Rand's Mongooseflashed from among the buttes, leading the remains of her company. There were only six of them, all lights and mediums and all damaged, but they raced brazenly toward Fancher's 100-ton monster. Firing on the run, they didn't score as many hits as they might have, but they distracted Fancher nevertheless. She retreated from her hilltop. Rand's crew closed in, spreading out to ring the Gladiator.It was a rash maneuver; once Fancher's support arrived, Rand would only prove that light BattleMechs could not stand against heavies and assaults. But Rand had been fighting the whole battle as if she had something to prove.

I had no time to worry about her. The Colonel's force was engaging the company sent to stop him and he needed help. I backed my Lokidown a few meters until I reached a point where I could turn it around. The other warriors followed me down the hillside.

We reached level ground in time to see the company from Beta recoiling from the Colonel's 'Mechs. The Beta machines were heavily damaged and the onrushing opponents were barely scratched. There were more Wolf Pack machines than I expected, and it took me a moment to realize that the Kuritans were accompanying the Colonel. No wonder the Beta company had taken it so hard.

This first skirmish for our reserves would not be the whole battle. Colonel Wolf had clearly staked his chance of winning this battle on success here on the northern flank. Pulling the Kuritans up here jeopardized the whole defense by stripping the southern flank of its mobile element. If Nichole's Epsilon Regiment stayed put, we might be all right. If not, we were lost.

Either way, we were committed.

* * *

An Elemental vaporized in the ravening hell of a PPC beam.

Elson sent his last two SRMs at the killer Clint.One punched into the 'Mech's left shoulder, and the other dug a bright metal scar into the Clint'supper right chest. A bad spread, but at least both missiles had scored.

In open terrain, Elementals were rarely a match for MechWarriors who knew what they were doing. These rebels were no fools. They kept their distance, forcing the Elementals to keep moving or die. Some choice. Even moving, Elementals went down, pounded by weapons with greater range.

The end of the jamming made coordinating his Stars easier. It also made it easier to hear their dying screams.

A laser blasted the ground at his feet. Elson shifted away, ready to fire his jump jets, but another beam caught the battle armor just above the knee. Pain screamed through his leg, but the suit was already pumping healing gel in to flood the area, soothing the pain. Heat flooded him, and he cursed. The suit's automatic damage control was taking over, its auto-injector had just filled his veins with the nerve dead-eners and synthetic adrenaline that Elementals called hero juice.

He wanted to think clearly.

He had to.

The Locustthat had wounded him fired again, but he was faster this time, juiced up. He shifted away; leaving the beam behind. The laser gouged only the ground. Dodging and weaving, Elson closed on the light 'Mech.

He had to take it down before it got him.

Then, then he would have time to think. He would have time to plan, and find a way of this disaster.

The Locustfired again.

Pain seared his chest, spreading faster than the gel.

He tried to keep moving, tried to raise the suit's laser to show the jock what an Elemental could do to a 'Mech.

The suit didn't respond. Sparks flashed before his eyes as the heads-up display winked out. Systems lights went dark and blackness filled his helmet.

* * *

The Wolf was slow but elegant. He was old, no longer possessed of lightning reflexes despite what some would tell you of Clan-bred vitality. But his cunning and experience compensated for much. He handled his 'Mech as if it were a part of him, almost like the fabled blend of man and machine so popular in holo-vids.

Missiles flew from the Archer'sbulky shoulders, trailing smoky clouds after them as they sought out targets. Each volley impacted with an accuracy that surpassed mere computer-aided targeting. The Wolf guided his munitions with an instinct that could not be quantified.

My ragged lance joined the Colonel's column in time to receive another thrust from Beta. The Kuritans responded faster than we did. Then we learned that we were not the only ones capable of ruses.

A company of medium 'Mechs swarmed out of a dry streambed screened from us by an iron-rich mesa. Another lance rocketed over the top. They were on us in seconds.

A Waspcaught a full barrage from the Colonel and disintegrated before it could land. It was the only one of the attackers to be silenced before they opened fire. The Colonel's Archerwas screened from the attackers by two of our reserve 'Mechs, which took a lot of fire meant for him. The lance that had come over the top had clear lines of fire, and they used them. They rained missiles down on us and stabbed at us with energy beams.

I sidestepped the Loki,soaking up some of the enemy's fire. My Lokishook like a rag doll in the hands of an angry child. System-status lights went from green to amber to red almost faster than I could see. Smoke filled my cockpit with an acrid smell and I knew I was losing electrical lines somewhere.

Through the armor of my cockpit I heard the roaring thunder of a ripple launch from the Archer.Missiles tore holes in the torso and limbs of a Javelinjust as its own launchers were recycling for another volley. The Javelincrashed over backward, a leg gone.

The rebel lance pulled back, lifting up and jetting away as fast as they had come. As if they were a signal rocket, a lance of Kuritans came pounding back. Outnumbered, the Beta 'Mechs disengaged.

It was another skirmish in our favor, but the battle was not over yet.

Hours went by. The fighting was hard, but the Kuritans made a difference, a vital difference. Where we would have had only one 'Mech, now we sometimes had two. Over the course of the small encounters that make up a 'Mech battle, we slowly gained the upper hand. In a fusillade here, a physical attack there, we shifted the odds. The battle began to turn once more in our favor.

The cat-and-mouse game between Rand's company and Fancher's Command Lance changed mode suddenly when a Kuritan Pantherappeared on a ridge and sent a crackling blue beam of charged particles into the shoulder of Fancher's Gladiator.Fancher turned the 'Mech to face the new threat, and Rand and her crew swarmed in. Short-range missiles burned in on sooty tails. Beam weapons lit the hazy field, turning it into a hellish scene where BattleMechs stalked and fought like mythical demons. Fancher's Gladiatorfell, a lion pulled down by wolves.

The loss of Beta's commander might have been enough to decide the battle, but at almost the same moment, the static filling the channels of Elson's people peaked and vanished. Our jammer linkage had been destroyed somewhere, the network broken and rendered useless. I didn't need to hear the sudden activity on Beta's channels to know we were in trouble; they were reorganizing very quickly. No less could be expected from those who wore the Dragoon wolf's head.

Our own scouts used the absence of jamming to report more bad news. Zeta Battalion was moving up.

The news soon spread through Beta. Reed, who had taken command, ordered his battered BattleMechs to fall back. After the mauling Beta had given us, he knew we'd have a hard time handling Zeta. A renewed assault by Reed's 'Mechs, coming while we were engaged with Zeta, might be just enough to break us.

The Colonel was on the line as soon as the scouts finished reporting. He told them to route all further reports through me, then he addressed our surviving units. There weren't a lot of them, and all were operating well below strength. As I scanned the status data, I wondered how much longer we could last.