. But will Brendon Corbett take the blame for this?

Neg, Star Colonel. With Lincoln Osis’ death on Strana Mechty, the Galaxy Commander will be our next Khan. He can do no wrong.

Exactly. I will make these surrats pay. This I promise...

You catch that, Lieutenant? Lincoln Osis, ilKhan of the Clans, died on Strana Mechty. The Star League must be victorious. Now what do you think the chances are that we can expect relief in time to do us any good?

* * *

One hand shoving forward the throttle of his Dire Wolf, the other easy on the main stick, Galaxy Commander Brendon Corbett burst through the thin stand of pine and topped the small rise. The enemy column of freebirth Inner Sphere trash had spread itself along the wide valley, right along the path where he had predicted they would come. He had them by the flank. Tightening up on his triggers, the Galaxy Commander lanced out with his set of four large, extended-range lasers. The sapphire bolts slammed into the side of an Executioner OmniMech leading the line, splattering molten armor to the ground as Brendon Corbett drew first blood in this latest harassing maneuver.

Corbett had hoped to put it down on one salvo, denying the stravag warriors use of such exceptional technology. A few of the enemy MechWarriors^® piloted captured Clan OmniMech designs such as the Executioner. They may have dubbed it a Gladiator -- just as they referred to his assault ‘Mech as a Daishi -- lacking knowledge of the proper names, but it was still Clan technology and far above their deserving. Stolen from the Smoke Jaguar homeworld of Huntress without doubt. He clenched his jaw in a mixture of anger and no small amount of shame as the Executioner managed to keep to its feet and return fire with its gauss rifle and paired lasers. Shame, not for the Omni’s strong armor, but that it was in the possession of the Inner Sphere at all. The damage caused when the large nickel-ferrous gauss slug punched into the right leg of his Dire Wolf was nothing compared to the knowledge that the Inner Sphere now controlled the Jaguar homeworld.

Yet he had known it would happen. Forced from the Inner Sphere, chased from the Inner Sphere, the galaxy commander had arrived back in Clan Space to find out that another task force had already landed on Huntress. Right then he saw the death of his Clan, unless someone worked to preserve it. Unless he fought to ensure the Jaguar lived onward. That Huntress fell validated his choice to regroup on Tranquil, to resurrect the Clan even as it entered its death throes.

It did not make the situation any more palatable.

The rest of his star stepped up to flank Corbett: a pair of Timber Wolves, a Cauldron-Born and a Warhawk. Though faster than the Dire Wolf, none of his starmates would ever think of usurping his position in the lead. Behind them an auxiliary star hung back, waiting for their turn should the Smoke Jaguar’s command star fail. Hardly thinkable, except that no Clan warrior had ever thought to be driven from the Inner Sphere Occupation Zone either.