Eisenhugel Preserve
Hohenems, Clan Wolf Occupation Zone
September 19, 3043
Warrior Janos kept his eyes squarely on his sensory equipment as he slowly walked his Pouncer OmniMech through the rugged countryside. That antiquated traitor had ‘negotiated’ with the ilKhan to make this Trial more ‘realistic’ and less an arena competition . . . in her words. And the ilKhan had agreed. She had designated this 50 kilometer by 50 kilometer section of thick forests and rugged hills and narrow waterways as the Trial Grounds . . . and Natasha Kerensky was playing for keeps.
The former Wolf and former Dragoon was somewhere in the dense forests—and the native iron ores contained within the ridgelines and hillocks was playing havoc with Janos’ sensor systems. He broke into a clearing and snarled as he still could not register her OmniMech on his radar, his magnetic anomaly detector (which was going haywire from all of the false contact reports generated by the ore), or the seismic sensors. He did take a moment to appreciate the rainbow formed by the waterfall that plunged fifteen meters from the bluff above into a wide, shallow pool, before the tributary it spawned split off to flow downslope towards the distant sea.
A sensor scan revealed nothing and turned away to make yet another pass through the foliage. And at that moment, alarms began to scream in his cockpit—and Janos blanched.
A 75-ton Timber Wolf emerged from the cavern hidden behind the waterfall, and the war-machine was facing him square towards his exposed back. Janos stood on his jump jet pedals, but he was too late as one golden beam and then a second burnt through his weak rear armor and caution alerts began to beep and hoot and flash in the cockpit—and then forty louvered panels covering the missile cells on the Timber Wolf’s twin launchers flashed open and thirty-six guided rockets slammed into the holes punched through his woefully inadequate rear armor.
His systems died as the engine went into emergency shutdown, and Janos gritted his teeth as the unstable Pouncer—with no power, no hydraulics, and no longer any stabilizing gyroscope—twisted and teetered and fell to the ground with an impact that left his molars aching. And then that flat-black painted Timber Wolf with the crimson hour-glass symbol of Clan Widowmaker on its nose passed him by.
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The Ice Ferret sped through the thick woods towards the last reported location of the Pouncer . . . Warrior Helena at the controls. She weaved expertly through the trees and then she broke past the undergrowth and the old growth timber and detected her opponent waiting for her atop a ridge. She raised his right arm PPC and fired a bolt, but the Timber Wolf twisted away as it back into a hull down position—and it flushed its missile racks in reply before sending two beams of coherent light tearing into the armor of her medium-weight OmniMech.
Helena fought to retain her feet and she pressed the throttle forward, closing the range to bring her other weapons into play . . . but her opponent kept backing down the reverse slope and she lost contact!
She cursed the ore which prevented an accurate MAD-scan, but the vibration sensors showed that the Timber Wolf had picked up the pace. She was running! Natasha Kerensky was running. Helena howled as she slammed the throttle to the stops and soared over the ridge . . . only to see the dense forest a few hundred meters in front of her; she didn’t stop, however, she kept going in pursuit until her threat sensors detected the massive missile launcher from behind her!
Helena twisted the Ice Ferret, and her face reddened as the rear camera showed Natasha’s OmniMech running in place beneath an outcropping of rock—she didn’t have time to curse as forty missiles slammed into her, and then two powerful lasers severed her right arm . . . and her main weapon. The young Warrior completed her turn and she charged back into towards the heavy OmniMech, but Natasha didn’t move; she stood perfectly still and only adjusted the angle of her pod mounted lasers, which streaked out and clipped the Ice Ferret’s right thigh. Helena triggered her last two weapons, but the two small Short-Range Missiles failed to lock, and the single ER Small Laser just burnt a shallow gouge across the Timber Wolf’s thick nose.
The hip of her ‘Mech destroyed, Helena slammed into the ground, despite all that she tried to keep it standing, and Natasha Kerensky lowered her weapon pods a fraction and fired again and again and again, until the medium-weight machine simply shut down from the accumulated damage.
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Karl sneered at other two Warriors who had failed to stop this old decrepit dezgra surat who had defeated them. Surely she would not fare as well against his Nova. He had spotted her OmniMech during his drop, standing in open ground and waiting for him—approaching her would offer him no cover, no concealment, and he would be vulnerable to her weapons until he closed the range. But she had to have to taken damage from the previous fights. And once he closed, nothing could stand against the combined force of his onboard armament . . . NOTHING!
He cleared the last ridge soaring over on his jump jets—and he reeled as twin beams of golden light tore into his right arm! How had she seen him approach? But that question went unanswered and Karl swore as he realized that she had severed his right arm, along with half his guns! He charged down the slope as she just stood there and then the missile racks blossomed with fire and dozens of explosions tore across the Nova’s forward face—two even spider webbed the cockpit canopy, but didn’t manage to penetrate. Then she fired the lasers again—and this time his left arm took both hits, which left him without any guns. Karl came to a stop and he simply stared at his opponent . . . she didn’t have a targeting computer, she couldn’t have aimed those shots! It simply wasn’t possible! And yet . . . she had.
“Eject,†an amused voice came over the radio.
“You have won, go and do not add to my shame,†Karl answered, and she laughed. She laughed.
“You’re all a bunch of fools, Warriors. There are no lethal weapons, only lethal people. True-born, free-birth, young, old, it makes no difference, if you are one of those lethal people.†Her lasers reached out again and tore into his chest, and then a second time, and the Nova crashed into the ground. “The fight is not finished as long a real Warrior has breath in her body—this is not Trial, boy, this is War.â€
And the Black Widow moved off.
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The Stormcrow was Natasha’s toughest fight, and the two circled each other as the Black Widow held the range as much as she could, while the Warrior fighting her tried to close. Lasers and missiles criss-crossed the battlefield, and the Timber Wolf’s armor had been weakened—but the lighter Stormcrow simply could not take the pounding of missile flight after missile flight, and the blazing icepicks of armor-ripping death her Large Lasers represented.
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Star Commander Heinrich Mattlov felt as if the Black Widow was leading him into a trap; he slowed the pace of his Mad Dog and he consulted his map. Her transponder was on and flashing; she was ahead of him and stationary—but she had also destroyed the OmniMechs of his Star mates rather handily. He moved cautiously and through the thick woods he could see here standing there, just waiting for him.
His radio crackled. “Are true-borns admitted to the Ebon Keshik this cowardly today? Fifty years ago when I received my Bloodname, at least they had balls.â€
Heinrich roared and he threw caution to the winds and charged forward, his large pulse lasers spitting fire and his missile launchers roaring—but the Black Widow was moving sideways and her lasers were returning fire . . . only the lasers. One hit each of the legs of Heinrich’s Mad Dog, and he snarled as half of his own missiles went true, along with one of large pulse lasers at extreme range. My legs have more armor than that, he thought!
That was when he charged straight into the field of FASCAM mines Natasha had laid with her final missile salvoes. Explosions ripped into his OmniMech’s feet and ankles and shins and knees—and the Star Commander felt the shuddering crack as the skeletal structure broke in two, and the ‘Mech fell. But he did not eject, he held down the trigger and sent another missile flight flying, even as his cockpit landed atop another mine.
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Star Captain Edward Banacek laughed as he sent first one and then the second ER PPC bolt home against the Warrior before him. He was bathed in sweat due to the sweltering heat the weapons produced, but he maneuvered his Hellbringer through the woods expertly. The Timber Wolf facing him was heavier, but Kerensky had depleted her missile ammunition and suffered damage at the hands of the prior Warriors to face her. She had no chance, not in this fight against a pristine—if non-upgraded Hellbringer Prime. Her lasers lanced out, tearing through Banacek’s thin armor, but in answer he fired one of his PPCs and a flight of LRMs; lowering the heat burden on his machine—and seven of those missiles and the PPC bolt landed on her left arm and tore away half of her remaining firepower.
“Surrender, Star Colonel Kerensky,†he transmitted. “You have defeated five—but you shall not defeat me.â€
“I don’t give in that easily, Star Captain,†she answered as she charged forward, her Timber Wolf tearing through the underbrush and she fired her last remaining weapon, connecting squarely against the chest of the Hellbringer. Banacek returned fire, once again with twin ER PPC bolts lancing out and tearing away her last weapon system. He smiled . . . she was done for. His armor had been thinned, but she had not even penetrated anywhere on his front, although the little remaining was barely more than foil.
But Natasha didn’t seem to realize she had lost, and Banacek paled as she kept charging forward, transforming into a 75-ton battering ram moving at 86.4 kilometers per hour! The Star Captain hit the override and he salvoed every weapon he had, tearing into the rugged OmniMech bearing down on him—he didn’t even take the time for a target lock; he just judged her rate of closure and opened up with all of his weapons.
Sirens screamed and Banacek gasped against the heat spike as his OmniMech went into automatic shutdown, but Natasha didn’t slow, despite the missiles and PPC bolts and lasers and machine-guns ripping away chucks of armor from her Timber Wolf's frame.
And then she slammed into Banacek’s Hellbringer, and the lighter war-machine crumpled, knocked over and trod on by the heavy round feet of Kerensky's Timber Wolf; it’s thin armor already weakened was torn asunder, internal components were ripped apart and shattered beneath the weight bearing down atop of them, and emergency lights began to flash showing weapons and engines and gyros and a dozen other systems disabled. Banacek winced as the 65-ton heavy OmniMech slammed into the ground on its back, battered and broken, and defeated. And then his radio—operating on battery power—crackled one last time.
“The fight’s not over until the widow-lady sings. Na-na-na-na. Na-na-na-na. Hey hey-ey, goodbye. And now, your fight is over,†she laughed. “Six for six; you know, in the old days, they would’ve given me a Galaxy!"
