"What's your name, trooper?"

‘MechWarrior Donald Fitzgerald, sir. Number three in Fire Lance O'Hanrahan."

"Well, Donald. What say we find ourselves some Marauders. Morrison's Marauders, that is...not the other kind."

"YesSIR!"

The two ‘Mechs moved toward the southeast through swamp and open forest The terrain was not the impassable tangle of bogs Ardan had been dreading, nor was it as dry as the planetological tapes had suggested it should be during the local dry season. He finally decided that the pool where he'd nearly lost himself was one of a large number of small, irregular, and ill-defined lakes and ponds that sprinkled the entire upland stretch of the Ordolo Basin. The name "Lost Lakes" came to him, and Ardan realized he'd found at least one of them. Seeing a small cascade of rainwater shower from the broad leaves of a tree as he brushed past, he remembered that even during the dry season, it rains periodically in a jungle. The lakes would be larger and deeper now, the ground softer, so soon after a tropical rainstorm.

The mud sucked at the feet of his Victorwith every step Ardan took. If this was dry weather, he decided to definitely take a pass on visiting the Ordolo Basin during the rainy season.

13

As travel grew easier, Ardan's radio also began to pick up a constant stream of chatter from a number of different units. It sounded as if a battle had erupted just to the east. "Green Two, Green Two!" one voice called with sharp urgency. "Break right, the bastard's behind you!"

"Copy! Hot damn, where'd he come from! Watch it, Blue Twelve! There's a Pantherzeroing on you, five o'clock!"

"Break left, Seven! Break left! Oh, damn!”

“Here he comes. Steady, steady! Hose him down!”

“Mayday! Mayday! She's going to blow! I'm punching out!"

Ardan and Fitzgerald hurried their pace.

The two 'Mechs broke free of the forest and entered the battle almost simultaneously. The ground had been rising steadily as they made their way further and further east. Perhaps three kilometers from where Ardan had landed, the forest gave way to an uneven plain covered with blue grass knee-deep on the 'Mechs. The eastern horizon was dominated by the ridge, a low and mostly wooded line of steep-sided hills or eroded mountains, none more than 800 meters high. The plain stretched toward the ridge across perhaps ten kilometers, and the area had become a killing zone as 'Mech struggled wildly with 'Mech.

In the distance, a low line of bunkers with green-mottled, camouflage roofs told Ardan what had happened. There'd been a camp here, probably a full battalion of Liao 'Mechs and possibly an air lance, too, placed well clear of the city and in position to close off the neck of the Highland Peninsula once the counterinvasion was grounded. Instead, part of the Davion drop had come down squarely in the middle of the Liao camp.

A TDR Thunderboltseemed to rise out of the grass 200 meters in front of Ardan, an illusion created by its sudden move from a hidden fold in the ground. Ardan had only an instant to recognize the raised arm-and-sword against the inverted green triangle on the 'Mech's bulky torso. The 'Mech's right arm heavy laser was swinging down in line with Ardan's cockpit

Ardan dodged left as the Thunderbolt'sSunglow Type 2 laser cut loose with a dazzling pulse of green light. He triggered his twin left arm lasers an instant later, but surprise made him miss.

The Thunderboltwas known for its heavy armor and even more for being one of the best- and most heavily armed 'Mechs in service. That Sunglow laser could deliver megajoules of raw fury in a single pulse, and the three medium lasers mounted along the left torso were each as powerful as the Victor'sleft arm lasers. And if that weren't enough, Ardan knew that the heavy Delta Dart long-range missile launcher squatting on the Thunderbolt'sleft shoulder could knock out an opponent with a single volley. Ardan's Victormight outweigh his opponent by fifteen tons, but the other advantages were all with the TDR.

The Liao 'Mech's LRM launcher blossomed fire. Ardan threw the Victorinto a twisting, dodging sprint, closing the gap between him and the TDR. At close range, the enemy's LRMs would be useless. He opened fire as he lurched forward, his twin lasers scoring hits on the Thunderbolt'storso, cratering armor in explosive gouts of vaporized armor.

At the same moment, a salvo of missiles exploded alongside the Thunderbolt,and three of them flashed white brilliance against the machine's legs. The 'Mech twisted to the side, moving swifdy. What...

"I got him, Gold Leader! I got him!"

Ardan had forgotten Fitzgerald's Crusader.The boy had opened up with his own LRMs from the edge of the woods, and the Thunderboltwas moving now to throw off his aim.

"Steady, Donald!" he replied. "Hang back and keep raking him! I'll try to close!"

Ardan tracked carefully with his lasers and loosed three paired shots in rapid succession. The Thunderboltwent down, seeking cover in the grassy slopes of the field.

Ardan ran a hurried check on his Victor'smain armament The right arm Pontiac 100 autocannon had the best chance of scoring a crippling hit on the Thunderbolt,but he was afraid that his swim in the mud might have fouled its feed mechanism. The autocannon was a devastating weapon. It fired high-speed, rapid-fire streams of explosive, armor-piercing shells from cassettes or carousels fed into the gun one at a time by a complex and occasionally balky autoloader mechanism. Each cassette held 100 shells, and by a widespread but commonly accepted looseness of terminology, each cassette was itself considered to be one round. One cassette round was already loaded. Nineteen more were stored in the autoloader chamber high up in his Victor'sright torso. He would have to use that single round carefully, because if the loader jammed, he would not get another chance.

Ardan moved swiftly, watching the grass. The Thunderbolthad gone to ground...about there...He triggered a control and his TRscanner dropped across his face. The world darkened, lit now in surreal shades of green and blue, with heat sources identified in whites and reds.

A white fountain geysered into the air fifty meters to his right, the heat plume of the hidden Thunderbolt. Ardan triggered a salvo of short-ranged missiles. Grass shredded in clots of smoke and flame, and then the Thunderboltwas up, swinging past him at a run, its heavy laser already spouting green flame.

The laser caught the Victorhigh up on his left shoulder. There was no shock, but heat flooded Ardan's cockpit He steadied the crosshairs of his HUD and triggered the autocannon. The weapon bucked and roared, jolting Ardan against his seat. The stream of high explosive chopped and slashed at the Thunderbolt'schest armor, smashed across its left shoulder, and turned the LRM launcher into a tangled, black-smoking ruin. It took six seconds for the autocannon to cycle through the cassette, and then the dull thud of a loader failure echoed through the Victor.He checked his console. As he'd feared, the mechanism was jammed.

A missile exploded against the Victor'schest, the shock jarring the breath from Ardan's lungs and knocking his 'Mech a staggered step backward. In the same instant, more missile fire washed across the Thunderbolt.Fitzgerald had pulled back to a range of 300 meters and was pouring salvo after salvo of long-ranged warheads into the Thunderbolt.Ardan triggered his own Holly SRMs and joined in the bombardment. Smoke belched from a rent in the TDR's right side, and its right arm hung dangling, the heavy laser junked.