The Price of Glory

The Price of Glory
Product information
Type	Novel
Author	William H. Keith, Jr.
Pages	321 (original) 384 (reprint)
Cover Artwork	David R. Dietrick (original) Boris Vallejo (reprint)
Interior Artwork	Jane Aulisio
Publication information
Publisher	FASA (original) Roc Books (reprint)
First published	October 1987 (original) January 1993 (reprint)
ISBN-10	0451452178
Content
Era	Succession Wars era
Timeline	early 3028
Series	Saga of the Gray Death Legion
Preceded by	Mercenary's Star
Followed by	Blood of Heroes

The Price of Glory, by William H. Keith, Jr., is the third book of the Saga of the Gray Death Legion. An established mercenary command by now, the Gray Death Legion suddenly find themselves framed for atrocious war crimes and in the end forge an unlikely cooperation with their old nemesis, Duke Hassid Ricol.

The novel was made available on BattleCorps on 26 October 2010 as a PDF file (text only, without cover, pictures, or any other interior artwork except for the usual BattleCorps frame graphics). The PDF copy includes a disclaimer stating that it was created from a pre-final edition text that might differ from the printed version and that canon-wise, the print edition trumps the PDF edition.

From the back cover (1993 edition)

“

The Gray Death Legion is in the employ of the Free Worlds League and has even been given a landhold on the planet Helm. But dark forces conspire against them and the Legion soon finds themselves declared renegade, fair game for anyone to attack. Now they are on the run on their home planet, trying desperately to reach safety before the might of House Marik falls upon them. They are about to discover the true motives of those who engineered their downfall. And what they discover will change the Inner Sphere forever.

”

Summary

As of early 3028 the mercenary Gray Death Legion, in employ to House Marik, has been conducting successful raids and campaigns into House Liao territory for a year already. Their latest target is Sirius V, a hostile world where life is only possible in domed cities such as the capital city of Tiantan.

After almost two weeks on-planet and three battles fought, the last one at the gates of Tiantan, the planet surrenders. The 15th Marik Militia was supposed to relieve the Gray Death Legion after the planet's capture, but Carlyle and his unit are surprised to find that Lord Garth, Duke of Irian and Lord Commander of the Marik support forces, arrives with a DropShip carrying his own Irian Guard and demands the Gray Death Legion to turn local command over to him and leave the planet for Marik so supposedly receive some honors. As ordered, the Legion board their DropShips and leave, but Carlyle is wary.

Unbeknownst to the Gray Death Legion, right after they have left the planet conspirators including ComStar Precentor Emilio Rachan and Lord Garth destroy Tiantan's domes with bombs, killing some twelve million people, then deploy BattleMechs and DropShips painted to resemble the Gray Death Legion. The Gray Death Legion DropShips in transit to the jump point are left in the dark about what happened, but the total radio silence from Sirius V and the odd behaviour of the Marik forces deepens Carlyle's concerns. He orders their JumpShip to bring them back to their landhold at Helm instead of taking the detour to Marik.

They arrive in the Helm system in the middle of an ongoing military operation. In the chaos, the two Gray Death Legion DropShips, pretending to be carrying VIPs, descend on the planet and land at their landhold at Durandel on 26 March, only to find it destroyed with enemy (Marik) BattleMechs sifting through the ruins and rounding up survivors. The Gray Death Legion flies into a rage and destroys numerous 'Mechs, but then strong enemy forces move in and a running battle ensues.

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Featured characters

• Grayson Carlyle
• Lori Kalmar
• Duke Hassid Ricol
• Precentor Emilio Rachan
• Martin Graff
• Lord Garth, Duke of Irian

Featured places

• Helm
• Sirius V

Featured BattleTech

BattleMechs

• Archer
• Assassin
• Centurion
• Commando
• Crusader
• Griffin
• Locust
• Marauder
• Panther
• Phoenix Hawk
• Rifleman
• Shadow Hawk
• Stinger
• Thunderbolt
• Warhammer
• Wasp
• Wolverine

Vehicles

• Boomerang spotter plane
• Demolisher
• Galleon
• Mobile HQ
• Packrat (modified ECM vehicles)
• Vedette
• unspecified hovercraft and APCs

DropShips

• League (Assagai)
• Union (Deimos, Gladius, Phobos)
• unspecified: Lancelot, Alpha

JumpShips

• Merchant (Invidious)
• Star Lord (Huntress)
• unspecified: Rapacious

Notes

• No dates are provided in the novel, but the Gray Death Legion scenario pack established that the first battle with the Hammerstrike Company in the ruins of Durandel (immediately after landing on Helm) occurred on March 26 and the final battles and the recovery of the memory core occurred on 1 April 3028.
• The Gray Death Legion being hired specifically to conduct agressive campaigns into Capellan Confederation space demonstrates that the Concord of Kapteyn, which had been signed for over five years, did not cause much of a detente between Houses Marik and Liao after all.
• While it is explicitly mentioned on pp. 17-18 that the Invidious and its two DropShips, "merchanters converted to troop transports", have become the Gray Death Legion's Transport Division, from this book onwards the Gray Death Legion's DropShips Phobos and Deimos are consistently described as Union-class (pp. 29, 60, 78) whereas it had previously been established that they are refitted freighters outwardly resembling Union-class vessels. (The original Phobos was confirmed to be a Danais/Trojan-class vessel, strongly implying its sister ship Deimos was of the same class.) Both the Phobos and the Deimos are firing autocannons on p. 89, a weapon system not found on Danais/Trojan vessels but part of a Union's standard loadout). To explain this apparent inconsistency it can be assumed that two Union-class DropShips also named Phobos and Deimos are serving with the Gray Death Legion as of the Sirius campaign in addition to the original refitted freighters (which are not deployed at Sirius, and may have remained at the staging point at Graham IV).
• Both DropShips are mentioned to approach Helm with 4 Gs of thrust. However, neither the Danais/Trojan class nor the Union class can attain this much thrust. In fact, of all commonplace contemporary spheroid DropShips only the Seeker has this much thrust. The number is thus likely in error.

Covers

• 

  Original 1987 cover. Art by David R. Dietrick.

• 

  1993 reprint. Art by Boris Vallejo.