Resourceful, ruthless, beautiful, apparently without fear, Scout Lieutenant Cassie Suthorn of Camacho's Caballeros is as consummately lethal as the giant BattleMechs she lives to hunt. Only one other person in the freewheeling mercenary regiment has a hint of the demons which drive her. When the Caballeros sign on to guard Coordinator Theodore Kurita's corporate-mogul cousin in the heart of the Draconis Combine, they think they've got the perfect gig: low risk and high pay. Cassie alone suspects that danger waits among the looming bronze towers of Hachiman - and when the yakuza and the dread ISF form a devil's alliance to bring down Chandrasekhar Kurita, only Cassie's unique skills can save her regiment. All she has to do is confront her darkest nightmares.

Sent to the planet Towne to prevent an invasion by the secret Black Dragon Society, Cassie Suthorn and Camacho's Caballeros find a world that has descended into faction-ridden turmoil, with a hostile population that rejects all outside intervention. Original.

Theodore Kurita, samurai tyrant of the mighty Draconis Combine, is celebrating his sixty-first birthday. Topping the guest list is an unlikely bunch of high-tech troublemakers: Camacho's Caballeros, the toughest team of mercenary 'Mech warriors the Inner Sphere has ever seen. But their invitation is more than merely social. Theodore's powerful cousin, "Uncle Chandy," has recruited their ace operative, Cassie Suthorn, for a dangerous mission. On a xenophobic planet where honor and duty are worshipped like deities, the freelancing Caballeros are considered barbarians. But Cassie's covert investigation uncovers an insurrection, and Camacho's foreign "barbarians" could be the only unit with enough guns and grit to save the Draconis Combine from its own extremists.