The third and final volume of Michael Stackpole’s famous Warrior trilogy! Since the marriage between Melissa Steiner and Prince Hanse Davion, the political landscape of the so-called Successor States has changed. Troops are being assembled, planets invaded, borders arbitrarily redrawn. Everyone is trying to turn the chaos to their own advantage. While House Liao relies on intrigue and cleverly planned individual actions, House Kurita relies on generalised actions in which their BattleMech elite units are to conquer one Commonwealth world after another. ComStar, on the other hand, which jealously guards its monopoly on intelligence and surrounds its traditional technology with a mystical and ritualistic fuss, is keeping a low profile as usual and appears to be endeavouring to remain neutral. In reality, it is using the situation to take covert action to eliminate the New Avalon Institute of Science, which could shake ComStar’s monopoly position with its studies of forgotten technology.