The Crimson Fists finally started lumbering into view, Marit keeping one eye out of the cockpit and one on the list she had written down, making mental tickmarks. They were all there except the Warhammer as advertised, it having apparently been replaced by a Panther.

Ingrid’s entree was an unmistakable go signal, even if she wasn’t doing too well at least the large lasers found their marks The Duchess probably had her hands full getting out of the snow. Quickly waking Archie up and opening the missile doors, she had a lock before Betty was even done with her usual spiel. Walking forward to get all of her weapons in range and to give herself at least some speed to get out of harm’s way, Marit thumbed the trigger linked to the three launchers set to staggered fire and Archie joined the fight. It was marginally better heat wise and the actuators would thank her for subjecting them to three smaller recoil impulses than one large one in the long run. Plus having a steady stream of missiles landing around you and on your head was also a mighty bastard of a morale sink.

Like the Crusader, the unannounced Panther was a long range ‘Mech, but it would take a lot less punishment to bring down and she wanted to capitalize on their surprise before it got moving, making landing any hits like trying to catch a cat that didn’t want to cuddle. Over and above that, a solid hit from a PPC would do far more than getting peppered by an LRM salvo. Half the ordnance from the first launcher hit home, pausing her song with a quietly muttered [color=76D0FF]”Yes!”[/color].

She frowned as the second ten-piece salvo became more lost than double heat sinks, landing nowhere near any ‘Mech, nevermind the one she was shooting at. Only then did she remember she was going to wait for Ziska to mark a target. If there wasn’t a sticky note with ‘Use TAG, NARC & brain.’ stuck to Archi’s dashboard by the next sortie, she would be very disappointed in her ‘Mech Tech and his crew.

Marit frowned even further as 12 missiles from the third salvo veered off and obliterated the mountain snow, but that frown turned upside down pretty fast when the Panther wobbled on its legs uncharacteristically despite only being hit by three missiles at the time, indicating something’s gone in the gyro. A piece of machinery moving at very high speed coming loose inside the ‘Mech while at the same time impeding the ‘Mechs ability to stay upright didn’t bode well for the False Knight. If Ingrid forgot her origin and went caveman in the heat of the moment, she probably could have sat the Panther on its ass with a punch with minimal effort coming at them as fast as she was, the thought making Marit snicker. Not bad of an opening, despite room for improvement, and the freezing cold outside kept even Archie nice and comfortable, though he’d start cooking if someone got close and she had to start splitting fire.