2
Ducal Palace
Alpha Continent, Le Blanc
Draconis March, Federated Suns
11 October 3026
“Hey Web-Head!”
Across the open comms frequency, the arrogant words slapped Natasha Kerensky like a sucker-punch to the gut. For a long, frozen moment, the tableau remained fixed in her vision, disbelief laser-etching it on her awareness.
The palace garden’s beautiful fall colors clashed against the horror of the unfolding trap. The brilliant oranges, reds, and yellows of foliage scattered across the three long paths that wound through the gardens. Behind her, fallen blocks of broken wall attested to the improvised entrance into the large palace compound her Warhammer’s powerful kick had created. The reflecting pools thrashed with the violence of enemy BattleMechs—four of them, lights to mediums—rising from their depths like krakens from a cheesy horror vid.
And behind her, through the gaping wound of that wall…
Her fingers paled to corpse-white and creaked around her joysticks as the strain of her rage threatened to overwhelm. Her eyes locked on the rear portion of her BattleMech’s viewscreen.
Framed in the gap, as though pausing for a military recruitment poster, stood a bright emerald Marauder, a large C-bill painted on the center of its chest. Its arm-weapon pods aimed deadly with intent, and behind the heavy ’Mech approached two similarly painted Shadow Hawks.
Her volatile rage flashed to incandescence, every thought but revenge washing away even the needs of this raid. Natasha clenched her teeth to open up the general frequency as she stomped her right pedal and massaged the throttle forward for a quick spin. Confident her lancemates would make quick work of the four enemy BattleMechs inside the walls, she maneuvered to protect her vulnerable rear while bringing her weapons to bear as quickly as possible.
“It’s you and me, Bounty Hunter!” Natasha yelled. “You robbed me, damn your hide! It’s you and me!”
Her opponent, sheathed in his own arrogance of skill, superior numbers, and their sprung trap, waited for her to turn.
Knowing how quickly her ’Mech could overheat, she belayed the use of her paired Donal Particle Projector Cannons. Instead, as her targeting reticule flashed gold with a lock, she squeezed the trigger for her secondary targeting interlock. Twin medium lasers, a single PPC, and a spiral of six short-range missiles fired at the target.
Her vision flashed white alongside her rage as the Bounty Hunter raised his weapon pods to take the damage, as though saying taking your best shot; armor slagged and exploded from across the ’Mech’s torso and arms. The bright flashes and smoke of the impacts momentarily obscured the BattleMech before a slight breeze whisked it away to show the Marauder’s twin pods once more aimed, flashing azure bolts of manmade lightning back at her.
Her ’Mech. The double-damned Bounty Hunter had defeated her twelve years ago … stole her Marauder … and now he was using it against her!
Her Warhammer bucked against the maelstrom as more than a ton of armor vaporized in return for her damage. But she was the Black Widow, and the Bounty Hunter would learn what that meant this day!
WARHAMMER “BLACK WIDOW”
A procurement officer requested a "...mobile ’Mech with enough firepower to destroy or severely damage any ’Mech of the same class or lower.” When the final BattleMech rolled off the StarCorps Industries assembly line, the Warhammer fit the bill well, quickly becoming a mainstay in the Star League Defense Force. Its superb balance of armor, weapons, and speed made it extremely popular with Star League Gunslingers as well. Ultimately the Warhammer clinched its place as one of the most successful heavy BattleMechs ever produced.
Friends and foe alike have called Natasha Kerensky “the Black Widow,” “the First Lady of Death,” “the Queen of Spades,” and other names far less flattering. Yet whenever she and her black-and-red Warhammer stalk any battlefield, panic, chaos, and defeat follow in her wake. Natasha leads the Black Widow Company—an independent command within the mighty Wolf’s Dragoons—and her MechWarriors would storm the gates of hell at her side.
Across six and a half centuries of BattleMech conflict, no name has been more sensationalized, demonized, feared, or respected than the Black Widow.
WARHAMMER ORTHOGRAPHIC
