Chapter 15:
Flying Colors
The Dire Wolf's sensor alarms warned Galaxy Commander Corbett that another 'Mech had a strong targeting lock on him. The Inner Sphere commander, turning away from the ruined Cauldron-Born to come at his right flank. But the Dire Wolf's right-side armor was still strong, so he could ignore the customized MadCat long enough to put an end to the Sunder. Only a chance hit against Corbett's cockpit could stop him, and then it would be over so fast the galaxy commander would hardly know it.
Not that Corbett believed it possible. His destiny was to lead Clan Smoke Jaguar back to dominance, and nothing would prevent that. Nothing, and no one. Let the surrat try his best-it wouldn't save his warrior in the Sunder and in the end it would not save him. The troublesome raiders would never leave Tranquil alive. The galaxy commander had seen to that when ordering his shuttle wired with explosives, tying a remote detonator into his own computer. Even with the destruction of his OmniMech-though certainly he would escape alive-his revenge would still be complete. He silently dared the enemy commander to fire on the Dire Wolf, believing himself far more ready-far more prepared-to tempt the fates than his counterpart could ever be.
Then the alarms cut out as the enemy officer broke off his attack to run in at the back of Corbett's starmate instead. Amanda Wimmer's MadCat stumbled into view, driven forward by a pair of scarlet laser beams coring into its back. Then the silver-gray blur of a gauss slug slammed in behind them, crushing armor and titanium supports as it punched through the housing which protected the OmniMech's massive gyroscope. The MadCat stumbled to its knees then sprawled out over the ground, high-velocity metal still spitting out the near-mortal wound. A rain of missiles slammed into the stricken 'Mech, finishing the job. His starmate managed to bring down the emergency dampening fields, saving the corpse of her ruined machine, but it would not continue this battle.
"Freebirth!" Corbett shouted, slamming a fist down on the auxiliary monitor he'd had watching Amanda's MadCat. The glass smashed inward, and a backlash of electrical fire burned his hand. He ignored the pain and the caustic scent of melting insulation which now burned in his lungs.
A large part of him wanted to turn on the enemy commander, punishing the stravag warrior for the loss of his starmate. But the smoke jaguar, totem animal for his Clan, did not deter from the deathstrike once blood was scented and neither would he. Corbett centered his crosshairs over the struggling Sunder, bringing all weapons to bear and raining death upon the assault 'Mech.
All four lasers struck deeply into the Sunder's already-savaged armor, two of them combining to slice the gauss rifle in half. Blue energy flared as the acceleration coils erupted in a wash of stored electricity, the small explosion gouging deeply into the left side as well. A hail of autocannon fire opened up angry wounds over the left leg, crushing actuators, and missiles exploited further the damage to the right hip. A final burst of emerald darts from the Dire Wolf's medium pulse lasers cut through the Sunder's left side and into the main body where it melted the gyro.
The assault 'Mech collapsed back to the ground, its efforts to rise permanently thwarted.
Heat scoured Corbett's cockpit, his fusion reactor spiking severely to meet the constant power draw for so many weapons. He backed off a step from the Sunder, allowing the heat to bleed away into the Dire Wolf's many heat sinks. Then a single laser scored into Corbett's right side, slashing away armor from that formerly-pristine location. Corbett swiveled his 'Mech's upper torso around, stabbing out again with all four lasers and forcing the heat curve higher into the red. Two of the lasers carved into the MadCat's left arm and side. The enemy 'Mech rocked under the blow but did not come close to faltering, then it cut inward to circle around the Dire Wolf's left flank.
Why only a single laser? The incongruous fact hit the galaxy commander as he forced the sluggish Dire Wolf into a turn to keep his weapons centered on the MadCat. A feral grin split his lips, showing the teeth behind. Opening a common channel, he allowed a bit of that satisfaction to bleed into his voice. "Having trouble with the shuttle?" he asked, certain now that the explosives had been discovered and that they were worried about destroying his Omni. And with good reason. "You will never leave Tranquil alive. I told you that once before. It is still true."
And Brendon Corbett walked his Dire Wolf forward, certain now of his invulnerability as he triggered another full spread of weapons.
"We're still working on the explosives. We need a few more minutes."
Any reply to Sorenson's update was lost as Sinclair's full attention was demanded by Brendon Corbett's hard-hitting assault. The MadCat shook violently as two lasers and a pair of light auotcannon stripped his 'Mech of more armor, denuding his right leg and side down to titanium skeleton and worrying his left arm within its last half-ton of protective plating. A glance at the wireframe schematic showed the heavy losses to his protection, promising that the glaaxy commander's next hit would penetrate somewhere to the vital systems which kept the MadCat fighting.
He allowed himself to return fire with both lasers this time but not the gauss rifle, holding back the headhunting weapon for a slow peeling away of the Daishi's armor. It would take both lasers into the head of the assault Omni to manage a killing blow, and he deliberately held his fire low to prevent such an occurrence. The scarlet energy splashed over the Daishi's left side and leg, eating way the last of their armor but unable to penetrate deeper. He turned in tighter, shifting his circling maneuver into a shrinking spiral. Corbett matched him with a shuffling gait, though the heat buildup was obviously slowing the OmniMech's response.
Connor's heat curve, however, had fallen back into the yellow with his restricted weapons fire and was now riding low in the band. Myomer musculature responded with greater efficiency, allowing him to approach the MadCat's top speed of eighty-five kph as he cut in again. "Make something happen fast," he warned Sorenson. "I'm running out of room to maneuver."
The literal truth, as he ran within sixty meters of the large assault Omni. He stabbed out with lasers again, bumping his heat upward but nowhere near a debilitating level. The energy weapons struck the Daishi midline and into the left leg, sloughing armor to the ground in half-melted plates. The Daishi's left side stood open to almost any shot, now. A flurry of missiles from the SRM packs riding the MadCat's shoulders could conceivably finish the galaxy commander off, while over his right side, Corbett could hope to take several more hard hits. If the Daishi reversed itself suddenly, Connor would lose the angle and be pitted against fresh armor while his own damage profile looked like little more than a walking skeleton.
Except that Brendon Corbett had the dead-man's switch to his advantage, and was so obviously more concerned with tracking in on the MadCat than the risk at which he placed his own 'Mech. "No hope!" the Jaguar commander taunted over the open channel. "You will all die here today. Your bodies will be left for the scavengers."
Except his next salvo did little to back up his boast. One laser only and a rapid-fire burst from the Daishi's fifty-millimeter autocannon scored against Connor. The depleted-uranium slugs ripped into his left leg, smashing aside the last of his armor but failing to damage the critical actuators. The laser sliced into the MadCat's left torso substructure, cutting away one of his shoulder-mounted launchers. The SRM system twisted free of the damaged mounts, smashing against the ground and spilling a load of missiles over the caldera floor. None of them detonated, though they remained a dangerous obstacle of a 'Mech decided to walk over that area again.
"We've almost got it," Sorenson promised, his voice on edge. The corporal had to realize the time pressure his lieutenant was under.
Sinclair almost hedged, risking another exchange with Corbett. No, time had slipped out form under him and it was now or not at all. He would take Sorenson at his word, counting on the other man to come through just as he would any other member of the commando. Connor turned in sharply, racing almost directly at the Daishi and then cutting around the Omni's left flank. Not quite at the assault 'Mech's back, but out of full line for most of Corbett's weapons. Only two of the Daishi's large lasers flared out this time, one of them coring into Sinclair's left leg to cripple the MadCat's upper leg actuator. Connor managed to work with the gyroscopic stabilizer to overcome the OmniMech's violent tremble, but he wouldn't be going anywhere else very fast. He dropped crosshairs over the Daishi's side, by eye picking out the large rents already carved through its protective armor. He toggled every weapon and squeezed into the trigger. "C'mon, Sorenson!"
"Got it! Drop that last Clanner!"
Connor Sinclair would never be certain if he had waited for the corporal's assurance or had already committed to the barrage, and in the end it really did not matter. If he hadn't fired, the opportunity would have been wasted. The two of them had to succeed together, or not at all.
Large lasers cut into the Daishi's arm and left flank, both splashing through the last of the armor and pumping destructive energy into the vital equipment beneath. The shoulder joint melted beneath the focused energy, locking the arm in its awkward position. The second laser blew threw two of the three heat sinks stored in the left torso, carving a path for the gauss slug which punched in afterward to slam full force into the ammunition bin for Corbett's LRM system. Missiles compacted and then detonated, warheads and propellant touching off in one grand explosion. Gouts of flame shot out front and back as the cellular construction channeled most of the energy out the special vents. The explosion eviscerated the entire left side of the Omni which staggered violently to the right, teetering on one leg. Heat blossomed in white-hot fury on the thermal imager, the combination of destroyed shielding and the loss of heat sinks.
"This is not happening." Brendon Corbett had not closed the channel earlier, and his shock and pain were clear. "By Kerensky's Blood, it cannot be happening!"
Then Connor's remaining short-ranged missile system rocketed out a flight of a half dozen stubby warheads. Three of them speared through the ruin which was now the Daishi's left side, blasting away the last of the armor over the Omni's midline and gouging into the shielding protecting the core of the fusion reactor. No dampening field was going to override the destruction visited on the engine, and golden fire spilled out to eat away at what remained of the Daishi's chest. The flames licked up and around the forward-thrust head, the intense heat melting armor and bursting the cockpit canopy into shards of ferroglass. Not the usual catastrophic failure, but a death drawn out over several long seconds.
"No! No! Nooooooooo…." The denial trailed off into a scream and then static as the Daishi and Galaxy Commander Brendon Corbett finally died.
The Smoke Jaguar commander fully aware of his failure.
* * *
Connor clambered down from the MadCat, leaving the Omni as it belonged-as the last 'Mech standing over the caldera's battlefield. He approached the Daishi's burned-out corpse with care, wary of the intense heat it still radiated. Sooty black smoke rolled into Tranquil's pale sky, pushed around by the chill breeze blowing through the caldera-a beacon proclaiming the battlefield and also reminding him of the incoming Jaguar forces which would be dropping down from space soon. Still he wanted to be-had to be-certain.
Allen Mattila was walking over from his abandoned Sunder. The shuttle had lifted enough to skim the caldera floor, and now landed nearby so that the rest of the Damocles Commando could join the Sinclair as he hopped back from the scorching metal which framed what was left of the cockpit. Sorenson hung back behind the MechWarriors, carrying a square of folded black cloth. Dominic and Epona looked a bit rough from their combat ejections, but well enough to walk unassisted. Epona Rhi managed a brief smile and a nod. Not any form of celebration, not after the cost Tranquil had demanded of the Inner Sphere operation, but simple recognition for a job finished and done.
"Well?" Dominic asked, frowning at the ruined Daishi. "Is he?"
No need to elaborate more than that. Everyone knew the question. The lieutenant nodded once. "Corbett is dead. His move to resurrect the Smoke Jaguars is finished."
"It was finished when we tore the heart out of Durghan City," Sorenson said. "Knocking out the Core Tap Facility below only clinched it. The other Clans will move in behind us and finish off the remnants. Corbett's dream had died. He refused to admit it." He glanced over at the smoking wreckage. "You just planted the final stake in his heart is all."
Connor Sinclair shook his head. "Not a stake. A sword." He glanced to his lancemates and then back to the analyst. "The Sword of Damocles. We all helped wield it. Not that the Smoke Jaguars could understand the reference-that their own leaders brought them to this state."
Sorenson smiled thinly and offered Conner the cloth he carried. "Maybe this will be enough for them, then."
The commando's lance leader accepted the package with both hands, feeling the weight behind it. Allen nodded, scrounged a metal rod from some nearby wreckage and drove it down into the caldera's ground while the lieutenant shook the flag open. He tied two corners around the makeshift pole, then stepped back as the breeze tugged at the ensign-the silver Cameron star against the black field. The Star League colors, left flying over the caldera battlefield.
A funeral shroud, for Clan Smoke Jaguar.
Connor Sinclair gathered his commando in by eye, leading them back toward the waiting shuttle. "The Eclipse is waiting. Let's go home."