Chapter 2

Randi punched the throttle hard as soon as she could clear the gates. In a melee like this, the worst fate would be to get pinned down inside the starting area. The arena itself was a big, flat area totally devoid of foliage and surrounded by a thick square wall. The layout actually reminded her a lot of the Circle of Equals, which despite its name, could be any geometry. There was no real cover, but she could make do without it.

The 'Mech closest to her was an Ostsol, and it was not looking for a fight. As soon as she turned towards it, the heavy 'Mech started to move away in hopes of picking up a better target. It had five tons on her Bushwhacker, but it was an old and poorly-maintained unit.

'A good place to start,' she thought, catching wind of the green MechWarrior's fear.

The hunted BattleMech quickly realized that it was not going to escape.

"Hey, wait a sec!" said the pilot. "Let's buddy up for a little while, instead of beating on each other. We're both new to this, right?"

"I do not want or need your help," she growled in reply, as she lowered her crosshairs over the Ostsol.

"Come on, it's--"

With a well-placed salvo of LRM-5s, Randi drew her first blood on Solaris.

The roundish 'Mech tried to evade the weapons, but only made the pathetic mistake of presenting its aft armor to the incoming missiles. Several large chunks burst from its back and landed near the feet of her Bushwhacker as the Ostsol teetered forward. The pilot frantically tried to correct the equilibrium, and brought the 'Mech swinging around to face her. Two fat red beams and two smaller lasers of similar color shot from various locations on its torso, softening the armor on the left torso of Randi's 'Mech.

She replied with her own large laser. She was a little surprised to see a thick green pike stab the Ostsol instead of a red one, but did not let it snap her concentration. The heat in the cockpit spike unpleasantly and a little sweat began running down the sloping bridge of her nose, and she swiped it away before tickling the opposing 'Mech with her machine guns. While of little use in terms of damage, the rapid spray of bullets was a good means to keep the other pilot back while the heat dissipated and her weapons recycled. Tiny particles of armor and paint chips flew into the air along with the wasted shells. Interestingly, the old armor of the 65-tonner was a little more susceptible to machine gun fire than she would have thought. It was still little more than scratches, and the already toasty Ostsol hit her with its two fresh medium lasers.

It bobbed and weaved a little, trying its best to move closer. She couldn't tell if this was a strategy or sheer foolishness, but her opponent was fast approaching the minimal effective distance of her long-range weaponry. Rather than try to push it back, however, she decided to keep up the machine gun fire and let it come. The seconds grew longer but she waited patiently and adjusted her crosshairs as finely as she could. Her previous attacks had all but stripped the armor from a portion of the center torso. What remained was cracked and thin, and highly vulnerable.

Now the rookie Ostsol was inside the ineffective range for both her large laser and LRMs, but it was at a prime distance for her as-yet unfired AC/10. The big gun would take a good while to recycle, so she double checked her crosshairs one more time.

Randi chuckled a little bit at the seemingly oblivious pilot and squeezed the trigger. The rounds flew forward, the Ostsol jerked back and a spray of shrapnel flew into the air, then rained back down on the body it came from. She moved closer and fired her large laser on the theory that at this range she could not possibly miss such a large target. Her thinking proved correct when a good ton of armor slid off the enemy's torso and onto the packed dirt below, but it did not dig into the hole her AC/10 had made.

If there had been any doubt in her mind that Fred's description of the pilots here was true, it quickly dissipated. The Ostsol tried frantically to cope with the loss of weight so shortly after being punched by the autocannon, but couldn't manage the task. It swayed as if intoxicated, staggered back, and the crashed into the ground. It looked like a tortoise on its back and probably had just as much hope of getting up. There was a mechanically crunchy click from her left arm, signaling the AC/10's recycle. She buried another round in the big wound on the Ostsol's center torso and then cantered off as it went up in a bright light. A horn sounded, signaling victory.

The surprising ease of the kill gave her a little more confidence. She felt less like a prisoner thrown into a pit full of lions and more like one of the big cats. It still wasn't exactly a savory position to be down in the bloodpits chewing on rookies, but it was better than nothing.

'The more kills I make, the more money I win,' she reminded herself. 'And the more money I win, the faster we leave this filthy planet.' With this in mind as a driving purpose, she turned swiftly and trotted of to eat some more of the poor saps around her.

She passed the carcass of an InnerSphere Puma and found the remaining 'Mechs locked in a vicious three-way battle. There was a limping Kintaro, a battered Wolverine, and a Raider that looked to be in its death throes. While the battle amongst them had initially been evenly distributed, the Kintaro and Wolverine were now competing for the killing blow to the Raider. None of them paid any mind to Randi.

For a moment, she only watched. She had fought melee-style battle before, during her tenure with the Scimitars, but now she decided that it would be best to wait either until one of the 'Mechs broke away from the others or there was a death. As she looked more closely, though, the dying Raider began to look more tempting. She followed it with her targeting reticule placed over it like a tattoo. The other two were doing a surprisingly poor job of actually killing the thing, and only kept making fresh cuts instead of exploiting the deep gouge on its side. A sharp berries filled the cockpit, and she squeezed off both of her LRM-10s.

There was a big gush of everything imaginable from the Raider's side, and most of it sprayed the Kintaro. Robbed of its chance to kill the Raider, the Wolverine quickly turned on the limping 'Mech nearby. There was a vicious exchange of laser fire and SRMs, which seemed to hit the Kintaro most heavily. Its limping slowed as the heat climbed and soon it was stopped altogether, with no more mobility than its torso-twist.

Randi swooped in and added her own lasers to the flurry tearing up the crippled 'Mech. The Wolverine turned its autocannon on her, trying to defend the bleeding prey for itself. She fired her machine guns in return, but saved her own AC/10 for the Kintaro's weakened hip. It went down and nearly crashed into the Wolverine, but a last-minute burst of jump jets saved the surviving 'Mech.

"Baka! Are wa boku no kirru--"

She tapped her comm off, unwilling to listen to the Draconis man's tirade, and retorted with her ER large laser. The Wolverine danced with her, each of them exchanging rounds and laser fire. She was starting to take a real beating now that she was actually engaged with an opponent, rather than stealing kills, but her enemy had suffered worse. It had been in slightly better shape than the others to start and the pilot had some more skill, but that was not enough to save it. At first, it tried to get closer, but she continued to repel it. Foolishly, the man hit his jumpjets and rose up and away from her. He was now outside the range of the Bushwhacker's AC/10 but by the same token, he had given up the use of his own autocannon. Randi immediately seized the opportunity, tired of playing with weak prey, and launched all of her missiles. The flurry of two full salvos knocked the Wolverine about hard. She then drove her large laser into its gut. A bright light glowed from the center of the heavy 'Mech and tore it apart on its way down to the ground. Another siren sounded.