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==Tales from the Golden Lion AUKatya’s Quest - Chapter 10==
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12/04/3051 - Antares, Contested World
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Katya’s eyes snapped open, a hand rose to her throbbing head, bells rang from her left ear and blood trickling from her it and her face. This room was an office of some kind, “Where am I?” 
She looked around and saw the Nashan Diversified Seal on the folder lying beside her. “What happened?” Sounds of battle surrounded her along with glass breaking from explosive overpressure and full powered Battlemechs on the march. “What happened!”
There was no response, she reached up to her ear where the radio headset ‘had’ been. Only her palm came away bloody. It was missing and her eardrum must have been damaged. The only thing that could do that and throw off her headset and hat, would be a near miss by a high-powered rifle.
A high-powered rifle. How dare they resort to such measures! 
The dezgra cowards!
She flipped onto her belly and drew her sidearm. There was no sign of other combatants, or Superintendent Callows, not that she could hear anything but battle outside and a sharp ringing in her left ear. Her first attempt to rise was cut short by a sudden dizzy spell, her legs wobbly, arms weak, she crashed back into the fine wool carpet as blood dribbled onto it from where glass had cut her face. “Come on! You are not hurt that badly.” 
On her left thigh the LSSU beeped frantically as its’ horizontal alert triggered a casualty message to the local Battlenet. “I am not a casualty yet! Stupid machine.” 
Katya rose to a plank getting her knees under her to crawl toward her headset, only to find it broken. A large explosion lit up the room as the ammunition from one of the Battle Cobras erupted from the CASE doors taking half the mech with it. Powerful enough to shatter windows spiderwebbed with small arms fire with a sudden blast of pressure and heat. She ducked her head as safety glass landed around her. “Hold your fire idiots! You will get us all killed.”
A sudden crunch landed behind her; Katya pointed her sidearm at Lighthouse Three. He kept his back toward her scanning the horizon with his machine gun arm out and battle claw open for recovering her possible dead or unconscious body. Instead, he found her bleeding, laid out on a fine rug surrounded by broken glass. “It is a relief to see you still alive Star Captain. When you failed to respond we assumed the worst.”
“What is going on?”
“We are under attack by a Level II of Sneak Suit and PAL equipped Infantry. They caught us by surprise with armor piercing weapons, then faded away into the industrial zone. Watchtowers two and four are injured but our LSSUs are keeping us in the fight.”
Her head leaned toward him the Echos were capable of almost 360-degree vision through their multispectral cameras. It was nearly impossible to catch them off-guard, but COMSTAR had managed to do so. “They tried to shoot me in the head, busted my eardrum, I fell and hit it instead.”
“If I can get you to it. Can you still pilot your Omnimech?”
There was hesitation before her reply. “Aff.”
“Good because we have detected the seismic waves of incoming Battlemechs.”
“You always have to be the bearer of bad news.”
“It is our job.”
Another attempt at standing left her unsteady even holding onto the Echo’s pack. “You will have to carry me down. I cannot keep my balance. I just need some time.”
“You have sustained a bad head injury. Perhaps we should withdraw.”
“Not without a fight.”
“You are the Star Captain.”
“I am. 
Which is why you are going to delete jumping off this building with me in your arms and carrying me to my mech from your datacache as soon as it happens.”
“Acknowledged.”
“I just need to do one thing first.”
“What is that?”
Katya reached down to pick up her beret and Mauser from the floor stuffing the hat under her epaulet, gripping the other tightly with one arm while hanging onto the pauldron with the other. “Pick me up now.”
The Echo’s claw closed as both arms raised her up, within two short hops she was close enough to activate the keypad override to open her cockpit and begin startup procedures. She was still unsteady but the neurohelmet was a two-way interface and her Hellfire’s DI computer was well-used. It stood up without issue even as the 222nd’s demi-company of Battlemechs cleared the tank farm. They looked cobbled together from other chassis and carried mech sized melee weapons in their hands, like they were some ancient Terran Gladiators.
“Red Star, I only want sure shots. COMSTAR drew us here on purpose.” 
Her weapon reticle appeared over a solvent tank verifying that her the weapons including her Heavy Lasers had completed their powerup cycles. Something was off. “They want us to miss.”
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