It came from the invisible infrared beam of her laser. She had not been at all comfortable with the idea of sacrificing one of her main weapons for a spotting laser, but the Khan had approved the plan, so she accepted it. Each of the five Elemental Points had one member acting as spotter, with the rest ready to pick off any survivors.
She saw a blue flash at the lower corner of her view-plate. Incoming.Holding her arm rigid, she braced herself for the blast. She knew it would not be long in coming and would be devastating when it hit.
To Evantha it looked as if a volcano had opened up beneath the Vindicator'sbroad feet. One moment the 'Mech was walking through a forest and the next it had become a black silhouette in the center of a fire spout. Missile after missile pounded the Vindicator,crushing armor into sharp ceramic shards, stripping the right arm of armor, and mangling both the shoulder and elbow joints. The PPC twisted out of line with the 'Mech's flank and pointed down toward the ground.
Amazingly, as the smoke cleared and burning trees toppled, the Vindicatorremained standing. The armor on its body and both legs had been damaged, but the pilot had managed to keep the war machine upright. Evantha knew that meant he was very skilled—better than any bandit should be.
Evantha kept her laser trained on him. Glancing at the row of icons beneath her holographic display, she triggered one and sent out another burst of telemetry. Hit him again, Chris.
* * *
As Carew covered the Hellcatwith his crosshairs, once more, the warning klaxon started to blare. Someone has a lock on me!He glanced at his display and saw a Tridentswooping down on him in his four. He rolled his Visigothover on its right wing, then pulled back on the stick and came up into an Immelmann. As he headed back toward the Tridentand passed beyond it, he again hugged the stick to his stomach and completed the full loop.
The Hellcatcame up into his sights again, so he punched the PPC off and added in twin medium pulse lasers. The PPC blasted away at the engine cowling while one of the lasers smoked another heat sink. The second laser ripped up the armor on the right wing, burning away some of the paint job.
Carew blinked as the Hellcatcame up and over on its left wing. As it whirled away to his port, he got a good look at the insignia previously hidden by the bandits' burning red and gold paint. No, that could not have been! No one would be so bold. No one would be so insane.The flames consumed the insignia, but Carew could not forget it.
Before the true import of what he had seen could sink in, the warning klaxon again sounded in his cockpit. DamnedTrident! Carew fixed it with his rear lasers and was about to trigger a blast when three energy beams shot up from beneath the Tridentand raked through it like shrapnel through fog. A PPC beam opened the fuselage from nose to tail like a giant blue can opener, while twin large lasers scissored through the right wing. The wing folded up and in toward the cockpit, then snapped off and dropped away as the smoking fighter began to spiral down toward the ground.
"Eagle Leader says thanks."
"Not a problem, Eagle Leader," he heard Caitlin answer him. "Just returning a favor."
* * *
Under the cover of his fire support lances, Chris and the rest of Alpha Battalion entered the foothills. The paths left by the bandits were easy to follow. Radio messages from the Elementals made locating the enemy 'Mechs easy, and the first ones he saw were the burning, smashed hulks of those the LRM-equipped 'Mechs were destroying from afar.
Bringing his Thunderboltaround a hillock, Chris saw an improbably slender BattleMech move into the meadow from another little valley off to his right. He swung the Thunderboltto the right and centered the crosshairs on the Ostsol.He kept the sights on the 'Mech's torso, and when he got the dot confirming a weapons lock, he fired.
The large laser mated to the Thunderbolt'sright forearm sent needles of green energy through the Ostsol'sright arm armor, stripping it completely and even chipping away at the ferro-titanium bone beneath. But Chris knew better than to take comfort in that damage. The Ostsol'sarms were used only for balance and, apparently, absorbing damage that would have been more harmful elsewhere.
The trio of medium lasers mounted in the Thunderboltdid more damage. Two melted away armor in the Ostsol'schest, and the third savaged the left leg armor. Another shot or two in those places and he could cripple the enemy 'Mech.
The Ostsolgave back better than it got, however. The twin large pulse lasers mounted high in the torso superheated armor over the center of the Thunderbolt'schest and on the left arm. One of the medium pulse lasers in the 'Mech's belly added more damage to that on the Thunderbolt'schest, reducing its armor to 40 percent of the original, while the other one burned a nasty gash in the armor on the Thunderbolt'sleft thigh.
The Ostsolhad burned off more than two tons of armor plating, and the Thunderbolt'sgyros sought to compensate for the weight loss. Chris managed to keep the 'Mech upright, tracking the Ostsolwith his sights. The assault had left him running hot, but he could see that his enemy had also pushed his heat high in hopes of scoring a crippling blow.
In a split-second Chris decided not to push his heat again. He knew his 'Mech was better-suited to a slugging match than the Ostsol.He triggered his three pulse lasers and felt a heat spike gush hot air into the cockpit. Sweat covered his exposed flesh, but he was concentrating too hard on the damage his shots did to worry about heat.
The medium pulse lasers all hit, but they failed to punch through the Ostsol'sarmor. Two continued his assault on the center and right sides of the chest, but the third burned armor from the 'Mech's vestigial left arm. The pilot kept his 'Mech upright and returned fire with a vengeance.
The Ostsolpilot had decided to take no chances. One of the two large pulse lasers he directed at the Thunderboltmissed high, but the second burned almost all the way through the armor over the 'Mech's heart. A medium pulse laser followed it up and melted away some of the center torso's internal structures. Warning klaxons screamed throughout the cockpit, then more of them sounded as the second pulse laser blasted into the Thunderbolt'shead, vaporizing virtually all the armor.
Chris reflexively shied away from the brilliant head-shot, and his Thunderboltrecoiled with him. It stumbled and went down to one knee. Chris jerked forward, held in his command couch by the restraining belts, then arched his back and pulled the Thunderboltupright. Its right leg kicked out to stabilize it—dirt clods flying and trees falling as the foot dug into the dark loam for solid traction.