Return of the Widow
Desert Inn Cantina
Planet Marmech
Pirates Haven, Periphery
October 3066
One can always tell losers. They are the ones with slack jaws and sorrowful eyes. The inhabitants of the cantina were no different. With their dusty clothes and un-kept beards, you could tell that they were miners who had just finished their shift and needed a drink to allow them a temporary escape from the harshness of reality before they returned to their dismal shacks at night.
Marmech would do that to you, it was nothing more than a dust bowl where people who had given up their lives for whatever reason would settle down and die in obscurity. The howling dust storms and the eternal hopelessness hit everybody who breathed the air.
An old man behind the edge of the bar passed an ice-cold beer in a dirty glass over to a young man wearing a light windbreaker and combat fatigues.
"You ain't from around here, are you?" The old bartender queried.
"No sir, I just happened to get on the wrong transport and so I got lost." John Ronson replied.
Ronson had just graduated from the NAIS, the New Avalon Institute of Science, the premier mechwarrior academy of the Federated Commonwealth. Eager to get started in proving himself to his Godfather, Duke Peter Desmond, He quickly hopped on the nearest transport, hoping it would take him to the Periphery world of Perignon, home to his Godfather's mercenary unit, the Stilettos.
But what happened was that somebody exchanged his ticket for one that would bring him to Marmech, a dry dusty planet with no value whatsoever. Ronson cursed at himself for being so naiveté with con men.
As he caressed his beer mug, wondering how he was going to get out of this mess, he overheard a conversation between two miners who had apparently one beer too many.
"Well mates! Here's to Marmech" The one with the scruffy beard said.
"What's so good about it? We are in a hellhole and we are gonna die here slowly." A man, with a moustache as white as snow, answered.
"Well, it beats getting involved in that civil war in the Commonwealth doesn't it? I've had my fill of war. Been a mechwarrior myself." Scruffy beard answered.
White moustache did nothing but grunt.
The scruffy beard continued, "Yes sir! I was serving in the DCMS right when the Black Widows took out our entire company. So here's to her: the Black Widow, Natasha Kerensky, may she rest in peace knowing that she was the greatest mechwarrior who ever lived!"
"Hear, hear." Moustache went along.
"She wasn't the greatest." The sound came from a voice on the far side of the room.
Ronson turned his head and noticed another bearded miner sitting at the back of the hall, apparently he had overheard of the conversation that these two drunks were having.
"What d'ya mean she wasn't the best?" Scruffy beard went on.
"She wasn't. It was a guy called the Bounty Hunter." The man in the far side of the hall answered.
"The Bounty Hunter? He's just a legend. He ain't real." Moustache went to Scruffy's defense.
"Oh he's real all right, he was the only one ever to beat the Widow in a one on one fight. In fact, he now uses that Marauder that the Widow was formerly using before she got her black Warhammer." the man answered.
Moustache and Scruffy beard didn't reply.
The man went on, trying to prove his point. "The Bounty Hunter appropriated her mech and painted it all green with money signs all over it. He disappeared shortly before the 4th Succession war. People said he got killed but I bet he is still out there somewhere. And God help anyone who gets in his way."
With that, the man got up and left the bar.
"C'mon Eddie, lets go." Moustache man said.
As both men left their table to head back to their tin shacks, Ronson could feel the fear in the air.
*****
13TH AMARIS SPECIAL FORCES GROUP
(COMSTAR DECLASSIFIED #A116314)
In order to understand the capabilities and the fearful reputation that this unit had during the Amaris Coup, you must first understand the life of it's commanding officer and how he came to be.
- Acolyte Dennis Surban 3018.
Born on the European subcontinent of Terra during the early 28th century, Christopher Fokker grew up wanting to become a soldier. After graduating at the top of his class in Sandhurst Military Academy, Fokker quickly rose up the ranks of the SLDF's 146th Royal Battlemech Division (the George S. Patton division) and was sent into a special RECONDO school where he again earned top honors. It was here that he earned his call sign: Meridian.
Fokker was then chosen as a special training officer for the SLDF's GUNSLINGER program in 2738. The GUNSLINGER program was a covert training unit that was formed in response to the "Hidden Wars" when the private armies of the Council Lords would secretly challenge the SLDF soldiers to private duels to the death. After being consistently beaten by Urizen Kurita's "ronin" (these were actually highly trained DEST commandos), the GUNSLINGER program was to submit carefully selected SLDF mechwarriors to intensive training using the most advanced simulators and the best instructors the SLDF could offer. As expected, Fokker excelled at this program and was soon the head instructor for the unit. However, events would drastically alter his life as well as the fate of the Star League.
It was in the GUNSLINGER program that Major Fokker met a young mechwarrior named Tanya Kerensky, who was a niece of the commanding general of the SLDF, Aleksandr Kerensky. The two fell in love, much to the chagrin of Tanya's father, Colonel Oleg Kerensky. Col. Kerensky did not approve of the young man's "peasant" upbringing and one night caught the couple kissing in his house. Quickly drawing his dagger, the enraged Colonel Oleg charged at Christopher, who used his elite training to throw the Colonel to the floor. However, Oleg's hand had slipped beneath his body and his own dagger thrust into his heart. Christopher Fokker had accidentally killed Tanya's father. Fokker was then quickly placed on court martial for murder and the trial was presided over by General Aleksandr Kerensky himself.
After pleading that it was an accident, Fokker's hopes turned to shock when the court found him guilty of killing a superior officer and sentenced to life imprisonment. That General Kerensky himself confirmed the sentence only added to his grief. During his third month in the prison, Fokker learned that Tanya had committed suicide while being three months pregnant with their child. As the months turned into years, Fokker's grief turned to rage at both General Kerensky and the Star League. He would make them all pay for destroying his life.
In 2749, Christopher Fokker and a few accomplices engineered an amazing escape from the SLDF military prison. By 2751 he had made his way to the Rim Worlds Republic. Stefan Amaris himself welcomed the renegade SLDF officer and offered him a commission in his own army, the Republican Armed Forces. Within two years, Fokker had gathered the best of the RAF officers and men and formed an elite commando unit, the 13th Amaris Special Forces Group. Using the same training techniques he used for the GUNSLINGER and RECONDO programs, Meridian (as Fokker was now called) turned a group of rag tag, inexperienced house soldiers into a unit that could rival the best of the SLDF.
The first mission of the 13th SFG was to steal data-plans and operational prototypes for several advanced SLDF battlemechs from the top-secret plant on Hesperus II. Using tried and true commando tactics, the soldiers of the 13th SFG neutralized the sentries and made off with the plans and the battlemechs before anyone knew what was really happening. Each member of the 13th SFG was fanatically loyal to Amaris and they quickly earned the nickname of the "Apostles" for their fanatical devotion to him.
In 2760, the Rim Worlds Republic and the Star League had signed a covert non-aggression pact due to the deteriorating situation with both the Periphery and the other Council Lords. As a consequence, the SLDF sent advisers to train the Republican Armed Forces in advance military tactics as well as providing state-of-the-art military hardware. Within 2 years, the Republican Armed Forces were nearly the equal in terms of training and equipment to the SLDF. In early 2765, while most of the SLDF units were engaged along the Periphery, Republican units began to outnumber them within the planets in the Terran Hegemony itself. With elite units such as the 13th Amaris SFG now covertly in Terra, Stefan Amaris knew his time had come.
The Amaris Coup of 2766 came as a complete surprise to the SLDF forces in the Hegemony, with only skeleton crews manning their posts; most SLDF units were captured with hardly a shot being fired. The Imperial Palace itself, however, presented a formidable task. Guarded by the elite Royal Black Watch Regiment, the royal guards of the Emperor would fight fanatically in his defence. Some historians had said that Amaris had decided to stage the coup on a whim, but many more believed that it was a carefully premeditated plan and that Meridian might have actually planned the Terra operation himself.
Using commando tactics, the Apostles quickly engaged the bulk of the Black Watch Regiment near the Imperial Spaceport and destroyed them in a two-hour running battle. Most historians believed that the swift destruction of the elite Black Watch Regiment caused many other SLDF units on Terra to falter and thus enabled Amaris and a few of his Apostles to storm the palace and capture the young Emperor.
As Kerenksy and the SLDF began it's decade long campaign to retake the Terran Hegemony, Amaris pleaded with the other Council Lords to aid him in his cause. Amaris felt that the Star League had abused the freedom loving peoples of the Periphery for centuries and that killing the Emperor was the only way for the tyranny to end. With his pleas falling to deaf ears, Amaris hysterically vowed that if he could defeat the SLDF, he would also destroy the other Council Lords. Meridian was more pragmatic as he grimly prepared for the defense of Terra.
Despite being outnumbered by SLDF forces, the RAF fought as if possessed, giving ground by the inch. But despite heroic efforts, the more numerous SLDF forces smashed their way into Terra in 2779. While other RAF units were attempting to flee, the 13th prepared for a fanatical defense of the Palace. As the SLDF forces surrounded the palace, the Apostles fought like mad, killing four SLDF mechwarriors for every Apostle killed. However, superior numbers ultimately won out and the last of the Apostles died outside the palace gates. When Kerensky, in his Orion mech headed towards the steps of the Palace, Kerensky's mech was toppled from a point-blank range attack by Meridian's Exterminator battlemech. Just as Meridian closed in for the kill, his mech was destroyed by a lucky blast shot from the back by General Dechevillier, Kerensky's second-in-command. Analysts believed that if it were not for the lucky shot of General Dechevillier, Kerensky might have been killed and his death would have radically changed the future of the Inner-Sphere.
In the aftermath of the battle, SLDF units searching through the rubble never did find Meridian's body and some say that he survived. But even in his mysterious death hundreds of years ago, the name of Meridian garners a healthy respect to all scholars of mechwarrior lore.
*****
Acheron Ravine
Santander V
Ghost Bear Dominion
August 3058
We make our stand here. Thought Helmar Valasek as he signaled his two surviving companions to power up their mechs.
It seemed to be a rather unfitting end to a pirate commander. Known for his cunning and treachery, Helmar Valasek once ruled this entire planet and made parents tell stories about him in order to make unruly children behave. How they must have forgotten him now.
Almost ten years, Living like cockroaches and fighting for our lives. Valasek's thoughts lamented on what might have been.
Less than ten years ago, Valasek had almost a regiment of cutthroats under his command, raiding other planets for mech parts and whatever resources he felt were needed. All that came to a crashing end when the Smoke Jaguar Clan made planetfall and proceeded to destroy his motley band.
Valasek did well against the Clans at first, baiting a trinary of mechs to his booby-trapped dropships, obliterating half of them and massacring the rest by sheer numbers. The sheer audacity of it! No one had ever thought of it until he did. And it would have worked against anyone else but these Clans seemed superhuman and possessed vast armies. Even his vaunted gang of killers had eventually succumbed through sheer attrition.
He did everything he could, used every trick he learned and still they kept coming. First the Jaguars and now another Clan sought his destruction, the Ghost Bears.
Valasek's thoughts kept straying as he powered up his captured MadCat. Despite being a superior machine to the mechs he piloted before, it had patchwork armor and its right arm was missing, blasted off by an opposing Ghost Bear mech before he and his companions were able to bring it down with a massed volley of fire several days ago.
His two surviving companions, GrimJeff and Crazy Larry, were at the end of their ropes as well. They were the last survivors and were determined to go down fighting. Not as if they had a choice since the Ghost Bears had announced by HPG carrier wave that there would be no mercy to any bandit and anyone who tried to help them.
But then again, it wasn't like anyone could help them. After their dropship was shot down by Jaguar fighters while attempting to take off from the planet many years ago, they were able to steer the dying ship into one of the uninhabited regions of this bone dry world. The Jaguars thought they had rid of his band and so therefore left the world to the Ghost Bears. Out of sheer desperation and hunger, Valasek's band ambushed a Ghost Bear merchant convoy looking for farming areas. It took the Ghost Bears several months to realize that there were still bandits out in the badlands and began to dispatch Solahma units for training in the art of hunting.
Valasek hated it. He hated being hunted, running like a scared jackrabbit. It wasn't fear but rather disgust that drove him on. He didn't want to be the prey. All his life he was the predator, and now, oh the shame of it all.
Although the sensors on his MadCat were damaged from the last encounter with the Ghost Bears, it still functioned enough to give him a semi-accurate picture of the forces arrayed out against him.
"This is Valasek, two stars bearing down 1'o clock low." He quickly stubbed the microphone button in his cockpit.
"Understood." That was GrimJeff in his battered Archer.
"Yes." Crazy Larry's Black Hawk acknowledged as well.
Valasek knew this would be the final battle. GrimJeff's broken leg hadn't fully healed and his mech's Long Range Missile Launchers were practically empty. Crazy Larry had been burnt two weeks ago when a coolant pod exploded near him and burnt over 60% of his body. Larry's Black Hawk barely had any armor left and was wobbly from the lack of coordination due to Larry's injuries.
The first bear mech came into view as it crashed into the valley floor. It was a grey-colored Grizzly battlemech. Despite it being a second-line mech for Solahma units, it carried enough firepower to take them all down.
Both Valasek and GrimJeff fired as the Bear mech got into range. Valasek's Lasers melted parts of the Grizzly's torso but didn't penetrate its thick armor. As the Ghost Bear mech pivoted to face him, the last of GrimJeff's missiles slammed into its side, showering it with miniature explosions and nearly toppling it. The Clansman would not give up however, firing the Grizzly's Gauss cannon that gutted Valasek's MadCat.
Alarms started to whine in Valasek's cockpit as instruments informed him of an imminent engine breach. The solid metal slug of the Gauss Rifle, which was essentially a cannon propelled by magnetic energy, smashed through the MadCat's flimsy armor and into the engine core. Valasek struggled mightily with the controls as he fought to keep the dying MadCat alive and upright.
At that moment, Crazy Larry used his Black Hawk's jump jets to make a "Death from Above" attack on the Ghost Bear mech. With a boost that propelled his 50-ton Black Hawk into the air, Crazy Larry did what any follower of Valasek would have done to save his master's life, he drove his mech's legs into the swaying Ghost Bear Grizzly and succeeded in toppling it. The Black Hawk then continued its assault on the fallen Grizzly by repeatedly punching and kicking it, knocking out sheets of armor and tearing into the internal machinery.
Valasek allowed himself a grim smile as he rightened his mech. Perhaps we may yet see another day.
But that one flicker of hope was extinguished in a split second, as the Grizzly was able to break free of the Black Hawk and fired its Large Pulse laser right into Larry's cockpit. The pilot-less Black Hawk quickly crumpled on itself as the Grizzly got up and continued shooting at it with its lasers. GrimJeff apparently got the message and took off running the opposite direction, as fast as his Archer would take him.
Valasek cursed his retreating companion, saying he would fry him alive when he got his hands on him as he toggled the trigger on his lasers. The Madcat's lasers fired straight into the back of the Grizzly, finally burning through the thin rear torso armor and sent the Ghost Bear mech down.
Another Ghost Bear mech entered the valley floor and fired at the retreating Archer, bringing it down as well. This new mech was a Kodiak, another powerful second-line mech from the Ghost Bear arsenal. The pilot of the Kodiak made the mech raise its arms, giving Valasek the ultimate insult: one on one combat. It tore into Valasek's pride because the Kodiak was signaling to its teammates that it wanted Valasek all to itself.
As Valasek prepared for his destiny, a loud crashing noise came through the ravine, where the Kodiak expected its teammates to begin assembling.
From the side of Valasek's vision came a most unholy sight: instead of more Ghost Bear mechs, strange machines came lumbering into the clearing. Valasek could hardly believed his eyes as he saw monstrous metal machines that seemed to have come from a Heironymous Bosch painting.
One mech had ostrich-like legs but had a humanoid torso that ended in a demon-like head. Another mech followed it. This one had monstrous claws for arms and had a torso assembly that resembled a bat's wings. The pilot of the Kodiak was also stunned, expecting his star mates and instead watching as metallic devils came leaping from the gates of hell.
Valasek recovered his senses first and made his choice. He overloaded his lasers and fired it into the Kodiak as he charged his damaged MadCat head on into the Ghost Bear mech. The sheer audacity of the attack gutted the Kodiak but it was able to tear the Madcat in half, just as Valasek was able to fire a large laser into the Kodiak's cockpit.
Both mechs came down as the other, demon like mechs just stood there as if watching two insects squirm on the ground. Valasek quickly unstrapped himself from his chair and got out of his cockpit towards the pilot of the Kodiak who was himself able to eject before the laser hit the Kodiak's cockpit. Valasek's thirst for revenge as well as hunger was satiated as he tore out the clansman's heart and ate it in three big chews.
After his frenzy had died down, Valasek wiped part of the blood from his mouth and waited but it seemed that the observing metal demons did nothing. All he could feel was the hum of their engines.
It was then that a lone figure emerged from underneath the shadows of the towering monstrosities above him. It seemed a man, but was heavily wrapped in a dark cloak that Valasek could hardly see the outlines of his body. The face of the man seemed covered in a brown, leather-like mask that was fashioned in the shape of a grinning death's head. As the tall figure loomed over Valasek's kneeling body, it smelled of leather and brimstone.
"Ah Helmar, it has been a long time." The figure's voice carried a strange accent to it, as if it was the devil himself.
"You know of me?" Valasek could barely speak.
"Oh yes I do. You were one of my lieutenants once." Again the strange accent.
It was then that everything came into focus for the first time in over 20 years for Helmar Valasek. "My Lord? You have returned?"
"Yes, and I need your services once more." The answer came almost as a whisper, but one that carried power.
For the first time in nearly a decade, the smile came back to Helmar Valasek. It was the smile of the predator, the cutthroat, the killer. "How may I do your bidding, Lord?"
"Follow me." The figure turned and started walking towards the mechs.
Valasek followed. Once again he would be doing what he always wanted to do.