The Cairo Saga, Book 2: The Solaris Irregulars
Part 48: Going Down Fighting
Europe planes
Callisto V
Lyran Alliance
A second gauss round from the Hollander slammed into Cairo's Orion as he closed the gap, and the weapons control system reported that the right- torso mounted LB 10-X Autocannon was off-line, probably destroyed. Cairo swore under his breath: Half of his weapons where disabled. He dumped the spare LBX rounds and the remaining ER rounds for the ATM system.
While the lighter Mech reloaded its only weapon, Cairo closed the gap between the two of them and targeted a flight of HE-rounds at the Hollander. He fired the missiles and watched as the W.o.B Mech staggered under the impact. He lined up his Large Heavy Laser with the other Mech's cockpit and pulled the trigger. The Hollander's armour lasted less than a second under the hellish onslaught and the high-energy beam burned all the way through and out the back, effectively decapitating the Mech.
Cairo took a deep breath as the temperature in his cockpit rose another ten degrees and the remaining heat sinks struggled to compensate. He clanked at his tactical display and was greeted with grim news: The Irregulars had become entangled on the enemy lines and the battalions to the left and right had swung round to encircle them. Over a dozen Irregular Mech's where down, most of them out of the fight for good.
Despite the death and destruction raging around him, Cairo was calm: Ever since that night 8 years ago on Los Alamos he had waited for death, for the final release from the pain that he had carried with him ever since. Now he saw his death before him and he decided to grab it with both hands and go down fighting. He did have some regrets, but like the old song said, too few to mention. There was only one thing that kept him from simply giving up and letting the end come.
Gripping the controls tighter than ever, Cairo swung his Orion round and headed over to where Seined was duelling with an old style Rifleman. He sent a flight of missiles into the famously thin rear armour of the air-defence Mech and was rewarded by a series of flashes that told him there had been an internal ammo explosion. He stood between the Shadow Hawk and the bulk of the Word of Blake Mech's, trying to shield his wife from the worst of the fighting. He could see that almost half of the Irregulars were down, and the Wobblies where getting boulder in their attacks.
Suddenly there was a blinding white flash and a W.o.B Atlas disintegrated before Cairo's eyes. He blinked, and a second flash of light cut a four-legged Goliath in two. There was an ear-splitting roar as a pair of aerospace fighters flew past, strafing the Word of Blake line.
He heard Seined's voice over a static filled come-line, "Steven, there's a Overlord class DropShip inbound, and the IFF is reading it as ComStar!"
To Be Continued…