Chapter 8:
Sundered
(cont...)

"Burst another heat sink," Dominic said. Almost as critical as Epona’s damage, the double-PPC configuration of his Puma pulling massive heat spikes from the reactor. However, the two of them together still managed to bring down the crippled Mad Cat, cutting its gimped leg out from beneath it and taking off its right arm as well.

"New contact," Sorenson called out. "We have a Sunder coming in from the west on a full run."

Connor Sinclair had been angling for partial cover behind one of the access ramps to the battle-weathered outpost. With Sorenson’s transmission, he cut back inside and raced forward to put himself between the advancing Smoke Jaguar line and his people. The Sunder was a 90-ton Inner Sphere-designed OmniMech -- brought back as spoils of war no doubt and another uncharacteristic move for these desperate Jaguars. It had approached in the blind spot of a rocky outcropping, just as the first four ’Mechs. With the assault machine completing a full star of five Omnis, there was little hope of escape. The lieutenant would sell himself as dearly as possible, buying time for his two warriors and Sorenson’s MFBs to retreat toward the ocean shore and the dubious safety of the coastal foothills.

The maneuver worked in Sinclair’s favor, briefly, as he ran the Thor beneath the arcing flight of a new set of missiles from the star commander’s Mad Cat. Against lasers the lieutenant was not so lucky. Both cut deeply, one nearly severing his right arm and the other splashing the last of his right side armor to the ground in a molten puddle. He struck back with his own laser, the green-gem light scoring the Mad Cat’s left shoulder as it turned away from him and onto a facing at-odds with its previous line of advance. The maneuver made no sense to Sinclair, though even his situational awareness was beginning to stretch at its limits in this chaotic firefight. He mentally flailed for what he might be missing, readying himself to give the order which would send his lancemates fleeing for the coast.

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