The battlefield.

The sacred grounds where blood is spelt.

In murder.

In hatred.

In profit.

In jealousy.

In revenge.

In pain.

In honor.

In glory.

Here, legends rise and legends die.

Here, warriors live and die with a purpose.

Here, warriors live and die for belief.

Here, warriors live for glory.

This is a game, a game of life and death.

This is Solaris 7.

Jason opened his eyes as he leaned back in the command couch. The mechs were still emerging from their holes.

Which one was Sara in?

It was going to be a mech with pulse lasers, jump jets, and an LBX autocannon. Not very many mechs out there with that configuration.

The thing was, there were three. The first was an Enforcer, obviously customized with more armor. Being the second lightest mech in the match, it was often overlooked.

But it wasn't Sara's mech. This guy swaggered onto the field, trying to shake the ground with each step.

He glanced at the other two, a Marauder II and an Annihilator. Nope, not her style. The Marauder ran too hot for her, and the Annihilator didn't jump.

His gaze drifted over to a hole where a new mech was marching out. It was a green-black Marauder, armed with an LB-10X autocannon on the roof. In each arm was a large pulse laser and a medium laser, and on each leg were jumpjets. It didn't march out, swaggering into the arena like the others. Its footsteps were light, barley making footprints in the ground.

It moved like a cat, softly, gracefully. It moved like a preadator; relaxed but alert. Jason smiled again. Defiantly Sara.

The Huntress had returned.

She walked her MAD-5D Marauder up to her starting point; next to Jason's swamp green Champion. Turning it to face the middle, she glanced at it, watching Jason watch her in the cockpit. For a moment, she was amused. A demon of a pilot in a hero's mech. She wondered if anyone else realized this irony.

Sara opened the tight beam frequency. "You have the rest of that plan ready?"

"Nope." His answer was calm, inhumanly calm as it always was before a fight. Great Gods above the butterflies in her stomach still wouldn't go away and he wasn't worried?

"No, I'm not worried." He said, interrupting her thoughts. "Neither should you be."

If Jason ever said anything like that, he was right.

"You sure?"

"Yep." His voice drifted off, and he seemed to look away. If anything, it was a three mile stair.

"Ever been in a fight like this before?" She asked casually, leaning back in her seat. The butterflies were retreating, and she caressed the right joystick.

"A few."

The last of the gladiators walked out. This was it-

A winy voice sounded over the loudspeakers in the stadium. "Sorry for this interruption ladies and gentleman, but we're experiencing some technical difficulties down here." Someone in the background was screaming at someone else for being incompetent about video feed. "It will be ten minute late."

Ouch. A ten minute delay meant people would get fired, sued, sued again, beaten, sued again, drawn and quartered, shot, shot again, and thrown in the river. Not a very pleasant, even for Solaris.

Jason's voice filled her ears again. "How many shots you got for that cannon?"

She had everything memorized to heart. "Ten buckshot, ten elephant slugs." She said, referring to her scattershot and slug ammunition types. What the heck was an elephant?

"Heat curve?"

"Zip-zip." Zero zero, minimal heat curve. This meant she could fire her pulse lasers a lot more than her previous configuration, which had two ER Medium Lasers instead of her two current Pinpoint Mediums.

"Figured. You clear with the plan?"

"Yep."

She watched his head nod inside the fighter like canopy of the Champion.

"Every time you look at me the gun follows." Jason chuckled, referring to her dorsal mounted cannon.

"Yep. I only got so many hands."

Silence reigned for a short while.

"Jason?"

"Yah."

"Remember… when we fought in the blood pits?"

She heard him chuckle. "Good days. Back when I had that brick for a mech."

"I can't say so much for mine either."

Her old Enforcer had had major heat problems, due to defective heat sinks. No mater how many times she replaced them, they always-

"Sara, you have your rights to your mech, right?"

She nearly smacked herself, slowing the arm from crashing into the cockpit. "Damn it, I forgot!"

She expected Jason to shoot her for that. How could she forget to claim her mech?

"That's okay."

She did a double take. "What?"

"In fact, that's perfect. I just found an ending to our game. Zeta Bravo."

She looked at his mech again, searching for holes near his cockpit. Someone had to have messed with his head. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nope."

She shook her head. Boy the crowds would love this one.

She leaned back into her chair.

"Jason?"

"Still alive babe."

"What did you do during those five years?"

Her magnification system was locked over Jawbreaker's cockpit. He winked at her. "You'll find out later."

Unwittingly she stomped her foot down, causing the left foot of her Marauder to stamp down with it. "Do you always have to be so cryptic?"

Jason chuckled. "Yep."

She muttered a few choice obscenities under her breath, wishing she could just find out for once.

"This is just like the Grand Melee."

She did a double take again. Sara was about to ask what the Grand Melee was, but Duncan Fisher started introducing the competitors. It would have to wait.

It was slow going. As interesting as it was to listen to him talk, it was still slow going. Finally it got down to Jason, pilot 22. At his mention, more than a few people cheered, but most had their money bet on the guys in the big mechs.

"Sara, TCD." Tango Charlie Delta. Plan change.

"Wilco." She responded. She was being informed on a need to know basis.

"Eh, TCDK." Keta? What was he thinking?

"You sure?" She said.

"Yah." He said.

She sighed, letting him know she didn't like it. "Wilco."

"SS."

She snorted. "Is that possible in a mech this size?"

"You're a lot smaller than most of these guys."

"I'm five tons lighter than the assault class, they'll be gunning for me. How the heck am I gonna SS?" Stay small? Seriously.

"Just SS. Look at the glass half full."

"Glass half empty." She replied sarcastically. Wilco.

"Be that way." He grumbled. Love you, Godspeed.

"Fine." I love you too, and for goodness sake don't get yourself killed.

"You wanna do the plan?" I don't intend to.

"Yes." Good. No one else knows the code?

"Then SS." Only Alice.

Sure enough, Alice was grinning in the stands at their playful bicker.

Jason laughed. "I think we just confused a whole lot of people girl."

She giggled. "Almost starting, we missed my announcement."

"Whad he call you?"

"Sara Kellings, still don't have a nickname. You didn't name my mech either."

"Wait and see."

She sighed again. He always gave her those cryptic answers, darn him.

She sighed again. This was the man she was planning on spending the rest of her

life with, so she had better get used to it. The irony made her smile a little bit. 15 years of knowing him and she still didn't understand him completely.

She never would.

Sara glanced at the mechs internal timer. Five minutes until the match started. Someone botched this one up good.

She tuned into the open frequency, listing to the Annihilator pilot trash talking with a Strider pilot.

"Sara, that Strider has infernos, be careful."

She let slip with a word she had no business knowing, much less saying. If there was one thing she hated, it was inferno SRMs.

"Just stay clear of it, the Annie will probably take it out."

"Wilco."

She glanced up at the crowds, seeing they were getting restless. Hopefully things wouldn't get out of hand up there. She grimly remembered the riot that took place three years ago. Two hundred and forty people got killed.

Finally, the announcement came that everything was fixed, though Sara swore she heard screaming in the background.

Fisher went through, naming all the contestants again, and the countdown timer began from twenty seconds.

"It's just like the Grand Melee…" Jason murmured again.

What the heck was the Grand Melee?

4.

3.

2.

1.

Instantly she stepped back, her pulse lasers lashing out at the larger Marauder II from across the arena.

Jawbreaker burst into a run, charging the Warhammer that had turned to her Marauder.

"Only use your lasers, save the cannon for larger targets or a sure shot." Jason's calm voice filtered through on their private channel. A five round burst came from Jason's autocannon, sending the Warhammer sprawling.

"Wilco, Axeman coming from behind you. I'll take care of the Warhammer."

"Wilco." Instantly his mech turned around, making a beeline for the Axeman.

Looking directly at the hole created by Jason's autocannon, Sara fired a series of ten slugs into the Warhammer. Already suffering from internal damage, the Warhammer collapsed.

Looking at Jason's mech, she watched with surprise as the Axeman swung down, intending to cleave the Champion in half. Already trotting towards the mech, Jawbreaker stepped to the left, and twisted, raising its right arm around so that the back of the arm connected with the shaft of the axe. Jason pulled down suddenly, and twisting more, locked the Champion's arm around the shaft, and kicked the Axeman's right leg from under it. The Axeman fell, and Jason twisted on one foot, placing Jawbreaker's other foot on the rear torso of the downed mech. Stepping down on it, Jason pulled back, ripping the axe arm off the melee mech.

Its engine damaged, the Axeman was unable to move, and a horn blared.

By now her jaw was resting in her lap. "Jason, how did you do that?"

"Hauptman, Ten o'clock."

Realizing he was in his battle trance, she closed her mouth and aimed for the Hauptman. Twisting to the left, she jogged towards Jason's position, firing her large pulse lasers at the 95 ton mech.

The giant answered back, its lasers carving into her hull. Gritting her teeth, she fired back with a scattershot blast, spraying the larger mech with sub-munitions.

She cursed as a Barghest opened fire from behind, its lasers sliding past her Marauder.

Sara looked just in time to see the Hauptman thrown forwards, crashing on the ground. Jason's Champion dashed towards her position.

"Jump behind me, I have a Fafnir on my tail." Her heart skipped a beat. A Fafnir! Everyone was in trouble now.

"You want me to-"

"It's close behind me, trying to gain some distance. Close with it before it reaches its effective range."

Stomping down on the peddles, her ungainly Marauder lurched into the air, sailing towards the 100 ton mech. A small smile crossed her face as she realized she was lined up for a DFA.

Her mech began to drop, and its feet crashed into the top of the Fafnir, driving it face down into the dirt. She hastily engaged her jumpjets again, making a rough landing in front of it.

Its torso armor was a mess as the massive mech rose, carving into her left leg with its lasers. Snarling, she jogged forwards and slugged it in the face, then brought her foot up and shoved it backwards. Aiming for the gyro, she fired all her weapons in an alpha strike, and mutilated the delicate gyro.

"Annie and Strider dueling behind you, fire into the flames." For a split second she watched as his mechs foot sliced through the cockpit of the Barghest, and then dashed away behind the cover of a small hill.

Turning around, she saw the massive Annihilator bathed in flame, armor dripping off its hull. Opening fire with all her weapons again, the giant stumbled back, getting off a volley with its four LB-10X ACs. The sub munitions shredded the lighter mech to ribbons, knocking it to the ground.

The land battleship slowly tried to take aim, but before it fired, Sara sidestepped, and the barrage rocketed behind her. Sara squeezed the two main triggers with her trigger fingers, sending two steady beams of light into the massive mech. Already heavily damaged, the giant didn't stand a chance, and toppled over.

Turning back, she narrowly sidestepped a massive axe from a Berserker, and fired point blank for all it was worth. The Berserker stumbled away, trying to gain its bearing.

"Berserker's mine. Four oclock, Sagittaire."

"You're kidding right?" He wanted her to take our a Sagittaire? He must have been shot or something.

"It's focused on a Blood Asp."

Well that was much better. She would have to take on two assault mechs. Great.

"Wilco." She said, shaking her head as she ran from the Berserker. He had better have a good reason for this.

Glancing back, she saw Jason's Champion making a beeline for the 100 ton mech. He didn't even opened fire, and he wanted to do melee with a Berserker?

Narrowly sidestepping a PPC blast, he sidestepped again as the Berserker swung its massive axe around, attempting to cleave the 60 ton demon in half.

What happened next stopped her cold. Starting to spin on his left leg, Jason reached up and brought the sharp of his wing into the arm, first knocking it back, and then ripping it from the next of the mech. Continuing to spin, the other arm moved backwards, slicing into the cockpit and sheering the top off the mech.

Coming full circle the Champion began running again, turning to her. The headless Berserker crashed to the ground, skidding to a stop. Where had he learned to do that?

Snapping herself out of her daze, she picked up speed again, just as the Sagittaire turned its back towards her.

Firing an alpha strike at the mech, Sara watched as it reeled under the firepower of her Marauder. A stream of massive slugs rocketed by her in between her right torso and her arm, blowing five huge holes in the back of the Davion mech. Thrown off balance by the firepower of and its internals eaten an assault autocannon, the Sagittaire collapsed on its face.

The Blood Asp was in terrible condition. Having been too slow to escape the Saggatire, it soon lost its range advantage. The thing didn't stand a chance. Switching the ammunition type to scattershot, she depressed a button below the thumb button, which fired her medium lasers. The autocannon belched, tearing up the Blood Asp even more. With a groan, it fell on its back.

The only mechs left were a badly damaged Atlas, an Awesome minus half its left torso, an armless Victor, and a Stalker.

"Take the Stalker; I'm going for the Atlas."

"Wilco. Watch your back."

As she turned her Marauder to face the Stalker, she realized that their mechs were in the best condition. Raising her arms, she triggered her large pulse lasers, sending a steady stream of energy into the ungainly mech.

The Stalker stopped firing on the Atlas and turned to face her, unleashing a full salvo from its missile racks.

She smiled, remembering an old trick she used to do when facing Hecktor's Hellspawn back in the blood pits. Raising up her autocannon, she sprayed the trajectory course with sub munitions, and was rewarded with small fireworks display. Her mech shuddered as the remaining missiles pockmarked her heavy armor.

Sidestepping an SRM barrage, her Marauder broke into a run. Finally, she was only meters away, and fired everything she had into the mech. The Stalker stumbled backwards a step, only to be shoved to the ground by a kick to the torso.

Sara smiled. Not many mechs were capable of kicking that high.

Turning, she saw that Jason had blown the back off of the Victor, while the Atlas had been destroyed by PPC blasts.

The only mechs left were Jason's Champion and a battered Awesome, which was doing surprisingly well against Jason, miraculously dodging most of his weapon fire.

She laughed as soon as she realized what his intentions were. He wanted her to take it out.

Firing another scattershot salvo, the pellets exploded along the hull of the battered Awesome. Jason fired another five shot salvo from his autocannon, striking the damaged leg. Nearly immobilized, it snapped off a shot with its three PPCs. Sara gritted her teeth as two of the bolts of lightning carved into her mech, shorting out electrical systems in her left torso.

She sliced into the Awesome with all her lasers, pouring energy into its soft innards. Marching up to it, she fired again with her cannon. Smoke pouring from its many holes, it collapsed.

At the same time, Jason and Sara turned to face each other, pointing their weapons at each others weak spots.

She smiled as she saw his grin; everything was going according to plan.

Or at least what she knew what the plan was.

Watching his autocannon barrel spin, she smiled as his voiced sounded over the open channel. This would be broadcasted for all to hear. "Well, this is interesting."

"Sure is. Didn't think I'd end up here with you." She said back sweetly.

"Nor I. Kinda ironic."

"So this how it ends? We fire and see whose mech gets up first?"

He paused for a moment, knowing the crowd was enjoying watching the drama play out. "Actually, that's boring."

"True. Nothing as cliché as a gunslinger draw."

"So what do we do?" He asked.

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"Well… let's… play a game." He said finally.

"Oh? Let's… play a game? What do you have in mind?" She knew the answer; this whole thing was for the crowds benefit. That, and she didn't know what he was planning, all she was doing was playing along.

"Hunter Hunted." He said with a wolfish grin.

She gave a low chuckle. "Really?"

"It's your favorite game."

It was. Silently she thanked Jason for solving the whole issue. Now he would sneak up on her and she would be taken out, and they would leave.

"That it is. Who's it?"

"I am." Keeping the smile plastered on her face, she fought to quell the panic rising within her. She couldn't attack him, and he knew it to. Now everything was taking a turn for the worst.

"Alright then." She tapped Jawbreaker's torso lightly with her left arm. "Don't peak." She turned her mech to run towards a bombed out collection of buildings, which surprisingly no one had ventured.

"65, 64, 63, 62…" She heard over the comm.

Being careful not to make any footprints, she slipped into the miniature city. She knew the rules; she had to try to win. But she didn't know if she could pull the trigger.

Murmuring prayers to any god she could think of, she slipped down a street, between two buildings, and parked her Marauder in a moderately intact building. It was missing all of its floors, but the wall was intact enough to hide her Marauder.

She couldn't fight him again. If anything, she wanted him to blow a leg off her mech, but he had decided that she would do the shooting.

Sara would rather put a bullet in her head than possibly hurt Jason. Great Gods above didn't he know this?

She listened to his playful voice from the open frequency. "19, 18, 17, ah screw this ready or not here I come." A small smile crossed her face; at least he was in a good mood.

After a while of fidgeting with her hands, she felt the ground shake lightly, and realized where he was. He was slowly walking his mech to the street where she was facing.

She tasted bile in her mouth as his mech slowly walked in front of her, then turned up the street she was facing, away from her.

He was leaving himself wide open to her, on purpose. She couldn't fire, she might-

And without warning, her autocannon took aim and fired, sending a stream of slugs into the knee joint of his left leg. Twisting his torso to the right, he landed his mech expertly on the ground.

Her mind went into overdrive as her Marauder burst from the building, causing it to collapse behind her. She hadn't pulled the trigger, what had happened?

Parking her mech next to the downed 60 tonner, she popped open the cockpit while throwing down the chain ladder, and scrambled down it. She hit the ground running towards the Champion's cockpit.

It was open, and Jason was stretching on the other side.

Running up to him, she nearly tackled him in a hug that nearly killed his circulation.

"Jasoni'msosorryididntmeantoi-" She was interrupted by his laughter, and he kissed the top of her head.

Her embrace was broken as he hugged her. "Jason what is so funny? I shot-"

"Girl, don't you realize what just happened?" He had a huge grin plastered on his face.

By now she had gone through nearly ever shade of pale possible. "Jason, I just shot your ride!"

"You won!"

She blinked. "I won?"

"You're the new Solaris champion!"

He was positively beaming at her before he hugged her again. Then she realized she had picked no victory music. Jason had picked it for her.

iThis ain't a song for the broken-hearted,

No silent prayer for the faith-departed.

I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd,

You're gonna hear my voice when I shout it out loud./i

"Who is this?" She asked.

"Bon Jovi." Turning around, he took her wrist and thrust it into the air.

And the crowd roared.

iIt's my life,

It's now or never

I ain't gonna live forever,

I just want to live while I'm alive/i

It was then that she realized that this was Jason's work. He had shot himself with her gun.

"By the way, you're getting a new mech." He said.

She did a double take.

iMy heart is like an open highway-/i

"Jason?" She dropped her arm and faced him.

"Yah?"

"Thanks for everything."

And when they kissed, the crowd screamed louder.

Finally they separated.

"Jason, what mech did I win?"

He grinned at her. "You're a true Lyran, babe. Going up."

"Common, tell me!"

He pulled her closer and whispered into her ear. "A Turkina, C variant."

At that moment, her heart did a back flip. "Boy, I love you."

iThis is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky
Got to make your own breaks

It's my life
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

Better stand tall when they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break, hell, don't back down

It's my life
And it's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive /i