Urbie Rules!

 Cathay    

Solaris City

Solaris VII

17 April 3061 

                    Lin Ming found herself in the "war room" at Red Dragon Corp. Teng Shen was there, as were a number of the techs that she had met over the last few days. They all sat around a circular table with a built-in holo viewer. 

                    "Thank you for joining us, Ms. Ming. We have some exciting news."

                    She was not at all excited, but kept a pleasant smile on her face. 

                    "We are moving forward with the testing of the Stealth UrbanMech, and we have secured a billet to fight Knouse Industries latest Valkyrie model. we feel that this will be a good test for the project, and it will also earn you some fanfare, should you win. This match will take place at the Hartford Gardens arena in the Xolara quarter of the Reaches. Unlike your previous bout, this one will be relatively well covered by the media, allowing you to make something of a name for yourself, based on your performance."

                    Lin shifted in her seat. "Am I to understand that we are taking the stealth technology public?"

                    Several of the techs seemed uneasy. Shen shook his head. "No. We are not making it public, but the fans, as well as the press will likely see that something is different. As always, play coy. Deny anything, confirm nothing. Allow the speculation to work it's own wonders."

                    "So the stealth technology will be active, we're just not advertising it? Is that the gist of it?"

                    "More or less. We need to take this technology to the big time, and this will be as good a proving ground as any. Your standard wage will apply, as well as any purse you should win on the fight. We don't know how the media will handle it, or even if it will be noticed at all. Your job is simply to keep up the mystery. Do you understand?"

                    "I do. Thank you Mr. Shen."

                    The meeting continued for half an hour, going over minor details of the fight and other elements. As soon as she was free of the meeting, she sent off a text message to Detective Vale, informing her of the fight to come and the public details. She would have three days to prepare for the fight.

                    The three days passed uneventfully, and Lin found herself once again in the cockpit of the StealthUrbie as she had come to call the machine. Shen was right, there was some minor press coverage of the fight, and she had been interviewed before the bout by someone with a minor broadcast network. She had stayed on script, not giving anything away, and the entire event was, she found, rather dull. 

                    But now she was suited up for the fight, and with the match about to begin, she could hear the announcer over the general comms frequency. 

                    "Hello, Mech fans, and welcome to Hartford Gardens for tonight's preliminary bout between Red Dragon Corporation, and Knouse Industries. This corporate fight will see a Valkyrie, piloted by Timothy Franks, against everyone's favorite, an UrbanMech piloted by new talent Lin Ming. We've got a lot to talk about before things go all shooty, and we'll be back in a flash after a word from our sponsor."

                    She muted the channel and focused on the fight at hand. She centered herself in the cockpit, gaining focus and waiting for the fight to begin. It seemed like ages as she sat in silence, before the red marker turned green and an obnoxious horn sounded the beginning of the match.

                    The Hartford Gardens arena was mostly low rolling hills, with woodlands setting up a series of open "kill boxes" where long range fire could be exchanged. She had been briefed on the Knouse Industries version of the Valkyrie, one mounting an XL engine to upgrade the LRM launcher to a fifteen rack of missiles, guided by an Artemis IV Fire Control System. The medium laser was rumored to be a prototype that added enhanced range.

                    All-in-all, her opponent was going to try for a long range engagement, and he had the speed and jump jets to make it happen. She would have to rely on the stealth technology of the Urbanmech to counteract his range advantage, hopefully getting in close enough for her own medium lasers to wear away at the enemy. In and ideal world, she could get in under the minimum range of the LRM launcher, and it would be her five medium lasers against Franks' single laser.

                    She harbored no illusions of being able to get such a position, but she certainly would try. She ran her Mech forward through the thicket that had been concealing her prior to the match start. She had so far not engaged the stealth system, and so her sensors were able to pick out Franks' Valkyrie just over a thousand meters away. It was optimal range for her opponent, and there was little cover to speak of.

                    She slapped the switch to engage the stealth system and darted into a patch of bushes. Her HUD warned her that an Artemis system was attempting to lock on to her mech. This would be the test of the stealth system. At this point, Franks should have begun pummeling her with a long range volley of missiles, but none came.

                    She laid into her jump jets, and jetted across an open space into another thicket, firing off a medium laser even though the range was far too great for it to be effective. She was daring her opponent to take a shot at her. She could only imagine the frustration on the part of her opponent, unable to make such an easy shot and not understanding why.

                    Franks apparently wasn't known for his patience, as he resorted to dumb-firing a round of LRMs at her position. Once again she laid into her jump jets to sail clear of the unguided barrage. Now would be her chance. Franks was still trying to figure out what was going on, she had to make her move now. She brought her mech up into a sprint, such as it was for an up-engined Urbanmech, and headed straight for him.

                    He once again loosed an unguided volley of missiles in her direction, which she dodged with ease. Even the less than nimble Urbanmech could avoid his blind fire. She knew she only had perhaps two alpha strikes with her mech before the heat became unmanageable, so she would have to make them count. She needed to get within three hundred meters for her shots to be effective.

                    Franks could have opened the distance more with his jump jets, but he clearly was not thinking straight at this point. He was focused on trying to get shots off with his missiles to hit her as she barreled towards him, but she evaded the unguided shots with little effort.

                    Once the range read below three hundred meters, she focused all of her effort on lining up a shot. Satisfied that the targeting computer was happy from her reticule pulsing to gold, she pulled into her main trigger and send five beams of energy shooting towards her opponent.

                    Four of the beams connected, melting away over a ton of armor plating from the Valkyries frame. Nothing critical was damaged, but she knew her opponent felt it. 

                    He fired back with his single medium laser, coring a bit of armor from her well protected torso.

                    Not wanting to give him any respite, as son as her lasers cycled, she pulled the trigger again, sending the massive amount of energy downrange toward her target. Once again, four of the five beams connected, this time tearing holes through the armor and wrecking internal structure.

                    The heat in the cockpit by now was near overwhelming, and she had to hit the shutdown override to keep her mech active. Sweat poured over her, and almost as quickly evaporated in the intense heat of the cockpit.  

                    She was now under two hundred meters, but she could not dare risk another shot. Then it dawned on her that she could disengage the stealth system and gain back some cooling at this point in the fight. She quickly toggled the stealth system off, and almost immediately her mech's heat sinks began to vent waste heat from the mech and her cockpit.

                    Franks fired his medium laser once again, and now that he had a target lock, he fired off a volley of his LRMs. Unfortunately for him, she was under the missiles minimum arming distance, and the rockets panged pathetically off her armor doing no damage.

                    By now, her heat sinks had dropped her heat gauge to a reasonable level. This was time for the killshot. She lined up her crosshairs and pulled the trigger at just over one hundred meters.

                    This time, all five of the beams connected, tearing through internal structure and causing the mechs torso to sink a little as the internal structure failed. By now, the mech was a dead husk, the dampening fields cascading down to silence it's fusion reactor for safety.

                    The fight was over. She had won. The stealth system had performed flawlessly, and had enabled her to overcome her opponents range advantages. As the horn sounded the end of the match, she quietly brought the Urbanmech into the entrance bay and powered down.

                    She was greeted by a handful of reporters, all asking silly questions which she deflected with ease. She made sure not to mention the stealth system in any way, focusing on her heroic charge to close the range and leaving everyone to speculate why none of Tim Frank's shots had connected.

                    As she reached the locker room, an irate Tim Frank met her. 

                    "I don't know what kind of crap you pulled, but that was humiliating. To lose to an Urbanmech? You better watch yourself, hotshot."

                    The media soaked it all up, Lin Ming kept to herself and let security escort Franks away from the scene.

                    After a long, hot shower to decompress, she made her way out of the arena, brushing by a few Mechbunnies and making her way to the street, prepared to call a cab. 

                    "Hey, hotshot." came the voice of detective Nicky Vale. "Need a ride?"

                    She laughed and  wandered over to the small coupe that the detective was driving. "You came all this way to see the fight?"

                    "Hey, the case is cold, I need any bit of information I can get. And it just so happened that you provided me with a bit of a mystery. Come on, get in."

                    Lin stowed her bag in the back and slipped into the passenger seat.

                    Nicky pulled away immediately and headed towards Cathay. "That was some mighty fine work out there. You took down a Valkyrie in an Urbanmech. I don't really follow the fights all that close, but even I know that was quite a feat. And from the sound of your opponent on the vids, he was none too pleased."

                    "I just got lucky. I managed to get in under his range without him being able to hit me, and once I was in close, I had the advantage the whole time. Like taking candy from a baby."

                    Nicky smiled. "Ok, play coy. I don't need to know the details, but I know something special went on out there. You'll probably have some minor networks trying to get your interview in the morning. You ready for that?"

                    Lin shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think so, but who cares about ready. It was a blast. We'll see what happens in the morning."