Only when you become truly afraid of death do you fully appreciate life. It is quite a strange paradox that those warriors who deal in death sometimes become religious or even become builders and architects when they finally retire from a lifetime of killing. It was as if they had at last completely disentangled themselves from their former profession to the point that they would in some ways make amends for all the destruction they had wrought; turning to gods and building houses were in some ways, a form of atonement and penitence.
And then there were those warriors that were already dead. Despite the fact that they would go on killing, these types of soldiers would simply not care whether they would die or not. To them, their life had no meaning. Consequently, they were also the most dangerous types that one could ever encounter in combat. When one no longer cares for the beauty of a sunrise or a slight breeze when petals would float in the wind, one can only think of doing, not being. Killing was therefore not subjected to causes or philosophy, but rather it became a set of skills and experiences in which one would apply in a mechanical precision of tasks to be done.
Star Colonel Joanna ran a gloved hand over her gray, frizzled scalp before she donned her neurohelmet. It was a ritual that she made before every battle. With a habit born of perpetual practice and experience, Joanna checked the instrument panel of her cockpit before concentrating on her HUD or heads up display. All of her readouts indicated that her omni-mech was functioning normally.
As she glanced over her weapon readout indicators on the lower right corner of her control panel, Joanna noticed a small pin that hung from a piece of string from one of the switches. It was a stylized rendering of the Jade Falcon insignia; the great bird Turkina in mid-flight, carrying a katana. Taking the pin in between her thumb and forefinger, Joanna rubbed it for good luck. In some ways, the pin was her reminder of the past. It was her one piece of remembrance for Aidan Pryde.
Aidan Pryde, the maverick commander of the Jade Falcon Guards had been nearly disgraced but had fought to regain his honor in the climactic battle of Tukayyid. When the quasi-religious order of Comstar challenged the Clans to a proxy battle that would decide the fate of the Clan Invasion, Joanna and Aidan fought them and thereby regained honor to a once disgraced unit. The fight was not without cost however, Aidan Pryde died but not before destroying dozens of enemy mechs that earned him a passage in the Falcon Remembrance.
The valiant death of Aidan Pryde also ensured that his blood legacy would continue in the next generation of Falcon warriors. Despite being in the thick of battle, Joanna survived but in many ways, she too had died on Tukayyid. Everyone has their secrets and for Joanna, it was her fondness and affection for Aidan. Such displays were forbidden among trueborn warriors and Joanna did her best to hide the feelings that were growing inside of her for Aidan. But in the end, she never had a chance to reveal what she really felt for him. The rise of Aidan's daughter Diana Pryde among the ranks of Falcon warriors carried a certain satisfaction for Joanna; she was instrumental in training the young woman for it was Aidan's wish, after all.
Then came the war against the Falcon's bitter rivals, the Wolf Clan. In the dry, dusty planet of Twycross, Joanna faced her most deadly enemy, Khan Natasha Kerensky of the Wolf Clan. In a hard-fought duel, Joanna had succeeded in doing what everyone once thought was impossible: she had single-handedly killed the Black Widow herself. She was nicknamed the Spider Killer after that victory. But Joanna paid no mind. The reason why she had won was because Joanna fought for no causes, she fought simply to kill. In the end, nothing had any meaning for her anymore.
As age began to take their toll on her skills and reflexes, younger warriors began to outpace Joanna's skills and she was relegated to a sibko training cluster after she had sustained injuries against another rival Clan, the Steel Vipers. She was then nicknamed Gimpy after the limp that she displayed when she was out of her mech cockpit.
When she was ordered to report for a trial of position to command the Dark Wing Solahma Cluster, Joanna paid no mind as to the reasons why, she simply said goodbye to her training sibko and returned once more to the Falcon Occupation Zones. After killing her three opponents during her trial of position that earned Joanna the right to become Star Colonel and to command the Dark Wing Cluster, they stopped calling her Gimpy. Once again, the old Falcon was someone to be feared.
Joanna's attention focused back to the present as she opened up her mech's throttle. Almost as an afterthought, her Thor omni-mech responded, moving forward at a leisurely speed until it came upon the outer edge of a dusty crater. The crimson rays of the red dwarf star cast an eerie, reddish palette across the planetoid's barren landscape. Joanna's Thor was painted in the bright green colors of the Jade Falcons and also had a stylized rendering of a falcon's head painted on its center torso.
It had only been an hour before that Star Colonel Joanna had ventured forth from the grounded Falcon dropship to meet up with her challenger. She had been briefed thoroughly by Khan Marthe Pryde herself. Joanna's Khan told her that she would be fighting a so-called reincarnation of her old enemy, the Black Widow. Joanna herself had heard of the rumors that Natasha Kerensky had seemingly returned from the dead, hell-bent on revenge. Despite the potential danger of it all, Joanna regarded it as just another battle. Whether this abomination was truly the Widow or not, she would send Natasha back to the hell she came from.
As Joanna waited along the edge, a black Warhammer battlemech strode onto the opposite side of the crater. It was painted fully black, with a red hourglass on the shin of one of its legs. Joanna could notice that its arm mounted weapons looked different from the standard particle projectile cannon configuration. Even the short-ranged missile rack on its shoulder was missing. It had apparently been modified, quite possibly using Clan technology.
Captain Natasha Kerensky eased up on her Warhammer's throttle as soon as it reached the opposite edge of the crater lip. Even though the other side of the massive crater was over several dozen kilometers away, she could clearly see the Thor omni-mech on the other side, eagerly waiting for the duel to begin.
As she began to think of the myriad tactics to be used against her opponent, an ancient military maxim came into Natasha's mind- no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
Her planning had worked beautifully up to this point. After the raid on the Luxor Building in Tharkad, SLDF intelligence analysts were able to decode the Clan renegades intelligence network. Information from the data disk had revealed a disaffected faction within the Clan merchant and scientist caste bent on renewing the Clan invasion using a lethal virus that could decimate hundreds of millions. With the location of Camelot Command in their hands, the planning of the Trojan horse operation was approved by General Cox himself.
Due to the fact that the SLDF could not spare any warships for the operation, Natasha had requested and got the approval for a full-sized mockup of a Fox-class corvette. In reality, the fake warship was nothing more than a cluster of fusion bombs that would be wired to detonate when its proximity sensors detected enemy ships at point-blank range.
When the Lyrans intercepted and destroyed a merchant vessel belonging to the renegades several months before, another opportunity presented itself. SLDF engineers then converted a civilian Invader-class jumpship into an exact replica of the Krondorsfire. Complete with duplicated transponder codes from the stolen data disk as well as a password that would allow the vessel safe passage to the Dark Nebula base, the trap was set.
Just a few days before the attack, the fake Krondorsfire jumped into a region of the Dark Nebula where Camelot Command was close by. One of its docking rings held the disassembled warship. Within hours, the fake warship was assembled by an elite team of technicians in the depths of space and eventually set to drift alongside the Krondorsfire, ready to be exploded once it came into enemy contact. As the Krondorsfire began to accelerate away from the Fox corvette mockup, it began to send out a distress call to the enemy warship that was stationed in Camelot Command.
As the Blood Claw passed over the fake Krondorsfire, two specially modified Union-class dropships disengaged from the remaining docking rings of the jumpship and preceded on a stealthy approach towards the enemy warship. With the crew's attention focused on the obvious target in front of them, the Blood Claw's collision avoidance sensors never detected the two dropships due to the fact that they had built-in stealth systems on board as well as their slightly parallel angles of approach. If the Inner-Sphere had the technology to mount stealth systems on battlemechs and aerospace fighters, why not dropships? Stealth armor, ECM suites and null-signature systems could be modified to be placed and used on dropships, Natasha reasoned. It was a daring experiment, but it stood a good chance of success; sensors would be generally ineffective in the swirling gas clouds of the Dark Nebula. Due to the fact that the Clan renegades had envisioned an enemy that would be using conventional tactics against them, they never had a chance; Natasha's unconventional approach to the problem proved to be the deciding factor.
But now, facing an enemy that had killed her previous incarnation, the Black Widow had something to worry about. When her challenger's name was announced over the dropship's comm. link, every one of the Widows had expressed surprise with the exception of Natasha. The moment the Black Widow had heard Khan Marthe Pryde's voice over the communications link, she knew that this would not be an easy battle. The Khan of the Jade Falcons was known as a wily and dangerous adversary and the conditions of this duel proved that reputation correct.
Joanna activated her comm. link. "I am Star Colonel Joanna of the Dark Wing Cluster, who dares to defy th-" A loud ping interrupted the Clanner's statement as Natasha sent a static pulse along the same frequency.
"Enough of this Clan crap. Let's get it on." Natasha interrupted.
"So the abomination shows her true colors at last. I can sense from your voice alone that you are the one they call the Black Widow." Joanna retorted.
"You got that right. Any further questions before we start blasting?"
Joanna leaned back on her cockpit chair, she had remembered that very voice many years ago, it sounded somewhat younger now but it was still distinctly familiar. "It seems my senses are playing tricks on my mind. You see, despite the fact that your voice sounds all too familiar to me, I do recall that I had killed you on Twycross many years ago."
"You sure did. This is my second life." Natasha smiled.
"You shall only live twice. Whether you are just a clever impostor or the ghost of Natasha herself, I will cut your battlemech in two and you shall die in it." Joanna fumed.
"Words, words, words. Are you going to sing birdsongs and preen your feathers all day, Jade Turkey?" Natasha goaded.
A volley of long-ranged missiles leapt out of the Thor's shoulder rack on a direct path towards Natasha. The range was way too long even for missiles however and they impacted just below the Warhammer's legs onto the crater wall. It looked like the talking was over and the killing was about to begin.
Joanna pushed down on both her foot pedals as her Thor's jump jets activated and brought her omni-mech down onto the crater floor. At the same time, Natasha activated her mech's throttles and also began to traverse down onto the base of the depression. The crater itself was massive, stretching across several hundred kilometers and contained a partial wing of the destroyed Camelot Command base. Glowing pieces of wreckage was strewn about, some the size of large buildings; when the Blood Claw smashed and ruptured the base power plant, it instantly triggered a meltdown which strewn radioactive material all over its ruins.
The atmospheric conditions of the planetoid also posed a unique challenge to the duelists, for the low gravity enabled mechs to travel faster than in normal gee environments and the extremely low temperatures enabled their respective heat venting capabilities to be enhanced. Therefore, both Joanna's and Natasha's mechs would be able to sustain prolonged barrages of fire from their weapons with little worry of overheating. But the risks in regards to fighting in a deadly environment were also enhanced: the thin atmosphere was almost similar to that of the vacuum of space. If a single part of a mech's internal structure was exposed to the thin atmosphere for example, destructive complications could ensue; an armor breach might expose the mech's myomer muscles to the extreme environment possibly causing it to either freeze or buckle. An entire limb might either freeze in place or explode due to catastrophic failure of its internal structure. If there was an armor breach in the critical areas of the torsos or even the cockpit itself, the mech might just destroy itself or even expose its pilot to the deadly unbreathable atmosphere of the planetoid.
Star Colonel Joanna knew the risks but placed it at the back of her mind as she moved her Thor along the strewn wreckage of what was once part of Camelot Command. She could see smoldering columns of concrete that were awash in radioactive material from the destroyed power plant. If any pilot were to expose themselves into that deadly mix of thin atmosphere and extreme radiation, they would die horribly in a matter of seconds. Joanna cursed as she lost the tracking on the enemy Warhammer as soon as it had reached the cavern floor. The Black Widow apparently had some sort of ECM device that enabled her mech to become invisible to Joanna's sensors.
Staying near a large piece of concrete wreckage, Natasha's Warhammer tried to blend in with her surroundings as she activated her mech's 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.
As soon as the Thor strode on by her ambush point, Natasha quickly disengaged her null-signature system in order to fire her Clan manufactured dual-gauss cannons at her enemy. 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 towards the unsuspecting Thor.
But Joanna immediately sensed a movement on her right flank and quickly stomped on her foot pedals as the Thor's jump jets fired up, enabling the 70-ton omni-mech to leap up several dozen meters into the air. The Warhammer's gauss slugs narrowly missed the right side of the Thor as the 120mm solid projectiles passed to within a hair's breath of the Thor's legs, their vapor trails creating a white, laser-like cut through the thin air.
As the Thor began its slow descent back towards the crater floor, Joanna twisted her omni-mech's torso in order to bring her weapons in line against her opponent. The black Warhammer immediately began to pivot sideways as it narrowly avoided a man-made lightning bolt from the Thor's particle projectile cannon that missed its right shoulder by just a few meters.
The inside of Natasha's cockpit was awash in a blinding white light for a nanosecond as the aftereffects of the particle projectile cannon's beam came tantalizingly close to it. As the Black Widow shrugged off the effects of the flash from her eyes, the Thor fired its LB-X autocannon at her. The cluster munitions from the autocannon impacted on the Warhammer's center torso and tore off a few chunks of armor but not enough to cause a breach. As both mechs began to move sideways while turning their torsos to continuously face each other, Natasha fired a barrage of three medium-ranged Clan heavy lasers that melted off several chunks of armor from the Thor omni-mech.
With the light gravity of the planetoid enabling their mechs to move at faster speeds not thought possible in typical conditions, both mechs began to circle each other while constantly rotating their torsos in order to keep their weapons aimed as well as keeping their lightly armored rear torsos away from one another. Both mechs fired continuous barrages of weapons fire but very few scored hits due to the fact that both mechs would continually dodge and weave and would consequently make them a harder target.
Just as Natasha was able to get a few solid hits from her gauss cannons that stripped away most of the Thor's frontal armor, Joanna fired her PPC that was able to penetrate the armor on the Warhammer's right leg. The resulting breach immediately exposed the battlemech's myomer muscles to planetoid's thin atmosphere. As the lubricants around the synthetic muscles dried up, the myomers froze, nearly tripping Natasha's mech over as the Black Widow struggled to keep her Warhammer upright after a sudden stop.
It was the moment Joanna was waiting for; the Jade Falcon mechwarrior instantly disabled her long-ranged missile's tracking controls, enabling it to be fired at point-blank range. As Natasha was able to control her mech's gyros and faced the Thor, Joanna instantly activated her jump jets. With a plume of dust, the Thor rose several dozen meters into the air as Joanna used the planetoid's light gravity to full effect; her omni-mech bounded over the distance between her and the Warhammer as she began to make a descent right on top of her opponent, jump jets at full burn.
As Natasha deactivated the incessant alarms that were distracting her in the cockpit, the large shape of the Thor loomed over the plexiglass view ports of her Warhammer. Natasha instantly knew what was happening; her opponent was going to use the very tactic that killed her previous incarnation; Joanna was going to burn her alive by saturating the mech's cockpit with the Thor's jump jets.
At the last moment, Natasha ceased trying to regain movement in the mech's right leg and instead allowed the 70-ton Warhammer to topple over and roll sideways. The desperate maneuver worked as the Thor sailed over the Warhammer's shoulders and landed close by, knocking out a few of the Warhammer's armor plates in the process.
As the Thor rotated its torsos to face the Warhammer, Natasha fired her left gauss cannon as the solid slug caught the left arm of the Thor. As the gauss slug cored the left arm, the myomer muscles there instantly buckled, making the arm-mounted LB-X autocannon useless. As Natasha somehow got the Warhammer upright again, it was instantly hit by a barrage of missiles fired at point-blank range as the Thor counter-attacked. The resulting armor breaches in the torso and the right arm proved disastrous for the Black Widow as the resulting exposure to vacuum buckled the myomer muscles on the arm as well as causing minor malfunctions to the Warhammer's targeting sensors and gyros. Natasha's mech could barely stand upright as it slumped backwards onto a concrete column that lined the ruins of Camelot Command.
"I have you now." Joanna gloated as she aimed her PPC at the stricken Warhammer.
As Natasha braced for the resulting explosion that would precede her demise, she was instantly surprised as the Thor's left leg was blown off from a barrage of lasers. Joanna let out a cry of shock as her PPC shot went wide as the omni-mech toppled over. As the Thor struggled to get upright, Natasha noticed another mech behind it. It was a 90-ton Supernova, a Clan assault mech mounting a fearsome array of large lasers.
"You will all die for this!" Cogliostro screamed into his cockpit's comm. link for all to hear.
As the Supernova's lasers cycled back to full power, it was instantly staggered by a barrage of missiles fired from Joanna's Thor. Cogliostro's mech carried a lot of armor however, and the resulting damage was barely noticeable. The Supernova fired again at the Thor but due to the merchant lord's lack of training in handling a mech, only one shot was able to hit Joanna's omni-mech; the Thor's remaining armor on its center melted away but miraculously, the myomers held.
"Thanks but no thanks." Natasha held her breath as she fired her gauss cannon.
The 120mm gauss slug scored a lucky hit into the engine compartment of the Supernova's front torso. Within seconds, alarms began to whine all over Cogliostro's cockpit. The merchant lord screamed as his engine core melted through its casing and the Supernova went down in a molten heap.
"You have my thanks Black Widow, but this battle is not yet over. I made a solemn oath to my Khan that I shall kill you and I will carry through." Joanna was able to prop up her Thor underneath a disabled turret as she turned to face the Warhammer once again.
"I expected as much. Goodbye, Star Colonel Joanna." Natasha answered as she fired her gauss cannon one more time.
The Black Widow's shot however, missed the Thor as it embedded itself into the side of the gun turret above the one-legged omni-mech.
"You missed." Joanna smiled as she aimed her PPC at the immobile black Warhammer.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Natasha answered as she sensed a slight tremor in the ruins.
"What-" Joanna looked up as the copula of the gun turret broke from its hinges and fell towards her Thor omni-mech.
The impact upon the top of the Thor was not immediately fatal but it did smash the plexiglass view ports of the omni-mech's cockpit. Joanna made an inaudible scream as the resulting vacuum sucked the air out from the inside of the cockpit. As the pressure on her lungs intensified, several of her arteries exploded and drew red blotches on her skin. Joanna's bloodshot eyes practically blew out of her sockets as her body fluids began to freeze from the extreme temperatures. After twitching for several minutes, the old Jade Falcon at last went still.
Khan Marthe Pryde felt a slight tinge of disappointment while viewing the battle from the command bridge of the Emerald Talon. Star Colonel Joanna had almost succeeded in killing this new incarnation but a series of unexpected events sealed her fate. In the end, the Black Widow had fought fairly and would therefore be set free according to the conditions of the trial. Nevertheless, Khan Pryde felt that she would indeed meet this Black Widow again, and next time, the outcome would be different.
"SLDF dropships are ready to depart, my Khan." The ship's Communications Officer said.
"Very well. As soon as those dropships have lifted off from the planetoid, begin mopping up operations." Khan Pryde ordered.
"Aff my Khan." The Communications Officer acknowledged.
Khan Marthe Pryde said nothing more as she unstrapped herself from the command chair and headed back to her personal quarters.
Till next time then.