Ingersoll, Cappellan Confederation, 3062
“HEAT LEVEL: CRITICAL. SHUTDOWN: IMMENENT.” Feng slapped the override controls subconsciously, buying him a few more seconds. His Cataphract was working overtime to vent the waste heat from his reactor. He toggled his lasers off, and selected his hip-mounted AC/20. Turning to his opponent, a heavier Thug that was entirely too close for its arm mounted PPCs, but was in the ideal range for his SRMs. Twelve high explosive warheads corkscrewed towards the Cataphract, but Feng managed to sidestep the barrage. Noting his current range, he twisted his torso to the right, firing his low-heat weaponry as his legs carried him around the office building at the corner of the block. Buying himself a few seconds, he reviewed his situation.
Separated from his company, David Feng and his Cataphract had been working their way through enemy lines to rendezvous with his lance leader. Having encountered a Thug and a pair of Kintaros on his way, he had some damage to his chassis. His armor had pockmarks all over, but his right leg and torso had sustained rather serious damage, and one of his Heat Sinks was non-functional. This was problematic as most of his weapons were laser based and thus generated a lot of heat.
Centering his crosshairs on the corner of the building, he waited for the Thug to turn the corner. Suddenly, his Mag-Scan went berserk. Feng watched in horror as the class of the office building windows buckled outward into the street, shattering against the pavement, and the Thug emerged. Errant debris fell from its’ armored form; a broken desk, a broken body; the Thug’s pilot cared not for the destruction he wrought. Feng found himself filled with rage.
He charged the heavier ‘mech, firing his entire loadout as he advanced. Two Large Pulse Lasers flashed, and bolts of coherent light splashed armor from the war machine’s torso. Firing his SRM rack, six warheads flew into the crater formed by the barrage of laser fire, ripping open the already softened Ferro-Fibrious metal. The Thug pilot fired his PPCs in a desperate attempt to fend off the hunched form of the Cataphract. But Feng would not be denied. The blood spattered on the Thug’s arms only fueled his rage. Firing one of his last four AC/20 shells at less than fifty meters, the motorcycle sized tungsten slug flew through the air and landed directly in the hole opened by his lasers and missiles. Feng saw golden fire spout from the reactor and backed up.
Flame shot from panels around the Thug’s canopy. The pilot, attempting to escape the destruction of his machine, flew into the sky on a gout of fire. The Thug did not explode. When a reactor on a battlemech goes, it can go in several ways. The massive explosion of most holovids was hardly the most common. In the case of the Thug the reactor melted down. Molten metal spilled from the titan’s wounds, the heat of the reactor reducing it’s internals into so much slag. Feng looked upon the sky, and saw the parachute of the pilot. Raising his left arm, he fired his 50 cal MG. Shredded ribbons of canvas parachute fell to earth around the shattered ejection seat. Looking upon his handiwork, Feng found he didn’t feel any better. He also didn’t care. Stalking off, he moved to regroup with his company.