Chapter XXXVI
Sierra-3325, New Oslo,
Wolf Occupation Zone,
December 30, 3053
"Here they come!" Abby screamed through her comlink. "Let them walk through the laser gauntlet, then we will take them out at close range!"
Shadows of hulking humanoid machines materialized from the fog. The laser bolts illuminated the shadows in intermittent blitz, but the shadows returned fire with three times the firepower, turning the once dense turret grid into a bonfire field. The fire gave light to the incoming shadows, turning the dark shapes into heavy and assault battlemechs.
A Mauler came into the light at the base's left flank, followed by a Catapult and two Awesomes. Missiles leapt into the air as soon as they took shape. The Clan's formation staggered under the assault. A cloud of ferro-fibrous shards burst as a Hunchback IIC and a Griffin IIC dropped down to their knees. The Mauler followed up its attack with cannon rounds, which was quite effective against medium mechs. The Griffin IIC toppled into the snow as its arm went flying in the air.
"Concentrate fire on the big one! One at a time! Fire!" Abby directed her troops.
Three nickel-ferrous slugs, two PPC bolts, and a smorgasbord of autocannon shells hammered the Mauler in the chest. The Mauler, well known for its thick ferro-fibrous hide, careened to the left. Its center torso was ripped wide open, gushing out engine oil and coolant and smoke. The structural integrity was still intact, but Abby's vicious attack damaged the gyro, which turned the assault mech virtually dead on its feet.
The effectivity of such "dishonorable" tactics amazed Abby even though ganging up on an enemy was condemned under normal circumstances. At times she started to question the essence of Zellbrigen. It was part of the reason why the Clans failed miserably at Tukayyid. As much as she hated to admit, she started thinking that the Inner Sphere rules of engagement might be more effective than Zellbrigen. And she had proven it herself. The question was: was she ready to evolve, leaving the way of the Clan and adopting Inner Sphere war doctrines? Or was she the stubborn Clanner who upheld Clan's honor, no matter the result would be?
For Abby, there was no question. Victory, not honor, mattered most.
The Awesomes entered the fray with its PPC rain. They, too, concentrated fire on a Glass Spider, the biggest threat in Abby's arsenal. The Glass Spider was not armored well enough to withstand four PPC strikes in quick succession. Its body twisted and turned, bleeding fire at where the particle bolts hit. One bolt torched the Gauss rifle on its left arm, resulting in a catastrophic explosion that threw the mech off its feet.
The Rifleman IIC's reacted with laser and autocannon rounds. Geysers of shards burst from the Awesomes' chest as they bulldozed their way through the thick counterattack. It was when the UAC20 from the Hunchback IICs started mauling them that they decided it was too much. One of them backpedalled; the other stood its ground, firing at the Rifleman IICs.
"Yankee Star, dispatch! Follow my lead!" Abby throttled up toward the stubborn Awesome. The large mech saw her move, and knew what she was after, then sprayed its short-ranged missiles, but Abby simply dodged them. Coming in within 350 meter mark, Abby fired her LBX10 squarely at the Awesome's broad chest. The attack had no effect on the assault mech; it barely felt the damaged armor. But Abby's marksmanship pulled several cracks on the thick armor.
"Hit where I hit!" Abby screamed on her comlink as she veered right, avoiding the Awesome's possible counterattack. Two PPC bolts from Griffin IICs cored the armor deeper. Multiple lasers and missiles bored into the cracks. The Awesome's center torso started to glow red, and the loss of mass started to take a toll. It began to sway. Abby skidded and pivoted before taking another shot with her lasers. The bolts melted a sizeable chunk of armor. The Awesome barely hung on, and finally went down when a pair of Gauss slugs bludgeoned the damaged torso to pulp.
But then Marauders and Archers poured into the vicinity from the opposite direction. Missiles and PPC bolts flew in every direction. Another Glass Spider fell under the onslaught, followed by a Rifleman IIC. Abby's defense quickly faltered, and the concentrated attack began to lose focus.
"All hands, attack the Marauders! Fabio, you come with me!" Abby shifted the attack to the incoming Marauders while she – and hopefully Fabio – would take on the Catapult and Awesome. She didn't trust Fabio yet since he was a strong opposition to her plan, but in a life-or-death situation like this, she didn't have a choice. She had to assume that Fabio was would carry her order and rely on him.
Watching Fabio's Rifleman IIC moved in her direction, Abby floored her pedal and lunged at the Catapult. The heavy mech launched everything it had, missiles and lasers and all, from point blank range. Abby did her best to dodge the missile storm but half a dozen of them stabbed her side. Her thin armor started to breach, and her warning LED blitzed furiously, telling her that she couldn't take another hit on her left side without critical damage.
Groaning, Abby burnt her jets and took a quick flight. The Catapult tracked her, but her movement was faster than the turret could follow. Landed unopposed, Abby fired her LBX10 at the missile joint, then her lasers, burning a ton of armor. The Catapult staggered, but quickly found better position as it fired its own jets. Multiple lasers lanced the lanky Clint IIC, but Abby deftly brought her mech outside the Catapult's firing arc.
"Fabio, the Catapult is latching on me!" Abby said as she tried to outmaneuver the Catapult. "Outflank the Catapult and smoke its rear!"
Almost a minute passed without any answer from Fabio, and when Abby wondered where her counterpart went, his signature appeared on her radar, going head-to-head against the Awesome. Of course, Fabio was a purist. He wouldn't want to cheat Zellbrigen, even when guaranteed a victory. He saw Abby had already engaged the Catapult, so he opted to find another enemy, which was unfortunately an 80-ton assault, leaving the Catapult for Abby to fight alone.
Wincing exasperatedly, Abby fired her LBX10, and cursed its lack of punch when the submunitions stabbed the Catapult's torso without much hurting. It would need two or three more precise shooting to breach the armor, and a couple more to get a critical hit that would seriously hurt the mech. Abby didn't have that much time. She needed to take it down soon.
But it was easier said than done. The Catapult launched its missiles with a vengeance. It took Abby everything she had to dodge most of the missiles, and the ones that still hit her shook her mech so bad she thought her Clint IIC was done. Then the medium lasers came, and they hurt her. Her front armor melted like butter, and her mech wobbled, fighting hard to stay on foot. The feedback signal from the neurohelmet and the acrid ferro-fibrous vapor made her stomach gurgled. Her eyes went waterlogged and even breathing hurt in the cockpit.
Abby knew she had to do something radical to beat the Catapult. She went airborne, and watched the wide canopy of the Catapult as it was waiting to recycle its weapons. It never looked that wide from the ground because the angle didn't give her much exposure to the canopy. But from the air, it spread like a blanket in her bed. Wasting no time, Abby pointed her guns at the cockpit and mashed the alpha strike button. Plexiglass shards burst like a geyser, followed by blood and gristle. The Catapult marched forward for some time, then lost balance and slump into the snow.
Abby let out a long cry, channeling out her triumph, then went to her radar to check on the rest of her trinary. It didn't look good for both sides. The Glass Spiders traded blows with the Marauders, resulting in four casualties on Abby's side and three on the Inner Sphere side, with another one limping bad. The Rifleman IICs and Griffin IIC backed up the Glass Spiders, but their firepower was no match against the steady stream of missiles from the Archers. Half of the heavy mechs perished in fireballs while the Hunchback IICs were left scattered like ducklings without their mother.
Fabio, on the other front, didn't help the situation. Going against an assault mech with 20-ton disadvantage proved to be a blunder, or he was just not good enough at close-quarter combat. In any way, his Rifleman IIC was stripped from all weapons, and he just relied on his stubbornness to survive. But time was not on his side, as the Awesome – close to overheating – prepared for the coup de grace.
"Yankee Star, smoke that Awesome!" Abby reorganized her assets for a better defense. "XRay star, target the Archers! One at a time!"
The remaining Hunchback IICs regrouped and lunged at the Awesome. They were too late to save Fabio. His Rifleman IIC exploded as the Awesome scored two fatal strikes with its PPCs. But that last shot put the Awesome in a heat trouble. The Hunchback IICs scored 3 unanswered critical hits with their UAC20s, setting the Awesome ablaze. Limbs and armor splinters blended into metal hail. The Awesome dropped to the ground, shaking in its death throes as the flame ate it away. Two Hunchback IICs took a steady position and fired their large cannons in unison. The big assault mech disintegrated in a brilliant fireball.
Two Rifleman IICs and the remaining Glass Spider picked an Archer as a target and fired everything they had left. The Archer's torso gyrated at the hip when the slugs, laser strands, and cannon rounds strafed its shoulder. Smoke billowed from a bad gash, and the arm popped from its joint, hanging on the socket with a few strands of myomer.
As the Archer struggled to return fire, Abby gave chase to the limping Marauder. The 75-ton mech still had one arm with PPC. Abby put her crosshair on the flimsy upper arm, waited until the reticule burnt gold, then hit her trigger. Sparks burst from the Marauder's upper arm, seconds before its PPC crashed to the ground. Left with nothing else to shoot, the Marauder turned away from the battlefield and fled.
It was the last string of destruction the Spheroids were willing to take. Realizing that they could not take the firebase without sacrificing more assets, they chose to fall back and leave.
"Damage report!" Abby hailed her troops while assessing the situation.
"Bad shape, Ovkhan," somebody replied.
"I have only three shots left," another tuned in.
"My battlemech cannot take another hit. I am as good as dead," yet another reported.
And the bad news kept rolling in. Abby's Clint IIC was not in great shape either. Armor was almost nonexistent, and she only had 5 shots left on her LBX10. Her twin medium lasers were mediocre at best against assault machines like the Awesome. And Abby didn't even see Zack Mackenzie and his Battlemaster. Either he was reserving his assets for the final strike, or he was just scared, Abby didn't know.
This war had turned into a war of attrition, and Abby didn't know how much longer she could hold Sierra-3325.
"Listen, Wolfkins, and listen carefully," she rallied her troops. "Without reinforcement, the next attack will be our last stand. I will try to call Tamar for help. But in case they come late, I want you to know that it has been a privilege to serve the Wolf Clan with warriors like you. Fight well and fight to the death, mechwarriors! It is what we are meant to be!"