Virgil's maneuver brought his ship up into the stream of shells. They peppered the sleek craft's fuselage, stripping away sheets of armor that followed the Visigothlike a glittering rain. A PPC beam sliced off more armor, then LRMs arrowed out from the Rapierand skewered the damaged craft. With a flash and puff of black smoke, the Visigothbegan to break apart in mid-air.

Virgil's icon vanished from Carew's holographic battle-scape and the lead Rapiercut up and toward the sky as his outline burned white on the infrared scale. Whipping the Visigothinto a right spiral, the Wolf Clan pilot brought it out of its spin and watched the Rapier'swingman follow the leader right into his sights.

Both medium lasers raked claws through the armor over the single aft thruster, and half the missiles Carew launched similarly blasted away shards of ferro-ceramics. Other missiles corkscrewed into the fuselage and left wing, shattering armor and denting the Rapier'saerodynamic profile.

The damaged Rapierdropped its left wing and started to pull around in a tight circle while his wingman continued to pull up and to the right. If I go after you, wounded duckling, your mate will pounce on me. No!Carew refused the gambit and pulled his ship up to the right. We play this game by my rules.

As he expected, the wounded aerofighter leveled out when the Visigothdeclined to chase him. Carew kept the crosshairs on target and triggered the two aft-arc medium lasers the Visigothcarried. One burned away more armor from the engine while the other further clipped the Rapier'sleft wing.

Carew smiled involuntarily as the fighter in front of him pulled a tight series of twists. Yes, you know how to fight better than your wingman. It will come down to the two of us, but I owe you for Virgil.His teeth clenched, Carew pushed down on the thruster pedals and brought the Visigotharound to again join the battle.

* * *

On the ground, Phelan glanced at his auxiliary monitor, and learned that the distant explosion must have been from the crash of one of the two fighters. I hope to God it's not Carew!Then he noticed that two Rapiersand one Visigothstill fought in the skies above him and he truly did not know if he wished Carew already dead or about to die in the battle with two enemies overhead.

The ground war gave him no time for any thoughts beyond that. Lee's Novadrifted across in front of him, eclipsing his view of the Fury that had hit him before. The Novapoured both autocannon and LRM fire into the Fury, chipping away at yet more of the front armor. In return, the Fury backed up and jerked to the right, then delivered a shot with the Gauss rifle that opened a great rent in the Nova'scenter torso armor.

Phelan brought Grinnerto the right to complete a crossing pattern with the Nova.Sprinting forward, he flanked one of the Burkes. He opened up with all his weapons, but the large laser that replaced his 'Mech's right hand missed high. The trio of pulse lasers stitched back and forth across the Burke's left side. They reduced all its armor to molten slag that dripped thickly from the shredded tread on that side.

Because its turret was locked in the forward position, the Burke could not bring its gun to bear on Grinner.Unable to move and with its gun locked in one position, the Burke was as good as out of the fight. Phelan hoped its crew realized it, too, because he had no desire to kill them if it was not necessary.

Ace's Vipertouched down in front of the Fury the strafing had left untouched. The 'Mech's PPC fused armor plates on the Fury's nose into a molten lump, then its medium laser chipped away at the armor left behind. The Fury brought its gun around and pounded a silver ball into the Viper'schest, half-slewing it around to the left.

Dimitria's Ice Ferretbrought its weapons to bear on another of the Burkes, but the tangle with the first Burke had shaken the pilot. The autocannon, medium laser, and LRMs all missed their target, while the Burke's crew brought its PPCs around. Two blue bolts of man-made lightning blazed into the Ice Ferret.One carved armor from the center of the 'Mech's chest. The second beam flayed the rest of the armor from the Ice Ferret'sleft arm and started grinding away at the arm's metal bones and rubbery muscles.

The third Burke lashed out with two PPC beams at the Summoner.As with the Ice Ferret,the Summonerlost steaming shards of armor from its left arm and chest, but Thea weathered the storm without losing her weapons lock on the Burke. Two LRM flights shot out from the launchers and burst through the armor on the Burke's nose.

Their detonations set off a string of secondary explosions that lifted the Burke from its pit and flipped it over. Both treads whipped off like steel ribbons and started to disintegrate. The boxy tank's turret whirled off and smashed into a mountainside, then the body of the vehicle plumped in the middle and splintered into a million fragments. The nova in its heart was born of ammo and fuel explosions and managed to do with far greater effect what the Clan's attacks had not accomplished.

* * *

Locked in a cockpit he found as comfortable as a womb, Carew made two discoveries. The first was that his aerofighter could out-climb and out-dive the Rapiers.He found this out as his Visigothswooped down on the stricken Rapier.The pilot tried to boost his ship forward, but Carew closed on him and pulled away from the second Rapier.

The Visigothstruck at the Rapierwith both lasers and missiles. The rockets hammered the fuselage and left wing. Carew saw several holes open up in the cylindrical body of the fighter and knew some control computers must have taken damage because the tailfins locked in their straight-ahead position.

One of the lasers finished the armor on the Rapier'sengine. In a bright spark on the IR readout, the laser damaged the engine. Immediately the engine darkened, and the Rapierbegan to lose air-speed. With its control surfaces locked and sending the slowing plane forward, Carew knew one more set of shots would destroy it.

The second discovery he made was that he would die if he indulged his desire to flame the Rapier.Its wingman powered down into his aft arc, but bounced around enough to deny Carew a solid weapons lock. The Clansman cursed and jerked his stick to the right. His craft sideslipped nicely. Then, in response to the command he gave it as the Rapierjuked in behind him, it pulled up hard and to the left.

The ComStar pilot brought his Rapierinto a sharp turn that would cut inside the Visigoth'sturn radius, so Carew flipped the aerospace fighter over in a roll that stood the Vlsigothon its left wing. Cutting back on his thrust, he let the Visigothdrop like a rock. Regaining control, he feathered it into a sideslip that brought him in behind the Rapierat less than a kilometer's distance.

Before he could fire on him, the Rapierpilot pulled his nose up in a Immelmann and shot back down at the Visigoth.At their speed, their flight paths intersected and passed in three seconds. In that three seconds, both fighters fired every weapon they had at each other, and did it at point-blank range.

Carew felt the Visigothshake violently as the Rapier'sautocannon ripped a jagged scar across the armor on his left wing. Blue light filled the cockpit and static crackled in his earphones as a PPC slashed armor away from his right wing. The Rapier'ssecond PPC and its LRMs missed, but not by much, and Carew felt certain he'd used up whatever luck he'd been granted for the day.