International Zone
Solaris City, Solaris 7
Lyran Alliance
November 3066
On the day when three front-line clusters of Clan Jade Falcon made planetfall on Solaris City, panic and general chaos was the order of the hour. Ordinary people would be faced with two choices when raiders would strike: either evacuate to the outskirts and hope that they had a home to return to or hunker down in their basements and hope that the raiders would not come knocking on their front door.
The International Zone was aptly named for despite the fact that Solaris City was a microcosm of the Inner-Sphere itself, people of all creeds and nationalities were welcome in that part. It was also the center of the planetary government and therefore a prime target for any would-be raiding party. It was therefore decreed that in times of emergency, it would be evacuated.
Explosions rocked the streets and a few hardy bystanders that were not caught in the initial sweep would either try to make their way out or become opportunists, stealing what they could. As fear and panic hung in the air, an olive-drab jeep stopped in front of Apollo Street.
The jeep's driver, a man named Troy Montroc toggled the dashboard radio. "Looks like the Space Port has just fallen. I can't get any units stationed there."
Karen leaped out of the front seat onto the pavement. "Okay, better head on back and get to your mech."
"Karen, we've just disobeyed a direct order from Lieutenant Ravin and now we could face a firing squad when we get back there." John Ronson said as he leapt out of the jeep as well.
Karen's fiery red hair danced in the breeze. "This is where the Falcons will mass their forces in. I'm going in there."
"What? The museum? What could the Falcons possibly want in there?" Montroc asked.
"I think we may need your Stealth Hawk here Montroc. Get back to the storage bay and get it moving." Karen said.
Ronson had had enough. "Karen! Kelly Ravin told us to get our mechs north of the Solaris River! That's where we are supposed to link up with the stables to coordinate a defense."
"Trust me. This is where the Falcons are going to concentrate their forces. If the stables stay up north of the river, it would give the Clanners unfettered access to this area and they will succeed in taking what they were looking for in the first place. I need you two to power up your mechs and cover St. Helens Avenue, that's the only street big enough for the Falcons to bring their mechs in. If you can convince any other friendlies to come as well, so much the better." Karen was adamant.
"Dammit Karen. I don't like this." Ronson was fuming.
"You don't have to. Just do as I say." Was Karen's reply.
Ronson got back into the jeep and faced Montroc." Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!"
As Montroc drove the jeep, heading back to the hangars, he smiled. "She can sure tell people what to do."
"Shut up and drive. And when you get into your mech, take off that silly Heavy Guards uniform!" Ronson was still furious at himself for not being able to stand up to Karen. But she had an air of command about her that he couldn't quite stand up to.
Karen watched them go. She hoped that they would get back here as soon as possible or all might just as well be lost. She quickly turned towards the museum and came face to face with an angry trooper of the Solaris Militia.
"We've been told to shoot all looters!" Said the soldier as he swung his rifle butt at her.
With a speed of a cat, Karen quickly blocked the soldier's rifle and gave him a wicked kick to his chest that sent him sprawling across the concrete pavement. She quickly continued up the steps and into the main lobby of the museum.
One of the most popular tourist spots in Solaris City, the Battlemech Museum covered almost an acre, filled with displays of technology as well as valuable artifacts from the Succession Wars. As such, the Solaris government spared no expense in making this the most elaborate museum in all of the Inner-Sphere. The dozen glass doors of the main lobby led into an ornate hall, richly decorated by sculptures of mechs and had floors of solid marble. Two massive, marble stairs that led to the upper level flanked this grand entrance hall. The upper displays could be seen from open balconies on the ground floor.
As Karen stopped, momentarily distracted by a flood of memories that nearly overwhelmed her as if she had been here before, the barrel of a laser rifle poked itself along the side of her head.
"Looks like we got ourselves a looter." Said a Militia soldier as he held his rifle point-blank to her head.
Karen was cool and collected. "I'm not a looter. Put your rifle down."
"Oh yeah? Give me one good reason why I should." The trooper answered.
Karen tapped the rifle away from her head with her forearm swing and spun around to deliver a roundhouse kick that caught the trooper's jaw line, just above his Kevlar vest and below his helmet. The unconscious trooper dropped to the floor along with his unused laser rifle.
"What the hell is going on?" A uniformed sergeant of the Solaris Militia that came out of an adjoining room queried.
"Sergeant, set your men up to cover this front lobby. The doors are too narrow for mechs but elementals would definitely attack this point." Karen said.
The Sergeant was aghast. "Elementals? We're only supposed to protect the museum against looters. Oh my God! This wasn't part of our mandate."
"Sergeant! You have a duty to this city! That's why you wear that uniform!" Karen had at last lost her temper.
The Sergeant quickly recovered. "And who are you supposed to be?"
"I'm part of the mech stables that has volunteered to help defend this city. I was put in charge of this area." Karen lied. She was wearing her mechwarrior gear minus the cooling vest and helmet but hoped that it would carry her bluff.
"Okay, fine. Can we expect any reinforcements? Our radio went dead about an hour ago." Looked like he swallowed the lie.
Karen rolled her eyes. "Not for awhile. I need you to set up your strongpoint along the base of the stairs. Find some cover and I hope you've got support weapons."
"Yes, we have two heavy machine guns. Corporal Mallick!" The sergeant barked.
Within a few minutes, the militia had set up two strong-points at the base of the stairs. Office desks were piled on top of each other to provide some cover as well as a base for the machine guns. Karen hoped that it would be enough. Just as they had finished setting up the machine guns, explosions could already be heard outside the museum.
"Good luck Sergeant." Karen said as she bounded up the stairs, not waiting for a reply.
As soon as Karen got to the top flight that led to the second floor she could hear the clatter of the machine guns. It seemed that she didn't have too much time at all. As Karen ran along massively arched hallways supported by massive granite pillars, she kept trying to remember anything of significance from her jumble of incomplete memories, she would sometimes pause at a glass display in order to somehow jumpstart her amnesiac brain, but the true purpose of what had drawn her here remained quite elusive. The screams, gunfire and explosions coming from the ground floor did little to ease her mind.
Rounding the corner of the left wing, she quickly stared at a glass display along the far side of the north wall and stopped cold. Behind glass panels stood an old, wooden antique chair. Made of heavy oak, it had leather cushions sewn into it and was encrusted with jewels. It was this artifact that had drawn her to this museum but she could still not understand why.
For a few seconds, Karen stood there, confused. As she stared at it, transfixed, Karen noticed a reflection behind her. She turned and crouched. And barely dodged an elemental's laser beam which burned a massive hole on the glass partition and consequently, the chair. Karen tried to get away from the armored toad but she slipped and fell on her back upon the smooth stone floor. The Clan elemental was quickly upon her as it crouched down and drove its armored claw to stomp her face. Karen quickly bobbed to the left as the elemental's claw cracked the granite floor where her face should have been. But the armored infantry of the Clans still had part of her clothing pinned on its metallic boots and it would just be a matter of time till it had gotten to her.
At that moment a loud noise akin to a giant metal sheet being dropped from a skyscraper nearly tore out Karen's eardrums. The Elemental then stooped over her and stayed still as she noticed a hole on the top of its armored head.
"Come on." The Brigand said as he dragged her out from underneath the fallen behemoth.
As Karen got up she realized what the chair was. "It's the Amaris throne."
The Brigand nodded.
"But what would the Clans want to do with- look out!" Karen screamed as another Clan elemental leapt up onto the second floor balcony in front of them.
With the speed of a mamba, the Brigand pivoted and fired his gauss rifle. The solid, armor-piercing slug hit the elemental's visor dead center and made a three-inch hole in which a black, gelatinous liquid oozed out. The elemental swayed sideways for a few seconds and then fell over the balcony as its massive weight tore through the marble columns and into the floor it fell with a massive thud.
"We've got to go." The Brigand said as a matter of fact.
Karen turned back towards the Amaris throne. "What about that?"
The Brigand held out a radio detonator in his left hand and activated it. A split-second later, the Amaris throne was obliterated by a combination of high-explosive and thermite.
"Go!" The Brigand gestured towards the rear.
Karen didn't need any more prodding. She ran in that direction.
As the battle in and around the Battlemech museum raged, a figure was enjoying the quiet breeze and the fluttering birds on the grounds of the Running Fox Country Club, in the Black Hills sector that was overlooking the downtown area were the fighting was taking place. Of course since the Club was deserted, the tall man with the flowing white hair had the grounds all to himself.
The man quickly activated a hand-held communicator. "This is Meridian, is the throne secured?"
"Yes M' lord. We stole it last night and replaced it with the fake one." A voice on his communicator answered.
"Well done. I will be in the rendezvous point within the hour." Meridian turned the communicator off.
Judging from the songs, it was the bird's mating season, he was sure.
Location Unknown
Planet Talos
Beyond the Rimward Edge of LA and FWL
December 3066
Feigning unconsciousness, Karen tried her best to analyze where she was and attempting to find a tactical solution to her current dilemma. From what her senses could tell it seemed that she was located in an underground cavern. The walls apparently had been hewn smooth from solid rock. Vast stone pillars reached up to a high vaulted ceiling where embedded lights seemed to emanate from it, casting long shadows onto the concrete floor below. Along the stone walls were hung banners which symbols that she had never seen before.
It was apparently a function room of some kind. Karen did not have the full range of her vision for she was on her side, lying on the floor, her hands and feet bound from behind. At the corner of her eye, she sensed that there was a raised stone platform behind her.
It had all happened too quickly. It was no more than a few days ago when a combined SLDF and mercenary force landed on the Planet Talos, a supposedly uninhabited planet far across in the deep Periphery. Located in the vast gulf between the Lyran Alliance and the Free Worlds League, this planet seemed the least likely place to deploy 3 SLDF regiments plus mercenaries, including Karen's parent unit, the Stilettos.
But that was before word got out that scouts from the Explorer Corps had uncovered something ancient and long-hidden from the eyes of both the Inner-Sphere and the Clans. After the debriefing by the commanding officer of the Stilettos on the incident in Solaris 7, Victor Steiner-Davion as well as Khan Phelan Kell ordered the multi-regimental strike force to this planet. Things went well until the strike force had lost contact with their jumpship support and a few hours later, their entire aerospace cordon came under attack from unknown enemies. Once the SLDF task force lost command of the air, all hell broke loose. Two SLDF regiments had reported making contact with an unknown adversary in the mountains 200km south of the LZ. Within a few hours, contact was lost with all forces south of the security perimeter.
And then the demons came.
Strange mechs, of designs never seen and which resembled denizens from hell came and smashed their way into the perimeter. These mechs apparently had access to Clan technology and yet used devastating tactics that were akin to Inner-Sphere guile. The Stilettos and the surviving SLDF units attempted to establish a defence and held on for a few hours until the rear areas, including grounded dropships as well as the headquarters units, were destroyed by several nuclear explosions.
Karen, along with Montroc, Ravin and Ronson had a position north of the landing zone and were quickly attacked by the strange new mechs. Their lance put up a good fight but they were overwhelmed in the end. Karen had seen Kelly Ravin sacrifice herself, drawing off at least half a dozen of the enemy before she was killed in her cockpit. Karen herself was knocked out after destroying three of the demon-like mechs that attacked her. She did not know the fate of the rest of the lance.
Karen shed a single tear from her eye for the memory of her few friends. Despite the Brigand's suggestion that she stay with him, she had decided to accompany the Stilettos on this mission. She did not want to admit it but she had a fondness for her unit. She did well, leading them in an unauthorized engagement against the Jade Falcons on Solaris 7. Now all that seemed to matter little.
As Karen lamented on her loss, the edges of a boot appeared in front of her face. "Ah, my little missy is now awake."
Karen opened her eyes wide and stared back at the leering face of Helmar Valasek.
"Oh you thought I was dead my dear? I'm afraid it is your unit that is dead. Hahaha!" Valasek roared with laughter.
Karen spit in the bandit king's face. Valasek snarled and was about to beat her until a voice spoke from behind her.
"No, Valasek. Prop her up so that she may gaze upon her benefactors." It was a voice that spoke almost in whisper yet carried force.
With a growl, Valasek grabbed Karen by the shoulders and made her get to a kneeling position. With a new angle to her vision, Karen quickly scanned the room.
Behind her there seemed to be a raised dais in which a seated figure was looking at her. Sitting on what seemed to be the Amaris throne, a masked figure that could only be described as the devil himself could be seen. Standing beside the figure on the throne was another man, this one with long, flowing white hair, yellow eyes and dressed in an all-black jumpsuit. Helmar Valasek grunted and took a seat alongside the figure on the throne.
The masked figure turned to the yellow-eyed man. "Meridian, what is the current situation report?"
"Our units are now commencing mopping up operations m' Lord. The SLDF task force has been destroyed, we are pursuing two battalions into the mountains 600km to the northwest of our position." Meridian answered.
"Call off the pursuit, reprogram the Reagan defense pod to plaster that mountain range with 500 megatons." The masked figure said.
"At once m' Lord." Meridian activated a handheld communicator and spoke into its receiver.
"You bastard." Karen glared at the masked man.
With a catlike grace, the masked figure bounded from his throne and in a split second he towered inches away from Karen. Dressed in what seemed an identical black jumpsuit as his other two companions, the rest of the figure's body was obscured by a black cloak. The mask on his face smelled faintly of leather and had a dull tan color to it. The mask was fashioned in the shape of a skull, with darker pigments along the eye sockets in which bright green eyes stared back at Karen.
"My prodigal daughter, you have returned to us." Said the masked figure.
"I'm not your daughter, you lunatic." Karen spat back.
For a moment the eyes behind the mask seemed to radiate extreme anger but it was quickly extinguished through sheer force of will. "Do you know who you are? Let me explain. You are the clone of the Black Widow herself. Natasha Kerensky."
Karen stared at him. She was speechless.
"Ah, the first of my clones! We let you go so that we could see just how much you could have survived on your own. And you did remarkably well. It seems that this experiment is a smashing success!"
Karen's memories began to come back. She remembered the training sessions, the mess halls and the lectures of Meridian. It seemed that this figure had placed some sort of trigger words that manifested itself deep in her subconscious. It was all coming back now. She grimaced in pain as her memory blocks began to unravel.
The figure bent down at her and said. "Well now, isn't that better my dear?"
"So you're this great leader everyone's been talking about. I never met you before." Karen looked up.
"Of course. The only one who ever shown themselves to you is Meridian and the other instructors. As for me, well I cannot take this mask off because it has been grafted to my face." The figure replied.
"Let me guess, you are an Amaris." Karen said.
"Well now that is quite good. Yes. I am the twelfth replicant of Stefan Amaris himself. People know me in another name. I am sometimes called the Bounty Hunter. "
Karen gasped.
"Oh come now, surely you have suspected this all along? I'm sure you have. Do you know what this mask on my face is my dear Natasha? Let me tell you. This mask has been fashioned from the very skin of Richard Cameron himself. The last Emperor of the Terran Hegemony!" The Bounty Hunter tilted his head back and laughed.
The Bounty Hunter continued. "And we will now play our final act, we will destroy this new Star League as well as the Clans. And I shall do it through you, Natasha, yes, I am creating replicants as we speak and within a decade I shall unleash hundreds of Black Widows to do battle against them all!"
As the Bounty Hunter uttered those words, huge explosions could be felt coming from outside of the chamber reverberated across the hall. Meridian quickly went to his master's side and activated his communicator. Helmar Valasek got up and looked around.
"Well?" The Bounty Hunter asked Meridian.
"Static. I am getting interference from somewhere." Meridian replied.
As Meridian finished his sentence, two men came out from the shadows on the far side of the hall. One man had shoulder-length black hair, he was cradling a gauss rifle in his muscular arms and had a granite-like face. The other man was dressed impeccably in an old Terran cloak that hid the rest of his body, he had a roguishly handsome face with long brown hair combed and tied in ponytail fashion as well as pork-chop sideburns.
"Well, well, well if it isn't the Brigand and the Gentleman. I should have expected this." The Bounty Hunter said nonchalantly as he activated his force shield.
Meridian pulled out his death wand. "You both should not have come back. You realize that this will only end in your deaths?"
The Brigand stepped sideways so that he could cover the room with his rifle. The Gentleman activated his personal force shield as Helmar Valasek pulled out his vibroknives.
"Meridian. We did not come here to fight you." The Gentleman said.
"I don't believe you have much choice." Meridian replied as the Gentleman reached into his coat pocket.
Meridian activated the death wand and its black energy beam slid out, like a coiled whip ready to be unleashed. "I instructed you both on how to fight, you will not stand a chance. Surrender now."
The Gentleman held out a mini-data disk in his gloved hand. "I offer you a bargain."
"A bargain? Don't be ridiculous." Meridian started moving forward, his death wand uncoiling.
"This data disk holds your past, Major Fokker. If you leave this fight you may have it. If not, then the encrypted virus in the disk will destroy the records once I am dead." The Gentleman replied.
Meridian stopped in his tracks.
"Meridian!" The Bounty Hunter shouted. "Kill them both, now!"
The death wand in Meridian's hand deactivated.
"Meridian! Obey me!" The Bounty Hunter was furious now.
The Gentleman flung the disk into Meridian's outstretched hand and the former instructor began to walk away.
"Meridian! You will die for this betrayal!" The Bounty Hunter's rage knew no bounds.
For the first time in many years, a trace of a smirk manifested itself on the Brigand's granite-like face. All he had to do was to find a way to free Karen from her bonds and the fight would be even.
EPILOGUE
Dropship ???
Location Unknown
December 3066
Karen stared at the unconscious figure of the Brigand. She was concerned whether he was going to survive the battle between them and the Bounty Hunter. She had screamed when she saw him struck down by the Bounty Hunter's death wand. Her shoulders trembled when a gloved hand rested on them.
The Gentleman had the soothing touch that calmed Karen somewhat.
"The Brigand will be okay. It was a life-threatening wound but we were able to get him into the sickbay in time." The Gentleman said.
Karen's throat was sore and her voice came out raspy. "So Valasek is dead then?"
"Yes. My pistol shot killed him. But then again, the Bounty Hunter could make a replicant if he so wishes, but not for many years at least."
"Its too bad he got away."
"Yes it is. I wasn't aware that there was a false panel behind his throne. We had sealed the exits to prevent his reinforcements from coming in but that's what happens when your battle-plan encounters the enemy." The Gentleman answered.
"My friends. All Dead. Was their sacrifice in vain?" Karen was near tears.
"No. We disrupted his operations somewhat when we detonated the explosives on his cloning center. It will take the Bounty Hunter a few years to recover from this setback."
"Then we have just delayed the inevitable then." Karen stared blankly out of the porthole into space.
"Perhaps." The Gentleman changed the subject. "So what are your plans now?"
"I think I will stay in the Inner-Sphere for awhile."
"Very well, where shall I tell the crew as to which planet to drop you off then?"
"Drop me off at Solaris 7. I want to start reliving my memories there."
The Gentleman sighed. "Very well. My spies are looking for the Bounty Hunter. Once he has been located I will call upon you in the future, Karen."
The Black Widow turned and faced him. "Call me Natasha."
THE END