Every arena on Solaris is unique. They take the form of jungles, caverns, gigantic buildings, or even more exotic settings. The arena at Xolara was a huge, steel-walled square. The concrete floor concealed several dozen titanium walls, posts, and blocks. These obstructions could be raised and lowered by radio-control. Sometimes the controls were made available to the MechWarriors in their battle machines, and sometimes not. Each warrior would control some of the barriers, but not all They could be overridden by the Arena Master in his control booth, though, of course, he would never do that...unless he had something to gain.
The weather on Solaris is almost always dismal—high winds, acid rain, air pollution—but the day of the big fight dawned bright and clear. Two preliminary matches warmed up the crewd for the main event. Four SDR-5V Spidersengaged in a free-for-all melee until only one was left standing. Then two VLK-QA Valkyriestook on one ENF-4R Enforcer,a match the Enforcerwon, but only barely. The radio-controlled arena barriers had played a big part in keeping the Enforceralive.
No crowd filled the arena stands. Instead, they filled baia and vid-theaters all over the planet Scores of hovering tele-cameras broadcast the action, first to the arena control room where the view was edited and enhanced on a ten-minute delay by vid-engineers. Sound effects—applause, music, explosions, whistles, screams, laughter—were dubbed in by the studio. The fight ‘producers’ monitored and edited the radio chatter of the MechWarriors to provide maximum drama. It was big entertainment and almost as good as a fight from Solaris City
Trev-R and his Warhammercame into the arena first from the west. His 'Mech had been repainted the day before with diamond-glint bronze paint and an image of his grizzled one-eyed face had been stenciled on the left shoulder. The 'Mech towered a full ten meters above the concrete arena floor, and looked impressive. Only Trev-R knew that more than half of his armament was worthless.
He could say one thing for the arena announcer, though. In his introduction, he built up Trev-R to sound like some epic hero. After mentioning Trev-R's experience at the battle of Pinard. the commentator went on to credit him with six other fights and a couple of medals that he had never won. An idealized picture of Trev-R as he had looked about ten years earlier was broadcast around the world, and he heard a computer simulation of himself give a little speech about the nobility of 'Mech combat in the arenas. The audience loved it. Trev-R listened with amazement and a bit of disgust. The thicker you spread it, Kandar, the harder you'll find it to eat,’ he muttered.
Then the Atlasentered from the east, a hulking gray machine three meters taller and thirty tons heavier than Trev-R's Mech. Trev-R had known tor a couple of days now that Vayil would be inside it, though he had been hoping he would not. The announcer gave the boy an equally great buildup. The picture broadcast to the world showed a smiling young man, who was supposedly 18, but looked younger. He had yellow-gold hair cut short in fashionable MechWarrior style. Slim and classically handsome, he posed for the cameras in a crisp military salute. The announcer mentioned Vayil's three fictional battles in other arenas, and said that this was young pilot to watch. By the time the man finished his phony story about the young noble from the House of Oonthrax, it sounded like this would be a real David and Goliath battle. Never mind that David's 'Mech was the real Goliath on the battlefield.
Trev-R and Vayil faced off across the arena. Trev-R heard the kid break radio silence first, his voice tinny and full of static. ‘Trev-R,’ Vayil said urgently. ‘I didn't know it was going to be you.’
‘Listen, kid,’ replied Trev-R on the radio, starting to walk in four-meter strides across the arena ‘You do yer best, and don't worry about me. Of course, if ya had a lick of sense, ya could give up now before ya get hurt.’
The studio engineer keyed in a great wave of canned laughter at that point, drowning out the radio voices. All over Solaris people laughed along To have the old guy bluff the kid was a real hoot.
The Atlasalso lurched into motion. For a moment, it looked like a scene from an old holo-drama of two grim gunfighters stalking each other The Warhammerfired first its right PPC spitting lightning. Energy crackled off the bulky hip structure of the gray leviathan and ceramic armor bubbled and flew off in great steaming chunks. The arena thundered to the sound of man-made lightning until heat buildup in his weapon forced Trev-R to cut it off. A black scorch marred the gray metal finish of the Atlas,but no serious damage had been done.
‘Welcome to the wonderful world of Mech combat, kid!’ sneered Trev-R.
‘Hey!’ yelled Vayil into his radio. ‘You're shooting at me.’ It began to sink in that this was a real fight.
Trev-R saw a laser flash from the Atlas.and the computer informed him of a hit to his knee Before the searing energy could burn through the Warhammersarmor, Trev-R activated a great titanium-steel wall that rose suddenly out of the concrete directly before the Atlas.The laser hit the mirrored surface and splashed for an instant like water before Vayil could deactivate it The announcer made some comment about the superior experience of the old warrior saving him in that situation, and went on to say that the best thing Vayil could do in his mighty Atlaswould be try to close the range so that his autocannon could come into play.
Temporarily screened from view by the wall he had erected, Trev-R kicked his Mech into a run at a 45-degree angle to Vayil's right The Atlas'sautocannon comprised its massive left arm, but the armament on its right side was considerably lighter. He hoped to surprise the kid with a salvo of missiles from his weak side.
A dozen steel poles sprang up all around Trev-R's Mech. ‘Argh. kid, yer gettin' the hang of it,’ said Trev-R as the Warhammersmassive leg struck a post and ripped it from the concrete. The blow clanged through the arena and threw the Mech off balance. With its stride disrupted, the Mech started to fall, but Trev-R knew what to do. He bent both knees and extended the 'Mech's right and left PPC cannons at a 45-degree angle to catch himself as the huge machine tottered forward. He came to rest in a kneeling position and began to rise again as the Atlasemerged from the left side of the obscuring wall.
The Atlas'sfour lasers began to pulse with demonic energy, but Vayil fired high. One of his lasers struck the heavy spotlight mounted on the Warhammersleft shoulder and melted the thick glass. Trev-R fired his medium lasers, scorching away at the Atlas'sheavy leg armor. Superheated ceramics boiled away in steam, but the heavy steel underneath was not yet damaged. Then, just when it looked like the lasers would punch through and possibly tear a hole in the Atlas'sleft leg, they exploded. They had overheated, and the lasing crystals, flawed as they were, had shattered. Trev-R's lasers blinked off.
In the fishhead cockpit of the Warhammer,Trev-R sweated like a fountain as the heat rose and he tried to figure out his next strategy. He straightened the torso, angled it at 45 degrees to reduce the size of the target, and got to his feet. At the same time, he lowered the obstacle that he had put up. and activated another that was closer to him and would cut off Vayil's lasers. A few seconds later, the tremendous ringing of autocannon shells slamming into the barrier told Trev-R that Vayil had changed his strategy. That wall would not last long. Trev-R got moving and carefully picked his way around and over the obstacles that Vayil had thrown up.
One thing had shown up in the battle so far—Trev-R was the more accurate shot, and that was because he trusted his computers more Inside the 'Mech cockpits where the fighters were strapped into place, the battle computers put various displays up on the screen to help the pilots choose their tactics. The pilot who could make best use of this data was always most accurate. Though Vayil had been practicing with the Atlasfor two weeks, and Trev-R had hardly practiced at all, a lifetime of piloting so many different Mech types allowed Trev-R to sink deeper into machine-mode, and it showed in his shooting.