Текст книги "Lost Destiny"

Автор книги: Michael A. Stackpole

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 28 страниц)

"I fear this message will continue this trend, because I must prevail upon you, ask you for help in something that is not your concern. You have your duties and responsibilities to the Federated Commonwealth, and I have mine to the Draconis Combine. These responsibilities are what make our relationship so difficult, yet I know neither of us would truly abandon them. We, you and I and our siblings, are symbols that make our people take heart and believe victory against our enemies is possible. We may have inherited these roles by the accident of birth, but we both hold them sacred, even to the point of honoring them to our own personal discomfiture."

Victor clenched his jaw against the emotions her words stirred in him. Though they had resolved to be just friends when they had parted on Outreach, and knowing they probably would never see each other again, their messages back and forth had deepened their feelings immeasurably. Victor knew, deep down, that he loved the woman on the screen before him, and it frightened him that he might consider never marrying if she could not be his bride.

The camera recording the holovid slowly zoomed in on her angelic face. "On 18 January the Nova Cats overran Teniente. My brother Hohiro and Shin Yodama were both present as observers during that assault. Things went badly for our forces and the command post was hit hard. As a result, my brother assumed command of the forces on the planet, and Shin, who had been wounded, was sent to Luthien to obtain a rescue force. Hohiro assumed he could hold out for two or three months, and has the supplies to do just that. Without a rescue force, he will never be able to safely pull his men out.

"Shin reached Luthien a month after the disaster, but my father pointed out that we had no troops to send to rescue Hohiro. As much as it pained him, my father had to abandon his son to preserve the realm Hohiro will someday guide."

Omi looked away from the camera for a moment and brushed a tear away. "I asked my father to allow me to send troops to rescue Hohiro, if I could find them. He gave me permission to do so. Thus, do I turn to you.

"Victor, I am asking whether you can send your unit to save my brother. Shin Yodama and the other men with him have all our intelligence on the world with them, and reports will arrive as soon as we have more information to send you. Word has been sent to Hohiro for his people to go to ground because we know it will take time to prepare and mount the operation. His salvation is in your hands."

Omi held up one hand. "Before you agree, and I pray you will, you must know one other thing. To win permission to make this request of you, I had to bargain with my father. In return for permission to give my brother this one chance at life, I agreed never to communicate with you again. As much as that hurts me personally, I know Hohiro's death would hurt the Combine more. Like you, I am trapped by who I am. Forgive me."

Victor sat back in his chair, stunned by Omi's words. Part of him instantly evaluated and gloated over the disruption Hohiro's loss would cause the Combine. House Kurita was not likely to let Omi accede to the throne for she was being so carefully groomed to become Keeper of the House Honor. That meant leadership would pass to Minora, the youngest of Theodore's children. What little Victor knew of Minora indicated the young man was more a mystic than a warrior, and that did not bode well for the Combine's militaristic future.

The Prince immediately killed any pleasure he got from imagining the Combine's collapse. He acknowledged the Combine had long been a thorn in the Fox's side, but now it formed a buffer between the Clans and half of the Federated Commonwealth. Furthermore, the training and agreements on Outreach had all been directed at creating a united front to oppose the Clans. Though there had been no combined operations with the Kurita forces, the redeployment of forces along their mutual borders bespoke a trust between the two nations unprecedented in the history of the Inner Sphere.

He could not deny Omi's anguished plea for help, but he felt punished by the deal her father had forced upon her. He started to tell himself his father would never have done that, but then he stopped to consider what he truly knew about his father. Hanse Davion would have struck the same bargain in an instant, and I would have been lucky to get off as lightly as she did.

As she said, we are trapped by who we are.

Galena knocked once and entered the room. "General, Kommandant, Sanderlin said you wanted me?"

Victor nodded once and saw Shin had reappeared on the screen. "Unless the General objects to it, I believe we need guest billets for some Kurita officers."

Galen raised a blond eyebrow. "Kurita officers?"

The General nodded solemnly. "You better step up training and refitting. You have an assault to plan."

16

Alyina

Trellshire, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

1 March 3052

 

Kai remained crouched on one knee, watchful, as Deirdre drank from the stream. He studied the surrounding grassland, his gaze deliberately not lingering on her slender form or lovely face. No matter how much he was growing to like her, they were running for their lives and the least distraction could turn fatal. Once or twice during the insanity that defined their fugitive existence, Kai almost thought tempting fate would be worth it, but he always managed to keep a hold on his heart and his hormones.

Luckily he had an ally in Dr. Lear herself. In the three weeks since their escape from ComStar, her manner toward him had eased, but she could still be distant and restrained. Whenever he tried to steer the conversation around to probing her hatred of his father, she immediately sidestepped the maneuver and pulled back into her shell.

With her usual efficiency, she had tended his broken ribs, insisting on finding a place to hole up until it was easier for Kai to travel. Though he wanted to keep moving, they finally reached a compromise: they would get out of the immediate area before stopping for a bit. A small cave became the camp where they would settle until Kai could persuade her that his ribs hurt much less than they really did.

Having drunk her fill, Deirdre's head came up, water dripping from the ends of her hair, as a dragonfly skittered across the top of the water. She half laughed, then refilled a bottle they'd been using as a canteen. Staying low, she crawled to where Kai crouched hidden in the brush of the treeline. "Your turn."

"Thanks." Kai reached out and brushed away a droplet of water hanging from the tip of her pert nose. "Ever wonder what your medical school buddies would say if they saw you now?"

She smiled. "Well, given how long we've survived, I don't think many would argue with my score on the evasion test."

"True enough."

"Of course, you're a better instructor than any I had in my training."

Kai grinned as he set the autorifle down. "I'll take that in the spirit intended, ignoring the fact that you avoided as much military training as you could manage." He crawled over to the stream, then went flat on his belly at the bank. Ignoring the dragonfly, he plunged his head into the water.

The cold water felt good to him, soaking through his hair and washing away the oppressive heat of the day. It got into his thin beard, tickling the flesh that had, till now, itched with the new growth. Like a magical elixir, the water revitalized him and even the minor aches in his body seemed temporarily dulled.

He pulled his head back out and shook like a dog might, the water spraying everywhere. He wanted to shout aloud, but that would be needlessly foolish. For the first time since realizing his unit had left him on Alyina, Kai actually believed he might succeed in eluding the Clans.

Then he felt the gun barrel poking his back.

"Easy now, fella. Just you turn over slowly so we can get a look at you."

Kai rolled over onto his back even slower than his captor had drawled out the order. The man closest to him, the one who had poked him with the hunting rifle, was fat enough that his belly, from Kai's point of view, eclipsed the lower half of his face. His soiled clothing looked to be of native manufacture, with the only brightly colored bit the Jade Falcon patch newly sewn on his shoulder.

Back beyond him, bracketed by Kai's feet like a target in a sight, another, more muscular man stood with rifle at the ready. He looked meaner and even nastier than his boss, but held himself more aloof as if sensing Kai was not alone.

"Oh, Jocko, we got us a good one here. His black hair's a bit long, and the beard ain't there in the picture, but this is Dave Jewell sure as I'm Harry Truper." Truper jabbed Kai's belly with his rifle. "Don't know what you did, boyo, but the Clans and ComStar want you bad."

Kai stared up into Truper's face. "You're going to turn me over to them?"

"They pay, we play," Jocko growled. " 'Bout time we score a big one."

Truper nodded in agreement. "You're the first contract case we've actually found. This'll take care of our rep and rent for a long time."

"But I'm like you, I'm from the Federated Commonwealth. You should be helping me, not betraying me."

Truper spit into the stream. "You ain't the same as me, boy. I've got a gun on you and you're wanted by ComStar and the Clans. Besides, I can tell from your accent where you're from. Your Hanse Davion ain't done squat for us since he took ole Melissa as his bride, 'cept drain our economy and get us into a war with the Dragons. I come from Tamar originally and he's ignored our claims for Pact worlds in the Free Rasalhague Republic. Given all that, I think you'd best not be pushing this FedCom brotherhood stuff too much."

"Harry, stop jawing and get it over with."

Kai stiffened at the implication of Jocko's statement. He knew Truper's rifle, at that range, would rip through his bulletproof vest in an instant. "Wait, don't shoot. I'll go with you quietiy."

"Sorry, sport," Truper drawled as he worked the bolt on his rifle. "Dead prisoners don't escape."

A bullet punched straight through Truper's cruel sneer, blowing most of it out the back of his head. His rifle flew from limp fingers as his body turned head over heels and splashed down into the stream. The explosion echoing over the meadow swallowed all sound of the stream sucking Truper's body down.

Kai clawed for the needle pistol on his right hip. It cleared the holster as Jocko completed his spin toward the thicket from which Deirdre had fired. Kai tightened down on the pistol's trigger as Jocko swung his rifle around on target His first cloud of needle made a hash of Jocko's left knee. As he let recoil track the pistol upward, the subsequent shots shredded Jocko's hip, flank, and shoulder.

Despite his shots, Jocko still jerked his trigger. A jet of flame shot from the rifle's muzzle, stabbing straight toward Deirdre's hiding place. Then, as Kai pumped round after round into him, Jocko's body whirled in a lazy pirouette. The barrel of his gun scythed through long, golden summer grasses, but never fired again. His body a bloody ruin, Jocko fell from sight.

Kai rolled to his feet and bolted for Deirdre. He tore through the brush and stopped short when he found her slumped over the smoking autorifle. Dropping to his knees, he reached out to gently turn her over, but he met resistance. His mind flashed to images of corpses locked in rigid poses by rigor mortis, but the trembling of her body told him she was not dead.

"Are you hurt, Deirdre? Did he get you?"

She tried weakly to push him away. When she failed at that, she pulled the autorifle from beneath her and cast it aside. "Get away," she breathed in a harsh whisper.

Anger filled Kai. He jerked her roughly around. "Are you hurt?"

She twisted up into a sitting position and showed no sign of having been hit. She thumped his chest with fists. "Get away, dammit." A grimace snapped up all the beauty Kai had ever seen in her face. "I don't take life. I save it. You've tainted me. You've made me over into your image!"

"What are you talking about?" The vehemence of her attack surprised him, but he recognized a thread of pure terror in her voice. "You saved my life!"

"But I killed to do it. The thing I swore never to do. I became what I am so I would never have to do that!" Tears streamed from her blue eyes. "Because of you, I killed a man. I never even looked him in the eye, I struck like a coward, from hiding. I executed him, and it's your fault!"

She slapped Kai hard, snapping his head around to the left. Kai tasted blood in his mouth. She tried to slap him again, but he blocked the blow and pushed her down with a none-top-gentle shove to the shoulder. "No, Doctor, it is not my fault. If you want to blame anyone, blame the man who gave you no choice. Truper forced your hand. You know that. You do!"

Kai slowly stood. "I've not tainted you. Reality has. You made a decision a long time ago to save lives. That was good, no matter who or what your motivation was. The only mistake was believing you might never find yourself in a situation where you had to kill someone. Perhaps being a general practitioner on some backwater world near the Periphery would have granted you that luxury, but life in the military does not."

Deirdre slowly rolled to her side and pulled her legs up toward her chest. Kai refused to give in to his desire to hug her until she gave in and saw reality. "I cannot say I am sorry you had to pull the trigger, Doctor. You saved my life, and for that I am grateful. The culture in which my mother was raised has a tradition: if you save someone's life, you are responsible for it."

"I don't want to be responsible for you. You have inherited other traditions of which I want no part."

"That could well be." Kai swallowed hard. "One thing I do know, however, is that I am heir to a tradition of honesty that allows me to look at and evaluate situations for what they are. Despite what you might like to believe of me, I find killing no easier than you do. I regret being forced to kill Clansmen and I regret having to shoot Jocko."

The bitterness returned in Deirdre's voice. "If you regret killing so much, why are you in the military? Why don't you follow the advice you gave me a moment ago and leave it?"

"Perhaps because, like you, Doctor, I have reasons that demand I remain." Kai looked down, avoiding her angry eyes. "Being willing to accept the responsibility of taking another person's life does not mean I enjoy it. Here, now, killing those two was the only expedient way to continuing to survive."

"You and your kind are animals."

"So aren't we all, Doctor." Kai scooped up the autorifle and slung it over his shoulder. "Some of us just aren't afraid to admit it."

* * *

Scouting along the bounty hunters' backtrail, Kai found a beat-up old hovertruck. A quick search of it produced a packet of information sheets issued by ComStar to provide the bounty hunters with targets for their searches. He found the warrant for his own capture and destroyed it. He also discovered two other fugitive warrants that described other things he had done but that had not been linked with Dave Jewell.

More important to him, however, was the discovery of a grid map of the area. Truper and Jocko had been assigned to search a wedge of territory that included the small meadow through which the stream ran. It narrowed to a point that Kai recognized as an old firebase. It had been little more than a compound with some quonset huts and storage facilities, but the map made it look as if ComStar had found a new use for it.

"Definitely worth checking out, I think." It occurred to Kai that if one team of bounty-hunters had been given that slice of territory, others would be working similar search zones. Assuming not all the hunters were as bloodthirsty as Truper and Jocko, it struck Kai as quite possible that other refugees had been rounded up and imprisoned at the fire-base.

After a minute or two of fiddling with the ignition panel, he overrode it and punched in a code that started the hoverfans. By the time he brought the truck back to the meadow, he'd hit on a perfect plan for getting into and out of the firebase. Drawing his pistol, he set to work.

Deirdre looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes. "I thought you'd abandoned me."

Kai shook his head. "Nope. Just making sure our cover story holds together when we get where we're going."

"I heard shots . . . two. Was there someone else out there?"

"No." Kai hesitated. "Just something I had to do."

"What?"

"You don't want to know." His tongue played over the split in his lip. "Trust me, you don't want to know."

Deirdre stood slowly and brushed pine needles from her clothes. Hugging her arms around herself, she met his eyes with a steely stare. "Tell me."

"Jocko still had a face." Kai's eyes narrowed as he braced for her reaction. "It's time for Dave Jewell to die, and Jocko's the right size."

Deirdre blinked several times as what he was telling her sank in. She opened her mouth to say something, but Kai cut her off before she could utter a sound.

"Yes, Doctor, not only do I kill, but I'm willing to mutilate an enemy corpse." His hands knotted into fists. "Perhaps, if pressed, I'll even turn cannibal. There, does that fit your image of me?"

Her lower lip trembled, but she got it under control quickly enough. "What I wanted to say, Kai, was that I've been doing a lot of thinking. I still abhor pulling that trigger, and I'll have nightmares over that decision for the rest of my life, but I do not regret saving your life. In the instant I pulled the trigger, I understood my action would cost the fat one his life, but that did not matter to me than. That it does now is part of who I am, and I must deal with that."

She reached out with the hand that had slapped him and stroked the side of his face. "You are right, we all are animals. I would have liked to believe I was further removed from the savage passions I ascribe to you warriors. I want to be different because I mustbe different. I don't expect you to understand that."

"Deirdre, I ..." Kai reached up to take her hand, but she stiffened at his touch. He saw emotions warring in her eyes and let his words trail off. "We better get going."

Deirdre turned away and squatted down to gather up their packs. "Where to?"

"Nowhere special, really." Kai accepted his pack from her and swung it onto his shoulder. "We're just going to drop these two off at a ComStar base, collect the bounty for them, and get away as quickly as we can."

17

Teeganito Astako Breaks, Alurial Continent

Hyperion, Wolf Clan Occupation Zone

8 March 3052

 

Sitting high in the cockpit of his modified NovaOmni-Mech, Phelan felt, for a moment, like king of all he surveyed. The twisted arroyos and canyons of hard-baked red earth stretched out around him as far as his 'Mech's enhanced senses let him see. Heat shimmered up off the land, softening the sharp edges on the earth's crust and blurring away the little dust devils dancing in the distance.

Phelan allowed himself an incautious smile. Suitable kingdom for me. It's as desolate as my chances of winning this Bloodname battle.

For the second time, Phelan had participated in the decision ritual of a Bloodname contest. Natasha had overseen the ritual because both Phelan and Glynis served in the Thirteenth Wolf Guards. When asked to express his worthiness, Phelan had repeated the same litany of successes as before, then added, "On Hyperion I led the defense of the Simmons Dam and hunted renegades in the badlands. Prior to the battle today, I defeated an Elemental, Dean, for the right to participate here."

Glynis, a small woman with the oversized head of all Clan aerospace pilots, stated her accomplishments more coldly. "I slew my first Smoke Jaguar before even testing out of my sibko. In the invasion, I have downed ten other fighters, and have killed five 'Mechs on the ground. On Hyperion I added two more fighters to my count, then scoured the plains of retreating armor. Prior to battle today, I slew a Mech Warrior, Manas, for the right to participate here."

Phelan had heard, in exquisite detail from Vlad, how Glynis had ripped Manas to pieces. Manas had made the mistake, Phelan decided, of configuring an OmniMech for a straight-up battle with an Omnifighter, then he offered to meet Glynis on an open plain that gave him a clear shot at her. Of course, it also gave her easy access to him, which is why he died.

Once again Phelan's medallion won the race and made him the hunted one. Glynis immediately chose to fight augmented, which, Phelan knew very well, made them far more than equal on the battlefield. Her aerospace Omnifighter packed much more in the way of weaponry and speed than any 'Mech he could find in a similar weight class.

Being the hunted, the choice of venue again fell to Phelan. Having just hunted down Rasalhague stragglers in the Breaks, he knew how treacherous and tricky the labyrinth of canyons could be. He recalled in particular that Carew and the other pilots assigned to give him air cover had experienced trouble spotting and shooting their enemies in the tight, twisting gauntlets.

If it worked for them against our fighters, it ought to work for me.He had planned to begin down in the maze, but Natasha had advised him that hiding and waiting to ambush his foe was not appropriate for a Bloodname battle. He recalled that the Black Widow had been unimpressed when Phelan scoffed at the idea of a 'Mech being able to ambush an aerospace fighter.

"An ambush is just taking a flyer by surprise," she commented. "That should not be difficult for someone of your inventiveness."

Not on paper, no ...For the fourth time since being set down on the planet, Phelan checked his weaponry. The Nova's boxy torso rose up above the cockpit and housed his NARC beacon equipment and deployment pods. That space could have been better filled with another weapon, but if he attained a hit with a NARC pod, it would mark Glynis' fighter with a targeting beacon. That would make his long-range missiles far more effective, and that was devoutly to be desired.

The 'Mech's shoulders supported two thick arms. In the left Phelan had placed an LB 10-X autocannon and its ammo. He'd specified a load of ammunition that he hoped would surprise Glynis. The right arm mounted a long-range missile launcher and sufficient missile racks to fight a long battle.

One of the Techs working to modify his Novahad commented that Phelan was going out with enough munitions for a siege, not a skirmish. Phelan had laughed off the remark, but deep down, he knew the Tech was right in wondering about Phelan's choices. Phelan realized Glynis' Omnifighter, a Visigoth,was capable of blowing chunks out of his 'Mech with each pass, while he was set up to slowly grind her fighter to debris. Phelan's only chance at winning was to survive long enough to use as much of his ammo as possible.

A red warning light flashed urgently on his command console. Phelan brought up a radar map of the area, and the computer highlighted a fast-moving object on a course that would carry it right over him. By manipulating the joysticks on each arm of his command couch, Phelan brought the twin crosshairs to the center of his holographic display. The computer condensed a 360-degree view of the area into 160 degrees, but Phelan only watched the center, his eyes flicking between it and the radar display on his auxiliary monitor.

Coming in at over 450 knots, the aerospace fighter made itself a target for less than three-tenths of a second. Phelan's crosshairs flashed on the screen and his fingers tightened down on all three fire-control triggers. The Novarocked back with the recoil as the left arm autocannon spit chunks of metal at the closing jet. The right arm sent a flight of missiles arrow-straight at the fighter. From above and behind the cockpit, the NARC system also sent out a small missile, trailing in the wake of the more deadly LRMs.

Searing blue light washed away Phelan's cockpit view as the Visigoth'sparticle projection cannon hit in its first pass. The jagged bolt of artificial lightning ripped an uneven line up the Nova's right side. Steaming hunks of ferro-fibrous armor spilled to the ground as the 'Mech lurched badly to the left.

Phelan fought to regain control of his 'Mech as the fighter's LRMs blasted craters in the ground all around him. They'd not hit, but hadn't missed by much and the shrapnel drummed across the surface of his 'Mech's cockpit like heavy rain. Ruby beams slashed through the cloud of dust and grit, but only one hit, and that was on the fighter's way out.

The Nova'scomputer painted a grim picture of itself on the secondary monitor. The PPC beam had all but stripped the 'Mech's right side of armor. The laser had melted a huge hole in the rear armor on his left torso. Another hit in either place and Glynis would be into his 'Mech's internal structures. That left his engine and gyro-stabilizers vulnerable, not to mention the whole endo-steel skeleton supporting his BattleMech.

Only two things made him happy. When he shifted over to infrared sensors, the Visigothstood out like a supernova in the night sky. Glynis had used all her weapons in the initial attack, probably hoping to take him out in one fell swoop. Despite the fact that she'd almost succeeded, the heat those weapons had generated would force her to delay another attack run so she could cool down. As the speed of her run had carried her well beyond his weapon ranges, Phelan assumed Glynis would reduce her speed a bit and take her time in coming back.

That would buy him some time, time he badly needed to get off the ridge and down into the canyon. The vulnerability of his right torso made it imperative that he find a defensive position that would force Glynis to be more cautious in her next fly-by. If she dropped 100 knots from her speed, he might get a chance to get off a good shot with his LRM launcher.

Phelan grinned as he saw a blue light pulsing coolly on his command console. His LRMs and his autocannon had missed their target, but the NARC missile had nailed the fighter in its pass. When it hit, it deployed a small homing beacon in the target that would attract the attention of his LRMs. The rhythm slowed as the aerofighter sped away. "You got away with near-murder, this time, Glynis. Now it's gonna be my turn."

Phelan started his 'Mech in a run up over the crest of the ridge, then down and to the east. He knew his 'Mech's image would vanish from her radar screen, as had her fighter from his, but that didn't bother him. Months of training with Carew had taught him what her response to that move would be.

Gingerly, Phelan began picking his way down a long rockfall. The boulders, which ranged in size from that of a hovercar to some that dwarfed his 'Mech, provided him broken cover, for which he felt thankful. Using his 'Mech's nearly vestigial hands to steady himself against some rocks, he descended toward the floor of a narrow canyon.

Suddenly his radar screen reported a high flyover by the Visigothand the NARC indicator light began to quicken its flashing. As he had expected, the trajectory showed that Glynis was coming in on a new vector, just to confuse him, as she searched. The MechWarrior smiled and pointed his right arm skyward. As the fighter cruised over his position, and the NARC light matched his heartbeat's accelerated pace, he let fly with a whole swarm of missiles.

She's good. Got to give her that.It looked as though Glynis had kicked the Visigothonto its right wing and cranked the nose up in an effort to evade the LRMs streaking from the ground. Though her maneuver might have worked under normal circumstances, the NARC beacon pulled the missiles in like a net scooping up fish. The LRMs peppered the fuselage, from nose to engine, but did little more than blast paint and armor from the fighter.

I just may have made her mad,Phelan thought, with a sinking feeling in his belly. The fighter vanished beyond the lip of the canyon, but Phelan knew with certainty that it would be back. He started his 'Mech literally hopping down the slope, wrestling with the controls to keep the behemoth on balance and upright. Glancing at the NARC beacon, he saw by its steady pulse that Glynis was close.

Despite that warning, Glynis' attack came as a surprise. In a daring move, she dropped her speed and popped up over the lip of the canyon in a strafing run. Her ship a silver specter of death, it hung there for a second with fire blossoming from both wings, then slipped away again.

She caught Phelan in a mid-leap with two LRM flights. The first barrage missed, blasting a spray of rock fragments through the air. The second one hit the airborne Novaon its left side. The missiles ripped armor from both the torso and left leg, but failed to breech either.

More important, however, the missiles hitting the left leg helped unbalance the Nova.As the fifty-five-ton 'Mech came back down, the left leg folded under the body. As much as Phelan fought to keep the 'Mech upright, the huge war machine tipped drunkenly to the left, then began to somersault down the half-kilometer rockfall to the canyon floor.

Warning klaxons and the shriek of metal filled the cockpit. Phelan cried out as the command couch's restraining straps dug into him, then slammed him back into his seat. Knowing he could no more control his fall than he could defy gravity, he brought the 'Mech's arms in across its middle and started praying.

The Novalanded with a jolt so hard that Phelan thought Glynis must have managed another run and direct hit with her missiles. More shocks shook the Nova,but it took Phelan a second or two to realize they were from boulders loosed by her miss rather than live munitions she was shooting at him. Bad enough I have to fight an ace pilot, but my choice of battlefield is against me, too!

The computer readout on his secondary monitor told him just how much the battlefield hated him. The tumble down the hill had scoured armor off his 'Mech's front and back, though no area was fully breached. Folding his arms in had saved them from most of the damage, though the right-arm diagram showed a feed-mechanism failure. Dammit, that means the one rack of missiles I have in there is it! I've got enough ammo for a siege, but no way to shoot it.