The autocannon is always a dominant force on the battlefield. Yes, Long Range Missiles, or LRMs, have their place, and lasers and particle cannons will always be a factor. But nothing delivers more hurt than a heavy autocannon at close range.
Despite their faults and inherit risks, they are always popular. Jamming, a rare problem, is considered a part of the trade. No sensible mechwarrior goes into combat without a CASE, if possible.
Autocannons come in different weight classes, 2, 5, 10, and 20. All have a few similar qualities, such as a five barrel gattling system. These are not true gattling cannons, as each fires off a clip at a time. Five barrels allow the cannon to cool off easier.
Before, autocannons were made with single barrels. Overheating and jamming were constant problems, but this changed when the 5 barrel system came out. Picked up almost immediately by Imperator Autocannons and other companies, heat problems were much fewer and jamming was much less frequent. The old barrels were heaver and more cumbersome, having coolant systems running overtime. When the clan ultra autocannon came into being, all that changed.
An Autocannon 2 is a 40mm gun that fires off 40 shells. The design consists of a five barrel firing system mounted on a spinning piece, allowing each barrel to cool. Basically a high powered minigun, it spews out 40 shells in under two seconds, putting up a literal wall of lead. The Ultra Autocannon 2 is a revolutionary design, allowing you to fire off 80 shells in burst mode.
The Autocannon 5 is the more common of the cannons to be seen, firing twenty 80mm shells. Considered to be underpowered for its weight, it is still common throughout the Inner Sphere. Ultra Autocannon 5s are supped up versions, firing forty shells instead of twenty in burst mode.
The Autocannon 10 is a five barrel 120mm cannon, firing off ten shots per clip-
Sara shoved the thought from her mind, it hurt to keep thinking about it. That, and the fact that she was upside down. Pulling herself up, she sat on the barrels of Ultra Autocannon 20, taking a short breather from being upside down. All that blood to the head kind of got to her after a while.
The Champion wasn't built for a weapon like an Ultra Autocannon 20. A 240mm five barrel cannon had a tremendous amount of recoil, threatening to knock the Champion on its back. The solution was simple; the autocannon was surrounded on the back end by a recoiling system, much like the system on an artillery piece.
Since it was located in the right torso, the Champion was always a bit heavy on the right. This wasn't a major problem though, as many mechs had this feature and he pilots were used to it.
Five barrels had a few major advantages over the old single barrel design. Each barrel was equipped with a light cooling system, whereas the single barrel design was heavy and had a large cooling system. Also, if one of the barrels was damaged, the computer would skip that barrel and move the round to the next chamber. Finally, it just looked cooler. Nothing scared a mechwarrior more than seeing one of those things pointed at them up close.
Sara shoved the thoughts from her mind again. Her head was killing her, the sunlight was making it worse, and her ears were ringing.
She needed a break. Getting up, she climbed up into the cockpit, resting on the chair. She pulled the canopy down, and activated the life support.
TZZT "OW-" THUMP "GAH!"
She jumped in her seat and quickly turned it off. "Are you alright? Who's down there?"
"You trying to put me back in the hospital again?"
"Jason!" She cupped her hands over her mouth as Jason climbed out of the hole.
"What are you-" His head collided with the closed canopy. Jason clenched his teeth as he prevented a stream of obscenities that you should never say around a woman, much less call them. He gave her a half smile as he opened the canopy. "Good to see you to."
"Oh Jason!" Immediately she hugged him, and then pulled away. "Wait, your back? No one told me! Did you leave before you were supposed to?"
"No, I just didn't tell anyone." He moved past her and sat down in the chair, holding his head.
"Sorry about that." She knelt beside him and ran her hands through her hair, feeling the two bumps on his head.
"Oh I'm fine." He grumbled, protesting against her doctoring.
"Shush you, hold still." She pulled his head closer, examining it. "You'll live."
"I missed you."
She smiled. "Me to." She kissed his head. "Sorry I wasn't able to visit so much; Jawbreaker was pretty banged up."
He looked at her. "Jawbreaker?"
"Your mech."
He leaned back and closed his eyes. "So you get to name my mech?"
"Yah, you can name mine."
Slowly he nodded, and then his eyes flew open. "What?"
She put her finger on his lips. "Shhh, lets just say you brought the longing back."
"You have-"
She put her other fingers on his mouth, silencing him as she sat down on his lap sideways. "Hush, you. I'm entering into the Assault tournaments, hopefully." Her hand stroked his cheek.
He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "You never cease to surprise me."
She looked behind her and closed the canopy, and then wrapped her arms around his neck. "Dang right."
Leaning forwards, she playfully licked his three day beard as he kissed her neck…
Alice smiled to herself. Just seeing them hold each other made her feel warm. They had been without each other for too long.
Looking at her watch, she smiled wider. They had been going at this a solid five minutes, stopping for only two breaths. What lungs they had, she thought to herself.
She was inside the Champion, her head poking unnoticed through the hole in the floor of the cockpit. Sighing with contentment, she rested her hands on the floor and rested her head on her arms.
Sara and Jason nearly jumped out their seat. "Alice! How did you get in here?" Sara said, blushing bright red.
"I love watching you guys, you know that?"
"Alice!" Sara hissed.
"One of these days I'm gonna record your make-out sessions so you can look back."
Jason chuckled and gave Sara a squeeze. "I see no problem with that."
"Sara, do you have any idea how hard it is for me to keep from laughing when you leg is kicking so hard?"
Jason burst out laughing, slapping the armrests of the chair.
"I was not kicking hard!" Sara protested.
Jason was laughing so hard he nearly dropped Sara on the ground.
"That, and you were gripping poor Jason so hard he's lost all circulation down their by now-"
"Alice!" By now Sara had turned every shade of red possible. How had Alice seen that?
Sara was mortified, and Jason was now helpless, laughing so hard he couldn't breathe.
"I love you two, you know that?"
In all their time together, Alice had never seen Sara so red. She buried her face in Jason's shirt, hiding from her. Jason forced himself to recover. After five minutes he succeeded.
"Alice seriously, how did you get in?" He said between chortles.
"Crawled through the autocannon barrels, slid up between them, crawled along the clip belt, and from there it wasn't hard to find the hole."
"Alice I can't believe you did that! You frakker!"
"Oh hush, Sara, It's no big deal. Sides, its not like she's gonna blackmail us." Jason said, finally having calmed himself down.
"But-"
"Let her watch, make her jealous."
A sly smile formed on Sara's face. "I'm good with that."
He pulled her close, drawing her into a deep kiss. Sara returned, holding his neck tightly.
And the whole time, Alice was grinning ear to ear. Great Gods above she loved seeing them so happy.
His name was Kevin Nye. To everyone else, he was known as Kaiser Ironsides. He piloted a Champion CHP-3P, the only other Champion known to exist on Solaris.
The other Champion was almost identical, aside from weapons and systems changes. Jason Scebold. The boy that piloted the other Champion. He wasn't worthy of that mech.
Kaiser flipped on the zoom recitical, watching the young man climb out of the Champion and go over to his girlfriend, the same as last time. He was a fool; he didn't deserve that mech. He didn't deserve to even touch it!
The Champion marched back to its starting point. Instantly he opened the comms.
"I knew the man who piloted that mech, mayfly." He said; his voice low.
The other pilot didn't answer. He already knew where this was going.
"You aren't worthy to so drive it."
"I'll save you for last, worthless seat-filler." Jason growled back.
"Anything to get you out of that mech." Ironsides hissed.
The Battlemaster pilot spoke. "Hey Ironsides, lets see if you can actually hit me this time." Ironsides glared at the Battlemaster, which was flanked by a Warhammer and a Scorpion. To the left of the Scorpion was an Assassin, and on its left was a Zeus.
A Thug walked into the arena, followed by a Mad Cat. On the other side, a Mauler, a Dasher, and a Firestarter.
"Keep in mind, mayfly, Solaris is no place for kids. Pack up and go home."
"You aren't going home, zombie. Why a guy your age is still alive is amazing."
It was a calculated insult. Kaiser was 36, young, but approaching the point where he would lose his prime. The young man would pay for that.
He narrowed his eyes at the swamp green mech. The pilot was 23, in his opinion too young to pilot.
The horn blared, and the fight was on.
Battlemechs.
Giant robots of war here stories tall, equipped with enough firepower to level a city block.
The ultimate tools on the battlefield.
The Champion breaks into a run, twisting its torso to the left. It lashes out with its four medium lasers, slicing into a Firestarter. The Firestarter runs behind a Mauler, which is hammering into a Thug.
Twisting to the right, the Champion fires a NARC, tagging a Dasher with it. The Dasher immediately turns to run, trying to get away from a stray batch of LRMs.
Across the field, another Champion hammers into a Battlemaster with its massive cannon, shredding its left torso. Spinning around, the Battlemaster tosses it's PPC to its right arm, snapping off a shot at the Champion. The Champion ducks, and the bolt of lighting flies over it. It jumps up to the side, firing again. Ten massive shells slam into the thick hull of the Battlemaster, blowing out the engine.
The first Champion hammers into the back of the Mauler with its Ultra Autocannon 10, ripping into its back. The thin armor doesn't stand a chance, and the explosive shells put the Mauler out of commission. It falls forward on its face, revealing a Mad Cat.
Jinking to the right, the second Champion narrowly sidesteps a barrage from a Zeus. Opening fire with its autocannon, it shreds the autocannon arm off the 80 ton mech, causing it to stumble from the change in weight. The Champion fires again, this time with its lasers. Molten armor streams off the Zeus, pouring onto the ground.
The first Champion steppes over the fallen Mad Cat, firing into a Warhammer. The second Champion finishes off the Zeus as a Thug fires at the Warhammer. Taking careful aim, the second Champion fires into the Thug's backside, destroying it in a blinding flash of light.
Caught in the middle, the Warhammer is quickly cut down.
The first Champion rackets, firing its entire arsenal at the swamp green mech, knocking it on its back. Slowly the white Champion stalks forwards…
Carefully, Jason moved Jawbreaker into an upright position. Ironsides was now twenty five meters away. Why hadn't he fired?
Instantly, he leveled his autocannon at the other mech and depressed the trigger.
It was jammed.
He glanced at his weapons readouts. The Autocannon was blinking red, and three lasers were out. The last one was loosing power, already too weak to penetrate the cockpit.
But strong enough to…
"You aren't worthy to pilot that mech, mayfly. Go to hell."
"You first." Jason sneered.
He ejected the ammo drum out of the CASE. Lifting up his left foot, he kicked it towards the other Champion.
His vision tunneled as he focused on the ammo drum and the other mech. 20… 15… 10… 5… It was now only inches away from the other mechs cockpit. Lifting up his left arm, he ran the crosshairs over the drum and gently depressed the firing stud. A faded jade beam sliced out-
The explosion knocked his mech off its feet, sending it flying backwards. With a bone-jarring crash, it skidded to a halt.
Jason felt as if someone had punched him in the gut, and it hurt like nothing else could. His ears were ringing, rendering his hearing inoperable.
Slowly getting Jawbreaker off the ground, he glanced towards the other Champion. The entire torso was gone, and the legs were barely intact.
It was over.
"There is no way that should have worked." Jason mumbled to himself, watching the legs of the other Champion glisten in the sun.
Only then did he hear his victory music pumping from the speakers.
Deadly as the viper, peering from its coil,
The poison there is coming to a boil!
Ticking like a time bomb, the fuse is running short,
On the verge of snapping if it's caught!
And all the pressure has been building up;
For all the years it boar the load!
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort; ready to explode;
Jawbreaker!
He had won.
Crouching in a corner, wound up as a spring,
Piercing eyes that blast are shimmering!
Muscles are all contorted, claws dug in the dirt,
Every ounce of fiber on alert!
And all the pressure has been building up;
For all the years it boar the load!
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort;
Ready to explode;
Jawbreaker!
It was then he heard the crowd screaming something. He opened the external system and listened in.
They were screaming 'Jawbreaker'.
Leaning into his command chair, he mopped his brow and smiled. "Jawbreaker… I like that."
And all the pressure has been building up;
For all the years it boar the load!
The cracks appear, the frame starts to distort;
Ready to explode:
Jawbreaker! Jawbreaker! Jawbreaker!
He had pulled off one of the most impossible, no, he had pulled off an impossible maneuver. He had done it with class. He had done it with style. And he had the whole stadium breaking out in pandemonium.
As the last words were sung, he moonwalked his mech backwards into the bay. He was feeling great.