Four medium lasers hit the heavy 'Mech. Two lanced into its right flank, carving glowing red scars beneath its armpit. A third lopped a chunk of armor from the 'Mech's right arm and the last lanced into the Orion'sright thigh. The beam played across the armor, vaporizing what it touched, but failed to pierce it fully.

The Orionlet loose with everything it had except for its short-range missiles. The autocannon sprouting from the humanoid 'Mech's right hip fired high over its target, but the fifteen LRMs corkscrewing out from the launcher mounted in its left shoulder hit home. Explosions surrounded a hovercraft, lifting it from the water and pirouetting it through a firecloud. Visible for a half-second amid the smoke and brilliant flames, the hovercraft disintegrated, showering the water with metal splinters.

Hovercraft swept in at Tom Clark's Thunderboltfrom behind. Two of them hit with their medium lasers, but the damage they did was minor. As one swept past his position, Clark tagged it with a medium laser, blasting armor from its nose. Even more devastating, Nancy Campion's Grasshoppergoosed one fleeing Savannah Master with a blast from her large laser. The beam ate through the small craft like swamp rot, filling the cockpit with fire and death.

The third group of hovercraft targeted Karsten's Crusader,slashing at the 'Mech's rear. One beam blasted armor over the Crusader'sspine. The other two beams that hit stabbed into the 'Mech's left flank and pierced its side. Steam and yellow-green fluid burst from the wound as the laser beams vaporized three heat sinks. Though Karsten unleashed two flights of LRMs and fired both medium lasers at the hovercraft, all five escaped unharmed.

Heart in her mouth, Alanna watched as Eric de Chanoui, anticipating the strike at his Rifleman'srear, rotated the 'Mech's arms up and around to cover his rear arc. Mindless of the heat buildup it would cause, he blazed away with the large lasers and autocannon. If he doesn't get them now, he's history!

The Rifleman'sautocannon fired a salvo that hit one hovercraft on the nose. The shells blasted armor into jagged little chunks of ferroceramic alloy that careened off the craft's windscreen like hail. The impact slowed the hovercraft long enough for one of the Rifleman'slarge lasers to sweep over it. The Savannah Master blurred in the ruby beam's grasp, then exploded in a rolling fireball that skipped like a stone across the water's tortured surface.

The other four hovercraft swept on through the fiery cloud that had been their group leader. Three of them hit with their lasers, and two cored through the Rifleman'sback armor. A series of explosions detonated within the Rifleman'schest as the lasers destroyed the fusion engine's shielding and the incredible heat touched off the autocannon ammo stored next to it. As the fire built within the 'Mech, the angular outline of its torso softened and flames shot from the hole in its spine.

Seconds before a massive explosion tore the Riflemanapart, a gout of flame shot from the 'Mech's chest. De Chanoui's ejection seat shot straight up, then angled over toward the hills to the north. The 'Mech he'd left behind split down the middle as an argent spear of flame stabbed up toward the dawn sky. The 'Mech's arms flew off in two different directions while torso fragments peppered the water. The 'Mech's legs, untouched, but trailing smoke from where the torso had sat, remained stuck upright in the swamp.

Alanna saw another hovercraft explode as Eve Bors hit it with a burst from her Ostsol’slarge laser. From her vantage point, Alanna could only see damage on the Ostsol'sright leg, but Eve quickly reported that the armor on her 'Mech's back was all but destroyed.

The hovercraft, which had attacked from the west, continued on toward the east. They followed the river as it curved north and quickly vanished behind the hills where de Chanoui had landed. Alanna frowned. I don't like this at all. Those guys were too good to be Liao militia.

Alanna radioed Rex Archambauld on their company's command frequency. "Rex, get the others on those hills. Keep alert. Use the jumpers to act as outriders. I'm going over to the Command Channel. I want air cover."

She hit two switches, expecting to hear the bored voice of a radio operator in the invasion's tactical center. Instead, a babble of voices and noise blasted through her neurohelmet. "We're taking heavy fire on Boomslang Ridge," she heard an excited voice report. The whine of an autocannon accompanied the transmission. "Get us some air support!"

"Negative, Deuce Battalion. Support allocations are only assigned on request of a commanding officer. My screen shows you're only a Captain. Where is Colonel Harkness?"

Irritation shot through the field commander's voice. "Harkness bought it when he marched his Marauderinto a Liao militia ambush. They had inferno rockets and roasted him alive."

Alanna felt as if an icy dagger had been thrust into her stomach. What a way to die!Inferno rockets exploded just before they hit their targets, covering a 'Mech or building with a jellied fuel that burned like hell itself. The heat buildup was enough to render a 'Mech inoperable. Alanna shot a glance at her own heat monitors and felt a cold trickle of sweat run down her spine.

"If you don't get it, Taccom, I'm the only command officer left in the Second 'Mech Battalion. I guess that brevets me to Colonel, wouldn't you say?"

The command center's radio operator came back with nervousness twitching through his words. "I guess it would, Colonel Moultrie, but I still can't give you any air cover." The man's voice sank. "We don't have any more."

Alanna broke in before Moultrie could curse at the radioman at the tactical center. "Colonel, Captain Damu, First Battalion. You're east of our position. What's your opposition?"

Moultrie's voice lost its edge. " 'Mechs and armor in the foothills. They're dug in, so we can't do anything. Can you swing over?"

Alanna summoned a tactical map of the area and thought she saw a way to hit Boomslang Ridge from the west. Before she could answer, however, Jack Cannon's Ostroccrested the hill directly north of the swamp. A light flashed on her command console, indicating a message coming in on the company frequency, then it died abruptly.

She looked up as the barrel-chested 'Mech staggered, then spun wildly. Armor flew in ragged sheets from its torso. Explosions from the SRM magazine began, shooting flame from the legion of holes opened in the 'Mech's chest. The Ostrocstumbled back down the hill, then exploded, blowing the upper half of the 'Mech's torso out into the middle of the swamp.

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Colonel, we've just been hit by something!" Alanna hesitated, waiting for Moultrie's reply, but heard nothing. "Colonel Moultrie? Colonel?"

Rex Archambauld's voice broke into the radio frequency. "Cannon reported two Saladins were on the other side of the hill before they got him. He IDed them as part of McCarron's Armored Cavalry. We've got real opposition here, Cap. What the hell are we going to do?"

The panic in Rex's voice made Alanna get control of her own. These people are my responsibility. I've got to get them out of this mess.She swallowed past the lump in her throat before speaking. "Move everyone west, toward the forest."

Doubt bled into Rex's words. "Cap, that'll move us away from the concentration of our troops. We'll be on our own."

Alanna shook her head. Can't have you going rogue on me, Rex."Leftenant, in case you've not noticed, we had opposition on what was supposed to be a milk run. We expected militia and we get trained mercs who've got a vendetta with us that runs deeper than a black hole. Command says our air cover's been swatted down and the Second Battalion's getting ripped to pieces on Boomslang Ridge. We're talking a bigtime snafu here. Some malfing idiot stuck our head in the chiroptopard'smouth, and I'm not having anything to do with it."