The Factory, Solaris City
Solaris VII
Lyran Commonwealth
24 April, 3049


     The initial thunder of the crowd died down after the first few minutes. The arena was set up for a free-for-all. Twelve mechs would enter, and only one would be standing at the end. It was a meatgrinder, nothing else, designed to determine who belonged here and who didn't. And she was out to prove that she belonged.

     The sounds of weapons fire could be heard in the distance. No doubt some of the contestants had just run headlong into the fight. That was not going to be the way to win this fight. Controlled aggression, with the emphasis on the control part.

     Her sensors gave her no blips, but with all the metals, power lines, and god knows what else running through the arena, that was no surprise. There were bound to be a few surprises along the way.

     From behind a pile of scrap, a Firestarter darted out into the open, lancing out ruby beams from it's pulse lasers as it ran. The pilot was not a good aim, with only a few of the beams catching armor on the right leg of her machine. She saw a sword and sunburst painted on the right breast of the machine, explaining the poor aim. Instinct kicked in, and she thumbed the trigger for the ultra autocannons housed in Gunnar's torso. The stream of projectiles struck the hapless  Firestarter square in the torso, staggering it and slowing it's progress just enough for what she needed.

     "Gotcha, Davrat." she spouted. The slowing of momentum on the enemy mech was just what she needed, and she squeezed off a burst from her quad medium lasers. The beams hit their mark, just as she intended, all scouring the light mech's right leg, tearing through the armor and into the structure beneath, melting actuators and myomer and gimping the normally agile mech.

     That was all the opening she needed. A double tap of the autocannon trigger spun the ultras up to full speed. The fifty millimeter slugs sprayed out at twice their normal speed, slamming into the Firestarter's torso, eating through it's light armor, and throwing the mech to the ground. The mechwarrior within knew he was bested, and slapped the shutdown button, signaling his capitulation and removing his mech as a target on her screen.

     The thrill of victory pulsed through her veins. She had tasted blood, and now she wanted more. A quick check of her HUD showed that three other mechs had already fallen. Only eight competitors remained.

     As she rounded a corner, she saw two competitors locked in a fight. An Atlas had lost it's right torso, and was desperately trying to shield it's damaged components as an Orion continued to savage it with lasers. The Orion had taken a beating, but the Atlas was the one that was far worse for wear.

     Depressing both triggers, Faith sent green beams at the Orion along with the stream of slugs from the autocannons. They tore armor from the blocky torso of the Orion, sending it slightly off balance, and perfectly into the sights of the Atlas. A wave of short range missiles smashed into the Orion, exploiting the holes Faith's attack had opened, along with the damage from previous exchanges with the Atlas. It was all the ammo stored in the Orion's bins needed to start cooking off, popping and tearing bits of the mech off, spraying wildly into the distance as the mech fell to the ground.

     She wasted absolutely no time turning on the wounded Atlas. She fired off an alpha strike, not worrying about the heat. There would be time to cool off later. She glanced at the readout for the ammo bins on her autocannons. They were sitting at about half full, plenty for this match. In the time it took to glance at the ammo readout, her mech was shaken by a blast of SRMs from the wounded Atlas. Her alpha strike had not put the mech down, nor had it taken out it's short range punch. That had to happen, and fast.

     She hit the trigger for her lasers, carving into the exposed innards of the Atlas's torso. She hit engine shielding, and she could see the flash as the engine started to bloom. Simultaneously, the wave of heat from her own weapons fire hit her, nearly knocking the air from her lungs, seeing black spots in her vision as she tried to focus herself on the HUD.

     The engine safeties on the Atlas kicked in, shutting the engine down and sending the mech into a slumber. Another opponent down for the count. A quick glance at the readout showed 3 opponents left standing. No, make that two, as one light winked out, coinciding with a roar from the crowd, signaling that another opponent had succumb to the rigors of combat. Now she only had to find the remaining two combatants and finish them off.

     Her mech lurched forward and alarms screamed in her ears, signaling that one of the two other mechs left standing had found her instead. Unfortunately, it seemed that they had found her with two nickel ferrous Gauss rifle slugs to her rear torso. Luckily, the internal structure had held, and the engine was wholly intact. She had to spin quickly though to avoid another blast to the rear of her mech.

     The enemy mech was a JagerMech, and if it was equipped with dual gauss rifles, it was probably packing an XL engine. This pilot was going for cheese and quick kills. That could be his undoing. She was about to line up a shot on the Jager, when the other mech still on the field appeared, a smoldering Enforcer. It wouldn't take more than one salvo to finish off this hapless opponent. Then, an idea came into her head. One that would play perfectly to the crowd, and here on Solaris, the crowd was everything.

     Pushing the throttle hard forward, she sent her mech into an all-out charge towards the enemy JagerMech. The Jager pilot tried to line up a shot, and as he did, autocannon rounds began to pepper the back of her mech. She smiled. It was unfolding just the way she wanted. At that moment, she dropped her mech to the ground, prone.

     Above her, the Jager fired, and the Enforcer continued it's barrage. The gauss rifles from the JagerMech demolished the upper torso of the Enforcer, and as it died, it's autocannon rounds tore chunks of armor away from the already weakened side torso of the Jager. It was just the opening Faith needed. She yanked upwards on the joystick, pivoting her K2's arms upwards. She could only hit with 2 medium lasers, but she was betting it was enough. She jabbed the trigger, sending dual green beams into the heart of the Jager. It was just what she needed. The energy pulses cored into the bulky engine of the Jager, sending it spasming backwards.

     "And look at that, mech fans, what a move. In one fell swoop, Faith McCarron got her opponents to do the dirty work for her, and cleaned up like a pro. That is how you qualify for a spot in the real show as a wild card, my friends."