CHAPTER 11

Logistic Depot, 2 hrs from Shigata,
Ashio, Ashio Prefecture,
Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine,

October 18, 3074

Dultom Markham was of many names. He was a soldier, a businessman, a leader, a sly mercenary, a fierce mechwarrior, a masterful tactician, a full combatant. But the one he was proud of the most, and one he took very seriously, was a duelist. Nothing, absolutely nothing, excited him more than winning a hard-fought mech duel with a worthy opponent. It was what defined him as a mechwarrior. Throughout his career, which had spanned almost 5 decades, Dultom had dueled countless of mechwarriors, ranging from cowards to heroes of the Inner Sphere, and he was proud to say he killed almost all of them. Some did escape his wrath, the lucky few-some or just plain better mechwarriors, but they were rare cases and forgettable at most.

"Target destroyed," Dultom said coldly as his ballistic quartet gutted the Uziel with savage accuracy. His UAC shells split the torso open and his LBX submunitions pillaged the delicate machinery beneath the armored casing. The impact shoved the Uziel beyond its tipping point, and the 50-ton Kuritan fell flat on its back, with smoke and ember gushing out from the eviscerated torso.

Yet it was just another routine, 'predictable' kill that he would forget in the next 5 seconds.

"What do you make of that Argus, Darius?" Dultom said as he lined up his crosshair with the spritely 60-ton mech. "That's a 5D, a rare breed in Davion lineup. The Targeting Computer will make the Heavy PPC and Streak missiles a stinger. Do you think it'll make a more interesting kill than the Uziel?"

"Doesn't matter, Sir. Just kill it." Darius Oliveira knew full well about Dultom's affinity to 1-on-1 savagery. "The more you kill, the sooner we finish off the Kuritans. Then we can collect our money and get the hell out of this place, away from that Mordecai nutjob."

"You don't mix business with pleasure, do you?" Dultom teased his second in command. "This campaign is a letdown from the start. Might as well find some entertainment to make your heart shine."

"My heart shines when I receive my share of the contract, Sir."

Dultom let out a wry chuckle and obtained a lock on the Argus. But his console blinked, warning him of another combatant entering his killing zone. He twisted to access the new threat, and his heart skipped a beat, watching a rarely-seen 80-ton Warhammer IIC coming at him with its dual ERPPC gleaming with malice.

"Fresh meat, two o'clock," Dultom turned his Bull Shark to meet the challenge. "Round out the Kuritans. I'm taking another offering for the Jormungandr."

"Have fun, Sir," Darius replied halfheartedly and put his Wakazashi on a sprint.

Dultom had fought enough duels to know that his mech's 15 tons advantage meant nothing. The Warhammer IIC was a very dangerous battlemech, and its mechwarrior was eager to show off its combat prowess. Its long cannons glowed in cerulean glory, and two lightning bolts leapt from the tubes. Dultom yanked his joystick hard left, forcing his Bull Shark to crouch and twist. One bolt sailed above his head, the other one grazed the Bull Shark's right torso. The highly destructive PPC bolt carved a long trench on the Bull Shark's shoulder, but the armor held, with a lot more to spare.

Dultom readjusted his crosshair then poured his ballistics at the Warhammer IIC. At the prime range of 500 meters, his twin UAC5 clobbered the torso armor and his armor-piercing LBX pellets widened the fissures. The Warhammer IIC staggered but held fast. Dultom lobbed his Thumper shell, almost in a straight line, and struck the Warhammer IIC's hip just south of the waist-leg junction. The Clan-made mech veered off course, hobbling out of Dultom's firing arc. Gear fluid visibly trickled out of a crack on the leg armor. Dultom lined up his crosshair on the leak, but his weapons were still recycling. A short burst of curses escaped his lips as he was forced to turn his mech around for a better attack angle.

The Warhammer IIC regained footing and fired its ERPPC in volley fire. Dultom tilted his mech to protect the Bull Shark's cannon-laden arms. The blue bolts hammered his left torso, forcing him to twist to the other direction. He knew the destructive power of the Clan ERPPC, but seldom did he have to compensate two strikes at the same location. His console burst into warning screams. His radar screen broke down into static. Whoever piloted the Warhammer IIC knew what to make the best of his weapons.

Yet the Bull Shark's ballistic quartet were left unmolested, and now ready to fire. Dultom shifted right to get a clear shot at the injured hip, then let his LB-10X cannons rip. The remaining armor dulled Dultom's assault, but at the cost of a ton of shredded layers. The sudden loss of mass stunned the Warhammer IIC, and as it strained its legs, Dultom pumped his UAC5 and laser combo. The left hip glowed in red, and globules of molten slag flew in the air as the high-explosive rounds bore pounded the ferro-fibrous shell without relent.

The Warhammer IIC made a hard left turn to protect its damaged hip, then fired its pulse lasers in a spectacular display. Dultom moved his mech to the other direction, trying to distribute the laser attack evenly throughout his armor. Half of the laser strands hit void, but the rest found home, turning his Bull Shark armor into bubbling, steaming glop. The Warhammer IIC kept up the laser work then capped it with a brutal PPC shot to the Bull Shark's midsection. Dultom held his joystick tight, weathering the assault. He knew his center torso had enough armor to sustain 3 full Clan PPC blasts. The Bull Shark teetered, but a quick jerk on the joystick corrected the mech's stance.

The Warhammer IIC swung left to cool off, and Dultom punished it for being generous. He loaded his Thumper with scattershot ammo and blasted his cannon. The submunitions flogged the Warhammer IIC left side. The Warhammer IIC twisted and launched its streak missiles, but Dultom sidestepped the rushed shot. Two missiles smashed into the Bull Shark's leg, wobbling the 95-ton mech for the first time. The Warhammer IIC tried to push the advantage, but Dultom beat it. The Bull Shark's stubby arms spat fire and smoke. HEAP shells strafed the Warhammer IIC's left torso, forcing the 80-ton mech to recoil.

The Warhammer IIC shrugged off the attack then went on a laser overdrive. Its torso flashed like a strobe light, spitting flurries of laser strands. The Bull Shark struck back with its own lasers, a quartet of emerald strands blitzing from two boxes sitting atop its shoulder. Both mechs shimmered in motley hues; liquefied ferro-fibrous sagged, turning both mechs into grotesque beasts. The Warhammer IIC pumped its missiles, hammering the red-hot blotch in the center of the Bull Shark. The Bull Shark retaliated with its LB-10X cannons. Molten slag sprayed as the scattershot rounds sandblasted the Warhammer torso. The Warhammer IIC pressed on, staggering the larger mech with debilitating shots to the center. The Bull Shark stood in defiant, then returned fire just as nasty. The Warhammer IIC rocked back and forth as multiple ballistic shots tore its flesh, leaving it bleeding smoke and fire.

Consulting his damage report, Dultom realized he had to take some drastic measure to beat the Warhammer IIC. Not that the Kuritan was winning, but at this rate the Bull Shark would be sent for scrap at the end of the fight. The Warhammer IIC was a great battlemech, and the mechwarrior knew how to use it. He needed more than the Bull Shark's raw power to beat the Kuritan.

Dultom ran in circles, increasing the gap between the two mechs until he got out of the Warhammer IIC's streak range. The Warhammer IIC followed his move, protecting its bad left hip with withering pulse lasers. It dropped its arms to bring the ERPPC to bear, but Dultom fired a cluster munitions, pushing the Warhammer IIC to the side. The Warhammer IIC shifted position, and in the process, exposing its damaged left hip. Dultom held nothing back punishing the Warhammer IIC's weak point. He squashed the alpha strike button with impunity, and the Bull Shark's firepower converged on the damaged hip. The Kuritan mech staggered hard. Its arms flailed drunkenly to keep standing. Burning shards swooshed in every direction. Black smoke billowed from the wound, and geen sludge trickled down its leg.


The Bandersnatch was not a particularly worthy opponent. Seether had put a number on it. The armor was shredded to ribbons, and each time Noloty slammed home a salvo, its knees buckled. But Noloty was preoccupied with the Bull Shark. She let go of the pressure long enough for the Bandersnatch to mount a devastating counterattack. Layers of armor fragmented into scorching flakes. Yet her eyes wandered to the mech duel some 1.5 clicks away, and her throat clenched, watching Seether's Warhammer IIC leaning haplessly on one leg, while the much-too-familiar Bull Shark moved in circle, like a beast prowling to kill its prey.

"Yankee, Brutus Diablo is in trouble!" Noloty called Scarlet. "Let me go relieve him!"

"Brutus Diablo can take care of himself!" Scarlet barked. "Finish your job, Tango!"

"Ma'am…"

"Kill the goddamn Bandersnatch, Heishi! Do your job and let him do his!"

The Bandersnatch scored another cluster attack, stripping half a ton of armor off the Sagittaire's arm. Noloty groaned in frustration. Her armor tracker turned bright orange, and coolant started to seep from a few cracks on the right torso. One more hit at the same location and she would be in a big trouble. Unless she let go of Seether's situation and focused on the matter at hand, she would achieve neither.

The Bandersnatch attacked again, but this time Noloty fired her jump jets. The Bandersnatch's laser salvo hit the plume of smoke. Noloty guided her Sagittaire to land outside the Bandersnatch's firing arc. The Bandersnatch twisted as far as it could, but Noloty was too far outside its killing zone. Noloty fired her ERPPC, and the Bandersnatch's right torso exploded. The decrepit mech jolted in mortal agony, then collapsed onto the plaster, spewing body parts from the eviscerated torso.

And then, Seether's distress call came in. "Mayday, mayday, this is Brutus Diablo! Bandit is chewing up my mech! Need immediate support, repeat, need immediate support!"

"Tango Sakura, coming inbound!" Noloty put her mech in high gear and bolted toward the smoking tower in the distance. Her heartrate doubled, watching the giant mercenary mech gutted Seether's immobilized Warhammer IIC, one section at a time, as if immersing in the demented satisfaction of torture. And she still remembered their fight, the closest she had been to death. Ten months felt like a day, and if their first encounter was any indication, she feared she might be too late for Seether…


"Heads up, Boss," Dekker's voice sneaked through Dultom's earpiece. "Two Kuritans are coming in hot. Looks like they're trying to help the Warhammer IIC."

"Kill them all," Dultom replied. "I'm finishing up this Bozo."

"Roger that," Dekker thumbed his mike twice, then turned his Longbow and launched a swarm of missiles at an incoming mech.

Dultom didn't know what Dekker was shooting at, and he didn't care. His focus was on the crumbling Warhammer IIC in front of him. A worthy opponent at best, yet a fool to try to contest the Bull Shark's superiority. But then, everybody did contest the Bull Shark's superiority. And every single one of them failed. And the wage of failure was death.

The Bull Shark's medium lasers stabbed the Warhammer IIC in the shoulder. The upper arm blew off, spitting myomer bundles and titanium-alloy splinters. The Warhammer IIC careened, anchoring its weight on the right leg. Dultom shifted position, taking a stand just outside the Warhammer IIC's firing arc. The Warhammer IIC limped off in excruciating fashion, trying to bring its remaining PPC into the fight. But the damaged leg reduced the dexterity to that of a snail. Dultom put his crosshair squarely on the Warhammer IIC left hip then mercifully blasted his ballistic quartet. The hip shattered in a sea of fire and smoke, and the Warhammer IIC tumbled sideways, propping its body with its remaining PPC.

"Valiant effort, yet grossly futile," Dultom moved up his Bull Shark on top of the Warhammer IIC. His lasers turned green, and he linked all of them together, and aimed for the nape of the the Warhammer IIC neck. "You deserve a warrior's death." He pulled the trigger, and the emerald beam sliced the back of the Warhammer IIC neck, straight into the power conduit. The Warhammer IIC upper torso exploded in brilliant hue, and the rest of the once great mech sprawled on the ground.


Noloty's proximity alarm screamed furiously, trumpeting the advent of 60 missiles aiming like a tidal wave. She kept her steady course, then blasted her jets as the missiles broke 300 meters. The missiles curved upward to track her position but the Sagittaire soared high, past the Longbow, and landed between the missile boat and the Bull Shark. The missiles lost their target and dispersed in the air. The Longbow didn't expect such wild maneuver. It veered left and twisted frantically, trying to get its target back, but the Sagittaire was out reach.

Coming within 600 meters from the Bull Shark, Noloty raised all guns but the image of the Warhammer IIC – or what was left of it – stopped her dead on her track. What was once a proud Clan-made mech now lied in tatter, consumed by fire. There was no sign of beacon from Seether's ejection seat, and knowing the Clan's doctrine of warfare, there might not be one to begin with.

"Oh no…" Noloty whimpered. "Yankee Tornado, this is Tango Sakura. We lost Brutus Diablo." She set her eyes on the Bull Shark, then raised both arms. "I'll make them pay!"

The Bull Shark acknowledged Noloty's challenge, then raised all weapons of its own. Both mech circled each other with guns centered on the other's midst. Noloty rubbed the alpha-strike button with her finger, then flicked the comm toggle to hail the Bull Shark.

"Remember me?"