[u][b]BRIGADOR - ONE SHOT - PT 2
[/b][/u]
Aroxy gritted his teeth, eyes peeking out of the portcullis, as beams of ionized plasma flashed over his head. The Goliath’s reactor was audible at its distance as he heard its footsteps boom over in the distance. A searchlight scythed over their line hungrily, illuminating their figures for the mech to target and destroy. Once that was over, Aroxty swore as he heard what sounded like the cracks of lightning on his distance as a spray of lasers came from the Warhammer’s left torso. It was nothing a Von Luckner couldn’t stomach but the insides of the tank turned from sweltering to boiling at all the excess energy being poured into the interior.

The volley stopped and Aroxy watched cautiously as the Warhammer began to walk towards the right, towards where the remains of the paved roads were. Von Luckners were faster than most heavy mechs if they were on good tank country. Unfortunately, the artillery attacks from both the loyalists and rebels had reduced hard-packed soil into loose mulch that clogged up their treads. The difference between their speed was so miniscule that the Warhammer could outspeed them if the pilot bothered to break their reactors. 

So, there were only two choices now.

Go down fighting or run away retreating.

The latter was unthinkable for his crew.

So, fighting it was. 

“ Takka!” He barked into his crew’s comm channel. “ Fire an AP at its searchlight. If it’s running half-blind, at least, that’s better than nothing at all!” 

He heard a momentary grunt of confirmation and the reracking of shells into the turret’s chamber. The turret jolted and Aroxy could see the cannon tilting upwards, accounting for the range. If there was one advantage of fighting a heavy mech, it was that they didn’t move much. Light mechs made ballistics calculations hard because they moved around like a chicken on meth. Heavy mechs like the Warhammer were sitting ducks. However, Aroxy questioned whether even Takka, who could hit a fly at 900 yards while drunk, could hit the mech’s searchlight at this range. 

“ Up!,” Morven, the loader, shouted. 

“ Fire!,” Aroxy commanded. 

“ On the way!,” Takka screamed. 

The cannon erupted and the enormous frame of the Warhammer tilted back, rocked by the power of the 125mm bore round. The searchlight flickered chaotically before turning dark one last time. The feeling of victory was short-lived as the Warhammer’s PPE let loose another beam, turning night into day. Aroxy’s heart stopped as he saw that the beam was coming towards them. Merry-Go-Round rocked back on her hull from the blasts, throwing Aroxy off his footing. Warning klaxons that he only heard during his training were blaring as the crew inside was shouting and swearing, fumbling around for tools like frenzied mice. 

“ Shit. How bad is it?” 

Takka pulled off his helmet and whatever he was looking at made his mouth open and close several times. He sputtered as if searching for the right words before replying in a haunted voice.  

“ Our engine’s fucked. We’re moving slower than a turtle at this point, Aroxy.” 

“ Dammit!” Aroxy slammed his fist on the inside of the Merry-Go-Round’s hull. He then looked up and saw the Warhammer walking towards their position in an uncoordinated manner. They were walking half-blind. It would be about 20 seconds before they would get pinged on its radar. “ Dammit. Alright. Aim for its left leg joint. We have to get that PPE off our tail.” 

Aroxy heard the familiar sound of re-racking as the Merry-Go-Round prepared itself to fire another round. 

“ Up!”

“ Fire!”

“ On the way!” 

The Merry-Go-Round shuddered from the recoil. Through his telescope, Aroxy saw the round collide cleanly with the Warhammer’s leg. The mech paused, its movements now visibly slowed as it’s left arm-turret sank down, the ruined joint unable to compensate for its weight. Unfortunately, their fire gave off their position as the Warhammer readjusted its PPE and fired towards them.

Aroxy swore, ducked into the crew interior and heard the sound of metal shrieking from above. 

“ Goddammit, our SRMs are hit. We only got our main turret left, chief.” 

Aroxy was still seeing stars by the time he managed to get onto his two feet. He breathed out, ignoring the taste of blood in his cheek, and looked at Takka who had sweat pouring down his tense face. 

“ Alright, aim below at the cockpit and fire an AP round. It won’t do diddly but we have to get that plating off.” Aroxy scrambled up onto the portcullis and waited for the cannon to finish readjust. “ On my command.” 

“ Up!” 

“ Fire!” 

“ On the way!” 

Another flash of fire, this time at the center of the Warhammer. The great war engine shuddered as its legs stalled for a moment. The end of its PPE began to glow an eerie blue, ready to send them all into oblivion.

“ Again!” Aroxy screamed, throat hoarse. “ HE this time!” 

“ Up!”

“ Fire” 

“ On the way!” 

The third shell struck true and the Warhammer froze still. The smoke cleared and Aroxy peeked out through his telescope, switching to night vision. There was a rent hole, sputtering with oil, through the lower cockpit of the Warhammer. The great mech swayed on its hydraulic footing, slowly losing power throughout its subsystems from critical damage, before crashing down on the earth with such force that it raised a visible dust cloud in the dusky night. 

THe tank crew paused for a moment, frangled nerves and shock outweighing any sense of achievement. Aroxy took the deepest breath he ever had before speaking into his radio. 

“ Mech destroyed.”