By: Gladiator

The ground pounders on Twycross were not oblivious to the conglomerate of spacecraft battling in orbit.  As they looked skyward massive explosions could be seen that marked the downfall of another Mon Calamari heavy cruiser.  The blossoming fireball lit up the entire landscape with the brilliance like that of the larger aerial discharges during a fireworks display, and cascading secondary explosions spreading out like those beginning the grand finale.

  Remnants of larger hull sections and other unrecognizable wreckage and debris spiraled into the atmosphere; eventually burning up on entry, and leaving only smoke entrails in their wake. 

  The mechwarriors could pass off the spectacle with only a hasty glance though, for they were not without action of their own…

  Jason Storm shut off the computers voicing.  He was tired of the continuous announcements and its inability to classify the mechs on his scope.  The enemy was all around him, but that was to be expected.  His position was far ahead of his teammates, for that was the way it was when he ran point.

  But this was not a game.

  This was real combat….

  He had already tagged three different adversaries and the mighty missile boats he was acquiring targets for made quick work of them….  Volley after volley continuously slammed into the enemy as their smoke trails could clearly be scene coming Over the Mountain range From Beyond.

  It was quite dangerous being so far out on his own, and luckily he hadn’t been hit even once yet.  Storm kept moving constantly, and always changing directions with no recognizable pattern.

  It looked however, as though his luck was about to run out.

  Several smaller mechs - even smaller than his 35 ton Ostscout were maneuvering toward him.  The other side had obviously had enough of his reconnaissance antics and these minimechs were going to keep him busy so as to thwart his efforts.

  He looked to his scope, and then keyed up a topographical representation of the surrounding terrain to be laid over it.

  Not good.

  High canyon walls, and a lot of rocky terrain in this area.  He wasn’t about to be cornered...  He heard what sounded like thunder as missile pods on the shoulders of the enemy mechs flared to life aimed in his direction.  His fist punched the jump activator in an attempt to get out of the canyon pass.  Once airborne, he’d call in the coordinates to Ferrow and she’d send over a barrage of cluster munitions to wipe them all out in one shot.

  With the burners at maximum he jumped high and fast, but as he left the ground, the insect-like mechs flew with him and they continued to close in on his position. 

  Pivoting the gyros and jets to head in the direction of the rest of his comrades the viewport showed a confusing multitude of colors that were more of the enemies color schemes; right on top of him.  8 more Clan Elementals were already to his rear arc, and between the rest of his battlegroup.

  The Standard Ostscout didn’t muster nearly adequate firepower to take on even one other mech, let alone multiple, and Storm’s modifications deprived it of any.  He instead opted for more communications equipment and an updated Garret Mole targeting system.

  Enough of this.  He keyed a lock on his TAG - Target Acquisition Gear to the head Elemental before him.

  This outta get their attention.

  Within seconds a hail of homing missiles from the Catapult’s Arrow IV Artillery System collided with the Iron Man in mid-air; all finding their mark.

  The resulting fireball masked its complete disintegration.

  1 down.  12 to go. 

  But it didn’t even slow them down.  The enemy seemed to be coming at him with even more of a Vengeance now that their leader was gone. 

  Odds were not favorable that he would make it…he glanced at the range finder… 8 clicks out from his closest support mech behind friendly lines…. Damn…he keyed up a distress signal…maybe someone in the vicinity could lend some aid.

  In what seemed like seconds, three of the Small Soldiers latched onto his mech from behind.  Their added weight strained his jump jet engines and he began to plummet back to the earth below. 

  It was going to be a hard landing...and a forgone conclusion that Gravity Kills.  If he even lived that long…mini lasers along the arms of the Elementals began cutting, and using shear strength they began tearing sheets of armor off. 

  A hole appeared over him and part of his mech's head section was ripped away, and a commanding voice sounded over a loudspeaker.

  “Surrender freebirth to the Smoke Jaguar Clan.”

  “You are now my bondsmen.”

  Incredible. He’d never scene anything like it; these mechs were nothing more than high tech suites of body armor.  What an ingenious idea.

  Storm wasn’t about to stick around to learn more. 

  The Oscout fought for control as it fell towards the ground.  Jason punched the jets actuator again knowing his mech would overheat.  It was a good move; the concussion from the reverse of direction was enough to break the Elementals loose of their hold.  The mech rocketed back skyward as heat alarms blared into his neurohelmet and flashing lights blinked throughout the cockpit.  He was free of the Clanners, but he was going to be falling rock with no controls when the jump engines cut out and momentum stopped. 

  Just then, through the front viewport, a streamlined fighter banked down with vapor trails marking its path of descent towards him.  Skull One transformed to Guardian mode, and quickly had the muzzle of the GU-11 gun pod it was holding flashing like a strobe in rapid Succession toward the Elementals beneath him.  The bent torso of the Veritech looked like half mecha with stout legs, and half fighter.  A powerful combination.... Up till now he had only read about prototype Land-Air Mechs.

  Max Sterling matched his air speed to that of the Oscout as he grappled to gain a hold of it.  Laser fire peppered both machines, but the Veritech fired its thrusters, blinding some of the Elementals and both began again to climb.

  Soon their altitude was too great for the Clans, and they started making their way back towards his friends, and the rest of the company.  Max’s voice chuckled over the headset, “seems like bailing you mechwarriors out of trouble is becoming a full time job!”

  From their small alcove high above, Jason could see nothing but charred landscape and smoldering clouds of dust and debris.  In the distance, beams of  “ruby colored hell”  from orbit continued to pummel Twycross, and secondary explosions flared up along the entire horizon.

Rocks tumbled from canyon walls as the roar of autocannons filled the air.  Between the Atlas and Annihilator, IOD continued to fire a virtual hailstorm of heavy projectiles at the advancing enemy.

  A star of Clan mechs were burrowing their way through the canyon devastating everything in their path…as they came closer Edwards began barking orders, and the company broke off to engage the enemy individually…

  Edward’s Battlemaster raised the outstretched arm in front of him containing weapons and fired.  The Particle Projection Cannon flashed, and drove home a direct hit into the Clan mech's center torso. He triggered group two weapons - 4 medium lasers – also direct hits.  At this close range he expected to see the mech lying on its back when the smoke cleared.

  His jaw dropped.

  The direct opposite was unfortunately the true reality.

  The mech bore a massive scare across his chest, but the damage did not even remotely phase it.  Oil residue layering across the mech's outer armor housing and joints did seem to have caught fire and unfortunately the ominous licking flames gave the possessed impression of a live demon from hell.  Moreover, it seemed to be increasing in speed as it continued to advance....

  It must be a Clan Omnimech, Wolf had warned about these. 

  Alarms blared throughout his cockpit – now the enemy weapons had a lock on him…

  Twin pulse lasers from the enemy sprayed green darts over the center torso bubbling armor over his own heart almost like an omen.  Molten endosteel washed downwards like a lava flow.  This was going to be a fierce and brutal battle to the end…………………..

  The rest of the company was starting to have similar problems…

  Wallart had multiple omnimechs pinning him against the canyon wall...a small outcropping of granite was all that stood between him and Clans reaching out like some great fang.  That, and of course the Gauss gun he pulled the trigger on and the overheated barrel again glowed faint red.  A silver ball belched forth from the muzzle and found its target. 

  Armor scales flaked off the Clan mech he had his computer classify as a Mad Cat, since it seemed to prance through the terrain before him.  The air was thick with missiles as the Mad Cat sent over a response.  At least 25-30 missiles impacted the outcropping, and cascading explosions lit up the canyon on the rock face behind him.  Tumbling boulders threatened to bury his mech in an avalanche or in the very least severely hamper his mobility with their mass cluttering the canyon floor.  Several of the missiles impacted his frontal armor, followed by multiple lasers, and even an autocannon round.  The Atlas shook so violently that when it ended he was happy to still be alive………..

  Victor surveyed the battleground from atop the far canyon wall opposite Wallart.  He was in trouble, and his cries over the comm-link were not to go unheeded.

  Victor thanked the Dragoons silently for their modified equipment as he triggered Group One weapons combo.  Two Diverse Optics Sunbeam Extended-Range large lasers lanced out and struck one of the Omnimechs in the back.  It reared around, obviously agitated by his intrusion to his and Wallart's duel and let loose a volley of long range missiles….

  Victor dropped the Phoenix Hawk into the canyon neatly evading all their fury.  “Crude and slow Clansmen,” he muttered aloud, but very softly, for now he was in the midst of the melee.

  One of the other Clan mechs opposing Wallart disengaged and flew towards him almost like a Vulture.  In seconds, six SRM 6-packs ignited from shoulder mounted housings.  Victor wasn’t going to enjoy facing off at close range with this Clanner, but in the very least it gave the Atlas a fighting chance…

  …With the Mad Cat's attention swayed, Wallart made a brake for it.  He threw the Atlas into a full-bore run and made it about 300 meters before the Cat's weapons were trained on him again.  Where he was exactly running to he wasn’t sure, but anything was better than backed against the canyon wall.  The Atlas slowed its speed in an effort to take better aim.  The AutoCannon roared again, and a fusillade of metal fragments washed over the enemy like a ferocious sleet storm.  The Mad Cat unleashed another round of missiles and lasers, and then Wallart let him have it with another A/C 20 blast, and again with the Gauss rifle.  The shootout continued in this fashion like Modern Day Cowboy's from Hell, while the remaining three Omnimechs had open game against IOD’s other members………..

  The Battlemaster and Annihilator stood back to back, covering each others firing arcs.  The three Clan mechs opposing them dealt as much firepower as three entire Inner Sphere heavy assault lances. 

  The enemy circled their position in continuous loops with their torso sections twisted at 45-degree angles.  Two went one direction at different speeds, and one the other further throwing their perceptions off.  They seemed to be keeping their distance, not wanting to make a critical mistake against the Annihilator.  The Wolfs’ mech was obviously living up to its reputation.  

  The gun pods that were the annihilator’s arms fired, jerking backwards and forwards repeatedly from the recoil.  A tongue of flame erupted from its 4 AC/10’s as it fired multiple pot shots against the enemy.

  Green beams sizzled forth as the enemy returned fire hitting both the Annihilator and the Battlemaster in the left arms and torso.  The Battlemaster took some of the damage in its rear armor, but now the Clanner was coming into his forward firing arc. 

  Before he could get a lock though, a combination of missiles, projectiles, and energy weapons played over all points of their armored exoskeleton from the other two Clan mechs.  Heat alarms blared as several of his sinks must have been knocked out, but he triggered the PPC anyway. 

  “Head Shot!” Edward’s called out over the comm-link. 

  “Great shot Commander, that’s one in million.”

  “When he comes around again, go for it too, that area is vulnerable to a second strike,” Edwards added.

  “Aye sir….”

  Another wave of missiles, and particle weapons impacted on the two’s armor plating, and it seemed as if these Clan OmniMechs could fire consistently without recharging.

  Both men fought valiantly to keep their mechs up right, and at one point only a collision into each other backwards kept them on their feet. 

  The sensitive targeting and tracking system aboard the Annihilator acquired a lock, and a quad of pulse lasers issued forth with their familiar high pitched ring and danced randomly across the exposed areas of the omni-mech melting several tons of Ferro fibrous armor.  Armor bubbled up and sloshed down over the entire front side of the mech.  As it re-hardened over the leg actuators the mech stopped in place.  It could no longer move – a sitting duck!

  The pilot of the Annihilator knew they were getting wailed on, and quickly re-sequenced his weapons groups.  They had to take out at least one enemy mech to even have a remote chance of winning unscathed.  All four medium pulse lasers and all four AC/10’s were now on the main trigger of his weapons joystick. 

  The annihilator pulled away from the Battlemaster and the power plant strained to move its 100 ton mass at flank speed.  At short range he couldn’t help but hit what he was shooting at….  The battlemech quickly reached almost 50 kph leaving monstrous foot imprints into the canyon bedrock.  As he closed in on the head damaged mech he brought all his weapons online and fired. 

  Quadruple beams of synthetic lightning stabbed forth and landed their target while the ultra high speed depleted uranium slugs slammed home.  He’d probably fried some primary circuitry, but it was all well worth it.

  When the smoke cleared, there was no mistaking the damage – the enemy mech just stood there...head completely vaporized.

  Sparks, smoke and coolant created a cloud around the Clan, and myomer fibers whipped and snapped their smoldering ends looking like snakes upon Medusa’s head.

  Abruptly, the remaining two Omni’s charged.

  4 PPCs lanced out from ONE mech drilling into the left leg of Edwards' Battlemaster.  The ferro-titanium that made up its artificial bones crushed under the impact, and the extremity blew clean off at the knee. 

  TWELVE pulse lasers from the other mech added to the PPC barrage against the toppling Battlemaster.  The emerald needles pierced the air

  and found their mark.  Molten armor flowed off the 85-ton mech like a giant waterfall.  Superheated spectrums of energy danced about its exposed structure as the pulse lasers continued to strike, and parts of its internal infrastructure began to elongate under intense heat.  The mech might as well have been made of glass as it began breaking apart, gyros and titanium struts shattering across the sooted ground.  More missiles slammed into it, and the Battlemaster came apart at the seams it was under such intense fire power…soon it lie still, crumpled and mangled.

  Max’s Veritech touched down with the Oscout among Storm's friends.  Clearly they could see a pretty hard-core battle had taken place here… craters, dust, smoldering hulks of metal that were the remnants of battlemechs were everywhere.  Wallart's Atlas was missing an arm.  Smoke and steam still billowed off super heated armor where laser hits had been taken.  Then what he saw made his heart sink.  Edwards’ Battlemaster was in ruins.  Jason looked skyward hoping to see a cockpit riding a rocket of flame that would be the mech’s escape pod…his eyes traversed the area trying to catch of glimpse of the pod lying some where.

  Wallart's voice in his neurohelmet confirmed his fears.  He must have seen the motions of his massive outer form searching the sky. 

  “He didn’t make it.”

  To make things worse, the scope showed more enemy Stars advancing in the distance.  Max contacted the Ground Mobile Unit for immediate extraction.  It was in the area picking up other downed RDF mecha.

  The GMU touched down shortly (this one of course a new and improved version, see msg way BFB).  

  “We can get you off this dammed rock,” Max addressed the remaining members of Edwards' company.  "The cargo bays aboard the GMU have ample room to stow away your mechs, and we can even begin some makeshift repairs."

  A Ruby beam through the clouds drilled another city in the distance asunder.  The temperature was plummeting, and it was already beginning to snow as the nuclear winter like conditions took effect.  The planetary bombardment from the Imperials had thrown catastrophic amounts of dust and debris into the air creating an overall blackout on the surface.  The ecosystem was in complete disarray.

  Twycross would be a barren wasteland for decades to come.

  Wallart keyed up the comm-link.

  “Let’s pack it up boys, we’re outta here.”