December 4, 3135. Kendall, Independent World between the Former Free Worlds League and the Marian Hegemony.

Principes Cora Salud Katsaros eased her Icarus II up to the edge of the abandoned urban center in which she was soon to engage with the Marik Militia. The Caesar had been looking to Kendall since the League lost control of it, but both forces had been rebuilding since the Word of Blake Jihad. Upon learning that the League was attempting to reassert itself, Quinta Cohort, I Legio, was dispatched to snatch Kendall from the League’s hands before they could fully reassert their control. Katsaros’ Maniple was assigned scouting and harassment duties while the Legio attempted to assess the size of the Marik forces.

She turned her ‘Mech’s comms to the full Maniple “Securtda Centuria! Start moving North. Sensors show their heading bringing them into weapons range in the North-East. Centurion Suero, you come with me heading straight at them. The rest of Prima Centuria, move East. Everyone keep your visibility low, and move fast. When they get close, we pick one target at a time and concentrate fire from all sides. Vaditote!” Katsaros fired her jump jets on her own final command, with Suero’s Jenner following. In unison derived of long practice, the Maniple all turned on their exterior loud speakers and began the barritus.

The Icarus hit the roof with a boom, Katsaros cycled her LB-10X to cluster rounds and opened fire on the lighter of the two targets she had in her sights, but the evasive maneuvers of the FWL Vedette carried it clear of the shot, the pavement behind it erupting into dust. She cursed, realizing she had made the call too soon, and Suero’s Jenner wasn’t even in effective weapons range. They fired their jets again to rejoin the Centuria, with little to show for their efforts.

While the tanks rumbled away northward, the BattleMechs skirted East. Katsaros jumped her Icarus in view of the enemy, while the rest of her Centuria came out from behind buildings to open fire from the side. They had already lost their Locust to catastrophic engine failure, but the Centuria formed a semi-circle around the enemy units that had advanced the most. Katsaros used her Icarus’ mobility to minimize her own exposure while drawing the enemy into range of the deadly plasma rifle and suite of lasers on Roger Lewerentz’ Eisenfaust. Meanwhile, Suero and Themistoklis Torres used their mobility to keep their Jenner and Wolfhound behind the enemy.

For a brief moment, the two forces seemed locked in a stalemate. The tide turned when Torres suddenly rushed into close range, declaring “I see an opening! Wish me luck!” He weaved between the walls of a block of crumbling buildings which the Militia’s Juliano had taken cover in, and was able to aim all his main weaponry right into the Juliano’s back. Seeing a Regulator swoop in behind him on his sensors, Torres fired everything, allowing heat to flood into his cockpit. Ignoring the warnings from his Wolfhound’s computer, he continued to give everything he had, but the Juliano’s heavy armor was able to weather it all, and the Wolfhound soon succumbed to both heat and enemy fire, collapsing into the twisted rebar of the abandoned buildings and shutting down.

The battle raged on, and Katsaros saw victory slipping further away. The Marik Militia’s armor lance included two wicked fast Regulators, which had effectively tied up her own tanks, slowing her pincer attack. Her ‘Mechs were still fast enough to flank the enemy, but with half her firepower unable to concentrate fire, the heavier Marik forces were successfully drawing the combat out longer, a situation favourable to their durability.

Katsaros was starting to despair as she looked at her Centuria’s ‘Mechs, barely any of their I Legio colours were still visible with their armor bearing so many ragged holes baring vulnerable internal structures. Just then, Centurion Eudora Abd al-Rahman Wolter’s voice came over the Maniple comms “Sorry for the delay, Principes, I hope you left some for us.” Relief washed over Katsaros as Wolter’s Myrmidon charged into view, and its PPC released a stream of particles that ripped through the air and slammed into the side of the Leaguers’ Juliano, finally felling the giant.

It was too little, too late, though. The combined firepower of the remainder of the Maniple was enough to destroy the FWL BattleMech lance, but not before Prima Centuria reached the same fate. Katsaros crawled out of the smoking cockpit of her Icarus in time to see fire erupt from numerous holes in the Myrmidon’s armor. She retreated from the battlefield on foot, darting through cover positions and doing her best to remain undetected. The fighting at the end was fast paced and fierce. Victory seemed always just barely out of their grasp as Securtda Centuria’s tanks traded fire with the Milita’s, claiming kills, but always one step behind. As the sounds of autocannon and gauss rifle fire slowed, Katsaros’ suit comms crackled, and she heard Miles Probatus Yuhanna Fiero’s voice; “Permission to surrender, Principes? Only my Vedette is still moving, and they just took out my autocannon.” Katsaros stopped in her retreat, sagging against the nearest wall. “Sic, Miles Probatus. I will petition the Legatus to negotiate for your release.”