The Cairo Saga, Book 2: The Solaris Irregulars
Part 38: The right hand of Death
Europe planes
Callisto V
Lyran Alliance
Cairo watched the other three Mech's of his command lance slowly make their way along the forest track to the rendezvous point, his head still spinning, trying to work out who the traitor was. He made a mental list of the people he new he could trust. Sinead and McCoy were beyond reproach, he added Rob Dancer, Rebecca, Rix's point and Scot and Janet, his two aerospace pilots to the list: all had been with him since before he had come to the attention of Word of Blake.
He added the other Clanners and Jack Cameron to the list: despite his personal feelings towards the man, Cairo new he would never work for W.o.B.
He was still contemplating this when his threat-detector started bleeping: he had been targeted! His eyes scanned his passive-sensors for any sign of the enemy. There: two reactor-signatures where showing up on his MAD, and they were big ones.
He opened a com-link to the rest of his lance and spoke quietly to try and mask the signal, "Don't react right away, but it looks like we've got two Assault-Mechs stalking us. One of them has locked onto me with its Artemis IV. Stay calm, but be ready for a fight…"
No sooner were the words out of his mouth then there was in ear splitting roar as twenty LRM's hit his Orion across the chest.
He reacted instantly: selecting high-explosive rounds, he sent a spread of missiles from his ATM-9 back down the track of the incoming fire. There was a high-pitched whine as Sinead brought her RAC on line, followed by a low roar as it fired off a stream of rounds. Lasers shot-fourth from Hawk-that-Settles' Avatar and Josh's Timber Wolf, igniting foliage as they burned they way to the targets.
Cairo switched his sensor to active, and his jaw dropped: the two enemy Mech's where an Atlas and a Templar, and according to the intelligence data he had been given, there was only one Templar on Callisto V.
He gritted his teeth and fired his Large Heavy Laser at the OmniMech, cutting a nasty scar across its left arm and torso. The Mech responded with a Gauss Rifle round that smashed Cairo's medium laser. He quickly opened up with his LB 10-X, sending a stream of cluster rounds at the Assault-Mech, doing minimal damage. The Templar fired its Large and Medium Pulse Lasers and Cairo, knocking his Orion from its feet.
Dazed, Cairo looked up to see the Templar lower its Gauss Rifle to face his cockpit at point-blank range.
"Any last words, Sir?" A mocking voice filled his ears.
To Be Continued…