Her seeming confidence had now turned to blind panic as the pilot of Pinto Super Six-Three kept the throttle to maximum while the helicopter speeded towards the area where the WOB base camp was located. Only minutes ago the pilot had felt a certain quiet satisfaction as the final assault on the beleaguered delegates was underway so that they could all go home at last; now that feeling of elation became one of stunned despair as the tables had seemingly turned against them.

"Why are we abandoning our positions?" Her co-pilot shouted as the constant vibrations of the helicopter made whispering impossible.

"Cuz we can't stand and fight, that's why!" The pilot of Super Six-Three said. "We can't take on those 'Mechs. Let's get to base camp and try to warn them." She didn't add that it was possible that the enemy might have already attacked and occupied their grounded DropShips.

"I'm not getting any static anymore," Her co-pilot said as he toggled the helicopter's communications link. "But I still can't get any contact from our base."

"Keep trying, dammit!"

As the last remaining Pinto helicopter cleared the mountain range and flew out into the open desert, it suddenly stopped and hovered in mid-air, as both pilots looked out into the afternoon horizon in the general direction of their grounded DropShips. A gargantuan mushroom cloud, several hundred feet tall in the air, was slowly descending back to the desert ground from which it came. Both pilots said nothing as they continued to stare out in stunned silence.

Sang-wei Chang Pao began to push forward on his control stick as his aerospace fighter started to dive at the hovering Pinto helicopter several thousand feet below him. His Thrush was actually lighter than the more heavily armed Pinto and although he had the advantage of speed, the Pinto had long-range missiles and a battery of medium-range lasers on its nose turret that could present quite a bit of a problem if he chose to fight it using conventional tactics. But being a Capellan Death Commando, he was trained to use irregular procedures and since he had the brief advantage of surprise, he might as well use it.

Although it seemed like hours, it took only a few seconds for the pilot of Pinto Super Six-Three to recover from her initial shock. It was clear that their base was gone, completely flattened by the all too obvious nuclear blast. What was also clear was that it couldn't have been an accidental detonation by one of her comrades but rather a deliberate attack by the same intruders that were assaulting their forward positions. But now they had no base of operations as well as no reinforcements. What were they to do now? "Switch frequencies on our comm. link. See if we could try and get contact with the Zarathustra." She said wearily to her co-pilot.

Having completed the dive, the dark-green Thrush was only a few hundred feet above and directly behind the Blakist attack helicopter. As the rear of the Pinto loomed closer, Chang smiled as he banked his fighter's control stick slightly to the right, making the Thrush do a slight roll as its circular starboard wing was now facing the ground below while the port wing faced the desert sky above. Now that his position was set, Chang punched up the throttle to enable the afterburners.

One of the crewmen who sat in the fuselage of the Pinto wondered why the helicopter just stopped and hovered in midair for so long. As he got up, unhooked his safety harness and started walking towards the cockpit door to get an answer from the pilots, he noticed something looming at the back of the helicopter. His curiosity piqued, the Pinto crewman slid open the helicopter's side door and looked out towards the rear.

The Pinto crewman had glanced out just at the right moment as the incoming Thrush had positioned its wings like a vertical axe blade as it slashed through the air and passed just above the helicopter's fuselage, missing the crew compartment but cutting the Pinto's main rotor blades using its starboard wing.

Deprived of its lift, the Pinto dropped like a rock as it crashed and exploded onto the desert sands below while the Thrush aerospace fighter leveled off and began to climb towards the heavens once more, as there were no more challengers over its territory.

As the battle between the metal-clad titans continued on the ground, it was obvious that the Black Widows had now gained the upper hand. Although the Blakist MechWarriors were veteran pilots of the Light of Mankind, they were completely surprised by the sudden attack and were now fighting without any coordination as they fought in small, disorganized groups while the Widows were pressing their advantage to the utmost. But even when their cause seemed lost, the Blakists continued to fight when a less experienced unit would have surrendered, as they placed their trust in their deadly skills and battle-hardened experience. The Light of Mankind was an elite unit- but so were the Black Widows.

"Whooee! This is Wolf Spider Two, engaging contact!" Stilicho Jones shouted in his BattleMech's comm. link as his 100-ton Pillager opened fire at a retreating Grand Crusader directly in front of him. The 80-ton Grand Crusader had several batteries of long-ranged missiles and it was best to attack it at close range but even then, it still had a pair of large pulse lasers so one still had to be careful. As Stilicho closed into medium range, the Grand Crusader suddenly pivoted sideways as an allied 80-ton Legacy landed right beside it after engaging its jump jets. Stilicho's Pillager shuddered as several volleys of missiles fired by the Grand Crusader was backed up by a burst of 120mm autocannon shells from the Legacy began impacting on his 'Mech's armor.

"Need backup! Hurry!" Stilicho screamed as his 'Mech took heavy damage but thankfully there wasn't any armor breach. But even then, he wouldn't last long against the two of them.

"Hold your horses." Sudden Smith quipped as he brought in his 95-ton Nightstar to Stilicho's right flank and began to engage the pair of Blakist 'Mechs. Between the two of them, both were able to launch a withering volley of 120mm gauss shells that impacted against the enemy 'Mechs. But even then, the battle was far from decided as Stilicho reluctantly began to back up, his Pillager was too heavily damaged due to the initial Blakist attack to engage in a slugging match with them.

The pair of Blakist assault 'Mechs kept their ground as the Grand Crusader continued to pound away at Stilicho's retreating Pillager with its missile batteries while the Legacy continued to fend off Sudden Smith's Nightstar. Stilicho cursed and nearly lost control when a small missile volley penetrated his 'Mech's right torso and disabled one of his gauss cannons. His Pillager's once formidable firepower was almost cut in half as he continued to fire, hoping he could score a lucky hit before he went down.

Without warning, a 120mm gauss slug screamed in at hypersonic speed from behind Stilicho's 'Mech as it impacted right at the cockpit of the Grand Crusader, blowing the Blakist BattleMech's head clean off. The headless, barrel-chested titan wobbled for a few seconds before finally toppling over, its arms still swaying as if possessed. The Legacy instantly began to retreat as its flank was now fully exposed and Stilicho made the best of it, firing his remaining gauss cannon as well as his extended-range laser, ripping and melting off chunks of the enemy's armor as Sudden Smith also began to press his own attack. The pilot of the Legacy finally had had enough as he activated his 'Mech's jump jets as it began to lift off from the desert floor, hoping to land in another part of the sandstorm so that it could evade its pursuers.

But the Blakist 'Mech didn't get that chance. Just as it rose up in the air, the Legacy's vulnerable cockpit assembly almost disappeared as a laser beam struck it in the center area of its viewports. Although the 'Mech's head wasn't completely torn off, the pilot suffered a massive neural feedback as his cockpit smoldered around him and quickly lost consciousness. Deprived of its command interface, the pilotless Legacy came crashing back down onto the desert floor as it began to be disemboweled by the victorious Nightstar and the Pillager.

"Stilicho, don't press too hard. Next time, wait for more backup." Lieutenant Lewis Sorenson said as his Dark Knight moved off and then disappeared back into the howling mists.

"Damn, just how does he do that?" Stilicho said as he checked out his Pillager's damage control readouts.

"How does he do what?" Sudden Smith queried as he waited for his 'Mech's weapons to cycle back their spent energy.

"Make all those headshots," Stilicho said. "I swear, I never saw anyone make those kinda kills before; during our raid on Colmar, he made four of those types of kills- and against Clanners too! I know he has got one of them newfangled special targeting computers on his Dark Knight but even with those, the chances of a headshot on a fast-moving 'Mech are slim, let alone a jumping one!"

"I guess this unit attracts all sorts of characters." Sudden Smith mumbled as he drove his Nightstar on and disappeared into the swirling walls of airborne sand as well.

"What kind of an answer was that?" Stilicho asked rhetorically as he too pushed up his 'Mech's throttle and moved on.

"Casanova" Jimmy Clavell's MadCat Mk II barely slowed its stride as it came up against a fleeing 75-ton Perseus. Clavell simply twisted his 'Mech's torsos so it faced the stricken Blakist BattleMech and activated all of his weapons at once. The combination of Clan-made missile batteries and dual gauss cannons made short work of the Perseus as Clavell's alpha strike instantly cored its already battered torsos and it went down in a heap of twisted metal. Ignoring his 'Mech's heatsink overload warning, Clavell punched up his command uplink. "This is Wolf Spider One, what's the sitrep, over."

"Looking good," The Monk answered while moving his 100-ton Royal King Crab to the outskirts of the sandstorm. "I confirm six enemy 'Mechs down and about three tanks taken care of as well. I got a link with the Capellan aerospace pilot and he reports taking out another chopper. Other than mopping up, looks like we got this in the bag."

Clavell wasn't too concerned about the enemy, he always knew they were going to win out in the end, but the main question was still out there. "What about the Captain? Where the hell is she? All this fighting will be for nothing if she's dead." He said.

"Chill out, Clavell." Sorenson said calmly as he too kept his eye on the virtual map in his 'Mech's cockpit. "I know how you feel; let's finish this up and then we go looking for her."

"You finish it. I'm gonna go look for her right now." Clavell said as he punched up his MadCat Mk II's throttle to maximum. He didn't know her general direction, but he wasn't about to sit around and do nothing either.

"Hold your position, Clavell!" Sorenson ordered. "We still have some bad guys out there."

"Sir, I think I got a contact." Beatrix Banzai said as she kept peering into the sensor readouts of her Stealth Hawk. Although not designed to be a brawler like the others, the 45-ton Stealth Hawk was equipped with advanced electronic stealth systems and had a very powerful active probe to differentiate between friend and foe alike. While its sister 'Mechs acted as the executioners, the Stealth Hawk had the distinction of providing the electronic warfare support for the team. It was a lethal combination to anyone who opposed the Black Widows.

"What kind of contact?" The Monk asked.

"I think it's the Captain, sir." Beatrix said as she continuously adjusted her readings to try and get a better look. "I'm detecting a small, personal IFF transponder that's moving to the base of the mountains. It's keyed in to our code frequency and the Captain is the only one other than us who would know that. My guess is that she must have left her Warhammer and is proceeding out on foot."

"You don't need to say that twice." Clavell said as he began to unstrap himself from his cockpit chair. Quickly deactivating his BattleMech's reactor, he checked the safeties on his dual Sternsnacht heavy pistols before opening the MadCat Mk II's outer hatch and leapt out into the swirling dust storm.

"Clavell, goddamn it!" Sorenson protested as he saw the figure leap out of the now idle MadCat Mk II and began to make its way towards the base of the mountains. It seemed that only Captain Kerensky could ever control this motley bunch; no matter how hard he tried, they just wouldn't listen to him. It was one of those things that he had to work on; otherwise the unit wouldn't function as a team without their commanding officer- and this happened to be that very situation.

"Hey, Lieutenant Clavell is going EVA again!" Johnny Gundam exclaimed as he too started to unstrap himself as his 'Mech began to deactivate its fusion powerplant after parking it right beside the MadCat. After the last strap was unbuckled, Gundam immediately took out a massive vibroaxe from the side of his pilot's chair and tested its built-in powerpack; the indicator read full charge.

"Johnny, Lieutenant Sorenson told us to stay in our 'Mechs." Stilicho Jones said as he drove his damaged Pillager close to Gundam's Axman, hoping to dissuade his friend from doing something reckless.

"No worries buddy, you stay in your 'Mech and watch over mine. I'll back up Lieutenant Clavell and get the Captain back here pronto." With that, Gundam threw off his neurohelmet and popped open the outer hatch of his 'Mech as he followed Clavell into the sand swept unknown.

Stilicho sighed as he sat back in his pilot's chair. He was brave, but he wasn't foolhardy either. Let them do the running and gunning; if they got hurt, it sure wouldn't be his fault.