The only way to pay the price of death is death itself.

Capitol City, Kentares IV

Fed Com Civil War.

Steiner Invasion

"Alright now people we need to MOVE!" Claire shouted upon site of the base.

"Davis get up there now and grab their attention!"

"Already on it Ma'am!" The medium lance was moving at top speed, moving down the street like a bullet train.

She saw two Davion Peregrines fly over. "REPORT!" she commanded.

The pilot didn't change direction, but responded and said, "This is Raptor 3 we are flying recon to ensure safe retreat passage."

"Roger, report back to Miss Johanna and get her down this street, we have a full battalion of vehicles waiting."

The Peregrines altered their course and headed back towards the base. In an instant, Claire saw several laser bolts tear into the Peregrines. Raptor 3's chopper was cut in half, the edges of where there had been circuitry and armor were emitting a bright, luminous orange glow as it went down and crashed into a building…no ejection.

The other helicopter was merely blown out of the sky by an overkill shot from a PPC.

A pilot's voice came over the radio; "We got company! Holy shit do we have company."

"Report! What the hell is going on?" Claire sounded frantic; she hoped that Davis and his lance got past these unknown mechs without notice.

"We have two assault mechs coming down one of the streets…they've split up!" The pilot reported.

"Roger, Venom, move out!" Claire ordered.

Venom lance was the heavy lance. A simple Affirmative was heard, then Venom Lance moved down a different street to intercept.

Venom lance split up and searched for its quarry. Venom consisted of 6 heavy mechs, a Mad Cat, two Thors, a Thanatos, and two Vultures. The two enemy mechs consisted of a Nova Cat, and a modified Mauler.

It was the Vultures that came on the Mauler. Before they could even fire off a few missiles, they were overcome by a massive onslaught of auto cannons, and their armor was falling to the ground like shattered glass.

They unleashed hell fury attack of pulse lasers on the Mauler, cutting deep cavities into to the thick chassis. The Vultures got their lock and unleashed a massive bombardment of LRM's. They may have been a little into close range but the tracking missiles still did their job. Eighty missiles directly hit the assault mech, hitting wave after wave, widening the gaps in the armor that the pulse lasers had started, and throwing tiny bits of the Mauler's armor in every direction. The pilot struggled to keep the chassis on its feet.

The behemoth still stood, despite the severe collateral damage it had endured. There was a slight pause as the Mauler was completely still, its pilot infuriated, and its battle scars still giving off white wisps of smoke. The pause took its effect on the Vulture pilots; it was just what an enemy in an impossibly strong chassis needed to be more intimidating.

Though the Mauler was one shot away from critical, the Vulture pilots started backpedaling in utter fear. A true mech warrior may laugh and shame them, but they were not true warriors, they were simply pilots the resistance rounded up. None save a few in the resistance knew how to pilot a mech with any real skill.

The Mauler instantly chased after them then fired its newly installed LBX-20 scattershot at one of the fleeting Vultures. Shrapnel filled the space between the two, tiny chunks of metal buried themselves deeply into the Vulture's torso, making cracks and rivets underneath its surface causing most of the armor to fall off in giant chunks and exposing the inner chassis in some places.

Upon impact of the massive shot, the Vulture fell over onto the hard pavement and did not get up. The Mauler turned its attention to the other which had disappeared down another street into the city.

The Mauler instinctively came on guard, spinning its torso every-which-way, but apparently didn't notice the Vulture creeping slowly up behind it. The Vulture had turned to passive sensors as to conceal its ambush.

The Mauler turned around slowly, as if he already knew what the Vulture had done.

Upon seeing the critically damaged weak spots of the crippled mech, the Vulture unleashed a massive alpha strike.

The pulse lasers sliced into the critical mech igniting explosions within the Mauler's massive ammunition bins. The missiles came at point blank range, blasting away at everything within the Mauler, including its core. All at once, a bright white light begun illuminating everything, giant bluish rays showing through the cuts and cracks, small explosions still from its inner munitions jostled the Mauler this way and that, while the light within it began to grow bigger and brighter.

The Vulture instinctively started backpedaling for its life. Then the blast came, engulfing everything in its wave of fire, including the Vulture. When the smoke lifted there was nothing left of either of the mechs, with the exception of a giant smoldering crater in the middle of the city. No buildings stood inside 100 meters of the blast. And neither of the pilots had the sense to eject.

The Thanatos was the first to find the Nova Cat, however the pilot didn't even have the fortune to even fire off any of his weapons, as he received two PPC shots directly to the head after he rounded a corner.

The Nova Cat looked up to the response of a missile lock, all of a sudden streams of more LRM's came bashing into its armor from different directions. The LRM's made an easy job of clearing away the reflective armor from the Nova, flinging it everywhere.

The Nova was swaying like a drunk after the brutal assault. When the pilot finally steadied it, he turned to see a Mad Cat barreling down the street towards him at top speed. He was still unaware of the two Thors behind him on a nearby building.

The Mad Cat fired off its lasers at the frightfully calm Nova. One shot managed to melt armor off of a more damaged area, causing molten armor to splatter of onto buildings and pavement, steaming as it burned holes in anything it landed on. The rest of the shots bounced harmlessly off the chassis and destroyed the good upper half of a building.

The Nova Cat's pilot was a veteran, with a master's aim. One careful shot to the charging Mad Cat's leg and it fell helplessly to the ground, its leg completely severed at the hip.

It was this time that the Thors decided it was the time to jump in. They executed the deadly D.F.A. maneuver and landing with precision on each of the Nova's shoulders, slamming the massive chassis into the ground like two balls and a bowling pin.

They spun their torsos around and fired off their auto cannons along with a second salvo of LRM 15's. Further weakening the armor off the flattened Nova Cat.

Suddenly, a massive wall of missiles passed between the two Thors, barely hitting them as they finally touched down from their double jump. The bombardment had came from the fallen Mad Cat, who had been successful in propping the mech up with its arm allowing a single missile rack a clear unobstructed shot at the other fallen mech.

The flow of missiles zoomed towards the struggling chassis, already thoroughly buried into the ground. They slammed into the Nova and its hapless pilot. When the smoke settled, they found the Nova beheaded, and the rest of the chassis buried halfway into the thick Ferro-Crete Street.

The three remaining pilots looked on their achievement momentarily, an awkward silence caused from the defeat of formidable foes, and the loss of half their lance. At length the two Thors finally turned to catch up with the main attack group.

Claire stared on with sheer horror, as did all of the men and women that stood with her. The base was in ashes; there were traces Steiner units everywhere, explosions could be heard or seen over the tops of buildings.

She waited for the other lances to regroup. Two lone Thors approached her lance.

"Where's Corporal Houn?" she demanded the pilots.

"His mech took a hit to the leg, he's still stuck back there" a nervous voice replied. "Kyle, Van, and Peter…didn't make it."

Claire took a moment to absorb this. She swallowed and nodded slowly. "Roger."

She tried calling for Davis's lance. "Spearhead come in, Report!"…static.

"Not good," she thought. "Right then, we'll do this without them! Everyone, vehicles, mechs, all units, attack my target on my mark. Understood?"

Affirmatives and Rogers were heard throughout the battalion. There was a slight pause as the pilots cracked their knuckles and got ready for the fight of their life. Only hours ago had they been reluctant to march with her straight into oblivion, now they all seemed battle-hardened, and Claire, much less them selves really didn't know why.

High-pitched noises could be heard from some mechs laser mounts as they were activated. A steady hiss could be heard from the missile racks of vehicles as they armed all their deadly warheads.

Soon after, everyone had their lock and they were ready to take down a careless Sunder idly chasing after an ambulance, being sure not to hit it with its lasers and rather give it a good scare. Claire couldn't have been more disgusted; her troops were only waiting for the order.

"FIRE!" she yelled.

Instantly, an utterly massive wave of lasers, lead, and missiles hit the Sunder, immediately knocking it to the ground. Apparently, everyone choose to use an Alpha Strike, seemed as though they had all shared the same thoughts about the enemy pilot.

The Steiner mech never had a chance; it had fallen and wasn't getting up. Upon closer inspection, they noticed that the entire upper torso was cored through.

"I personally couldn't have chosen a better way to go...could you?" She asked turning to her troops. Laughs and snickers could be heard over the radio, confirming their approval of the Steiner's death.

Suddenly the ambulance hailed them. "This is Medical unit Foxtrot 3-4, identify yourselves." Said a very nervous and quavering voice.

Claire smiled and replied, "This is Master Sergeant Claire Seredon of Tsunami lance, I'm here with the 2nd Resistance Battalion. We are here to assist Miss Johanna Dresari in defending the base."

The medical unit's communicator paused before responding, "Miss Johanna is aboard our unit. Everyone else save a few other vehicles are the only ones left, everyone else is dead."

A wave of commotion came over the radio. Claire shushed to try to get more of the story but apparently that was all there was to hear.

"Right then," she said "I want all of our vehicles to escort the ambulance back to our base, and pick up Houn on the way back. Affirmative?"

Without a word, the columns did a 180 and speed down the street with the ambulance.

Claire once again tried to contact Davis. "Davis come in, do you read me? DAVIS ANSWER ME!" she was starting to get very nervous. Without Davis and his lance there wasn't any mechs she could afford to provide extra support for Miss Dresari.

A weak crackling signal came over the comm. "Serge this is Davis, I read you…you only had to yell Ma'am."

Claire was half bemused for his dis, and half-relieved to know he was alive.

"Christ Davis where the hell did you go? Listen we need you and your lance to head to the coordinates were sending you now, you should come up on the columns and an ambulance. I need you to guard it with your life. Understand?"

Davis was silent. After a moment's peace, he said, "Um about that…half my lance is gone, we led the front waves away from the base and now we're being held up by a single assault mech."

"Can you try and outrun him?" she asked desperately.

"The rest of my lance can, I'll have to stay and distract it if they can have clear passage to get to Miss Dresari."

Claire was a bit taken aback, not only by his sudden courage but his knowledge of Miss Dresari's status. "How...did you?"

"Simple," he replied smugly, "Guard it with your life, understand?" His tone took that of one very similar to Claire's.

Now she was really surprised, she gritted her teeth and said, "You seem to have gone a bit bold lately Davis…I'm not sure I like it much."

The replying voice laughed "That's what a hopeless battle will do to you Sergeant, no one can help that…" his voice trailed off. "Serge, we all walked without question under your lead into this battle, and we all know were not going to walk out…well not me at least."

Claire's eyes started to widen, her mouth opened to say something but nothing would come out. Davis popped up on her HUD in a little window. He was smiling; he gave her a small salute, then flipped down his visor.

"This is my last stand Serge, take care." His window disappeared from her HUD.

Claire gripped her controls tightly and gritted her teeth harder. "Who does he think he's kidding? He won't last against the assault for 30 seconds!" she paused and lowered her head into deeper thought. "Huh, if he wasn't so crazy, that just might have sounded…heroic." She smiled.

"DAVIS YOU CRAZY BASTARD!" she yelled, there was another wave of movement among the battalion. She clearly ripped all the pilots from their stupor, making all of them wince, their mechs twitched from pulling on their controls.

Normally it would be just a typical thing to hear Claire yelling at her cadets, especially Davis, but Davis's sudden nobility and courage really sent them onto the turntable; anything would seem unexpected at this point.

Claire finally came to a decision. "Davis…where is the main enemy body?"

Davis's voice was heard once again, 900 meters north of my location, I'm here goofing around with an Atlas. The bastard can't even touch me. I already have my units moving to your coordinates."

"Roger, Venom lance I want you playing extra support for Foxtrot 3-4, Tsunami Lance were taking down that enemy body, copy?"

All of the pilots replied in unison except for the two Thor pilots.

Claire knew what was coming next. "Venom lance, no exceptions stay with Miss Johanna, and that's an order!"

The two pilots did not respond, but they did as they were ordered, and ran down the street to catch up with the columns.

Claire sighed and finally said, "Alright, Tsunami lance…" she paused, all of her troops were anticipating the final order. "Do what you do best!"

They all split up, each taking a street. Slowly, they began to grow farther and farther apart. Claire really didn't think this as a good idea but she didn't want to stop them for some reason, bringing them together didn't sound like a good idea either.

All of a sudden, she started hearing yells and taunts on the open frequency, "It's started." She said quietly to herself.

A voice sounded "Serge! We need you help! Two units already down, we need to re- AAHHHHGH!" There was a giant roar, then static.

"Tsunami 1-3, please respond!" she heard her tactical officer on the comm. "Please respond!" he repeated…nothing. "Tsunami lead, you have three units down, rendezvous at…no four units down! Retreat immediately, I have your lancemate on to the following coordinates-"

"No." she said flatly, "I'm not coming out without Davis."

"Your call Tsunami lead, Omega lance is en route, and Scepter lance reports mission accomplished…you could retreat now and-"

"No." she repeated herself.

"…Roger that then, proceed at your own discretion." He said, and continued giving out other orders.

"What the hell did I just DO?" she thought to herself, "He's probably already dead, no use going after him." Then another tiny voice came into her head, "But what if he needs help? What if there are other things that need to be done?" The bigger voice sounded again, "Other things? Like what?

The little voice need not answer, "Revenge." Claire said aloud. The big voice was ecstatic "REVENGE? Who's to say that man's even here? Who's to say that you will just walk up on him?

"I did say a few things about revenge in my speech." She thought. "That would have been useless on this mission unless I knew what was going to happen."

She came out of her thought and headed towards Davis's position.

"Davis!" she said loudly, "Have you identified the pilot of the Atlas?"

Davis's voice crackled, Claire could make out sounds of explosions happening near his cockpit, "WHAT? What for?"

"I'd really like to know, He just might be the man I'm looking for if you catch my drift." She replied.

"I'm…not to sure I do…" he said, "but his name's Renoman, real prick…do you know him or something?"

Claire was silent; a sudden chill had passed through her entire mech. "Retreat Corporal! That's an order!" there was definitely a trace of anger and panic in her voice.

"Um…roger but I kinda ha- WOAH!" there was a huge roar of sound, apparently something had passed so close to his cockpit that she winced at the noise over the radio.

"Listen I got my hands full! Um…out!" Radio silence.

Claire found that she was gripping her controls rather tightly, she slammed the throttle to top speed and rushed down the opposite street like a giant rolling boulder.

"I'm coming Davis! Hang on!" she yelled into her mike.

Davis was sweating bullets; he had narrowly dodged a PPC shot to his head. "Claire seemed pretty scared of this guy, and she definitely has no reason NOT to be." He thought.

Davis was in a Custom Bushwhacker, nicely equipped with a Clan Gauss Rifle, an ER Large Laser, a LRM 15, and a LRM 10. His "Bushy" was also decked out with AMS, which was running low on ammo, and a BAP. But the only real thing he had on the Atlas, was speed.

His sudden courage had sparked a skill within him never seen before; he was running fast circles around Lt. Renoman, executing a perfect COD maneuver all by himself. Luckily he had the room to do so; a parking lot was their battleground.

The Leftenant was starting to get very ticked. "Hold Still!" he shouted, only to be laughed at maliciously. He was getting weary of Davis's tactics and wanted to rid himself of this annoyance, yet he could not be presented with any clear shot.

Davis was starting to get very concerned about ammo for his AMS and his Gauss rifle. He had six gauss slugs left, and 24 AMS. He noticed the Leftenant trying to reverse his spinning to get one decent shot; Davis sped up, and at the same time fired his large laser at the giant target.

The great beam made a direct hit, scoring a giant hole in the center torso of the Atlas. The outer edges were glowing; tiny droplets of molten metal were starting to drip down the front of the Atlas like rain on a window.

Still, Davis was getting perturbed with the fact that all of his shots were not scoring deep enough to make any critical damage. The outside appearance of the Atlas could be easily described as Swiss cheese, as there were shallow holes in various parts of the mech, with the exception of glowing streams of melted armor trickling down the sides of the mech, giving a sort of cracked up appearance to the Atlas, and making it look if anything, much more eerie.

The Lt. Began firing off all his weapons at random in an insane attempt to hit Davis. PPC's made singed craters in the think pavement, missiles were exploding everywhere, and pulse lasers were tossing up bits of pavement in every direction.

It was like the battle on the shores of Normandy for Davis, he had turned his attention to dodging the massive bombardment of missiles exploding on the pavement everywhere, narrowly missing newly made craters from which he could trip. He took a little bit of damage but for the most part was pleased with himself for doing so well. Still, he noticed he was down to 17 AMS.

"C'mon Renoman, I know you can do better than that!" Davis thought he had deserved the right to throw out a nice little taunt.

Renoman was furious. There was no way in hell he would be defeated by a low-class pilot in a medium mech.

"Just wait till I get my hands on you!" the Leftenant retorted.

Davis didn't like the amount of emphasis that Renoman put on the word "hands," for some reason it did not sit with him to well.

He then snapped out of his thought and returned to the fight in time to narrowly miss a mean looking gauss slug. "Toooooo close." He thought.

He noticed it began getting harder and harder to concentrate beads of sweat started running down his face, and dripping off his nose.

"Why?" he thought, "Why is it getting harder?"

Once again he pulled away from his mind and set it back on the battle. He twisted his torso back towards the Atlas, and froze. Up until now, Renoman had been unable to follow Davis in his circles. While Davis was in his thought, his circles and perfect speed became sloppy, and uneven. The Atlas took advantage of this and was finally able to put its sights on him.

He couldn't move, it is if he and his chassis had all of a sudden frozen mid stride. He heard a small chuckle over the open frequency.

"Finally…" Lt. Renoman said, "you actually got me worried for a minute there."

Davis gripped his controls rather tightly. His head was pounding and his mind was starting to race. He lowered his head and smiled.

"Hah…" he sighed and thought, "this is it... I just wish the serge could have been here to see it." Again feeling very proud of himself.

He raised his head back up; there was a bit of an evil grin on his face. He started laughing despite his defeat, "You couldn't touch me," he said, "maybe a bit on that last little trigger happy stunt of yours but you couldn't lay a stupid hand on me."

While he spoke he was slowly and carefully moving his sites to a particularly deep hole in the Atlas's torso.

"Well come of it then, your finished now, so long as the winner stands, none of that matters." Renoman said, his voice lowered to the cold and sharp tone that Claire only knew so well.

Davis laughed a little louder now; he was feeling confident again, despite the fact that he knew he was going to die.

"The leftenant sounded a bit perplexed rather than insulted or bemused, "What in the bloody hell are you laughing about?" he said curiously.

He stopped laughing, it was the moment he had been waiting for, "Ahh, I truly do not, and will not, know why all you aristocrat elites, pause to talk or get the last word right before you kill your target."

Renoman raised one eyebrow, he would have responded, but something told him this wasn't a one-last-insult thing.

Davis continued, "Heroes will do it too, you see it in all the movies and fights and stuff. You know the hero and the bad-guy are always squaring off, then you see one of them or both point a gun at eachother's head and pause to talk about who the shot's dedicated to, revenge, yadda yadda…"

"…Go on," said a confused Renoman, "But I've not the slightest clue as to what this means."

"But then..." his eyes glimmered behind his visor, "The one who has the gun pointed at wins, to an extent, he may be injured or killed later, but something goes terribly wrong for the nemesis who talks. If they both have their sights on each other then the events play out a little differently."

"I've had enough of your talk, there's no use prolonging the inevitable." But as the words came from his lips he realized what Davis had been talking about. His eyes widened slightly, and he wondered how that had come to pass.

Davis was laughing again, "I can't believe you haven't gotten it by now! But anyway, I simply think it's weird how all of you do that," he threw himself out of passive radar to let Renoman clearly know that he had a lock on him.

"Seems the tables have turned, the situation, like I said, always plays out a little different when both have guns at each other." He couldn't help but grin, "I tell you what then, I'm the hero and you're the bad guy or vice versa, however you want it. Being that we've already done the thing that we talked about, I say we enter the movies perfect climax in an old-fashioned shoot out. Whadda you think?

Lt. Renoman was speechless.

Claire couldn't believe what she was hearing, she never knew Davis as the man who would out-smart the Wiseman…much less get his sights on him during.

"AND," she thought incredulously, "He was giving hints at it the entire time!"

Claire herself didn't get it until he went into active radar, "events play out different when both guns are ready" she thought reciting his words.

"The part about the pause and the last word thing was an insult, but all the time he was buying time to get his sights in place." She glanced at her radar, a little blue dot was there, accompanied by a red one. She wasn't more than three hundred meters away from them.

Then she realized, " And he's been buying time for me to get to him!" It baffled her about how smart and how clever he had gotten in the last hour or so.

"Yes," she thought, "things really CAN change when the odds are against you." For a fleeting moment she saw herself climbing out of her cockpit, she was smiling and beaming down at her troops, Miss Johanna was fine. Davis was smiling and waving at her as she touched the ground. Miss Johanna was all right and well, she came up to thank her, accompanied by Omega lance. Ian gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.

She laughed and waved off the thought a little reluctantly, but it was becoming a lot more of a wishful fantasy. However, she suddenly had felt empowered at the thought of making through it alive, she didn't know why, she found herself trying to convince herself it wasn't true.

"That's how he did it!" she realized, "that's why he's being so bold and brave…she thought, "ironic…knowing of certain death yet finding strength in the desire of living."

She remembered the little peck Ian gave her in her little daydream, and her stomach knotted, "I wonder what was Davis thinking about?" Knowing him, she didn't want to think about it.

She was about two hundred meters away; she could make out glimpses of the parking lot between other buildings. She knew that both were going to go all out, Davis was doomed if she couldn't get there in time. "Oh Godspeed Davis, Godspeed."

The two mechs were motionless. Davis could see Renoman from his cockpit; Renoman seemed as intent on the draw as he was. The look on Renoman's face was cold and intimidating. The look on Davis' face was determined and unnerving, yet he felt himself starting to crack under the pressure, his new found strength starting to wash away.

Renoman started first, "Ready?!" he said.

Davis shouted in response, "DRAW!"

Davis let fly his gauss slug first, then his laser, and finally his missiles. Renoman unleashed an alpha strike; all at once there was a flurry of laser bolts and missiles, some missiles hitting each other while flying to its mark.

Time seemed to slow down for Davis and Renoman as soon as they had pulled their triggers, the world outside of their mechs was gone, all that was around them now was an empty black void.

He saw his Gauss slug connect, throwing off a group of missiles and a PPC shot, the gauss slug shattered upon contact, but not with out splintering the Atlas's armor. His laser was next, it gauged deeply into its mark, and cored through the right torso of the Atlas, and caused melted slag to splatter off in different directions.

While he watched his weapons however, he neglected the shots that were heading towards him. After his laser shot through the Atlas he thought it should fall and blow.

No avail.

His eyes grew as he turned to the slowly advancing laser bolts, the PPC shot that was coming at the cockpit, the lasers connected below his torso, armor melted into orange goo and trickled down the Bushy's legs.

But he kept his eyes on the crackling blue bolt getting closer to his cockpit. It was inches away from the glass now. All of a sudden, fear overcame him, he felt himself starting to shake uncontrollably with fear.

"So this is how it ends huh?" he thought, "I will die in fear and agony…" He slapped himself mentally, "NO I didn't want to die this way! I WON'T, I refuse to let all of them down!"

Time sped up again, and he was lost in a giant wave of light.

Claire heard the sounds that she had been dreading. She heard the sound of lead shattering upon metal, the low hum of lasers melting armor, the screams of missiles streaking through the air, and the sudden static that came over the open Davis's frequency.

"DAMN IT!" she thought, "Didn't make it!"

She came upon the parking lot, and laid her eyes on the Atlas was standing over the fallen Bushwhacker, and her jaw dropped. Something like a terrified whimper came out of her mouth; she couldn't take her eyes off the Bushwhacker's cockpit, which was spewing flames and a pitch-black smoke.

Renoman heaved a sigh of relief; "Perhaps he wasn't an amateur, he actually was able to give me a bit of a scare." He smiled and started chuckling. "Stupid idiot." He said thinking he was talking to himself, and kicked in the already destroyed cockpit of the fallen mech.

He turned around and started towards his base but stopped dead in his tracks upon the site of a strangely intimidating Nova Cat. He stared at it, halfway between fear and confusion.

"Who...are-" he started, but he was instantly interrupted by a shot that came purposely close to his cockpit, he could feel the heat as it passed and nicely destroyed the part of a building behind him.

The Nova Cat started running in a circle around him, he was very confused for some reason, seemed as if the shock of being tricked and nearly killed by a cadet went to his head. One thing that he was sure about though, this mech wasn't friendly, and wasn't going to let him take a breather.

Claire was now being fueled by a chaotic fury; she was beyond all sense now. She remembered Mike's horrible death, and now Davis', and that was it, she would no longer let this monster go unpunished for his actions.

She started chaining her lasers firing one after another, melting off his armor; each shot with a dignified "splash."

"You monster…" she said through gritted teeth, "You will pay dearly for this."

"That voice…" Renoman paused to think, "Where have I heard your voice?" he said at length, and started into the circle of death.

Claire grinned at these words; "You don't recognize my voice? Maybe if I asked you to kill me…perhaps that would spark something in that old empty head of yours."

It was Renoman's turn to grin now, "I remember you now, you're that little girl in the Highlander, the one that had a tantrum after I killed that stupid boy in the Awesome."

The smile faded from her face, "Yes, I told you to kill me then, and now your going to regret every single thing that you've done, including letting me live." Her voice had turned cold; her cynical tone made the leftenant shudder. He could no longer sense any humanity in her voice.

He was doomed from the start, Davis's shots didn't pierce all the way through his armor, but now he was dealing with an Assault mech, with about five times the power of the Bushwhacker.

"I've been looking for you for a long time." Claire said, still in her demonic voice.

"A long time?" Renoman scoffed, "It hasn't nearly been two weeks," unable to stop himself from being more sinister he added "but I bet it has felt like eternity for you, hasn't it?"

Claire was silent; she could only give him a very, evil glare, and decided it was time to stop playing around with him, until now she had been destroying his less critical parts, like arms and weapons. But now it was time to finish what she couldn't start. He died now.

She broke out of the circle and charged him, he fired his remaining lasers at her but each shot bounced harmlessly off her thick reflective chassis. She was nearly upon him now, and he started backpedaling.

She fired all of her large lasers at his left torso, the gigantic blast blew straight through the massive Atlas, and it fell to the ground with a great crash, cracking the cement around it.

Renoman struggled to get to his senses; he could barely make out a giant figure moving slow towards him. He shook his head a little, hoping that would clear away some of the blur.

When he finally came into focus he saw the Nova Cat standing over him, and the barrels of its right arm pointing directly at his head. He was immediately overcome by fear. His core was starting to overload, he couldn't eject due to the buildings behind him, and had a giant gun aimed at his literal head. He started shaking uncontrollably.

"Are you afraid?" Claire asked coldly. Her face was illuminated by a steady light emitting from the Atlas, there were shadows on her face that gave her a downright creepy look, and to top it all of, she had an evil smile spread across her face.

Renoman felt something under his cockpit explode, thrusting his command couch up slightly, but he didn't notice, he was fixed on her face, not daring to look at it, not daring to bring his eyes away from it.

"This is what you get," she said, "This is the punishment dealt to those who have no right to walk upon this heathen ground, this is the punishment for your intolerable crimes! This is for all the mech warriors that went down with honor, for the men and women that died to ensure that we rid you of our world and the universe itself! The best part of your death though, is that it is paid with fear, indeed you are afraid. Judgement day has come Renoman!"

Renoman's eyes were bulging with fear; sweat was running down the side of his face like a torrential flood. There were red lights blinking and alarms sounding all over his console, but he still could not take his eyes off of Claire, or the giant barrel that was now starting to emit a small blue light.

The eerie glow from Claire's face was gone, instead being replaced by a look of anger and sadness, her sad beauty returned.

"You see the light at the end of the tunnel?" she asked, "That isn't heaven, that's a PPC checking out the spot between your eyes!" she paused momentarily, several tears made themselves apparent;

"They were just like this, trapped, helpless, on the brink of death; and now you will finally know exactly how it feels." Her wicked smile returning briefly after she pulled the trigger.

Renoman was screaming as he was blasted out of existence and into oblivion, however; now flames emitting from the Atlas were now shooting and licking at Claire's mech. A white light began to shine brightly from the fallen warrior.

She didn't care; she straightened out her mech and sat way back in her chair. Warning lights and sirens began going off all over her console, but she paid them no heed.

A new smile was on her face, not the scary and wicked grin, but this time a face of pure satisfaction. The last look on her face was truly a sight to behold. Her eyes were closed the soft smile, and the light that was now illuminating all of it.

Her everlasting thirst had finally been quenched. Her Revenge had been served, and by god it was Sweet.

The blast came, engulfing the two mechs in a giant dome of fire and blue light. Claire felt herself slipping away in the endless light.

"And so it ends." she thought, and was swallowed whole by the light.

The next thing she knew she was sitting on the grass of a small hill. She didn't quite understand, until she saw him. Mike was sitting alone on a hill next to hers. He stood up as she approached. She stared at him through tearing eyes.

"Is this?" she started, but she needed no answer. The look in his face told her everything. She smiled and they came together in a kiss.

When they finally parted, they sat down together and watched the Kentares sunrise.

Ha finally done. Sorry took awhile to do seeing is I'm really busy with school right now. The end drags on a bit and I think I could have made all of it a bit more "colorful." But this concludes this story.

Anyway I'm gonna get started on a new story soon enough, I have two stories up my sleeve and I'm deciding which one to use first.

Shank

Lead…tastes great, less filling.