I don't own Battletech or Mechwarrior. Topps does all hail Topps.

Prologue

Silesia, Solaris City

Solaris VII

Lyran Alliance

November 14, 3070

Chris Gamora, sitting in the command couch of his 95 ton Sagittaire, took stock of his weapons. They were all energy weapons so he knew that as long as he managed his heat he could outlast the mech, a Vanquisher, on the other side of the Steiner Coliseum. He looked at his command console. No red light. The announcer must still be setting up the fight, he thought. Duncan Fisher was always a blowhard.

The press was already calling him the savior of Solaris VII and he had not even beaten Jenkins. It was widely known that Bobby Jenkins was a Champion only by the grace of the Word of Blake. When the previous champ's ammo bin had exploded without Jenkins landing a shot, the fix was clear.

The red light flickered on, signaling the start of the match. Located at the southern edge of the arena, Chris jumped his Sagittaire up an embankment and surveyed the field. He saw Jenkins' Vanquisher sitting in the northeast corner on a raised surface. Figures, thought Chris, somehow the Word has gotten that monster up where I can't shoot him.

Chris, undaunted, moved his mech toward the Blakist's corner. As he did, the Vanquisher opened up on Chris' mech. The mech's light guass rifles struck armor on Chris' right arm and torso. The medium lasers cut long gashes in his left arm and torso, while the large laser melted armor from his leg. A third medium laser went wide. A smaller mech would have fallen under such an assault. All it did was score some armor on the 95 ton beast. Chris responded with his PPC and large pulse lasers, boring into the Vanquisher's torso.

Chris blasted the Vanquisher again with his heavy weapons. The Vanquisher fired from its high perch, scoring a hit with the large laser on the shielding that contains the fusion reactor that the powers the 95 ton Sagittaire, sending a blast of heat into Chris's cockpit. He knew that a few more hits like that and they would be cleaning him off the walls of the coliseum.

The Vanquisher tried to back away from the cliff. But it was too late to save him from the withering blasts from Chris' lasers. The blast of the Sagittaire's lasers took the legs out of the Vanquisher, causing it to lose its footing on the ledge and tumble to the floor of the arena. Amazingly, the squat, top heavy mech did not crush its cockpit when it hit the ground.

As Chris stalked forward, laying into the Vanquisher with his heavy weapons, Jenkins stood his mech up and returned with a withering assault of his own. Chris was able to keep his mech up. The Vanquisher took another powerful blast from Chris and collapsed.

Chris, taking stock of his armor and realizing he wouldn't be able to keep it up much longer, prepared himself for the blast of heat that would come when he fired his next desperate blast. The shots from the Vanquisher's volley did not breach armor. Chris' assault was not so harmless. The mech's lasers melted armor all over the 100 ton assault mech. One of the medium lasers struck the guass rifle on the left arm. The capacitors exploded, completely destroying the huge mech's arm and sending it spinning of across the battlefield. He saw the green smoke signaling multiple heat sinks being destroyed. The large laser in the left torso was destroyed as well. Chris then saw a spike of heat signaling a hit on Jenkins' engine shielding. The 100 ton monster stood there for a split second, smoke rising from the armor, shredded by Chris's hellish assault. Then the huge mech fell backward, crushing armor on impact.

The heat from Chris' alpha strike was overwhelming. He pressed the shutdown override to no avail. The overheated mech also fell as the controls gave no response. Chris flew into the safety harness on the impact, smashing his head into his mech's view screen. After a few moments the heat sinks did their jobs and removed the heat from Chris's mech, allowing it to restart. Chris sluggishly stood up his mech. His opponent's mech was still on its side. Chris looked at his monitor to see if the fight would be called since Jenkins had not stood yet. There had been no indication, so Chris fired again, ravaging the fallen mech. The medium lasers sliced into Vanquisher's head, killing the pilot.

Chris Gamora had just become the Champion of Solaris.