Fire-base Delta, Mesa Region,

Tharkad, Donegal Province,

Lyran Alliance

The sun rose slowly over the rainforest, the mountains casting long shadows over the treetops as it went. Cairo gripped the controls of his Templar, doing his best to hide his frustration: they had spent most the night packing up the fire-base, Vassili Dante using his Banshee's hands to lift the heavy crates onto the hover-transports. Macduff had warned that dawn always brought an attack, and his eyes scanned the tree line constantly.

"That's the last of the supplies sir." Bradley was monitoring the prose from her position in the secondary cockpit, "We can move out anytime now."

"Ok, have René take point, Vassili and Sinade staying with the transports, while we take the rear." Cairo stared punching commands into his Mech's controls, "There's a trail that leads up and round the side of the mountain..."

"Heads up!" A voice yelled over the com-line, "Battle Amour in the trees!"

"STAND TOO! STAND TOO!" Cairo yelled, "Get those transports out of here!" He flipped his targeting system to active, the infer-red system picking up the heat of the Battle Amour against the cold of the rainforest. He squeezed the trigger, a steady stream of rounds from his RAC's chewing up the undergrowth and knocking down the attackers like nine-pins.

But still they kept coming, leaping over their fallen comrades in a suicidal rush that would have overwhelmed the infantry. Cairo moved the line of fire across his field of view, a century's old tree falling as the trunk literally exploded under the onslaught. He targeted and fired his ER-PPC, a large boulder exploding and the beam of ionized particles hit it full-on.

"Ok, the transport's are away!" Bradley sounded scared, the tough exterior she put on around the other slipping, "We should start to pull..." She stopped as an alarm started to warble, "Incoming artillery fire!" Shells stared to explode all around them, smashing the flimsy barricades the militia troops had erected.

"People, we are leaving!" Cairo started the Templar backwards, firing his RAC's dry, the smoking barrels still rotating until he remembered to stop before the system jammed. SRM's slammed into the side of the big Mech's broad shoulders, chipping the amour and threatening to unbalance the war machine.

"Pull back Steven, we're hold the door open for you." Sinade's voice came over the link, static filling the airways as she fired her twin Gauss Rifles at the advancing Word of Blake forces, the big Mad Cat II twisting it's toro from side to side, missile launchers smoking.

"I'm on my way." Cairo span his Mech round, pushing the throttle as far forward as he dared in the muddy terrain. The Templar kicked up huge clods of mud and dirt, almost slipping as it headed up the hill to the safety of a rock outcropping. A spread of inferno-SRM's flew through the air, splattering against the rock just to the side of Cairo's Mech as he dodged from side to side, using the Templar's wide stance to keep it steady.

"Ok, double time: it won't take them long to re-direct that artillery fire, and we're not in a position to hit back." Cairo spurned his troops forward, rock wall to his left shaking whenever a shell or missile hit it. The track was nothing more than a ledge in the side of the mountain, a shear rock wall on one side, a steep drop to the forrest on the other. The militia transports raced ahead, eager to get away from the deadly rain of shelling, while the Mech's where forced to take it slower.

A shell landed on the edge of the road just as the Templar's right foot was coming down.

The 85-tone OmniMech stumbled forward and to the side. Cairo was unable to regain control as the Mech fell down the side of the mountain. The Templar's shoulder pad snapped off when it hit the mountain side, tumbling head over hills, before ended up on it's back, skidding down the slope at brake-neck speed. Cairo brought his arms up to cover his face as the plexi-glass face-plate smashed, showing the inside of the cockpit with thousands of tiny needle-sharp fragments. An outcropping claimed the left arm, sending it spinning away into the trees. The Templar span round, sliding head first towards the trees.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven..." Bradley was mumbling a prayer in her seat behind Cairo, but suddenly stopped after the Mech ricocheted off of some unseen obstacle, sending it crashing into the trees, where it finally came to a stop.

To Be Continued...