The Locust guy’s transmission tugged at his ears. Clearly not a military guy, talked way too much on air. The Capellan guy, Jaromir, sounded much better. Crisp, to the point, keeping the air clear. Same with the other two former soldiers, Zohra and Fuka, as expected, the latter already tanking damage with her face like a good heavy. Firestarter guy sounded exactly the way he looked, but seemed professional enough. Live this long in this line of work, you get a pass to limit the amount of fucks at your disposal. This might not be a shitshow. Pleasant surprises.

On the note of surprises, a medium laser across his cockpit went straight into the ‘Not pleasant’ category, but tolerable. Not ‘My armor is evaporating.’ unpleasant. [color=#61FF00]”Pirate ‘Mechs ahoy!”[/color] He grinned over the radio. While he’d love to think the other guy was a good sport and was giving him a warning shot, the chances of that were pretty low and thinking that either Karel was hard to hit or the other guy was inept was just as good. Still, shooting at him was a sin that couldn’t be forgiven, and Karel turned to engage the closest Locust, the 1V, assuming that was the culprit. He briefly considered slowing to a walk, which would allow him to be heat-neutral even while firing all three medium lasers, but not getting hit was even better. He lined up the crosshairs and pulled the trigger of his medium lasers.

The first shot went wide.

The second went low.

The third hit… a rock Karel that didn’t notice before as the Locust passed behind it.

[color=#61FF00]”Jebat křečka!”[/color] He roared at the top of his lungs, leaning against a pedal with all his weight and hauling the Mongoose around in anticipation of returning fire, kicking up a cloud of snow and ice as the feet tore into it to redirect the momentum of 25 tons of war machine moving at highway speeds. He didn’t need be that rought with the controls of course, but every MechWarrior knew that the harder you pulled a trigger or pushed the controls, the more damage the guns did and the harder the ‘Mech turned. Fact. Out of pure, pig-headed spite, heat be damned, Karel turned the torso back toward the 1V and fired his small laser.

By now the swearing must’ve been heard outside of the ‘Mech as the small laser’s beam viciously assaulted empty space near the enemy ‘Mech, the thought of the 1V missing him as well being only a small comfort given the vast gap in volume of fire between the two machines. Maybe he should’ve hit up the sims and learned how the new ‘Mech handled instead of bumming around the ship, but everyone’s a General after the battle is fought and hindsight is always 20/20.

[hider=Rolls]
[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/rolls/25500]3x Medium Laser, LCT-1V[/url]
[url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/rolls/25501]1x Small Laser, LCT-1V[/url]
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