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[color=Green]"Shit, that's my arm gone!"[/color] called out Honk-Honk, the mercenary in the [i]Panther[/i], as a flight of SRMs from the Green Knights' [i]Raven[/i] pockmarked its armor, before snapping the composite alloy bone, myomer muscle bundles, and power couplings that held the light Mech's right arm in place. With the limb fully severed, the [i]Panther[/i] staggered, but the mercenary inside managed to keep its footing. [color=Green]"Hell with this, I'm punching out!"[/color]

Inside the cockpit of the [i]Panther[/i], the Mechwarrior reached up behind his head to a small black-and-yellow-striped handle hanging above his command couch. Yanking the handle down hard, he braced himself for the explosive bolts that would blow the 'Mech's cockpit open to let his ejection pod rocket away to safety.

Instead, the Mech's external speakers activated, letting out a loud, wet-sounding [i]BRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAP.[/i]

[color=Yellow]"Phhheeeeewwwww-weee, was that you, Honk-Honk?!"[/color] called out the Yellow Jester.

[color=Green]"Are you kidding me with this shit?!"[/color] Honk-Honk all but screamed at his commanding officer.

[color=Yellow]"Oh, please, I'm [i]always[/i] kidding,"[/color] the psychotic Crimson Fists lance leader said as he advanced in the [i]Crusader.[/i] [color=Yellow]"But let's be honest, I doubt the goodie-woodie-doodie-two-shoes Knights are going to let bad bad men like us get away anyway. Might as well see this show to the end, ha-haaa!"[/color]

[color=Tan]"Us or them, Honk-Honk,"[/color] said Bing-Bong, who pushed his [i]Hunchback[/i] forward and drove his Mech's foot into the leg of the damaged [i]Ostroc.[/i] Rather than give the Green Knight a full salvo, he turned the stout Mech's torso and instead opened fire into the back of the Knights' [i]Phoenix Hawk.[/i] While the massive slug from its autocannon went wide, one of the Medium Lasers found its target square in the enemy Mech's back, boiling away what little armor the [i]Phoenix Hawk[/i] had in that location.

[color=Green]"Right, right, us or them,"[/color] muttered Honk-Honk, who limped his wounded [i]Panther[/i] to also flank the [i]Phoenix Hawk,[/i] letting fly with his four-pack of Short-Range Missiles, the only weapon he had left at his disposal. Two of the missiles streaked into the mountainside, but the other two hit the mark, one of them digging into the internal structure exposed by the [i]Hunchback's[/i] laser. [color=Green]"Okay, now we're talking!"[/color]

While the [i]Phoenix Hawk[/i] still had plenty of armor in the front, another solid hit from behind now risked coring the Mech out.

[color=Yellow]"Oh yoo-hoo, Captain Waffles!"[/color] The Yellow Jester called out to his lancemate in the [i]Catapult[/i]. [color=Yellow]"I spy with my little eye, a missile boat on the other side of the ravine!"[/color]

[color=IndianRed]"I see him, Jester,"[/color] the [i]Catapult[/i] pilot said as he moved his Mech to a vantage point and opened the bay doors of the boxy missile launchers on his shoulders.

[color=Yellow]"And if remember my math-o-magics,"[/color] he said, [color=Yellow]"I do believe [i]two[/i] missile boats are greater than [i]one![/i]"[/color]

[color=IndianRed]"Sounds about right to me."[/color]

[color=Yellow]"Then what to you say we multiply our firepower together,"[/color] the Jester continued, [color=Yellow]"and subtract that [i]Archer[/i] from the equation?!"[/color]

[color=IndianRed]"I'd say those numbers add up,"[/color] Captain Waffles concurred, and the two missile-support Mechs let fly with a combined sixty long-range missiles. The warheads rained down on the seventy-tonner, kicking up clouds of smoke and dust all around it. In total, only a bit more than half of the missiles connected, but they shredded substantial chunks of armor away from the [i]Archer's[/i] legs and torso.

For good measure, the [i]Catapult[/i] opened fire with two of its Medium Lasers into the [i]Phoenix Hawk[/i], one beam catching the lighter Mech in the right leg, while the other caught it flush in the chest. [color=IndianRed]"The Fire Witch wants all of your souls, but you and the [i]Raven[/i] she wants most. I'll reduce the both of you to cinders in her name!"[/color]

[color=Yellow]"That's the spirit, Waffles!"[/color] The Yellow Jester egged him on as a low rumble began to fill the air. [color=Yellow]"Ooooh, and don't look now, but we might have a couple of special party guests!"[/color]

The [i]Raven's[/i] ECM had kept the Crimson Fists from calling for reinforcements, but the Yellow Jester abandoning his [i]Firestarter[/i] had caused its IFF transponder to go offline. Ironically, it was the sudden [i]lack[/i] of a signal that had tripped the Espian Guards that something had gone wrong with the Crimson Fists, and they had scrambled fighters to investigate.

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[color=SteelBlue][i]"Jester Actual, this is Sledgehammer One,"[/i][/color] came the unmistakably aloof, cocky voice of an aero-jock as the Espian Guards' two Mechbusters roared into the mountain pass. [color=SteelBlue][i]"Preparing to engage, danger-close."[/i][/color]

The pair of Mechbusters were flying dangerously low, having to rely on eyeball recognition as the [i]Raven's[/i] electronic warfare equipment was interfering with their ability to track targets on instruments. The sabotage that the Green Knights had pulled in the spaceport wasn't helping things either, as someone had been monkeying around with both planes' electricals, effectively shorting out their secondary weapons' fire control without extensive downtime. Once they had managed to get the Mechbusters' main cannons online, General Kwan had ordered them on near-constant patrol.

Without their guided missiles due to sabotage and without proper IFF thanks to the [i]Raven's[/i] ECM bubble, the two Mechbusters swooped in and fired their cannons at the one target they could be sure wasn't one of the Crimson Fists: the Von Luckner. Sledgehammer One's salvo hit just short, ripping a deep trench in front of the heavy tank. Sledgehammer Two, however, was right on the money, with a torrent of depleted-uranium shells chewing off nearly half of the Von Luckner's substantial front armor.

Pulling up as they reached the edge of the valley, the two Mechbusters peeled off in either direction, wheeling around to make another pass. Between the lethal power of their autocannons, the monstrous cannon on the [i]Hunchback[/i], and the missile salvos from the [i]Catapult[/i] and [i]Crusader[/i], a combined salvo from the Crimson Fists and Espian Air Guard could theoretically destroy any of the Green Knights' Mechs outright. It just came down to where the Yellow Jester directed his fire.

[color=Yellow]"Now, let's see who wants to make their acquaintance with the dirt first!"[/color] he taunted, raising the [i]Crusader's[/i] humanoid hand and extending a finger to point at each of the Knights in succession. [color=Yellow]"Eenie....meenie.....miney...."[/color]

[color=Red][i]WARNING: ENEMY MECH DETECTED[/i][/color]

[color=Yellow]"What the what?"[/color] the Crimson Fist commander asked, caught off-guard by the arrival.

Another Battlemech was approaching, coming up from the southeast corner of the mountain pass....from behind the Crimson Fists...