Shrapnel: Fragments from the Inner Sphere

Tracy gauged the angles by eye. then triggered her jump jets a second time. Their kick sent her sailing low across the ground. and brought her down with a roar less than 50 meters from the enemy Mech. The black-on-red Kurita dragon was plainly visible now, painted high on the enemy's chest and on the shield baffles flaring above each shoulder. She could make out the unit markings as well, a starburst against a gold, setting sun. Second Dieron Regulars,she thought. The Pride of Shionoha, they call themselves...

Kurita bastards, all of them...

Her laser was already upand firing as she recovered from her landing. Laser fire scored hits on the enemy's arm and torso, licking greedily at the House Kurita emblem as she used it for a bull's eye. The Griffin brought its PPC around and fired, but the range was short, the deflection difficult. Tracy dodged, putting her machine between the boulder and the Kurita 'Mech. The gravel slope she had fallen down earlier was just behind the larger 'Mech's feet.

Another flight of missiles erupted from the Griffinsshoulder rack, and one connected with the Dutiful Daughtersalready-battered left arm. Abandoning caution. Tracy began to snap off shots from both her hand-held heavy laser and the medium laser set into her right vambrace. An alarm shrilled in her ears as the heat buildup in her Mech threatened to shut down the Dutiful Daughter,but she slapped the override and continued to lay down a savage barrage of fire. A hit! And another!The temperature in her cockpit climbed. Tracy was drenched in sweat now, her skin glistening where her brief costume exposed it. She could hear the strain in the 'Mech's cabin-cooling system as the unit struggled unevenly to keep the cockpit temperature within habitable limits, to keep the coolant flowing through the vest she wore over her upper body.

A PPC bolt connected with her Hawk,smashing her to one side, but she continued firing as molten craters opened in the enemy Griffinschest and shoulders. Shifting tactics, she redirected her fire down, aiming for the Griffinsfeet. The Kurita pilot stepped back and vanished from sight as the edge of the gravel spill gave way and the Griffin slid down the slope with the din and dust of a boiler factory.

Tracy urged the Dutiful Daughterforward at a lumbering run. Having already scouted the terrain at the base of the slope, she knew what to expect, knew where the enemy must lie. She caught the Kurita 'Mech before the dust had settled, before its pilot was able to bring it to its feet. A hit scored squarely in the 'Mech's back...and another. Her medium laser burned through internal wiring and the strap-like bundles of polyacetylene myomers. Greasy smoke spilled from the laser gash as the Griffin staggered erect.

A new alarm sounded over Tracy's headphones, shriller and more urgent. She ignored it. concentrating on the Griffin centered in the projected crosshairs of her HUD. Her thumb closed on the firing button for her large laser, but nothing happened. Dead! All her controls were dead!The HUD flickered and went out. her cabin lights dimmed, even the hum of the cabin cooling systems dwindled with a mournful lowering of pitch. Her eyes moved frantically from display to display across the control panel. The heat had been too much. The Dutiful Daughterwas shutting herself down!

The Griffin remained standing in the line of her raised laser, but she was helpless to fire, to move, to do anything at all. All the Griffinspilot needed to do was bring his Mech's PPC up and trigger it. It was unlikely that the Daughterwould survive another direct hit.

The flash of explosive bolts around the Griffin 'sarmored head took her by surprise. Magically, or so it seemed, the Kurita 'Mech's head unfolded, curved slabs of armor falling away from the cramped and smoke-filled cockpit. A second flash edged the cockpit's interior with orange flame, and the Kurita pilot rocketed into the air as his ejection system triggered. She watched in disbelief as the pilot's election seat braked on small but savagely flaring rocket jets into the dust a hundred meters beyond the immobile form of his abandoned Griffin .Smoke continued to gush from the ruptured armor of her erstwhile opponent.

She had won!

‘Tracy! Are you all right?’ Carlyle's voice was broken by worry and fatigue.

‘Fine, Colonel. The Daughter shutdownon me, but I nailed that Griffin .’

A shadow fell across her windscreen, and Tracy became aware of a hulking mass near her Mechs right side Pulling off her neurohelmet. she cracked the Dutiful Daughtersoverhead hatch, gasping as cold air boiled through the opening into the cockpit. It was chill in the mountains south of the Shionoha capital, the wind carrying the bite of the glaciers higher up in the mountains of Tsintao. She squeezed herself upright in the hatch and saw Carlyle's 75-ton Maraudersfew meters away. Behind her, the other 'Mechs of the Command Lance—Kalmar's Shadow Hawk,Clay's Wolverine,and McCall's Rifleman—picked their way down past the rock field. Oily smoke clawed the crisp air beyond the boulders, where at least one more kill burned.

‘O.K, people,’ Carlyle's voice sounded over her' cabin speaker. ‘Close up tight. We've got a long way to go before nightfall.’

Camp that evening was in a sheltered circle of glacier-tumbled stone among the foothills of the Tsintao mountains. It offered the protection of a natural fortress against roving Kurita 'Mechs during the night, and a convenient staging area for their strike against the enemy spaceport the following morning. Eight of A Company's 'Mechs were parked around the perimeter, their weapons trained on the gray shadows and blacknesses of the surrounding terrain. The Command Lance machines plus six 'Mechs of the training reserve company occupied the center, close by the Colonel's tent. Beyond, to the south, the mass of the Tsintao Mountains loomed jagged against a star-gloried sky.

Tracy received her summons to report to the Colonel before she had completed her final check-out of the Dutiful Daughterssystems. Except for the savaged left arm, the damage was not bad, and her Tech-experienced eye told her that it would take only a few hours to repair the arm laser in a decent refit facility. Her fears for the 'Mech's paint job had been well-founded, but that was corrected easily enough, too. When the Daughterwent in for her refit, she would get a new coat of paint Tracy was already looking forward to the task, for it would give her the opportunity to paint a Griffin 'ssilhouette on the hull to record her day's kill.

All in all. she was quite pleased with herself as she locked down the Daughterand set off through the dark toward Colonel Carlyle's tent

‘MechWarrior Tracy Kent, reporting as ordered, Colonel.’

Her salute was precise and correct. Though the Legion did not go in for military ostentation, she still had the habit of her earlier training The ingrained ritual helped steady her.

Carlyle studied Tracy for what seemed like a long time, and she became more and more uncomfortable under his stare. He sat back on his camp stool behind a folding table piled high with charts and local maps, examining her with a precise concentration that was unnerving.

If only she'd taken the time to change out of the scanty briefs, tattered cooling vest, and boots that she'd worn aboard the Daughter!She knew how to make herself attractive, but at the moment, her skin was streaked and smudged with alternating layers of sweat-caked dirt and grease, and her long, dark hair was plastered across her face and back in unkempt and grimy mats. She folded her arms uncertainly across her chest and waited. What could possibly be going through the Colonel's mind?