Westwood was amazed by the amount of firepower the heavy mechs supplied. If rescuing Millennium then purchasing assault mechs was a no brainer. That said every pilot in Solaris would stand no chance out in the battlefield. There was no fear of being captured in Solaris and at the end of the day you're all friends, not mortal enemies. The performance of the traders' defenders would be far better than these guys, and these guys happened to be spectacular.
Some of the firepower came from Gauss rifles, magnetic weapons which inflicted heavy damage. Light models had ranges of over a kilometre, but shorter distance models often had bigger calibres, meaning bigger damage. Mix these weapons with more rockets and larger lasers made for one hell of a fire fight.
Not only did the mechs have a lot of firepower, they could actually move too. Unlike the Atlases he'd worked with, the heavies could reach speeds the exciting side of 70 kmh. Having been interested in the Mad Cat since childhood he knew that it could reach speeds in the triple figures. That was as fast as his Owens, but at about twice the tonnage. It was any scout mech's worst dream.
As Westwood daydreamed about the sketches he had drawn of Mad Cats as a kid he heard the klaxon sound. He looked around and saw an exploding Mad Cat. So much for his childhood hero.
After a few minutes 2 more mechs had hit the floor, a Thanatos and a Thor. The Thor looked like a typical mech, offset cockpit, offset missile rack and a box shaped body. They'd put up a good fight and all the other mechs were highly damaged. The 3 remaining mechs consisted of the stealthy Vulture, its Inner Sphere counterpart, the Catapult, and an older mech, the Orion. This would make for one good fight.
The pair of support mechs instinctively turned on the Orion. It may have been an older mech, but it was certainly a capable mech none the less. It mounted an array of heavy weapons. The pilot looked like he had some serious experience too. There were several rows of chocks beneath the cockpit, there must have been over 500. His experience certainly showed in his fighting.
All the lasers in the arms fired at once, striking the Catapult's centre torso. The shock of the inflicted damage knocked the injured mech backwards onto the factory floor. You could sense the smugness on the Orion's pilot's face, although it was short lived.
In firing the lasers he hadn't heard the missile alert sound. There was little he could do to evade the missiles. Around 40 long range missiles sped towards the Orion. All 40 struck the right side of the torso, inflicting severe damage. The Orion retaliated by firing the lasers in its arms at the Vulture's left leg, completely taking it out. Both his opponents were seriously crippled, but their allegiance still stood.
Westwood was quietly cheering on the Orion. It was a classic case of an old legend being teamed up against by two disrespectful young opponents. With the deadlier Vulture crippled the Orion turned back to the Catapult lined up a shot. Unfortunately by the time he'd lined up both the Catapult and Vulture had a lock on the Orion.
The two rocket mechs fired a multitude of missiles at the Orion. He fired back at the Catapult's torso, hitting square in the middle, taking it out. A split second later the rockets sent the Orion into oblivion. The pilot barely had enough time to eject. Duncan Fisher concluded the match with a quick comment on the double kill, but Westwood was paying homage to the fallen giant.
Fisher turned to Westwood, "So kid, what did you think that? Hope you've got some good stuff to say in the show now. Cya there".