The Ballad of Cairo

Part Ten: Never Again

Yorvic Plains,

Arboris,

The Chaos March.

Cairo placed all his might behind the throttle, willing his damaged Mech to move faster. The pirate Battlemaster was preparing to fire at Captain Cameron's helpless Thor, but all Cairo saw was a jet-black Champion standing over a damaged Stinger, hundreds of light-years and several months before on his home-world of Los Alamos.

The flashback lasted less than a second.

Cairo held back on firing, using all his Orion's power to move it forward. He shoulder-charged the Battlemaster just in time, the PPC blast striking the ground scant meters from the cockpit of the downed Omni. The blow tore the left arm from the Orion and the right arm from the Battlemaster. Cairo's Mech was now down to its SRM-4 launcher and it's jammed LB 10-X.

He fired the SRM's at the assault Mech again and again, his finger pressing down on the firing stub the very second the weapon re-loaded. The pirate Mech shuddered under the continued attack, the pilot still shocked by the force of the Orion's impact.

The Battlemaster looked like it was ready to fall: one more barrage and the Mech would be on the ground and Cairo could kick the Mech's head in with his Orion's massive armoured foot. Cairo pressed down the firing-stub and was greeted with the click of an empty magazine. He pressed the firing-stub again and again heard the hollow click of the missile feed system failing to find any missiles to feed the launcher.

He had fired all of his SRM's.

He was without weapons.

The Battlemaster regained its proper stance and fired its PPC into the Orion's left knee, melting armour and shattering the joint. Cairo fell backwards, landing on the right leg of Captain Cameron's Thor, the impact seizing-up the Orion's already damaged gyro.

Cairo looked up into the double barrel of the pirates PPC. This was the end.

Then he noticed something - a green light.

A green light had blinked on over the autocannon status indicator. The fall must have freed the ammo feed system. He pulled on the main trigger as hard as he could. A stream of clustered rounds shot forth from a sheet of flame two meters long. The front of the assault Mech seemed to erupt like a pond in a rainstorm, sub- munitions tearing at the already weakened armour. Then once again Cairo was greeted with the hollow, deadly click of an empty ammo-bin.

The pirate once again got ready to blast Cairo's cockpit with its PPC, when a shadow fell over the Orion's head.

The front of the Battlemaster seemed to disintegrate under the barrage as the assault-lances' Annihilator fired all four of its LB 10-X autocannons at point-blank range. A Gauss-rifle round from a Cyclops slammed hard into the exposed reactor shielding, tearing the very heart out of the once proud war machine. The Battlemaster teetered, then slowly fell onto it's back, dead.

DropShip Hound-Dog,

Outbound, Arboris system,

The Chaos March.

Captain Cameron was lying awake in a sickbay bed when Cairo visited him the next day. The Dragoon MechWarriors right leg and left arm were in plaster and his head was bandaged from the concussion caused by neural feedback.

"So…I have you to thank for breaking my Mech's right leg", joked Cameron, his voice groggy from the pain medication the doctor was giving him.

"I did what I had to do to stop the pirate from killing you", replied Cairo. "I couldn't stand by and watch another comrade killed in such a callous way. Not again".

"Don't worry about your mech. I'll have the techs back on Outreach rebuild it. It'll be better than ever", the mercenary promised him. "I owe you my life and the lives of seven of my warriors from what I hear. If you hadn't stopped that Battlemaster, it would have killed the rest of them".

"Hey…" smiled Cairo. "What are friends for?"

To Be Continued…