"The Menagerie at Twycross", Part 4
Even in her dreams, they never stopped testing her.
That was most of what Sofia could remember from a younger age, a woman in a suit looming at one side of the room while her mother sat quietly and didn't intervene. Strength tests, endurance tests, reaction tests, even memory tests. Here in the hazy unreality of the daydream, the young woman knew this wasn't real, but here she was trying to keep up on a treadmill as numbers making no sense flashed on the console in front of her.
There were voices, always there were voices. "I really wish you people would stop. It's clear whatever you're worried about isn't manifesting." Her mother's voice, sounding tired, aggravation leaking out of it. She was pacing, something Sofia never remembered her doing before. Was this a dream? A memory?
The tall woman folded her arms behind her back, not even looking at the pacing woman. "Commander Garrido, you agreed to these stipulations for the adoption process to proceed."
"The old man's dead."
No he's not, he's standing right there. Sofia saw him looking down from a window in the wall overhead, an old man whose expression was impossible to read. But he radiated disapproval, looking from the young woman to the pair watching every now and then.
The woman in the suit was speaking again, her voice becoming more irritated. "That is not the point. You were aware of what happened, about the project. It is lucky you weren't sequestered along with the others." Her eyes moved to a display on the wall. "She is faking it now, moving slower."
"She's just tired, it's been hours."
"Indeed. Hours running on the machine. Tell me, Commander, do you expect you could do so well?" Her mother looked away, and sat back down. "And you want to put her in a BattleMech."
"She wants it. She said she wants to help-"
"No, Commander." A sharp dismissal. "She cannot be allowed to do it."
"You're not her mother."
"Neither are you. She did not have one, do you remember? Or a father. She should not exist."
"Stop saying that!" At the shout, Sofia glanced over to watch. Her mother suddenly was standing, trying to stand up to the taller woman, and seeming more like a petulant child throwing a tantrum. "She's a human being!"
"Eyes forward." The voice was coming from in front of her, and Sofia turned her head to look into the eyes of an old man, whose wrinkled fingers had fallen over the top of the machine's display. He was familiar, felt familiar anyway, but she couldn't put a name to the face. "You have a duty to perform, Sofia. Pay attention."
A finger tapped a control on the comms console, opening the squad channel. "Sorry, lead. Zoned out on the way over."
There was a chuckle, then a sigh. "Ah, newbies. Don't stress it, kid. It's always dull having to take the long way." That was Vandal's voice, the Black Knight keeping pace carefully behind them. The other 'Mech was humanoid, with the right arm bearing its primary weapon. The rest of its arsenal was set into the torso, with apertures visible along the 'ribcage' area. "Head's up, though, we're arriving at the outer perimeter shortly."
Sofia glanced down to her sensor display to see the overlaid line in bright blue where the Trellshire facility would start picking them up. "What if they don't notice us?"
She could almost hear him shrug it off, in the way his tone of voice became more casual. "Then this'll be easier." Vandal had a reputation in the outfit for being a hardened mercenary, having been an operator long before joining Priam Company. He was pushing fifty years old now, and his reaction times still seemed unreal to her.
'Stop measuring yourself against the people who did this before you were born, idiot, and pay attention.' She tapped the comm pickup once to signal she had heard and didn't have anything to say.
"Okay, Xiphos Lance, listen up." Ellen's voice carrying a tension which Vandal's had been lacking. "We have no idea what we'll be facing so the plan is to engage carefully. The invaders have shown to focus their attention on single targets, so we are going to focus fire on one target at a time until they go down and stay down. First and foremost, we're buying time so the transports can evacuate people."
Sofia felt her mind drifting again, fingers wriggling restlessly on her throttle control. Why bother saying such an obvious plan out loud? Especially when it was obvious the enemy wasn't going to cooperate as soon as the battle started. Her hips shifted in the seat, reminding her of how the cockpit had to be adjusted for her frame. There was a brief stray image of a tall woman in a beige suit, looking at her with a critical eye, but she shook it off. That dream had no place in her mind right now. 'But I swear I know her from somewhere.'
"Contact." This was the other fresh recruit, Boleyn. His Warhammer was keeping pace with Sofia's Centurion for now, until he started to fall back. The arms of his 'Mech rose to point forward, being two Particle Projection Cannons replacing the arms from the 'elbow' joint down. "Three sensor contacts at long range, I'm seeing it as an Assault-class and two Heavy-class 'Mechs. System's not making anything else out for now."
"Probably won't be able to resolve those until we're in visual range." Vandal was murmuring almost to himself. "What's the plan, boss?"
Ellen was quiet for a long moment as the sensors began to show the same blips Boleyn had noticed. Finally she spoke up. "Split. Two and Four go left, Three up the middle, I'll go right. Remember, treat them as though they're tougher than they look. We don't know what-"
There was a crackle over the comms as a broad-range broadcast was sent out. "The Smoke Jaguar claims this territory. Identify the forces that defend it so that we from the mists of space may know on whom we pounce."
"Pretentious." Boleyn was heard to mutter into the squad channel.
"Really?" Vandal laughed, and then responded. "You should have been with us when we did White Reach, kid. The Rats of the Dragon were worse. Now focus. Remember your training and you may come back in one piece."
"Quiet you two." Ellen responded, and then a click before her voice went over the same broad-range channel. "Enemy 'Mechs, this is Lance Commander Ellen Raster of Priam Company. We are coming to the aid of Trellshire Heavy Industries, by their request. You are not welcome. Turn around and leave now."
The other side seemed to digest that for a moment before the channel crackled to life again. "You cannot frighten us. We are Smoke Jaguar, and we are three points strong. What forces do you bid for your defense?"
'Points? What does he mean?' Sofia's brow furrowed, as she quietly wiped her hands on her shorts. Nerves and the heat in the 'Mech were starting to get to her.
If she was confused at all, Ellen didn't show it. "Xiphos Lance is four 'Mechs strong and we'll face you with everything we've got. This is your last chance to depart peacefully. You've been warned."
The enemy responded much quicker this time. "Bargained and done. We will sweep the mercenary trash from this place and bring your shattered BattleMechs back as proof of our superior skill." Then there was a click, the broad-range channel closing.
Sofia swallowed and spoke up quietly. "Guess that concludes negotiations."
The Victor Ellen was in cut behind Sofia's 'Mech and started to move for the ridge to the right. With the Jump Jets it had, it could go over the ridge and flank the targets easily enough, a tactic Sofia had watched in training often enough. "Three, take point." Vandal's 'Mech was moving to the left ridge as well. The display out the front of the cockpit allowed Sofia to see two 'Mechs striding forward. One of them was an oddly narrow torso flanked by missile launchers and having its arms terminate in laser weaponry. Beyond it was the obvious Assault 'Mech, clearly heavily-armored and with the forearm weapon pods showing a lot of weaponry. A quick sequence of thought flashed through her mind.
'That thing will cripple anything it goes after, if it can hit, and Ellen's heavy Autocannon is going to be crucial to winning this. I can't let them take her out.' They were supposed to buy time, weren’t they? Then there was only one option left to make this more than a slaughter. 'I hope this works. Otherwise this isn't going to matter in the least.' She keyed open the broad-range channel again, biting her lip. "Assault 'Mech, I'll take you on."
Ellen's voice crackled into the squad channel. "Three, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Sofia noticed Vandal lining up his own shots, and carefully watched the field of fire before raising the right arm of the Centurion to aim at the enemy. Her shots flew wide, while the weapons’ fire from her target's right arm was more accurate and slammed into the left side of her 'Mech. The computer beeped into her right ear as she saw a flashing light on the console. "Warning. Center torso, armor low."
"I know..."
Another beep followed as the computer continued. "Warning. Right arm, armor low."
She ground her teeth. "I know!" She pushed her machine forward at a run, seeing the odd narrow-bodied 'Mech pass behind her. Her attention was on the target moving down into a gully, torso rotating to keep weapons trained on her. "But we're buying time, right?" She licked her lips, leveling the right arm for another shot. Fingers hesitated before she squeezed the trigger to fire, sending everything she could into the big bastard in front of her.
This time she saw her missile splash into the right arm, barely seeming to do anything to the armor. There was a bright flash as both its weapon pods fired again, and she felt her machine lurch from the impact. They'd warned her, they were to be treated with caution, but that wasn't the goal here. "Warning. Center torso, armor compromised. Warning. Center torso, damage critical." The world seemed to spin as Sofia struggled to keep her footing.
"Come on, come on-" Then she saw the ground rushing up to meet the face of the Centurion, and instinctively threw her arm across her face.
Then she wasn't seeing much of anything.
Ellen took a deep breath to calm herself down, and returned her hand back to the controls. 'Stop. Focus. If she's dead, you can't help her now. If she's alive, you have to do everything you can to make it through this.' There was only one viable answer here, as she twisted to the left and leveled her right arm's heavy Autocannon at the back of the 'Mech in front of her.
"Never turn your back on an enemy." She squeezed the trigger, and watched the shots walk up along the right-back side of the odd 'Mech. There was a bloom of light and smoke as the right arm flew off, and the target lurched to its left from the explosion. 'Ammunition must have gone up, but it didn't die? Something's not right there.'
Vandal's shots also met the same 'Mech hard, on the left side instead. Steam rose off the machine through a heat-haze as it stopped moving, telling Ellen it was running dangerously hot. Her eyes saw the Assault 'Mech also still and unmoving with a similar shimmering steam flowing off it. 'Was it really running that hot?!' She couldn't believe anyone would push their machine to the red line that far.
"One, Two." Vandal was speaking now, over a computerized voice warning about heat levels. "Boss, do you have eyes on Three? She's not on my scope." His voice sounded a little pained.
Ellen wanted to reassure him. She wanted to tell him it was fine and Sofia had made it through that impact. But she was the leader, and that meant certain things had to come first. "Focus, Two. Keep firing." She swung her attention to the immobile target ahead of her, knowing it was free damage she couldn't afford to pass up. The right arm's Autocannon roared to life again, while a quartet of missiles splashed across the upper torso. She'd accomplished the goal, as the impact of the weapons caused the shut-down 'Mech to wobble and fall onto its left side with a loud crash.
"Four, where are you?"
"Busy, boss!" Boleyn was sounding stressed. "This guy's pissed now."
Ellen glanced off to her left, spotting Boleyn's Warhammer in motion and a spindly 'Mech moving around it while both exchanged weapons fire. She knew that 'Mech, it was a Marauder. Lightly armored, and likely an easier mark to take down. Her Autocannon hadn't seemed to faze the Assault 'Mech all that much, it would certainly leave more than a mark on that one. "Roger. I'll assist, just hold tight."
She kicked the Jump Jets of her 'Mech into action, pushing it over the ridge beside the Assault 'Mech, hoping it would give her some cover while it maneuvered for a shot. She saw Boleyn and the Marauder exchanging weapons fire, and extended her 'Mech's right arm again to steady her aim. 'I need to make this count-'
Then she felt it, spotting the flashes moving across her chest to hit her extended right side. 'That stance had been a bad idea.' Her machine tumbled to land on its back, but in the process she saw the damage she had landed. The Marauder had turned its torso to the right to keep firing on the Warhammer, and her Autocannon had been deflected from hitting it in the back...
... to obliterate the cockpit in front.
Hitting the head of an enemy 'Mech was rare, and doing it with a weapon as heavy as her Autocannon was often lethal. Yet a plume of smoke told her the 'MechWarrior had probably made it out from an auto-eject function, as the Marauder slumped and fell over. It didn't matter, that took one enemy machine out of the fight. "Target down. Four, help Two."
Boleyn hesitated, the Warhammer visibly turning its torso slightly in her direction. "But-"
Already, Ellen was standing up with her 'Mech's left arm grabbing hold of a rock to steady itself. "You can't do any good against this one, focus the other one down first." She glanced around at her sensors and visually to see the Assault 'Mech still focused on her. 'Time to move,' she thought, and started to sprint the Victor away. She felt impacts, and managed to brace the 'Mech to avoid falling over again. Her torso turned to its right now, as the Autocannon slammed into the left side of her target.
'How much more can it take?!'
Boleyn was clearly thinking the same thing about his target, as she heard him through the squad channel. "What the hell, how much more can this thing take?"
Vandal's response was cool, collected, showing the calm of a professional mercenary compared to a fresh recruit. "Keep firing. It can't stand forever." She wasn't sure what was going on, but she trusted them to have it under control for now. She had to, because otherwise she was done for with her attention fully focused on evading the Assault 'Mech.
The Victor moved to keep using the rise as cover, this time losing sight of its enemy but seeing the narrow-bodied Heavy 'Mech directly ahead. Ellen felt her calm slip as her lips peeled back, and her voice was almost a snarl. "Bring it down!" Her weapons slammed into the enemy 'Mech, while she watched the Warhammer bring its close-range weapons to bear on the target. It crumpled inwards, and then fell into a pile of smoking scrap on the ground.
Boleyn's voice let out an audible sigh of relief. "Target eli-"
It was cut off as weapons fire slammed into the Warhammer, and Ellen's stomach twisted as she spotted bright flashes through holes in the torso's armor. "Marc, eject!" If he hit the emergency lever now, he might make it. Instead, all she heard was screams as ammunition stored in the 'Mech's torso started a cascade of explosions which blew the top part of the torso completely apart.
There was no way he survived that.
"Boss." Vandal's voice jerked her out of the shock, and she could see him wheeling his 'Mech around to get it into cover. "Its left arm is gone, but the right's working just fine. Stay out of its field of fire while I set up for a shot."
Ellen kicked the Jump Jets into action again, leaping over the enemy 'Mech and watching it turn slowly to track her with the right arm. "Vandal, they're both-"
"Focus, damn it!" The calm veneer snapped and his voice rose into a shout. A moment later, it was calm again, with ice underneath it. "They did their job. They bought time."
She swallowed, feeling a jolt. The computer beeped from above her head, warning lights starting to flash. "Warning. Left Arm, armor compromised. Internal damage." She ignored it, training her aim on the Assault 'Mech and shredding armor off the upper 'thigh' of her target. With half the weapons gone from this monster, she wouldn't be able to bank on it getting too hot again. Even the Autocannon pouring damage into the leg hadn't stopped it, and that should have made even an Atlas stumble.
"Vandal, I'm not sure if we can take it. Everything I've got just seems to bounce off."
She almost expected him to snap at her again, but instead she heard him mutter something. "Yeah, boss, the worst damage done seemed to be self-inflicted. We need to move, or we're not getting out of here."
"I'm headed for the ridge, cover me as much you can." The Jump Jets flared to life again as she glanced to her right side. It was still tracking her, a relentless foe which seemed to shrug off everything. But she wasn't about to leave without one last shot. She twisted to her right again, and her brain registered everything in a flash. Her 'Mech's weapons fired, just as the enemy's, and the computer flashed warnings about the right arm being destroyed. But she saw a blast of debris fly away from the head, and saw a cratered mess where it used to be.
Vandal's voice came over the comms shortly afterwards. "I think you got him, Ellen."
"Good God." Hitting the head directly with the Autocannon once had been good luck. Twice in one combat was unheard of, and yet here she was. 'Still alive.' The warning lights were going crazy across the cockpit, bringing her out of the moment. "Vandal, do you see anyone else?" She quickly shut the warnings off with her fingers, her heart still racing from adrenaline.
"Negative, Boss." He was collecting himself. "But we only had three targets down. Reports suggest two more, and I don't know where they are. We need to go."
"Sofia-"
"We need to go." He repeated himself firmly. "We're at half strength, my 'Mech's armor is ruined. I'm pretty sure if I look to my left I can find a hole in the cockpit." His voice softened a little, becoming more earnest. "We bought all the time we can. The rest is up to the transports."
"And Sofia. If she's still alive."
The Black Knight turned, and was already sprinting off back towards the base. "If she's half the 'MechWarrior her mother is, she'll make it back. Let's go, boss."
Ellen opened her mouth, closed it, and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Keep your eyes open for those other two enemies." The Commander wouldn't like it, and would likely tear Ellen a new orifice over this. But this was the life of a mercenary, and it was never certain you'd come back from the battlefield.
That was most of what Sofia could remember from a younger age, a woman in a suit looming at one side of the room while her mother sat quietly and didn't intervene. Strength tests, endurance tests, reaction tests, even memory tests. Here in the hazy unreality of the daydream, the young woman knew this wasn't real, but here she was trying to keep up on a treadmill as numbers making no sense flashed on the console in front of her.
There were voices, always there were voices. "I really wish you people would stop. It's clear whatever you're worried about isn't manifesting." Her mother's voice, sounding tired, aggravation leaking out of it. She was pacing, something Sofia never remembered her doing before. Was this a dream? A memory?
The tall woman folded her arms behind her back, not even looking at the pacing woman. "Commander Garrido, you agreed to these stipulations for the adoption process to proceed."
"The old man's dead."
No he's not, he's standing right there. Sofia saw him looking down from a window in the wall overhead, an old man whose expression was impossible to read. But he radiated disapproval, looking from the young woman to the pair watching every now and then.
The woman in the suit was speaking again, her voice becoming more irritated. "That is not the point. You were aware of what happened, about the project. It is lucky you weren't sequestered along with the others." Her eyes moved to a display on the wall. "She is faking it now, moving slower."
"She's just tired, it's been hours."
"Indeed. Hours running on the machine. Tell me, Commander, do you expect you could do so well?" Her mother looked away, and sat back down. "And you want to put her in a BattleMech."
"She wants it. She said she wants to help-"
"No, Commander." A sharp dismissal. "She cannot be allowed to do it."
"You're not her mother."
"Neither are you. She did not have one, do you remember? Or a father. She should not exist."
"Stop saying that!" At the shout, Sofia glanced over to watch. Her mother suddenly was standing, trying to stand up to the taller woman, and seeming more like a petulant child throwing a tantrum. "She's a human being!"
"Eyes forward." The voice was coming from in front of her, and Sofia turned her head to look into the eyes of an old man, whose wrinkled fingers had fallen over the top of the machine's display. He was familiar, felt familiar anyway, but she couldn't put a name to the face. "You have a duty to perform, Sofia. Pay attention."
- Date: June 12, 3050; 04:18 Local Time
- Planet: Twycross
- Location: Trellshire Heavy Industries, Outer Perimeter
Xiphos Three
"Three, please report in." Sofia snapped her attention back to the present and lifted her hand to tap on the side of her neurohelmet. She hated the bulky thing, but it was the only model they had which seemed to work properly with her. Everyone else got more sleek, newer models which didn't feel like a damn trashcan full of sand on her shoulders. It didn't feel fair, but as her mother used to say: 'playing fair is for suckers'.A finger tapped a control on the comms console, opening the squad channel. "Sorry, lead. Zoned out on the way over."
There was a chuckle, then a sigh. "Ah, newbies. Don't stress it, kid. It's always dull having to take the long way." That was Vandal's voice, the Black Knight keeping pace carefully behind them. The other 'Mech was humanoid, with the right arm bearing its primary weapon. The rest of its arsenal was set into the torso, with apertures visible along the 'ribcage' area. "Head's up, though, we're arriving at the outer perimeter shortly."
Sofia glanced down to her sensor display to see the overlaid line in bright blue where the Trellshire facility would start picking them up. "What if they don't notice us?"
She could almost hear him shrug it off, in the way his tone of voice became more casual. "Then this'll be easier." Vandal had a reputation in the outfit for being a hardened mercenary, having been an operator long before joining Priam Company. He was pushing fifty years old now, and his reaction times still seemed unreal to her.
'Stop measuring yourself against the people who did this before you were born, idiot, and pay attention.' She tapped the comm pickup once to signal she had heard and didn't have anything to say.
"Okay, Xiphos Lance, listen up." Ellen's voice carrying a tension which Vandal's had been lacking. "We have no idea what we'll be facing so the plan is to engage carefully. The invaders have shown to focus their attention on single targets, so we are going to focus fire on one target at a time until they go down and stay down. First and foremost, we're buying time so the transports can evacuate people."
Sofia felt her mind drifting again, fingers wriggling restlessly on her throttle control. Why bother saying such an obvious plan out loud? Especially when it was obvious the enemy wasn't going to cooperate as soon as the battle started. Her hips shifted in the seat, reminding her of how the cockpit had to be adjusted for her frame. There was a brief stray image of a tall woman in a beige suit, looking at her with a critical eye, but she shook it off. That dream had no place in her mind right now. 'But I swear I know her from somewhere.'
"Contact." This was the other fresh recruit, Boleyn. His Warhammer was keeping pace with Sofia's Centurion for now, until he started to fall back. The arms of his 'Mech rose to point forward, being two Particle Projection Cannons replacing the arms from the 'elbow' joint down. "Three sensor contacts at long range, I'm seeing it as an Assault-class and two Heavy-class 'Mechs. System's not making anything else out for now."
"Probably won't be able to resolve those until we're in visual range." Vandal was murmuring almost to himself. "What's the plan, boss?"
Ellen was quiet for a long moment as the sensors began to show the same blips Boleyn had noticed. Finally she spoke up. "Split. Two and Four go left, Three up the middle, I'll go right. Remember, treat them as though they're tougher than they look. We don't know what-"
There was a crackle over the comms as a broad-range broadcast was sent out. "The Smoke Jaguar claims this territory. Identify the forces that defend it so that we from the mists of space may know on whom we pounce."
"Pretentious." Boleyn was heard to mutter into the squad channel.
"Really?" Vandal laughed, and then responded. "You should have been with us when we did White Reach, kid. The Rats of the Dragon were worse. Now focus. Remember your training and you may come back in one piece."
"Quiet you two." Ellen responded, and then a click before her voice went over the same broad-range channel. "Enemy 'Mechs, this is Lance Commander Ellen Raster of Priam Company. We are coming to the aid of Trellshire Heavy Industries, by their request. You are not welcome. Turn around and leave now."
The other side seemed to digest that for a moment before the channel crackled to life again. "You cannot frighten us. We are Smoke Jaguar, and we are three points strong. What forces do you bid for your defense?"
'Points? What does he mean?' Sofia's brow furrowed, as she quietly wiped her hands on her shorts. Nerves and the heat in the 'Mech were starting to get to her.
If she was confused at all, Ellen didn't show it. "Xiphos Lance is four 'Mechs strong and we'll face you with everything we've got. This is your last chance to depart peacefully. You've been warned."
The enemy responded much quicker this time. "Bargained and done. We will sweep the mercenary trash from this place and bring your shattered BattleMechs back as proof of our superior skill." Then there was a click, the broad-range channel closing.
Sofia swallowed and spoke up quietly. "Guess that concludes negotiations."
The Victor Ellen was in cut behind Sofia's 'Mech and started to move for the ridge to the right. With the Jump Jets it had, it could go over the ridge and flank the targets easily enough, a tactic Sofia had watched in training often enough. "Three, take point." Vandal's 'Mech was moving to the left ridge as well. The display out the front of the cockpit allowed Sofia to see two 'Mechs striding forward. One of them was an oddly narrow torso flanked by missile launchers and having its arms terminate in laser weaponry. Beyond it was the obvious Assault 'Mech, clearly heavily-armored and with the forearm weapon pods showing a lot of weaponry. A quick sequence of thought flashed through her mind.
'That thing will cripple anything it goes after, if it can hit, and Ellen's heavy Autocannon is going to be crucial to winning this. I can't let them take her out.' They were supposed to buy time, weren’t they? Then there was only one option left to make this more than a slaughter. 'I hope this works. Otherwise this isn't going to matter in the least.' She keyed open the broad-range channel again, biting her lip. "Assault 'Mech, I'll take you on."
Ellen's voice crackled into the squad channel. "Three, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Sofia noticed Vandal lining up his own shots, and carefully watched the field of fire before raising the right arm of the Centurion to aim at the enemy. Her shots flew wide, while the weapons’ fire from her target's right arm was more accurate and slammed into the left side of her 'Mech. The computer beeped into her right ear as she saw a flashing light on the console. "Warning. Center torso, armor low."
"I know..."
Another beep followed as the computer continued. "Warning. Right arm, armor low."
She ground her teeth. "I know!" She pushed her machine forward at a run, seeing the odd narrow-bodied 'Mech pass behind her. Her attention was on the target moving down into a gully, torso rotating to keep weapons trained on her. "But we're buying time, right?" She licked her lips, leveling the right arm for another shot. Fingers hesitated before she squeezed the trigger to fire, sending everything she could into the big bastard in front of her.
This time she saw her missile splash into the right arm, barely seeming to do anything to the armor. There was a bright flash as both its weapon pods fired again, and she felt her machine lurch from the impact. They'd warned her, they were to be treated with caution, but that wasn't the goal here. "Warning. Center torso, armor compromised. Warning. Center torso, damage critical." The world seemed to spin as Sofia struggled to keep her footing.
"Come on, come on-" Then she saw the ground rushing up to meet the face of the Centurion, and instinctively threw her arm across her face.
Then she wasn't seeing much of anything.
Xiphos One
The Victor was coming down from a jump over the ridge, just in time for Ellen to watch the Centurion take almost a full volley of fire into its chest. "Damnit. Damnit!" Ellen slammed her fist down onto the armrest of her seat as she saw Sofia's 'Mech fall forward and stop moving. That damn girl always had been a loose cannon, taking her own initiative too much during training. If she only had not challenged the biggest thing on the field, something twice her machine's weight, then this wouldn't be happening.Ellen took a deep breath to calm herself down, and returned her hand back to the controls. 'Stop. Focus. If she's dead, you can't help her now. If she's alive, you have to do everything you can to make it through this.' There was only one viable answer here, as she twisted to the left and leveled her right arm's heavy Autocannon at the back of the 'Mech in front of her.
"Never turn your back on an enemy." She squeezed the trigger, and watched the shots walk up along the right-back side of the odd 'Mech. There was a bloom of light and smoke as the right arm flew off, and the target lurched to its left from the explosion. 'Ammunition must have gone up, but it didn't die? Something's not right there.'
Vandal's shots also met the same 'Mech hard, on the left side instead. Steam rose off the machine through a heat-haze as it stopped moving, telling Ellen it was running dangerously hot. Her eyes saw the Assault 'Mech also still and unmoving with a similar shimmering steam flowing off it. 'Was it really running that hot?!' She couldn't believe anyone would push their machine to the red line that far.
"One, Two." Vandal was speaking now, over a computerized voice warning about heat levels. "Boss, do you have eyes on Three? She's not on my scope." His voice sounded a little pained.
Ellen wanted to reassure him. She wanted to tell him it was fine and Sofia had made it through that impact. But she was the leader, and that meant certain things had to come first. "Focus, Two. Keep firing." She swung her attention to the immobile target ahead of her, knowing it was free damage she couldn't afford to pass up. The right arm's Autocannon roared to life again, while a quartet of missiles splashed across the upper torso. She'd accomplished the goal, as the impact of the weapons caused the shut-down 'Mech to wobble and fall onto its left side with a loud crash.
"Four, where are you?"
"Busy, boss!" Boleyn was sounding stressed. "This guy's pissed now."
Ellen glanced off to her left, spotting Boleyn's Warhammer in motion and a spindly 'Mech moving around it while both exchanged weapons fire. She knew that 'Mech, it was a Marauder. Lightly armored, and likely an easier mark to take down. Her Autocannon hadn't seemed to faze the Assault 'Mech all that much, it would certainly leave more than a mark on that one. "Roger. I'll assist, just hold tight."
She kicked the Jump Jets of her 'Mech into action, pushing it over the ridge beside the Assault 'Mech, hoping it would give her some cover while it maneuvered for a shot. She saw Boleyn and the Marauder exchanging weapons fire, and extended her 'Mech's right arm again to steady her aim. 'I need to make this count-'
Then she felt it, spotting the flashes moving across her chest to hit her extended right side. 'That stance had been a bad idea.' Her machine tumbled to land on its back, but in the process she saw the damage she had landed. The Marauder had turned its torso to the right to keep firing on the Warhammer, and her Autocannon had been deflected from hitting it in the back...
... to obliterate the cockpit in front.
Hitting the head of an enemy 'Mech was rare, and doing it with a weapon as heavy as her Autocannon was often lethal. Yet a plume of smoke told her the 'MechWarrior had probably made it out from an auto-eject function, as the Marauder slumped and fell over. It didn't matter, that took one enemy machine out of the fight. "Target down. Four, help Two."
Boleyn hesitated, the Warhammer visibly turning its torso slightly in her direction. "But-"
Already, Ellen was standing up with her 'Mech's left arm grabbing hold of a rock to steady itself. "You can't do any good against this one, focus the other one down first." She glanced around at her sensors and visually to see the Assault 'Mech still focused on her. 'Time to move,' she thought, and started to sprint the Victor away. She felt impacts, and managed to brace the 'Mech to avoid falling over again. Her torso turned to its right now, as the Autocannon slammed into the left side of her target.
'How much more can it take?!'
Boleyn was clearly thinking the same thing about his target, as she heard him through the squad channel. "What the hell, how much more can this thing take?"
Vandal's response was cool, collected, showing the calm of a professional mercenary compared to a fresh recruit. "Keep firing. It can't stand forever." She wasn't sure what was going on, but she trusted them to have it under control for now. She had to, because otherwise she was done for with her attention fully focused on evading the Assault 'Mech.
The Victor moved to keep using the rise as cover, this time losing sight of its enemy but seeing the narrow-bodied Heavy 'Mech directly ahead. Ellen felt her calm slip as her lips peeled back, and her voice was almost a snarl. "Bring it down!" Her weapons slammed into the enemy 'Mech, while she watched the Warhammer bring its close-range weapons to bear on the target. It crumpled inwards, and then fell into a pile of smoking scrap on the ground.
Boleyn's voice let out an audible sigh of relief. "Target eli-"
It was cut off as weapons fire slammed into the Warhammer, and Ellen's stomach twisted as she spotted bright flashes through holes in the torso's armor. "Marc, eject!" If he hit the emergency lever now, he might make it. Instead, all she heard was screams as ammunition stored in the 'Mech's torso started a cascade of explosions which blew the top part of the torso completely apart.
There was no way he survived that.
"Boss." Vandal's voice jerked her out of the shock, and she could see him wheeling his 'Mech around to get it into cover. "Its left arm is gone, but the right's working just fine. Stay out of its field of fire while I set up for a shot."
Ellen kicked the Jump Jets into action again, leaping over the enemy 'Mech and watching it turn slowly to track her with the right arm. "Vandal, they're both-"
"Focus, damn it!" The calm veneer snapped and his voice rose into a shout. A moment later, it was calm again, with ice underneath it. "They did their job. They bought time."
She swallowed, feeling a jolt. The computer beeped from above her head, warning lights starting to flash. "Warning. Left Arm, armor compromised. Internal damage." She ignored it, training her aim on the Assault 'Mech and shredding armor off the upper 'thigh' of her target. With half the weapons gone from this monster, she wouldn't be able to bank on it getting too hot again. Even the Autocannon pouring damage into the leg hadn't stopped it, and that should have made even an Atlas stumble.
"Vandal, I'm not sure if we can take it. Everything I've got just seems to bounce off."
She almost expected him to snap at her again, but instead she heard him mutter something. "Yeah, boss, the worst damage done seemed to be self-inflicted. We need to move, or we're not getting out of here."
"I'm headed for the ridge, cover me as much you can." The Jump Jets flared to life again as she glanced to her right side. It was still tracking her, a relentless foe which seemed to shrug off everything. But she wasn't about to leave without one last shot. She twisted to her right again, and her brain registered everything in a flash. Her 'Mech's weapons fired, just as the enemy's, and the computer flashed warnings about the right arm being destroyed. But she saw a blast of debris fly away from the head, and saw a cratered mess where it used to be.
Vandal's voice came over the comms shortly afterwards. "I think you got him, Ellen."
"Good God." Hitting the head directly with the Autocannon once had been good luck. Twice in one combat was unheard of, and yet here she was. 'Still alive.' The warning lights were going crazy across the cockpit, bringing her out of the moment. "Vandal, do you see anyone else?" She quickly shut the warnings off with her fingers, her heart still racing from adrenaline.
"Negative, Boss." He was collecting himself. "But we only had three targets down. Reports suggest two more, and I don't know where they are. We need to go."
"Sofia-"
"We need to go." He repeated himself firmly. "We're at half strength, my 'Mech's armor is ruined. I'm pretty sure if I look to my left I can find a hole in the cockpit." His voice softened a little, becoming more earnest. "We bought all the time we can. The rest is up to the transports."
"And Sofia. If she's still alive."
The Black Knight turned, and was already sprinting off back towards the base. "If she's half the 'MechWarrior her mother is, she'll make it back. Let's go, boss."
Ellen opened her mouth, closed it, and nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Keep your eyes open for those other two enemies." The Commander wouldn't like it, and would likely tear Ellen a new orifice over this. But this was the life of a mercenary, and it was never certain you'd come back from the battlefield.
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