Chapter 8:
Sundered
(cont...)

"With me, Dominic." Connor barely had time for the order before tightening up on his triggers. Firing, not at the Annihilator which was presenting 10 tons of fresh armor toward him, but at the Thor already wounded by Epona’s earlier assaults. His autocannon spat out a hard stream of destruction, tearing into the 70-ton ’Mech’s left arm and cutting it off just below the shoulder. The Thor’s primary weapon was lost with the arm dropping away to smash against the cavern’s rocky floor. A split-second behind him, Dominic punched two PPC blasts into and through the Omni’s right side. The blue-white lightning melted away a large portion of engine shielding and destroyed the control equipment of the right arm, which sagged into uselessness. As good as dead, the Thor suffered one final barrage as one of Sinclair’s short-range missiles and both medium lasers struck at its right leg -- already savaged by Epona, the limb had less to give than the salvo demanded. The leg bowed outward at the ruined knee joint, then snapped off as the Thor fell over onto its side, not to rise again.

Epona had already recognized her own advantage, splitting off from her pursuit of the Thor and slipping in behind the Annihilator which had spurned her for the larger Orion -- obviously considering her an inferior target. Determined to chastise the Jaguar warrior for his presumption, she cut loose with both large lasers and a flight from the SRM launcher. Ruby energy flared at the assault BattleMech’s back. One of the energy weapons drifted low, cutting into the hip instead, but the other punched through to cut at the vital equipment at the Annihilator’s core. Molten shielding ran down to the floor, and then high-velocity metal spat out the rent as the gyro began tearing itself into pieces. Three missiles smashing into the ruined socket sped its demise, and the Annihilator collapsed first to its knees and then slowly -- almost gracefully -- to the floor.

At once, the assault machine attempted to get its arms beneath it, to fight on despite the ruined gyro. The Jaguar warrior was not giving up. Dominic had already split off to challenge the Owens; Connor advanced with Epona to pour more firepower into the downed assault ’Mech. It could not be allowed to regain its feet or even a position from which it might fire a pair of its large-bore autocannon. Gem-colored laser light flared, carving at the fallen ’Mech as the commando warriors struck again and again. When the Owens fell under Dominic’s PPCs a moment later, the fight suddenly seemed to flee the Annihilator which collapsed over its arms and lay silent. Connor noticed the large hole burned through the back of its head, one of Epona’s large lasers finally ending the star commander’s struggle.

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