Chapter 14
"Ned? Harrison?" Randi called as she trotted inside, having fixed the air conditioner. As she walked further inward, she could hear a small flurry of voices, accented with occasional shouts of tech jargon and Spheroid slang. Just below that was the quick, guitar-laden beat of music. The lyrics were indecipherable to the former Clanner, though she suspected they were, in fact, English words.
As the MechWarrior stood watching, Harrison emerged from behind a stack of crates on one of the upper catwalks. "Okay, everybody, that's the last of 'em! Nice work, boys and girls."
The other techs responded with various shouts of excitement, obviously glad to be finished with the work. As they filed out, Randi slipped in past the crowd, grabbed her cooling vest, and walked up to meet Harrison on the catwalk.
"Thank you," she said, "for doing this."
The big man turned and shrugged a little. "Don't get used to the special treatment, Miss. But, heck, this is a nice 'Mech. She's been a real beaut to work on," he replied. "An Omni like this is pretty rare. Fred's Hellhound cost him about an arm and a leg, and it was stripped down to the bones and didn't have any of its original systems. Can't imagine what kinda luck or money you got goin' for ya to wind up with a Mad Cat like this."
'Neither...' she thought. Instead she just gave a little bit of a chuckle and slipped on her vest. She had learnt that Spheroids would often simply chuckle when they did not wish to answer. "So, you will send me the bill, yes?"
"Sure thing. I don't think you're gonna like it, but..."
"Aw, it wasn't that bad," said Ned as he appeared, scrambling over the OmniMech's left gun to the catwalk. "Anyway, we got everything you asked for, right down to the machine guns, and—"
"I need to leave." Randi looked up at the clock on the wall behind her. "Thank you again." She darted past the two men hurriedly and jumped into the cockpit. Now that her 'Mech was back in working order, there was no time to waste. She needed to get moving and get Fred.
"Geez, where's the fire?" muttered Ned as he walked up beside her, still standing on the walk way.
"Sorry, but I have to go. Now." She said, as she slid the neurohelmet over her head and punched the reactor start-up sequence. The Clan fusion reactor hummed to life with the same stable, ready frequency she knew so well.
Harrison approached the edge of the walk, as well. "Randi, what is going on here?"
"I have no time to explain. Get a car and follow me. ...It's about Fred."
No sooner had she buckled her restraint harness, than the computer's voice greeted her. "Password protocol. MechWarrior, state name and initialization code."
She sat back in the command couch and slapped the cockpit hatch closed. "Star Captain Randi," she replied to the computer. As a short, hissing burst of air was pressed from the hatch, she glanced left to see the two technicians balking. "Command code is: black wolf."
"Confirmed," reported the computer. "Reactor: online. Sensors: offline. Weapons: online. Warning! Sensor systems are not responding. Targeting assistance for direct-fire weapons is disabled."
"I know," Randi murmured, as she turned off her radar. She took the joysticks and guided her OmniMech out of the hangar, and then punched the throttle.
It had been too long since she piloted this 'Mech. It had been too long since she felt like a part of her machine. Right now, she couldn't afford to be anything less than lethal, and having her own 'Mech again put her back on track. She and the huge, solid-black Timber Wolf had been a package deal ever since Radcliffe started working on it. It was a piece of her, just like any limb.
'And now,' she thought, steeling her nerves with Clan ferocity, 'I am going to maul those freebirths.'
The sky suddenly ruptured, splitting above her with a tremendous bolt of lighting that danced across the sky, followed by a loud crack that resounded for miles. Rain began to drizzle down unspectacularly, making a little pattering sound over her armor. Ignoring the precipitation, she scanned the area closely. The old arena loomed ahead looking like the picture of urban decay. Crude wall segments look ready to crumble at any moment, the arena floor was composed of an oozing ring of thick mud, and the single lamp that remained was shorting out.
"Prewitt!" Randi said, as she hit the comm. "I have the schematics. Now, hand over Fred."
"Not so fast, angel cakes," came the reply, accompanied by a chuckle. "First of all, I told you to come on foot."
"I did. Just not my feet," she quipped, scanning the barren arena. "Do you want these plans or not?"
"I don't know. You're in a 'Mech. What's to keep you from fragging all of us as soon as you get Acosta?"
"Nothing. But if you do not release him, you will not get the plans."
"What if we kill him?"
"You really, really do not want to do that," she said, her voice edging on a snarl.
"Or else...?"
"Or else I trigger the self-destruct."
A small van rolled into the light. It was the same vehicle which had taken Fred before. For a moment, her concentration was split with concern for him. In that instant, her thoughts were severed by a familiar, deriding female laugh.
The comm snapped a little and the laughter faded. "Suicide? Oh, please. You don't have the guts, Randi. You never did."
"Jen!" Randi snarled, whipping her Mad Cat around to face the Loki she had fought previously.
The heavy 'Mech stood atop a rubble pile, looking down on Randi with both hex-pod guns aimed squarely at her torso. "I thought you'd try something 'heroic' like this. Don't be stupid. Just give us the plans and you can be on your way," Jen said as she guided her Loki a step closer.
"No!" Randi shouted, as she backed up and leveled her guns at the holes in the enemy's armor. "Not this time. If you kill him, then I swear on Kerensky's grave that I will destroy this 'Mech and everything in it!"
"Aw, crap!" came Prewitt's exasperated reply. "Sanders, she's got the plans in the cockpit with her!"
"Of course she does!" the woman shot back. "But I'll bet it wouldn't be hard to get them if we kill her."
"Come get me, freebirths!" Randi spat as she hit the throttle and strafed around the Loki.
As the machine turned to follow her, Randi stomped on the brake and turned hard, coming in under the opposing 'Mech's arc of fire. The maneuver bought her the precious seconds she needed to steady her crosshairs over the gouge she'd previously made in the Loki's hip. She then throttled up, the Mad Cat responding gracefully to her command, and then adjusted the crosshairs again. A surge of satisfaction coursed through her as she clicked the trigger, still running, and watched a blue stream of electricity course through the hole in Jen's 'Mech.
The Loki stumbled, sliding a little down the rubble hill. Randi gave it a good dose of C-STRKs, knocking it sideways and nearly tipping it. Jen fought back, however, and regained control. She swiveled her Loki right and cut into the Mad Cat's hide with a medium laser. The green lance boiled a good half-ton of armor right off of the Cat's broad right side.
Randi retaliated with her second PPC—a Spheroid type—and shocked her aggressor in the shoulder actuator. She cut her speed for a tighter turn and tried to close in for another hit. She had dealt Jen some heavy blows in the arena, and it was turning this fight in Randi's favor.
As the Mad Cat turned, however, the obnoxious fire of an autocannon ripped across its hull. Randi tapped her jumpjets, now thankful that she hadn't removed them, and turned midair to face the new attacker. Out from the shadow of the rubble heaps and into the arena came the low, stalking profile of a Hellhound. With her sensors out, Randi could not find the state of the 50-tonner's armor. It seemed to be repaired from whatever damages Fred had inflicted upon it.
The medium 'Mech throttled up and turned a hard right to strafe her broad side. Randi backed up and glanced from the Loki to the Hellhound.
"You're outnumbered. Just give up while you can," said Prewitt.
"Never did learn your lesson, did you?" Jen sneered.
Randi glanced out the side window of her cockpit to the van. "I will not let you kill another one of my friends. I will stop you," she murmured.
"What's that? I think I misheard you. It sounded like you said...you're going to stop me? Ha!" Jen laughed loudly and snapped Randi in torso with a PPC. "You couldn't stop me from taking this 'Mech or shooting your sibko buddy. You couldn't even stop me from getting into your house!"
Randi reeled to the side a bit as the bolt impacted her side and the HUD turned to a fuzzy mess. She fought the gravity and throttled up, narrowly missing a spray of C-STRKs from the Hellhound. Now angrier than ever, she turned swiftly and darted parallel to Jen's Loki, then rotated Nyx's right gun and fired. The PPC blast barely caught Jen in the side and the sparking, streaming energy flaked off a sheet of charred ferro-fibrous. The 65-ton beast's right arm continued to drip bluish sparks into the mud, and while its pilot attempted to recover, Randi slammed down on the throttle and tapped her jumpjets. The burst of reactor exhaust was not for a full DFA, but a good, long jump to clear the mud and debris that slowed the heavy OmniMech. The huge, all-black Mad Cat landed just meters away from its enemy and stabbed another PPC pointblank into the humanoid Loki.
By now, autocannon fire was grazing her armor, chewing at it like a rat, but Randi ignored all that. 'Everything makes sense now,' she thought, grilling Jen with machine gun fire. 'All along, Jen did everything she could to get those schematics, no matter who she had to backstab.' She narrowed her focus to better balance the weight of her 'Mech, and then slammed its paw-like foot hard into the lower leg of the Loki.
Another stream of C-STRKs ground into Nyx's back, ripping out the frail armor. Randi closed her fists tight around the joysticks and whipped around to the Hellhound. She towered over the squat design by several meters and used that to her advantage. Furious and completely drained of mercy, she unloaded her own C-STRKs into the top of the Hound's chassis. It bowed under the force of the missiles as the warheads clawed through its armor.
"I'll give you once chance to leave or die, Prewitt!" she shouted as she hit the comm. "Jen didn't hesitate to kill the man she pretended to love. What makes you think you will get any more loyalty?"
Prewitt only answered with laser fire, melting of a solid ton of armor from the capsule-like torso of the Mad Cat. Randi shifted her weight to compensate for the loss and took a deliberate step forward.
The Hellhound kept itself low, with its torso and guns pitched as far upward as possible to get a shot at the much taller heavy 'Mech, like a toy poodle deluded into thinking it was a rottweiler. Randi cantered up to it and tapped her jets. As the feet of her Mad Cat scraped against the side of the smaller 'Mech, she slammed on the jumpjets and pushed down her joysticks to focus the inertia. Prewitt struggled against the 75-ton bulldozer, but before he could slip away Randi launched another salvo of C-STRKs, knocking the Hellhound on its side. The bird-legged 'Mech flailed as it landed in the mud, sending up a gooey splatter as it crashed. It tried to paw at the ground in hopes of getting up, but the slick earth gave it no traction.
Suddenly, twin bolts of electric-blue particles crisped into Randi's torso. A salvo of C-STRKs followed, and a few of the missiles chipped armor from the Mad Cat's own boxy launchers. The Loki was back in the fight.
Randi hit the comm. "Ned! Harrison!"
"We're outside the arena," replied Ned. "Listen, those 'Mechs are really making me nervous. You want to explain—"
"Watch that van! If it leaves, follow it and do not let it out of your sight," Randi cut in.
"So...they've got Fred?"
"...Yes," she said slowly, biting her lip as she and Jen circled one another.
The Loki's lasers sliced into her armor, but the 75-ton Mad Cat held its ground. Randi had taken a good deal of damage from the tag-team attacks of her enemies, but Jen never had a chance to repair the damage she took in the games. There was no way the Loki could survive now.
Randi hit the comm again. "Stand down, Jen! You cannot survive this fight."
"You're telling me to surrender?"
"Yes. I do not want to kill you," said Randi. "I would much rather watch you rot in jail."
The other woman laughed. "I don't think so."
"Very well."
It was always said that Randi was somewhat ruthless in battle, even when she was still a part of the Wolf Clan. Tonight, she felt especially so. As the Loki blistered her with its C-STRKs again, she carefully aligned her crosshairs over the center torso of the 'Mech. She clicked the trigger and stabbed it with an alpha strike, stopping the 65-tonner dead in its tracks as it fought the explosive forces that sought to consume it. The combination of missiles, laser, machine guns, and dual PPCs ripped through the ferro-fibrous and into the endosteel frame. Human-sized chunks of metal burst from the chassis as the fearsome Loki was ripped apart from within by its own ammunition.
Randi thought she saw a small explosion from the head, and something round burst from the same place. It could have been an ejection pod, but as the thing flew clear of the ammunition explosion, the LRMs squirreling around in the air swan dived back at their target. One of them exploded above the Loki, most of them missed due to the too-close range and slammed into the ground; a few more peppered the husk of the dying 'Mech. As the Loki crashed to the ground, a bright light burnt from its interior.
The Mad Cat turned as hard and tight a left as possible, and Randi slammed down hard on the jumpjets. The black Omni rocketed into the air on a plume of bluish reactor exhaust as the dead Loki's fusion-powered heart burst. Nyx barely cleared the blast, with little bits of shrapnel bouncing off its feet as it descended. The 75 tons of war machine hit the ground hard but solidly, its feet sinking into the sloppy mud.
"That is it..." she murmured as she pressed her back into the command couch against the pull of gravity, and righted Nyx's torso.
Her eyes widened as she suddenly remembered the van. She turned her 'Mech around to find the vehicle and switched on the search light. Frantically, she trotted over the still smoking wreckage of the Loki and pitched her 'Mech's torso downward to scan the ground. The litter trail of ferro-fibrous and myomer extended for several meters from the epicentre of the explosion. Chunks of metal had pock-marked the standing wall sections, and for a moment, she began to fear the worst. When she got to the spot where the van had been sitting, however, there was no wreckage of shrapnel and vehicle. There was nothing at all.
"Ned!" she cried, as she hit the comm. "The van! Where- where is it?!"
The radio crackled a little. "It's gone," Harrison replied. "But the driver shoved Fred out of the van before taking off. We've got him with us, now."
Randi breathed a deep sigh of relief and let go of the joysticks, leaning back against the command couch. 'Finally,' she thought, 'I did something right.'