Wow, dubble_g, you are really lighting both ends of many candles here - super! ;D :thumbsup: 8)
The idea was to have a kind of diamond format to the story--branching out from the start, and then having all those branches come together at the end: the A plot with Zlato, the B plot with the gold and the C background detail about noble squabbling & self-aggrandizing.
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27. GloryWar wants only one thing. One way or another, it gets what it wants.
A two-man crew from the 2nd division heaved a heavy recoilless rifle onto its tripod, loaded and aimed and fired at one of the 3rd division’s APCs, punching a fist-sized hole in the turret. They cheered, then screamed as the
Firestarter leaped on its jets, then came down almost on top of them, lashing the ground with long tongues of flame.
Danica Smallwood, pounded the inert controls in rage, frustration in fear. The
Banshee was dead, its gyro crushed, its spine broken.
A Bulldog lined up an easy kill on the head of the downed BattleMech, when its forward viewport was filled with the barrel bulk of a
JagerMech. Four streams of shells whipped into the tank, holing it in a dozen places. The crew tried to scramble out the hatches, but were cut down in bursts of deadly fire from the ’Mech’s waist lasers.
Sedbastian ran forward to cover Danica, shield her downed machine bodily with his own. The
JagerMech ignored him, focusing on the kill. Sebastian swung the crosshairs over the back of the ’Mech, and squeezed every trigger. Four lasers hissed out, melting armor and causing to hang loose in leprous sheets, exposing the bones and muscle within. The autocannon vomited a stream of dual-purpose killers into the gaps, tearing out the heart of the BattleMech, finding the autocannon magazine. A vast jet of flame burst from the back of the ’Mech, followed by a huge detonation that obliterated the top half, leaving only the legs standing.
“Seb, behind you!” Danica’s instruments were out, but nothing was wrong with her eyes. Sebastian twisted the Mjolnir around, as the
Firestarter behind him cut loose with lasers, machineguns and flamers. Fire lapped around the legs of the Mjolnir, across the armor of the supine
Banshee, and the mountains of metal still piled there. Danica screamed as the flames crawled across her viewscreen, like demons looking for a way in.
Hearing that scream snapped something inside Sebastian. The Mjolnir lurched forward, scooped up the
Banshee’s severed arm and, wielding it like a club, smashed it across the front of the
Firestarter. It staggered back a step. He hit it again with the backswing, snapping the head unit around, driving it back another step. Its machineguns fired, like a gazelle kicking against a lion’s jaws. An overhead blow drove it to its knees. Sebastian’s lips were pulled back, nothing coherent coming from his lips. The Mjolnir raised its club high, and brought it whistling down, smashing the
Firestarter’s head into a pulped mass of metal and blood.
Shinobu wrenched the
Dragon back to its feet, searching for the BattleMech that had hit him, and for the murderer. Atom. The butcher. Spotted him, chasing after the unknown BattleMech, forcing it slowly backwards towards the DropShip hangar. Shinobu started forward when a proximity alarm began to wail at him. He stifled a curse, pulling the throttle desperately backwards. The
Dragon backpedaled, just as a mighty Condor DropShip came hurtling past, slow but gathering momentum every second. It blew past, and the backwash of its engines threatened to knock the Dragon down again.
When it was past, Shinobu found himself face-to-face with the
Shadow Hawk, standing on the other side of the runway. A worthy opponent, but a distraction. Where was Atom? He fired the autocannon, missing as the
Shadow Hawk crouched, gritted his teeth as answering laser and cannon fire chipped at his armor. A warning light flashed on his control panel, cheerily informing him of damage to the comm system. His own lasers blazed, cut white-hot streaks in his enemy.
The
Shadow Hawk pilot must have known his advantage would lie in pressing the attack, closing the range, where he could use his jets to work around the Dragon. He edged forward and Shinobu backed up, trying for a missile lock. Fired anyway, but over half the missiles simply shot past. The
Shadow Hawk fired again. A lucky laser shot caught the
Dragon’s weakened knee armor, and made Shinobu stagger.
The
Shadow Hawk rushed forward.
The bullet nose of a Fury DropShip powering up to escape velocity rammed into the
Shadow Hawk, tearing it into metallic confetti and dismembered limbs. It simply was there one second, smeared across the DropShip’s nose the next. The Fury’s wingtip came a meter from cutting through the Dragon. It roared down the runway, still gathering speed, and lumbered into the air.
Shinobu stared at the spot it had occupied, open mouthed, until a rattle of small-arms fire against the armor shook him out of it. He saw, without much surprise, that it was his own side firing at him. Militiamen who couldn’t tell two BattleMechs apart had assumed he was the enemy. Shinobu fired a laser blast over their heads, throwing them cowering to the ground, then swept around, looking for the others. Lost groups of people were still huddled here and there on the field, largely ignored by the militiamen, who all seemed to be rushing towards the downed form of the
Banshee, heedless of cover or formation or the flames still lapping the BattleMech, or of anything really, anything but that pot of gold at the end of a multicolored, metallic rainbow leaking from the
Banshee’s innards.
Shinobu saw one man stop and aim his rifle at a family. A short spurt of laser fire disintegrated him.
Of Atom and his opponent there was no sign, but it was easy to guess where they had gone. Gore’s Mjolnir was thundering towards the hangar, too. In pursuit? Shinobu tried to follow after, but the
Dragon’s weakened knee squealed in protest, moving only in spastic fits and starts. He tried to get a channel to Gore, but all he could get was a digeridoo rush of static.
Grimly, Shinobu limped after. It was time to end this.