Twilight of the Clans

For generations, the Clans bided their time, waiting for the right opportunity to appear from the Periphery and conquer the Inner Sphere. They risked all at the Battle of Tukayyid–only to be soundly defeated. The results were deadlier than they could ever imagine. For one devoted warrior of Clan Smoke Jaguar, the disgrace of Tukayyid has scarred him for life. And this tragedy will change the universe forever, culminating in a treachery hidden far beyond the Exodus Road...

ONLY ONE WAY TO STOP THE CLANS! Possessing precious secret information that will lead them down the Exodus Road, the Inner Sphere Successor States can now meet the Clans on their own terms…and behind enemy lines. The Herculean task of amassing enough power means re-establishing the legendary Star League-a union of the Successor States and their BattleMechs led by Victor Steiner-Davion. But with the deadly game of politics making the Successor Lords wary of alliance, and Victor's Machiavellian sister, Katrina Steiner, hatching more vicious plots to further her own agendas, the war against the Clans may only be a distraction from the real danger...

ON THE OFFENSIVE… "Carry the fight to the Clans!" has become the rallying cry for the armies of the Successor States. Now, as the Great Houses launch an offensive against the Clan Occupation Zone, a combined armed task force, drawn from across the Inner Sphere, begins its own desperate journey. Following the road marked out for them by a Clan defector, Task Force Serpent sets out to strike a blow at the heart of the Clans-at their home worlds. For so many years, the Inner Sphere has been the prey of the Clans. Now, in a war to end all wars, the hunted have become the hunters.

"Dispatch Horse to the planet Huntress!" The orders to investigate the secret experiment being done by the Falcons on the Smoke Jaguar homeworld came down from the Jade Falcon Khan herself. But does the covert mission require the natural bravery of a freeborn warrior-or do Horse's genetically engineered comrades consider him expendable? The perilous trek is dead-ended by a crash landing-right into a Smoke Jaguar trap. His 'Mech confiscated, his DropShip down, his Trinary imprisoned, Horse is duty bound to the enemy Jaguars-and closer to the core of the strange secrets of the Falcon stronghold than he ever imagined. For the Clan, the consequences could be explosive. For Horse, they could be fatal...

TAKING THE BATTLE TO THE ENEMY... An awesome mission has been assigned to Task Force Serpent: to destroy Huntress, homeworld of Clan Smoke Jaguar, the Inner Sphere's greatest menace. But the invasion has suffered a serious blow: Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion has been struck down by an unknown assassin. With the fate of the entire Inner Sphere in jeopardy, only one other daredevil warrior is brave enough to bring the enemy to its knees... She is General Ariana Winston of the famed Eridani Light Horse mercenary brigade, now commander of Task Force Serpent. The battle ahead is dangerous and uncertain, but Winston and her courageous comrades have the upper hand with hard-earned battle skills honed to fighting-edge perfection-and a secret weapon that could destroy Huntress for good...

A BATTLE TO ERADICATE THE ENEMY…The massive invasion force of Operation Serpent has descended behind enemy lines. Their mission is to obliterate the military power of Clan Smoke Jaguar and seize the homeworld of Huntress. Commanding this historic assault is General Ariana Winston of the elite Eridani Light Horse mercenary brigade. After a year's voyage through deep space, they have arrived.But the battle has just begun. The dangers are more far-reaching than Winston ever feared. And the Jaguar garrison is far more cunning than the troops of the Inner Sphere ever believed. For now, emerging from the shadows, a new threat is bearing down on the Serpent armies. The greatest danger to humanity's future is right in their midst. And it is about to ignite the fires of a war to end all wars.

Task Force Serpent has triumphed and Clan Smoke Jaguar is shattered beyond redemption. But the final battle is still to come, when Prince Victor Steiner-Davion braves the unknown and travels to the very heart of the Clans: Strana Mechty. There, with elite units from across the Inner Sphere, he must wage the ultimate battle to destroy the the Crusader cause and forever eliminate the possibility of a new Clan invasion. Pushed to the edge of of endurance by a peace they cannot understand, the Clans accept the challenge-and the ultimate battle begins. But even if the Inner Sphere should prove triumphant, will their return be what they expect? Prince Victor left an Inner Sphere in united under a new Star League to battle the most dangerous foe the Inner Sphere has ever encountered: the Clans. But he also left behind his scheming sister Katrina Steiner, whose ambition knows no bounds. Task Force Serpent and Prince Victor believe that facing the Clans on their own homeworlds would prove the most difficult fight of their lives. They will soon learn that their fight has just begun.

BATTLE IS IN THE BLOOD... As the Khans of the Clans gather on Strana Mechty to plan a new invasion of the Inner Sphere, Jade Falcon Khan Marthe Pryde strives to rebuild her Clan to its former glory. She bloods new warriors and wins others in Trials from other Clans, but she cannot waste any fine warrior-even those who are freeborn. She gives a Trinary composed entirely of freeborns to a freeborn Star Captain and allows Diana, the freeborn daughter of a Jade Falcon hero, to compete for a bloodname. The Khans of the Steel Vipers-long-standing rivals of the Falcons-use these radical moves against Marthe, attacking her in the Grand Council. In the midst of this war of intimidation, the Inner Sphere accomplishes the unthinkable-an invasion of Clan space. But even that cannot stop Marthe Pryde or the Steel Vipers as their ripening conflict explodes into war...