Chapter XXXIV
Note: This chapter contains graphic violence. Reader's discretion is advised.
Sierra-3325, New Oslo,
Wolf Occupation Zone,
June 15, 3053
If there were any other way than a circle of equal, Abby would have it in a heartbeat.
The Wolves were hanging on in the middle of a siege, and they had just lost their commanding officer. Abby just pissed the Cobra Kai to the bitter end, so the mercenaries could ravage the firebase anytime. The last thing the Wolves needed was their two highest-ranking officers beating each other up to pulp.
But as stupid as it was, it was the way of the Clan.
"You have disgraced our Clan, Abby of the Wolf," Star Commander Fabio entered the circle with minimal clothing despite the subzero temperature. "You deliberately disregarded Star Captain Oleg's honor duel! You have turned us into stravag mercenaries and pirates that do not respect anything! I should have never agreed to do this honor duel! I should have put you to jail!"
"And what makes you think you have the authority to apprehend me?" Abby snarled. She stripped her ghost-bear tunic, the one Oleg gave her on her first day at New Oslo. "You, who choose to give way to the barbarians than to fight to the death in the name of the Wolf Clan? You, who cower behind honor and turn the other way when the Wolf Clan needs you the most?"
"Star Captain Oleg lost! The mercenary won! That is the fact, and that is what you should have given your respect to!" Fabio screamed. "I do not like it any less than you do, but that is the truth! You pissed on everybody's sense of honor by doing what you did!"
"The mercenaries do not deserve honor! Oleg should not have gone into the circle of equal with them in the first place!" Abby yelled back. The sinews in her neck bulged so hard they looked about to burst. "New Oslo belonged to Wolf Clan! This firebase belonged to Wolf Clan! I will not… NOT!... give it away to some freebirths! I am the one who should put you in jail for lacking the pride of being a Wolf Clan warrior!"
"This is not pride Abby. This is disgrace. This is stupidity."
"Then let us see who will prevail, my stupidity or your lack of pride as a Wolf," Abby spat and took a fighting stance. "You want to put me in jail? Fight for it, Fabio! At least show everybody you have what it takes to carry the banner of the Wolf Clan!"
Fabio didn't waste more time. He dropped to the ground for a quick leg sweep, but it was too easy for Abby. She just sidestepped the attack and unleashed a roundhouse kick at Fabio's face. The thud was so loud it was heard through the entire firebase. Fabio's head snapped backward, hard, then bobbed and weaved as if his neckbones were all mashed. His body sloshed into the snow.
But when Abby was ready to breathe relieve, Fabio pulled himself out of the snow. Blood streamed down his nose, but he took a fighting stance as if he didn't feel anything. He came forward jabbing, forcing Abby to dodge or block his attacks. His punched didn't have the energy as somebody who really wanted to win the fight. But when Abby started to think it was going to be easy, Fabio slammed his boot on her shin. Abby groaned as she leaned forward, and Fabio sunk his uppercut into her cheek.
Abby rarely got a hit on her face. She didn't even remember what it felt to get hit above her neck. Everything went white like seeing a thunderbolt right in front of her. Then came the pain. It was such great pain that her eyes became waterlogged. Her head felt heavy, and her cheek puffy. Although there was no blood, the damage was probably more severe than Fabio's nose.
But her stubbornness didn't allow her to rest. She pulled herself together and stood, drawing frenzied cheers and boo's from other Wolf comrades that forned the circle of equal. Fabio was in front of her, coming inbound with his jabs. Those jabs were weak because they were not intended to hurt. They were a screen for a big assault behind.
So when Fabio's jabs came, Abby put up her double-cover, allowing just two jabs grazing her arms before heaving her leg up. Her knee hammered Fabio's ribs. Fabio gagged and reeled, dropping his right hand to cover his battered side. Abby fired a left hook, crushing Fabio's unprotected right temple, then proceed with her elbow to strike Fabio behind his right ear. Fabio wobbled on his feet, losing a grip on reality as he slowly fell to the ground.
Abby felt the end of the fight was near, but she was underestimating Fabio's fighting spirit. She went down to grab Fabio's neck, and that was when Fabio grabbed her arm. His left leg slung upward to lock her right arm, and his right leg kicked Abby's right knee. Abby didn't have anywhere else but down. Her temple smashed the ground, and even the soft snow blanket failed to stop a bad gash right on the corner of her right eye.
Fabio still had the advantage. He wrapped his legs around Abby's right arm and stretched it outward. Abby felt every joint in her arm screamed in pain. She writhed to find some room to escape Fabio's death grip, but the more she moved, the farther he stretched her arm, to the point she felt she would lose it. Her joints were practically crying out in agony.
But Abby just wouldn't let herself to lose. If she had to lose an arm, so be it.
In a desperate move, Abby rolled herself backward. This maneuver quadrupled the pressure on her arm, and her shoulder couldn't take it. A loud pop reverberated, along with a shrill of cry from her mouth, vainly trying to weather the brutal pain on her dislocated shoulder. But the dislocation gave her enough room to maneuver. She rotated her arm, and Fabio lost grip of it.
Fabio tried to reposition himself, but Abby came at him with a vengeance. A vicious left hook to the jaw put him back on the ground. Abby mounted him and pinned him to the ground while her left arm smashed his face again. And again. And again. Then she grabbed his hair, pulled it up, then pushed his head as hard as she could. The back of his head smashed into the snowy ground, and that was the end of it. Fabio stopped moving.
Abby let out a scream, a mix of triumph and pain, and struggled to get up. There were some paramedics in Sierra-3325 that could fix her arm, but it had to wait. She had to seize the moment and won the respect – and loyalty – of the her fellow Wolfkins if she wanted to survive the mercenary later on.
"Anybody else?" she growled, weakly, but intensely. "Is there anybody else who want to question my authority?"
Any normal mechwarrior probably could beat Abby in one or two strikes, considering the damage she sustained, but her tenacity freaked out the rest of the Wolf mechwarriors. Nobody made a move.
"I am Acting Star Captain Abby of the Wolf," Abby said. "From now on, you carry my orders. Go back to your stations, warriors! We have a lot to do!"