CHAPTER 3

Pummelo, Outworlds Alliance,
February 21, 3074

The tongues of fire danced in the sky all along the fortification where the Langmore family resided. Most of smaller buildings encompassing the main building were burning. The west wing was completely set ablaze, with only a fraction of the old brick behemoth still standing. The east wing was still defiant in the flame, although it was clear that its life was numbered. The main building was still save, but with fire coming from all directions, it was a matter of time until the main building was swallowed in fire.

Mogami looked at the disheartening fiasco, and wondered how everything came down to this. She told the Langmore family about the Okita and the Yakuza many months before. They had nearly half a year for a counteroffensive. Yet her warning fell on deaf ears, and when they realized the threat was true, it was all too late.

"Yakuza marauders coming from the east gate!" Samantha, Mogami's second-in-command, reported.

"Alex, are the Langmores in the E&E protocol?" Mogami called Alex, her security officer.

"Affirmative, Sarge," Alex, a young girl with short black hair, replied. "I am giving the women and children escort as we speak. We are executing Plan C. Expect to rendezvous at Nav Point Delta with you and the rest of the lance."

"Women and children? Where are the men?"

"With Clover, Sarge, covering the retreat."

"What the hell is Clover doing? She's gonna get everybody killed!" Mogami massaged her bridge. "Stay on course, Alex! Take them to safety! Sam, regroup on me! Clover where are you?"

"South gate, Sarge! The Okita are coming in waves!" Clover, a hotheaded girl with trigger-happy finger, yelled amidst the sound of explosions. "These Kuritan dogs will crash into Alex's convoy if we don't hold them here!"

"Sam and I will hold them! Disengage and take the Langmores out to Nav Delta! Move!"

Mogami ran her Royal Sentinel toward the south gate, zipping between the towers of fire. Her radar picked up Sam's Cicada 3P catching up with her. It was a mech with magnificent medium-range punch. Combined with her own Gauss Rifle, they had a better chance against the Kuritans than Clover's ammo-dependent Assassin -23.

"Austin, this is Mogami," she tried to contact her friend. "I could use some help now."

Her distress call went unanswered. Mogami felt a sharp twinge in her chest. Austin Merriam had never disappointed her. Whenever she needed something, he was always there for her. However, it was then when they were teens who loved arena fights. Now Austin was the heir of the Merriam family, groomed to take over family business. Perhaps the fall of the Langmore would somehow benefit the Merriams. It was inconceivable to think that Austin could do such things, but perhaps things changed.

"Austin! This is Mogami! We are getting killed! I need your help!" she tried one more time. But much to her grief, the result remained the same. No answer from Austin Merriam.

The south gate was even more chaotic than the main ground. Yakuza mechs and armored vehicles swarmed the gate from every directions. Clover and the remaining Langmore mechs fought in desperation to stop the Yakuza from storming the fortification, but for each hole they plugged, two more busted open. The Langmore's head mech, a Shadow Hawk, tried to inspire the remaining mechs by standing tall amidst bombs and laser and explosions. But the Kuritan knew who he was. He was the patriarch, and when he fell, the backbone of the Langmore family would be broken. The Kuritan put all the stops to bring the Shadow Hawk down, and Clover's tireless effort to keep the Shadow Hawk safe only bore shriveled fruit.

"Sam, unleash hell on the Panther at eleven o'clock!" Mogami yelled. She lined up her crosshair with the Panther, then pulled the trigger. His nickel-ferrous slug bludgeoned the Panther at the right shoulder. The Panther twisted, leaning on one leg as the PPC-laden arm came off buzzing in the air. Sam's blue particle bolt came a second later, tearing a bad gash on the right torso. The Panther keeled over, bleeding fire and sparks from the gaping hole on its chest. A kaleidoscope of lasers from the Cicada vaporized the armor on the center torso, then Mogami followed up with her own laser bolt, destroying two heat sinks. The flammable coolant caught fire, and half of the Panther's body went up in flames.

"Clover! Sitrep!" Mogami grimaced.

"We're reaching combat loss grouping! There's too many of them!" Clover replied.

"Sam, pinch hit for Clover! Clover, get the Shadow Hawk out of here! I'll cover your retreat!"

"Yes Ma'am!" Sam and Clover replied in unison. The Cicada moved up to the Shadow Hawk's place while Clover's torn-up Assassin tried to direct the remaining Langmore battlemechs to back up and leave the premises.

But the pressure on the Shadow Hawk was too much. Two Jenners and two Galleon tanks launched a systematic attack on the Shadow Hawk. Their lasers ripped the Shadow Hawk piece by piece, turning the internal structures into charred beams. The Shadow Hawk stood in defiant, trying to rally the Langmore battlemechs to make the final push but it was too late. The shoulder cannon fell like the main mast of a sinking ship. The Jenners fired their missiles, and the ammo bins erupted. A yellow fireball split the Shadow Hawk into two.

"Damn it all to hell!" Mogami winced. "Sam! Burn those Jenners!"

The Galleons turned at the Assassin but Mogami fired her Gauss Rifle at the closest one to her. The Galleon's armor, charred and crushed from the fight with the Shadow Hawk, never had a chance. The Gauss slug wreaked the engine uncontested. The Galleon roared into a fireball, pelting its counterpart with burning debris.

The Cicada, with the Assassin's back up, charged the Jenners with its Heavy PPC blazing. The closest Jenner rattled, consumed by electric charge that fried half of its sensors. The Assassin launched a 5-missile salvo straight to the Jenner's midsection. The Artemis-IV guided the missiles to exploit the deep gorge on the torso. The Jenner buckled under the pressure. Its knees locked up while its body turned aside. Mogami joined the fray and fired her lasers, disabling the Jenner's SRM4 at the back.

The other Jenner unleashed a three-laser salvo at the Cicada. Half of the front armor turned red with three sizzling pockmarks. The Cicada held on, spreading its legs for support. The Jenner fired its missiles, and the warheads raced to hit the Cicada in the midsection. The Cicada teetered until it crashed onto a building, grinding its rear armor against crumbling walls.

Before the Jenner could capitalize on the Cicada's tight spot, Mogami let her Gauss rifle rip. The Jenner buckled when the slug crushed the rear armor all the way to the internals. The Jenner shuddered hard as sparks burst from every joints. The engine ceased to function, and black oily smoke billowed from the rear. The Kuritan mech slowly leaned right and crashed, shattering its laser-laden arm under its own bodyweight.

"Thank you Sarge," Sam pulled up and stabilized her Cicada.

"Form up on me!" Mogami said. She checked her HUD, and groaned when a company of Kurita tanks rolled into the compound from the east. A lance of Goblin tanks led the company, followed by a lance of LRM carriers, and a lance of Demolisher assault tanks. They bulldozed their way through the fortification in staggered-V formation, exerting their dominance over their beaten force.

"There are three of us and four Langmore lance, Sarge," Clover chimed. "We can get them!"

Mogami observed what kind of arsenal she had under her command. Sam's Cicada was operational at best, having traded blows with a few Kuritan bruisers like the Jenner. Clover's Assassin, on the other hand, was a towering heap of scrap metal. The armor shredded, the internal structures warped, the ammo bins exposed; it was a wonder that the Assassin was still running. The Langmore lance was more or less the same. The Whitworth, Javelin, and Valkyrie, all were in critical condition. Only the Crab was still combat effective, although not for long.

"Negative! I don't want to lose any more mechs to the Kuritans! Proceed to Nav Point Delta and rendezvous with Alex!"

"We are not running away from combat, are we, Sarge?"

"That's an order, Clover! Lead the Langmore mechs out of here and rendezvous with Alex!"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Clover turned her Assassin around and hobbled away from the battlefield, dragging the Langmore quartet with her.

"Sam, we're going to back up and pick the Goblins from the company one by one. When they're done, we'll bail out and rendezvous with Alex and Clover. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Sam's replied boomed in Mogami's earpiece as the Cicada formed up on her right flank.

"Alright, target the closest Goblin, fire on my mark!" Mogami backpedaled and lined up her crosshair at a Goblin, 600 meters away, and waited until his reticule burnt gold. She waited until the Goblin, rushing forward to get into the effective range of its large laser, fell within 550 meters, then gave her order, "Fire!"

Her Gauss slug hit the Goblin abreast, the armor rippled and curled back in all direction, exposing a large section of the internals. The Cicada's PPC bolt exploited the gap, and the Goblin burst into flames. Internal fire quickly forced the surviving crews to abandon the vehicle, less than 10 seconds before the machine gun ammunition caught fire and explode.

The next Goblin came into range and fired its large laser. Mogami felt a sharp sting on her spine as the Sentinel jerked. Half a ton of armor evaporated, exposing the internal structure on the right torso. Her armor tracker turned red on her HUD. But she deftly pulled her joystick back, stabilizing her mech, compensating the loss of mass with a slight shift to the right.

Her Gauss icon turned green, and wasting no time, Mogami launched her slug with vindication. The slug bounced off the front armor, but not before warping the hull in a grotesque configuration. Sam's PPC bolt slipped into the crack, singeing the machinery below. The Goblin belched livid fire and jet-black smoke. It reeled sideways and drifted ablaze until it crashed onto a burning carcass of a battlemech.

Losing 2 lance mates, the remaining Goblin spread out to trap the Sentinel and Cicada in a pincer movement, while the slow-moving LRM Carriers and Demolishers struggled to get into their firing range soon. But Mogami maintained her course, targeting the Goblin closest to the Cicada. Her lips curled as she mashed the trigger. Her Gauss slug struck the mid-hull ammo-reloading system and penetrated the engine casing. Fuel ignited, creating an inferno, while stacked ammunition detonated. Within seconds the tank was ablaze from end to end. The Cicada's strike came as an afterthought. The Goblin was already dead when the Heavy PPC bolt clobbered the hull and torched the engine.

The last Goblin boldly fired its laser at Mogami's Sentinel at an oblique angle, blowing a hole on the left torso. The Sentinel twisted. Its legs wobbled. And Mogami felt every one of it in the cockpit. The Sentinel lurched and veered left, but she made all effort to keep the mech standing.

This time, the Cicada struck first. The long PPC bolt slammed onto its turret, leaving it ablaze and unable to fire anymore shot. The Sentinel quickly recovered from the laser attack and buried a Gauss slug on the hull. The Goblin tried to stay in the battle, but the damage was too extensive. The crew abandoned the tank and hurried back toward the remaining company.

"Hell of a job, Sam!" Mogami stated. "Now turn and get the hell out of here!"

"I'm still 50-percent combat effective, Ma'am," Sam replied. "We can still pick apart the LRM Carriers."

"I only have 1 shot remaining, and they will get in range soon. The remaining Langmore family members have been evacuated. Nothing is worth saving here anymore, Sam. Let's retreat and fight another day."

"Yes, Ma'am," Sam replied with a slight disappointment in her voice.

Mogami turned her mech just as his console screamed proximity alert. Dozens of missiles arced in the air. She crisscrossed her path to avoid the raining warheads. Fireballs erupted left and right. Only one struck the Sentinel in the rear, but its pristine rear armor stopped it.

Mogami and Sam stayed on the course, taking advantage of their speed superiority over the Kuritan invaders, until the burning fortification was all but a trail of smoke in the horizon.