I coughed and replied, "Damn it, I'm still here but I won't be soon if you guys don't give me backup now!"

                The Dragon pilot broadcasted over the general frequency again, "You bloody arsehole, now you've asked for it!"

                "Bring it on!" I shot back, even while spitting out the blood from my mouth.

                The Crab, still not willing to give up, melted another ton of armour off my left arm and torso. However this time my torso armour had been ravaged by the Dragon's missiles, and one of the laser shots grazed my fusion reactor shielding. Suddenly, my cockpit seemed a lot hotter.

                Undeterred, I still squeezed off my LRMs and autocannon on the Dragon again, but this time scoring a hit only with half of my LRMs. The Dragon shook off the attack and splashed his medium lasers over my cockpit, blinding me. The flash-blind elicited a sudden outburst from me.

                "Argh!!"

                "What's wrong, Lieutenant?!! We're on our way! We just finished off the Jagermech!"

                I squeezed off all of my lasers, hoping to score a hit even though blinded. The shutdown alarms blared and I slapped the override button. I quickly back pedalled to get me further from both Mechs.

                "I've lost almost my entire chest and back armour, fellas. Even got me a hit on the cockpit that's going to leave a scar."

                Hearing me joke must have relieved Harry.

                "Don't worry sir! We're just over the hill now. Hold out for another two minutes!"

                I could only smile sadly while staring at my damage schematics. "All right."

                The Dragon came forward again, levelling its weapons straight at me. Where did that Crab go? With its large laser, it could drill a hole in my back and blow my ammunition storage. It must be moving in behind me. Sweat poured from my brow.

                I fired only one of my lasers at the Dragon, scoring a hit on its right torso but still not penetrating its armour. Yet my heat level refused to go down. I toggled for the full release of my flushing mechanism, hoping to clear the heat from my cockpit.

                Autocannon shells hammered my right torso, totally destroying the armour on that side and rendering my autocannon useless. Even the laser on my right hand blinked red on my weapons status monitor. Destroyed. I knew time was running out for me. I triggered a full blast of my LRMs, hoping to wipe the armour off the Dragon's torso clean.

                "Sir! Watch your back!"

                I heard a whine, and I realised that it was the sound of the Crab's laser chipping into my gyro. The delicate mechanism started to sputter and I felt my controls become heavier. Was my gyro completely destroyed? No, my Mech didn't go down. Yes! I'm still up.

                Next another autocannon burst from the Dragon, still smoking from the LRM hits I unleashed just now. This time, there was no stopping the destruction. My status display reported my left torso as destroyed too, which meant that ….. I was out of weapons, and had paper-thin armour defending my centre torso left. A sexy female voice repeated in my neurohelmet: "Warning! Critical damage. Warning! Engine damage. Warning! Weapons destroyed …."

                I stared at my ejection controls, not wishing to give up just yet. But what else could I do? Die in this Mech? I stared ahead at the approaching Dragon, helpless to do anything but eject. Wait ..... nothing but eject?

                And suddenly, several flights of LRMs screamed over my shoulder and impacted all over the Dragon's weak torso armour.

                "Here comes the cavalry!" Trisha was hollering.

                The Dragon staggered, realising that it was now outgunned, even with the Crab. Immediately it started to back pedal, firing its LRMs at one of my lance mates behind me. I saw the Crab appear on one side, running away from the battle. I saw Trisha's Enforcer chasing after that Mech, though her Mech itself was not in good shape. Jock and Harry were probably behind me, locking their LRMs on the Dragon now and warning it off. However, I wasn't ready to let go of the Dragon yet. Not while it still could come back to lead another offensive. The Crab and the Sentinel had cowards for pilots. They won't come back, not without a leader. So the Dragon had to go down.

                I turned my throttle up to the max and fought against the controls, attempting to balance the unwieldy Mech. The Orion, battered beyond redemption, started to limp but then finally got into a running pace ….. straight at the retreating Dragon.

                The Dragon pilot noted my approach and started to fire his autocannon and lasers at me, but too hastily. His shots went wide. Another flight of LRMs crashed into his smoking torso, further ruining his shot. That should be enough to stall him until I could –

                "Sir, are you planning to ram him? You're going to kill yourself! Pull back! He's lost! PULL BACK!"

                I smiled softly, for the last time. Images of David, Gunner, Chuck, Lorna, and the others flashed through my mind. "Just carrying out my duty, Harry."