As Erebor's blood red sun dawned upon the horizon, an unnatural hush fell over the entire planet. It was almost as if the collective consciousness, the spirit of the woods and the land became quiet in anticipation of that evening. For when dusk would come, it would be the time of Devil's Night.

  The industrial park located on the outskirts of Rivendell was abandoned centuries ago. Once it had been the heart of the metals industry for the planet. Gigantic furnaces would furnish molten steel and then export it to other parts of the Rim Worlds Republic. But that was a long time ago. Now the massive buildings stood vacant, the great iron furnaces were rusting and the great steel mills were still. Such was the curse of Erebor's rebellion and its aftermath.

  As the midday sun grew higher, it seemed a perfectly bright day. The drone of engines soon broke the unnatural calmness. Within moments, several vehicles rumbled down the main road leading into the industrial park. The convoy was led by a Vedette tank that was in turn followed by a Maultier armored personnel carrier and finally several heavy trucks. As the lead tank got to within the center of the street, it stopped. All the other vehicles behind it came to a halt as well.

  The inside the Maultier's infantry compartment was full of people. Aside from a half-dozen black robed guards who watched over Duncan McGavin, the compartment was also carrying the Deacon, his son Erik and the former Death Commando, Yao.

  "We are at the rendezvous point." Erik said as a matter of fact.

  "Well, I for one am glad that this frustrating incident is over. Begin disembarking." The Deacon told the guards. "Cheer up Yao, it will be soon over. Why are you so glum today?"

  Erik glanced at Yao in disgust as he leapt out of the rear door and signaled at the trucks behind them.

  Yao kept fiddling with his communicator. "The advanced team I sent over here last night hasn't answered. I'm getting a lot of static interference."

  "Oh it's probably nothing, there were a lot of electrical storms last night. Come on, let's get this exchange over with so I can get back to my lunch." The Deacon assured him.

  Duncan gave a rude glance to the Deacon as he was led out. "You're just a mean old fat pig."

  "If you were to stay with us a minute longer boy, I would give you a very fitting punishment for your insolence. But you are just a child and you will soon be reunited with your family, so be a good lad and keep quiet till then." The plump Deacon patted the little boy on the cheek as they got out of the Maultier.

   As the rest of the men started forming out of the trucks they did not realize that they were being observed by someone on the top floor of an old abandoned office building that was located on the opposite end of the street. The room was strewn with four corpses who had all recently met untimely deaths the night before. They were the advanced team of the Covenant who failed to respond to Yao's radio hails. The first two had died by knife attacks from behind and the other two joined them after being shot by a poisoned needler while they slept. "Casanova" Jimmy Clavell had served a tour with 7th Kommando and he knew the art of the silent kill.

  After Jimmy Clavell made a head count of the opposition using his high-powered binoculars, he keyed his throat mike. "Rifle one to Widow. I have a head count of nine from the APC and another thirty-two from the trucks. Hostage is in sight and is okay."

  "Affirmative Rifle one. Get yourself into position and stand by." A terse female voice answered.

  Clavell smiled to himself as he opened a long steel case. It contained an M824 Sniper Weapon System, the rifle of choice for Wolf's Dragoons' elite 7th Kommando sniper units. Nicknamed the NightOwl, it resembled a twentieth-century assault rifle, albeit with a longer barrel. Many armorers in the Dragoons had customized each and every rifle specifically to the user's needs in order to maximize accuracy and this weapon was no exception. It was a 7.62mm Magnum, select-grade barrel, ES36 long-range scope with laser and an integral JAF-06 flash suppressor all mated to a padded Kevlar stock. Although some of his colleagues in 7th Kommando preferred the use of bolt-action sniper rifles because of its inherent accuracy, Clavell preferred the semi-automatic ones because of its faster rate of fire. With over forty targets down on the street, he needed to be able to fire quickly and accurately.

  Once he determined the range to his targets and dialed it into his telescopic sight, Clavell would then lay down on the foam mattress that he had brought with him. From his vantage point, he had a perfect view of the street below as he set up the rifle on its bipod. Most snipers wore ghillie suits to further conceal themselves but since he was wearing an all-black mechwarrior combat suit, it was a good enough substitute.

  The cultists, led by the Deacon, began to walk alongside the Vedette tank as it began to rumble down along the main street. The other vehicles followed in a tight line. As they neared the front of a massively tall warehouse, Natasha Kerensky walked out of the building doors and faced them. She wore a jet-black jumpsuit with knee-high boots and a holstered pistol on her side. The cultists stopped about ten meters ahead of her. Erik noticed that there was a red hourglass patch on the right shoulder of her jumpsuit.

  "Lets get this over with shall we?" The Deacon was impatient.

  "Duncan, are you all right?" Natasha asked the little boy.

  "He is fine, now throw the scarab over to us so that we can finish this." The Deacon answered back.

  "We agreed that I will only throw the scarab over to you when the boy starts walking towards me." Natasha added.

  "Oh very well. Get moving boy." The Deacon gave a slight push to Duncan.

  As the little boy started walking towards Natasha, Erik placed one of his hands behind his back so that he could pull out his laser pistol hidden there in case anything went wrong. The turret hatch of the Vedette opened and the tank commander popped out. He started to scan the area with his binoculars, looking for anything suspicious.

  "Deacon, this all looks too easy." Yao whispered behind the Deacon's left ear.

  "Nonsense. They are just a bunch of kids." The Deacon reassured him.

  Yao spoke into his communicator. "Recon lance, deploy and make your way towards the industrial complex. I'm not going to take any chances, Deacon."

  "Very well, if it makes you feel better. It looks like it's just that woman. You can kill her once we have confirmed that we have the map." The Deacon leaned over his shoulder and whispered back to him.

  Clavell was already readying his rifle to fire. He could have easily placed Erik and the Deacon into his crosshairs and blow their brains out. But his primary objective was to make sure that the little boy would get to Natasha safely. Because of that he targeted the robed cultists closest to the boy. His secondary objective would include any targets of opportunity; that included the Deacon and his son. However, Clavell could not get a bead on the Death Commando, it seemed that the short Capellan anticipated an attack like that and kept his body close to the side of the tank for use as cover. Clavell silently cursed. But at least the tank commander was stupid enough to poke his head out. That would make things easier when all hell broke loose. And it was going to break loose any second now.

  As Duncan got halfway towards Natasha the Deacon hollered. "Now throw us the scarab!"

  Natasha threw the scarab at the cultist's direction. Erik quickly caught it in midair.

  "Well? Open it." The Deacon ordered his son.

  Erik opened the scarab's safety latch and peered inside. The son of the Deacon quickly removed the parchment and began to examine it as Duncan walked briskly towards Natasha while his former captors looked on warily.

  "It's a fake!" Erik shouted as Natasha signaled Duncan to run faster towards her.

  "Kill them both!" The Deacon commanded.

  As the black robed cultists began to level their weapons, the closest one to Duncan staggered and fell. Blood began to pour from his head as a second robed cultist's head disappeared in a crimson haze.

  "Sniper!" Yao shouted as he grabbed the Deacon and pulled him behind the cover of the Vedette. Erik dived for cover as well.

  Clavell was having a field day. His first four shots blew away the respective heads of his targets as Duncan safely made it to Natasha. While his two allies ran towards the warehouse door, Clavell shot down another cultist that tried to shoot at them from behind. As he tried to place a crosshairs on either the Deacon or his son, he realized that the Death Commando had gotten them behind the opposite side of the Vedette tank and so therefore he had no targets. The other cultists behind the tank ran the other way so he couldn't get at them either. As he scanned for more targets in his arc he noticed that the tank commander was using his binoculars and pointing over to the building where he was. He quickly sighted the commander on his crosshairs and fired. The bullet entered just below the commander's left eye and exited at the back of his helmet. The body slumped on top of the tank as its turret traversed and leveled its gun to where he was. Clavell quickly got up and started to run towards the stairwell behind him.

  "Fire!" Yao yelled into his communicator as the Vedette pumped two 50mm shells into the building where the sniper was at; the office building sagged under the blows as the tank continued firing into it. A pillar of smoke soon rose as the building partly collapsed on its side.

  "Deacon, are you alright?" Erik asked as he crawled over to his father's side.

  "Yes, I am fine. Get after those infidels and kill them all." The Deacon cursed.

  Erik stood up. "Get back here you fools! Surround that warehouse!" He commanded to the other cultists.

  "Wait, it could be a trap." Yao advised.

  "I've had enough of your useless games. I am in charge here now." Erik snapped back.

  Within a minute, black robed cultists armed with rifles converged along the front of the warehouse where Natasha and Duncan ran into. They tried the door but it was apparent that it had been locked shut as soon as the two made it safely inside. Two of the cultists prepared a battering ram that they had taken from one of their trucks.

  "What are you waiting for? Smash that door down!" Erik ordered.

  As five of the cultists began bashing the door down with the battering ram, a massive explosion rang out as the door they were battering in exploded outwards and blew them back. Bloody pieces of body parts lay strewn along the dusty road as Yao realized that the woman had apparently placed a bomb on the door and armed it as soon as she got back in.

  "It's a trap! Get them back!" Yao shouted at Erik.

  "No!" Erik hissed. "Get that tank over here!"

  As the Vedette moved into position in order for its gun turret to face the warehouse, a low rumbling noise began. Several of the cultists who were surrounding the warehouse looked at each other in a mixture of terror and confusion. Yao quickly realized what was happening and quickly got to the Deacon and dragged him into a side building. Erik too sensed something was wrong and began to back off towards another building.

  In a split second, the front of the warehouse seemed to sag into itself but then blew outwards into a hail of metal shards as the Warhammer battlemech smashed through its front side. Many cultists were caught in the exploding wall while a few managed to scramble away with minor cuts and bruises but their hearts were mortified with a blinding terror.

  "Stay down, Duncan." Natasha commanded the boy as she opened up her throttle and centered her weapon crosshairs at the Vedette tank that was backing up just meters in front of her.

  Three bluish beams of light emanated from the Warhammer's torsos and struck the turret of the Vedette. The medium-sized heavy lasers were of Clan technology and melted the tank's turret into a pool of molten slag. Within seconds the ammunition from the half-melted tank began to explode and caused a brilliant fireworks display in the center of the street.

  Erik was able to dive into a side building as the remaining cultists on the ground began running in all sorts of directions. Their morale was gone upon seeing a gargantuan robot that heaped destruction in its wake. The Maultier APC tried to pick up the Deacon and Yao but ran headlong into the Warhammer. The 70-ton battlemech quickly kicked it on its side and the careening hovercraft smashed into a building as she passed it.

  Duncan put on his kid-sized cooling vest and snapped on his seat belt as he lay in the cool storage compartment along the side of Natasha's cockpit. The Black Widow whispered at him to stay there and he acknowledged. She would have loved to start hunting down the Deacon and his son but already her sensors were telling her that other mechs were approaching. Natasha quickly gunned the throttle and made her way north from the industrial park.

  As the ammunition explosion from the Vedette died down, the surviving cult members gathered around as well as marveled at the destruction left behind by the Warhammer. It was further proof that the battlemech reigned supreme as the most dominant force on land warfare in the 31st century. The Deacon had a gash on his left arm but was otherwise okay. Yao and Erik were unhurt but many of the black robed guards had perished.

  "The recon lance has arrived." Yao said as a Dart light mech strode onto the center of the street, its paint scheme of swirling velvet marked it as belonging to the Covenant.

  "Deacon, grant me permission to lead the mech company." Erik pleaded to his father.

  The Deacon said nothing. He was contemplating on whether to give his blessing to his son or allow the more experienced Yao to lead.

  Erik's eyes met his father's. "Deacon, if you wish me to be your heir and successor you must grant me this one request. Father- please."

  "Very well, you shall lead the company. Do not fail." The Deacon sighed. If his son was to be his ultimate successor, he needed to prove to the men that he could lead.

  "Thank you Deacon. You shall not regret this." Erik's eyes flashed in triumph as he spoke into his communicator. "2nd and 3rd lances, assemble north of the industrial park. I shall be joining you shortly."

  "Wait, I must advise that we exercise extreme caution. That Warhammer looked modified. The missile pack on its shoulder was missing and those did not look like particle projectile cannons on its arms either." Yao warned.

  "It doesn't matter, we are twelve versus one." Erik snapped back; then he spoke into his communicator. "Recon lance, catch up to the Warhammer and soften it up but don't destroy it."

  "No! The Recon lance is only composed of light mechs, the Warhammer is a 70-ton heavy mech. You are committing them to suicide!" Yao protested.

  "Silence! I am in command here now. They need only to wear down the Warhammer till we come finish it off. I don't want any more 'suggestions' from you." Erik sneered.

  As a hover transport stopped and prepared to bring them back to the Citadel, the Deacon took Yao aside. "I have given my son command of this force. Please see to it that no harm comes to him."

  "Your wish is my command Deacon." Yao barely hid his disappointment.

  As the hover transport made its short trip back to the Citadel of the Covenant, Erik was already giving orders for the other two lances to power up and assemble quickly. Since Yao did not have command rights this time, all he did was silently suit up and walked towards his mech. The Deacon slowly walked up the stone stairway to retire to his private chambers.

  Natasha's Warhammer mech was almost halfway towards the dead city of Moria when her radar picked up unidentified mechs closing in at full speed. She quickly realized that they must have been the Covenant's light mechs; due to their fast speed, light mechs could cover the distance to her quickly. But what was so surprising to her was that her opponents were pushing full throttle and that meant that they were not coming in as a team, rather one at a time due to the fact that they wanted to catch up with her at all costs. That was a big mistake.

  As Natasha crested over the top of a hillock and onto the base of a hill, she noticed that two of the light enemy mechs were almost upon her. The Black Widow quickly scanned the area and as she noticed a copse of trees at the base of the hill, she quickly concluded that this was an excellent ambush spot.

  Natasha smiled as she eased her Warhammer into the copse of trees, knelt down and activated her null-signature system. The null-signature was a stealth system designed to mask a mech's presence on the battlefield. With a combination of heat baffles that reduced its infrared signature as well as incorporating a stealthy system of sensors and communications, Natasha could render her Warhammer invisible to opposing sensors in under limited conditions.

  For a short minute the opposing mechs wavered; they had apparently lost the Warhammer's signal the moment it crested the hillock. They then wrongly concluded that the Warhammer picked up speed and was farther away so they maximized their throttles to catch up even faster.

  As the two light mechs crested the top of the hill and made their way down towards the base at full speed, Natasha deactivated the null-signature system and sighted her weapons on the closest light mech. It was a Jackal, a fast and well-armed recon mech designed for long range fighting. The other mech was a Dart, another light mech designed for scouting.

  The Jackal pilot was completely taken by surprise as Natasha fired her arm-mounted gauss cannons. Essentially an inert metal slug propelled by intense magnetic energy, the gauss cannon was the next step in projectile weapon evolution. The massive magnets of the gauss cannons grabbed onto their respective metal slugs and polarized it. With the intense magnetic fields surrounding them, the massive shells instantly leapt out of the rifled barrel of the Warhammer's arms and impacted at the unsuspecting Jackal.

  Both slugs smashed into the fragile center torso of the Jackal and the light mech exploded as both its fusion engine and the PPC capacitor buckled and overloaded from the utter destruction of their casings. As pieces of the Jackal rained down from the sky, the Dart quickly realized its error and rapidly turned, hoping it could get back over the hill before the Warhammer's dual gauss cannons could reset for another volley. But just as the Dart crested going the opposite way, a massive slug from one of Natasha's arm-mounted gauss cannons blasted into the paper-thin rear armor of its center and it too went down as its engine core vaporized into a small fusion explosion. Two down, ten to go. Natasha thought.

  The Black Widow quickly reactivated her mech's throttle and continued towards Moria as the remaining two mechs from the Recon lance struggled to catch up. As the black Warhammer made it to the outskirts of the dead metropolis, a red laser bolt streaked passed its shoulder. Natasha quickly rotated her mech's torso and noticed that an enemy Night Hawk was firing at her from extreme range while a Commando was closing in from her flank, trying to get it's short-ranged missile racks to bear.

  This is too easy. They are coming in dumb. Natasha thought as she fired her gauss cannon at the Night Hawk. Since her gauss cannons were of Clan manufacture, they had a range advantage over the Night Hawk's lasers. The shot from her gauss cannon made a lucky hit, plowing straight into the cockpit section of the Night Hawk and the headless mech dropped to its knees. The Commando would not give up however, firing its missiles wildly at the Warhammer in an attempt to rattle her. Natasha kept her composure as the short-ranged missiles impacted harmlessly in front of her. She sighted the Commando on her crosshairs and fired a single shot from her left gauss cannon that cored the central torso of her opponent. The Commando pilot ejected from his destroyed mech.

  Before Natasha could favor her victory however, a score of long-ranged missiles impacted the left side of her Warhammer, tearing off a few chunks of armor. As the Black Widow turned her battlemech, she saw an intimidating sight of half a dozen mechs being led by a Grim Reaper bearing down on her. Knowing that she could ill afford to fight in a set piece battle, the Black Widow quickly activated her null-signature stealth systems and disappeared from her opponents sensors after rounding a street corner.

  "Form up into lances and hunt her down." Erik ordered the others from his Black Hawk-KU.

  "Wait, I heard stories about this city. There could be booby-traps there." Yao cautioned once again.

  "If you wish to be a coward then stay behind!" Erik shouted in his mech's microphone that was directed at the Capellan. "2nd lance, take the north section of the city; 3rd lance, you're with me."

  Yao kept his composure as he weathered an obvious insult from the Deacon's son. Nevertheless, he would not be goaded into an obvious trap. The former Death Commando quickly activated his mech's throttle and started to make a roundabout route into the city center while the remaining seven mechs formed up and ventured as two separate groups into the ruined metropolis.

  "Looks like the opposition has entered the city. They are headed straight for the trap." Ethan mentioned to Kieran McGavin as the two sat in a jeep behind an alleyway. Ethan was checking readouts on a portable seismic sensor.

  "I just hope those charges we set up would detonate. They are hundreds of years old." Kieran replied.

  "Don't worry, all they need is a small detonation and the rest will explode like a set of dominos." Ethan reassured the youth.

  Because one battlemech could barely fit while moving across it's narrow streets and alleyways, combat between mechs in Moria would be short-ranged and brutal. Tall, abandoned skyscrapers all along the city effectively shielded one block of the street from another. Infantrymen called these tight conditions CQB or close quarters battle. In the case of the dead city, this term applied to battlemechs as well.

  The 3rd Lance of the Covenant moved along one part of the downtown area. Three battlemechs, led by a 70-ton Gallowglas, then followed by a Crusader and an Enforcer while Erik's Black Hawk-Ku covered the rear and were moving slowly across an abandoned street when they began to receive strange sensor readings up ahead. The Gallowglas pilot immediately radioed the findings to Erik.

  "Continue to advance." Erik ordered.

  As the Gallowglas moved up several hundred meters, it was immediately engulfed in explosions. The Crusader pilot tried to stop but it too got caught as long-hidden mines tore into their mech's legs, tearing off chunks of armor and damaging the mech's myomer muscles that so enabled those machines to move. As the explosion started spreading towards Erik's mech, he used the jump jets of the Black Hawk-Ku to steer clear of the street and was therefore able to prevent significant damage to his legs. The Gallowglas lost a foot and when it tried to prop itself up on it's arm, then a secondary explosion followed as the Gallowglas' arm was sheared off by another vibramine explosion. Being unable to move any further, the Gallowglas pilot abandoned his mech. The Enforcer pilot also managed to extricate himself by backing up quickly on full-reverse throttle.

  "The Gallowglas is down and I have taken significant damage to my legs." The Crusader pilot reported to Erik.

  "Dammit! Keep your sensors focused on the streets ahead of you!" Erik yelled. There wasn't much he could do.

  "My legs will not survive another mine attack." The Crusader pilot concluded.

  "Then stay there you fool!" Erik snapped. "2nd lance, I have lost one mech and another is damaged, can you rendezvous to our position?"

  "I have your coordinates on my map sir. Stand by. We are on our way." It was the pilot of the Grim Reaper who was commanding the second lance that answered.

  As the Covenant's second mech lance started to move down a city street to meet up with the battered third lance, a black Warhammer appeared in front of them at an intersection several hundred meters ahead.

  "Welcome to my web." The Black Widow announced as she triggered her mech's twin gauss cannons.

  The lead battlemech was the Grim Reaper and it tried to back off in order to give its long-range missile racks more room but collided with the second mech behind it. Chunks of armor flew off the back of the Grim Reaper as it smashed into an Enfield that was following it. The gauss slugs of Natasha's Warhammer plowed into the right torso and arm of the Grim Reaper. Although the Reaper's armor absorbed the shots, it was staggered from the massive blows that caused its extended-ranged large laser to miss. The Black Widow quickly followed up the gauss cannons with her mech's medium-ranged heavy lasers. Bluish light once again erupted from the Warhammer's torso and slashed into the Grim Reaper. Whole sheets of the Reaper's armor melted off and exposed it's inner torsos but the pilot was able to pepper Natasha's mech with a return volley of long-ranged missiles that tore into her frontal armor although not enough to cause serious damage. For in addition to upgrading her mech's weapons, Natasha added extra armor as well. It saved her so far.

  A 50-ton Starslayer which brought up the rear immediately activated its jump jets and landed right in front of the battered Grim Reaper and started running towards Natasha's Warhammer, hoping to get its large lasers and short-ranged missile racks into play. The Black Widow quickly put her mech into reverse because she knew that the Starslayer's weapons were effective at shorter ranges. As the Starslayer got close, it was instantly engulfed by explosions that tore off its legs and sent the mech crashing down; it had apparently run into another set of vibramines. Natasha instantly fired her heavy lasers into the Starslayer's exposed rear torsos and the intense beams sliced through the paper-thin rear armor and into the engine housing. The pilot of the Starslayer ejected as his engine core dropped and created a miniature fusion meltdown.

  The Grim Reaper, however, would not give up as a few of its missiles once again impacted on Natasha's Warhammer. Although her mech still carried a respectable amount of armor, she knew it would not take this kind of punishment for long. With that in mind, she quickly fired another volley of gauss slugs that finally gutted the Reaper and detonated its ammo bins. As the ensuing explosions tore her opponent apart, Natasha scanned around for the Enfield. It apparently reversed back into another street.

  A split second later, Natasha's fears came to life as a building behind her collapsed and the Enfield strode through; it had apparently took to a parallel street and smashed through an opposing building just to get at her. The Black Widow was just barely able to twist her mech's torso in time as the Enfield's lasers melted off armor on her Warhammer's side and legs. As the Enfield strode even closer, it was suddenly staggered by the blow from Natasha's heavy lasers; chunks of armor melted off from her opponent. The Black Widow needed to end it quickly and swung her mech's arms into a vise-like grip that smashed into the Enfield's shoulders. Before the Enfield pilot could react, Natasha used her controls to make a series of wicked kicks to her opponent's mech and rapidly withdrew her Warhammer as the smashed-up Enfield collapsed on the concrete street. The Black Widow breathed a sigh of relief but she knew the battle wasn't over yet.

  As she maneuvered her Warhammer away from the carnage on the street, Natasha quickly spotted a new contact directly in front of her. As the Black Widow pivoted her mech, she came face to face with a 70-ton Nova Cat heavy mech that was emblazoned with a skull on its center.

  "Black Widow, you have dishonored my master for the final time. Prepare to face your destiny." Yao spoke over the Nova Cat's microphone.

  "Talk is cheap." Natasha replied as she triggered her arm-mounted gauss cannons.

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, the Crusader pilot accessed the damage on his mech; his computer readings showed that he had paper-thin armor on his legs and one of his mech's feet was not functioning properly. As he played with the Crusader's controls to make it come back on line, he noticed that there was a contact heading directly for him. Thinking it would be Erik's Black Hawk-KU making a rendezvous with him, the pilot gave it no mind until the mech appeared in front of him. As he momentarily glanced at it, the Crusader pilot cried out in fear and utter disbelief; just several hundred meters from his mech stood a solid-black Mad Cat Mk II.

  "Howdy." Jimmy Clavell said as he opened fire with a barrage of dual gauss cannons and missiles at the totally surprised Crusader.

  The 90-ton Mad Cat Mk II was a Clan assault mech that centered on two arm-mounted gauss cannons backed up by two batteries of long-ranged missiles in addition to its extended-ranged medium lasers. As the Crusader tried desperately to move, it was quickly hit in the arms and torsos by a massive barrage of two 120mm gauss slugs followed by almost two-dozen missiles. As the smoke cleared, the battered Crusader had fallen to its knees. Clavell waited a few seconds until his weapons cycled back to fire again and then poured another volley of murderous gauss slugs and missiles into the hapless enemy mech. This time, the Crusader's armor gave out and it collapsed into several pieces onto the street.

  As Clavell chuckled to himself he felt a sharp pain in his buttocks. He had taken a few shrapnel hits when the building he was in exploded all around him. The back of his mechwarrior combat suit was shredded but it did save his life. Next time he would think twice about going up against a tank while armed only with a sniper rifle.

  Just as the pain was distracting him, Clavell noticed a large shape right above him and reacted by reversing his Mad Cat Mk II's throttle. He did it just in time as a 50-ton Enforcer mech smashed into the ground where his mech was previously located. If it were not for his quick thinking, the Enforcer's jump attack would have smashed into his mech's cockpit, killing him. Clavell spat out a curse as he fired his dual gauss cannons point-blank range and toggled off his long-ranged missile's tracking mode in order to enable it to fire up close. The massive gauss slugs shredded both the Enforcer's arms but it kept its composure. Clavell cursed again as the Enforcer leveled a bone-jarring kick into his mech's torso and smashed off chunks of his armor. The former Wolf's Dragoon had finally lost his temper.

  "Nobody ruins the paint job on my mech!" Clavell screamed as he fired up his battlemech's jump jets and shot straight up.

  As the Enforcer looked up in surprise, the Mad Cat Mk II fired all of its weapons as it came crashing back down to smash into it. When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the Enforcer was a smoldering pile of metal as the Mad Cat Mk II walked on by.

  Erik had seen all of his forces smashed and was rushing back towards the Crusader when he saw a Mad Cat Mk II demolishing his lance. By the time he had arrived, both the Crusader and the Enforcer were down. The man who was to be the heir to the Deacon's empire cried out in frustration and fury as he noticed the Mad Cat Mk II maneuvering in front of him.

  "Die infidel!" Erik screamed as he activated the Black Hawk-KU's jump jets in order to close in.

  Both the Black Hawk-KU and the Mad Cat Mk II fired simultaneously. Although the Mad Cat Mk II had heavier weapons, the pulse lasers of the Black Hawk were more accurate and scored hits in the upper part of Clavell's mech, including the cockpit. Erik's Black Hawk-KU had sustained moderate damage on its legs and torsos but it was still fully functional. As the son of the Deacon noticed that the Mad Cat Mk II moved sluggishly, he correctly assumed that it took a shot in the cockpit causing a neuro-feedback that stunned the pilot. He had his chance.

  As Clavell's nose began to bleed from the massive electronic feedback when his mech took a laser shot in the cockpit, he barely had time to react as the enemy Black Hawk-KU closed in and began firing its pulse lasers indiscriminately at his mech, hoping to bring it down quickly. Clavell cursed again as he tried to get his bearings as alarms sounded all over his cockpit, disorientating him even more.

  Erik's heat scale became quite dangerous as he continued the barrage of his pulse lasers against the Mad Cat Mk II but he really had no choice; the opposing mech outgunned him and he needed to bring it down quickly. He kept moving his Black Hawk-KU ever forward as the Mad Cat's armor began to melt under the increasing barrage of laser fire being directed at it.

  Clavell almost pulled the ejection cord above his seat as his mech sensors warned him of an armor breach in its torso. But a split-second decision made him swing around his Mad Cat Mk II to face his opponent and then he toggled the switch for his jump jets.

  Erik's apparent triumph turned into a rude shock as the Mad Cat Mk II faced him and fired its jump jets, causing both mechs to smash into each other. Chips of armor flew off the Black Hawk-KU as it fell down with the smoldering front of the Mad Cat Mk II on top, punching and kicking wildly. As Erik tried to bring up his arm to fire at the enemy's cockpit, he noticed that the Mad Cat's right foot was directly above his own.  The spike-haired youth let out a cry for mercy.

  "Say goodnight gracie." Clavell hissed as he brought the Mad Cat's foot down and smashed into Erik's cockpit.

  As that battle ended, another was reaching its climax as the Black Widow and the former Death Commando squared off. Unlike the previous battle both mechs preferred to fight at a distance so it therefore became a running fight across several city blocks as both mechs would circle and fire at each other; occasionally one mech would get the advantage of position while its opponent would scramble for cover. The advantage however, lay with Yao, for his Nova Cat was in better shape when it entered the battle and his primary weapons were extended ranged particle projectile cannons. While Natasha held an advantage in having less heat, her gauss cannons were almost empty.

  As Natasha's Warhammer rounded another street corner, she realized that she was in danger of losing the battle for her mech's armor was shredded from the Nova Cat's constant energy barrage. Her Warhammer's left arm hung limply on it's severely damaged shoulder and she had only one shot left with her right arm-mounted gauss cannon. She needed to make this one count.

  "Duncan, you need to get out." Natasha called to the little boy who was curled inside her cold storage cabinet.

  "No, Nasty. I wanna stay with you. No matter what happens." Duncan replied with determination.

  "No arguments Duncan. Out now." Natasha commanded but the boy stayed where he was.

  The Black Widow cursed as the Nova Cat came into view once again; it fired its arm-mounted PPCs, narrowly missing with one and the other beam pounded into her mech's right leg. The Warhammer was heavily damaged and couldn't take any more as it returned fire with its heavy lasers, scorching the torsos of the opposing mech. Natasha tried to concentrate on her controls as Duncan reached up and grabbed a microphone from the cockpit.

  "Hey Mister Yao. It's me Duncan. Please stop shooting at us." The boy spoke through the microphone.

  Yao suddenly leaned back from his chair, stunned. He didn't realize that the boy was inside the cockpit of the Warhammer. "You must get out of there, boy. I don't want to hurt you but I must destroy your friend."

  "I won't let you!" Duncan shouted back. "If you want to kill her, you're gonna have to kill me too mister!"

  Natasha was surprised at what the little boy did. At least it gave her some time as she targeted her last gauss cannon shot.

  As the Nova Cat moved slowly towards the wounded Warhammer, Clavell's Mad Cat Mk II smashed through a building behind the Nova Cat and fired its gauss cannons, shredding Yao's mech armor from behind.

 "What the?" Yao cursed.

  "You're all clear babe, now smash this thing so we can all go home!" Clavell said as he fired a barrage of missiles into the pivoting Nova Cat.

  Natasha took careful aim and fired. The gauss slug sliced into the Nova Cat's cockpit and the headless mech fell over on its side.

  As Natasha helped Duncan get down from her mech, Jimmy Clavell limped over. Duncan quickly saw the jeep with Ethan and Kieran pull up along the curb and ran over to meet them.

  "That was a one in a million shot, babe." Clavell smiled.

  Natasha smirked. "Well, you and Duncan did provide the diversion so it wasn't so hard. So what are you going to do now that you've avenged your friend?"

  "Oh I lied about my friend being killed by Erik, he was way too incompetent to kill any of my friends." Clavell laughed.

  "So why did you help us?" The Black Widow asked quizzically.

  "I had nothing better to do. And it was fun." Clavell replied as Natasha shook her head.

  Ethan ran over along with the McGavin brothers. Duncan began to ask a thousand questions to Clavell as the former Wolf's Dragoon promised to show the little boy the inside of his mech. Kieran hugged Natasha and then joined up with Clavell to pester him.

  "Well, with the treasure and the salvage you've gotten here today, I estimate you could equip your own mech company, Natasha." Ethan said to her.

  "A mercenary company? I don't know." Natasha replied wistfully.

  "How about the Black Widow Company?" Ethan joked as he started appraising the salvage.

  Natasha stood there silently. Deep in her heart, she wanted to lead. Her skills and experience beckoned it. Or would she still fight against her destiny and go live a quiet life in peace? That was a question to be answered in another time for she was tired right now. She needed a long sleep. That was all she could think of. As she started walking back to her Warhammer, Duncan came up to her and gave the Black Widow a big hug.

  "Thanks Nasty." The little boy whispered in her ear.

  Natasha patted the boy's blond head. "No problem Duncan. I hope you are okay."

  "I'm fine!" The little boy giggled. "It was cool! Can we do it again?"

  "What?"