Post by Captain Adam "Gunman" Wolf on Nov 28, 2005 9:27:17 GMT -5
Rook lance was in dire straights, judging from the tactical data being fed into my Command Console, which was somewhat limited due to previous damage to the comm system and various data uplinks. One of the only 2 remaining sub monitors on the console was showing our heavy hitting Zeus about ready to succumb to the might of a Vanquisher-2B while my Vulture was nearly on its last leg. The Mech Dealer's rather meagre Griffin was the only thing still in decent combat shape, but it was quickly failing too as the Atlas began to give it a little love.
Throwing my 'mech back into forward, the myomer muscles and actuators screaming in protest at the sudden reversal of momentum, I cycled the LRM ammo to the smoke rounds. Although the smoke munitions themselves could do no damage to a 'mech, even from impact, they significantly impaired the pilots visual capabilities, besides the AMS system on the Atlas couldn't tell that they were smoke rounds. Squeezing down on the firing stub a blaze of 20 missiles jettisoned forth from the oversized shoulders of Shinzui leaving smokey contrails spiraling through the sky. The moment I fired, I quickly cycled the ammo bin back to the single salvo of 20 standard LRMs I had remaining, as quickly as the system cycled I fired a second wave of missiles towards the Atlas this time the warheads containing munitions that would actually do something more worthwhile. The initial wave of smoke LRMs did exactly as I expected them too, struck the Atlas' left side and exploded harmlessly into an obstructive cloud of thick white smoke, also as expected nearly half the missiles had been struck down from the AMS system. Now the AMS wouldn't be effected from the smoke as it uses electronic means of determining its targets, but the system needed to cycle after each volley, and the second wave of LRMs followed to closely behind for the AMS to finish cycling before they hit. The full force of 20 LRMs slammed into the giant beast's left arm and torso, rocking the behemoth gently to the right, through the thickening smoke a hazy arm, scarred deep with the signs of battle broke through the smoke before dissappearing again making it appear that the Atlas had turned to face me. An ill aimed Gauss round confirmed this as the nickel-ferrous slug slammed into the ground about 20 yards to my left.
A gentle beeping on the dash finally caught my attention, indicating that the current LRM ammo bin was empty, cycling the ammuntion over to the Swarm container I prepared to pepper the Atlas with the hundreds of submunitions that the missiles would now deploy. The Swarm munitions were designed primarily for stationary or slow moving vehicles, exploding a few meters above their target area similar to Thunder munitions, and then showering the area with multiple smaller bomblets providing a miniature version of area effect artillery, of course the spread of the sub rounds limited the damage on a single target rather significantly. Once I was within range of my medium pulse lasers I again opened fire upon the metallic monster with a hailstorm of emerald green pulses. The heat within the confines of my cockpit slowly rising, but my 'mech was equipped with enough heat sinks to deal with the excess so the temperature never got out of control.
By now the smoke was too thick to even see the Atlas let alone determine a facing, fortunately the smoke didn't interfere with my targetting systems so I was still able to target the giant beast, aiming was another story. I could get a targetting box overlay on the HUD but it didnt help much with actually aiming other than giving a general idea of where the enemy was, firing blind with the Medium Pulse lasers was rather effective due to their spread and rate of fire, but firing the missiles, both short and long range, where another story. Setting the approximate distance manually into the computer for the Swarm rounds I let loose a test volley which exploded just short of the smoke screen, hundreds of miniature bomblets penetrating into the cloud followed shortly by a multitude of explosions, whether I hit or not I couldn't tell. By the time I got within range for the SRMs the smoke had begun to slowly clear, firing the first round blind I heard several explosions followed later by another set of explosions which must have been the missiles that missed, sadly the second set sounded like it contained the larger number of explosions. Still firing the pulse lasers into the haze I began to catch glimpses of the Atlas truly a king of the battlefield as its skull face began to fade in and out of the thinning smoke, followed shortly by the right arm and then its torso and leg as the giant slowly walked out of the smoke. I hadn't thought of that when I fired the smoke rounds, for some reason the thought just never occured to me that he could just walk out of the smoke, but none the less I was now a mere 200m away from the battle scarred giant and he looked very very angry. Twin ruby beams of energy lanced out from the arms of the demonic looking 'mech, its skull like cockpit seeming to laugh at my pitiful Vulture's pain as the coherent light struck the left torso and right leg. Scores of ferro-fibrous armour melting into golden rivers pouring down the stricken 'mechs body. A gauss round, much better aimed than the last, ejected from the barrel of the instrument of death which was mounted in the right torso at about hip level. The magnetically propelled nickel-ferrous slug had seemed to barely leave the rifle before I felt the impact of the high velocity round as it embedded itself into the inner workings of my 'mechs right leg. Shinzui was gimped, its right leg barely functional with both the hip and upper leg actuator destroyed. Had I been moving quickly at the time of impact the Vulture surely would have collapsed, but due to the relatively low speed I was able to fight with the controls enough to keep her upright, if only to face what seemed to be a barely scratched war machine.
Firing the SRM-6s again, this time my shots much better aimed as well, I smiled a little as the small agile warheads cored deep into the 'mechs left torso, it would appear that the giant was more wounded than I first thought. Chunks of armour exploded out of the now gaping wound in the Atlas' left side, swinging the chin-mounted turreted medium pulse lasers a little to my right I began to spray the emerald pulses of pure energy into the shattered armour still covering the vulnerable internal structure. Another large laser struck violently into my left torso, ripping through what little armour had remained there and critically damaged one of the LRM launchers. Firing the 3 remaining LRM 5s, loaded with Swarm munitions, I watched as the rounds exploded almost immediately upon exiting their respective launchers, the sub munitions travelling forward with the momentum from the initial missiles as AMS rounds sprayed futilely through them, taking down a mere handful of the nearly countless bomblets. ALthough the aim was off several of the Swarm rounds still managed to strike the damaged left torso, ripping into the internals with reckless abandon while the majority of rounds fell short and impacted across the still heavily armoured center torso and left leg. The left arm of the Atlas jerked forward suddenly as the azure hue of a PPC round glazed over the weakened armour followed in short order by a multitude of LRM exposions as the rounds impacted the left arm and rear left torso.
Another PPC impacted the now seriously wounded Atlas' left side as quickly as the weapon could cycle, as the giant behemoth spun around to face its new attacker several additional hits could be seen scared across the backside of the Atlas, obviously the Mech Dealer had been peppering away at the Blakist for some time while the pilot was engaged with me. A gauss round directly into the chest of the Griffin sent it staggering backwards, using its jump jets in a couple of quick bursts to keep itself upright and move it around towards its Southern flank. Spraying the left rear torso of the enemy 'mech with machine gun fire and medium pulse lasers, I quickly ripped through the little armour that had remained and cored deep into the internals again. A lucky shot managed to land a few machine guns rounds directly into the LRM-20 ammo bin stored in the Atlas' left torso a thunderous explosion ripped out both the front and backside of the 'mech as the ammunition destroyed itself and everything around it. Unfortunately the Atlas did have a CASE system installed so the damage was contained within the left torso, fortunately the Atlas also mounted an I.S. XL engine, the extra bulk of the lighter shielding expanded into the torso to such an extent that the destruction of either side torso would render the 'mech inoperable. The reactor's shielding was torn asunder to such an extent that the pilot ejected for fear of the reactor going critical, instead the giant machine simply collapsed onto itself as the left arm was propelled violently away from the 'mech due to the ammo explosion.
The thunderous roar of the ammo explosion was only overpowered by the sounds of a reactor going critical, at first I thought it was the Atlas and I began backpedalling violently, trying in vain to get enough distance between us, a few moments later I realized that it wasn't the Atlas and quickly spun around just to catch the remaining trails of blinding light as they dissipated from the charred and broken remains of a once proud 'mech. Surprisingly enough the explosion hadn't consumed the 'mech entirely and a vast portion of the stricken carcass could still be made out in small detail amongst the rubble. My first hope was that it had been the Vanquisher but that hope was shattered the moment I turned around, the 100-ton Blakist monster still stood a mere 50m tops from the broken body of the Zeus. Judging from the remnants of the carcass the Zeus had taken several head shots, or at least the hardened armour which once protected it was so badly scarred and the canopy completely shattered that one assumed it had taken several head shots. The fact that the head and cockpit could still be picked out amongst the ruins of the 'mech showed that no escape had been attempted, Morgan stayed fighting to the end and the battle scars on the Vanquisher showed. The engine must have been severely damaged to the point that a full blown explosion wasn't possible and that was the only reason that so much of the unsalvageable Zeus remained. Unfortunately that meant that less damage was done to the Vanquisher which, judging from the blackened armour and rather severe damage, had been much too close when the Zeus went down.
Morgan had managed to do a surprisingly large amount of damage to the Blakist 'mech despite his Zeus' battered state when he initially engaged him. The Vanquisher had taken a beating from nearly continous PPC and Medium laser fire, yet its thick hide of nearly 20 tons of armour still protected it quite well, according to my targetting computer, the Blakist 'mech still had around 60% of its armour remaining intact. The enemy 'mech wasted no time in opening fire, and likewise the Mech Dealer and I did the same. The initial exchange of fire was incredibly intense for 3 battle stricken 'mechs, eight 50mm AC shells exploded forth with incredible ferocity from the Vanquisher's quad Ultra AC/5s while at the same time emerald coherent light lanced out in beams and pulses from both the Griffin and Vulture. As if following suit the Vanquisher unleashed its own set of emerald beams, aimed towards the Mech Dealer, as swarms of missiles streaked violently into the air from both the 'mechs in Rook lance. The damage resulting from the initial volley was the most punishing to both sides of the entire battle to ensue, the pulse and standard lasers unleashed from Rook lance dug deep into the Blakist insurgent's torso armour, rivers of molten armour ran like red hot rivers down the monsterous 'mechs torso as a hail of missiles struck viciously into the softened body. The extreme heat of the lasers had softened the armour just enough that the high velocity missiles dug a little extra deep into the armour before exploding, sending shattered armour rocketing outwards like deadly shrapnel. The majority of the missiles struck across the Blakist 'mechs right side, lowering armour levels to dangerous levels across the right leg and torso while a few missiles managed to strike into the left arm destroying the battered remnants of armour that still clung to the endo-steel structure. The lone PPC from the Mech Dealer's Griffin, fired just moments after being struck by the Blakist's lasers, was off from its original target of the head or center torso, but instead managed to strick the critically wounded left arm, completely destroying the weakened internal structure and wrenching the twin UAC/5s clean from their mounting brackets as the stubby appendage was torn asunder in a myriad of azure fire. The return damage dealt from the Vanquisher's assault was just as devasting against the poor 'mechs in Rook lance, the Griffin was left with a large gaping hole in its right torso, the LRM-15 took a direct hit and left its launching tubes melted shut and its ammo feed jammed. Meanwhile the shower of AC rounds peppered away at my poor Vulture the ragged armour shredding away like tissue paper under the onslaught. Although only 5 of the rounds actually managed to hit Shinzui those 5 shells made themselves count. Three of the rounds impacted the left torso, with its armour already devasted from the battle with the Blakist Atlas the AC shells penetrated rather easily into the endo-steel structure, ripping through vital components and destroying every major system located within. As the left torso destroyed itself, the built-in Clan CASE system worked overtime to vent off the excessive force, the supercharger detonating upon itself and blowing a crippling hole through the reactor shielding, while the remaining reactor shielding of the Clan XL engine was shredded from a direct hit from an UAC/5 shell. Had there been any ammo left in the LRM ammo bin the Vulture would have been doomed, but as it was only smoke LRMs were left in that side torso and as such a giant cloud of smoke erupted shortly afterwards from the crippled 'mechs side. The remaining two autocannon rounds struck the head and right arm. The damaged armour on the right arm allowed the high velocity AC round to penetrate into the internal workings of Shinzui's upper arm and destroyed the shoulder actuator and freezing the arm in place, fortunately it was facing more or less directly forward. The round that impacted the head was shot wide of the actual cockpit canopy, despite it being rather large on the Vulture and instead impacted the ferro-fibrous armour just to the left side of it, right where I normally would climb in and out of the 'mech. The impact of the projectile cracked the edges of the canopy and caused the seal on the hatch to break as the bottom portion was forced inwards cracking into the back of an instrument panel. Warnings bells, lights and klaxons blared deafening tones within the expansive confines of the command console, guages and dials cracked and broke under the sudden surge of pressure from the criticaly damaged engine as the heat began to steadily climb out of control. With the majority of the reactor shielding destroyed or at least rendered inoperable, the heat escaping from the now exposed engine was more than the poor 'mech could handle and the cooling vest incorporated into my combat armour had reached its limit as the external heat sinks began to glow red.
The Mech Dealer still was in decent shape and opened fire into the Vanquisher for a second volley just moments before the second wave of fire came in return. I joined in with what I could, but the severe heat left my lasers nearly inoperable and firing the missiles was tricky business as the ammunition could explode at any minute from the excessive heat. Pressing down on the firing stub just the same I let loose a final salvo of SRM-6s and a set of 10 LRM Swarm warheads, the missiles streaked gracefully through the air, thin wispy trails of smoke left behind the SRMs contrasted in a strange beautiful way with the slightly thicker path being left from the LRMs, the scene was marred though by the cloud of thick white smoke still billowing away from my Vulture's destroyed left torso. By some sheer stroke of luck the SRM struck home on the Vanquisher's somewhat stubby looking head, it would seem that every appendage on the Blakist 'mech was short and stubby and gave the whole machine an overall ackward appearance. Although not all the SRMs managed a hit, those that did must have unnerved the pilot because his aim was off slightly, although not enough, as he squeezed of his medium lasers. The first emerald beam of coherent light blazed harmlessly through the air above my 'mechs right shoulder, while the second struck a piece of protruding endo-steel where the left torso should have been. The third beam of destructive energy however managed to find its mark. Once again striking the head, but this time directly onto the ferro-plastic canopy. The Vulture's overly large and extended canopy was its most vulnerable place, and unfortunately almost the largest target, why it didnt get hit more often was beyond me, but as the energy began to melt the cockpit canopy I didnt exactly dwell on the thought. As the Blakist 'mech shifted backwards the beam shifted as well, although the beam only fired for maybe a second if that, it seemed like the greenish hue burned into the cockpit for ages. At first the ferro-plastic withstood the searing heat of the medium laser, but as the beam began to shift, the canopy gave out. Streaking across to the right side, the canopy was left molten and nearly impossible to see out of and then it broke straight through, diving to the left in my seat as far as I could go I felt the extreme heat of the beam as it struck the back of the cockpit as far to the right as possible. Exploding shrapnel impaled itself into my command chair and several pieces stabbed straight through the melting combat armour to pierce into the back of my arm and right side. As quickly as it initially came though the beam was gone, and I was left with a shattered canopy and charred cockpit. Ignoring the pain in my side I reached across with my left hand and pressed down on the inset fire button for the medium pulse lasers located on the right joystick, my right arm caused too much pain to move at the moment. As the emerald pulse struck out blindly from the still functional chin-turret the heat spiked once again within the Vulture although this time the cockpit remained fairly cool as the gaping hole in the canopy let the crisp winter's air rush in. Although I couldn't see well enough to tell exactly what happened next, I was able to lean to the right just far enough to see out of the whole in the canopy and, double checking with the only operational monitor left in the once expansive and decked out command console, could determine the majority of what happened.
A PPC from the Griffin struck the Vanquisher's center torso just the Blakist fired its lasers, the electrical arcing wash of energy from the EMP effect must have covered the enemy's cockpit and either disoriented him or startled him enough that he wasn't fully aware of his surroundings. As the Vanquisher back pedalled away, assumedly waiting for his weapons to cycle, he crashed backwards into the river, not a big deal for a 100-ton monster, yet a strange sound could be heard roaring louder and louder from the north. Rushing water burst forth from a stand of trees along the river bank, the slope heading down to the river was completely filled with water and the Vanquisher was standing in the middle of the now oversized river, as the water smashed down onto the stricken Blakist 'mech, I reached over and pulled a rather large chunk of metal from the back of my right arm, formerly a piece of the rear of my cockpit. Now able to move my right arm without as much pain, and with adrenaline still surging, and shock setting in I was able to fight with the controls of my 'mech and began limping precariously slow away from the rushing water. Expecting even more water to be flooding from what must have been the broken dam, I cursed loudly as I struggled to get to higher ground. To my surprise though no more water came, the river had swelled and flooded up the banks, but after the initial surge there was very little water actually left that posed a threat. Still part way down the slope my 'mech stood in about 3m of water, about one sixth of the way up my 'mech. The gimped leg dragged slowly through the water creating small waves that splashed up against the shore as current continued down stream fortunately causing very little concern for my stricken 'mech.
Back up on the top of the slope, and now in so little of water it was of no concern what so ever, I sat in my broken 'mech. Shinzui had been to hell and back, and though she would never be combat worthy for weeks, if not months, she had somehow managed to bring me through alive, and surprisingly not much worse for wear, a sharp pain in my right side reminded me that I didnt get off scott free though. From the outside the once mighty Vulture was an eye sore for anyone to look upon, the left torso and arm were completely missing, remnants of shattered endo-steel and various cabling and actuators protruding in jagged fragments were all the hinted that there had once been something there. The cockpit was bruised and battered, the canopy jammed half open as I had tried to remove it to give a better view for myself, a large gash melted into the ferro-plastic. Smoke and sparks burst from the right arm in ackward intervals as the siezed actuators still tried to function. The right leg, bent sideways at the reversed knee joint, looked like it was ready to collapse at any second while the three-toed foot dragged uselessly through the dirt. Reaching over I checked the comm system, and as expected found it completely useless, there seemed to be nothing left operational in the entire cockpit save a single flickering monitor, and a couple of warning lights which seemed to mock me. Clenching my teeth against the pain I twisted around to the right and dug into the survival kit stored in the back of the command chair, pulling out the basic medkit I applied a minor sedative straight into my right side to help with the pain, and then slouched back in the broken command chair and waited for the Mech Dealer or someone to try and make contact with me.
Throwing my 'mech back into forward, the myomer muscles and actuators screaming in protest at the sudden reversal of momentum, I cycled the LRM ammo to the smoke rounds. Although the smoke munitions themselves could do no damage to a 'mech, even from impact, they significantly impaired the pilots visual capabilities, besides the AMS system on the Atlas couldn't tell that they were smoke rounds. Squeezing down on the firing stub a blaze of 20 missiles jettisoned forth from the oversized shoulders of Shinzui leaving smokey contrails spiraling through the sky. The moment I fired, I quickly cycled the ammo bin back to the single salvo of 20 standard LRMs I had remaining, as quickly as the system cycled I fired a second wave of missiles towards the Atlas this time the warheads containing munitions that would actually do something more worthwhile. The initial wave of smoke LRMs did exactly as I expected them too, struck the Atlas' left side and exploded harmlessly into an obstructive cloud of thick white smoke, also as expected nearly half the missiles had been struck down from the AMS system. Now the AMS wouldn't be effected from the smoke as it uses electronic means of determining its targets, but the system needed to cycle after each volley, and the second wave of LRMs followed to closely behind for the AMS to finish cycling before they hit. The full force of 20 LRMs slammed into the giant beast's left arm and torso, rocking the behemoth gently to the right, through the thickening smoke a hazy arm, scarred deep with the signs of battle broke through the smoke before dissappearing again making it appear that the Atlas had turned to face me. An ill aimed Gauss round confirmed this as the nickel-ferrous slug slammed into the ground about 20 yards to my left.
A gentle beeping on the dash finally caught my attention, indicating that the current LRM ammo bin was empty, cycling the ammuntion over to the Swarm container I prepared to pepper the Atlas with the hundreds of submunitions that the missiles would now deploy. The Swarm munitions were designed primarily for stationary or slow moving vehicles, exploding a few meters above their target area similar to Thunder munitions, and then showering the area with multiple smaller bomblets providing a miniature version of area effect artillery, of course the spread of the sub rounds limited the damage on a single target rather significantly. Once I was within range of my medium pulse lasers I again opened fire upon the metallic monster with a hailstorm of emerald green pulses. The heat within the confines of my cockpit slowly rising, but my 'mech was equipped with enough heat sinks to deal with the excess so the temperature never got out of control.
By now the smoke was too thick to even see the Atlas let alone determine a facing, fortunately the smoke didn't interfere with my targetting systems so I was still able to target the giant beast, aiming was another story. I could get a targetting box overlay on the HUD but it didnt help much with actually aiming other than giving a general idea of where the enemy was, firing blind with the Medium Pulse lasers was rather effective due to their spread and rate of fire, but firing the missiles, both short and long range, where another story. Setting the approximate distance manually into the computer for the Swarm rounds I let loose a test volley which exploded just short of the smoke screen, hundreds of miniature bomblets penetrating into the cloud followed shortly by a multitude of explosions, whether I hit or not I couldn't tell. By the time I got within range for the SRMs the smoke had begun to slowly clear, firing the first round blind I heard several explosions followed later by another set of explosions which must have been the missiles that missed, sadly the second set sounded like it contained the larger number of explosions. Still firing the pulse lasers into the haze I began to catch glimpses of the Atlas truly a king of the battlefield as its skull face began to fade in and out of the thinning smoke, followed shortly by the right arm and then its torso and leg as the giant slowly walked out of the smoke. I hadn't thought of that when I fired the smoke rounds, for some reason the thought just never occured to me that he could just walk out of the smoke, but none the less I was now a mere 200m away from the battle scarred giant and he looked very very angry. Twin ruby beams of energy lanced out from the arms of the demonic looking 'mech, its skull like cockpit seeming to laugh at my pitiful Vulture's pain as the coherent light struck the left torso and right leg. Scores of ferro-fibrous armour melting into golden rivers pouring down the stricken 'mechs body. A gauss round, much better aimed than the last, ejected from the barrel of the instrument of death which was mounted in the right torso at about hip level. The magnetically propelled nickel-ferrous slug had seemed to barely leave the rifle before I felt the impact of the high velocity round as it embedded itself into the inner workings of my 'mechs right leg. Shinzui was gimped, its right leg barely functional with both the hip and upper leg actuator destroyed. Had I been moving quickly at the time of impact the Vulture surely would have collapsed, but due to the relatively low speed I was able to fight with the controls enough to keep her upright, if only to face what seemed to be a barely scratched war machine.
Firing the SRM-6s again, this time my shots much better aimed as well, I smiled a little as the small agile warheads cored deep into the 'mechs left torso, it would appear that the giant was more wounded than I first thought. Chunks of armour exploded out of the now gaping wound in the Atlas' left side, swinging the chin-mounted turreted medium pulse lasers a little to my right I began to spray the emerald pulses of pure energy into the shattered armour still covering the vulnerable internal structure. Another large laser struck violently into my left torso, ripping through what little armour had remained there and critically damaged one of the LRM launchers. Firing the 3 remaining LRM 5s, loaded with Swarm munitions, I watched as the rounds exploded almost immediately upon exiting their respective launchers, the sub munitions travelling forward with the momentum from the initial missiles as AMS rounds sprayed futilely through them, taking down a mere handful of the nearly countless bomblets. ALthough the aim was off several of the Swarm rounds still managed to strike the damaged left torso, ripping into the internals with reckless abandon while the majority of rounds fell short and impacted across the still heavily armoured center torso and left leg. The left arm of the Atlas jerked forward suddenly as the azure hue of a PPC round glazed over the weakened armour followed in short order by a multitude of LRM exposions as the rounds impacted the left arm and rear left torso.
Another PPC impacted the now seriously wounded Atlas' left side as quickly as the weapon could cycle, as the giant behemoth spun around to face its new attacker several additional hits could be seen scared across the backside of the Atlas, obviously the Mech Dealer had been peppering away at the Blakist for some time while the pilot was engaged with me. A gauss round directly into the chest of the Griffin sent it staggering backwards, using its jump jets in a couple of quick bursts to keep itself upright and move it around towards its Southern flank. Spraying the left rear torso of the enemy 'mech with machine gun fire and medium pulse lasers, I quickly ripped through the little armour that had remained and cored deep into the internals again. A lucky shot managed to land a few machine guns rounds directly into the LRM-20 ammo bin stored in the Atlas' left torso a thunderous explosion ripped out both the front and backside of the 'mech as the ammunition destroyed itself and everything around it. Unfortunately the Atlas did have a CASE system installed so the damage was contained within the left torso, fortunately the Atlas also mounted an I.S. XL engine, the extra bulk of the lighter shielding expanded into the torso to such an extent that the destruction of either side torso would render the 'mech inoperable. The reactor's shielding was torn asunder to such an extent that the pilot ejected for fear of the reactor going critical, instead the giant machine simply collapsed onto itself as the left arm was propelled violently away from the 'mech due to the ammo explosion.
The thunderous roar of the ammo explosion was only overpowered by the sounds of a reactor going critical, at first I thought it was the Atlas and I began backpedalling violently, trying in vain to get enough distance between us, a few moments later I realized that it wasn't the Atlas and quickly spun around just to catch the remaining trails of blinding light as they dissipated from the charred and broken remains of a once proud 'mech. Surprisingly enough the explosion hadn't consumed the 'mech entirely and a vast portion of the stricken carcass could still be made out in small detail amongst the rubble. My first hope was that it had been the Vanquisher but that hope was shattered the moment I turned around, the 100-ton Blakist monster still stood a mere 50m tops from the broken body of the Zeus. Judging from the remnants of the carcass the Zeus had taken several head shots, or at least the hardened armour which once protected it was so badly scarred and the canopy completely shattered that one assumed it had taken several head shots. The fact that the head and cockpit could still be picked out amongst the ruins of the 'mech showed that no escape had been attempted, Morgan stayed fighting to the end and the battle scars on the Vanquisher showed. The engine must have been severely damaged to the point that a full blown explosion wasn't possible and that was the only reason that so much of the unsalvageable Zeus remained. Unfortunately that meant that less damage was done to the Vanquisher which, judging from the blackened armour and rather severe damage, had been much too close when the Zeus went down.
Morgan had managed to do a surprisingly large amount of damage to the Blakist 'mech despite his Zeus' battered state when he initially engaged him. The Vanquisher had taken a beating from nearly continous PPC and Medium laser fire, yet its thick hide of nearly 20 tons of armour still protected it quite well, according to my targetting computer, the Blakist 'mech still had around 60% of its armour remaining intact. The enemy 'mech wasted no time in opening fire, and likewise the Mech Dealer and I did the same. The initial exchange of fire was incredibly intense for 3 battle stricken 'mechs, eight 50mm AC shells exploded forth with incredible ferocity from the Vanquisher's quad Ultra AC/5s while at the same time emerald coherent light lanced out in beams and pulses from both the Griffin and Vulture. As if following suit the Vanquisher unleashed its own set of emerald beams, aimed towards the Mech Dealer, as swarms of missiles streaked violently into the air from both the 'mechs in Rook lance. The damage resulting from the initial volley was the most punishing to both sides of the entire battle to ensue, the pulse and standard lasers unleashed from Rook lance dug deep into the Blakist insurgent's torso armour, rivers of molten armour ran like red hot rivers down the monsterous 'mechs torso as a hail of missiles struck viciously into the softened body. The extreme heat of the lasers had softened the armour just enough that the high velocity missiles dug a little extra deep into the armour before exploding, sending shattered armour rocketing outwards like deadly shrapnel. The majority of the missiles struck across the Blakist 'mechs right side, lowering armour levels to dangerous levels across the right leg and torso while a few missiles managed to strike into the left arm destroying the battered remnants of armour that still clung to the endo-steel structure. The lone PPC from the Mech Dealer's Griffin, fired just moments after being struck by the Blakist's lasers, was off from its original target of the head or center torso, but instead managed to strick the critically wounded left arm, completely destroying the weakened internal structure and wrenching the twin UAC/5s clean from their mounting brackets as the stubby appendage was torn asunder in a myriad of azure fire. The return damage dealt from the Vanquisher's assault was just as devasting against the poor 'mechs in Rook lance, the Griffin was left with a large gaping hole in its right torso, the LRM-15 took a direct hit and left its launching tubes melted shut and its ammo feed jammed. Meanwhile the shower of AC rounds peppered away at my poor Vulture the ragged armour shredding away like tissue paper under the onslaught. Although only 5 of the rounds actually managed to hit Shinzui those 5 shells made themselves count. Three of the rounds impacted the left torso, with its armour already devasted from the battle with the Blakist Atlas the AC shells penetrated rather easily into the endo-steel structure, ripping through vital components and destroying every major system located within. As the left torso destroyed itself, the built-in Clan CASE system worked overtime to vent off the excessive force, the supercharger detonating upon itself and blowing a crippling hole through the reactor shielding, while the remaining reactor shielding of the Clan XL engine was shredded from a direct hit from an UAC/5 shell. Had there been any ammo left in the LRM ammo bin the Vulture would have been doomed, but as it was only smoke LRMs were left in that side torso and as such a giant cloud of smoke erupted shortly afterwards from the crippled 'mechs side. The remaining two autocannon rounds struck the head and right arm. The damaged armour on the right arm allowed the high velocity AC round to penetrate into the internal workings of Shinzui's upper arm and destroyed the shoulder actuator and freezing the arm in place, fortunately it was facing more or less directly forward. The round that impacted the head was shot wide of the actual cockpit canopy, despite it being rather large on the Vulture and instead impacted the ferro-fibrous armour just to the left side of it, right where I normally would climb in and out of the 'mech. The impact of the projectile cracked the edges of the canopy and caused the seal on the hatch to break as the bottom portion was forced inwards cracking into the back of an instrument panel. Warnings bells, lights and klaxons blared deafening tones within the expansive confines of the command console, guages and dials cracked and broke under the sudden surge of pressure from the criticaly damaged engine as the heat began to steadily climb out of control. With the majority of the reactor shielding destroyed or at least rendered inoperable, the heat escaping from the now exposed engine was more than the poor 'mech could handle and the cooling vest incorporated into my combat armour had reached its limit as the external heat sinks began to glow red.
The Mech Dealer still was in decent shape and opened fire into the Vanquisher for a second volley just moments before the second wave of fire came in return. I joined in with what I could, but the severe heat left my lasers nearly inoperable and firing the missiles was tricky business as the ammunition could explode at any minute from the excessive heat. Pressing down on the firing stub just the same I let loose a final salvo of SRM-6s and a set of 10 LRM Swarm warheads, the missiles streaked gracefully through the air, thin wispy trails of smoke left behind the SRMs contrasted in a strange beautiful way with the slightly thicker path being left from the LRMs, the scene was marred though by the cloud of thick white smoke still billowing away from my Vulture's destroyed left torso. By some sheer stroke of luck the SRM struck home on the Vanquisher's somewhat stubby looking head, it would seem that every appendage on the Blakist 'mech was short and stubby and gave the whole machine an overall ackward appearance. Although not all the SRMs managed a hit, those that did must have unnerved the pilot because his aim was off slightly, although not enough, as he squeezed of his medium lasers. The first emerald beam of coherent light blazed harmlessly through the air above my 'mechs right shoulder, while the second struck a piece of protruding endo-steel where the left torso should have been. The third beam of destructive energy however managed to find its mark. Once again striking the head, but this time directly onto the ferro-plastic canopy. The Vulture's overly large and extended canopy was its most vulnerable place, and unfortunately almost the largest target, why it didnt get hit more often was beyond me, but as the energy began to melt the cockpit canopy I didnt exactly dwell on the thought. As the Blakist 'mech shifted backwards the beam shifted as well, although the beam only fired for maybe a second if that, it seemed like the greenish hue burned into the cockpit for ages. At first the ferro-plastic withstood the searing heat of the medium laser, but as the beam began to shift, the canopy gave out. Streaking across to the right side, the canopy was left molten and nearly impossible to see out of and then it broke straight through, diving to the left in my seat as far as I could go I felt the extreme heat of the beam as it struck the back of the cockpit as far to the right as possible. Exploding shrapnel impaled itself into my command chair and several pieces stabbed straight through the melting combat armour to pierce into the back of my arm and right side. As quickly as it initially came though the beam was gone, and I was left with a shattered canopy and charred cockpit. Ignoring the pain in my side I reached across with my left hand and pressed down on the inset fire button for the medium pulse lasers located on the right joystick, my right arm caused too much pain to move at the moment. As the emerald pulse struck out blindly from the still functional chin-turret the heat spiked once again within the Vulture although this time the cockpit remained fairly cool as the gaping hole in the canopy let the crisp winter's air rush in. Although I couldn't see well enough to tell exactly what happened next, I was able to lean to the right just far enough to see out of the whole in the canopy and, double checking with the only operational monitor left in the once expansive and decked out command console, could determine the majority of what happened.
A PPC from the Griffin struck the Vanquisher's center torso just the Blakist fired its lasers, the electrical arcing wash of energy from the EMP effect must have covered the enemy's cockpit and either disoriented him or startled him enough that he wasn't fully aware of his surroundings. As the Vanquisher back pedalled away, assumedly waiting for his weapons to cycle, he crashed backwards into the river, not a big deal for a 100-ton monster, yet a strange sound could be heard roaring louder and louder from the north. Rushing water burst forth from a stand of trees along the river bank, the slope heading down to the river was completely filled with water and the Vanquisher was standing in the middle of the now oversized river, as the water smashed down onto the stricken Blakist 'mech, I reached over and pulled a rather large chunk of metal from the back of my right arm, formerly a piece of the rear of my cockpit. Now able to move my right arm without as much pain, and with adrenaline still surging, and shock setting in I was able to fight with the controls of my 'mech and began limping precariously slow away from the rushing water. Expecting even more water to be flooding from what must have been the broken dam, I cursed loudly as I struggled to get to higher ground. To my surprise though no more water came, the river had swelled and flooded up the banks, but after the initial surge there was very little water actually left that posed a threat. Still part way down the slope my 'mech stood in about 3m of water, about one sixth of the way up my 'mech. The gimped leg dragged slowly through the water creating small waves that splashed up against the shore as current continued down stream fortunately causing very little concern for my stricken 'mech.
Back up on the top of the slope, and now in so little of water it was of no concern what so ever, I sat in my broken 'mech. Shinzui had been to hell and back, and though she would never be combat worthy for weeks, if not months, she had somehow managed to bring me through alive, and surprisingly not much worse for wear, a sharp pain in my right side reminded me that I didnt get off scott free though. From the outside the once mighty Vulture was an eye sore for anyone to look upon, the left torso and arm were completely missing, remnants of shattered endo-steel and various cabling and actuators protruding in jagged fragments were all the hinted that there had once been something there. The cockpit was bruised and battered, the canopy jammed half open as I had tried to remove it to give a better view for myself, a large gash melted into the ferro-plastic. Smoke and sparks burst from the right arm in ackward intervals as the siezed actuators still tried to function. The right leg, bent sideways at the reversed knee joint, looked like it was ready to collapse at any second while the three-toed foot dragged uselessly through the dirt. Reaching over I checked the comm system, and as expected found it completely useless, there seemed to be nothing left operational in the entire cockpit save a single flickering monitor, and a couple of warning lights which seemed to mock me. Clenching my teeth against the pain I twisted around to the right and dug into the survival kit stored in the back of the command chair, pulling out the basic medkit I applied a minor sedative straight into my right side to help with the pain, and then slouched back in the broken command chair and waited for the Mech Dealer or someone to try and make contact with me.