Foresight (ATwT) Chpt 9

Pirate Raid
Malagrotta, Malagrotta PDZ
Crucis March, Federated Suns
18th April 3102
“Push them now!”  Anna Devalis called out as the Devalis’ Devils pushed the pirates back once more.  Already the enemy unit’s Awesome lay dead but so did her own command’s Thunderbolt.  The Devalis’ Devils had been engaged by a unit they believed to be the Frightful Authority which had been augmented by several platoons of additional armor and a light Mech lance made up of modern Wasp and Stinger BattleMechs.
Already the Devalis Devils had destroyed all of the light Mechs and most of the armor but it had come at a cost both of the command’s aerospace fighters had been shot from the sky by the combined firepower of the Authority’s Awesome and Atlas while three of their Mechs had also been destroyed before the Atlas went down.  Anna Devalis believed that the Atlas may be salvageable but first they had to get through the next several minutes as her Devils struck forwards with only the Black Knight and the Awesome remaining of the enemy force.  “I have the Black Knight; I will make him pay for what he has done to our people.”  She transmitted marching the Marauder at the enemy Mech the seventy-ton BattleMech stood still firing its left arm mounted particle cannon and autocannon into her Marauder’s chest armor causing some damage but hitting nothing critical inviting her to close. “You want me to get closer to you.” she said to herself watching the Mech turn its torso towards her adding a pair of medium lasers to the mix.  One burned down her Marauder’s left leg while the other missed wide burning some of the shrubland beside her burning the plants to a cinder as it struck them.  She watched as her own pulse lasers worked their way across the Black Knight’s torso leaving pot marked burns in the armor as the individual pulses stuck home.  “Something I won’t give you.” she said cutting the Marauder to the right firing her autocannon at the Black Knight as the enemy Mech’s large laser burned through the space she’d been in moments before.  With a burst of speed, the Black Knight surged forwards twisting its torso revealing its retractable blade as it came turning its body down on the Marauder trying to cut into its armor.  Anna Devalis was ready for the move and had prepared she cut the Marauder in closer behind the charging Black Knight exposing her back to the enemy Mech if the Black Knight had rear weapons, she’d have worried but she knew this one didn’t have any.  As soon as she was behind the Mech she began her Marauder’s turn coming back towards the Mech as more autocannon and particle cannon fire burned and battered her Mech’s armor.  She’d turned just enough to avoid the fire hitting her Marauder’s weaker rear armor “not today” she said hitting the turning Black Knight with both pulse lasers and the standard medium lasers beside them all four weapons cut into the Black Knight’s left torso cutting deeply into the internal structure there damaging the light engine but missing the ammunition bay.
Even as the heat inside her Marauder rose at firing all four laser weapons, she saw the heat blossom inside the Black Knight from the engine hit.  The Mech continued to try and charge in on her Mech using the heat produced to charge its triple strength myomer and energize its movement speed beyond normal levels but each time Anna moved out of the way just far enough for her to be away from the Black Knight’s blade but each time also ensuring that both of her Mech’s machine guns were blazing fire at the enemy Mech causing hundreds more tiny hits on the seventy ton BattleMech one of the salvos struck the Black Knight’s head battering the armor that covered the cockpit and protected the Mech warrior.  The machine gun was probably the least thing to worry about striking the head of a Mech but it was still unnerving to any MechWarrior, only a single bullet needed the breach the armor in the right place to severely injure or kill the pilot.  Anna added in her autocannon and standard lasers to cause more damage but the shots from the overhead cannon and arm lasers went wide striking the ground between the Mechs exploding on impact throwing dirt into the air.
The Black Knight seemed invigorated by the pilots brush with death and her miss charging through the flying dirt it struck out with both the large laser and particle cannon which slammed into the standing Marauder.  Caught flat footed for a moment Anna triggered both pulse lasers and the machine guns hoping to get a lucky hit unfortunately neither hit the already damaged left torso instead burning the Black Knight’s legs which did nothing to stop the Mech.  Bracing herself Anna saw the Black Knight’s right arm rise and then fall on her Marauder slamming into the right side of her BattleMech.  The Marauder briefly recoiled from the impact only for it to be lanced by the retractable blade which punched into the armor causing a breach Anna recovered from being jostled around the cockpit to reach over and dump the machine gun ammo before there was any chance of an internal explosion.  There was a sickening sound of twisting metal as the Black Knight withdrew the blade from her Marauder the Mech remained in place Anna knew he was ready to strike her Mech again but didn’t intend on turning her Mech’s back to the enemy nor going down without a fight.
She started by kicking the Black Knight with her right leg then swinging the left arm around and over punching the side of the enemy Mech causing more damage and causing the Black Knight to wobble backwards she hated physical combat in a BattleMech but she knew how to fight when she needed to.  The impact battered the front of the left arm but the designers of her Mech had recessed the emitters of the pulse laser to try and protect them from damage when the arms were used as clubs.  Before withdrawing the arm, she triggered the pulse laser and standard laser at point blank range trying to cause crippling damage.  Only the pulse laser fired her standard laser suddenly showing as offline damaged by the physical blow, even without the laser the dozen pulses fired from her weapon pitted the armor further with superheated laser fire.  The Black Knight staggered backwards from the physical hit but the pilot returned fore with its particle cannon the man-made lighting cannon sending electrical discharges across her Marauder’s torso.  Anna noticed the autocannon was now also offline, she needed to finish the fight before she ran out of weapons.
"Take this you freeborn bastard!” She screamed firing all three of her remaining weapons into the Black Knight both pulse lasers slammed into the Black Knight’s damaged left torso.  Under the pounding of the laser weapons the structure seemed to give way literally vaporizing under the hits the entire side of the Black Knight seemed to sag the arm attached to the torso at the shoulder falling limp its controls severed.  Now the Black Knight was reduced to only its blade and torso laser weapons which it fired trying to stop the charging Marauder but Anna was not finished she gave into the rage that had been building insider her and she ran at the staggered Black Knight continuing to accelerate as she charged into the Mech.  The Black Knight had wanted a physical encounter with her Black Knight and now he was getting an up close and personal one unfortunately it wasn’t on his terms and the Black Knight’s retractable blade was out of position.
All across the battlefield the remaining fighting seemed to stop dead as the combined tonnage of one hundred and forty-five tons of BattleMech and their two pilots fell towards the ground entangled with each other. Even as they fell Anna Devalis triggered both pulse lasers striking the Black Knight with one while the other burned into the ground beside the Mech.  The two Mechs slammed into the ground and each other a second time as they both landed heavily on the ground.  Anna could see she’d done gyro and heat sink damage to her own Mech with the attack as she fought the seventy-five ton Marauder and got it back into the standing position once more walking away she saw the Marauder’s right ankle actuator had also been crushed by the impact limiting the Mech’s walk.  She turned to see the Black Knight also rise from the ground now it was also missing its retractable blade which was stuck in the ground where the two Mech’s had landed.  The Mech only had a large laser left from what she could see the two stumps that had been its Medium Lasers crushed by her charging attack.
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“MechWarrior, stand down I do not want to kill you.  You have fought well.”  She said transmitting on an open frequency the Black Knight stepped forward and fired its large laser which went wide and missed her even at this short range the pilot likely dazed or even concussed she noticed a limp in its walk the Mech had little left in it.  “Surrender” she warned aiming her pulse lasers on target as the Black Knight struck her with its large laser burning away the last of her center torso armor “No more chances” she finally said as she thumped down both triggers sending two pulse laser blasts into the target.  Both struck home on the heavily damaged Black Knight penetrating the center torso armor destroying the safety protocols on the Mech’s engine sending it into emergency shut down more the Black Knight suddenly went ridged then keeled over unable to stand given the damage it had taken slamming into the ground with a thud the Mech laid where it had been destroyed the battle over.
The Devalis’ Devils had been victorious.  Hours later they prized open the cockpit and found the pilot a cybernetically enhanced woman who had died by her own hand.  The cockpit was tiny and nothing like a traditional one with the pilot wired into its systems in several places.  The Devils took photos and tested the equipment before choosing to salvage the Mech’s weapons and destroy the Mech.  The two extended range medium lasers were deemed suitable to go on Anna Devails’ Marauder cementing her victory over her opponent.
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