High Desert,

Southern Continent,

The Rack,

The Periphery

Bainbridge shuddered involuntarily as beads of sweat trickled down his chest, back and arms. If it was hot out in the desert, it was nothing compared to the sauna his Valiant's cockpit had become, despite the mech's good heat dissipation. However, his discomfort was mainly due to the information being presented on his HUD and secondary monitors. Punching out that pirate's cockpit with his gauss rifle hadn't been a smart move. The weapon's icon on his HUD was greyed out, meaning it was disabled. Some debris must have lodged in the barrel, jamming the ammo feed mechanism or something. Several heat sinks were damaged, making the Valiant run hotter than normal. The damage display was telling him he'd lost a good deal of front and rear torso armour. He was also down to his last few salvoes of missiles. All in all, he was beginning to wonder if Demi-Precentor O'Reilly hadn't been right about just finishing these pirates off and be done with it.

But looking out of his cockpit viewscreen he could see it was already too late for that. In the shimmering distance, he could just make out what had to be Macready's mech, slowly but determinedly making its way towards him from the canyon mouth. At this range, the heat haze made it impossible to identify with the naked eye, but his targeting computer told him it was a PLG-3Z Pillager – a heavily armoured assault mech armed with twin gauss rifles and an array of lasers. The sweat on his body suddenly went cold, making him shiver, at that bit of information.

Stood alone, out in the middle of the plain, the pirate commander had surely already spotted him. If he turned and ran now, he would not only disgrace himself and his unit, but could also possibly trigger a bloodbath if the pirates sensed they had been double-crossed. The fingers of his gloved right hand deftly worked the joystick buttons to select the LRM launcher located in the mech's right torso and tie it to his thumb trigger. With his left hand he worked the targeting controls, bracketing the oncoming pirate in a red triangle on his HUD. The Pillager was just over a kilometre off now. He concentrated on the low tone coming through his helmet's earphones, waiting for it to change pitch, signalling that the Artemis fire control system had locked on.

The seconds ticked by with agonising slowness as the two combatants closed the range. There! The buzzing in Philip's ears changed to a high-pitched whine and on the HUD his crosshairs flashed gold. Without conscious thought, his thumb hit the fire button and the Valiant shuddered as fifteen long-range missiles left their launch tubes.

In the cockpit of the Black Rhino, Macready cursed as his warning systems detected the launch. The Pillager was a simple, if powerful mech. With neither ECM or an anti-missile system with which to confuse or shoot down the incoming missiles, all he could do was increase his speed and get inside their minimum effective range as quickly as possible. Less than ten seconds later, the missiles slammed into the pirate mech, scoring hits on the right arm and all over the torso. The Pillager, moving at flank speed, stayed upright mainly thanks to its momentum. Its heavy armour absorbed the force of the detonating warheads easily, although the impact jolted Macready around in his command couch.

Bainbridge's throat went dry as he watched the pirate mech shrug off his missile attack with apparent ease. Judging from the dust clouds it was kicking up, Macready was going hell for leather to close the range. His HUD informed him the missile rack had reloaded. The fire control system was still locked on and he hit the fire button again, sending another salvo of missiles at the pirate commander.

Macready let rip with another stream of obscenities as his threat indicators lit up again. Bracing himself for another battering, he continued relentlessly forward as a second storm of missiles pounded away at his armour. Checking his damage display didn't improve his mood as he saw yellow patches covering his right arm and torso. He checked his range indicator. Good! Any moment now… The other mech's ECM was playing havoc with his targeting systems but he watched carefully how it moved and placed his crosshairs slightly in front of it. Squeezing his primary trigger, the Pillager rocked backwards as a pair of hundred and twenty-five kilo, nickel-ferrous projectiles were fired from the barrels of his gauss rifles, accelerated to hypersonic speed.

Bainbridge was caught off-guard, not expecting the pirate to return fire so quickly. By sheer good fortune he was side stepping a rock pile, which caused one slug to miss, instead obliterating the rock formation he'd just dodged round. The other round caught the Valiant squarely in the left torso, punching through his remaining armour and destroying the pair of medium lasers housed there. Power circuits shorted and caught fire and a steady stream of greyish-black smoke poured from the jagged hole. Philip was slammed back in his seat as the mech's torso twisted violently under the impact.

He began thinking furiously. His mech couldn't take much more abuse like that. He scanned the landscape, looking for any terrain features that might help. Nothing was immediately apparent. He returned his attention to his approaching foe. Selecting his LRM launcher again, he dropped his crosshairs over the Pillager's bulky silhouette and waited for the fire control system to report lock-on. As he hit the trigger, the Valiant rocked gently as the last round of missiles blasted from the torso-mounted launcher. The LRM15 icon began flashing red on his HUD's weapons display.

"Ammunition depleted", chimed the battle computer, in its emotionless electronic voice.

Macready braced himself yet again and rode out the storm as another volley of missiles peppered his mech. Checking his damage display, he saw part of his torso and right arm were now highlighted red. With a savage curse he prepared to unleash another barrage of gauss-assisted death on his enemy. He was too slow though. Even as he lined up the shot, the other mech rose a short distance on fiery trails of plasma, just enough to throw his aim. Jumpjets! He cursed mentally. By no means unheard of, they were still rare on assault mechs. As it sailed through the air, it brought its right arm to bear on him. Twin beams of ionised particles lanced through the air and struck the Pillager's right torso and arm, vapourising armour and internal structure, though not disabling any weapons.

"Warning, damage critical", the Black Rhino's computer informed him.

His secondary displays were temporarily filled with static as the high-intensity electromagnetic discharge overloaded the mech's electronics. Pale blue, flickering, man-made lighting danced over the Pillager's exterior.