Victor forced the BattleMech into a sitting position and cut loose with twin blasts from the lasers mounted on its left forearm. The scarlet fire ripped straight lines through the canyon, splashing red highlights over the striated rock, but it missed the Centurion.Still, the hastily snapped shots forced the Centurionpilot to duck back, giving Victor just enough time to regain his feet again. The computer, using Victor's own sense of balance as reported through the bulky neurohelmet he wore, brought the BattleMech upright.
"Galen, where are you?"
"Coming up behind you, boss. What's the score?"
"Him lots, and me nothing. Centurionspack a Luxor D-series Autocannon, right?"
"In the right arm, yeah." Galen hesitated. "That is, all except one I know of. The one's got a Pontiac 100, just like your Victorthere."
Victor pounded a fist down against the arm of his command couch. "Damn! Yen-lo-wanghas a Pontiac. That had to be Kai." A shiver ran down his spine. "And if that was Kai, the rest of his lance can't be far behind."
"Roger. I've got visual on you."
The computer projected an image of the entire 360-degree area surrounding Victor in a 160-degree arc in front of him. Twin crosshairs stood in the middle of the display, each under control of the joysticks on the arms of his command couch. At the right edge of the display, beyond the gold bars that showed Victor the limits of his weapon firing arcs, he saw the computer projection of Galen's Crusadermarching into the canyon behind him.
"You know, Highness, from behind, your 'Mech looks fine."
"Looks are deceiving." Victor punched up a damage report. "The armor on my right side is gone completely. The autocannon is useless because the ammo feed mechanism is shot. I'm lucky Kai didn't get a stray shot into the magazine."
The LRM pods on either of the Crusader'sarms flicked open. "Where is he?"
"I don't know. Where's the other half of our lance?"
Hohiro's voice boomed an answer to the question into the Prince's neurohelmet. "I am here, coming up behind Hauptmann Cox. Has your Immortalassault 'Mech run into some trouble?"
Victor ground his teeth. "You might put it that way, Sho-sa.We've found Kai Allard and he's running in a modified Centurion."
"If you find a Centuriontoo much to handle, Kommandant Davion, I would accept command of the lance."
"If you and Yodama would be so kind as to keep up with Galen and me, we might be able to trap Kai's people and have it out with them." Back behind Galen's Crusader,Victor saw the blocky form of Hohiro's Grand Dragonwander into view. The LRM launching rack jutted forward from the 'Mech's chest like the muzzle of a beast. Its right arm had no hand because the forearm housed a PPC, and Victor saw a medium laser underslung from the 'Mech's left forearm. He knew the Grand Dragonto be a nasty 'Mech in a fight, and would have preferred battling it out with Hohiro to being on the same side with him.
Galen's voice cut into the commlink. "I think you two should remember that we're fighting against Kai and the others, not among ourselves. Victor, you know well enough that we're going to have to work together to beat Kai, Sho-saKurita, if you've not learned to be wary of Kai yet, you probably will have by the time this simulator exercise is over."
Shin Yodama, bringing his Phoenix Hawkup behind the Grand Dragon,overrode the commlink. "Scatter. Incoming!"
Up over the computer horizon came three swarms of long-range missiles. The narrow canyon took some out as they impacted the lip or slammed into outcroppings and exploded in brilliant balls of computerized flame. A series of detonations rocked Victor in his pod as missiles peppered his 'Mech's left leg, blasting digitized armor into fragments. The Victorstarted to topple again, but the Prince jammed the useless autocannon into a canyon wall and kept himself upright.
The missile barrage hammered the two Kurita 'Mechs. The missiles savaged the armor on Hohiro's chest and right leg. A rippling series of explosions crushed armor on Shin's Phoenix Hawk,leaving the right side of its chest pockmarked with craters. A second wave of missiles following immediately after the first blasted yet more armor from Hohiro's Grand Dragonand chipped away at the armor over the Phoenix Hawk'schest and right arm.
Victor escaped the wrath of the second wave, but Galen did not. A quintet of missiles arced into the Crusader'sright knee. Great chunks of half-melted ferroceramic armor shot from the fireball engulfing the joint. The Crusaderstaggered and dropped to one knee as another set of missiles struck it full in the chest. The impact knocked the Crusadersideways, but Galen caught it on one hand and kept the 'Mech from going all the way down.
The fire in the 'Mech's chest did not subside with the end of the missile barrage. More explosions wracked the humanoid Crusader,making it shake as with a giant case of hiccups. Fire geysered from the hole in its chest and out through its spine, then a massive blast obliterated its chest and sent its arms and legs flying throughout the canyon.
"Galen's out. Move!" Victor started his 'Mech running down the canyon toward where he had seen Kai's Centurion."Missiles must have breached the armor and touched off his short-range missile magazine. Move it, or we'll get pounded by another flight of LRMs." Victor suppressed a shudder as he realized that if Kai's attack had hit his autocannon magazine, his 'Mech could easily have been torn apart from inside. "Kai spotted for the rest of his lance and they brought the missiles right down on top of us."
Victor cut around the corner into another canyon and saw, after a short distance, that it opened to the right into a broader canyon with a flat, level floor. Better yet, a 'Mech stood its ground and waited for him. "Move, guys. I've found them."
His computer identified the BattleMech as a Cataphract,but Victor knew it by another name. Because the ungainly beast looked like something cobbled together from various parts of other 'Mechs, most Federated Commonwealth MechWarriors called the Liao 'Mech a "Frankenstein." An autocannon barrel jutted forward like a lance from the center of its chest. Its right arm was identical to a Marauder's,down to the PPC and medium laser in the boxy weapons pod that substituted for a right hand. The left arm was styled after the right arm on most Shadow Hawks,except that the medium laser was mounted on top of the arm instead of below it. That led most weapon experts to conclude that the whole system had just been transplanted with a refit on the elbow and hand. The bulbous body and birdlike legs again drew comparisons with the Marauder,but somehow the Cataphractdid not offer the same menace as its predecessor.
Victor dropped his crosshairs onto the Cataphract’soutline and hit the button beneath his left thumb. Twin spears of laser light stabbed out at the awkward 'Mech. The first shot boiled away armor on the Cataphract’sleft flank, letting gobbets of it drop like rain onto the canyon floor. The second carved a hot scar through the armor on the 'Mech's head, making the pilot flinch. The 'Mech, complying with the motion of the pilot, took a skip-jump to the left, but stayed upright and brought its weapons to bear.