The Blakists didn't remain surprised for long though and quickly targeted the newcomers. Jerricho braced herself as she saw several flashes of weapon discharges aimed in her general direction, however only one shot struck her Canis, the light gauss round shattering armour plating from her mech's right leg.
The enemy were now in range of her main weapons and dropping her crosshairs over the nearest enemy, she unleashed two of her quartet of extended range large lasers and both Ultra Class 10 autocannon.
The Blakist Rifleman staggered under the barrage, the armour of its right arm vapourised by laser fire, before the heavy autocannon rounds struck home, shattering the upper arm joint, sending half its main weaponry crashing to the ground. The WoB pilot began to back away, laying down covering fire with the Rifleman's battery of extended range medium lasers, most of which failed to find a target and those that hit only causing superficial damage.
Looking to her left, Alannah saw Star Commander Darsha emerge from the treeline in her Timber Wolf Prime. Almost immediately, the Blakist Black Knight struck with its ERPPC and large lasers. The left arm of Darsha's mech went limp as the armour was breached and the myomer bundles controlling the limb were severed. Darsha responded with a salvo from her twin LRM20 missile racks, most of them missing their mark as the pilot went into a series of evasive moves.
One of the Yeomans, both of which were still keeping their distance, let loose another volley of long range missiles, which struck the left torso of Darsha's Timber Wolf. The extensive damage also set off the remaining missiles in the left launcher. Fortunately the force of the resulting explosion was vented by the mech's CASE system.
Almost on cue, the Grizzly and Guillotine IIC of Beta Heavy came sailing over the treeline on trails of plasma fire, opening up with their long-range weapons. The Grizzly's gauss rifle and Guillotine's ERPPC combined to devastating effect, breaching an ammo bin and triggering a huge explosion, which although vented by the Yeoman's CASE system, deprived it of half its ammunition, meaning it wouldn't be in the fight much longer.
Just then, a number of new contacts appeared on the Cavaliers' radar displays and their threat indicators lit up.
"Incoming – bearing Zero One Seven!" was all Darsha had time to yell over the com link, as a swarm of long range missiles blazed towards them. They were easy enough to spot from the bright exhaust flares, but dodging them was another matter entirely.
Only one of the Cavalier mechs was equipped with ECM and to make matters worse, the pair of Grand Crusaders, which had fired the missiles, had Artemis fire control systems, which greatly increased the lethality of their payloads.
The best part of eighty long range missiles slammed into the mechs of Binary Beta, before they had a chance to find cover. Darsha's Timber Wolf bore the brunt of one volley, losing most of it's armour and remaining missile rack. To Jerricho's amazement, it somehow remained standing, though it didn't look in any shape to continue fighting.
She stamped on her foot pedals, igniting her Canis' jump jets, to avoid the worst of a second salvo aimed at her. Unfortunately, this meant the Guillotine IIC and Glass Spider behind her took a battering.
Star Commander Darsha cursed fluently as she attempted to get her malfunctioning displays to work, occasionally coughing as the smoke from burning circuitry irritated her lungs. The HUD worked only intermittently, although she didn't need to read it to know her mech was in a bad way. Only the large and medium lasers in her Timber Wolf's right arm were still functional. The chill night air blowing in through jagged holes in the torso told her all she needed to know about her armour situation. The left knee and hip actuators appeared to be damaged, as the mech refused to move at anything faster than a bone-jarring limp, even at full throttle. Her com system had also been knocked out by that final volley, so she couldn't even radio for assistance.
With a final curse, which quickly turned into a choking cough, she powered her machine down, grateful that at least that function still worked and began to unstrap herself from her command couch. She had also seen her unit's Viper B and Grizzly take a hammering from yet more missile volleys. As she undogged the escape hatch and exited with her survival kit, she hoped fervently that Star Colonel Nuyriev was on his way with reinforcements.
Star Captain Alannah Jerricho made a quick assessment of Binary Beta's status and didn't like what she came up with. She activated her radio and selected the cluster command channel.
"Jerricho to Command, the Blakists are not showing any signs of withdrawing. We will need reinforcements as soon as possible".
She was relieved to receive an instant reply from Star Captain Clearwater.
"Copy that Beta Lead. Command is en route and should be in position to engage in the next minute or so. Where is Alpha? They should be in position to assist already".
Alannah gave a frustrated snort, "I have not been able to raise Star Captain Steele or any of Binary Alpha. I have no idea where they are".
Star Captain Marcus Steele gritted his teeth and pushed the throttle of his Timber Wolf A to the stops. He heard the creak of metal under extreme strain and its leg actuators whine in protest, as it attempted to pull the fifty-five ton Stormcrow free of the swamp Alpha Heavy had blundered into in their haste to join the action.
Worse still, when he had attempted to raise Command to inform them of their predicament, all his radio channels had been filled with static. A hasty MagRes scan of their surroundings had revealed the presence of large deposits of ferrite and other magnetic materials, whose natural fields were scattering their com signals.
'What kind of hellish place has woodland, swampland and ore-bearing rocks in the same patch of ground?' he wondered as he tried torso twisting, trying to create a rocking effect with the tow cable, which he hoped would help the Stormcrow break free of its boggy trap.
The Timber Wolf gave a sudden lurch as the load slackened, signalling the lighter mech was beginning to break free. Steele quickly eased the throttle back and adjusted his direction slightly, to avoid ramming his mech into a large tree directly ahead of him. The lack of space was severely hampering their rescue efforts.
The Stormcrow pilot's static fuzzed communications were encouraging and Marcus eased the throttle forward again to build momentum. Looking to the left out of his canopy, he could see Star Commander Nathan in his Timber Wolf Prime, attempting the same thing with his unit's Nova Prime, whose pilot had also failed to avoid the morass.
To top it off, Star Commander Landon had managed to jump his Summoner Prime into the deepest part of the quagmire, depriving him of most of his jump capability. The two torso jets not submerged were insufficient to pull him clear and it was taking the combined efforts of Alpha Assault's other Summoner and Timber Wolf to pull him clear.
Steele's mech lurched again and it required some deft work with the throttle and joystick to avoid colliding with yet another tree.
"I am free – my thanks, Star Captain!" came the crackly message of gratitude from the Stormcrow's pilot.
"You are welcome", replied Steele, just managing to remember to avoid using contractions.
Although nearly all the Cavaliers were now comfortable using the lazier Inner Sphere mode of speech, they still preferred to speak as Clanners with each other.
He switched to the Binary's command frequency, "Landon, Nathan – how are you doing?"
"Kallis is almost free – it should be the work of a few more minutes at most", replied Nathan, sounding relieved.
Landon's response was less encouraging, "Progress is still slow, Star Captain. This accursed swamp seems determined to devour my mech. It may be some time before I am free".
'Stravag!' thought Steele, thinking for a few moments before coming to a decision. "We will have to move without you. It seems these Blakists have plenty of stomach for a fight and are giving both Tamzarian and Jerricho a hard time of it. You will have to catch up when you are able, quiaff?"
"Aff, Star Captain", replied Landon. Steele could hear the annoyance in the other man's voice, tinged with embarrassment at having got himself into his predicament.
Risa Clearwater kicked her Hellbringer into a run, to keep up with Star Colonel Nuyriev, who had just pushed his Mad Dog C to its maximum speed of 86kph. Behind her, the other three mechs of the Command Nova did likewise. Going so fast in dense woodland was reckless…stupid even, but the calls for reinforcements demanded a rapid response. They risked damaging their machines with the headlong charge, not to mention the Elementals riding shotgun on the mechs, but cleared any obstructions they couldn't avoid, using their weapons.
Reaching the treeline, Risa sidestepped a cluster of saplings and slowed down, to give her Hellbringer's twin ERPPCs time to charge. Nuyriev forged on, bursting onto open ground and rapidly lining up his mech's twin gauss rifles on the second Yeoman, which strayed into his sights as its pilot sought out another target, from a position of imagined safety. Both shots hit the Blakist mech squarely in the right torso, the massive damage detonating several missiles and triggering a catastrophic explosion, which also destroyed the right shoulder launcher. This time the Yeoman's CASE system could not save it and it toppled to the ground, completely gutted along its right side.
A Cerberus emerged from the darkness, its massive arms lowering to train on the smaller Clan Omnimech. Nuyriev, who hadn't even broken stride while taking out the Yeoman, smoothly switched direction, trying to break his opponent's target lock, but was surprised when the enemy machine followed his movements with apparent ease. The azure lightning of an extended range particle cannon blazed from one arm, flaying armour from the Mad Dog's left leg. A split second later, the gauss rifle in its other arm flared with a pale blue discharge and Alexei felt his mech shudder as the heavy nickel-ferrous slug struck, just below the left hip joint. The controls immediately became less responsive and the grinding noise from the damaged bearings and couplings immediately told him he was in trouble.
As he limped back towards the treeline, in an attempt to find some cover, Clearwater charged into the open and blazed away at the advancing Blakist with both her ERPPCs. They struck the Cerberus in its centre torso, vapourising enough armour to make it stagger from the sudden loss of mass and giving the pilot something to think about. Having regained balance, the Blakist began a defensive circling manoeuvre. The rest of Command Nova arrived and began selecting targets.
Despite being heavily outgunned, the Cavalier pilots leapt into the fray eagerly, using their greater mobility to avoid the enemy's larger weapons. An oncoming King Crab, Albatross and Battlemaster opened up with their long range weapons, mostly extended range lasers and LRMs, inflicting superficial damage as they struggled to pin down their more manoeuvrable opponents.
Still tracking the Cerberus, Clearwater noticed from the corner of her eye, the two Grand Crusaders, which were hanging back from the melee. Suddenly her threat warning alarm rang out, informing her that over forty long range missiles were inbound. Glancing to her left, she saw the flares of dozens of inbound missiles…headed straight at Nuyriev's Mad Dog. He was struggling to make his crippled mech move and had no chance of avoiding the barrage. Risa's stomach convulsed and she was nearly physically sick.
Heart pounding as though it would burst from her chest, she broke off from the Cerberus and pushed her Hellbringer into a sprint. The only Cavalier mech equipped with ECM, she hoped she could provide a protective bubble that would shield the Star Colonel. Less than a hundred yards away, she covered the distance, just as the first salvo detonated all over the right side of Nuyriev's mech, scouring armour and damaging the right leg and bringing the Mad Dog to a jerky halt.
She was perfectly positioned to absorb most of the second salvo. The ECM scrambled the guidance systems of nearly half, but the rest impacted all over the Hellbringer, throwing the mech off balance. As she wrestled with the controls, two smaller salvoes arrived, one striking her mech's centre torso and damaging the gyro and robbing Clearwater of her last vestiges of control. She braced herself for impact as she felt the sixty-five ton mech begin to topple backward.
She never saw the second salvo strike the cockpit of Nuyriev's immobilised Mad Dog, completely destroying it and killing the Star Colonel, in the process of unstrapping himself from his command couch.