The party and Bigend retire to a private room to dine and talk.  When asked about himself, he is very elusive, insisting that he’s simply an entrepreneur affected adversely by the occupation, but the team is suspicious, and Jack is sure he’d overheard the name in conversation during his leave in Shenzhan during Agamemnon’s refit.

Bigend introduces the team to Jane Sagan, a Clan Warrior who had defected to the resistance.  After answering some speculation about the nature of the Warriors, the following points are discussed:

• There’s a considerable rift in the Clans about the nature of the Agamemnon heroes.  Many see their fighting on the side of the Inner Sphere as a sign that the Khans have been grossly misguided.  Indeed, many thought that the mass driver was just to be used as a threat of force, and it wasn’t until Persephone that they realized the horrifying truth.  By and large, the Clan personnel “trained to think”, such as engineers, scientists, officers, have tended to be much more susceptible to sedition than the rank and file.
• Clan Wolf has taken over securing New Samarkand after the Ghost Bears were severely bloodied in the battle.
• To Jane’s knowledge, only one of the mass drivers was built.  She also states that only one came in the passage across the void with them.
• When asked about technological doodads, she states that the most advanced thing she knew of was Normandy, and that had been stolen by the Agamemnon crew already.  The Normandy was a closely-held secret, the only reason she knew of its existence was that she had been stationed on it briefly during the passage.  She didn’t know what Normandy’s ill-fated mission to the storage cache was about.
• The strategic situation is that there are a number of powerful battleships and cruisers stationed at New Samarkand now, and even with the combined forces of Houses Steiner and Davion with the Combine, there’s little chance of them being able to secure the skies above the planet without the target being softened first.
• A very strong resistance movement is still fighting in the planet’s southern continent.  Led by a man referred to as “The General”, they’re meeting with some success, but don’t have access to the planet’s valuable assets to the north.  The common assumption is that The General is General Hsu, from the Combine Defense Forces stationed on the planet, but the Clans claim they’ve executed him.  Attempts to make contact with cells of this resistance movement have so far failed.
• Bigend notes that unlike most planets of the Inner Sphere, New Samarkand retains a majority of its infostructure, which has the potential of allowing cyberwarfare, such as the type Mr. Case engages in, to delay or disable some of the fleet.
• Furthermore, he believes there’s an opportunity to gain defectors, or at least lower the morale, of the Clan fleet by using the Agamemnon crew as figureheads.  Since the crews had been aboard ship for nearly three years, they’re being rotated to ground duty, which should allow the party a chance to affect some hearts and minds before they’re shipped back to posts in orbit.