BoTH Chpt 26

==Blood on the Horizon - Chapter 26 -==
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===Reason behind the Concern===
"This is a nice simulator," Sheppard muttered to himself as he climbed into the pod. "I wonder why Hull was so worried about us?"
 
Hooking up his cooling vest to the lines in the pod, he hit the power-up cycle and grinned as everything flared to life. 
 
"Mongoose is ready," He flipped the master arm switch on and glanced down at his sensors. "This is Rifle One, you two ready?" He asked Erika and McKay. 
 
"This is Rifle Two, Ready op," Erika responded, her Griffin powered up and ready. 
 
"This is Rifle Three, Ready op," McKay's Crab looked around at the hanger the sims had placed them in. "Bit of an odd start for a sim, isn't it?"
 
"Aye," Sheppard replied. "Now we should probably prove our new CO wrong about the difficulty of his simulators." 
 
"Giving hanger bays the signal to open, they're responding to the handshake," Erika reported as the massive hanger bays slid open to reveal a barren wasteland. Rolling hills with dead foilage and the corpses of 'mechs and DropShips. 
 
"Damn," Sheppard swore. "This place is a mess, I wonder what planet the simulator pulled this from."
 
"Could be any number of worlds," McKay replied. "Especially if it's a late Star League Era Simulator. Not like there was a lack of warfare in the Star League."
 
"Incoming!" Erika called out as the sky seemed to swarm with missiles. 
 
"Dodge what you can," Sheppard ordered as a few missiles pockmarked his light 'mech's armor. "We'll then try to take out the missile carriers."
 
<{"'Mech powerup detected,"}> Betty screamed in his ear as a PPC took out Erika with a single shot to the cockpit. 
 
"What the hell was that?!" Sheppard roared as he took a step and a small explosion injured an ankle actuator. "Shit, those weren't regular LRMs." 
As Sheppard looked at the sensor scans of the ground around him, a Highlander painted in the drab camo of the SLDF casually walked around a pile of wreckage and began stripping armor off of his 'mech before a gauss slug punctured his reactor and the screen went black. 
 
"What just happened?" Erika helped Sheppard climb out of the sim pod. 
 
"I have no idea," he shook his head. "But we're about to find out."
 
The two of them helped the last member of their trio out of her pod before going to the prefabricated mess hall. 
 
"Here," Hull greeted them, setting a tray of food in front of each of them. "Figured you'd be hungry after that."
 
"What sort of simulation is that?" McKay finally spoke. "I've never even encountered an assault 'mech on the field before, and now I had to try and fight three of them?"
 
"And what was up with those LRMs?" Sheppard asked. "I'm pretty sure that we haven't had specialty ammunition for that in decades if not a century."
 
"Gauss Rifles? ER PPCS?" Erika asked. 
 
"I'll answer your questions in order," Hull chuckled as he grabbed his own food and sat across from them. 
 
"From what I can tell, these simulators were intended for an elite unit of some kind," He sipped at his drink. "Not sure which unit, but they were programmed to only generate simulations and scenarios in which the survival odds were next to zero." 
 
"I've had simulations that had me in orbit after a DropShip blew up around me, scenarios where I was in a jungle being hunted by a bunch of Atlas, all sorts of crazy stuff."
 
"If it makes you feel better, I haven't managed to beat a sim yet," Hull smirked. "But I did manage to last a bit longer than y'all in my last one." 
 
"Alright then," Sheppard nodded at the gauntlet that had just been thrown down. "You're on."
 
"Look, I just want to prove to you guys that I have what it takes even if I'm a touch green," Hull explained. "I'm not looking to stir up trouble with y'all." "Nope," Sheppard grinned. "The Challenge has been laid down, now you've got to prove it."
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===A Spectator Sport===
"Just checking before he starts it up," McKay ate a bowl of ice cream as she watched the tri-vid stream of the sims. "But he is in a stock 'Hammer, right?" 
 
"Yeah, I confirmed that the pod was set to standard Warhammer," Sheppard nodded. "Now we see if he's as good as he thinks he is."
 
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===Fighting the No Win Scenario===
 
"What're you gonna throw at me today?" I whispered as Betty began her sequence. 
 
As the world formed around me, a jungle began to appear, trees nearly as thick as my 'mech, and boughs that hung just high enough for me to be underneath the canopy
 
I stepped on the foot pedals and slowly began moving forward, my sensors powered down to passive so I didn't give my position away for free. 
 
Then an Urbanmech stepped out from the trees at nearly point blank range, its AC/20 ripping apart a nearby tree and sending it crashing to the ground as I shifted a bit further back and began stripping the armor off of the light 'mech. 
 
"It's never just an Urbie," I muttered as I shifted to active sensors and barely evaded a fist from a Battlemaster. 
 
"Here goes nothing," I overrode a safety on one of my PPCs and killed the Urbie with a precise shot at point-blank range before the weapon registered as unavailable for use. Then I turned to engage the assault 'mech that had gotten up close. 
 
"Where's your other buddies?" I asked as the two of us exchanged fire. "I know they're around here somewhere." 
 
<{"Enemy detected"}> Betty informed me as a new sensor trace appeared. 
 
"And there's the big boy," I narrowly dodged the twin 'mech killers that were fired at me. "Whelp, I can only take one of you down with me."
 
Focusing on the Battlemaster, I narrowly avoided overheating my 'mech as I ripped the 85-tonner's legs out from underneath it and stomped on the cockpit before turning to face the big foe of the day. 
 
"Whelp, I'm in armor state red in most places, and you're lethal to me at this range," I limped my 'Hammer forward and began burning away at one of the scariest and most lethal 'mechs ever invented. 
 
Twin blue lasers shattered what was left of my torso armor before carving into my ammunition bays and throwing my 'mech to the ground with the secondary explosions, a burst of autocannon shells sending the simulator to black as I struggled to stand up in my 'hammer."
 
"Now it's time to face the music," I opened the hatch of the pod and looked at the group I had put together already. "Well?"
 
"You need some work," Sheppard finally said after a moment of silence. "But you're probably better than me in a 'mech and you've got a decent head on your shoulders. So, let's try running this death simulation again. This time with a full team. What'd you say?"
 
"I'm in," I grinned. "It'll be nice to not have to kill something on my own."
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Chapter 26