AUTHOR'S NOTES: Short chapter tonight; I ran out of time to write more, but wanted to get this uploaded before I went to bed. This catches us up to where this story began, and it repeats the first chapter-so if it feels like you've read this before, you partially have. The new parts are about halfway down if you want to skip to them. I added the first chapter so readers don't have to flip back and forth to remember what happened...that was a long time ago that I posted that!
Reykjavik
Rasalhague, Free Rasalhague Republic
16 July 3050
Now
"Come on, you assholes," Sheila Arla-Vlata murmured to herself. Even if she'd yelled it at the top of her lungs over her Shruiken's loudspeakers, she doubted the Clan OmniMechs down the broad avenue would have given a response. She wondered if she should. The Clans sometimes were vulnerable to losing their temper. Maybe she could goad them into attacking her piecemeal? She dismissed the thought. No, this was Clan Wolf, and the Wolves seemed to be pretty good about not letting themselves get rattled.
Sheila slammed a fist onto the side panel of her cockpit. She was leading an ad hoc lance, optimistically named the Clan Eaters, made up on the fly and sent into combat. The 1st Drakons had posted Sheila's lance on the southwestern side of the city, where nothing was happening—except that the Clan commander had decided to flank the 1st Drakons there. Sheila was on the edge of a traffic circle, about five kilometers from the capitol's Eriksson DropPort. Down the avenue was a Clan Star that wanted control of the traffic circle and the highway interchange stack there. Sheila considered herself lucky in one thing, at least: she knew two of her three lancemates. She'd grabbed Tooriu Kku and Mimi Stykkis when the lances were being thrown together. The fourth, Nkosiyabo Malinga, was under her company command, but a stranger. Both he and Mimi piloted Crusaders; Tooriu was in an Awesome. With her own 70-ton Shruiken, it might be enough to at least slow the Wolves down.
"Here they come!" shouted Tooriu over the open net, which wasn't proper radio procedure, but no one corrected him. He brought up the Awesome's arms.
Sheila brought up her 'Mech's right arm, which ended in over-and-under PPCs. The Clan warriors fired first, with weapons that outranged her own, and Sheila ducked beneath a story-high wall of rubble. A Gauss shell skipped off of it, missed her arm by mere feet, and sailed into the distance. She centered the crosshairs on her Heads-Up Display on the lead Wolf 'Mech—a monster that had been dubbed the Gladiator. The crosshair was red, indicating that the Clansman was still out of range. "Come on, come on," Sheila chanted, her voice rising. Finally, as another Gauss shell tore a hole out of the rubble pile, the crosshairs pulsed gold, indicating a lock. She pulled the trigger on her right joystick. "Eaters, open fire!" she ordered. It wasn't really necessary. Five azure bolts from the PPCs—two from the Shruiken and three from the Awesome—blazed out at the Clan 'Mechs, followed closely by a cloud of Long-Range Missiles from the two Crusaders. Most of the fire connected, and despite her shots boiling away armor and staggering the Gladiator, the Wolves kept coming.
Heat washed through the cockpit, causing sweat to bead up on the exposed skin on her arms and legs, but Sheila ignored it, sparing only a glance at the heat gauge on her instrument panel, which showed still in the green. Thank God for double heat sinks! She fired again, this time at a smaller, skinnier 'Mech, what was codenamed Fenris. Her shots caused the Wolf warrior to duck behind a building, and the Wolf charge stopped as the other warriors followed, Sheila's opposite number realizing his opponents were in good cover.
Sheila was glad to let her 'Mech cool off a bit; the heat had climbed briefly into the lower red. Both sides now resorted to sniping at each other, neither one hitting anything. Okay, if I was that Wolf guy—or girl, I suppose—what would I do? Sheila asked herself. She looked to her left and right; the Shruiken's head, slaved to her neurohelmet's movements, aped her motion. My flanks are in the air. So I'd send my lights and mediums around. Might take them a bit—it's a built-up area, so it would be slow going, but they could do it. Depends on if this Clanner has any patience. The Jade Falcons didn't on Persistence, anyway. She looked up at the smoky sky. Or I'd call in an airstrike.
"Tango Echo One, this is Tango Alpha Three, come in," her radio crackled. It was the voice of Maximillian Canis-Vlata. She was glad to hear his voice.
"Alpha Three, Echo One, go."
"Echo One, the Drakons just lost Valkyrie. You'd better fall back."
Sheila looked down at the map display. Nora Valkyrie Square was to the north. If there were Wolves there, they could come down Mansdotter Avenue and roll her up from the right flank. "Roger that, Alpha Three. Falling back to the Sig Flyover."
"Understood, Echo One. We'll try to get someone over to you. Alpha Three out."
Sheila switched frequencies to her lance net. "Eaters, we just lost our right flank. Let's drop back to the stack. Lance, check in."
"Mimi, got it."
"Tooriu, rog."
"Nkosiyabo, roger that."
The Sig Andersen Flyover was three blocks behind them. The lance moved back as quickly as they could, and Sheila wondered when the Wolves would figure out that they were gone. She didn't have long to wait: a light 'Mech, a Dasher, came tearing out of a side street; Sheila had no time to compliment herself on being right about a flanking move. The Dasher came right at her, spitting laserfire that took chunks out of her armor. Sheila had read the intelligence reports on this one, knowing that it was the fastest 'Mech in existence, but it paid for the speed with paper-thin armor. She tried to ignore the hits, leveled her PPCs, and opened fire. Both caught the Dasher high in the chest. It twisted and fell, skidding down the street, to end up nearly at her feet, its gyro gone.
The Dasher pilot had evidently timed his attack just a hair too soon, because the rest of the Star now advanced as well. This time the Sentinel 'Mechs did not have the benefit of cover, and the Clans methodically moved forward in quick runs from building to building, keeping up a steady and accurate fire. Sheila grimaced as a large laser shot took off half the armor on her right leg: the Clanners were incredible shots, and hitting at ranges impossible for her to respond to. Wait, something's not right here, she realized. They're shooting, but they're not really closing with us. Sure, they can take us apart at range, but that's going to take time…unless they're just trying to keep our heads down…
Too late she remembered the sky.
"Eater One, Eater Four! Aerofighters, three o'clock high!" shouted Nkosiyabo. Sheila instantly looked in that direction, just as two fighters tumbled out of the sky, from the dim sun. They were not friendly.
"Eaters, under the stack! Hurry!" Sheila shouted. The flyover would give them overhead protection. Luckily, her slowest 'Mech, Tooriu's ponderous Awesome, was already under the bridge, and Sheila got her Shruiken under cover quickly. Mimi turned and ran, risking a back shot to avoid the strafe, but Nkosiyabo suddenly stopped and raised his Crusader's arms at the diving fighters.
"Nkosiyabo, for God's sake, get under cover!" Sheila screamed at him, but he ignored her. He was shouting a war cry of his people, the legendary Zulu of southern Africa, who had stood their ground as well. Sheila didn't know if Nkosiyabo was trying to cover Mimi's retreat, or just was so frustrated at being forced to retreat again that he was taking it out on something he could hit. His missiles found one of the Aerofighters; it fluttered slightly and broke off its run. The other remained on target, opening fire with a blistering fusillade of laserfire. The ground around the Crusader seemed to rise up around Nkosiyabo as concrete ruptured and vaporized, then the 'Mech itself was hit. Nkosiyabo managed to get off another broadside of missiles, which went wide, before the Crusader was driven to one knee by the volume of fire. Nkosiyabo struggled to get up as the Wolf fighter climbed back into the sky, and then the Crusader vanished in a fireball as the missile magazines detonated.
Sheila didn't have time to mourn the man she'd barely known, because the Wolf 'Mechs took advantage of the strafe to cover the ground: the Fenris, along with a lighter Puma and a heavier Loki, ran forward, as the Gladiator held back to provide covering fire. Sheila leaned out from the overpass' gigantic pylon, a thick tube of concrete that held up half a kilometer of bridge, and snapped a few shots off. None hit.
Mimi Stykkis, screaming curse words incoherently, suddenly loomed out of the smoke from Nkosiyabo's funeral pyre. Her LRMs were out of ammunition, but her leg-mounted Short-Range Missiles and the medium lasers on her arms were still operational. The sudden appearance of the other Crusader brought the Wolves up short, as they turned to deal with a sudden threat on their flank, while Tooriu stepped out from cover, shrugged off a PPC hit like an annoying fly, and turned his PPCs on the Loki. Sheila kept up her fire on the Gladiator, landing two hits. This seemed to enrage the Clan MechWarrior, who returned fire with a vengeance. Sheila yelped and ducked back behind the pylon as two Gauss shells and a lot of laserfire gouged out a good portion of it. Sheila, with alarm, saw the overpass actually shake, and for a moment, she thought it was coming down.
That gave her an idea.
"Tooriu!" she yelled. "Forget the Clanners for a second and shoot the bridge support!" Tooriu saw what she had in mind, pivoted in place, and opened fire with all three PPCs on the Awesome. Sheila switched to the four medium lasers in the chest of the Shruiken and lanced into it as well. The pylon shook, but didn't crumble.
Tooriu decided that the best approach was the direct one. He charged the Awesome into the pylon. Huge sheets of concrete fell from it, and Sheila thought that she saw the overpass begin to sway, but it resolutely stayed in place.
The Clan commander abruptly figured out what she was trying to do. The Loki and the Puma went after Tooriu, while Mimi and the Fenris continued to duel, even if the Crusader was coming off second best. "Mimi, fall back!" Sheila ordered.
"What the fuck do you think I'm trying to do?" Mimi shot back. The Fenris was twice as fast as her heavier 'Mech.
The Loki's twin PPCs actually did significant damage to the Awesome, but a quick switch to infrared told Sheila that the Clan 'Mech was running hot; unlike so many of the enemy machines, the Loki didn't seem to be able to shed heat as well. She sighted on the Loki and brought up her left arm. It ended in a battlefist, but underneath the wrist was a single-shot SRM-2. Both missiles hit the Loki, and came apart in spurts of clear liquid across its chest. The jellylike Inferno fluid ignited on contact with the air and turned the Loki into a torch. The MechWarrior staggered backwards, out of the fight, as flames roared up the side: the Inferno fluid wouldn't melt the 'Mech, but it would certainly overload its heat sinks, threatening to roast the pilot alive. The Puma sighted its weapons on Sheila, but Tooriu, with surprising agility, planted one huge foot, grabbed the light OmniMech in the Awesome's thick arms, and tossed it bodily into the pylon.
Deep fissures appeared, then quickly widened and ran upwards with terrifying speed. "Move!" Sheila shouted, as the pylon sagged, then collapsed over on one side—what it was designed to do in case of accidental collapse. It fell away from the rapidly retreating Sheila and Tooriu, and carried the overpass with it in one huge, single piece. It crashed to the ground in a dust cloud of titanic proportions, hiding the entire battlefield from view.
Sheila switched to infrared again. The overpass had landed in such a fashion that she'd accidentally turned it into a high wall, hiding the Fenris and Gladiator from view. The Puma was gone, buried under tons of concrete, only its feet sticking out. The Awesome lumbered into view, its armor pitted and shattered, but still standing proudly upright, covered in dust. "You okay, Tooriu?" she asked.
"Oh, hell yeah," Tooriu laughed. "That's what that little bastard gets for taking his eyes off me! I want the kill for that one." The fact that another living being had just died at his hands was something Tooriu would consider later, if at all. MechWarriors liked to pretend that enemy 'Mechs were not piloted by flesh-and-blood humans.
Sheila scanned around, trying to find Mimi. Then she saw the Crusader—or at least half of it. The upper torso and head were visible in the dust, but nothing else. "Mimi, are you okay?"
"Roger; I'm fine." Her voice sounded pained. "My 'Mech is a different story. Both legs are gone."
"Okay. Tooriu, grab one arm and I'll get the other." Sheila quickly moved her 'Mech forward, praying that the Clan 'Mechs didn't have jumpjets, as Tooriu did the same. With an audible screech of protesting metal, they dragged the Crusader out of the smashed concrete. Both legs of the 'Mech were gone below the knee, and ruptured lubricants streamed into the dust like blood. Assuming the Clans didn't interfere, they could drag the damaged 'Mech back to the DropPort.
"Tango Echo One from Alpha Six," came a new, authoritative voice over Sheila's radio—the voice of her father and commander, Calla Bighorn-Vlata. "Sitrep."
"Alpha Six, Tango Echo," Sheila replied. "We're falling back to the rally point. I have one KIA, and we're dragging back a busted 'Mech with an okay MechWarrior."
"Tango Echo, your signal is Juliet, I say again, Juliet. Get the hell out of there. There's two Stars of Wolves headed down the highway straight at you." Juliet meant that the Sentinels were pulling everything back to the DropPort, prepatory to retreating offplanet.
Mimi, listening in, heard Calla's warning. "Sheila, Mimi. Take off."
"We're not leaving you, Mimi!" Sheila tried to pull harder, make her Shruiken go faster, but neither her 'Mech nor the Awesome were exactly speedy.
"Who said anything about leaving me? The Clanners won't bother with a wrecked 'Mech or one person on foot. I'll head towards the rally point on foot. The Wolves have to sort their lines out—I'll be back by then!"
Sheila stopped pulling. Mimi was right. The Clans wouldn't bother with one escaping MechWarrior—and if the Sentinels were in disarray, probably the Wolves were too. It was only a few kilometers, and Mimi was a good runner. She would make it. Probably. "Okay, Mimi. If you're out too late, we might have to come after you."
"My transponder freq is 129.68. I'll be running like hell. Get clear, you two!"
Carefully, they left the shattered Crusader against a ruined building. Sheila couldn't see Mimi; the viewport was too cracked and small. She waved anyway. Tooriu radioed, "Good luck, Mimi," and then both retreated down the street, into a business district.
Mimi powered down her 'Mech and waited. Two Clan 'Mechs walked by, but seeing no signs of life from the Crusader, passed her by. When the footfalls had faded, Mimi unstrapped, opened the storage locker behind the seat, and took out a jacket and a pair of pants. She safetied the ejection seat, then struggled into the clothing and opened the overhead hatch. Smoky and cool air drifted into the cockpit, which actually felt good after the heat of battle. Mimi checked her surroundings, reached back, and got a pistol and a thermite grenade from the locker. No one knew if the Clans bothered with salvage, but Mimi wasn't about to let the Wolves have her beloved 'Mech. She took one last look down at the cockpit, where she'd spent some of the longest minutes of her life, then pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it in. She slid off the head as it exploded, starting a fire that would consume the cockpit. She hopped from the Crusader's shoulder to some rubble, picked her way down, and sprinted into the gloomy twilight.
Erikkson Magnusson DropPort
Rasalhague, Free Rasalhague Republic
16 July 3050
Max looked out over the vast expanse of the DropPort from the cockpit of his Hatchetman, and cursed. The whole trip had been a waste.
The Sentinels' Alpha Battalion had reached Rasalhague two weeks before, only to be left cooling their heels at the DropPort. Only after Calla had brusquely asked Elected Prince Haakon Magnusson if he wanted help or not had Calla finally been allowed to attend a few strategy meetings. There, Calla was told in no uncertain terms that the Sentinels would hold the DropPort and the approaches, and nothing else. Max shook his head: Rasalhagian national pride was one thing, but this was just stupidity. Though, Max corrected himself, maybe it was better if the Sentinels weren't in the thick of fighting, since the Wolves were slowly advancing into the city itself. The 3rd Freeman and the 1st Drakons were making them pay for every inch, but the outcome was not in doubt at this point. Whoever's commanding the Wolves knows what they're doing, he thought. When Clan Wolf had arrived insystem and demanded what forces defended Rasalhague, Magnusson had purposely left the Sentinels out, so the Wolves had been somewhat surprised by the appearance of a unit they didn't know about. Unfortunately, the Sentinels had been more or less ignored, screened by smaller forces—and Calla simply didn't have the manpower to do much about that.
The Sentinel ad hoc lances sent out to cover the retreat of any Rasalhagian forces towards the DropPorts had mostly reported in. Casualties had been low, at least. On the other hand, only a few Rasalhagian MechWarriors and ground personnel had accepted Calla's offer of retreat offplanet; most wanted to stay and fight it out, even if it meant to the death or prison.
"Highlander Six, Highlander Three. Movement front, range two klicks." The clawlike arms of Peter-James Mader's Marauder rose.
"Hold fire, Three," Max instructed. There had been stragglers coming in all afternoon. He moved his head in that direction, causing the Hatchetman to do the same. Max missed the excellent vision from his Battlemaster. He also missed the PPC; the Hatchetman only had an AC/10 as a ranged weapon. His radar picked up the contacts, which were still far out of range. He let them get in a bit closer, then radioed on the company net, using the prearranged callsigns rather than the Sentinel ones that Mader had. "Unidentified contacts at Sigurd and Sielstad, this is Tango Echo One, Sentinels. Password."
There was a brief pause, then his radio hissed. "Tango Echo One, Tango Alpha Three. Password is Urd. Countersign?"
Max smiled, because he recognized Sheila's voice. "Countersign is Hild. Advance and be recognized." A few minutes later, and the battle-scarred Shruiken and an Awesome came into sight. Max waited to see the two Crusaders of Mimi Stykkis and Nkosiyabo Malinga, but there was no sign. "Tango Alpha Three, where is Alpha Five and Six?"
"Lost them. Brief you on the ground, Tango Echo. Come talk to me." The Shruiken and the Awesome moved past, Tooriu raising the 'Mech's PPC arm in greeting. Max waved back with the Hatchetman's left hand, then switched to the battalion net. "Alpha Six, Highlander Six."
"Go, Highlander." Calla sounded tired.
"Alpha Charlie Six has requested I talk to them personally. Request permission to leave the line for ten?"
"Highlander Six, permission granted. Pull all Highlander elements back to Phase Line Pink. Alpha Six out." Max paused for a moment before ordering his lance back to Phase Line Pink, the defensive line hastily thrown up from parked airport vehicles and whatever else the Sentinels could find; it was the final line before the DropShips themselves. As he moved back, he saw a lance of 2nd Drakon 'Mechs take his place in the line. His heart sank. It was true: the Sentinels were leaving Rasalhague. Another damn defeat.
Sheila and Tooriu parked their 'Mechs in the shadow of an Overlord-class DropShip and dismounted. She shivered as she climbed down the rope ladder to the tarmac; her arms and lower legs were bare, and a cold breeze cut across the DropPort. "What's the plan, boss?" Tooriu asked. He showed no ill effects from the cold.
"We have to get Mimi."
"No shit," Tooriu replied, "but how?"
"I don't know; I'm making this up as I go along…" Sheila's voice trailed off as she saw a Drakons Ferret helicopter settle on its tail boom and land further down the tarmac. She motioned at Tooriu to follow as she rushed over to it, ducking her head as the pilot opened his canopy. "Hey!" she yelled out over the engine. "Are you pulling search and rescue?"
"Nah, arty spotter!" the pilot yelled back. "Why? You got a MechWarrior down?"
"Yeah, she had to bail over by the Andersen Flyover! Can you fly over there?"
The pilot paused for a moment, then glanced down into the cockpit. "Yeah!" he said. "I got the fuel if you've got the balls—figuratively speaking, ma'am." The pilot, a master sergeant, abruptly realized he was talking to an officer. "Give me five minutes to take a leak—my back teeth are floating. I'll also need to round up a door gunner."
"I gotcha covered!" Tooriu grinned.
"You're a MechWarrior!" the pilot protested.
"Hell's fire, man, I know how to fire a damn machine gun!"
The pilot nodded. "All right, hop on. You going too?" Sheila nodded. "There's some coats in the cargo bay. It's gonna get damn windy back there." He slapped her on the shoulder and ran towards the nearby terminal.
Max had caught the last part of the conversation over the rotors, and followed Sheila to the small bay behind the cockpit. "Sheila! Where's the rest of your lance?"
She let Tooriu pull her into the bay; Max felt a pang of jealousy for a moment, which he dismissed as stupid; there was nothing between Sheila and Tooriu now but friendship. Then she turned back to face him. "Nkosi's dead—Clan strafe got him. Mimi bailed out, and she's evading back here. She's never going to make it in time." Sheila nodded to where Max's lance was now parked, next to hers. "Dad getting ready to pull us out?"
"He didn't say so, but we're falling back to Phase Line Pink, so…looks that way." He blew out his breath. "Waste of our damn time to even come here…you're going after Mimi, I take it."
"Yeah. In case Mimi got hurt, someone might have to jump out and help her into this thing. Tooriu can cover us."
"Your dad isn't going to like this," Max said.
"I know, which is why we're not telling him." Her eyes met his. "Max, I've already lost one of my people today, and I'm not losing Mimi."
Max smiled wanly. "I understand." He grabbed her map. "If you can make it to this cross street here, I think I can get Mom's permission to support you."
"Hopefully we just snatch and grab her." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "But thanks."
The pilot came back and pushed past Max. "Excuse me, sir." He grunted and managed to heave a manpack SRM-2 launcher into the bay. "Spotted some of those damn Toad things on the way in. Doubt they'll bother with a single chopper, but you never know." He looked at Tooriu. "You know how to use one of these too?"
"Of course!" Tooriu lied. He figured it couldn't be too hard; there were instructions printed on the side.
"Capital. Ma'am, there's a Ryonex in there somewhere—yeah, there it is." Sheila lifted the submachinegun. The Ryonex was a good weapon, reliable and tough; she had qualified in it at the Nagelring like the other cadets, though she wasn't that great of a shot with it.
The pilot climbed back into the cockpit. "Be careful!" Max yelled at Sheila.
"We will!" Tooriu yelled back with a grin. Max crabwalked out from under the rotors as they spun up. The Ferret lifted off a moment later.
Sheila watched Max as they rose, then he disappeared from view as the Ferret turned and headed west. She put on a headset and tied her hair back into a tighter ponytail; the sweat from a hot 'Mech cockpit had caused it to come loose. "Pilot, this is Sheila. You receiving?"
"Hey, Sheila, yeah, five-by. I'm Ken, by the way. Your MechWarrior have the transponder freq?" She gave it to him, and the Ferret hovered for a moment. "Okay, got it. Yeah, shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Hold on; got to get low before some Wolf fighter jock sees us." Sheila's stomach lurched as the Ferret dropped like a rock, and she felt icy fear in her stomach as residential buildings rose over her. These were mostly high-rise apartment buildings and storefronts; the fighting hadn't reached here, but the residents had been evacuated. He hedgehopped a line of tall trees, and Sheila almost vomited. She was not good at this.
"You okay?" Tooriu shouted, and she threw him a miserable thumbs-up. He grinned—figures, Sheila thought sourly, he's enjoying this—and went back to scanning the horizon over the door gun. It was a machine gun; there was another below the pilot, but Sheila remembered Persistence: if it took a medium laser to hurt a Toad, a machine gun would probably just annoy it. It wouldn't even notice her Ryonex.
Sheila started looking as the pilot slowed the Ferret. "C'mon, Mimi," she breathed.
Mimi had actually made good time, once she was clear of her 'Mech, jogging for five minutes, then stopping for five to make sure no one was in pursuit. She took a drink of water, tossed the empty bottle aside, and started running again. The area was deserted; it was as if she was the only person left on Rasalhague.
Then she heard the helicopter, and crouched behind an abandoned ground vehicle. The Clans didn't have helicopters that she knew of, but she also didn't want to be the first to encounter one. Then she saw the Ferret come into view over a row of box stores. "Hot damn," she laughed, pulled a pen flare from her boot, twisted the top, and fired it. A red flare shot from the top, high in the air.
"Flare at eleven o'clock low," Ken called out. He moved the collective to hover, and used the Ferret's sensors to zoom in. "Sheila, does your MechWarrior got short hair and is cute?"
"That's her!" Sheila replied happily.
"Roger that. She better at least kiss me. Heading down—"
"Oh shit!" Tooriu overrode him. "Toads, right side, four o'clock!"
As the Ferret began to descend, Mimi ran out from cover, waving her arms. Then she spotted movement out of her peripheral vision. "Oh shit," she echoed Tooriu, and ran behind another hovercar as the first of the Clan battlearmor poked its squat head above a sign. Ah, fuck, Mimi thought angrily, those bastards have been following me. They were using me as bait! She was actually wrong, though she could not know it—the Wolf Elemental commander and his Point was actually a reconnaissance unit, and had hunkered down when they heard the helicopter; the Rasalhagians were using them as artillery spotters, and Elementals feared artillery. Now, however, he spotted Mimi in the street and knew what the Ferret's mission was.
Mimi bolted from cover as the Ferret suddenly swooped down.
"Get ready!" Ken yelled out. "We'll have to grab her on the fly! I'll hover, you grab her, Sheila!" He was cut off by a high pitched whine as Tooriu opened up with the machine gun, if nothing else distracting the Elementals.
The Ferret nearly scraped its nose on the street, and Mimi dived, terrified that the pilot had misjudged the height and was going to cut her in half with the rotor. Instead, he leveled out expertly, and Sheila held out her hands. Mimi grabbed them.
The Elementals were not intimidated or distracted by Tooriu's wild fire. One triggered her jump pack and alighted atop a flat, leveled the arm laser and fired at the Ferret's rotor housing. The ruby beam just missed.
Ken shouted some choice Swedish curse words and pulled up hard. Mimi tried to hold onto Sheila, but her grip slipped off. Sheila reacted without thinking. She grabbed the SRM launcher by its carrying strap and leapt out, leaving the Ryonex. Somehow, she didn't break anything—Sheila had never thought her gymnastics training would help on a battlefield, but it did here, and she managed not to get hit by the launcher as it landed next to her.
"Oh shit!" Tooriu yelled, the second time in as many minutes. "Sheila just jumped out!"
"Sucks to be her!" Ken shouted back. He climbed as hard as the Ferret could take them.
"We gotta pick them up!"
"No can do, MechWarrior!" Ken said. "One hit from that laser and we are toast." He figured he was out of range, so he began radioing for help.
Sheila rolled to a crouch next to Mimi. "Hi."
"You fucking idiot!" Mimi grabbed Sheila and hauled her behind another parked car as Sheila dragged the launcher with her. "What the hell—you're going to get killed!"
"Couldn't leave you—"
"You're the Commander's daughter, dumb shit—"
"Talk later!" Sheila saw an Elemental leap off the roof and land only about ten meters away. Another lofted into the air and fired a brace of SRMs at the Ferret; they fell short and landed in a store roof, blowing it off. For a wild and hopeful moment, Sheila thought the Elemental might have been distracted by its comrade and not noticed them, but then the blocky armor turned around and faced her. Its SRM pack was empty, but it hardly needed them—not with the arm laser and an underslung machine gun. It raised the laser but didn't fire, motioning Sheila towards it with its claw fingers. She heard a voice say something about surrender, but she wasn't paying attention. Instead, she was hastily reading the instructions on the launcher. They had not taught how to use one at the Nagelring, figuring no MechWarrior would ever need to. Luckily, the instructions were written with simpletons in mind, so Sheila figured them out quickly. She ripped off the safety guard from the trigger, dropped the sight in place, braced the heavy launcher across the car, aimed for half a second, and fired both missiles.
Her shot was hasty, and if the Elemental had been any further off, the SRMs would have sailed merrily over the Elemental's head. Instead, both hit high, just below the V-like windscreen, and actually lifted the battlearmor off its feet. It fell backwards with a crash and stirred weakly.
Mimi, who had the presence of mind to drop down next to Sheila rather than behind her and avoided the backblast, rose up. "Hey, you got him!"
"Yeah, how about that. We're still gonna be a day late and a kroner short if we don't haul ass." Sheila turned, only for Mimi to scream as another Elemental landed right in front of them, close enough for Sheila to reach out and touch its bulbous torso. Through the suit's windscreen, she could see the face of the Wolf warrior, and he did not look pleased. He raised the machine gun, evidently deciding that prisoners were no longer necessary. Mimi gamely kicked it in the leg, which was rather like kicking a tank, but Sheila saw the eyes flick downwards for a split-second. She grabbed the empty launcher and smashed it into the Elemental's faceplate. The impact did no damage, but the Elemental was taken by surprise and lost his footing. The battlearmor did a crazy pirouette and crashed through a storefront, which then fell onto the hapless Wolf warrior, burying him in debris.
"I don't believe you did that!" Mimi exclaimed.
Sheila tossed the now bent launcher aside, wondering where she'd found the strength to swing it. She grabbed Mimi and pushed her. "Let's not wait around for him or his buddy to get up!" She glanced behind; sure enough, the Elemental she'd shot with the SRMs was starting to get to its feet. Two more alighted next to it. Mimi turned and ducked into an alley, Sheila hot on her heels, and nearly collided with a fifth Elemental.
All three froze for a split-second, taken by surprise at the sudden appearance of an enemy. As the Elemental reared back, Mimi didn't stop her forward movement: she ducked under its laser arm and kept running.
The Elemental swung the arm just as Mimi cleared it, catching her in the back in midstep. Sheila heard the heavy, wet snap of bone breaking, and Mimi was catapulted down the alley into a dumpster. She slid down, leaving a streak of blood, limp as a discarded doll. The laser arm swung backwards to point at Sheila, then both her and the battlearmor were knocked off their feet. Sheila landed hard, her head banging off the pavement, and everything went black for a moment. Woozily, she rolled over on her back, and stared upwards at the narrow legs and torso of a Hatchetman. Despite feeling like she was immersed in mud, she crawled forward. The Elemental took no further interest in her, as it was now the one staring down a barrel, though a considerably larger one. It got to its feet and triggered its jump pack, trying to leap onto the Hatchetman's oblong head.
Max was not having any. Afraid he might hit Sheila or Mimi if he fired the autocannon or his medium lasers, he simply swung the hatchet like it was a baseball bat. It caught the Elemental in midair and sent it flying several blocks away. Where it landed, he neither knew nor cared. He turned to engage the others, but the rest of the Wolves were scrambling backwards. Max was not alone, and no Point of Elementals was going to take on an Orion and a Marauder.
Sheila managed to stumble forward and fell down next to Mimi, the world spinning around her. She reached out and shook her friend, as if trying to wake her up for class. Mimi flopped over, and her eyes looked up dully. "Hey there," she said with a languid smile. "You okay, Sheila? You're bleeding a little."
Sheila felt blood trickling down from her temple. "So're you." Mimi's nose was bleeding from where she had hit the dumpster.
"Yeah. Hey, we should get outta here, huh?" Mimi tried to get up, but couldn't. She tried again, but still nothing. "That's weird," she said, and turned to Sheila, still smiling. "Isn't that weird? I can't feel my legs. That's weird. They worked okay this morning." Then her eyes went glassy and she slumped against the dumpster.
Sheila reached over and shook her. "Mimi? Hey, Mimi? What's wrong?" Then the black curtain of unconsciousness fell.