Chapter 7:
Superior Firepower
(cont...)

The man-made lightning arced and crackled, drawing a snaking path from the Puma’s large particle weapon to the Thor’s head. The stream of hellish energies slammed through armor and ferroglass to turn the cockpit into an instant crematorium. What might have been a recoverable fall turned into a graceless plunge into death, the state-of-the-art OmniMech now reduced to so many tons of parts and scrap metal.

Two MFBs rolled into the immense cavern, the third having been lost above ground when a star of five Jaguar OmniMechs surprised the commando. Dominic lost his Shadow Cat toward the end of that battle, the OmniMech blown to scrap but the commando’s warrior ejecting safely. If the Clan warriors had worked together instead of as five separate warriors, they might have finished off the lieutenant as well.

Panting due to the escalated heat levels in his cockpit, Sinclair surveyed the mining site --the twisted and smoking ruins of the equipment that had fallen under collateral damage from the ’Mech battle. Three Clan ’Mechs littered the gravel-strewn ground as well. Their threat ended, Connor disregarded them and looked instead at the wrecked conveyer system -- what Sorenson had promised they could use to gain access to the back of the factory complex. The cavern holding the factory complex couldn’t be more than a few hundred meters away. But through the seamless rock wall, it might as well have been a few thousand.

As if sensing his name in the lieutenant’s thoughts, the analyst spoke over the comms system. "We’ve picked up a weak signal from Epona Rhi. She has dug partway into the factory complex and will try to rendezvous as we press forward. Her last Mobile Field Base vehicle will guide me back around while you head in through the steel plant."

"Good to know," Connor said. "But how do we get in there if the conveyer system is smashed?" The structure normally ran six meters over the ground in a long bridge from steel plant ore extractor to a ramp cut from the stone wall at the actual excavation site. Sorenson had planned to have the two ’Mechs walk up the ramp and onto the belt system, follow it over into the extractor, and blast through an interior wall that would allow them to exit out the other side of the steel plant. A sound plan, except that now the middle of their bridge was missing. And BattleMechs were not known for their climbing ability.

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