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[u][b]18th March 3027, 19:36 - Sartu system, Sartu c - Federated Suns[/b][/u]

“Alright, Half Pint, post up on that hillside over there and let that PPC rip. Ghost, IRIS will call out targets to you, focusing on the ‘Mechs. Giggles,” Her callsign cut through the noise like a foghorn, “prioritise the VTOLs and then combat vehicles. Once those are done, coordinate with Ghost. Wait for Alpha to give you the go. I’ll be ahead of you, looking out for trouble.”
The three Bravo Lance pilots each found a place they could comfortably shoot from and waited. Two minutes later, Alpha Lance reported contact and 30 seconds after that, Bravo was given the fire-at-will order.

Alpha reported good initial effect as Warriors started falling out of the sky and a PPC and two LRM 15s began tearing into the enemy ‘Mechs, forcing them to take cover from two directions. As Marit focused on the battle raging hundreds of meters away from Bravo Lance, she completely missed small figures moving along the ground. She only noticed them when one of them soared through the air and headed straight for her cockpit. Turning the torso was a completely instinctive reaction, like when a ball is thrown at your head and you swat it aside. Unfortunately for the infantryman, Marit was right-handed so the reaction still worked as the unusable SRM launcher hit the jumper’s legs, sending the man tumbling toward the Dervish’s canopy. The impact was marked by a faint thud and left a red streak across the ferroglass.
Around the same time, the machine guns of Deadstick’s Locust woke up. “Infantry and jumpers at three-one-zero. Handling that.”
Marit turned back to the sensors readout, finding that the remaining combat vehicles had already been decimated. She was about to ask her mother to call out her current target to focus their fire when a sudden flash of light and spike in cockpit temperature drew her attention to a nearby jagged rock. As she hauled the Dervish around to make herself harder to hit and peered through the canopy to identify what the Hel was shooting at her, something weird about the view kept tugging at her eye. Something had changed. The bloody smear was gone. That could only mean the laser vaporized it. A cockpit hit. Bastard! The other medium laser carving into her right torso was just an insult on top of it

Perhaps it was her inexperience, perhaps the way she was raised, but Marit subscribed to the same way of thinking as fighter pilots ever since the rise of flight back on Terra: That theirs was a different, cleaner kind of combat, machine pitted against machine, free of the mud and blood of regular ground war. Of course it wasn’t true and there were about as many ways one could die horribly inside a BattleMech as there were reasons to hate the Draconis Combine, but it was one thing if an accident happened and a whole other can of worms if someone went out of their way to make it happen. SHe’d been stationary for crying out loud.

The offending BattleMech turned out to be a Cicada, gunning straight for them. No doubt sick of being pelted by LRMs. [color=76D0FF]“Bravo, Cicada, dead zero.”[/color] She cautioned, firing off her only medium laser and turning to run behind some sort of cover, aware that she couldn’t outrun it. The Cicada was drawing mercilessly close when a flight of missiles slammed into its side, rending the armor on the left leg and torso and ripping off the left arm wholesale. The Cicada stumbled, leaning over precariously before its pilot regained his balance. Seeing the ‘Mech turn to her once again, Marit raised the Dervish’s arm to cover the cockpit and kept hauling ass into cover. Both of its medium lasers found her ‘Mech and Marit was able to feel the Dervish’s weight shift as the rest of her right torso armor ceased to exist. Fortunately, the right side LRM rack was empty to offset the weight of the missing arm. The Cicada’s stumble fortunately allowed Marit to gain enough ground to fire her missiles, sending everything she had at the enemy BattleMech.

The laser carved out a piece of the right leg armor while the missiles - Marit somehow landing all 20 of them - wrought havoc upon the Cicada, making the center and left torso armor look like Lunar surface, stripping the right arm completely and breaching the already weakened left torso. The hail of fire was joined by four medium lasers from the Cicada’s left, two making contact with the leg and torso as Idun’s Catapult rounded a rock, coming to the rescue.

The Cicada’s pilot realized which way the wind was blowing, took one last potshot at Marit as he turned tail and ran, the medium lasers taking a decent chunk off her center torso armor. Using the right arm to try and shield her now exposed internal structure, Marit hastily sent out a volley from the left torso launcher, three missiles making contact with the rear armoring of the Cicada’s center torso, joined shortly by two more lasers and a volley or LRMs from the Catapult, stripping the rest of its back armor, mangling the left torso and even striking the head. The fusillade pelting its back and a poorly timed dip in the terrain sent the fleeing medium ‘Mech face first into the ground, plowing a short trench in the soil before tumbling over its head and coming to rest unmoving, the MechWarrior likely unconscious from going 130 to zero via lithobraking.
[color=#69A2FF]“Alright?”[/color] Her mother simply asked.
[color=76D0FF]“Lost a piece and running dry, but moving.”[/color]
In the commotion, Marit hadn’t even noticed that Half Pint and Deadstick had taken down a Locust that accompanied the Cicada and the rest of the infantry.

“Bambi here, need help, I’m-” The call for help was cut off mid-sentence. Looking in the depot’s direction, Marit was treated to the horrible sight of a Panther engulfed in LRM explosions. The stricken ‘Mech took one last, wavering step backwards as the shaken Diagnostic Interpretation Computer carried out the last command given to it before all inputs from the pilot ceased and the ‘Mech fell limply flat on its back as when the smoke cleared, it became apparent there was no longer any cockpit to send commands to it.
“Bambi’s gone.”
“No!”
[color=#69A2FF]“Did she eject?”[/color]
“No. Negative punchout.”
“Xerox? Xer- Aili! Snap out of it!” Marit could see IRIS’ Grasshopper backhand the now-stationary Locust as the realization that Xerox had just witnessed her twin sister get vaporized in front of her hit her like a freight train.
[color=#69A2FF]“Bravo Leader, Bravo Two, missiles running low, recommend we get in there and get physical.”[/color]
“Agreed. Alpha Lance, we’ll be with you in a minute, hang in there.”

The site of the skirmish was bloody. In addition to Bambi’s Panther, the downed Warriors and wrecks of several ground vehicles, she could see a wrecked Blackjack and Commando. The Sons didn’t have any of those, good. As they arrived, Marit also caught the tail end of a Panther - Charlie Lance’s last working BattleMech - and half of Ångström’s Assassin, down to just its SRM 2 launcher, tearing into a Trebuchet they isolated from the rest of its Lance and determined to keep doing it until the noises stop. Given what they all just watched it do, she wholeheartedly approved. Bravo’s own Locust busied itself with harassing a Quickdraw as it tried to disengage and landing some good shots by the looks of it, but it was only one mistake from getting stomped into the ground. All was not well though, as IRIS’ Grasshopper was facing off a Locust and a godsdamned Guillotine. The only way he was holding on was the depot behind him forcing the enemy ‘Mechs to take care with aiming while he had a clear shot and the fact the Guillotine was missing both of its arms by now.

“Half Pint, Quickdraw. Ghost, Guillotine. Giggles, Locust.” Deadstick ordered, a hard edge rarely present in his voice indicating how many enemy survivors there wouldn’t be. Marit could see her mother firing everything she had save one LRM launcher and did the same, her medium laser missing, as did half her missiles. She would’ve felt embarrassed to miss a ‘Mech that had its back turned to her and likely had no idea she was even there aside from a lock on warning were it not for the fact that Deadstick failed just as bad as she did. At least the Locust turned to look for what the heck was shooting at him and stopped trying to circle around IRIS’ Grasshopper, who took advantage of the shift of his attention and scored a hit to its legs with his large laser. One leg buckled under the weight of the machine, the other one getting flung away as inertia won over the tumbling ‘Mech’s remaining structural integrity. Any jubilation was quickly ended by a bang as the Assassin’s right torso was ripped open by an ammo explosion, struck down by the Trebuchet’ final laser volley before being itself destroyed. With the remainder of the Sons barreling down on them like a ton of vengeful bricks, the Guillotine and Quickdraw didn’t last much longer, despite another attempt to break off and flee and Jolt’s Panther succumbing to prior damage and forcing her to shutdown and eject.

And just like that, it was over. No proverbial mist clearing, no serene silence, just the same ambient noise of the Dervish beneath her and the thought of four lockers in the ready room without a master. As status reports from the other MechWarriors started trickling in and orders to check on Jolt and RTB came from the Kalevala, Marit could hear the relief in her dad’s voice.
[color=#69A2FF]“Mari?”[/color] Idun asked when Marit lagged with her check-in, using her regular nickname to give her brain a push for some traction.
She took a second to recompose herself before answering. [color=76D0FF]”I’m alive.”[/color] She stated flatly with a hint of disbelief, the situation yet to fully sink in.
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