He swung his ’Mech’s namesake hatchet up then down, shredding the big ’Mech’s belly armor. It reared back, staggering off-balance, giving him a clear shot. He swung the hatchet again, faster this time, gutting the ’Mech like a trout.
In slow motion, the Catapult toppled backward over the cliff. He watched as it fell, and had the added satisfaction of seeing the sixty-five-ton ’Mech land headfirst on top of an attacking Tian-zong. Already having weathered countless rounds of defensive fire, the big ’Mech’s armor cracked, and it began to hemorrhage fluids through the opening.
The surviving SwordSworn units below the cliff were quick to target the weakness, hammering away at the breach. The Tian-zong turned, slowly lumbering back toward the sea. It was a move of desperation. If seawater flooded through the hole into a critical system, the ’Mech would be disabled. In the end, it didn’t matter. The concentrated attacks continued until the mortally wounded colossus tumbled face-first into the surf and lay, half exposed, like an artificial island.
Erik heard cheering in his headset, but the fighting had only begun.
A glint of light caused him to look out to sea, just in time to spot a line of flitting insect shapes flying in low over the water. The flash was a reflection from the windscreen of a Donar Assault Helicopter. The nimble aircraft fanned out to cover the landing of the hoverferries: two on the beach below, others beyond at the docks in Port Archangel.
Troops and armor began rolling off. The armor would be trapped below until the tunnels were cleared. But with defenses scattered, troops in powered armor would begin scaling the cliff with jump jets.
Erik heard a shrill voice on the command channel. “This is lower East Tunnel! They’re coming through! We’re falling—” There was an explosion just inside the tunnel mouth, and the transmission was silenced. Erik grimaced, but it wasn’t unexpected.
He could see the streets of Port Archangel filling with fighting vehicles and massed infantry coming from the docks and headed for the East Tunnel. If they thought they had clear passage, they were wrong. Each of the tunnels had a surprise in the middle: back-to-back pairs of DI Schmitt Tanks, deadly “stoppers” that could resist incursions from above or below, and would be protected from ’Mechs and long-range weaponry. If the Liao forces were going to use the tunnels, they were going to have to pay the toll.
Erik had planned one other surprise, too, though timing was critical. He waited until the helicopters—with the landing essentially complete—dashed up over the cliffs to engage the forces above. As the Liao forces cleared the far side of Port Archangel, he issued a radioed command. “Force Archangel, attack!”
In the hours before dawn, Erik had deployed powered armor, and many of his heavier and less mobile tanks, to Port Archangel. They had carefully sheared off the hidden sides of warehouses—mostly those with metal sides or roofs, driving the tanks inside the building shells to wait. The buildings would confuse the enemy and give the SwordSworn an advantage. Likewise, the powered infantry had been hidden around the city.
Now the city behind the advancing Liao forces literally exploded, buildings bursting apart as tanks crashed out, turned onto the streets, and began firing at the enemy’s exposed flank.
Powered infantry spread out on either side, using the buildings as cover, sniping at the surprised and off-balance column, which was bunching up at the tunnel entrance. The first units in were shocked to find themselves greeted with a hellish mix of machine-gun bullets, autocannon shells, lasers, and flamethrowers.
Erik’s elation was short-lived, as one of the air-defense towers exploded under a hail of laser fire from the swarming Donars, and another was taking heavy fire from a mass of light ’Mechs. “Legionnaires, take those ’Mechs on AD Tower Six!”
A trio of ’Mechs dashed into view from behind a hangar. The odd-looking Legionnaires were little more than giant rotary cannons mounted on top of humanoid torsos. Fast, specialized, and deadly accurate, they began pounding away at the smaller ’Mechs with devastating results. A Spider was immediately ripped apart by the massed fire. A Koshi spun and returned fire, a missile smashing into one of the Legionnaires and jamming its cannon. Then the Koshi went down under fire from the surviving units’ rotary autocannon.
The surviving enemy ’Mech, a Panther, ignored the attack and lobbed off one more salvo of missiles at the tower, which exploded and began to burn.
Erik spotted a pair of big Ryoken IIs lining up on another tower. He was outmatched, but he might be able to draw their attention. He charged past them, lasers and autocannon firing. He swung the hatchet and managed to wing one of them. It barely scraped the armor, but it made enough noise to wake them up.
“Now I’ve done it,” he muttered as he zigzagged, trying to throw off their fire. The ’Mechs were bigger, better-armed, and faster than he was. His only advantage now was that he was already moving full speed, and they had to accelerate to catch up.
Autocannon fire streamed past his canopy and began peeling off his rear armor. His damage displays flickered to yellow, and then red. Just ahead he spotted what he’d been looking for, the ramp leading down into one of the big ’Mech tunnels. “This is Sandoval. I’m headed into Portal Five with company! Two, heavy!”
He skidded the Hatchetman around the corner and down the ramp into the dark opening below.
The bigger ’Mechs had to slow to take the turn, giving him a greater lead. He switched to infrared, hoping that his pursuers would be slower to do so. In the close quarters, they’d be reluctant to use most of their weaponry, though that wouldn’t be a problem if they caught him. Even his hatchet wouldn’t be enough to save him.
He raced past a row of deep alcoves in the tunnel walls, then put the brakes on, sliding his ’Mech to a stop and turning. The Ryoken s slowed as well, suddenly wary.
As they should have been.
From the alcoves burst a veritable swarm of DrillingMechs and PipelineMechs, welders arcing, claws poised to snap, diamond drills flashing. One of the little ’Mechs was quickly swatted aside, and another blasted apart by point-blank autocannon fire, but the Liao ’Mechs were already taking damage, being dragged down. Erik carefully targeted the closer of the two Ryokens, centering the cockpit in his crosshairs and giving it everything he had.
Weapons flashed with blinding brilliance in the dark tunnel. Erik saw the Ryoken’s canopy begin to crack. He charged in and brought his hatchet down with all the force he could. There was a satisfying “crunch” as the blade collapsed the canopy and sank deep into the ’Mech’s torso.
He turned to the second enemy ’Mech, just in time to see a diamond drill sink deep into its gyro housing. The resulting explosion ripped the drill arm of the IndustrialMech, but the mortally wounded Goliath collapsed and lay twitching on the tunnel floor.
Erik called his congratulations to the IndustrialMech pilots, but he was already running for the next ramp to the surface.
“Commander!” Sortek’s voice sounded high and stressed. “We’ve lost Towers One and Three! We’re losing ground up here—we’ve lost three of nine towers.”
In theory, any three towers could still protect the base. In theory. In any case, at this rate they wouldn’t have three for very long. Even one might offer some protection, but the forces waiting to drop down from orbit were overwhelming. “When’s the next reentry window?”
“That cluster of four has a window in three minutes and—”