The sudden appearance of the Urbanmech had thrown Lyris in an unattainable situation. Unable to retreat, nor push for the Thunderbolt's flank without risking a shot from an AC 20 or take fire from the Thunderbolt directly. Every resounding boom from the Urbanmech caused her heart to pound in her chest. Just as visions of an autocannon round cleaving her mech in two flashed through her mind, there came another sound altogether. The humming thrum of what Lyris recognized was a powerful laser shot. It took a while for Lyris to realize the source of the shot from the HUD function of her neurohelmet. The superheated beam struck the enemy urbanmech and seemingly disabled it in one well aimed shot
"Urbanmech right arm destroyed, Urbanmech knocked over."
Lyris recognized Johan's voice over the radio and breathed a sigh of relief-- she owed Mouse for this one. Before she could recover or take advantage of the sudden turn of events the Thunderbolt facing her dropped all interest in either her or Peter. It took Lyris a moment to correct her steeds stance before she could give chase, having not anticipated this strange reaction from the pirate mechwarrior. She wasted no time in giving chase, firing wild shots into the compromised armor of the heavy mechs rear. The mechwarrior pirate ignored all of these and continued its wild charge. It took her only a moment to realize the pirate's target as it ran toward their line. She pushed her engine until her steed had fallen into a full sprint, desperation plagued her thoughts as a spark of fear in her chest grew. What if she did not make it in time?
By the time she closed the distance once more the pirate had already engaged Johan's Riflemen in a deadly melee of metal on metal violence. Lyris cursed under her breath, but she had been offered one advantage at least. As the heavy pirate battlemech slammed its right arm into the Riflemen's leg, Lyris quickly rotated her mech's upper torso to the right -- hydraulics hissing and actuator motors roaring with the motion. At the tail end of her charge, she willed the upper body to swing around to the left again, using the momentum of her sprint and twist to send the oversized hatchet she carried into a deadly horizontal arc toward the rear of the Thunderbolt.
With a guttural growl, she aimed for the section of the Thunderbolt where upper torso connected its bottom legs. A resounding crash of whining metal and tearing iron echoed with the impact. The jolt was so violent in fact it rocked Lyris in her seat causing her to be flung forward slightly before her momentum became restrained by the harnesses that kept her rooted to her chair. She tasted blood as she realized she must have bitten her lip from the reckless move. Still, her blow was quite telling as her ax sunk rudely into the structure of the Thunderbolt.
It stumbled forward before arresting its momentum, however, before the pirate mechwarrior could recover fully from the blow Lyris opened the left palm of her haptic gauntlet. Her mech's hand began releasing the hatchet, which left it to rest in the back of the Thunderbolt. Metal whined, and sparks flew from the location of her attack. The massive bladed weapon had stuck fast directly into the motors that allowed the Thunderbolt to twist its torso. The pirate's heavy mech was now left unable to maneuver and retaliate against their aggressor. Lyris backed her Griffin off as the trio of lasers located in her mech's right charged with power.
A salvo of laser fire slammed into the already compromised back armor of the Thunderbolt. Her HUD revealed severe structural damage as the mechs internals became wrecked from the stream of laser fire. The pirate's mech still stood, however, and unable to turn in time, it instead took a lumbering step toward the Riflemen, perhaps hoping to charge directly into it now that it could no longer twist to punch with its fists.
"Oh, sterben gerade!"She yelled in frustration.
She fired another salvo pushing her engine into the red zone as the heat began to build to near critical levels. Three lancing beams of green light cut a trail across the Thunderbolts rear structure, back and forth like the daft movements of a painter. This time, finally, she had found the components she had been hoping for as a massive explosion rocked across the Thunderbolts body as the LRM ammunition it carried cooked off. The entire upper left torso was at one instance engulfed in flames before it seemingly shattered and exploded, taking its whole left arm with it. The LRM launcher went as well as the thing rocked violently to one side, barely staying on its feet before finally falling with a ground shaking thud. Amidst the thunderous fall came a series of secondary explosions as missiles flew into the air amidst hot red shrapnel like a bizarre and horrible fireworks display.
Lyris pulled her mech back quickly as she instinctively shielded her cockpit with her left shield arm. As the explosions died down and the pauses between them grew longer Lyris let out a shuddering breath before keying communications.
"You still with us Mouse?" A layer of concern in her voice.
