Inevitably, comparisons arise between Shield Wall and the galaxy's best-known Elemental-heavy mercenary unit, the Raging Horde. Shield Wall's executives exchange an amused look when I broach the topic.
"Apples and oranges," Fuyuko replies. "Roberto Maine is a friend and I have met Calvin Moon. But we are not competitors."
"They have a Diamond Shark leader and we have a Diamond Shark leader," Seppo adds with a nod toward Fuyuko. "They have Elementals and we have Elementals. That is as far as it goes. I would not presume to dictate battlefield tactics to them," though his smirk suggests he might, in the right venue, "but nor would I accept their input on how to screen a hotel's security systems or shepherd the Hollings twins through a red-carpet premiere."
"If you're looking for a benchmark, use another dignitary protection firm," Kozlov says. "People's Protection. Steel Curtain. Executive Solutions." He ticks off some of the Inner Sphere's best-known bodyguard companies on his fingers. "Or compare us to the major state services, where you can find records of their ops."
Indeed, the "major state services" and larger planetary security organizations supply the bulk of Shield Wall's agents. The company prefers to hire individuals whose mindset and training already inclines toward protection over other covert operations or conventional warfare. But then why so many Clanners, almost all Elementals?
"Well, I like to think they can be taught," Kozlov says with a laugh as Fuyuko mimes tearing off his head and tossing it out the window. "No, in truth - the ones who come to us are more mentally prepared for the job than most Inner Sphere soldiers."
"Synergy," Fuyuko adds. "It is a combined arms approach, if you look at it in the right light."
Indeed, Shield Wall boasts a degree of integration between Clanners and Inner Sphere personnel that is vanishingly rare, even after a decade of cross-cultural contact. That's another screening criterion: the ability to work seamlessly with individuals from nations or Clans that may be enemies on the interstellar level. In speaking to Shield Wall's Clanners, though, it becomes clear that none of them see what they do as mercenary or dishonorable, and many still consider themselves members of their Clans.
"This is a battlefield of the mind," says Serval, the Nova Cat second-in-command of Shield Wall's flagship Alpha Team. He sweeps a hand up his torso. "Everyone looks at us and thinks, 'meat shield.' Or, on a battlefield, 'crunchies.'" He smiles grimly at the ancient epithet for infantry. "But here, out of the iron, unaugmented, it is more obvious when we win by thinking. Or by not fighting."
"Assassination is a reality in the Inner Sphere," explains Celeste Bourjon, one of two Bloodnamed Elementals currently serving with Shield Wall. "It is not something we have experience countering. It is dezgra but calling it dezgra will not make it go away. Here, I am learning to ward against it. One day, I will take these lessons back to the Clan."
"Setting aside Headhunter details, this is small team work at its purest," says Nova Cat Sigmund. "Even though I have won the right to wear the iron, I am an insignificant freebirth, one tiny speck in a cluster, eminently disposable. Here, I have a team that is closer than my sibkin, and we fight with fingerspitzengefüh." He mangles the Lyran word but waggles a hand to demonstrate the "fingertips-feeling" of instinctive coordination that only the closest-knit teams achieve.
And what do the Inner Sphere agents serving alongside these Clanners think?
"They're solid," opines former MIIO agent Lucas St. Martin, my knife-wielding assailant. "Some of them need a bit of dialing in on playing nice with others, but they don't panic. And when it's crunch time, they've got no brakes. That's rare. A lot of troops never get down to hand-to-hand after basic training. Elementals are full-contact as a lifestyle choice. They don't hesitate to go hands-on and being punched in the face is like a polite invitation."
Hibbert, Sigmund's usual partner and late of the Togura Planetary Security Force, laughs delightedly. "When I'm facing down some troublemaker, having two and a half meters of Nova Cat behind me makes it a lot easier to de-escalate the situation without violence. And face it - they're noticeable. That means the rest of us have a better chance of staying covert, which is what we get paid to do a lot of the time. Also, for a high-threat detail, having a couple of toad suits in the pain wagon is a really good equalizer. Or remodeling tool."