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[color=Yellow]"Oh, I see you've got some jokes of your own!"[/color] the Yellow Jester shouted over his comms, apparently oblivious to the stone bridge beneath him beginning to buckle from the combined fire of the Green Knights. [color=Yellow]"Stop me if you've heard this one!"[/color]

The [i]Crusader[/i] turned its attention to the Green Knights' [i]Ostroc[/i], letting loose into the already wounded Mech with a salvo of Short-Range Missiles, Medium Lasers, and Machine Gun fire. Both lasers struck home, carving rivulets of molten armor from the [i]Ostroc's[/i] left leg and scoring a direct hit in the center of its torso. While the Machine Gun fire sparked and panged harmlessly across the Mech's armor, six of the [i]Crusader's[/i] twelve SRMs impacted. Armed with Inferno warheads, these missiles coated the [i]Ostroc[/i] in white-hot incendiary gel, spiking the laser-boat's heat to dangerous levels.

[color=IndianRed]"Hey, Jester?"[/color] Captain Waffles called out in his effectively pristine [i]Catapult[/i]. [color=IndianRed]"I don't think this ground is safe. What say we back off and--"[/color]

[color=Yellow]"NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BACK AWAY!!!!"[/color] the lunatic shouted, the bridge crumbling with every step. [color=Yellow]"NOW IS THE TIME TO HARTY-WARTY-PARRRTYYYY!!!!"[/color]

[color=IndianRed]"Oh, to hell with this,"[/color] the [i]Catapult[/i] pilot said, triggering his jump jets and rising up into the air. [color=IndianRed]"You can get killed all you want, Stroheim, I'm gonna--"[/color]

A volley of SRMs from the Green Knights' [i]Raven[/i] cut off Captain Waffles' sentence, with most of the warheads blasting away chunks of armor but doing little else. One missile, however, struck the [i]Catapult[/i] directly in the cockpit, throwing the Crimson Fists' Mechwarrior hard against the restraints of his command couch and smacking his head hard against a console. Reflexively, his grip tightened on the firing studs of his control sticks, returning fire against the [i]Raven[/i] with a salvo of medium lasers just as he lost consciousness.

Two of the lasers went wide, but the other two connected. One caught the smaller Mech square in the center torso, while the other penetrated the remaining armor on its right side, and appropriately enough, disabled the SRM launcher that had killed him.

Rather than retreat back to safety as intended, the unconscious Captain Waffles brought his [i]Catapult[/i] straight up, then straight back down onto the bridge, just as the combined fire of the Green Knights caused the bridge to give way.

[color=Yellow]"Ohhhhh,"[/color] Yellow Jester said, seemingly finally aware of what his enemies had done. [color=Yellow]"...now [i]that's[/i] funny!"[/color]

The mountain pass resounded with the thunderous noise of crumbling rock as the bridge gave way, the last two Crimson Fist Battlemechs plummeting down into the ravine. Amid the deafening racket, the Yellow Jester's laughter played out over the comms as his [i]Crusader[/i], the [i]Catapult[/i], and the remains of the [i]Hunchback[/i] were swallowed up in the darkness and dust below.

[Color=Olive][i]"Sensors are showing the other Mechbuster is bugging out,"[/i][/color] Colonel Wayne called out on the Green Knights' channel. [color=Olive][i]"The Espian Guard still has a wing of Meteor fighters on patrol, estimated time they'll be converging on the area within thirty minutes. Plenty of time for us to give them the slip. Return to base for debriefing and repairs."[/i][/color]

Closing the channel, the Colonel let out a deep sigh.

[color=Khaki]"Whoo, that's how it's done!"[/color] Cadet Higgins shouted, pumping his fists into the air. [color=Khaki]"Scratch one whole lance of Crimson Shits!"[/color]

[color=FireBrick]"I thought you were calling them 'Fisters,'"[/color] Cadet Windham said.

[color=Khaki]"Well, the latter eventually leads to the former,"[/color] Higgins sneered.

[color=SkyBlue]"That's disgusting,"[/color] Lieutenant Lyons scolded her cadets.

[color=Khaki]"Hey, what's disgusting is how one-sided our win was,"[/color] Higgins laughed. [color=Khaki]"The Crimson Fists kept talking a big game about how they were gonna wipe the Green Knights out, and then when it came to an actual stand-up fight, they went down faster than a Canopian Cat-Girl on--"[/color]

[color=Olive]"That's enough,"[/color] the Colonel cut them off.

[color=SkyBlue]"Apologies, Colonel,"[/color] Lieutenant Lyons said, rebuking Higgins and Windham with a dirty look. [color=SkyBlue]"We're just excited to have gotten a big win on the board. After what those guys did to that village, taking them down has to have felt pretty good, right?"[/color]

The Colonel looked at the monitors, showing BattleROM footage transmitted from Ziska's [i]Raven.[/i]

[color=Olive]"We've bloodied their noses, and collected data that will help clear our name of the massacre,"[/color] he stated. [color=Olive]"As for it feeling good, after what happened to Keahi, seeing what they did while wearing our colors....no, it really doesn't."[/color]

The rest of their trip was spent in silence as the Mobile HQ made its way down the mountain pass, slinking away into the night.


[center][h3]M I S S I O N   S U C C E S S F U L[/h3][/center]