DC Heroes: MechWarrior I
By: Christopher W. Blaine
e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: All characters and situations contained in this story are ©2002 by either DC Comics Inc. or WhizKids and are used without permission for fan-related entertainment purposes only. No profit is made from this story. This original story is ©2002 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced either in part or as a whole without the express permission of the author.
Chapter 16 Outside Romanus Solaris Gotham Commonwealth January 31, 3032"I am Colonel Monel Bloodspirit," Monel called out on the open frequency, "and I seek single combat with you, Ra's Al Ghul!"
The leader of the Legion received a blast of autocannon rounds as a response. Though the Valor was well within range, the shells missed, instead rocketing off out of the field. "I will be more than happy to defeat you and bring honor to my clan, but I must first wipe your executive officer off of the foot of my 'mech!"
Monel smacked his control panel and then grabbed the control sticks. The Valor faltered slightly as his rage interrupted the signals to his neurohelmet. There was no shame in the way Val had died, but to mock his memory by comparing him to waste left in a lawn was dishonorable.
What had he expected, though? These were representatives of a clan that had dared to rebel at the very beginning! These were traitors, malcontents and rogues. Bastard children of the clans!
The 80-ton OmniMech leapt into the air on jets of plasma, covering a distance of 60 meters in a single jump. His missile lock alarm immediately went off and he looked to see the Batman firing at him. "Incredible!" Monel said as he pushed the throttle forward. Lining up a missile shot on a jumping 'mech was not a novice skill.
Obviously the surviving members of the Lazarus Pit were not going to allow single combat, but besides the Batman, they really weren't a threat. The Manhunter was a mangled mess and the Grasshopper was not doing much better. In fact, his scanners showed that the Grasshopper was effectively dead.
The design had been plagued in recent years with weapons software bugs. A programmer from the Free Atlantean League developed a virus that would shut down the weapons and lock them out after a certain amount of damage was received to the 'mech. It was supposed to be an anti-war protest but it instead ended up costing several 'mech jocks their lives.
The Manhunter was no threat; one good shot and it would go down. He resisted lining up his gauss rifle and letting fly the ferro-nickel slug. Before the sonic boom reached his ears, the projectile would blast through the Manhunter and eliminate it. There was no honor in that. Even at a full run and ramming into his 'mech, the Manhunter would cause him no harm. He had no proof that every member of the Lazarus Pit was part of the Not-Named Clan.
The Batman, however, was a different story all together. Matches Malone was the hotshot, a clan-trained pilot with some natural skill driving a 90-ton monster with minimal damage. Monel did note the puddle of coolant that the Lazarus Pit 'mech had deposited on the ground and he smiled.
Monel let loose with his extended range PPC and slammed the approaching Batman with the man-made lightning. The damage was not critical, but the metal plates of armor would suck in the heat. BattleMechs carried only a limited supply of coolant. Flushing it out was an interesting tactic, but it could also leave you open to overheating later as the coolant started to breakdown.
The Batman rocked, but it still continued its march towards him. The Odin was also coming, but much slower. All of the other 'mechs were either burning or sparking, except for the Grasshopper; it was trying to get back in the fight.
"Little Clan child," Ra's said in a mocking tone. "You will soon be my bondsman!"
Monel started to respond, but then his eyes looked out across the field. He suddenly realized what a fool he had been. His best fighters were either dishonored or dead; if anything, the Legion would be lacking in effective leadership for months, maybe years, even if he won.
The first thing that Clan Blood Spirit would demand is his immediate return to the Clan Space to give a full report. After that would come the council meetings between all of the Clans. There was no way that the Clans were going to allow even one descendant of the Not-Named-Clan to continue to survive. Like apocalyptic angels, the Clans would sweep through the Inner Sphere, killing everyone and everything in a mad rush to blast the traitors into atoms.
He saw the smoking ruins of Val's 'mech and he felt the sadness that was once overlaid with rage. His best friend was dead, killed because Monel allowed himself to be hauled into a trap laid by Al Ghul. The Legion had no place here; it was a battle they could not win because it was a battle without honor.
"I have sacrificed honor for ego," he murmured. Only minutes ago he had been so sure that he was leading the Legion into a fight for glory. The Batman continued to move towards him and he considered firing a shot. His warrior training screamed at him to do so. Matches Malone had one fatal flaw; he relied too much on his bulk. He allowed his 'mech to absorb damage it shouldn't.
In a one on one contest, Monel was confident that his superior training and weapons, plus his decades' worth of experience would leave him the victor. However, like a typical Inner Sphere warrior, Malone was protecting his commander with his own life. Some may have thought that an admirable trait, and even Monel had to give a nod of grudging respect, but in Clan space, the exact opposite would be true. Commanders that had to be protected did not need to be in command.
He had already lost too much for his personal honor; if Clan Wolverine (and he shuddered as he thought the name) was alive and well and prospering in the Inner Sphere, honor be damned! He had to let the Clan Council know.
He cursed himself for having had to have the death of a friend to open his eyes. Now he would have to find a way out of this situation alive. How odd for him, a warrior trained to almost welcome death in battle. He had to get everything in order of he was going to at least get a message to the Clans.
He took a cursory shot with his gauss rifle at the approaching Batman and hit it square in the chest. The echo of the metal-to-metal crash reverberated throughout the area. He was sure that Matches Malone had felt that.
"Hey, kid, are you okay?" Joe asked over the intercom. Bruce spit out the piece of tooth that had chipped off when he had bit down a little too hard. That gauss slug had done some real damage. He had a warning light for his gyro and he was starting to get a headache behind his right eye. Obviously, his brain was trying to compensate for the shift in his center of gravity.
"What?" he snapped back.
"Easy, buddy, I'm not the enemy," Joe responded. Bruce's monitors told him that the Grasshopper was limping over to him and the Archon-Prince realized that he wasn't moving anymore. He worked the foot pedals and the controls, but all he could do was twist on his torso.
"Damn it!" Bruce screamed as he realized that the gauss slug had done the impossible: severed one of the primary signal cables running down from the cockpit, through the torso and into the leg actuators. It was a relatively simple problem to fix; all he had to do was get outside the 'mech and put a jumper in, but he didn't have the time. He was a target.
The Valor seemed to pause and then the left arm came up. Bruce saw the capacitor for the PPC but when he zoomed up on it, saw it was of a type and configuration he had never seen before. There were several coils in the rear of the weapon and he wondered if that was to boost the power for extended range. He couldn't know for sure since he was well within range of even the cheapest cannon. He braced himself for another strike, knowing that his already spiking temperature would hit critical and he would have to override the shutdown sequence again.
"Pilot Malone of the Lazarus Pit, I have no wish to fire on a defenseless enemy," Monel said. "This battle is between Ra's Al Ghul and myself; none of the others should have been involved, not even a brave and worthy foes such as yourself."
Bruce keyed the commlink. "I appreciate the compliment; your reputation precedes you, Colonel. However, I am loyal to my commander."
"He does not deserve your loyalty."
Bruce shook his head. If anyone did, it had to be Ra's. Sure, Dinah had pointed out that the owner of the Lazarus Pit was most like a supporter of Bruce's political rivals, but that didn't mean they were enemies. So they disagreed on taxes! "You know nothing about me," Bruce responded.
"You are right and it pains me to be put into this situation. This battle should have been fought under honorable rules," was the reply. Then there was a sigh. "You master is fast approaching and I have no more time. Will you yield?"
"Hell no," Bruce replied. He still had some fight left in him.
The Valor fired at him and Bruce immediately recognized it as a headshot. There was a very good chance he was about to be fried.
Joe looked out the shattered viewport of his Grasshopper and saw that the Valor was going to fire. He could catch bits and pieces of the conversation between Matches and Monel, but his commgear was going down quick. The 'mech he had been given to pilot had seen a lot better days, that was for sure.
He had noted that Matches had been avoiding him for days and whenever Joe did try to strike up a conversation, the young MechWarrior would give him the look of death. He wondered if somehow he had discovered that Joe was a filthy murderer and coward and no longer respected him.
Ten years before, Joe had been filled with political ideology about how unfair it was that the rich got richer and the poor ended up dead. He personified his hate for the upper class in Thomas Wayne and Lew Moxon had picked up on that. It hadn't taken too much coaxing to get a drunk Joe Chill to agree to murder in the name of social upheaval.
Ever since that day he hadn't been able to look at himself in the mirror. His edge had been taken away and piloting a 'mech in the games would have been next to impossible. The only reason he was even here today was because he still owed Moxon for getting him off of Gotham safely. In reality, Joe could never know that there was never a chance of his getting caught. Thomas Wayne had far too many enemies.
He wanted to be here to protect Matches, whom he saw as his second chance at getting it right. Matches had all of the skill Joe used to have, but none of the bad habits. He didn't whore around; he didn't drink very much, didn't use stimulants and maintained a code of honor that was beyond Joe's capacity to understand.
He noted that Ra's had stopped and was probably watching the Valor and Batman just stand there. The leader of the Lazarus Pit made no move to come to his employee's aid and that ate at Joe's sense of morality. He was not going to stand by and watch another life get slaughtered for no reason.
The PPC fired and there was that loud sound of static and thunder. Monel had no doubt disregarded the dying Grasshopper and never considered it a true threat. Not that it could ever be; all of Joe's weapons were down for the count. Still, he was a big green hunk of metal and he could be used to buy the Batman some time.
Joe put forth a mighty surge and the Grasshopper was in the path of the PPC blast. He saw it had been a headshot, a killing blow that only a well-trained pilot could ever try. He quickly calculated the difference in height between his 'mech and the Batman and realized he was going to get hit in the top of his own head.
His eyes went up and his ears picked up the frantic cursing of Matches. It was garbled, but he found it ironic that the last words he would ever hear were "dammit to hell!"
The PPC blast struck the top of the cockpit, left open by a both a large laser and autocannon strike. The electrical charge blew out his nervous system before the heat melted his skin to his bones. Then the blast went down and hit the reactor. Waste heat blew up and further cooked Joe's corpse before the safeties kicked in and shut the 'mech down.
The Grasshopper, more a mangled mess of components than an actual BattleMech slumped down to its knees in front of the Batman. Bruce screamed out, realizing immediately that the man who had murdered his parents had just lost his life protecting him.
His anger only intensified as the other 'mech fell to the ground, a smoking ruin and he came to understand that this entire affair was wrong. Even Monel seemed to sense it as he immediately brought the large laser that had been power up for the coup de grace.
The only thing that could be heard for several minutes was the laughing of Ra's Al Ghul over the intercom. Then the leader of the Lazarus Pit spoke. "Kill him, Matches; he murders like the mercenary scum that he is."
Bruce heard the words and tried to find a rationale for them. People were falling down dead everywhere and there was nothing he could do about it. Or was there?
"This stops now!" he called out over the open frequency. The Odin started to move in response. "I mean it!"
"You have my apologies for the death of your comrade, Malone; my intent was to overheat your 'mech. Your torso armor is still in good shape…"
Bruce glanced down at his status screen and saw that it was true. The way his 'mech had been running it would have shut him down or else he would have exploded. It was an attack that required precision, an almost inhuman partnership between pilot and BattleMech. Of course the Legion had always shown that kind of skill in the past.
"Forget about it. Too much blood is being spilled," Bruce said, thinking about Joe. Part of him wanted to be glad that the man was dead, but he couldn't bring himself to smile. Instead, he felt empty and cold on the inside.
"Not enough, I'd say," Ra's said, his autocannon opening up on the Valor. The Legion 'mech stumbled back in a shower of sparks and coolant. It had been a good strike and the left arm now hung limp.
"I mean it!" Bruce cried out. "I'm ordering you to stop!"
"What are you taking about, Malone?"
"Beloved, check your words," Talia called out. "My father may favor you, but he will not tolerate insolence!"
"I'm the one you need to worry about," Bruce replied. "I am not Matches Malone. I am Bruce Wayne, the Archon-Prince of the Gotham Commonwealth, you liege-lord!"
"What?" Ra's cried out, the Odin stopping and turning towards the immobile Batman. "You? You're the Archon-Prince?" He started to laugh. "Oh, the sweet irony! Today I will achieve all of my dreams!"
Bruce was about to order Ra's to be silent when the Odin opened up with its LRM-5 launcher and laser arrays at the Batman.