AUTHOR'S NOTES: Here it is, finally: the big 'Mech battle! (And there was great rejoicing.) This one was tough to write, requiring much sacrifice (of hot wings) and it was time-consuming (in that I had to watch The Wild Geese, Gettysburg, and The Last of the Mohicans to get ideas). Still, I like how it turned out. Hope it's not too anticlimactic.
I have an epilogue written for this already, and I'll post that up in a few days. Then Snowbird's Revenge is finished. I may take a break for a few weeks, as finals are coming up and then I'm hitting an anime convention and seeing some buddies for a week or two. If the muse strikes, though, I'll have something up before June. Just need to recharge the batteries, catch up on other posters' stories, etc. (I'm also feeling the need after two very intense chapters to write something funny. I don't know how Battletech comedy would work out, but there's an Evangelion story I need to finish and some Inu-Yasha ideas I have…but we'll see.)
REVIEWER'S CORNER:
Kat and FraserMage: I hope it's interesting. I also hope that I haven't made Sheila too Mary Sue in having her use her arm again this quickly.
Rouge: Sorry 'bout that. This is the first semester I've been teaching full-time, so I actually have a lot more time to write these days. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Noveltigger: Guess you'll just have to see…
Mosin: Thanks. The best laid plans, as it's said.
SulliMike: Yeah, you could say that!
STORY SOUNDTRACK: "The Battle of Hoth" from The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack, "Neodammerung"by Juno Reactor from The Matrix Revolutions, "Never Gonna Stop Me (The Red Red Kroovy)" by Rob Zombie, and "Over the Fence" from Gettysburg.
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Near Blue Ridge
Vantaa, Clan Wolf Occupation Zone
6 September 3051
Sheila looked at the chronometer and cursed softly. They had hoped to maintain a steady pace of fifty kph, but that had been quickly reduced to forty. The vehicles used by the Rangers to move their families were suffering from lack of maintenance, and worst of all, they had to make frequent stops for various reasons—the children needed a break, people had to use the bathroom, etcetera. Sheila knew that the Rangers wanted to get off Vantaa as much as she did, maybe more, and weren't delaying the expedition deliberately, but she caught herself wishing she could just cut them loose, get to the Minerva, and get the hell off this damned planet before it cost her any more people or limbs. To make matters worse than that, the road was pitted and scarred by BattleMechs moving on it, and had plenty of twists and turns, further slowing them down. What was supposed to be an hour's drive was now going on an hour and a half.
The only silver lining to the whole ordeal was that at least there was no danger of leaving Marion's assaults behind. In fact, she had them walking backwards, weapons sighted on the ridges behind. Tessya's Recon Lance was practically loafing along. Sheila was in constant communication with Elfa, who reported Lynchburg quiet. She had set up for all-around defense of the DropPort, but the only enemy she had been fighting was boredom. She had even gotten a radio call from the Wolf Elementals north of town asking how things were going, and would the Snowbirds be as so kind as to not raze the barracks when they left?
A red light flashed on her instrument panel, signaling a tightbeam message. She touched the radio button on her right control stick. "Snowbird."
"Snowbird, this is Canis." It was Max. "How's it going?"
"Bored. Wish these people could move faster."
"Roger that. Any activity over in your sector?"
"Nope."
"Me neither. I guess that's a good thing." She heard something on her external microphones, and turned them up slightly. "The Rangers are singing."
"I heard. You recognize the tune?"
"Something about a sweet home in Alabama. New one on me—"
"Air warning, north!" Cynmar's voice cut across the open net. Instantly all the 'Mechs froze in place, turning north. Cynmar's Catapult was already swinging around, launch door coming open. Sheila cut off Max and activated the radar set into her Shruiken's earlike protrusions. It picked up something, but her fire control was not designed to fight aircraft.
Brefudd Dari's Axeman, however, was. "Canis Four, I've got him. It's a Bashkir, repeat, Bashkir."
Sheila's brain ran through the various known makes of Clan Aerospace Fighters. A Bashkir was a light fighter, only 20 tons; still, it was extremely fast, and even with its light weaponry, it could wreak havoc among the Rangers' unarmored trucks. "Canis Four, Snowbird, what's he doing?"
"Just hanging there. He's at about six thousand meters, about six klicks off. He's way out of range for me."
"Asshole's shadowing us." Sheila glanced over at the trucks and saw Keynes waving for her attention. She switched frequencies. "It's a Clan fighter," she told him without acknowledging him. "He's just a recon."
"Do we need to abandon the trucks?" If the fighters strafed, the Rangers and their families were better off jumping into the ditches.
"No, keep moving." Sheila switched back to the battalion net. "Snowbird to Nail Lead. I have trade for you."
Ten thousand meters above the Snowbirds, Elizabeth Dowlings keyed her mike. "Snowbird, Nail. If it's the wee Bashkir at me three o'clock low, I've got 'im." Her brogue was thick and instantly recognizable. Dowlings, a native of Skye, commanded the Sentinels Aerowing. Dowlings didn't need to be on Vantaa, but she had volunteered her services. She was a veteran fighter pilot well into her forties who had first fought in the Fourth Succession War, and worked her way up the ranks to command. She was affectionately known as Hawkeye for her phenomenal eyesight, which fighter pilots valued more than armor, heavy weapons, and beer. She had spotted the Bashkir two minutes before, but since the Clan fighter was flying straight and level, she knew instantly that the Clan pilot hadn't seen her. She had left her radar off, using her eyes to scan the cloudy sky.
"Perfect, Nail," Sheila radioed back. "Make him go away."
"Roger that." Using hand signals, she ordered her wingman to follow her, then slammed the stick hard into her right knee. Her Corsair rolled over and dived. Long nosed and short winged, the 50-ton Davion fighter was built for speed rather than manueverability: in the vertical, Dowlings was in her element. Altitude spun down as she hurtled towards the ground. In a second, the delta-winged Clan fighter filled her gunsight, and she opened fire with a fusillade of laserfire. The Bashkir rocked under the impact, huge holes appearing down its starboard wing root. Then she was past, pulling back on the stick, craning her head back against the pull of G-forces and kicking the tail around. The Bashkir was a comet, spinning crazily until it smashed into the side of a hill. "Splash one!" Dowlings crowed. It was her sixty-eighth kill.
"Well done, Nail," Sheila said. "Look, that bastard was shadowing us. Mind scouting ahead to see if there's anything there?"
"Nae a problem, Snowb'rd. Goin' doon now." Dowlings racked the Corsair into a tight turn, her wingman hanging with her. She throttled back slightly, then rolled her left wing down. The terrain here wasn't bad—there was a low mountain to the north, heavily forested, which gave way to rolling wheatfields to the south. The hamlet of Blue Ridge was just a few houses and a recharge station for electric cars. "Looks quiet, Snow—"
Then she saw them: fifteen BattleMechs, hidden in a windbreak of trees and the town. They would be nearly impossible to see from the road and difficult from the air, but Dowlings had been doing this for most of her adult life. "Snowb'rd! Ye've got a Trinary at Blue Ridge, fifteen klicks west. I'll come back aroun' for a strafin' run—"
She spotted another group of five 'Mechs in a copse of trees. One of them was pointing quadruple gun barrels directly at her, and she realized that it was a Rifleman IIC, the Clan version of the venerable old 'Mech, whose primary purpose was antiaircraft defense. She hauled back on the stick and rammed the throttle forward, knowing it was already too late as her warning recievers screamed at her, telling she was locked on by several fire control systems, not just the Rifleman. Ruby lasers reached out and enveloped her Corsair in fire. Shots blew through armor to hit her engine and tear away control surfaces; the Corsair climbed, then rolled on its back and went into a spin.
Dowlings knew that she was dead. At this speed and altitude, inverted, even if she ejected, it would only mean the seat would sent her directly into the ground. She didn't feel angry or frightened, only disappointed that she had gotten caught out by a damn ground-pounding MechWarrior. She keyed her radio. "Well, this is it, chaps."
Sheila saw the explosion of the Corsair. Oh, God, she thought, not Liz Dowlings. Her wingman, in a lighter Sparrowhawk, was already out of range of the lethal Clan fire, radioing frantically for Nail Lead, knowing as well as Sheila did that Dowlings was dead.
"Line defense!" Sheila shouted. "Thorn, fall back! Tiger One, come in!"
"Tiger here." Marion sounded unruffled.
"Tiger, take up position in front of the trucks with Canis. I'll take Thorn and swing around their left flank. Set up a base of fire."
"Roger." The assault 'Mechs began moving forward. Sheila ordered Keynes to put his trucks in what was known as a kraal: he essentially circled the wagons. He deployed his men in front of the trucks, in the tall wheat and the ditches, and ordered the families to stay in the trucks, behind what little armor they had and sandbags put in them expressly for that purpose. It would not stop even the lightest weapon on a 'Mech, but it was better than nothing. Luckily, there was another windbreak line of trees ahead, and Marion deployed her lance and Max's in it. Sheila and Tessya's lances moved into the forest and disappeared.
Suddenly, it was quiet. After the sudden death of two fighter pilots and the near-panic of sudden enemy contact, there was nothing. Nail Two rejoined another section of Snowbird fighters far above them, and Marion was about to ask them for another reconnaissance run when suddenly the small rise between their position and Blue Ridge was filled with Clan 'Mechs, and the radio net was pierced with a savage, piercing shriek that chilled the bone: the war cry of the Jade Falcons. Twenty Omnis topped the rise and headed straight at them in a line that would overwhelm the pitifully few nine Snowbirds between them and the Rangers.
"We're dead," Max breathed. It was an involuntary reaction.
"Shut up," Marion snapped. "You're not dead until I say so." She looked at her range counter: 840 meters. It rapidly dwindled below that, and she knew she was now in range. Her threat indicator lit up: one of the Clan 'Mechs had painted her and locked on, but just one. Her mouth curled into a cruel smile. "Dumb shit." She clicked her mike open. "Tigers, Canis, listen up: those bastards want a clean fight. Let's not give it to them. See those two Gladiators out front? Let's dogpile the fuckers. Wait for my signal." She would have to wait until the Falcons reached 450 meters before she would open fire: the Clans would already have most of their 'Mechs in range by then. She shook her head, because the Omnis were still holding fire. They were going to settle this at close range.
"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Marion shouted, and the Snowbird line erupted in flame as lasers, missiles, and shells reached out. Each lance concentrated their fire on a single Gladiator, the heaviest 'Mechs they could see. Both Clan 'Mechs went down under the staggering amount of fire. The line split and broke up, the Fusiliers instinctively moving away from the worst of the fire.
But then they returned fire, and to Marion's surprise, the Falcons didn't do what she thought they would. In almost all the battles fought to that point, the Clans fought one on one, even when their Inner Sphere opponents refused to return the favor. Now they switched targets and began concentrating their fire. Marion winced as her 'Mech's front armor was hit hard by yet another Gladiator, this time teamed up with a Mad Cat. The Perennium's thick armor held, but it wouldn't keep up with much more pounding. Out of the corner of one eye, she saw something go down, and pivoted her 'Mech to see: it was Troms Fiordur's Banshee, missing most of its head. The 'Mech was unmoving. "Fuck," Marion breathed, and turned back, aiming at the Mad Cat. She put two Gauss shots into its right leg and marched two PPC bolts into its right side, but though the Clan 'Mech staggered, it didn't go down. Marion stepped from the forest a short distance to get a better sight picture, but this only made her a better target. The Gladiator raised an arm that ended in a huge barrel, which vomited autocannon shells. Marion pivoted and brought up her left arm to shield her cockpit, a move that saved her life but also unbalanced her. The heavy Ultra AC/20 sent her Perennium crashing to the earth and slammed her head hard into the side of the cockpit.
Max saw Marion go down and shook his head in anger. The Fusiliers had halted and were now spreading out, dodging incoming fire and raking the treeline with heavy and accurate fire. Both sides recognized each other now: the Snowbirds had seen the screaming banshee emblem of the 133rd, and the Fusiliers recognized the diving snowy owl of the Snowbirds. Both sides had good reasons to despise the other, and the combat was suddenly very personal. Max saw Drax go down, his Phoenix Hawk's left leg amputated, but he didn't stay down long: balancing against a tree, he fired his large laser. Max knew he needed to pull back, but there was nowhere to pull back to. Where the hell is Sheila? He had tried over the company net, but the static told him he was being jammed.
The lance net worked fine, however. "Canis One, Tiger Three: Tiger One is down." Alfred Dennison was as close to fear as Max had ever seen the old veteran, who at sixty was the oldest MechWarrior in the battalion.
"Canis One!" Maria Thyatis' voice came in just behind Dennison's. "Elementals, left flank!"
That's why the bastards stopped, Max thought sourly, the Falcons are afraid of hitting the Elementals with overspray. He took in the battlefield with a glance. "Tiger Four, are you still upright?"
"I'm still here, Canis!" Ted van Kull's Longbow was holed in a few places, but was still operational. The drumlike missile launchers on both arms were wreathed in smoke from firing.
"Displace left and put fire down on the Elementals!" Max's fingers worked like a clarinet player as the Longbow shuffled to its left and sent fifty missiles towards a line of green-painted Elementals, leaping and running through the wheat towards the Rangers' kraal. "Canis Lance, refuse the left! Bring those Elementals under fire! Tigers, mask fire right and keep their heads down!"
"Easy for you to say!" Drax hit a charging Mad Cat with large laser fire, but he might as well have thrown a pie at a freight train. The Mad Cat simply switched fire and only just missed him with two flights of missiles. He already had one leg gone and the other couldn't take another hit. The Mad Cat advanced, rearing back to deliver what he was sure would be the final blow. It outweighed him by thirty tons, even if he was fully operational. Fire suddenly leapt up from the ground and the Clan Omni's right leg tore free, sending the Falcon crashing to the ground. From the smoking wheat, Marion's Perennium staggered to its feet and limped over to Drax. "That'll teach the bastard to turn his back on me," Marion snarled over the open net. Drax found that uproariously funny and couldn't stop laughing, even as he was still firing at the downed Mad Cat.
Athena Henderson paused on the small rise. She saw that she had three 'Mechs down, but at least two of the Snowbirds' machines were down too. She could see five assault 'Mechs, however—a Battlemaster, an Atlas, a Longbow and two of those squat gun-batteries-with-legs she knew were called Perenniums. The fire they could put out was tremendous, and they could also absorb quite a bit of damage.
"Elemental Devin," Athena radioed. "Ignore the BattleMechs and attack the infantry." She watched as the Elementals sheered off from engaging the lance led by the Battlemaster and began running and jumping headlong towards the circle of trucks on the road. Missile and tracer fire began to crisscross each other there as well. Athena did not do it out of cruelty to the Rangers, but because she knew that the Snowbirds would have to pull back even further to support them. The thin line was unraveling fast.
"BattleMechs, northern flank!" Athena turned her Thor to look in that direction. "So that is where they were," she mused to herself. She saw another two lances charge out of the woods: the distinctive shape of the Shruiken was out in front. "And so the Snowbird herself makes her appearance," Athena snorted. She mashed the radio button. "Star Captain Evelena, refuse the left flank with Bravo Beak One." Evelena acknowledged, but she had already been moving before Athena gave the order. That brought ten Omnis on line against eight Inner Sphere 'Mechs, most of which, she saw, were lights. Already a Wasp and a Wolfhound were edging around Evelena's line, but that was to be expected, and easily countered. "Fusilier Bravo, what is your position?"
"Four kilometers out, east of the battle site," Kazumi reported. He was breathless, as if he had been running and not his 'Mech.
Old man, Athena thought derisively. Whatever his popularity with the Cluster, she would be rid of him after this engagement, either by transfer or by Circle of Equals. "Charlie Trinary, general battle." Athena knew Kazumi would hate that, because it released his MechWarriors to move up to their top speed and engage as they struck the Inner Sphere lines; it also hopelessly disorganized Charlie Trinary from a line of battle into a mob. That was fine with Athena: she could feel the Snowbirds getting desperate. Already the line in the front of her was literally bent double, with what was left of one lance defending against the one Star and the other lance, its backs to the first, trying to drive off the Elementals. There was no one covering the Rangers' rear area, and even a single Star of light 'Mechs would completely overrun them. Her grin of triumph faded a little when she saw the plucky Wasp, ignoring the fact that its lancemate Valkyrie had been cut down, leaping behind Evelena's line. Athena recognized the markings as the Wasp she had been trying to exterminate when it had landed that lucky shot that had knocked her cold. "MechWarrior Ichigo."
"Aff, Star Colonel!" Ichigo piloted the Rifleman IIC; Athena had pulled him from the tiny garrison at Sharpsburg. He was a freeborn with no chance of advancement, except in battle, and had already distinguished himself by shooting down the Inner Sphere aerofighter. Now he was slavishly devoted to her.
"See that Wasp? Obliterate it."
"Aff, Star Col—" He was cut off in midsentence as a Gauss shell sang out from nowhere and blasted straight through the 'Mech's head. The Rifleman seemed to fold in on itself. A fragment spiraled outwards and smashed one of the vision blocks of Athena's Thor. At that moment, someone screamed, "Enemy 'Mechs in our rear!"
"Enemy 'Mechs to our front!" someone else shouted. Athena, confused, turned left and then right. Bad enough was the appearance of another, heavier lance from the woods from the northwest; worst was the lance coming in directly from behind them. MechWarrior Seneca in Athena's Command Star, piloting an Uller, turned to engage and suddenly had both arms taken off at the elbows. Firing at the light 'Mech was a Rifleman; drawing a bead on Athena herself was a Thunderbolt.
It was a perfectly coordinated attack. It was also a freak accident.
Elfa Brownoak, waiting impatiently at the Lynchburg DropPort, knew that Sheila was overdue. Sheila had kept her updated on the situation, but Elfa, being the pilot of a Clan OmniMech herself, knew just how fast the Clans could move. Afraid that Sheila might be cut off somewhere along the road, Elfa decided on a very risky choice: she would strip the DropPort of everything but her infantry and her own Command Lance, and send her other two lances east to link up with Sheila. Senefa Malthus needed no further urging, and had quickly moved out. When she had seen two aerofighters go down, she had assumed that there was a Clan force somewhere on the road, and ordered her 'Mechs to go as fast as they could. A minute sooner, and Athena would be able to pull back and reform her line to the south. A minute later, and at least two lances of the Snowbirds would have ceased to exist. Senefa's timing was lucky, but it was also perfect. Now the Fusiliers were in a box, with Snowbird lances on every side.
Sheila had been very worried. The Fusiliers had reacted much faster than she had anticipated, shifting two Stars to meet her charge head on; she had pulled her lances up short and spread them out, knowing her lights had little chance of survival against Thors and Lokis. In the distance she could see black smoke and explosions, the telltale signs of destroyed BattleMechs, and the net was alive with calls for help and curses, especially from the Rangers, who had almost no chance of holding off a concerted Elemental attack. When a Loki had abruptly gone down almost in front of her and she heard Tooriu Kku's yell of "Let's rock!" over the radio, she knew with a flash of insight what had happened. Elfa, with her initiative, and Max and Marion, with their tenacity, had given Sheila the chance to win the battle after she had nearly lost it. I lost the Battle of Marengo at five o'clock, Sheila quoted Napoleon to herself, but I won it back at seven.
"Box One, Snowbird!" Sheila yelled to Tooriu. "Hit the Falcons to my front on their left flank—roll 'em up!"
"Done!" The Awesome crashed out of the woods. He blasted a Thor with three PPC bolts, then Canonizado charged in with his Victor and let fly with his AC/20. The Thor went down even as Tooriu turned his attention to the next Clan 'Mech in line, a Mad Cat, which was already being hit by missiles: behind Tooriu and Canonizado was John Lawson and Eric Jerome in twin Archers. The Clan line hesitated and began to pull back. Sheila seized the moment. "Snowbird and Thorn Lances, charge!" Sheila took a hasty shot at a Man O'War and ran her Shruiken up to full speed. She was flanked by two Wolfhounds, O'Reilly and Felisanna. She saw the Man O'War pivot to engage her, then it disappeared in a huge explosion: Fabian Cynmar was direct firing his Arrow IVs with murderous effect.
Sheila half-expected to collide with something in the smoke, because everything seemed like it was on fire. The wheat had quickly caught in the battle, and though because it was wet it only smoldered, it was reducing visibility to nil. She considered infrared, but dismissed that; the fires would wreck that as well. She would just have to put her head down and take her chances.
Four Elementals came out of nowhere, leaping towards Sheila's 'Mech. She pivoted and tried to bring up her left arm, but the metal groaned alarmingly and stubbornly refused to move. Kaatha, hobbling along with a smashed upper leg actuator, swatted three of them out of the sky with LRMs, while the fourth clanged off the Shruiken and dropped to the ground. O'Reilly drew back and kicked the hapless Elemental into the trees. The other three, not terribly wounded, found easier prey.
Felisanna was hit and spun around by a Gauss shell that made a ruin of her left arm, but now Canonizado arrived and fired his huge autocannon again. The Thor that had fired on Felisanna was stitched from missile launcher to hips and fell backward, not destroyed, but taking no further interest in the little Wolfhound. Canonizado, with a whoop, jumped his Victor in to finish off the Thor, only to nearly land on a Vulture that surged out of the smoke. The battle had degenerated into a wild melee. Sheila saw the movement out of the corner of her eye as the Vulture hit the Victor with missile fire; she turned nimbly, rushed forward, lowered her Shruiken's right shoulder, and smashed into the Vulture. The Clan 'Mech staggered and Sheila took a step back, aimed, and opened up with her medium pulse lasers for the first time. Used to seeing a steady stream of coherent light, Sheila was surprised to see ruby pulses scatter across the Falcon, tearing apart armor and causing it to stumble yet again. Its return fire went wide, and Sheila finished it off with PPC fire. She didn't see the Uller coming in from behind, but Tooriu did, and blew it apart just as it ripped open her rear armor with laser fire. A quick glance at the instrument panel revealed that she had taken no internal damage. "Snowbird, you okay?" Tooriu called out.
"I'm good, Box." Got to get control of this, she thought, and moved out away from the battle, into the treeline. Here, the smoke had thinned some, and she could see Max's Battlemaster—scored, burned, and the SRM launcher wrecked, but still standing tall. "Canis, Snowbird, you okay?" she said, aping Tooriu.
"A little warm," Max puffed.
"Lance sitrep."
"We're shot up, but still here."
"Snowbird, this is Tiger." Marion's Perennium had seen better days, but it too was still vertical. "I've lost three of mine, but Dennison and I are still tactical."
"Okay. Tiger, Canis, reform a new line east of the kraal. There's Clan 'Mechs up there; that's probably the rest of the Fusiliers." She saw the Perennium limping along. "Max, you're in command. I'll send Box Lance up to reinforce you ASAP."
Matria's Chameleon, somehow completely unscarred, came up next to her. "Snowbird One, Nut Two just called for help. She's over the little hill by Blue Ridge, at 040." It took Sheila a moment to place who Nut Lance was; that was Senefa's, the callsign not yet changed since Terry Nutter's death. Nut Two was Maysa Bari.
"Roger." She began moving in that direction. "Thorn One, come in."
"This is Thorn Three," O'Reilly answered. "Thorn One's down."
Damn, not Tessya. That would have to wait. "Okay. Thorn Three, take command here. Round up Snowbird and Thorn lances and drive the Elementals south. I think Box has the Falcon 'Mechs under control." They ignored Tooriu's "You bet your ass!"; he had obviously been listening in. "Snowbird Five—" that was Cynmar "—move east and cover Tiger and Canis lances. Snowbird Four, you follow me."
"Roger that," Matria replied. He was stunned at how Sheila could keep a mental picture of the mess around them. Guess that's why she has the rank diamonds, he mused to himself.
After Senefa had decaptitated the Rifleman IIC and Maysa crippled the Uller, Athena's Command Star was down to three 'Mechs: her own Thor, Star Commander Rukia Roshak's Ryoken, and MechWarrior Scylla's Loki. Togan Nordkoping had quickly selected and was duelling Scylla with his Warhammer, while Maysa had gone after Roshak. However, Rukia Roshak was the most veteran of the Fusiliers besides Kazumi, and soon was literally running rings around Maysa's ponderous Rifleman. She had surprised him by twisting her arms through the vertical and covering her vulnerable rear, but after taking a pounding from that, Roshak had pulled back and begun making hit and run attacks with his array of medium lasers, using his Ryoken's tremendous speed to stay out of Maysa's reach. For the first time in her short career, the sixteen year old prodigy felt way in over her head, so when she began calling for help, Senefa had quickly detailed Stefan Jones and his Thunderbolt in to help her. That left Athena and Senefa going at it head-to-head, which was exactly how both preferred it.
Athena thought she recognized something about the way the Thunderbolt moved, and opened a tightbeam channel to the Inner Sphere 'Mech. "Senefa, traitor, is that you?"
"Aff, Athena. That is my 'Mech, quiaff?"
"It is! Mine by spoils of war, along with your Cluster—and now I think I will take your life!"
"Come on, you Hell's Horses whore," Senefa spat back, referring to Athena's former Clan. The other Clanswoman let out a strangled cry of rage and charged forward, bringing up the arm that Senefa knew housed a Gauss Rifle. She shifted to one side, not fast enough, but enough so the silver ball ripped off leg armor rather than her head. Senefa noticed disinterestedly that the shell had taken off over half her left leg's armor, but that was unimportant for now. She sent a flight of missiles at Athena, who dodged them, but Senefa had never cared if they had connected: she had merely set up her enemy. Senefa ran directly at Athena, absorbed a few missiles of her own, then when the Gauss raised once more, she suddenly cut right, turned, and let her momentum carry her past. The Gauss shell skimmed off to parts unknown, but now Senefa had a split-second shot at Athena's rear torso. The range was close for a Gauss shot, but she managed. Her shot entered the smooth rear of the Thor and went straight through, exploding out the other side. Senefa breathed a choice curse through clenched teeth; she had hoped that she would hit the missile magazine.
Athena almost fell, but managed to turn and pepper Senefa with more missiles, but she simply ignored them, trusting to the Thunderbolt's thick armor. Once more Senefa centered the Gauss and smashed the Thor's own Gauss weapon, then severed the arm completely with her triple medium lasers. This time Athena did fall. Missiles corkscrewed crazily through the air and hit nothing. Senefa raised the Gauss again, letting the crosshairs fall directly on the squat cockpit of the Thor; unlike Sheila, she had no remorse in killing her enemies.
MechWarrior Scylla saw Athena go down, and though he was losing against the Warhammer, who had already punctured the thin-skinned Loki in several places, and despite Athena's orders to the contrary, he aimed his remaining PPC and fired. The bolt took Senefa by surprise, and she twisted around, the Thunderbolt teetering. She was still unused to the new 'Mech, but might have kept it on its feet, had Athena not brought up her remaining weapon arm—which housed a PPC as well. The blue lightning sent Senefa crashing to the ground.
Senefa shook her head free of stars and quickly checked her instrument panel. All weapons were operational, though her left leg's hip actuator was a ruin. It would make getting back to her feet very difficult—and suddenly she realized that Athena was already on hers. Senefa raced to bring her Gauss Rifle up as Athena leveled the PPC at her head. "Turnabout is fair—" she heard Athena begin, but then her view was blotted out.
Sheila hit the Thor at full speed, not even bothering to fire her weapons for fear of hitting Senefa. Instead, she wrapped her arms around the Clan 'Mech and purposely let her 'Mech fall, performing a beautiful, ten meter tall and 75 ton version of an American-rules football sack.
Both 'Mechs skidded down the hill and slid to a stop, facing and entangled with each other. "Remember me?" Sheila yelled over her external speakers.
"You die!" Athena screamed back, and kicked the Shruiken hard, enough to bring up the PPC. Sheila's own twin PPCs were pinned beneath the Thor, and her medium pulse lasers wouldn't do enough damage—which left the shruiken launcher. Sheila simply slammed her steel arm into the control stick. The left arm raised, fell over, and she squeezed the trigger as it moved past the Thor's cockpit. A single star flew from its launcher, struck the vision blocks, and did exactly as it was designed to do: it split lengthwise, spraying inferno fluid, which exploded when it contacted the air. The napalm covered the cockpit, forced its way through plexiglass shattered by the impact of Sheila's charge, and fell onto Athena Henderson. Sheila brought up the Shruiken's legs and kicked free of the burning Thor, even as she switched off her radio so she would not have to listen to Athena's screams. She levered her way back to the vertical. The Thor had stopped moving.