After the last battle, he'd finally saved up for his perfect customization. He'd been waiting for this battle with a tight anxiety, and now his palms were sweating as he was finally here, finally ready.

His role today was guarding the left flank. As they fanned out from the dropsite, his partner, a Jenner, made lazy circles around him, ever vigilant for enemy light Mechs. In the distance, he saw LRMs arching outward, toward his friends on the right.

"Right flank you have incoming LRMs, repeat, incoming LRMs."

"Roger, getting into cover now!" replied one.

"We're on it." said another.

"Hunchback, Atlas, Jenner, another Hunchback, K2 spotted!" shouted yet another, as they closed into cirlces with eachother, desperately trying to outflank their opponents.

He realised they had their hands full and two Mechs still unaccounted for. His partner had still not spotted anyone, so he decided he had to press forward.

He edged his Blackjack forward, with a quick, "Move up Leigh, we're going to take the fight to that LRM Mech."

They swept their views left and right, looking for ambushes or flanking lights; both occasionally jump jetting upward to get a better view.

"Raven spotted" Leigh announced casually "engaging."

Which left the now briefly spotted, Catapult to him. In a bizarre stroke of luck, the Catapult jumpjetted to the top of a building to his

right, allowing him a perfect profile of the Mech. He quickly swung up his weapons, and let loose.

Twin UAC-5s barked into action followed by quadruple medium lasers, and he carefully timed his salvos to avoid jamming. THTHOOM! MMBZZZZZZ! THTHOOM! MMBZZZZZ! his guns announced, as the Catapults right LRM pod exploded, rocking the enemy sideways. THTHOOM! MMBZZZZZ! THTHOOM! MMBZZZZZ! again, as the enemy turned towards him, taking two salvos to its right and centre torsos. It walked backwards, off the building, attempting to hide behind it.

"Raven down but Commando engaged, taking heavy fire" Leigh announced nonchallantly "I'll do what I can."

"Jorgensen and Stephenson have punched out. Enemy Jenner and K2 down. We're taking a beating here help would be nice." piped in a heavily engaged ally.

He raced as quickly as he could to the Catapult, finding it a the very end of an alleyway as he jumped over a small building. He flicked his crosshairs on its back with a quick THTHOOM! MMBZZZZZ! into its exposed rear armour. The Catapult turned slightly at the last second and took the entire salvo in the right torso, exploding into a shower of metal. The Mech survived however, and

disappeared around a corner.

Turning to follow, he noticed Leigh to his left, missing her Jenner's right arm, and with severe damage elsewhere. The Commando following her seemed to almost pause at the side of a turn, coming into it too quickly, and just avoiding hitting a building. His crosshair touched over it just then, and his THTHOOM! MMBZZZZ! salvo impacted it right in the dead centre of it's back, obliterating it in a rather spectacular explosion.

"Thanks" said Leigh "though I think the real battle starts now." He looked to the right and instantly knew what she meant.

An Atlas and Hunchback spotted sporatically through the building cover, advanced on them.

"Roger that," he said, solemnly, "engaging."