TWENTY FOUR
Note: This chapter contains graphic violence. Reader's discretion is advised.
Victoria, New Avalon Combat Region,
Crucis March, Federated Suns,
September 7, 3078
My original plan was to divide the remaining survivors based on condition. Those who were out-of-commission would go with Evee to the pick-up point, while I would lead the remaining troops to take part in the counteroffensive. But it seemed like nobody wanted to leave. Even badly-damaged mechs and tanks opted to stay, risking their lives to see the end of the Word of Blake. I couldn't say no. After years of fighting a losing war, this moment was worth watching.
So now it was up to me how I could manage my crippled troops. I couldn't lead them to battle head on. Even a Preta could kill us in a matter of minute. I had to make them fight like a pack of wolves. They would never charge a horde of preys for they were outnumbered. They would pick the weakest animal, isolate it from its horde, then swarm it with overwhelming force.
"Form up on me!" I ordered while engaging a gallop toward the outskirt of the battlefield. "Keep a tight formation. Do not stray! Keep your guns hot but do not fire at anything until I say so."
The 13th Wolf Regular owned the battlefield for the better part of the day. The Manei Domini had better range, speed, and performance, but the Crusader Wolves had better intelligence. They knew how the Manei Domini operated. They knew the achilles heels of the once invulnerable celestial mechs, and they exploited them to the intimate detail. The Word of Blake, on the other hand, had no idea about the 13th Wolf Regular, not so many more about their new Black Wolf omnimechs.
A Deva managed to escape three Black Wolves, and slipped behind the Wolf formation. I put my crosshair squarely on its midst and fired off. My twin emerald beams converged into a single point which glowed in red-hot shade. Melted ferro-fibrous rivuleted through the cleavages of its torso.
"Attack my target!" I ordered. Missiles, ballistics, and energy bolts from the remaining tanks and mechs filled the air and swarmed the Deva like drones. The heavy mech staggered and writhed, but kept its balance. The armor level swiftly dropped to orange level, but the mech stood its ground, shaking off salvo after salvo like a cornered animal.
As we reloaded, the Deva returned fire. Its Gauss slug slammed into the turret of a Von Luckner. The slug ripped the Gauss-Rifle trio on the turret, and the critical blast took out the tank's reactor. A fireball tore the tank from the inside, and the turret flew some 20 meters up before disintegrated. Not through, the Deva's tripple Light PPC singed a Winsome Rose's Flashman. The ancient mech keeled over as the azzure bolts cored its midst. A surge of charge jerked the 75-ton mech, frying its electronics. The Flashman tottered mindlessly before stumbled down the ground.
I trained all my weapons at the Deva's midst and let them loose, first the lasers, then the LBX. The Deva sidestepped my lasers but my scattered shot stunned it, stopping it on its track. David and Victor sank their lasers, turning its front armor into a blotch of bubbling smelter. A big Highlander lined up with Victor's Night Gyr and scored a critical hit with its Gauss gun. The Deva twisted, bleeding fire from its torso, but still held its own.
As improbable as it looked, the Deva came back up and smote Zoe's Hellspawn right in the left torso. Three particle bolts smashed into the missile launcher, incinerating warheads that were being reloaded into the tube. The 45-tonner jerked as the entire left torso expanded into a fireball. Zoe punched her jets, but the Deva decked her with an accurate shot. The Hellspawn slanted out of control before crashing into the hard ground. Pebbles and dirt blended with mech parts, and the Hellspawn's limbs went flying into the air.
"Zoe!" David screamed while turning his mech to give aid.
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Zoe crackled through the comlink. "Keep pressure on the Deva!"
David came back with a vengeance, showering the Blakist mech with his laser. Evee and I backed him up, each of us scored a good hit on its center torso. Victor and his Highlander friend turned the Deva's into a flaming mess, and a Burke tank finally slugged the Blakist with a crippling PPC shot to the chest. As the Deva careened, David approached it with guns trained at its torso. His guns flashed, and the Deva roared in an instant.
Before the explosion even subsided, the Burke suddenly exploded. A Seraph and two Grigori flanked us and buried three consecutive PPC blasts into its hull. The Burke's armor, severely weakened from prolonged battles, didn't stand a chance against the sudden attack. Its burning splinters carved divots on the adjacent mechs, creating minor fire on several parts of the body.
I tried to outmaneuver the Blakists but the faster Grigori swung to the right and ripped a Bushwacker with their missiles. The 55-ton quickly disintegrated under the onslaught. The Seraph charged and jammed its retractable blade into a Black Knight's cockpit. As the Black Knight lifelessly slumped, the Seraph turned its UAC10 at a Bombardier. Fire belched from the multi-barreled gun, and the Bombardier went up in flames before the Black Knight even touched the ground.
The sudden attack threw my men into panic. Some broke formation to deal with the new threats, others simply tried to escape the pressure. The two Grigori wiped out my remaining tanks, while the Seraph slugged a fleeing Thanatos from behind. Missiles and ballistics flogged the last member of Jayne Dixon's company, and the 75-ton mech blasted in colorful flares.
"Take out the Seraph!" I commanded while firing my lasers. The Seraph's left torso turned orange, but it shrugged off the attack. David, Evee, and Victor bombarded the assault mech with lasers, but the 85-tonner didn't seem to be affected by the onslaught. The Highlander blasted its Gauss rifle, but the Seraph dodged it, making the nickel-ferrous slug sailed harmlessly over its head.
Suddenly several small shadows whizzed right in front of me. Before I knew what it was, the two Grigori started swaying frantically, thrashing left and right as if being possessed. It took me a minute to see some minute figures clinging on the Grigori's body. I had almost forgotten about them; the Elementals, Clan's mechanized infantrymen. The Elementals tore the cockpits open, grabbed the pilots and ripped them out of their mechs. As nasty as the Manei Domini cyborgs was, they were no match against the bigger, stronger, and better-armored Elementals.
That cleared up our way to the Seraph. I was ready to hit it again when three Black Wolves overtook me, blocking my line of fire. I didn't want to make a big deal about it. This is the Wolf's Grand Melee, where nothing but guns worked. No zellbrigen, no code of honor, just war. Good thing I mentioned about Wolverines behind the Word of Blake, so now the 13th Wolf Regulars fought with such gusto that they were no different than pirates.
"Alright, group! Fall in!" I tried to regroup.
"I'm still here babe," Evee was first to reply.
"This is Malthus. I still have half my guns with me."
"Victor here. I still have 3 shots of my UAC20."
"This is Samantha Rose. My Highlander is in a bad shape, but you can count me in."
The field was almost cleared. The 13th Wolf Regulars took out the majority of Manei Domini. Their casualties were staggering, but the Word of Blake was almost wiped out. Nevertheless, one Archangel was still fighting with dignity, as if it was carrying the last banner of Word of Blake in Victoria. The white paint with distinct markings on its right torso could only mean one thing.
Sigma Precentor Azrael.
I knew that my 5-to-1 advantage was not going to work against the Archangel. A jumping 100-tonner, it was christened 'zombie' for its ability to absorb ungodly punishment and keep coming forward. Its Heavy PPC and Plasma Rifle was more than enough to wipe out an entire lance of conventional assault lance. Coupled by C3i and the pilot's neural enhancement, the Archangel was a true angel of death, as its namesake suggested.
"Center mass! Now!" I barked as I pumped my lasers. The Archangel's center torso glowed in red-hot hue, but Azrael took it like a gentle slap on his chest. Victor followed up with his lasers, boring the red blotch with well-placed salvo. Evee and Samantha scored a good hit for each, and David slammed home another double-laser strike. The front torso turned into an overheated smelter, and drips of molten metal hissed and bubbled on the ground.
The Archangel ate the entire assault with dignity, then took off to the air with its powerful jets. A stream of superheated plasma burst from its arm, blasting Samantha's Highlander right in the midst. The mighty 90-tonner shook as tongues of fire blanketed its entire upper body. Heat quickly spiked up out of control, and Samantha quickly dumped one-third of her coolant. But her panic move didn't make it better. The coolant caught fire, and the Highlander began to rot in flames.
"Argh! I'm outta here!" I heard Samantha yelled, seconds before her cockpit burst and her safety pod took off.
As the Archangel touched down, I mashed my trigger. My lasers drilled its torso even more, and my LBX cannon sprayed submunitions to a wide area. The impact staggered the mech a bit, and it careened to the right when its feet touched the ground. Victor's UAC20 hammered the Blake, wreaking havoc on its left torso. The Archangel almost toppled as its torso armor was shredded to pieces.
But Word of Blake surely knew how to build a battlemech. The Archangel quickly regained footing and fired its Heavy PPC at David's Vulture. The azzure bolt slammed into David's right torso, the least protected part of his mech. The entire structure exploded in catastrophic blast, sending burning shards to fill the air. The bird-like legs twisted to sustain the momentum, and as much as David wanted to stay standing, it was all too much. The Vulture crashed and burnt as David painfully crawled out of the cockpit.
"Bastard!" he roared. "Sorry, mate, you have to go on without me."
Two kills in two strikes. This savage was just too strong to handle. I fired again as soon as my weapons recycled. My twin emerald beams roasted its remaining front armor for the third time, but I began to believe that they did not affect the Archangel whatsoever. It was almost as if Azrael purposely exposed his center torso to enemy fire. Repeated blows like that would have critically damaged any other mech, but this one was still healthy. My lasers couldn't do anything, Victor's lasers couldn't do anything, and Evee's lasers couldn't do anything to it. Only my LBX20 and Victor's UAC20 managed to shake the monster, but I only had 2 more shots. Victor's might've been out.
I could almost see Azrael smiling in his cockpit when he brought his Archangel to fly again. The mammoth guns locked at me. I pushed my joystick forward as hard as I could, but the Archangel quickly twisted and instead fired at Victor's Night Gyr. Once again, Azrael's precision exploited the weakest point of the Night Gyr. The 70-ton omnimech split into two, ripped by generator explosion. I saw Victor's ejection pod flew into the air as the Night Gyr crumbled in fire.
Unbelievable!
Running out of choice, I ran straight at it, closing the gap between us to 150 meters. I took my best aim, then hit my alpha strike. Waste heat seeped into the cockpit as my mech trembled, sustaining the recoil of my balistics. The Archangel sidestepped my attack, but my scattered shot scored a good hit on its front torso. Globules of molten armor sprayed as cracks began to root in its chest. If I could just linger long enough to exploit that crack, I might've had a chance.
Unfortunately, it was too early to celebrate. The Archangel twisted and singed me with its Plasma Rifle. I felt unbearable heat gripping my cockpit as the superheated plasma enveloped my mech. I couldn't see anything my eyes were sore. My console went dead, and the fire ate away my lasers. I overrode my shutdown sequence, risking myself getting burned alive. I couldn't afford to die out. It was my turn to shoot, and my last shot could determine if Evee got to live or die.
As for me, I was sure I was finished.
But before I could take my shot, Evee charged the Archangel full speed. I knew she had only medium lasers as her weapons, so I knew what she was up to. Azrael, too, knew what she was up to, and quickly deployed his retractable blade, ready to stab Evee's cockpit. I felt my heart stopped. But as Azrael thrust his blade, Evee ducked and hammered the Archangel's center torso with her shoulder. A sickening crunch reverberated through the entire plain, and Evee's right torso fused into the Archangel's midst. The two mechs interlocked together.
"Get out of here Parker," I heard Evee faintly through my dying speaker. "I love you, and I will always love you."
"No!" I knew what she was doing. "Evee! No!"
But I was powerless to stop her. Sparks burst from the back of the Longbow, and before Azrael could free himself from the death grip, the Longbow exploded. The fireball consumed the Archangel, and soon enough the two were swallowed in a cloud of smoke. Burning splinters chastised my mech, and the shockwave almost make my mech stumble.
I was hoping that I saw an ejection pod before Evee self-destructed her mech. I didn't see any. Did I not see it or did it not happen at all? Evee was impulsive but not stupid, was she? Was she? No she wasn't. She couldn't be! She was the leader of Ridinghood Cavaliers, a battalion that she built from scratch with her own hands. No, she was not stupid. She couldn't just sacrifice herself like that. She had to have an escape plan! Even that I didn't see it, she must have. She was not that stupid!
As the smoke cleared, I tried to find evidence of my blabbering, but what I saw was the least I expected. The Archangel was still standing. Evee's explosion tore a bad gash on its torso. Coolant and gear oils gushed out of the wound like blood. But somehow, it was still standing, and Azrael swiveled its torso to get a lock of me. He was hurt, but he was standing.
I saw no reason to live. Evee patched me a way to beat this monster. If I failed to do it, her death was vain, and I had no reason to continue living. A proud mechwarrior dies in his mech, she once said. So with my remaining power I charged the Archangel and shoved my remaining LBX gun into its gut. I had one more shot, and I had to make sure it made the kill.
"See you in hell," I whispered, then punched the trigger.
My last shot triggered a chain reaction in the Archangel. Three consecutive explosions ripped its torso, then a massive fireball blossomed. I felt a tremendous shockwave, so hard my straps burnt in my flesh. The next thing I knew was this jerk, then everything went black.
When I woke up, I was on the ground with excruciating pain on my left leg. I crunched to inspect it, and by the look of my bluish disfigured knee, I knew I was screwed. I was lucky that my brokenn bones didn't tore up my flesh. Or should I say unlucky? I could be a cripple for the rest of my life. Evee was right, it was better to die in a mech than carry the battle scar forever.
Ah, Evee. What did you do to yourself, you stupid girl? I didn't believe she was gone. I pulled myself up to look for her. I saw her Longbow, or what was left of it, lying on the ground in flames. I saw the Archangel in similar fashion, and I saw my own mech, my Red Baron that had faithfully accompanied me from Strana Mechty to Victoria. Some pieces of its skin – painted in red – were all that was left of my Gladiator. The rest of it had perished. But I didn't see Evee. I refused to believe that she was dead, but the chance of otherwise didn't look good.
Then something moved on the ground. I hobbled to see if it was her, but stopped my steps when I saw a titanium hand crawling out of debris. Little by little the cyborg pulled himself up. His flesh was melted, his hair was burnt, but the robot in him kept him going. He came toward me, dragging his right leg, much like myself.
"You're good," Azrael mumbled. His lips moved incoherently, but his mechanical voice was loud and crisp. "You have a heart, and the fanatics in you will be a great benefit to Word of Blake."
"No," I replied curtly. "Today, we own Victoria. Leave this planet or die."
"Such a shame," Azrael grinned and hobbled toward me. "I could use somebody like you."
I knew I couldn't win against this cyborg. Even in a top shape, I couldn't kill it. So I just stood there, waiting for the titanium hand to take my life away. But I was too caught up to notice that something had come to join us. Something big, as in Elemental big. As Azrael tottered toward me, the Elemental loomed behind him, ready with its claw wide open.
Azrael had only a second to notice before the Elemental's claw descended upon him, punching through his shoulder blades, and exiting from his stomach. A glint of blod spurted from his abs as Azrael twitched. His mouth gaped open, and his biological eye shut as his other LED-green eye glowed to maximum. In a desperate attempt to escape he hammered the Elemental claw with his own titanium hand, but it was obvious that his fate was sealed.
The Elemental raised its arm – with Azrael attached to it – then whipped it toward the ground, hammering half of Azrael's body. Chunks of titanium were hurled everywhere as Azrael's legs fragmented. The Elemental repeated it again, and again, and again, until the lower part of Azrael's body was nothing more than metal beams and shredded myomers. The armored troop then trodded on Azrael's head and yanked its arm upward, ripping Azrael into two.
Satisfied (or sure that Azrael was dead), the big armored troop came to me. It stopped right in front of me and lowered its visor. I could see that it was, indeed, a woman. She gave me a courtesy nod while saying, "Point Commander Tammi, 13th Wolf Regular."
"Thank you, Point Commander," I forced a smile. "I owe you my life."
"You do not owe me anything," Tammi replied. "My job is to wipe all traces of Wolverine in Victoria. I have done my job. Besides, I hate it when your coffin mate regrets being saved by me."
Before I could say anything, Tammi stepped aside, and there she was. Evee was covered in soot and dust, but she was in a better shape than me. I felt all my pain went away. I threw myself at her until I met her midway, then wrapped myself around her.
I knew she was not dead!
"Ohh... honey," Evee sighed in my ear. "I thought I'd never see you again."
"What are you talking about?" I retorted. "You're the one that blew yourself up. How did you..."
Evee didn't let me finish it. She mashed her lips against mine, until I abandoned my effort to unleash my frustration. "You didn't think I was that stupid, did you?"
"Nah," I could only grin. "Of course not."
I squeezed her again, tighter than the first time. I probably suffocated her, but she didn't seem to mind. In the distance, the last Manei Domini fell in flames, and Point Commander Tammi raised her bloody claw in a salute before turning around, regrouping with the rest of the Wolf.