Chapter 14:

Circle of Equals

We'll come out of the elevator here, at this northwest corner just behind the shuttle pad. That might buy as a moment to organize, but we can't hang back too long. We need to move the fight away from the shuttle-if it's damaged, we're stuck on Tranquil. Given the usual Clanner conceit, Corbett and his warriors will likely wait for us in the center of the caldera.

Over to you, Lieutenant:

...No mistake, Damocles Commando, this is a tough one. Galaxy Commander Corbett is commanding an elite team, fitted with the best equipment the Jaguars possess. Our one lucky break is that he lost one of his warriors against the rescue company, so he's down to four 'Mechs instead of the usual Clan star of five. He's dangling the shuttle in front of us for bait. He knows we need it. And we'll have to go through him to get it.

Everyone ready?

* * *

First off the elevator, his Sunder's superior armor ready to shield the rest of the commando, Allen Mattila picked up the first readings. "Got them. Right out in the middle and waitin' for us."

The shuttle screened visual sighting, but scanners fed the information to Sinclair's HUD fast enough. A Daishi, flanked by a MadCat, Cauldron-Born and one of the lethal Supernovas. The lieutenant swallowed dryly against the metallic taste of his parched mouth. Three hundred thirty tons of war machines arrayed against his lance, commanded by Smoke Jaguar elite. They stood a silent vigil in the center of the caldera, spaced far enough apart to give each other plenty of room to maneuver as needed.

Connor Sinclair dialed for his most confident voice. "By pairs," he ordered, "around the shuttle before the Jaguars come through it to get at us." Already Thomas Sorenson was leading the MFB crews forward to take and inspect the shuttle. The vehicles would be abandoned here.

There would be no time for battlefield repairs anyway.

Sinclair throttled into a fast walk, he and Epona splitting off around the right side of the shuttle and landing pad. Clear of the stubby wing, they edged up into a run. The other side of the pad, Dominic's Thor followed in the shadow of the Sunder. Dominic had chosen to go back to the OmniMech vice keep the Annihilator. Allen and Epona had considered taking the assault 'Mech, but in the end everyone stayed with what they were most comfortable. As they ran onto the field of battle, the 'Mechs separated until each one ran straight for an enemy.

"No mercy!" Corbett ordered, transmitting on an open frequency so that his enemy could hear. "Crush them!"

"Aff, Galaxy Commander," someone answered.

The first exchange of weapons fire lit the caldera in a wash of gem-colored light and the sparks of autocannon tracers. A few PPCs added to the energy display, snaking blue-white tracks across the open ground to runnel armor to the ground in impotent splatters. Missiles arced overhead on gray contrails, falling in a lethal rain. Epona had squared off against the Cauldro-Born while Allen chose to match his Sunder against the Supernova. Dominic challenged the enemy MadCat, while Connor traded weapons fire with Corbett himself.

The Daishi was configured for dueling, sporting four large lasers, a pair of light autocannon and a medium-weight LRM rack. Starting in the median range for his weapons, Corbett hit with better than half of his offensive power. Connor's MadCat bled armor from its chest and arms, and the gyro swung out of balance under the savage onslaught. Fighting his controls, trying to force the crosshairs to remain centered over the assault Omni, Connor brought the MadCat back under control and then triggered off his response.

With any luck, he managed to surprise the galaxy commander. Sorenson's techs had managed to customize the MadCat, giving Connor the best weapons of two different configurations. His right arm held a pair of extended-range large lasers, while his left the deadly punching power of a gauss cannon. Streak SRMs rode over each shoulder, sharing a single load of ammunition. It gave him an optimal heat curve, able to hit at range or trade one laser up close for his missiles without risking an overheating condition.

Now both lasers speared into the Daishi's left side, carving away armor and dropping large sections of protective plating to the ground. His gauss rifle slammed its nickel-ferrous slug home into the OmniMech's gut. A mist of gray-green fluid geysered out as the impact apparently cracked through a flaw and ruptured the Daishi's centerline heat sink. It would make Corbett's furious assault that much more costly in terms of heat buildup. Connor smile grimly as he watched the Daishi's thermal image blossom a red flower at the heart of a yellow outline. "Draw in," the lieutenant ordered, lining up for his next shots.

On his flanks, the warriors of his commando angled in to bring the lance slowly back together. They held to their own targets, however, keeping to the single combat which Clan warriors preferred above all else. Both sides were hitting-and being hit-hard. Another furious exchange, and several 'Mechs stumbled but none fell. There would be no obvious mistakes made today. Corbett's warriors were the elite product of breeding cycles and fighting their way to the top. Sinclair's people had learned the ropes on Tranquil, fighting for their lives. But the Damocles Commando still held one advantage, which Sinclair played now to devastating effect.

They could work together, as a team.

"Now!" he shouted, the adrenaline giving extra strength to his voice. On the far left, Dominic turned and ran a sharp angle in against Allen's opponent, the Supernova. Epona tried that on the far right, though ended up cut off by the Cauldron-Born. Sinclair simply throttled back, twisted his MadCat at the waist, and dropped crosshairs over the Supernova. Though Epona was forced to stay engaged against her previous opponent, the firepower of three OmniMechs managed to converge on the Supernova. With its ability to provide overwhelming firepower, Connor had judged it the 'Mech likely to cripple one of his warriors early on in the fight if it was to be effective at all. He wanted it destroyed.

He was granted his wish.

Dominic's assault-class autocannon tore through the already-damaged right arm, raking fire into two of the large lasers and cutting the Supernova's effectiveness down to sixty-odd percent. The Thor's large laser combined with one of Connor's to splash away armor from over the enemy 'Mech's chest, while the lieutenant's gauss slug delivered a hard blow to its left leg stripping it of protection. Allen's Sunder hammered home a gauss slug right behind Connor's, the impact wrenching the leg away at the hip joint. The Sunder's PPC had aimed arrow-straight for the Supernova's head, but the loss of the leg twisted it about so that instead the energy cannon finished cutting away the damaged right arm instead.

Minus a leg, the Supernova had no hope of remaining on its feet after so savage an assault. It fell in a near-graceful pirouette, slamming into the rocky ground with enough force to shake the earth.

"First blood," Allen crowed over the same open frequency Corbett had used earlier.

The galaxy commander's reply was soft and venomous. "You shall pay for that."

No doubt warned by their commander, the Clan force reacted instantly to the Inner Sphere tactics of concentrated fire. All weapons shifted toward the center of the commando line, spearing Connor Sinclair's MadCat. Sensor alarms rang the shrill warnings of multiple target locks. Connor tried to throttle into reverse, spoiling their aim, knowing all the while he would be too late. His muscles tensed into the impending assault.

Then a shadow passed over his cockpit canopy, turning solid as Dominic's Thor fell back to earth on jets of plasma to place itself between the Smoke Jaguars and the Inner Sphere lance leader. Thrusting the Thor's left arm directly at the face of the onrushing Daishi, Dominic dared the galaxy commander to meet his most impressive weapon at point-blank range. Corbett cut away on his attack run, twisting the top half of his Omni to track on the new threat. Their own commander at risk, Corbett's two remaining starmates also abandoned their line on the MadCat and instead tracked in on the Thor. One long peal from his twelve-centimeter autocannon was all Dominic had time for. The slugs hammered into the Daishi, ripping a jagged furrow into the edge of the assault 'Mech's left arm. Then a flurry of gem-colored lasers beams slammed into the Thor, followed quickly by a wave of missiles and two gauss slugs.

The wreath of fire and debris which shrouded the Thor was so thick that Sinclair almost missed the canopy blowing away and the quick glimpse of a command chair rocketing up into the air. He opened a channel on the commando's private frequency. "That's it for Dominic. Sorenson, he'll be gliding back your way. Watch for him."

Still, the sacrifice would not be in vain. Besides protecting his commander, Dominic had forced the Smoke Jaguar to split their line. Corbett had acted in his own best defense first, not thinking about his command. Again, the difference in fighting on the same side, and fighting together. Now the Cauldron-Born was isolated on the right side of the battlefield. Rather than try to challenge Sinclair and cover his starmate, the galaxy commander worked with his own MadCat to threaten the commando's only assault 'Mech-Allen's Sunder. Allen was already fading back to draw Corbett further out of position, so Connor rounded on the smaller Cauldron-Born hoping to knock it out of the fight with Epona's help.

Not that she had much left to give. The Avatar had lost its right arm-and with it her best weapon-and now at point-blank range her LRM launchers were all but useless as well. She managed cut away more of the armor protecting the Cauldron-Born's gauss rifle, but failed to ruin it. The squat Cauldron-Born pummeled the stricken commando 'Mech with light autocannon and a single laser, tearing at the left flank of the Avatar, and then punched through with the gauss slug to tear open one whole side of the fusion reactor. Golden fire belched outward, gobbling everything into its expanding core. Then the Avatar flew apart in a massive explosion the flash-blinded Connor Sinclair.

"I see her," Allen said. "She's out clean."

Sinclair blinked his vision clear, fighting away the explosion's afterimage. He did not bother searching for his warrior's parafoil against Tranquil's pale sky. Dropping his reticle over the profile of the Cauldron-Born, he waited until it burned from red to the deep gold of a solid targeting lock before hitting the sixty-five ton Omni with everything at his disposal and damn the MadCat's heat curve. Lasers stabbed scarlet destruction into the side of the enemy machine, and missiles reached out at their maximum range to pepper small explosion all along the Cauldron-Born's profile. It was the gauss rifle which paid off, however, drawing a bead over the forward-thrust head and smashing a large slug through the left side of the cockpit and out the other side. The 'Mech toppled to the right, spinning about to slam head-first into the ground and bury its pilot beneath a mountain of metal and myomer.

A wave of heat slammed through the MadCat's cockpit, flash-drying sweat on Connor's arms and legs. The lieutenant's shoulders ached from the strains of combat, though he had no time to ease their discomfort. "All right," Connor whispered into the confines of his neurohelmet, voice loud in his own ears, "this ends now."

Pivoting his MadCat back toward Brendon Corbett's Daishi, he found the last two Clan warriors still pressing forward against Allen's Sunder. The commando's assault 'Mech soaked up a flurry of brightly-colored laser darts and the azure cascades of two particle projection cannon, trading wide swaths of armor for its continued survival. Then extra-long bursts from Corbett's fifty-millimeter autocannon pounded in, ripping into the Sunder's right hip joint and tearing it apart. Stumbling backward, fighting the pull of gravity, Allen managed to scar a new molten weal across the Daishi's chest with his PPC though his gauss rifle missed wide. Then the frozen hip joint betrayed him and the Sunder crashed to the rough ground. He rolled the assault Omni back to its front, trying at once to get his feet beneath him as the enemy 'Mechs closed.

Conner's intention was to bring down the galaxy commander. Without Corbett, the remaining enemy MadCat could not hope to stand against the remaining to commando MechWarriors. The lieutenant walked forward to clear the Jaguar MadCat from his line of sight, toggling for all long-range weaponry as the Daishi's profile eased under his targeting crosshairs. The sluggish response of his heat-addled OmniMech cost him a few precious seconds, but finally the reticle was burning the deep gold of a hard lock and he eased into the salvo.

Then an urgent transmission from Thomas Sorenson stayed his hand.

"We're in the shuttle," the corporal reported, "but it's wired with explosives! They're set to trigger off an engine startup as well as remote detonation-a dead-man's switch if I had to guess. We're working on defusing it, but you have to buy us time.

"And whatever you do, do not fire on Brendon Corbett!"