AUTHOR'S NOTES: A really long chapter this time. This one kind of got away from me-it was too short to split in half, and too long. Oh well, more to read!

This one also drops in around the tail end of Chapter 9 of Blood Legacy. Some of the dialogue is the same, but the conclusions are different-though it wouldn't be completely out of canon.

Finally, please leave a review or two if you like my writing. It's really a great way to help authors.

Wolf's Dragoons General Headquarters

Outreach, Sarna March, Federated Commonwealth

15 February 3051

"Oh my God." Marion Rhialla covered her eyes and slumped in her chair in front of the large monitor.

Sheila echoed her sentiment with a sigh. After two weeks of punishing physical training, the young royals—everyone started calling them that, even though Shin Yodama and Galen Cox were not remotely royal—had gone on to BattleMech training, but just in the simulators. If they hoped this would give them a break from the acid tongue of Marion Rhialla, they hoped in vain. She still kicked them out of bed every morning, marched them to the simulators—at the double-quick, if she felt the need, and she usually did. Once in their simulator pods, the trainees still had to endure her screaming into their helmet earphones if they did something wrong. There, at least, some of the royals got a break: all but Cassandra, Ragnar and Sun-Tzu were combat veterans. Marion also began addressing Galen and Shin by their ranks rather than the condescending Mister. Unfortunately for those who had never been in combat, that just meant that Marion's wrath fell on them more often, Sun-Tzu in particular. He had attempted to escape from her by confining his speech to Chinese, only to find out that Marion spoke it fluently.

Today, all involved had hoped their abuse would be in the past: it was the first day that the young royals would fight in teams. It was MacKenzie Wolf that made the selections, pitting Team Alpha—Victor, Hohiro, Galen, and Shin—against Team Bravo-Kai, Cassandra, Ragnar and Sun-Tzu. Sheila had thought this put a great deal of responsibility on Kai, giving him all the green warriors, but then Wolf had told Kai he could pick his own ground. The latter proved to more than even the odds: it was a series of twisting canyons deeper and narrower than the Great Gash on Twycross, where an ambush was virtually guaranteed. Team Bravo was given ten minutes to get into position, and then Team Alpha was ordered in after them, the simulation giving Team Alpha of securing the flank of the Dragoons.

Victor had wisely put his Victor in the lead, as his assault 'Mech was more heavily armored and jump-capable: if he tripped an ambush, he was likely to survive the first salvo and then could jump out of trouble. Backing up Victor was Hohiro's Grand Dragon, Galen's Crusader, and Shin's Phoenix Hawk. Watching from the control room, with a holotank and three large screens that gave an overview of the battlefield and each lance's perspective of it, Rhialla had at first nodded at Victor's positioning. Then he made a significant error: he marched his lance into the canyons single-file, rather than looking for alternative paths.

Now he was about to pay for it, which was why Marion was bemoaning the situation. As they watched, Kai's Centurion stepped from cover and sighted on the Victor. Victor did not try to dodge, more than willing to pit his 80-ton assault 'Mech against a 50-ton medium 'Mech. "You dumb shit," Marion growled, but Victor could not hear her: the referees were not allowed to interfere. Sure enough, the Centurion's salvo sent the Victor staggering backward and then falling to the ground.

"Oh shit," Max breathed. "Let me guess. Kai's got Yen-lo-Wang in this scenario."

"The MechWarriors were allowed to pick what variant of their personal 'Mech they wanted to use," MacKenzie explained.

"And Yen-lo-Wang carries an AC/20 instead of an AC/10," Sheila finished. Victor had managed to fend off Kai with a flurry of laser shots, and got back up with heavy damage. He fell back to rendezvous with the rest of his lance, but Kai didn't follow—he moved to another ambush location.

"Victor's a fucking idiot," Marion grumped. "Any time you go up against a Centurion, you have to assume it's not stock. That could just as easily have been a Steiner laser-farm variant, too."

Christian Kell touched his earphone. "You're going to love this, Marion—they're arguing again."

"Son of a bitch. Victor and Hohiro?"

"You guessed it. Galen's getting it sorted out."

"Leave it to the former enlisted man," Max observed.

"I should've fucking made him the damn lance commander—oh, for fuck's sake." Marion looked at the holotank. "Kai's setting them up for indirect fire, and the dumb bastards don't even realize it." They watched as the computer simulated a murderous fusillade of LRMs arcing over the canyon walls, fired from Ragnar's Catapult and Cassandra's Orion—almost a hundred missiles, launched in two waves at coordinates provided by Kai's observation. Cox took the worst of it, going down under the first wave and then destroyed by the second, as the missiles struck the Crusader's ammunition magazines: had it been a real battle, Galen Cox would likely be dead.

"Thank God I'm getting CASE on my Battlemaster," Max said. Sheila nodded: his 'Mech carried ammunition for its SRM-6, and the new CASE system would blow the explosion backward rather than let it loose through the 'Mech. It would still cripple the Battlemaster, but it wouldn't destroy it. Sheila was glad the Shruiken was armed solely with lasers: the one-shot SRM-2 was not likely to go off.

"There you go." Marion stood up to watch the holotank, as Victor led his remaining 'Mechs into a side canyon. "Now that's using your head, Mister Steiner-Davion. Get out from under the missiles, find the spotter, and kill—oh, what the fuck."

The side canyon bottomed out into a wide plain, which would give Victor and his lance a little more room to avoid the flights of LRMs and nowhere for Kai to hide. However, Kai had anticipated his friend would make that move: Sun-Tzu's Cataphract was already at the pass, with Kai's Centurion rapidly closing the distance to support him. Victor was about to get hit from both sides. Sun-Tzu, however, had blown the ambush, stepping his 'Mech out to fight before Kai was in position and giving up any hope of cover. Against just Victor, who had lost his 'Mech's own AC/20 in Kai's first volley, this would be risky; with the Grand Dragon and Phoenix Hawk fanning out behind the Victor, it was suicidal. "You stupid, stupid fucking bastard," Marion growled. "Good God from Buckhead, did Romano squeeze her thighs too tight when she was shoving him out and give him fucking brain damage?"

Sun-Tzu's shots did significant damage to the Victor, but the latter's return fire staggered the Cataphract. Victor then closed in to use the remains of the AC/20 to bludgeon Sun-Tzu to death. Kai arrived just in time to save his cousin from a grisly computer-simulated death, taking off one of the Victor's legs, then turned his attention to Shin's Phoenix Hawk, which took a volley of LRMs from Cassandra and Ragnar as well. A minute later, the battle was over: Victor's lance was practically destroyed, with the Victor and Grand Dragon on the ground and missing limbs, and the Crusader and Phoenix Hawk both destroyed. Only Sun-Tzu's Cataphract had taken any significant damage in Kai's lance.

Sheila was certain she could see steam rising from Marion's ears. The older woman threw down her headset, shoved her chair back so hard it fell over, and stomped out of the control room. Sheila raced to get ahead of her. "Marion, hold on—"

"Bullshit!" Marion roared. "Get out of the way, Sheila—I'm going to kick Victor's ass up between his fucking shoulders so hard he won't need a fucking JumpShip to get to New Avalon. Marching into a fucking ambush like that!"

"I agree, Marion, but—"

"But nothing! If that had been real, we'd have three MechWarriors going home in tiny boxes and a fucking open flank with the better part of a goddamned fire lance sitting on it!" She tried to push past Sheila.

"Marion!" Sheila snapped. Marion stopped. "I'm refereeing this operation. Not you, okay?"

Marion glared at her, then relaxed. "No…you're right, Sheila. Sorry." She sighed and then laughed. "Damn…I had a good cussing stored up, too."

"Well, you and Max back me up." She saw Max following the two women down the stairs to the lounge behind the simulator pod room. The voices drifted up the stairwell as the trainees left the pod room. Sheila recognized Galen's voice. "…your 'Mech, as well as the Catapult Ragnar piloted and Zandra's Orion, are well-suited to long-range combat, while Yen-lo-Wang is built for infighting."

"Kai ordered all of us to stay back to he could steal the glory of the kills himself." That was Sun-Tzu. Sheila was tempted to let Marion loose to obliterate the heir to the Liao throne; Kai was the last person in the Inner Sphere interested in glory.

"No, Sun-Tzu," Victor said as Sheila, Max and Marion entered the room. The trainees were all dressed as they would be if they were in their 'Mechs, in cooling vests and shorts, sweating from the heat pumped into the pods. "Kai placed himself in extreme jeopardy to act as bait for a very well-sprung trap. I should've known better than to lead my lance straight into it."

"You sure as hell should've," Sheila said, glad for the opening Victor had given her. "Victor, you helped plan Twycross. You used to smoke us all at the Nagelring during our sim battles. What happened out there?"

Victor shrugged sheepishly. "No excuses, Sheila. I screwed up."

"You 'screwed up'?" Marion shouted. "No, Mister Steiner-Davion, you royally fucked up! Now your lance is fucking dead!"

Victor nodded. "You're right, Lance Commander. I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't cut the fucking quillar!" Marion pantomined writing a letter. "'Dear Mama and Papa Cox. Your son is dead because Kommandant Steiner-Davion is a fucking idiot and walked into an ambush so fucking obvious a ten-year old would have seen it. Enclosed is your son's dick, because that's all we could find.'"

Victor looked at the floor, and Sheila remembered that Victor had indeed written letters, for every man and woman killed under his command at Trellwan. He had memorized their names. It didn't help that Galen Cox's parents had been killed in the War of 3039, either. "Marion, you made your point." Sheila put enough into her voice that Marion knew an order when she heard one. "That said, she's right, Victor. And you let your lance get strung out. Galen could back you up, but Hohiro and Shin were scrambling to catch up—and single-file in that canyon, they couldn't support you anyway." Victor gave her a nod. "And arguing in the middle of a fight so Kai could set up for indirect fire? That's a rookie mistake. Professor Peach would have our asses back at the Nagelring for that."

"You're right," Victor repeated.

"With respect, Sheila, I do not think that even if I had been closer it would have helped." Shin inclined his head respectfully to Kai. "He moves with Yen-lo-Wang as though the 'Mech were part of him. I knew from seeing the Victor tumble that the Centurion had to be lurking off to the right side of the canyon. Even knowing that, however, I could not follow his movement well enough with my weapons to be able to target him." Shin grinned at Kai. "I am very glad I only have to face you in simulator battles."

Kai actually blushed and looked down. "Thanks for the kind words, guys, but don't forget, this was a unit exercise. My lance beat you, not me. If Zandra, Ragnar, and Sun-Tzu hadn't softened you up—"

"Or put us down," Galen laughed.

"—I'd have been squashed by a bug." Kai faced them. "All of you are just good. It was just luck."

"Kai, stop it," Sheila said, suddenly annoyed by Kai's modesty. The man was good; why couldn't he acknowledge that? "You made your own luck. You set up a good ambush, then moved to a new position before Team Alpha could react. Then you called in indirect fire, which I know damn few MechWarriors will do unless ordered to." No one liked to get out in the open and spend time trying to coordinate missile or artillery strikes while the enemy tried to kill them, especially as few MechWarriors could read a map, talk on the radio, and shoot back all at once. "Finally, you had an even better ambush set in the side canyon. While you and Sun-Tzu hit Team Alpha from either side, Cassandra and Ragnar would've kept sending in missile flights. It would've looked like the Little Bighorn in there." A few of the trainees got the reference, but others looked a bit confused; Sheila reminded herself that not everyone was raised by a frustrated history professor like Calla Bighorn-Vlata.

"The only real part where things went wrong for Team Bravo was when Sun-Tzu broke cover," Max pointed out. "Sun-Tzu, what were you thinking?" Max kept his voice even: as MacKenzie had told Max and Sheila, the instructor had to keep from personalizing the situation, otherwise the MechWarrior being instructed would react emotionally rather than logically.

Sun-Tzu waved him off. "I do not need to explain my actions to you."

"Yeah, you actually do," Max replied. "You were in good cover and Kai wasn't in position yet. You jumped an assault 'Mech. Granted, Victor's AC/20 was out, but you didn't know that. That's a good way to get killed, Sun-Tzu."

Sun-Tzu seemed on the verge of seeing what Max was saying, but then just gave a snort of derision. "You are not in charge of this operation, Canis-Vlata. Quit trying to patronize me."

Marion opened her mouth, but it was Sheila who tore into Sun-Tzu, pushed beyond her limits. "What the fuck did you just say, you little goddamned bastard?" The venom in her voice took everyone by surprise. Sheila was known to have inherited her father's vulcanized tongue, but it was the first time she had ever turned it on a trainee. "Next time you talk like that to my husband, I'll tear your fucking head off!"

"Don't you threaten me!" Sun-Tzu shouted back, standing his ground. "What, he can't fight his own battles?"

"Oh, shut up," Sheila snarled. "You're the worst fucking MechWarrior in this unit, Sun-Tzu. You make mistakes most of us didn't make our first day at the academy, and then you try to weasel out of it! Or worse, you try to shove it on poor Kai! That garbage about him trying to steal glory? That's the dumbest shit I've ever heard!"

"Sheila, please," Kai said.

"No, I'm tired of this!" She stabbed a finger at Sun-Tzu. "All of us are tired of carrying your ass, Sun-Tzu. Either ruck the fuck up or go hide behind your mother's skirt."

Sun-Tzu stared daggers at her, then looked over her shoulder at Max. "Now it's clear who wears the pants in the Vlata family."

Marion lunged forward, but it was not to strike Sun-Tzu—it was to stop Sheila from grabbing him. Her lips were peeled back and her teeth were bared like a wild animal. Max stepped between them. "Sheila, enough," he said.

"No, it's not!" Sheila screamed. "Let go of me, Marion! I'll fucking kill-"

"Sheila!" Max grabbed both of her shoulders. "Go outside. Cool off. He's baiting you. And I can fight my own battles. I won't hide behind my wife."

"But…" Sheila took a deep breath. "Fine." She threw Sun-Tzu one last murderous glance. "This isn't over." She went out into the hallway, but didn't shut the door, trying to calm herself down.

Marion whirled on Sun-Tzu, who took a step back—he had figured out that Marion Rhialla might be the one person in the Inner Sphere that not only wasn't afraid of Romano Liao, but looked forward to fighting her. Max, however, was still between them. "Sun-Tzu. What were you thinking?" he repeated calmly. "I'll keep asking this question until I get a satisfactory answer."

Sun-Tzu seemed surprised that Max did not scream at him. Finally, he said, "I wanted to destroy the Victor while it was an easy kill."

"Didn't you notice the other two 'Mechs coming up behind Victor?" Max asked.

Sun-Tzu scowled, but he finally said, "No, I did not. I assumed Kai was coming up behind Victor's lance."

"Oh, for—you never fucking assume, Mister Liao!" Marion shrilled. "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me, and while I like a nice ass, not like that!" She put a finger against his forehead. "Use what's in here, dumbass. You could've done a quick radio call and find out where Kai was. Even if you didn't, you don't fucking leave cover!"

"I see what this is." Sun-Tzu looked at all of them in turn. "You're ganging up on me."

Max cut off Marion. "No, we're not. We're trying to keep you and us alive if you ever have to face the Clans."

"Very well, Major," Sun-Tzu shot back, "then pass on some of this valuable knowledge you supposedly have. You were brought here to Outreach because you and Arla-Vlata have all this experience, so why not show it?"

"Why don't you shut your fucking mouth and open your fucking ears?" Marion snapped. "That's what they've been trying to do!"

"You want me to pass on what I've learned? All right." Max walked over to the room's whiteboard and pulled out a marker. He sketched a hasty map on it, then used a blue marker to put in Team Bravo's positions, and a red one for Team Alpha. "I'll put myself in Victor's position. If I were him, I would've put Shin's Phoenix Hawk up on top of this canyon here—slightly ahead and to the right of Team Alpha."

"And expose him on a skyline and leave him without support when he spots the ambush!" Sun-Tzu argued.

"The skyline is an issue, yes, but he wouldn't be up there for long. All the same, good catch there, Sun-Tzu," Max said. Sun-Tzu looked surprised that anyone would compliment him. "However, Shin's got 180 meters of jumpjet range. If he runs into trouble, he can get out of there quickly—or Victor can jump up to support him. Shin would have detected the ambush. Even if he didn't, once Victor engaged Kai, Shin could jump in behind him. The Centurion doesn't have jumpjets. Kai has to run backwards and hope to work his way back to you, Sun-Tzu, while fighting his way through a Phoenix Hawk with a Victor behind him. He could call in LRM fire, but that would be nearly impossible because Kai would be too busy trying to fight his way out. He was also out of mutual support range from you, Sun-Tzu. It was a gutsy move on Kai's part—but also a dangerous one."

"That's a really good point, Max," Victor agreed. "Why didn't we think of that?" He chuckled ruefully. "Why didn't I think of that? I was in command."

"Then you wouldn't have gone there?" Sun-Tzu was seemed interested in spite of himself.

"I pilot a Battlemaster," Max informed them. "I have the same mobility as Kai's Centurion, but twice the armor and about the same firepower—a PPC and six medium lasers, plus the SRM-6."

"Switched out the rear lasers, huh?" Galen grinned. "Nice."

"Yeah. But on Blackjack, I saw assault 'Mechs get overrun by the Clans because they didn't have the mobility." Max paused. In the corner of one eye, in the reflection in the glass of the door, he saw Sheila. She had been listening to him. "I…I saw an Awesome go down and watched a MechWarrior die. The Clans are fast. And they don't miss very often. Kai could've gotten overrun just as easily there."

Sun-Tzu studied the map. "I see." He glanced back at his cousin. "I suppose Kai is really good at doing the last stand in the canyon bit."

Kai visibly crumpled at that. Marion took a step forward. "One more crack like that, fuckhead, and I'm going to see how far your ass can fucking bounce."

"I was merely pointing out that Mister Allard-Liao has a tendency towards getting himself trapped in canyons, and it's going to get him killed," Sun-Tzu said placidly. "And we wouldn't want that, would we?" He walked to the door to the restroom. "Excuse me."

"I'll give you something to piss about—"

"Marion, stop. Let him go. He's already contributed about as much as he can anyway," Max said. Sun-Tzu was obviously confused if Max had insulted him or not, and went into the bathroom. "I'm sorry, Kai. I honestly don't know why he's like that," Max told him.

"He's an asshole?" Cassandra offered.

"He's also right," Kai said. "It was dumb on my part. We were just really lucky."

Victor wasn't going to let Kai get himself down. "Give it up, Kai. It's not like that. Just admit you're damned good, will you?" He exchanged a look with Hohiro, who nodded slowly. "Yeah, maybe you made a mistake here, but you still smoked us. End of sentence."

Kai shook his head vehemently. "No, no…I'm not that good. I've never been that good. In sim battles at home on Kestrel or St. Ives, I regularly get my head handed to me."

Cassandra laughed. "At home, the only person he can beat is me, and he doesn't think that sufficient for bragging." She punched her brother lightly in the shoulder.

"That's not terribly surprising," Max said. "Unless Kuan Yin has some hidden MechWarrior talent, that means you've been going up against your mother and father—a former Martial Games champion of House Liao and combat veteran, and a former Grand Champion of Solaris. I don't think any of us would do well against them, not even an old head like Marion." To their surprise, Marion merely nodded in agreement.

Victor threw an arm around Kai. "If I may be so bold as to speak for the rest of the Inner Sphere, welcome to the world outside the Allard house league, Kai. We're sure glad to have you on our side."

"That's nice," Marion said, noticing Sun-Tzu coming out of the bathroom. He had heard what was said, and his face was red with anger. "'Welcome to the world outside the Allard house league,'" she said with mock sweetness. "Well, that's special and I'm glad we've all had some comradely bonding. But in this sim trainer…" Marion raised her voice. "This is my world, and I rule! And as Queen Shit of Turd Mountain, I order all of your asses back into the simulator. We've seen how you do against each other, but now let's see how good you fuckers are against me!"

Sun-Tzu raised an eyebrow. "We get to kill you in simulation?"

"If you think you got the balls for it, boy." Marion bowed like a courtier and motioned towards the simulator pod room. "You can certainly give what you laughingly call your best, dimwit." The trainees walked back into the room, Victor with his arm still around Kai, their spirits raised at the idea of finally getting back at their tormentor, even if it was only in simulation. Marion moved Max towards the door. "Go find Maysa. I'm going to stick her in that Rifleman IIC that the 20th Arcturan reported on Planting. And I'm taking that horrible fucking monster that Nicia showed me the blueprints for." She thumbed at Kai, who was getting into his pod. "That should take some of the wind out of Captain Wow over there."

"I'll find Sheila too." Max opened the door, but his wife was gone.

"I saw her leave when Victor was doing the suck-off-Kai round-robin," Marion said. "Leave her alone for a bit. Sun-Tzu's lucky she didn't snap his fucking neck like she did that Clanner's arm." Max hesitated, then gave her a nod, and left. Marion watched him go and sighed, suddenly feeling very old.

Sheila had found a quiet spot, a grassy hill overlooking the training complex, and sat down. She drew up her knees to her chin and rested her forehead against them, feeling miserable. All she wanted was to board the next DropShip off of Outreach after telling Jaime Wolf he had made the biggest mistake of his life putting her in charge. She felt ashamed as well. She had lost her temper and behaved badly. True, Sun-Tzu had baited her, but he had baited Max as well. Only one of them had taken the bait. Where Sheila had raged against the trainees, Max had patiently explained where they had gone wrong and how they could improve on it. She was not angry at her husband, not in the least. Sheila was angry at herself for letting her temper get the better of her. Her impulsiveness had gotten the better of her as well. At least you didn't get your best friend crippled this time, she thought morosely.

Calla, Arla, Todd and Mira had left Outreach not long after the wedding and Jaime Wolf's announcement; although they were more than welcome to stay, Calla wanted to get back to the Sentinels' new base on Vantaa and finish rebuilding the Sentinels. Sheila wished her father had stayed. She needed his advice, and her mother's. The only Sentinels left on Outreach were herself, Max, Marion, and Maysa—even Tooriu and Elfa Brownoak had left. Marion, Maysa and a few of the female Dragoons that Marion knew had dragged Sheila away from her training manuals a week ago for a girls' night out. Regimental gossip being the fastest communication known to man, the women had learned of Sheila's inability to have children. Marion had made it a joke, saying Sheila would save a bundle of C-Bills on contraception; she called Sheila a "sports model." The attempt to cheer her up hadn't worked: Marion and the Dragoons had just gotten drunk, while Maysa had just looked as miserable as Sheila felt the whole time. She had split a taxi with the teenager and went home early. Being a MechWarrior was what she was good at, not partying with the girls, and Sheila wanted to find solace in that—and away from the nagging feeling that she was somehow an incomplete woman. And now she seemed to be even failing at that.

"Sheila?"

Sheila raised her head. Seeing who it was, she began to get to her feet. "Colonel Wolf! I'm sorry, I—"

"Sit down, sit down," Wolf told her. He sat down on the grass, putting a folder on the ground. "My son called me. He said there was a bit of trouble in the sim room."

"It's nothing," Sheila lied.

"If it's nothing, why are you sitting out here by yourself, with your head in your knees?" Wolf smiled.

Sheila sighed. "I'm a damn fool, Colonel."

"How so?"

"I let my emotions swamp my better judgement." She told Wolf what had happened. "Max did such a good job in explaining what Victor's lance did wrong, and what Kai did wrong as well. Then Victor kind of undercut Max. I get he's just trying to buck up Kai, and God knows Kai needs it…but we can't get into a mutual admiration society with our friends, or we die. And naturally Sun-Tzu took cheap shots to get under my skin, and he certainly succeeded. Marion had to stop me from wringing his neck, and I'm sent out of the room like a spanked child.

"The thing of it is, Colonel, we were right!" Sheila smacked a fist on the ground. "Kai did a brave thing, but Sun-Tzu isn't wrong when he says it's going to get Kai killed. He's trying to live up to his parents' name, and beats himself up when he can't. Victor and Hohiro botched that whole mission by sitting there arguing with each other, and they weren't in a good position to begin with—and Shin and Galen are veterans! They should know better!" She shook her head in disbelief. "Maybe they're purposely letting the royals make mistakes so they learn; I don't know. Then Sun-Tzu seems bent on sabotaging the training, probably because he's trying to please his batshit mother." Sheila drew up her knees again. "If I know Marion, she shoved them right back into the pods and she's going to massacre them, just because she feels like she needs to defend us. Max doesn't need it; he's smart and calm and wonderful, and he took none of this personally. He's trained himself not to. I haven't. I'm just an angry girl who is in way over her head and wants to go home." She looked over at Wolf, who had listened patiently to the words that had spilled out. "You made a mistake, Colonel. Not in Max or Marion, but in me. I was the wrong choice. I can't keep my temper and I can't get these people to listen to me. I need to be back with my battalion, where I belong." She sniffed. "Assuming I don't manage to fuck that up too."

Wolf was silent for a moment, leaning back on the grass. "Well, no offense, but you're not going anywhere, Sheila. You're staying with the program, Sheila."

"Am I a prisoner here?" Sheila asked angrily.

"Yes," Wolf replied, steel in his voice. "Of yourself. Because if you left, Sheila, you'd regret it before the DropShip reached escape velocity. You'd be running the rest of your life, but you're not like that. An old wolf like me knows pride when I see it."

"Pride." Sheila snorted. "Yeah, pride—the kind that got Mimi Stykkis crippled."

"Unless you are the Elemental that snapped her spine, you did not get Mimi Stykkis crippled," Wolf told her harshly. "And while pride does goeth before a fall, it's also why you haven't left, and why you lost your temper against Sun-Tzu. You won't be defeated easily, Sheila. Why do you think I asked you to come here? Why do you think that you were placed in a position of command? Because I'm an acquaintance of your father's? I've always felt well-disposed towards the Sentinels because they helped Zeta Battalion get to Crossing, but this isn't some attempt to repay a debt. There's thousands of other battalion commanders in the Inner Sphere, Sheila, better and worse than you, but I didn't pick them to come to Outreach. Why not?" Wolf didn't let her answer. "Because many of those battalion commanders folded after meeting the Clans once, assuming they survived, and many did not survive. Most of those that did survive are not cowards, though some are—but the Clans are the toughest opponent they will ever face. They let themselves be beaten before the first shot was even fired. I've heard the words: the Clans are unstoppable, nothing we have can defeat them.

"Now here's Sheila Arla-Vlata and Max Canis-Vlata, twenty year old striplings who have never fought an opponent who wasn't Clan. They respect the Clans, but do not fear them. You have faced defeat on every campaign you have been on, and you have either rallied to win or rallied to save who you could. Even when you lose, that's a lesson—and you have acknowledged that, rather than focusing on the defeat." He pointed to the sky, and by extension the Inner Sphere. "Right now, merely surviving against the Clans is a victory in itself, but sooner or later the Inner Sphere must learn how to beat them. And you have."

"So has Victor and Hohiro," Sheila pointed out.

"One victory achieved because the Clans were overconfident and stupid is not something that can be continually repeated," Wolf replied. "Just as you learn, they learn. We have to learn faster. Both we and the Clans are up against the inertia of centuries." He pointed next to the training facility. "Those young people in there. Victor is eager and enthusiastic. Hohiro is grim but determined. Cassandra and Ragnar are inexperienced but willing to learn. We can work with that, but it is just the beginning of knowledge."

"What about Sun-Tzu and Kai?" Sheila asked.

"It's easy to write off Sun-Tzu," Wolf admitted. "Sometimes I would love nothing more than to take him and the entire insane Liao brood and throw them off Outreach. Romano's insanity and ego will never allow her to see past tomorrow. The Clans will burn Sian with the same enthusiasm as they will the other capitals—and when the Clans are coming over the walls, she'll still be railing against Hanse Davion. Tsen Shang is smart but cowed by his wife, whereas Kali's been warped by her mother to the point of delusion. That means House Liao's survival is all on Sun-Tzu's shoulders, and deep down he's terrified that Kai's going to press his claim to the Celestial Throne—with the AFFC at his back. Sun-Tzu will go down in history as the man who lost the Capellan Confederation for good. So he covers that fear by letting no one in, and attacking those who try. It's how he's stayed alive on Sian."

Sheila nodded, amazed at Wolf's perceptiveness. "And Kai?"

"Kai is actually not that different from his cousin. Sun-Tzu is a poor MechWarrior, knows it, and tries to bluster through it, the way a bull snake will act like a rattlesnake to bluff enemies away. Kai is a very good MechWarrior, but fears his own talent—and he has a bad tendency to try to measure up to his father, one of the best MechWarriors in history. He's afraid he will disgrace his family. When something goes wrong, Kai tends to catastrophize it."

"Like Twycross." Wolf nodded in agreement with Sheila. "Colonel, this is war. He had to send in those infantry. I would've."

"Oh?" Wolf's gaze was pitiless. "You'd order 32 men to their deaths?"

Sheila suspected Wolf was testing her, but she answered truthfully. "Yes. Because I've kind of been in the same situation. When we were fighting outside Fort Pilum, Max was fighting some Clan heavies and needed help. At the same time, our reinforcements needed to find a new dropzone. I had to leave my fiancee to possibly die, because if I didn't, the whole battalion would have—or at least those in the dropzone. I was very lucky that Max survived…but I don't regret that choice, because it was the right one."

"And that, Sheila, is another reason why you are here," Wolf told her. "Your father likes to say that to be a soldier, you must love your regiment, but to be a commander, you must be willing to destroy that which you love, because that may be the only way you win. He's right. You don't throw away lives meaninglessly, but when you get into a fight, you must hold nothing back. And to be a good commander, you never ask your warriors to do something you're not willing to do yourself. You have learned that lesson very quickly, Sheila."

Sheila pondered that for awhile. "But Colonel," she said at length, "they don't listen to me."

"Then you have to make them listen, Sheila. Sometimes you must be calm and collected, and sometimes you have to act like Marion Rhialla." They shared a small laugh at that. "But when you command—command. Do you understand?" Wolf asked.

"Yes," Sheila replied.

"Good. One last thing," Wolf said. "You have subordinates: use them, and listen to them. Max is a smart young man, and he succeeded where you failed. There's no dishonor in that." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Just remember that, in the end, you are the one in command. Not Victor, not Hohiro, not Kai. You are responsible for what happens, but you are also the final arbiter of what does happen."

"What you're saying makes a lot of sense," Sheila admitted.

"I hope so. I've been at this for a long time." He smiled to show he meant no offense, then Wolf got to his feet, with cracking noises coming from his knees and back. "Oh, damn. I've been at this for too long of a time." Wolf nodded to her. "Just remember they all have potential, Sheila, even Sun-Tzu. The Inner Sphere needs winners. We have survivors and losers aplenty."

Sheila got up as well, but picked up the folder Wolf had left on the ground. "You left this, Colonel."

"Oh, that." Wolf regarded the thick folder as if it was the first time he had seen it. "Yes, that's for you. In it you'll find a few interesting things about the Clans."

Curious, Sheila opened it and flipped through it. Then she looked up at Wolf, astounded. "Sir…this…I can't accept this, it's…"

"It's what I can pass on, Sheila, and you must accept it. I didn't put that together for my own edification. I did it because you need to know everything about the Clans so you can indeed beat them. I will be distributing that to the others, but not for a few more weeks. Let's let them learn from you for awhile."

Sheila was still stunned. Wolf was giving her the most precious gift imaginable: the sum total of his knowledge of the Clans. "Yes, sir! I will, sir!" She smiled. "Thank you, Colonel. I kind of want to hug you."

"I'm not so old of a man to not accept a hug from a pretty woman." Sheila hugged him, and Wolf laughed. His humor faded quickly enough, as Sheila waited to be dismissed. "One last thing, Sheila."

"Sir?"

"That Clan warrior—Star Captain Senefa. You humiliated her. She deserved it, but among the Clans, honor is just about everything, almost like the Kuritans. They don't often practice suicide, but they do practice revenge. She will come after you, and you had better be ready for her when she does. Make sure you kill her this time, because if you don't, she will most assuredly kill you." He came to attention and saluted her. "Dismissed, Commander. Return to your training."

Sheila returned the salute. "Yes, sir. Thank you again, sir." She waited respectfully until Wolf had left, then walked back towards the training complex, flipping through the folder again. She wondered if, perhaps, some day she would be called on to pass on her knowledge as Wolf was doing to her. Maybe that will be my legacy, she thought, instead of a child.

It cheered her up immensely.

The trainees were coming out of the simulation room when she reached the lounge, and all of them seemed shaken—worse than before, enough to not even notice her at first. "Sweet Mother of God," Galen gasped, "what the hell was that thing? Four Gauss Rifles? Is that even possible?" He sat down heavily in one of the chairs. "I sure am tired of being killed."

"That monster was bad enough," Victor agreed, "but what about the damned Rifleman? Shin and I were jumping around like a roach on a hot plate, and it still ate us up. And Kai—"

"Let's not mention what it did to me," Kai said, and sat down next to Galen.

Sun-Tzu nodded smugly. "Yes, having both arms and one leg shot off is rather embarrassing." He was clearly taking a great deal of pleasure in Kai getting shot to pieces for once.

Cassandra immediately came to her brother's aid. "Oh, like getting blown apart by Gauss Rifles isn't? Your Cataphract got cored in the first minute!"

"At least you survived," Kai told his sister.

"Because Ragnar and I went behind cover and stayed there. We weren't coming out for nothing!"

"You ran away!" Sun-Tzu exclaimed. "I was at least trying to get within the Gausses' minimum range—with four of them, that 'Mech couldn't have been very well-armored, and a 100-tonner isn't fast. I could've outmanuevered it—"

"To quote Lance Commander Rhialla," Cassandra said, "I kinda fucking doubt it."

Sun-Tzu rolled his eyes. "The scenario wasn't fair. It was just Rhialla indulging in her little grudge." With typical bad timing, Sun-Tzu said those words the moment Marion walked into the lounge, with Maysa and Max in tow. Marion's eyes turned red, but Sheila cleared her throat. Everyone turned and noticed her for the first time.

"You're right, Sun-Tzu," Sheila said, and there was dead silence in the room, and Marion's mouth fell open in surprise. So did Sun-Tzu's. "That scenario wasn't fair, and getting into short range with the four Gauss monster was a lot better than trying to fight it out at range, where it has all the advantages. It's 100 tons, slow, and doesn't have anywhere near the armor of an Atlas." Sheila knew that design: the Palladium, one of Master Tech Nicia Caii's dream designs that she tinkered with. She would need another King Crab chassis and the Sentinels would somehow have to capture four Clan Gauss Rifles intact, but it could be done. Even with Clan tech, the Palladium was still lightly armored for its size, Nicia figuring that it would obliterate anything that got close enough to threaten it. It would likely never see the light of day, like Nicia's 'Mech with fourteen medium lasers, but like most techs, she liked to experiment with new ideas.

Sun-Tzu was so stunned that anyone would agree with him that he did not reply at first. Ragnar did instead. "So if the scenario was unfair…why fight it?"

Let them learn. Sheila heard Wolf's voice in her head. She crossed her arms over her chest. "What do you think, Ragnar?" she asked politely.

He thought a moment. "Because fighting the Clans isn't very fair."

"Hard lock and fire, Ragnar," Sheila agreed.

Ragnar nodded. "Well…at least I survived."

"Not good enough," Sheila said, though she noticed Max was about to say something—probably the same thing. "We need to win, Ragnar. Sun-Tzu had the right idea: close in, grab them by the belt. You still are going to lose someone to that thing, but at least you have a chance. You don't have a chance at all if you play the game by its rules."

Victor leaned against the wall. "All right, who do we get to play bait and get killed? You'd lose at least two 'Mechs before you got that close."

Sheila faced him. "You were in command, Victor. You tell me."

Victor blinked, surprised at being put on the spot, but she saw he understood why Sheila had said that. "Well…I had put Galen and Hohiro back to cover us with LRMs, but she—" he thumbed at Marion "—she blasted Galen first."

"No shit," Marion said. "LRMs damn near outrange my Gausses. I'm not mobile. I'm going to get eaten up by missile boats."

"Fine," Victor sighed, obviously feeling foolish, as he had let the attack fall apart after losing Galen. "I screwed up—again. What could I have done to change that?"

"Split your forces, have Galen and Hohiro fire LRMs at me from two different directions, so I can only combine on one of them. While I'm fiddle-dee-fucking around with the missile boats, either Kai or you come in to asshole me with an AC/20. Sun-Tzu had the right idea, as much as it pains me to say it," Marion admitted. "He just had the wrong 'Mech."

"You wouldn't have shot me in any case?" Sun-Tzu sounded surprised.

"Of course not, dumb shit. If I was going to kill anyone, it was either going to be Yen-lo-Wang or it was going to be the Victor. You just stepped up to the plate."

"Enough about the Gauss battery," Hohiro put in. His Grand Dragon had also technically survived, but it had been crippled and another two minutes would've seen him killed in simulation as well. "Obviously we failed against the…whatever it was. There was that damn Rifleman that was covering it. We were able to lead it off a little, but everytime we moved, it hit us. That 'Mech can't be real either."

"It is," Victor told him. "We fought them on Twycross. They're evil. Slow, don't have much for armor, but evil."

"And this one definitely was," Kai agreed. "I didn't realize you were that good of a shot, Max."

"I'm not," Max replied. "I was playing referee."

"And I was meeting with Colonel Wolf," Sheila said, seeing Maysa edging for the exit. "Which means it was Maysa." The teenager froze in utter terror.

Hohiro noticed her for the first time as well; she had been hiding behind Marion and Max. "You?" Maysa meekly nodded. He looked over at Sheila. "This is a joke?" She shook her head. "But…she's a child!" He walked over to Maysa, who flattened herself against the wall. "How old are you, Maysa?"

Maysa was normally pale, but if she got any paler, she would be translucent. "S-S-S-Sixteen," she stuttered, "b-but I-I'll be s-s-seventeen in a few m-months…" She sounded like a five year old proud to be turning six.

"Don't sound so stunned, Mister Kurita," Marion said proudly. "She's already got five solo kills."

"Five?" Galen whistled. "Sixteen and she's got five kills. Didn't know Gray Noton had any kids."

Hohiro shook his head. "A sixteen year old teenaged girl who looks like she's cosplaying as a MechWarrior systematically amputated the limbs of Kai Allard's Centurion, shot off my PPC, and cored Shin's Phoenix Hawk?" He stared at her in disbelief.

Maysa wilted under the Kurita heir's glare, and she sniffled, then started to cry, putting her face into her hands. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she pleaded. "I know I'm just a nobody…I don't like killing people, so I just try to knock out their 'Mechs by shooting off their limbs!" She brought her head up, her face streaked with tears. "Please forgive me, Mister Kurita! I'm so sorry!"

Hohiro watched her for a moment, then looked at Sheila, who could guess his unanswered question: is she for real? He then turned to Shin, who found something very interesting on the ceiling. The others were smothering smiles and stifling laughs. Kai got up and walked over, putting a hand on Maysa's shoulder. "It's all right," he said soothingly. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Maysa."

"I feel just terrible," Maysa blubbered. "All of you—you're all so much greater than me! I'm just an orphan kid from Zebelgenubi! I'm nobody!"

"Now that's enough, Maysa." To Sheila's surprise, it was Victor that spoke. "I think Maysa just taught all of us an important lesson here. We have all these fancy titles, heir to the thrones of the Successor States, but it's just like Colonel Wolf said—it doesn't matter a damn in the field. Three of us got smoked by a teenager—an orphan girl from Zebelgenubi. And our forces are regularly getting smoked by kids from beyond the Periphery, not much older than her."

"Then…you're not angry?" Maysa glanced from Victor to Kai to Hohiro.

"No, Victor is correct," Hohiro admitted.

Victor grinned wryly. "And I haven't exactly been covering myself with glory in these past two scenarios. My father always says that half of leadership is knowing when to shut the hell up and listen."

"Now you're learning, Mister Steiner-Davion." Marion checked the chronometer. "That's enough for today. Hit the showers, idiots. We'll start over again tomorrow." They filed off, talking among themselves, still reviewing the fight. Hohiro met Maysa's eyes and he bowed to her. Her eyes got huge and she returned the bow so deeply that she almost fell over. Hohiro straightened, laughed once, and left. Sun-Tzu lingered for a moment, as if he wanted to say something to Sheila, then decided against it and left. Have we finally gotten through to him? she wondered. Marion led the still-trembling Maysa from the lounge, which left Sheila and Max alone.

"I'm sorry," both said at the same time, and they laughed. "I'll go first," Max said.

"Why? I'm the one who acted like a spanked child who wasn't getting enough attention," Sheila told him. "You explained things much better than I could. I would've just punched Sun-Tzu."

"He was baiting you."

"And I should've realized that. He baits everyone." Sheila froze. "Maximillian Canis-Vlata, don't you dare say it—"

"He's a master baiter?" Max was grinning hugely.

"Asshole. I told you not to say it." She was grinning too, but then her smile faltered. "I botched it today, Max. I won't do that again."

"Sheila," Max said, walking over and enfolding her in a hug, "sometimes I have to remember that I actually married two women—Sheila Arla-Vlata and Lieutenant Commander Arla-Vlata. Sometimes I forget which is which."

"Yeah, so does she." Sheila kissed his chest. "They both love you, though."

"I love them too." He kissed her forehead. "Though I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of saying you weren't being bitchy."

Sheila snickered. "Yeah, I deserve that."

Max struck a thoughtful pose. "You know, this is actually an opportunity."

"Oh?"

"We've never had make-up sex before." It was his turn for the smile to falter. "If you want to, of course." They hadn't made love since they had learned Sheila couldn't have children.

"Are you kidding?" Sheila squirmed out of his embrace and ostentatiously felt the couch covers. "I mean, we could do it here." He gave her an amused look. "Or our room. But Max…I thought you'd never ask. Hell, that's probably what's wrong with me. I need to get laid."

Max put out his hands. "Show me the way home."