Not unexpectedly, Katarina’s fist crashed down on Allen’s desk, nearly spilling his morning coffee.

“What do you mean, I cannot use it in battle? Why in Kerensky’s name did we buy it, if not to use it?”

Allen’s expression was grave. “We got that mech thinking of the devastating amount of damage you could do to your enemies in it. We just forgot how much damage they could do to you.

“Katarina: that mech is so expensive, if an enemy even pierces through your armor and damages the frame, it will cost us more to repair it than it would cost to replace both of the Spiders, or to buy a new one. I should have consulted with our repair techs before I made the purchase. But I didn’t. I went with my heart, knowing how much this mech would mean to you.”

“And it does, Allen! It means so much!”

Tears were in Katarina’s eyes: tears of anger as well as love.

“Once I stepped into the cockpit, took the controls, I was overjoyed! It is faster and jumps further than my old Hellbringer! All energy weapons: no ammunition to run out or explode! You knew exactly what I needed, and you gave it to me! How could you even think to take it away now?”

The towering redhead was now dissolving in tears, and Allen felt the awkwardness of trying to comfort her. He was reasonably tall at 6’1”, but her 6’8” stature seemed to dwarf him. He reached up to put an arm around her shoulder, but at first she resisted. Then she turned to hug him close.

“You must trust me, my love. In this Wraith, I shall be invincible. I shall run, I shall jump, I shall blast them before they have any chance to strike me! She is well armored, and I won’t let them near enough to damage her.

“You will see: with her, I shall win us the victories we need not only to repair her should some mishap befall us, but to buy more and better mechs. I shall bring you salvage and money, and there will be no lack. Have we not done well since we first met? Have I not brought you victory upon victory?”

Allen nodded. “Indeed you have. More than I could have ever hoped for. Balthazar’s bays are nearly full: a couple of salvages, and we will have no room left.”

“”Then why do you doubt me? I have done all this in a mech I will not name, for disgrace, and now you give me the chance to truly soar as never before, but you would take it away? One battle, my love: let me prove to you what I can do.”

Allen sighed, then nodded. “One battle. Something big enough that we can afford to have you well guarded, not exposed on your own. If you can show me that you can win us six million C-bills, twice what it costs to repair this mech, I won’t question anymore.”

“There will be no need. Give me a worthy target, and I will show you proof.”

The opportunity came sooner than Allen would have expected. The Avengers might have been born of a noble cause, but stranded on this end of the galaxy they had to pay bills. And that meant doing dirty jobs for hire.

Harold, his contact with the Mercenary Review Board, called him in with an offer. “Your potential employer works for a company that has an issue with Comstar. Seems Comstar confiscated their land for a supply base: one that could have been built anywhere, but Comstar chose to build it right in their front yard.

“He wants that base destroyed. If they can’t have the land, they want it clear that neither can Comstar.”

Allen examined the documents Harold had provided, especially the satellite map of the base. “There’s no big catch here? This is really a small supply base, not an HPG station?”

Harold smiled and shook his head. “You can see for yourself on the map: not a building over thirty meters squared. No: this is a way station for supplies to maintain HPGs, that’s all. I wouldn’t ask you and all my contacts at once to tackle an HPG. Not only would you not have the firepower, you would be blackballed from here back to Andurien. Nobody messes with an HPG!”

Allen nodded, satisfied. “This looks like a big job, alright. What’s the payout?”

“1.3 Million per building destroyed: extra if you can cripple their mechs in the process. They want all your best warriors on this.”

It was just what Katarina and he had been looking for. Something big enough to offer her support, and have a good payout. He extended a hand to Harold. “It’s a deal. Just tell us when and where, and we’ll be there with bells on.”

And so he, Katarina, Justin, Jess, Kenny and Armando wound up in their mechs strolling through the fields and light woods of Esperanto-12, armed and ready. It was early, about 5 AM local time, a summery morning with lots of fog floating through the fields.

This was shortly after Justin’s humiliation at the hands of the Diamond Shark’s leader Jason. Justin was feeling the tension among the other pilots: tension he knew had to do with whether he could perform adequately after such a defeat. It burned at him, but there was nothing he could do until they entered combat.

Allen tapped the commlink. “Targets just ahead. And we’ve got movement: opposition forces just as expected. Remember to keep closing on the targets, take them out first. Once they’re gone, the battle’s over.”

Jason took a deep breath and shifted forward in his seat, the 70-ton Grasshopper breaking into a run. On the screen he identified the blocky profiles of a 90-ton Highlander, a 70-ton Guillotine and a 20-ton speedster Mercury. He already knew that Allen would square off with the Highlander and Katarina would pounce on the Merc: that left him to face the Guillotine. Even weights, roughly equal weapons capability: a good match. But of course, that part of the battle was secondary. He fixed his eyes on the actual target closest to him: a squat, one-story building, nothing special, just sturdy enough to take a bit of a pounding.

Allen likewise began running towards the objective. Now that enemy forces had been mobilized, stealth was no longer an option. He grinned. Not like their mechs had been exactly quiet tromping through the woods and field behind them, but it did not matter now.

A shorter figure emerged from the mist, its turret shifting to focus on him. The heavy Manticore tank fired a warning shot from its PPC, still too far off to actually do damage.

“Attention, incoming forces. This is Precentor Mark Diaz of the Comstar 78th Guard. I will not allow you to damage this facility. Turn back now, or we will open fire.”

Allen keyed the commlink again, this time to the open channel. “Attention, Precentor Diaz. This is Captain Allen McGee of the Andurien Avengers. We have orders to level this facility to the ground. Oppose us and face the Avengers’ wrath.”

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Allen was not close enough to any buildings yet, but the Manticore had rolled into the range of his Extended Range PPCs. His thumbs clicked down on the triggers and twin beams of lightning scorched the Manticore, one beam slashing across the front, the other sizzling half a ton of armor off of the turret.

Justin lined up a shot on the Guillotine, still at long range, fired, and missed. A blue laser beam sizzled through the misty grasses, leaving a small smoke trail behind.

A moment later came a second blue blast in staccato beats, pounding on the Guillotine from the side, scorching the left arm which held a large laser. The armor held, but Justin could see the start of a gap opening there. Katarina had flanked the Guillotine and was firing what she could from her maximum range.

The Guillotine fired back at Katarina, its shot going wide as Katarina performed some aerial acrobatics, seemingly diving right under the blast before landing on the nearby hilltop, scanning for her next target. Justin blushed in envy: no wonder everyone had wanted her to replace him in the Grasshopper.

But that was no longer on the board. Katarina whooped for joy as her Wraith soared through the air, enjoying a freedom of movement she had never had before on the battlefield. This was her mech now, and nobody was putting her in anything else.As she came in for a landing her eyes swept the field, spotting three opponents within easy shooting range. Choices, choices!

Jessica was not having as much luck. The Highlander had targeted her, its Gauss rifle smashing her arm to shreds in a single shot. No other shots reached her, but that was enough. She fired both of her long range missile racks at one of the taller buildings, doing only minimal damage to the structure, and kept on running forward.

Meanwhile Kenny and Armando’s Spiders were attempting to flank the whole rest of the battle and come in for an attack on the buildings from the right. The only thing that had a comparable speed to theirs on the battlefield was the Mercury, and it was a much smaller Mech: so even though they could see it closing with them, they were not terribly concerned.

“Hey, Kenny: break a leg, hey?” Armando teased his friend, who had lost four legs in the last three months. Kenny shot back: “Yeah, yeah: laugh it up, till you get yours in a jam!”

Allen continued his run towards the target, firing as he went. The three story building began to collapse under the assault of his PPC fire. Meantime the Highlander was getting ever closer…

Justin as well continued his run, closing the distance towards the buildings. The Guillotine was charging in his direction as well. Justin wasn’t too worried: his jump jets should get him around the other Mech. Meanwhile he opened fire with his PPC and scored another hit on the left arm previously damaged by Katarina. Armor sizzled, but the laser remained functional, and fired at him along with medium lasers. He took a few shots but kept going full speed.

Jessica had continued to focus her long range missiles on the building that Allen also was targeting. The upper floor collapsed, and debris rained down on the pavement below.

She paid for her shot, though: the Highlander scored another hit with the Gauss rifle, tearing loose her arm that carried one of the long range missile launchers.

Katarina took a jump that landed her behind the Mercury, which had caught up to Armando’s Spider and was attacking it from the rear. “Turnabout is fair play,” she gritted through her teeth, opening fire and scoring deep damage on the much smaller Mech.

One of the Manticores was focusing all of its fire on Allen’s Warhammer, while the other hammered Kenny’s Spider with devastating shots. Allen’s armor was thick enough, and the Manticore’s aim poor enough that he suffered no serious damage. However, one whole side of the Spider was blown off with a blast from the PPC, and Kenny staggered under several short ranged missiles that peppered the front of his Mech, and laser fire to the back from the Merc. Fortunately both his weapons were in the center torso, so he lost no combat capability.

The Spiders both jumped quickly to conceal themselves behind two of the target buildings, taking the opportunity to try to blast through some of the basic supports to weaken the structure.

“Well, Kenny, that’s a new look for you,” exclaimed Armando. “Yeah,” chuckled back Kenny, “Gives new meaning to ‘alive and kicking,’ doesn’t it!”

Allen continued running and firing at the building, which was quickly being reduced to scrap. The Highlander was closing in, now focusing its powerful Gauss rifle on him. He took a hit that staggered him, but kept going.

Justin could see the Guillotine bearing down on him and began to stutter-step in anticipation of an eminent collision. But then he reallized a slight shift in his trajectory would bring him within 90 meters of two undamaged buildings simultaneously; having choices was a good thing.

With a great leap, Katarina soared over 200 meters and landed on the roof of the building that Kenny had weakened. Her 55 ton weight was sufficient to collapse the unstable structure, first crushing in the roof, then falling floor by floor until she reached the ground, and the whole building lay in ruin around her. It was a spectacular feat that greatly advanced the mission, but also battered the mech in the course of the fall. Katarina was hurtled to and fro in her seat as the mech crashed against landing after landing and finally came to rest amid a great heap of lumber and rubble.

Apparently in shock, the Guillotine broke off its run towards Justin and leaped over next to the collapsed building, opening fire on the prone Wraith. Katarina fired in return while lying on her back, doing enough damage to avoid suffering a kick to the head.

Jessica took another shot from the Highlander but staggered forward enough to smash the last ruins of the first building with her feet. If the Highlander kept this up, she would be a goner for sure.

Freed from his concerns about the Guillotine, and witnessing Katarina’s awesome performance, Justin hurtled himself and his Mech into the air and came down hard on another building. Like with her, the building collapsed under his 70 ton weight as he fell through it to the ground. And his Mech likewise took damage in the course of the fall, landing facedown in the rubble, himself suspended in midair from the straps in the pilot’s seat. Dazed, it took him a moment or two before he shifted the arms controls to roll the Mech onto its back and reseat himself properly.

Kenny took another hit from the Manticore’s PPC that took off his other side torso and arm, leaving him standing there like a toothpick through an olive balanced on two skinny legs. He still managed to remain standing, and even to fire both pulse lasers at yet another building.

“78th Guard: cease fire! Cease fire!” Shock was evident in the Precentor’s voice as he gave the order on the open channel.

All the Comstar Guard units stopped their attacks, the Guillotine even stepping back and allowing room for Katarina to roll to her feet.

“Avengers: cease fire.” Allen’s voice came calmly over the commlink. “Precentor: do you wish to discuss terms?”

The Precentor’s shaky voice came back online. “Congratulations, Avengers. You have accomplished your objective: or at least have it guaranteed.”

In fact, every building in the area had suffered significant damage and those still standing would take little to be completely destroyed. The Precentor was quite correct.

“You have proven your capability. Only two of your lightest three Mechs have taken significant damage. We could attempt to destroy the rest, but I have a feeling once you turned your attentions to fighting us instead of destroying buildings that the battle would quickly turn your way: at least enough to cause us serious damage with nothing to gain.

“Having lost this combat, I may be headed for demotion. That is less likely if I can at least present the 78th intact. Therefore, our terms are simple: complete your destruction, then leave and do not return, and allow us to retain our forces as is, and we will not interfere. Agreed?”

It did not take long for Allen to answer. “Your terms are acceptable. Agreed.”

The Comstar 78th Guard retreated, watching as the Avengers stomped all remaining buildings to the ground. Then Allen turned towards them once more.

“Have a good day. Good luck avoiding the demotion.”

The Avengers returned to the dropship, elated as they calculated the rewards for their victory. As they relaxed, the mood turned jovial, and comments turned towards Kenny.

“Why, Kenny!” Armando exclaimed: “You appear to have lost some weight! Have you been on a diet?”

“Yeah, yeah,” retorted Kenny: “The right arm I don’t have is saluting you with a big middle finger. Laugh it up, Space Monkeys!”