Warning klaxons and the shriek of metal filled the cockpit. Phelan cried out as the command couch's restraining straps dug into him, then slammed him back into his seat. Knowing he could no more control his fall than he could defy gravity, he brought the 'Mech's arms in across its middle and started praying.
The Novalanded with a jolt so hard that Phelan thought Glynis must have managed another run and direct hit with her missiles. More shocks shook the Nova,but it took Phelan a second or two to realize they were from boulders loosed by her miss rather than live munitions she was shooting at him. Bad enough I have to fight an ace pilot, but my choice of battlefield is against me, too!
The computer readout on his secondary monitor told him just how much the battlefield hated him. The tumble down the hill had scoured armor off his 'Mech's front and back, though no area was fully breached. Folding his arms in had saved them from most of the damage, though the right-arm diagram showed a feed-mechanism failure. Dammit, that means the one rack of missiles I have in there is it! I've got enough ammo for a siege, but no way to shoot it.
Worst of all, the Nova'sleft leg had taken severe damage. Almost all its armor had been chipped off. The endo-steel bones in the shin had been twisted and warped so the 'Mech's left foot toed in. As Phelan brought the 'Mech upright, using its hands to brush off chunks of rock, he discovered the leg could support weight, but all pretense of mobility was gone.
In frustration, he pounded his fist against the command console. "Stravagmachine! Freebirth! The only thing left for me to do out here is die." He reached for the ejection switch, but stopped as the Visigothcruised by like a shark waiting for a diver to rise from an ocean wreck.
Part of him wanted to signal Glynis that she had won, but he stopped. He was not about to eject because that was no guarantee she wouldn't make another strafing run to kill him anyway. He didn't think she was that bloodthirsty, but in a Bloodname battle all normal conventions went by the wayside.
Yet it was not fear for his life that moved his hand away from the ejection button. That he should lose was no surprise, for he had started the battle grossly outgunned. But the fight was over something as stupid as a title, and he could live without that. Trying to get out of there, to live out that possibility, was logical and sensible.
Logical and sensible, if you're not of the Clans.
Even as those words formed in his mind, Phelan felt a shock of cold recognition that surprised him. Growing up in the Inner Sphere, he had always felt a bit apart from everyone else. Yes, he had loved his family—and still did—but he had always felt as though he belonged somewhere else. It was as though the world was not quite in focus, making him chafe whenever he had to deal with authority figures and rigid structures.
A bondsman like Ragnar when he joined the Clans, he spent too much time trying to puzzle out who the Clans were and what Ulric wanted of him to be concerned with where and how he fit into their society. Oddly enough, he came to realize that the Clans' predatory nature, which made them constantly pit themselves against one another to prove who was the best, suited him well. Because the Clanspeople regarded him as an outsider, he fought to prove he was their equal. In doing so, he also defined who he was.
Not until this very moment did he understand that in shaping himself to face the challenges of the Clans, he had become very much one of them. Though he could still recognize and appreciate the values he had grown up with, the Clans' urgency and drive superseded those fragments of his background. Three years before, he might have been trying to find a way out or a way to sell himself dearly, while now he sought a way to knock Glynis' fighter from the sky and win the battle.
Because that's the only logical and sensible thing for a Warrior of the Wolf Clan to do.
He twisted his gunbelt back down to a comfortable position and quickly assessed his position. His 'Mech stood beneath an overhang in the canyon wall that helped hide him from Glynis' overflights. Looking up he could see a 20-degree arc of the sky, which narrowed, her attack vector appreciably. With the rockfall to his right, the only open avenue of attack was for Glynis to come down the canyon from his left and try to strafe him with her PPC and forward lasers.
The NARC beacon indicator started to blink faster, building up speed little bit by little bit. Phelan put the Nova'sback to the canyon wall, then swiveled the 'Mech's torso to the left. The little blue light flicked on and off with a faint click that came faster and faster.
Only have one shot with these missiles. Gotta make it good.
The light burned solid on.
The Visigothswooped down the canyon like a hawk spotting a mouse. The PPC in the fighter's nose raked its blue beam along the canyon wall. Shards of stone shot down to rattle off the Nova'scockpit while hot rock-vapor drifted up into the air from the strike. On of the Visigoth'stwo forward lasers studded the canyon wall with a line of burning holes, while the other blistered armor from the Nova'storso.
Phelan tracked the Visigothas it swept through the canyon. His autocannon fired first as the fighter came into view. The hail of slugs disintegrated the armor on the tip of the right wing, but didn't so much as make the craft shudder. Bringing the torso around to the right, he triggered a second volley, blasting more armor from the aft end of the fuselage, but it, too, had no visible effect on the Omnifighter.
Phelan almost took a stumbling step forward to send the missiles after Glynis, but she gave him no clear shot. She brought the Visigoth'snose up, kicking the ship into a graceful loop that skimmed it over the surface of the rockslide. Breaking immediately, she then executed a perfect barrel roll to the right, vanishing from Phelan's universe.
The NARC beacon slowed. "It's going to take forever to bring her down," he muttered. He glanced at his ammo indicator for the autocannon and triggered two volleys into the empty air. That took him down to his cluster munitions, which were the closest thing to birdshot a 'Mech could pack. "If I fill the air with this stuff, it'll do more overall damage."
As the NARC beacon's light began to quicken its pace, his heart began to sink. "It's still going to take forever, and she only has to get moderately lucky, while I have to survive her runs andknock her down. Dammit, she's not sloppy enough to fly into one of these canyon walls, and she flies too fast for me to waste these missiles on a chance shot." He ground his teeth with frustration. "If she'd only consent to become a stationary target!"
Suddenly the solution dawned, on him. As the NARC indicator pulsed faster and faster, Phelan reached out and hit the button, disabling it. As he swiveled the Nova'storso around to face the fighter's line of attack, he heard the rumble-roar of Glynis' engines filling the canyon.
At first sight of her, Phelan's autocannon bucked and roared. The clustered shell sprayed hundreds of metal fragments into the air, biting away bits and pieces of armor from the aircraft's wings, fuselage, and cockpit. In response, Glynis again triggered her PPC and twin forward lasers, but all three energy beams missed the Nova.
Phelan whipped the Nova'storso around and extended its right arm. Now or never!As Glynis started to pull the Visigoth'snose up, he launched his missiles. Without the NARC to guide them, they missed the Visigoth,streaking below past its belly.
However, they landed dead on target.