Thor's Gap, Tharkad

Donegal Province

Lyran Alliance

Cairo brought his arms up instinctively as the Berserker's flamer spat fire right into his face. The depleted-uranium edged hatchet smashed down on his Templar's left shoulder, cutting straight through the shoulder plat to the hole made by the earlier passage of the downed Pillagers Gauss round, and stuck. The Blakist pilot tried to remove the weapon from where it was jammed, but it simply refused to budge.

Taking the initiative, Cairo fired his twin ER Medium Lasers into the other Mech at point blank range. The duel emerald beams stabbed out at the other Mech's center torso, but did little against the thick armour. The Berserker's pilot responded in kind, firing his shoulder-mounted Large Pulse Lasers at the already badly damaged Templar. Cairo felt his Mech shudder as the scarlet pulses of light struck home with devastating effect.

Endo-steel melted and ran as the lasers cut through the Templar's depleted layer of armour and tried to seek out the delicate innards. Screens shorted out and exploded in Cairo's face as relays overloaded. The reactor housing took damage, and a flood of excess heat welled up through the cockpits floor and hit Cairo like an ocean wave. He gasped at the scalding air, his heat sinks and cooling vest unable to keep up with the demand.

With an almighty groan that Cairo heard through his cockpits armour, the Berserker's hatchet came loss, and swung up and away. Cairo tried to pull his Mech back, out of the deadly weapons range, but the heat-laden Templar refused to respond to the controls. He watched, startled like a deer trapped in headlights, as the hatchet descended for a second time, aimed almost directly at his cockpit.

The war-axe smashed against the side of Cairo's cockpit, shearing off a layer of armour as it went. The Templar's HUD shorted out as the targeting sensor was cleaved in two. The sound of the impact dazed Cairo, and he didn't even notice the Blakist MechWarrior raise his weapon for what would surly be the killing blow.

4 Gauss rounds hit the Berserker in the back at almost the same time as the other three Mech's of the Irregulars command-lance came to their leaders aid. The assault Mech's armour may have been thick, but it was in no way capable of withstanding that sort of damage. The Berserker's spine snapped, tilting the entire upper torso backwards, and gravity did the rest, the crippled Mech falling to the canyon floor.

Sinead walked her now one-armed Med Cat II over to Cairo's battered Templar, "Steven, can you here me?" She asked urgently. Cairo shook his head, trying to focus, "I hear you luv: I got a little shook up there for a minuet. How we doing: my HUD's off-line." Sinead smiled to herself, "We're just about holding our own, but it's getting close. Any word on those reinforcements?" Cairo looked at the charred remains of his long-range radio, "No, and don't expect any soon: I think I pissed the boss off by telling him he'd lost his nerve." Sinead laughed, "You need to work on your people skills: your running out of possible friends."

The air was filled with an ear splitting roar as the Aerospace fighters made a second run, this time strafing targets with their own weapons, a few dropping laser guided or high explosive bombs. The ground shook as bombs hit. Cairo saw the way they affected the cliff faces, "Sinead my love, did I ever tell you where I got my code-name from?"

Sinead blinked, "I don't think so, why?" Cairo laughed, "Let's just say that I am finally glad my old drill sergeant made us read all those military history books when I was a cadet. I need you to relay a message to Central…"

Air above Thor's Gap

Tharkad

Donegal Province

Lyran Alliance

The 6 conventional fighters from the Tharkad city militia dived down from high altitude, gaining much needed speed as they approached the canyon from the east. Screaming through the air at their maximum rate of dive, they braved the defensive fire from the Blakist Mech's below.

At less than 100-meters, they released their payloads and started pulling up. One of the lest-experienced pilots didn't make it, and his aircraft slammed into the upper cliff-face, exploding in a huge fireball.

5 seconds later, the high explosive bombs the flight had dropped hit their targets, halfway up the rock face. Nothing happened for a moment, and then huge cracks started to appear in the cliff-face, and an area almost 50-meters across and 20-meters high shifted. Cairo saw this, and immediately pulled his remaining Mech's back across to the other side of the canyon.

Thinking they had the advantage, the Blakist Mech's rushed the suddenly open gap, only to have the rock face fall on them. Thousands of tonnes of rock crashed to the ground, making the entire area shake. This in turn crated other rockslides, and the commutative effect was staggering, turning Thor's Gap from a 500-meter wide bottleneck, to a 100-meter wide hell of dust and falling rock.

Cairo instantly ordered his troops back through the opening, setting them up so that their fire zones overlapped, crating a deadly kill zone. In small groups, the Blakist tried to press the gap, but found it a living hell of dust and weapons fire.

Still they came, clambering over the smoking remains of their downed comrades, keeping the pressure on the Irregulars, never letting up for an instant. Cairo was at the point of calling in another air strike, when the air was filled with the unmistakable high pitched whine of incoming artillery fire.

The first few rounds hit the rock fall and did little damage, but the second volley straddled the Word of Blake lines perfectly. High-explosive death rained down from the clear blue sky, sending columns of dust and rock into the air, knocking over the lighter Mech's and smashing the larger ones.

Cairo remaining short-range sensors picked up a married of airborne contacts. Turning his battered Mech round, he saw a flock of VTOL's approach along the valley, missiles and gauss rifles firing as they came. Facing renew opposition, the remaining Blakist pilots pulled back, putting up a wall of defensive fire as they went.

The Battle of Thor's Gap was finally over.

To Be Continued…