He'd fought and almost died before, but that was on a personal level. Now...now it was time for him to fight with an army. Not just with an army, but in command of one...the second-largest army the history of his new home had ever seen. The only larger one was that of the enemy he faced.

It was the last battle of the Age of Steel on Miranda. He'd spent years training for it, years preparing for it. He'd given his word he would fight with their weapons, point and edge and armor, in their way. And he would. But he would operate with the materials and the machines of the most advanced star-faring nations in that part of space. He would use the eyes they gave him and the tools they provided and he would use them to advantage.

But the battle? The war as it would be expressed on the ground, man against man? If his enemy did not break the restrictions, neither would he. He could...the one called Morner could if he wanted. He also had some off-world help, hidden to others but known to William Sparrow. And though they could not in the end do much, what they could do could be, in the right time and place and way, catastrophic.

The last war was coming. The last battle was soon to be fought. He had to win it. The Shadows were still out there, their agents still among his friends and his foes, and they...would...be...coming. He had to prepare to meet them when they did. He had to defeat Morner to do it.

A mind steeped in history, educated on two worlds, the imagination of others combined with his own, the focus and discipline of the toughest training one could get in that part of the universe, everything turned now to this task: To win the war. To fight the battles. To, once and for all, stop the Conqueror.

The cost would be high. Lives of men would be ended. And William Sparrow would face, before it was over, pain and sadness and loss and sacrifice unforseen and unplanned-for. Would it be worth it? Would it? And even if it were, would that be enough for him, when it was all over?

Soon enough, he would know.

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