She could really learn a lot from Yorinaga, but how many of us were willing to learn when young and angry?
She's actually not angry, just serious.
01/14/3052Marrou’s Fen lay exposed before the audience as Ranna and Diana prepared for the appointed time. Clear blue sky reflected in the glass smooth knee-high standing water and stubby grasses. No birds flew over the Morein basin today, instead almost a dozen Battlemechs took a knee on the firm ground above Phelen Kell’s Wolfhound and the Dragoons the left, the others their right. None of the spheroid mercenaries thought about it, but the brothers Kell whose mechs were beside Jaime, Maeve, and Mackenzie Wolf looked out of place.
Ranna’s heart raced as her Warhammer strode into the fens. it was not the best place for footing especially in such a large mech. However, there was a clear pond in the center deep enough to submerge her mech’s legs within to improve her heat capacity.
Opposing her was the raptor like Shinobi, all deadly angles and packed with the most advanced non-Dragoon, non-Clantech equipment possible for its size. She had heard about the design but as far as she knew it was still experimental. Fewer than 100 had been built and those had gone to elite commands within the DCMS and CCAF. It was perhaps the most expensive mech in the Inner Sphere that hadn’t belonged to someone important.
There is no way an Exiled Clan Warrior should’ve been allowed to get one of them and it be allowed within the Lyran Commonwealth.
“Who is she sleeping with to get a Shinobi?”Her mission clocked flicked over to ’12:00’ and the Circle of Equals appeared in the AR, just another image conjured up and presented through her neurohelmet’s visor. Targeting sensors picked up the other mechs watching from above, her palms began sweating in the gloves despite the cooling fluid running through them,
“They will just see how good I can be.”
“Target track, contact A-five-zero. Ignore all others.” Friendly contacts disappeared from the field with the Warhammer’s targeting suite focusing entirely on Diana’s mech. It leapt into the air, landing with impossible grace as her sensors detected a power-surge and thermal energy emanating from beneath the PPC over its shoulder although it quickly dissipated.
“Capacitor PPC?”The Warhammer trod forward into the terrain; a standing wave emanated from it brushing the bright green fen grasses beyond it. Her iPPCs were still out of range and this would be a slow progression. Ranna held firm balancing the Battlemech beneath her that was wobbling as if standing on a waterbed made of moss.
Something seemed off, Diana’s Shinobi had an unusually low sensor signal for its size. At this range it should be plainly visible on the targeting scopes and her weapons should have good tracking. Ranna initiated a diagnostic of the old Warhammer’s systems.
“There has to be something wrong with my scopes, but we double checked them today.”She was rocked as the Warhammer sustained a direct hit from the Shinobi which had reappeared on her scopes. It had not only returned but was now bright white in thermals as the cooling network dissipated the heat from the PPC throughout the machine and into the water below. Ranna fired from the hip sending hyper-accelerated sub-atomic particles downrange in a torus of light. One connected, ablating away the gray composite that protected the armature below. The Shinobi was damaged, but Ranna looked at the blood red damage indicator on her mech’s right torso that showed a total breach in a single hit. Something that should have been impossible for even a Dragoon made PPC.
“That bitch!”Ranna went hot pressing the offensive as Diana jumped away, her tracking systems struggled to find the Battlemech in jump jet plumes that sent up superheated vapor that cooled and settled over the fens like fog. Each combatant parting clinging fog and thrashing water as stray shots scorched the grass and started smoldering fires that failed to spread int the waterlogged land.
Infrequent chips against the Shinobi occurred even though Ranna and her machine struggled to track the agile duelist who hovered barely within or just outside her effective range. Diana made herself a target only long enough to set up a powerful shot that rarely missed when it did fire though that event was infrequent. However, Ranna prepared for it timing her own firepower for maximum effect only to have Diana feign and prepare again preventing an easy tempo.
Their battle had been ongoing for almost an hour as Ranna set herself up in the central pond. Her Warhammer’s PPC concealed within the smoke and fog that swirled around her. Even with sensors degraded she knew that Diana was nearby, waiting to strike down at her. She intended to catch her on the wing just as she had been shooting trap with Alpin two days ago.
“Ranna ‘Birddog’ Kerensky it might catch on.”Her controls were unresponsive as she tried to step forward through the pond to get a better firing position. The mud below held fast her Warhammer and began to suck it down. Their duel had broken down the fens’ natural structure until it was a quagmire that her mech could not clear. She had thought it would be quick, it had been anything but, and now her Warhammer had feet of clay and was sinking.
Diana’s Shinobi appeared out of the haze, clear as day to her sensors, her capacitor was charged and now that she was trapped Ranna would be an easy target.
The radio was set to their internal channel, no need for her to announce her embarrassment to friends and family,
“I yield!”
“Why?”
“My Warhammer is trapped and sinking into the mud. You have won.”There was a pause while Diana’s PPC powered down and dissipated its accumulated energy,
“Do you require rescue?”
“Are you offering?”
“I am the closest.”Ranna turned off the mic and breathed deep,
“She just wants to gloat in person,” then returned it to broadcast,
“Aff.”She opened the cockpit and choked on the swirling smoke from the many small fires that smoldered in the fen.
“Tastes just like Cuchulain,” beneath her the mud was pulling her Warhammer down. It would be difficult to recover but good practice for the salvage crews. Although Uncle Jaime was probably going to order her to power-wash it as her surkai.
With the cockpit sealed Ranna kept her balance on the narrow boarding surface as the Shinobi stood beside it extending a palm up hand to bridge the gap. Her cockpit was up allowing Ranna to see Diana shift her head to the side to ensure that her Mech’s hand remained as steady as possible.
It took all the Dragoon’s courage to scramble across the mech’s hand knowing full well that her opponent could crush her if she wanted. Ranna hurried into the fold down jump seat and found a shallow clear plastic box filled with smaller bags containing small bones, intricate shells, shiny rocks, dried plants, fortunately dead insects, and glass beads, all of which were neatly labeled and indexed.
“What is this?” Diana let out a sigh as her own mech struggled to clear the quagmire.
“One of my specimen collections. Just gently put it into a cargo pocket, then strap into your seatbelt.” Diana grunted and ran her fingers across the function displays,
“We’ll have to jump out of this fine mess you’ve trapped me in.”
“Language.”
“Do not start with me Wolf.” Diana let out a whisper not knowing she was still on the Trial channel,
“You are already as bad as the mercenary.”
