Well, this was intense.

Republic of Inner Sphere is under siege, Under attack by both Clans and Houses - each aiming for it for different reasons - decision was made to raise the so called Wall, area denial system preventing any space ship from entering the vicinity of the Inner Sphere's most inner parts (Solar system included). While this helps the Republic forces to rearm and prepare for the inevitable invasion, forces remaining on the outside (so called Remnant) are left to their own devices.

I dont want to spoil anything but lets say a person comes back to lead the Republic in its time of need but not everything works as expected. Precious forces of he Remnant, left to fight for themselves and mauled for a long time by merciless Clan Wolf forces, start to suffer from the Apocalypse Now syndrome and are no longer accept orders from the central (who can blame them, it is after all time when bio engineering can do wonders, electronic communications can be faked, and no-one is to be taken at the face value especially after total isolation and non-stop combat Remnant is forced to suffer). This will cause a lot of grief for the Republic.

At some point, very precious allied forces will become unavailable due to the nature of the conflict, and Republic will have to make probably most difficult decision when it comes to control of combat units. I wonder how this will end to be honest, because by the looks of it these allies might become opponents, and this would be really sad development.

While Clan Wolf is seen as a major opponent here, it is clear that Clan Jade Falcon is feared more because of its terror tactics and scorched earth approach to warfare. Question remains who will get to the Earth first, and Republic's only chance is to somehow try to split the Clan forces and try defeating them piecemeal. This seems to have worked in the past so hope remains approach will be successful again.

Wont say anything more :) Very interesting novella, lots of things going on, it is clear this is preparation for the follow up novels about Republic of the Inner Sphere's stand against the invaders.

Highly recommended to fans of Battletech, mecha combat and military SF in general. ( )