Epilogue

The room was fuzzy at first, making it painful to try and discern all the shapes around him as rays of light penetrated deep into his eyes. Julian Buhallin awoke in a hospital bed hooked up to a single IV feed to find Thao Prentice standing beside him.

"He is up," Thao projected into the hallway by turning his head. "Julian, how do you feel?"

"Hmm… I feel -cough- like a dropship landing pad. What happened?"

Gretchen Talasko entered the room with Kael Pershaw behind her. His movements were somewhat mechanical and slow due to the amount of prosthetics implanted into him. "You survived your fall with that Lyran mechwarrior, that is what happened. We cut you out of your cockpit to find you smashed up in your command couch, barely breathing. You probably should not have survived, but here you are," Gretchen replied, including herself in the conversation. She was in her dress uniform right now, looking sharp as ever.

"You had a few ribs replaced and your diaphragm and a kidney reconstructed. They fixed you up pretty well. It has been two weeks," Thao continued, answering his question in detail.

"What… what happened to Michael? What about LOKI?"

Kael Pershaw spoke up, "Michael was found impaled on some wreckage near a fallen 'mech. He overpowered his guard and killed himself to prevent us from capturing him. The LOKI unit is destroyed. Your stalling efforts paid off, and we have just finished patching things up with Clan Star Adder."

"Yes. Khan Marthe Pryde herself along with the rest of us went straight to Khan Cassius N'Buta and sorted things out. We do not know yet how Katrina Steiner will react to everything, but our two clans have an understanding now."

Julian sighed some relief. "It is almost too good to be true. How could we have pulled something like that off? What about the nuke? What about…"

"We lost a lot of people out there, be sure about that. But you need some rest now. I will properly debrief you when you are released." Kael Pershaw, not known for any kind of compassion or human emotion placed a hand on Julian's shoulder. "You did a great thing for your clan. Now rest up, I need you healthy so you can continue your reign." A small smirk crept across the exposed part of his face as he finished that last remark. That kind of thing coming from Kael Pershaw always creeped Julian out, like he had some kind of plan for him. He had to consciously shake the thought from his head.

Thao Prentice and Kael Pershaw left the room, leaving Julian and Gretchen there alone.

"I guess there are things I will never know, huh? Like how you made it into my unit, how you piloted that 'mech without being tuned to the neurohelmet, how you managed to position yourself in the exact position needed to survive that fall… but I do know that you nearly died protecting us. I only hope I can return the favor later on some time."

"I'm looking forward to it," he replied with a weak smirk on his face. The contraction for some reason seemed amusing to Gretchen as well.

As she left the room she turned to say one more thing. "You know they have a passage in the remembrance for you now. Those are some big shoes to fill. Just give me a ring if you ever get stuck in a Star Adder unit again," she finished with a smile and left him alone.

Gretchen entered the hallway to find Miles Van Houten waiting for her against the wall. When he came to after the battle he searched through the ruins looking for Mechwarrior Brenton, his longtime comrade. Clan warriors rarely form any kind of bond or even extended loyalty between each other, but Gretchen figured that if you were to assimilate into an entirely different clan then you would want something to hold on to for the time being, something that resembled familiarity. Brenton was that familiarity to Miles, and his death was the death of his transition. When he heard that Gretchen was on the roof with Brenton the whole time under fire he realized he was wrong and that he wasn't angry with Gretchen in particular, but bitter about his confused identity with his previous clan. A newfound respect was formed, and for the better.

Since he has become her most trusted officer and is currently overseeing the assimilation of replacement troops into her cluster. With a greeting and a salute, they were off to grab some lunch and return to the training facility together as commanders, and brothers in arms.


"As smooth as the Night Hawk swoops,

Scooping its pray from the killing fields,

With the reflexes of the warrior Prentice

And the steadfast resolve that Julian wields

Strike fast, strike low,

So the enemy loses sight,

Of the victory that the Falcon steals

From certain defeat when it takes flight"

The Remembrance (Clan Jade Falcon), Passage 162, Verse 4, lines 5-12