The next day, she found herself in the office that Star Commander Lovvins had appropriated in the barracks facility, standing in front of his desk as the man sat in a chair barely able to hold him. He still bore a small scar on his temple as a result of the orevious day’s attack, but other than that, appeared to be in perfect fighting trim.

    “I wish to commend you for your actions yesterday against the filthy bandits who attacked us. You acquitted yourself well under fire.”

    She nodded curtly. “Thank you, Star Commander.”

    He continued on. “We will be departing this planet in a little under seventy-two hours, but Star Colonel Buhallin assures me that retribution upon the city will be swift to discourage any further such attacks.”

    She hesitated slightly before responding, unsure exactly how to proceed. “Sir, I would council against broad punitive measures on the city’s inhabitants.”

    Lovvins scowled. “You would show those scum mercy after they dared take up arms against their betters yesterday?”

    She looked down for a moment before going on. “Neg, Star Commander. It is not out of mercy or sympathy for the perpetrators that I speak, but out of efficiency. I believe a broad response would create further problems for the garrison troops left behind.”

    He raised an eyebrow. “I am confused, but curious. Proceed, bondsman.”

    She took a deep breath. “Sir, as I understand it, and I may be mistaken, there have been few if any attacks prior to this within the civilian areas of the planet, quiaff?”

    He nodded. “Aff. Resistance attacks have been limited to military targets and supply raids outside of population centers, much like the raids undertaken by your own resistance group before they were defeated.”

    His bringing up of her resistance group made her uneasy, as she was unsure what path he was taking. “But this attack was different. The attackers were amateurs. Well-armed, but amateurs.”

    He nodded. “Aff, we were in a merchant zone. I suspect they were bandits or some other troublemaking rabble.”

    She shook her head in dissent. “Neg, not bandits. They knew who they were attacking. If they were pirates or criminals, they would have either gone for a softer target with a bigger payoff, like merchant caste traders or something, or else they would have gone for a really big target in hopes of a big payout. No, the target was us, or more specifically, you and the Star Captain. My guess is also that they meant to take us alive.”

    Lovvins chuckled. “If that was their goal, they were quite sloppy about it. They used significant firepower.”

    “Aff, but think about how they used it. If they had hit closer to us with that manpack missile, they would have splattered us all over the block. Now, it’s possible they were simply incompetent or unskilled, but I believe they meant to incapacitate us, taking leaders of the invasion force hostage, in an attempt to ransom for the planet’s freedom.”

    Lovvins scoffed in anger. “That is cowardly. Why would anyone fight in that way?”

    “Because they are not warriors, and they have no hope of winning in a stand up fight. Their alternative to surrender is terrorism and asymmetric warfare. We see it in the Inner Sphere all the time.”

    Again, Lovvins could barely contain his disdain. “All the more reason our invasion must succeed. If this is the likes of the people who inhabit what was once the Star League, then we are needed now all the more.”

    She nodded. “Be that as it may, Star Commander, large scale punitive measures are likely to just inflame popular sympathy against you. You will see more attacks, and more spontaneous attacks at that.”

    He sighed in exasperation. “What, then, would you suggest?”

    She paused thoughtfully for a moment before continuing. “Whoever carried out the attack, they had knowledge of where and when you would be. To me, that suggests inside information. No Jade Falcon would do such a thing, so that leaves someone that you have been working with, part of the population and bureaucracy that you have been using to help the planet function normally. Find and eliminate those people, and whatever movement they have going to foment rebellion will die. The rest of the population won’t care enough, and will move on.”

    Lovvins stared off into the distance for a moment in thought. “I will bring your suggestion to Star Commander Buhallin. He is rather progressive for a member of our clan. Either way, make preparations for leaving, our cluster plans to depart in less than forthy-eight hours now. I will speak with you again before we depart.”

    The next day, she again received a summons to the Star Commander’s office. No sooner had she arrived than he beckoned her to follow him. She did, doing her best to keep up with his massive strides.

    “We are going to meet with Star Colonel Brikai Buhallin in his office. I told him of your suggestion yesterday, and he took it under advisement. I suspect he has some news for us.”

    Her pulse quickened slightly in anticipation. “This is likely good news, quiaff?”

    He did not slow his pace. “Perhaps. Be cautious in this encounter. As I said, the Star Colonel is something of a progressive in our clan in regards to other castes and freeborns, but do not forget that you are still both a bondsman and freeborn. Do not overstep your place.”

    She smiled slightly. “Does that mean that you are also a progressive among the Jade Falcons?”

    He pointed at her scoldingly. “I am ambitious, and willing to embrace anything honorable to help me on that path.”

    They arrived at the Star Colonel’s office, and after knocking, entered. Seated at the desk was a large man, larger than most of the Jade Falcon Mechwarriors she had seen, yet still smaller than even the smallest of Elementals. Standing on either side of the man where two other warriors, whose uniforms marked them as Mechwarrior Star Captains. Off to the side of the room, a hulking Elemental lurked just far enough away to show that he was not part of whatever discussion was going on. Finally, seated in a wooden chair opposite the Star Colonel was an average sized man dressed in a heavily ruffled mid-grade business suit, his wrists and ankles tied to the chair.

    The Star Colonel stood as Lovvins saluted him. “Thank you for coming, Star Commander. And this must be your new bondsman.”

    Fiona nodded respectfully, “Aff, Star Colonel”

    Buhallin paused, glancing slowly and thoughtfully between Fiona and Lovvins. “I must say, when the Star Commander brought me his suggestion, I thought him at first to be quite mad. When he explained where the plan came from, I was unsure whether to think him more mad, or be relieved. But his argument was persuasive, and we are soon departing from this rock for greater glory, so I saw little to lose. After all, if we discovered nothing, it is a fairly trivial matter that could be passed on to the new garrison commander.” He turned his gaze to Fiona. “Much to my surprise, it seems your plan has born some fruit. Once we knew what to look for, it was a simple matter to coerce the truth from people, and the feeble renegade plot unraveled.

    He gestured to the seated man. “This man, Brixton something, he is a freebirth and so whatever surname he claims is irrelavent.  It turns out that he is a mid-level bureaucratic functionary within the planetary government. Not much power, but in this unruly system of governance, just enough power to enrich himself like a drunken member of the merchant caste.After careful questioning, he revealed to us his dissatisfaction with the plans that were underway by our merchant and laborer caste functionaries to make the running of this pitiable world more efficient for our clan.”

    The man in the chair began stammering. “I was just trying to earn a living. You guys, you’re terrible for business!”

    Buhallin cut him off. “Be quiet. I would call you merchant filth, but you are more akin to the bandit caste than honorable merchants, and so I will not sully their names by calling you one. Regardless, I have left the information you provided us on your cohorts with the incoming garrison commander. They will be run to ground and an efficient system will prevail. You, however, will be dealt with before I leave this planet. You, a bandit and a leech, attacked one of my trueborn warriors. Neg, you did not even have the courage to do it yourself, you sent underlings to do it with the promise of coin.”

    He pulled his sidearm, a heavy automatic slug-thrower of some kind, and pulled the slide to chamber a round. “You are too pathetic to waste any of my warriors on, but luckily for me, there is a fitting solution.” He gestured to Fiona. “This woman was one of you Inner Sphere denizens, but she displayed enough honor to fight us as a warrior, and has seen the wisdom of our clan ways after being made bondsman to the officer you tried to have killed. I will grant her the honor of ending your miserable existence and helping to cleanse this world of rot before we leave.”

    He reached out, handing the pistol to Fiona. She paused, wide-eyed for a second, her pulse beginning to quicken, before taking the weapon. It was all she could do to keep her hand from trembling. She had never killed anyone face to face. Even during the gunfight, she was not sure that she had actually hit anyone. She wasn’t even sure that she had killed any of the clanners in her Mech. And now she was faced with a choice.

    Slowly, she pointed the gun towards the man. Her heart was now racing, she could feel her pulse throbbing in her head. Her palms were cold and sweaty. As she glanced at the man, his expression was at first one of fear, almost pitiable. Then, as their gazes locked, there was a hint of anger in his eyes. “Go ahead, traitorous bitch. You’ve already sold out to these creeps. Why not put another notch in your-“

    His sentence was cut off by the deafening bang of the slug thrower firing in the closed confines of the room. She forced herself to not look away as the round tore through his face, snapping his head back and spraying blood and brain matter all over the floor.