As Jaune entered Ruby's mech, located in a dropship, he asked. "Are you sure this is necessary? I could observe the battle from the ship." And maybe he could find a way out, thought Jaune.
"Jaune it's my duty to teach you the way of Clan Jade Falcon. And one of the ways is mech fighting." said Ruby as she sat in her cockpit. "I even got the technicians to install a second seat for you."
Jaune squeezed himself into the second seat. The cockpit was clearly not designed for two seats, which resulted in a very cramped space. "So, what's your mech?" asked Jaune wanting to know his chances of survival.
Ruby's eyes lit up as if no one ever asked her that before and she said with such glee, "This is a Mist Lynx, and her name is Crescent Rose. She weighs only 25 tons, but this girl not only has an ER large laser she also has an ER medium and an ER small laser. It's my custom configuration."
"ER?" asked Jaune as he strapped himself to the seat.
"It stands for extended range." said Ruby as she started her mech, still surprised at how much she had to teach the boy.
"I guess that makes sense." said Jaune as he was surprised he didn't start feeling cold from his coolant vest. "Are you sure our coolant suits are working?"
"Of course." said Ruby
"It's I just feel normal." said Jaune "not cold."
"Wait," said Ruby shocked. "Your coolant suits make you feel cold? How do you function in them?"
"Vests." corrected Jaune. "And you just get used to it."
Ruby sat there, shocked at the primitiveness of the inner sphere, as a woman with short black hair and a bright red suit accented by gold appeared on her vid screen.
"Mechwarriors." said the woman. "Are you ready to burn those innershpear barbarians to a crisp?"
"Hell yeah, Star Commander Cinder." shouted Yang as her image appeared on the vidscreen. "I am ready to tear those freeborns a new one."
"Of course you are." said Blake in her usual dispassionate voice.
"What is that supposed to mean?" asked Yang, not sure if she should be offended or not.
"I do hope all the chit chatter is over." said the Star Colonel as her image appeared on the vidscreen. "We are 10 seconds from drop."
"Of course." said Cinder. With that, silence fell over for the next seconds as alarms blasted, and Jaune felt the mech being let go by the industrial clamps that held it in place. The mech fell through the hole under it, and as the feet landed on snow, Jaune saw the cloudy sky, though not obscuring all vision impairing some of it.
"Mechwarrior Blake you are to use your Fire Moth to flank the enemy and take care of infantry. Mechwarrior Ruby you are to snipe the enemy from long ranges. While I, Star Commander and Mechwarrior Yang will conduct a frontal assault." Said Raven Branwen as enemy fire prevented her from continuing.
Without wasting another second, Ruby moved the mech forward and to the left upon detecting a tank 452 meters away. Ruby fired her large laser striking the tank and shocking Jaune. The range thought Jaune. How could she hit that at that range? The tank fired back, but Ruby was well beyond its range as she struck it again. Destroying it in that blow.
Mechwarrior Yang charged forward with her Nova, accompanied by Star Commander Cinder's Summoner and Star Colonel Raven Branwen's Timberwolf. They would be unstoppable thought, Yang. As her screen lit up, revealing the enemy, Yang saw they were all of an archaic design, like everything else she had fought, except for the three VTOLs that were approaching her. Yang's Nova felt the attack of a few inferno missiles. Yang quickly turned to the source of the missiles and saw the encamped infantry on the hillside shooting it. As she fired 4 of her ER medium lasers, only one of the soldiers was hit by the laser obliterating him. However, the remaining shots only damaged the encampment. Another volley of lasers was about to be shot as Cinder's Summoner obliterated them with her machine guns tearing the soldier to shreds.
Yang chastised herself for needing help in her fight. But she quickly realized how she could regain her honor and charged towards the Vtols deploying. As Yang approached her prey, she activated her jumpjets; as she flew, her mech landed and crushed one of the helicopters. She fired her lasers at another VTOL retreating. The lasers hit its tail, causing it to spiral out of control and crash. Yang reveled in her victory as she marched on. However, her cockpit screen informed her of an unknown tank design approaching her from the side of a hill. Her computer reported it was 80 tons and it was carrying; Yang thought that the computer was having a malfunction because that was ridicule- BOOM- Yang shielded her face from flying sparks. As her ears were deafened by the sound of her mech's left arm being shredded to pieces, Yang knew her computer was right and that primitive tank was carrying two AC 20s. But before it could get another shot at her mech, Yang turned her Nova around and fired her remaining 6 lasers. As one of the lasers pierced the ammo bin of the tank, it blew up into a cloud of flames. As Yang was alerted to another of those tanks approaching her, Blake dashed in with her Fire Moth obliterating the tracked pest with her five medium lasers. Anger consumed Yang as she pounded her fists on the top of her computer screen. She did not need help from her Star Commander, thought Yang, and she sure did not need help from that freeborn.
Jaune shouted, "Run Run Run."
As Ruby moved her mech through the passage between hills, she replied, "I as I was saying the Warhammer is an ancient design that saw service in the."
One of the Warhammer's PPCs struck the Mistral Lynx's right arm. The shot melted nearly all the armor there. The computer informed Ruby that her ER Large Laser was severely impaired. Another PPC shot missed the mech and melted a large swath of snow into boiling water.
Ruby turned her mech towards the left, causing Crescent Rose to run up the hill. As she turned the torso of her mech, Ruby fired all her lasers, blasting off some of the Warhammer's armor.
But the enemy fired its weapons, though most missed a few shots and were able to damage the central torso compromising it. But as the mech ran down the hill, appearing behind the Warhammer, Ruby fired all her weapons. As the lasers pierced its rear, the right torso of the Warhammer exploded into a bundle of flames. The lumbering beast fell, showing Ruby that she had slain the enemy. Ruby's mech marched on as Jaune gave thanks to whatever god allowed this to happen. But he quickly took that back as Ruby continued "As I was saying the Warhammer saw extensive usage in the Star League defense force."
