Chapter 7:
Superior Firepower
(cont...)

With no time for finesse, the lieutenant gave the Orion as much throttle as he dared. Once the passage twisted back on itself, and whenever he brushed the unforgiving wall he left behind more of his protective armor. The first indication of battle was a backflash of ruby light into the passage, coming from around the next bend.

The second was Epona’s call for help. "Blake’s Blood!" she yelled, her cultured accent softening the centuries-old curse only slightly. "I’m dancing with an Annihilator up here! Anyone about to cut in?"

The other side of the bend the passage widened quickly into a large antechamber that opened up onto the factory complex proper. Roughly pentagonal in shape, the complex boasted a level of sophisticated design not yet seen on Tranquil and never to be found in the Inner Sphere. As with the previous underground site, the Smoke Jaguars had designed it to keep the floor as open as possible. The factory buildings had been built up the wall rather than outward, turning the entire cavern into one large metal-walled chamber. A strange tower in the middle of that chamber glowed with large power conduits and ran heavy cable to three automated ’Mech construction bays that occupied different corners of the facility. Nearly complete were three new OmniMechs, nestled back in their cradles as machines continued to work on them.

Already complete was the monstrous Annihilator and the two ’Mechs flanking it, a second Thor and an Owens.

One hundred tons and 12 meters tall, the Annihilator looked every gram of an assault ’Mech. The head was formed up like a thick comb over a bullet-shaped body that rested on massive legs. The arms spoke of lethal intent, ending in two large-bore autocannon barrels each. It was not a design that promoted a call for a reasonable solution. It was one that argued for unconditional surrender. Though not an OmniMech, it was still a Clan-technology machine and so followed their design theory in that it sacrificed mobility for hard-hitting firepower. And at the moment that firepower was turned against Epona Rhi.

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