Urby Derby

 Cathay    

Solaris City

Solaris VII

9 April, 3061

                    Lin Ming slid into the command couch of the Urbanmech that she would be piloting for this particular match. She was clad in only her moisture wicking leggings and a sports bra. She quickly donned the cooling vest that was prepared for her in the cockpit, plugged it into the command couch, and then settled the neurohelmet over her head.

                    Her fingers ran over the proper keys for the startup sequence. This was not an average UrbanMech. In addition to it's stealth armor, the mech had been totally rebuilt. A light Fusion Engine triple the size of standard Urbie engine was installed to give her greater speed. The Autocannon had been ripped out in favor of a group of five medium lasers. There was also a cutting edge laser anti-missile system installed in the torso.

                    She hadn't had much time to practice on it, but she already knew that the machine ran fast and ran hot. Her plan for this match was to use the mech's stealth ability to avoid combat for the first few minutes, letting her opponents wear themselves out against each other and allowing her to sweep in at the end to finish them off. She had no idea how well the plan would work. Everything depended on the efficiency of the installed stealth systems.

                    The announcer called the start of the match, and a light in her cockpit went from red to green, signaling that the match had begun. The first thing she did was to hit the button to engage the stealth systems on the mech. Without moving or firing, there was no perceptible difference to her as a pilot so far.    

                    Due to the stealth system, her active scanners were offline and thus the minimap on her console displayed no information. She would have to trust to blind luck for the first few moments of the match.

                    She moved the mech forward, careful of her movements. Visually she could already see several other mechs engaged in combat. She saw one lumbering mech pass by her. She paused, allowing it to pass. It was an older model equipped with a giant class twenty Autocannon, but it moved at a snail's pace. She hoped that the stealth technology would hold, and it did, as the lumbering Urbanmech passed her without so much as a glance.

                    The arena was a scrapyard, filled with lots of metal and debris. She would blend in fine for now. There was no real high ground or anywhere to get a better position to observe the fight, so she settled in on a small hill with an outcropping of debris to give her cover. 

                    From here, she could see some of the match going on, with several of the combatants already out of the fight. Her HUD was linked to the arena systems and told her that of the original twelve mechs to begin the fight, only 6 remained, including her. 

                    She focused on a slugfest going on between two standard Urbies, dueling it out with their class ten Autocannoons. She saw that one of the opponents was gaining an advantage, and decided to make her move. 

                    She ran up the throttle and sprinted her own Urbanmech towards to two combatants. Neither of them seem to take notice of her. As they circled each other, she lined up a shot on the mech with the advantage and pulled into all of her triggers, sending five beams of light outward and into the mech's back. 

                    The beams cored through the relatively weak rear armor and began melting internal structure. She could see the radiant heat that told her she had hit the engine shielding as well. The heat in her own cockpit was manageable, so she risked a second alpha strike.

                    The heat in the cockpit soared to hellish levels, and remained there far longer than would be normal, with the mech's cooling systems hamstrung by the stealth system. She choked for air as she watched the five beams core once again deeper into the back of the enemy machine. 

                    There was a loud pop, and the enemy mech seemed to slump a bit as her weapons pierced the engine shielding for good and triggered a shutdown of the mech's massive fusion engine. This one was was dead.

                    She braced for return fire from the mech's opponent as she dashed her own mech into cover to attempt to cool down. Miraculously, not a single shot came her way. Apparently the stealth system was working.

                    She glanced at her HUD once again, revealing that now just three mechs remained alive in the arena, including herself. The opponent of the mech she had just killed did not get a lock on her position, and instead ran toward the center of the field. 

                    Lin thought about taking a shot at the enemy's weak rear as it ran away from her, but the heat in her cockpit was too intense to risk another shot just yet. She would have to trust in the stealth armor to keep her hidden until the mech could cool off.

                    The mech she tracked was a standard Urbanmech, packing a class ten autocannon. The bolt of blue light that lashed out and tore into it's frontal armor told her that the other remaining mech was a Suburbanmech variant, carrying a PPC and more speed, like her own ride did.

                    She watched the two duel it out, with the Suburbanmech coming out the victor. It was down to her and the SubUrbie.

                    The heat levels in the cockpit had now reached a more manageable level, and now she was faced with a choice. If she kept the stealth engaged, she knew she had two alpha strikes worth of heat to play with. If She disengaged the stealth, she would become visible, but her mech's cooling systems would allow her many more shots at her opponent. Unsure of how damaged her opponent was, she switched off the stealth mode and sprinted towards her foe.

                    With the stealth disengaged, she could now get a target lock on the enemy, and it showed that the Suburbanmech was fairly heavily damaged, with several holes in it's armor. It was protecting it's right side, which housed the PPC that was it's main cannon.

                    That was fine with Lin. She had full armor, and could take several shots. In addition, her group of lasers were spread throughout the mech, meaning she could lose an arm and still have significant punch.

                    Her cockpit shook at the enemy hit her square in the center torso with a PPC blast. Alarms screamed in her ears about damage. Her armor had held, but that PPC was hitting harder than a standard model. Her guess was that it was Clan tech, which hit fifty percent harder than a standard Inner Sphere PPC.

                    She had to end this quickly. She was finally within range of her medium lasers, and she pulled into a full alpha strike. Two of the beams went wide, but three jabbed into the already weakened frontal armor of her opponent. Nothing critical seemed to hit. 

                    She knew her lasers would cycle faster than her opponent's PPC, but it seemed like ages before her weapons read as ready and she fired another blast. This time, all five beams focused on the center torso of the enemy mech, melting a giant hole in the remaining armor and then touching the delicate workings of it's gyro. The enemy mech seemed to limp, unsteady on it's feet.

                    She braced for the return fire, but none came. The enemy mech shut down and signaled it's surrender. She had won the match.