CHAPTER 12

Xolara Arena,
Xolara, Solaris VII,
Freedom Theater, Lyran Alliance
January 29, 3075

Noloty didn't think she would consciously step into the cockpit of the Quasit again. The mech was shielded with armor equal that of a Phoenix Hawk, but it was industrial armor. It was not meant to sustain laser or missile or high-explosive ballistic hit. Last time she was on the Quasit, she suffered more critical hits than her entire tenure as a cadet. While it sported the hi-tech Plasma Rifle, she couldn't use it effectively because she had to cover her rear end most of the time.

But with her Sagittaire getting pampered in the shop, the Quasit was the only mech available. He could assign herself to a more reliable mech, like the Dragon, but it just didn't feel right. Mechwarriors guarded their mechs with utmost jealousy, and for a good reason. Besides, a Quasit wouldn't draw attention among dozens of other industrial mechs. People would still regard it as an industrial mech, even though it carried a lethal weapon.

"Remind me again why we are bringing mechs to watch a Solaris game," Keiichi groused from his Carbine, another industrial mech that blended well among salvagers and loaders in the hangar, even though it carried a missile launcher and a gauntlet of 0.5-caliber machine guns. "You're not thinking of joining Drake in the arena, are you?"

"Just a hunch," Noloty parked the Quasit in an open space inside the hangar. "Nobody gives us aid out of goodwill in Solaris. Those guys want something from us. I can feel it. I just can't prove it… yet."

"You know, if you have faith in humanity just a little bit, you may actually enjoy Solaris," Keiichi quipped.

"In another time, maybe. But now I'm responsible for the lives of 200 DCMS assets. Warriors of purpose. I will not take a chance." Noloty shut her mech down and started to dismount. "Now stay in your mech and watch my back. I'm going to talk to them. Should something happen to me, haul ass and get Chu-I Kayoko to level Qishan Stable. You get it?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Keiichi's tone was mechanical, like one of those bot callers trying to sell stuff online.

Noloty climbed down the Quasit and approached Drake, Jamil, and his two oversized bodyguards. Behind them stood firm a Hunchback -6S. A simple design with no aesthetic whatsoever, Hunchbacks were one of the most respected – and feared – medium battlemechs ever to graze Solaris arenas.

"I'm a fan of Hunchbacks," Jamil tossed a smile as Noloty drew closer to the Hunchback. "I have a bunch of them in my stable. This one is the -6S, with large engine that makes it run 95 kph, but still carries the large-bored cannon quintessential to the class. You can have it if Drake keeps his end of bargain." He spread his arms and smiled wider. "My pleasure, to help another Kuritan."

"Much appreciated," Noloty gave a slight bow. She turned to Drake. "Good luck."

"Ma'am," Drake replied with a bow. He turned around and started climbing the Hunchback.

"Now, Tai-I, would you join us to watch the game from the spectator stand?" Jamil scrambled out of the hangar, followed by his minions. For a second Noloty thought if this was a good idea, trying for once to immerse in the unique festivity Solaris offered. But she still didn't trust Drake or Jamil, and she'd better be on her fighting stance when they revealed their true nature.

But in the end, she followed Jamil and his goons to the stand.

"Where are you going?" Keiichi hailed her comset.

"Watching the game," Noloty replied with a sigh. "Keep your eyes open."

The Hunchback took its place in the arena, along with 7 other battlemechs with flashy livery. Its drab paint scheme contrasted the colorful paint job of the other Solaris mech, but it could work of its advantage since the arena was practically grey all around. Noloty watched the yellow Vindicator with a sword on its left hand took a place right opposite of the Hunchback. Her lips crooked, thinking of what weapon would Amber kill Drake with, the monstrous tube of a PPC on the right arm, or the sword.

Noloty didn't know how experienced Drake was in the arena, and she would suspect that Drake would throw itself at the Vindicator guns blazing. But she was surprised when, as soon as the horn blasted, the Huncback turned hard right and slipped behind a Grim Reaper. The Vindicator traced the Hunchback for a while, but decided to address the more imminent threats, a Kintaro and a Hellhound trying to double-team it.

The Grim Reaper pivoted to catch the Hunchback but a swarm of armor-piercing submunitions from the Hoplite twisted it away from its intended target. The Grim Reaper retaliated; missiles raced toward the Hoplite's boxy torso. The Hoplite stood its ground and weathered the missile blasts. Chunks of armors whizzed in the air, but it didn't affect the 55-ton bruiser.

The Hunchback continued on its course and soon came into contact with a Bushwacker and a Crab trading blows at one corner of the arena. The Bushwacker's cannon tore into the thick hide of the Crab's abs, while the Crab's kaleidoscope of lasers turned the Bushwacker's armor plating into superheated gel. They circled each other while throwing everything they had at close range.

The Hunchback seized the opportunity and sandblasted the Crab's left torso with its mammoth shotgun. The Crab fell down on its right side, its left torso a gaping mess. It pulled itself up, but a stream of missiles from the Bushwacker smashed the internal structures. The torso caved in, leaving a shredded hulk of twisted metal.

The Bushwacker welcomed the advantage, but acknowledged the sneaky nature of the Hunchback. It shifted its focus on the Hunchback and fired its laser. The beam sliced a deep cut on the Hunchback's right arm. The Huncback fired its SRM6 in return. The high-explosive warheads penetrated the Bushwacker's armor, softened by the Crab's lasers, and detonated at the hull. As the Bushwacker staggered, the Hunchback fired its LB-20X cannon. The submunitions turned several layers of armor into dust and pushed the Bushwacker to the brink of falling down. Smoke twirled from a deep gorge on the torso.

"Looks like our young mechwarrior has a chance after all," Jamil croaked. "What do you think?"

Noloty didn't expect to see this, and to her surprise, she grew interest in Drake's fighting skill. The young mechwarrior was calculated and patient in his approach, but didn't shy away from using his power. He knew his strength and the strength of his opponents, and he played his trumps well. Better yet, the young man was determined to join the Ryuken-go, and it would be interesting to see what he could do for the company.

"Until the Vindicator crashes and burns, I will not root for anybody," Noloty said matter of factly.

"Not a gambler, are you?" Jamil chuckled. "Too bad. You could retire young and filthy rich."

The Crab clambered up, realigned its crosshair with the Bushwacker, and fired all weapons. The Bushwacker staggered, but instead of capitalizing on the Bushwacker's vulnerability, the Hunchback turned to the Crab and punished it for ignoring it. Its missiles cracked the Crab's upper hull, and the lasers cored the engine casing. The Bushwacker threw in its missiles, and the Crab jerked, crashing down with its torso split wide open.

The Bushwacker shifted right to get a shot at the Hunchback, but never expected the 50-ton mech to get out of its line of sight soon. With its blazing speed Hunchback positioned itself outside the Bushwacker's firing arc, then blasted its shotgun at point blank. The Bushwacker toppled with a broken spine, and wouldn't seem to get up without the help of scavenge mechs.

Bagging one and a half kills under its belt, the Hunchback bolted again, this time toward the Vindicator. It passed the Hoplite which managed to dispatch the Grim Reaper in a pyrrhic victory. With only one operational weapon left, the Hoplite avoided contact, hoping to wait out for the battle to come to the last mech standing. The Hunchback swerved past the Hoplite and made its way toward the Vindicator, which already smoked the Kintaro and now peppering the Hellhound with razor-sharp shots.

The Vindicator was occupied with the Hellhound but it acknowledged the new incoming threat. It blasted its jets to stay away from the Hunchback's mech killer. The Hunchback charged the Vindicator full speed, but a particle bolt forced the Hunchback to take another approach.

As the two humanoid mechs squared off, the Hellhound slipped away, opting to engage the weaker combatant in a Hoplite, and wait for the Vindicator and the Hellhound to beat each other up to pulp.

A strictly short-ranged infighter, the Hunchback could do nothing more than to charge the Vindicator, while the lighter mech jumped around backward while jabbing the Hunchback with its powerful particle cannons. The first shot was wide, and the Hunchback sidestepped the second one, but the third landed squarely on the Hunchback's midsection. The Hunchback staggered, swaying on wobbly legs like a drunkard high on liquor. The 50-tonner tried desperately to even the odds with its autocannon, but the Vindicator easily dodged the attack.

Acknowledging its shortcomings, the Hunchback used the concrete obstacles as shields. The Vindicator's PPC hammered the obstacles in full fury, turning them to piles of rubble, but the Hunchback smartly moved from one obstacle to another, towing a cloud of debris behind it.

The Vindicator got antsy and took greater risk to come into medium range. Its laser cannons blitzed, strafing the Hunchback with blinding strands. The Hunchback ducked under cover but two bolts sneaked in between obstacles and evaporated half a ton of torso armor. The Vindicator fired more lasers, purposefully basking in waste heat to kick the TSM in whenever opportunity presented itself.

The Hunchback waited until the Vindicator paused to recycle, then jumped out of the cover and blasted its monster weapon. The Vindicator flinched but the armor-piercing submunitions ruptured its abs. Fire belched from the Vindicator belly. Its arm flailed in a comical way, almost losing grip on its sword. But a quick burst of jump jets stabilized the Capellan mech. It landed on 2 feet and cocked its left arm, ready to turn the shooting contest into a streetfighting.

The Hunchback lunged with all laser blazing, but the Vindicator slid left. The laser bolts struck empty space where the Vindicator was a mere seconds ago. The Hunchback twisted but the Vindicator leapt forward, using its jets as boosters. Its 7-meter blade made a 'whoop' sound in the air before ended in a screech of twisted metal. Half of the blade pierced the Hunchback left torso just underneath the missile launcher. The Vindicator yanked the blade free from the Hunchback's structure, and the Hunchback toppled backward.

"He can't say he didn't try, but looks like he's going down like the rest of the jokers," Jamil said dryly. He turned to Noloty with his trademark conceited smile. "I'm sorry, Tai-I, but your 'bet' on the young mechjock bears only shriveled fruit. But hey, there's a start for everything. Perhaps you have better luck next time."

Noloty could see how the fight would end, and she questioned Jamil's judgment in mech choice. The match was grossly lopsided. Even with enhanced speed and killer weapons, the Hunchback was still at disadvantage against the Vindicator. Her head spun with questions: if Jamil really needed Amber Wang Chung to die, why did he set Drake up to fail?

"Kill him if he survives," Jamil rose and started making his way to the exit.

"Kill him?" Noloty stood. One of Jamil's minions had already cocked his magshot pistol and started going toward the hangar. "He is not part of the deal. We never discussed his fate."

"That's just the nature of Solaris games, Tai-I," Jamil snickered lightly. "You lose a game, you lose everything. But hey, they're practically thousands of mechjocks like him on the street."

"I'm not from Solaris but I know how things work around here," Noloty growled. "His life is not part of the deal. If he's a nuisance to you, let him live and I will find a place for him in my unit. You will never see him again."

Jamil grinned. "No."

Jamil's guard had already halfway toward the hangar. Noloty drew her sidearm and shoved it under Jamil's chin. "Call off your guard or you'll eat my lead!"

Jamil didn't reply. He just moved his head slightly, and suddenly Noloty felt a sharp pang on her back. She sloshed to the floor like a heap of jelly. Her head throbbed trying to assess the nigh unbearable pain. She lost grip on her sidearm, and she staggered to retrieve her gun but Jamil' large minion with a steel face plate grabbed her neck and flung her to the row of empty seats. Noloty's body rolled on the bleacher's seats before crashing stopping upside down. Her vision turned dark with twinkling stars splattered across the void. She tried to pull herself up but she lost control of her muscles.

"Let's take her back to our place," Jamil said calmly. "The Ryuken-go should have a stash of hi-tech battlemechs. It'll be like a Brian Cache coming home, and she'll take us to it."

The large guy grabbed Noloty by her jacket. But Noloty pulled out her wakizashi and stabbed the guy's hand as hard as she could, pinning him to the bleacher. The guy groaned and dropped to one knee. He grabbed Noloty's wakizashi and tried to free his hand, but the blade wouldn't budge.

Coming to grips, Noloty crawled and retrieved her weapon. She pulled herself up and tried to find Jamil, but the guy was already gone. She shifted target and aim at the other minion, almost 100 meters away. She took a hard lock and fired her gun twice. The guy jerked forward and toppled forward. She kept her aim at the guy, waiting for him to get up, but he didn't make any movement.

"Tai-I! Tai-I Noloty!" Keiichi hailed her. "I saw one of the guys hauling ass in the hangar. Is everything alright over there?"

"Yeah… yeah… I got blindsided; my fault for letting my guard down, but everything's good," Noloty grimaced in pain as she stood up. She pointed her gun at the large guy on the bleacher, but realized he was no longer a threat for her wakizashi pinned him to the bleacher. "Don't let him get away!"

"Don't… don't… what are you talking about? He's halfway out of the hangar!"

"You have machine guns, for crying out loud! Shoot the damn guy!" Noloty dragged her broken body toward the hangar.

"I… I am a non-combatant! I am a Chief Tech! I don't know how to shoot the damn guy!"

"Oh for heaven's sake! Use your backhoe, squash him, whatever! Just don't let the sonofabitch go away!"

Keiichi put his Carbine in full speed, slithering among salvage mechs and cargo holds in the hangar. Jamil was surprisingly fast, and it took Keiichi a while to finally catch up with him. Unfortunately, Jamil was already halfway up his mech when Keiichi got a shot at him. His jaw dropped to his chest when he saw the monster Jamil was entrencing himself into: an 80-ton mech dressed up like an ancient Japanese samurai, with a mech-sized katana that spanned longer than his Carbine.

"Tai-I…" he called Noloty. "He's… he's going into ah… Charger Kamikaze."

"Shit," Noloty groaned. "Listen to me, fire everything you've got then get out of its way. I'll be right there."

"Uhm, you realize that Casio is not a battlemech, don't you?"

"Just do it, Keiichi! Fire everything then run! Run as fast as you can!"

Grimacing, Keiichi found the trigger and mashed it with his eyes closed. His missiles went wild, hammering the wall behind the Charger, while his machine guns strafed the Charger's chest with little to no effect. The Charger puffed up as if laughing at Keiichi's puny attack, then twisted and raised its long, shiny katana. Keiichi just watched as the glimmering blade fell onto his mech.

Just as the katana was about to split his cockpit, a shadow flashed before his eyes. An ember-colored Vindicator blocked the Carbine and parried the Charger's massive blade with its own sword, fashioned like a Dao from ancient China. The sheer force of the Charger's almost dropped the Vindicator to its knees, but the medium mech stood fast, not allowing the bigger mech to bully the smaller machines.

"Why don't you pick someone your own size?" a woman's voice echoed from the Vindicator's external speaker.

Noloty ran as fast as her body allowed. Her back felt disjointed, and her joints burnt. But the sound of explosions in the hangar swept the pain away. She feared for Keiichi's safety. The guy had no battlemech experience whatsoever. The image of the Charger's sword splitting the Carbine's hull danced in her mind. But she let out a sigh of relief when she saw Keiichi's Carbine running toward her like an amateur crook that just robbed a convenient store. Behind him the yellow Vindicator was tied in a lopsided sword match against an opponent nearly twice its size.

"Keiichi! We need to go back!" Noloty scrambled up the Quasit.

"Are you nuts?! Once is enough! I'm not going into that situation again!" Keiichi blurted.

"That Vindicator just saved your life!" Noloty slid into the cockpit and turned the Quasit on.

"Not my problem! I'm a Chief Tech! I'm not a combatant! This is NOT in my job description!"

"Get your butt back in there or the entire battalion will know what kind of man you really are!"

The Carbine slowed down but didn't change its course. Noloty sighed as she prepared to engage the Charger, then scoffed audibly as the heat signature of the Carbine turned 180-degree, now forming up on her rear flank. "You're the worst, Tai-I!" he moaned begrudgingly. "You're the lowest of the lowest!"

"Just follow my lead," Noloty pushed up the throttle. "Do exactly what I tell you, and I promise, you will not come in harm's way."

The limited ceiling of the hangar prevented the Vindicator to use its jump jets, a major advantage for the Charger. The Vindicator was forced to use narrow spaces to fend off the Charger's attack, but with 35-ton advantage in weight, the Charger clearly got the upper hand. The Vindicator held its ground admirably, but it wouldn't last long against the Charger's brute force.

"I'm going to draw fire," Noloty laid out her plan. "When his eyes are on me, flank him and swipe his leg with your backhoe. Courage, Keiichi, courage. Do you get me?"

"Yes Ma'am!" Keiichi replied hesitantly.

"Alright, be ready!" Noloty swerved left. The Charger was too engrossed in pummeling the Vindicator that it failed to notice Noloty creeping from its left. That, or it mistook the Quasit's ID as a mere industrial mech. Noloty took aimed at the Charger's head and fired a long burst of plasma. The plasma shot hit the Charger's torso instead, turning the still-virgin armor plating into a glowing metal jello.

The Charger paused, mulling over getting shot by an industrial mech, then bore down its weapons at the Quasit. Its missiles peppered the Quasit's legs like drones. Its Heavy PPC missed horribly, but the twin Light PPC stabbed the Quasit on the side torso. The heavy industrial armor instantly evaporated, leaving the torso vulnerable for the next hit. The lanky industrial mech buckled on shaky legs.

Noloty realized that the Charger ignored Keiichi's Carbine just like it ignored the Quasit. The time to attack couldn't be more perfect. "Keiichi! Move in! Now! Now! Now!" she screamed through her comlink.

Keiichi hesitantly moved toward the rear of the Charger. The Charger made no attempt at the Carbine and continued firing at the Quasit and – to some extent – the Vindicator. Growing confidence, he charged forward and swung the Carbine's overblown left arm as hard as he could. The everextended arm hit the Charger right at the back of its knee. The Charger didn't see it coming. The knee twisted forward, and the Charger toppled backward, flat on its back.

As the giant mech tumbled in a loud crash, Noloty ran toward the top. The Charger pulled itself up, but Noloty put the foot of the Quasit on its shoulder, forcing it to go back down. She raised her Plasma rifle, butted the nozzle against the windshield of the Charger, then singed it. The Charger's head engulfed in a white-hot fireball that ate up the entire cockpit with everything inside, until only charred metal scrap remained.