BattleTech: Jaguar's Leap by Reed Bishop

Author:Reed Bishop
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2022-08-25T05:00:00+00:00

From his Sabutai’s cockpit high in the circling sky, Star Commander Kona and his fellow aerospace pilots were awaiting orders when he saw Susan’s ’Mechs fall back. He frowned at the sight: Smoke Jaguars retreating from members of the Dark Caste. From bandits.

It was shameful.

Susan was struggling to open up some distance between her force and the enemy ’Mechs, so she could bring fire from the DropShips to bear. The bandits would have to let them go. The Phoenix Hawks could have kept up with the retreating Smoke Jaguar ’Mechs, but the slower, heavier Supernova could not.

The Bane was no faster. By the time it crossed the bridge, it would be too late to support the advancing bandit ’Mechs. The Phoenix Hawks could keep up with Susan’s forces, but they would be heavily outnumbered, and Susan would tear them apart.

And they knew what was coming from the DropShips. Once the range gap opened sufficiently, the grounded Union and Leopard would open fire, with prejudice.

The Phoenix Hawk missile boat launched a volley of eighty long-range missiles, apparently hoping to do some damage on the way out, and then all three bandit ’Mechs hit their jump jets and settled behind the safety of the canyon wall.

The Bane fell back, ensuring it was out of range of the Ocelotl’s guns. Kona doubted the DropShips would have fired on the BattleMech anyway: they could not risk hitting the bridge.

It was a stalemate. And ties went to the defenders.

Except…it was not like a Smoke Jaguar MechWarrior to concede a fight so easily.

Kona was not surprised when his comm activated.

“Jaguar Flight, this is Neos One. We need you to hit the BattleMechs perched on the ledge on the canyon’s south wall. Then sweep across the channel and hit that Bane. Over.”

Kona allowed himself the luxury of a fierce smile. As soon as he had seen Susan’s force falling back, he had known she would have need of his skills. Oh, how she must hate this. The arrogance of Jaguar MechWarriors was unmatched in all the Clans. Sometimes they forgot that aerospace pilots were warriors, too. Now Susan would get a much-needed lesson in the importance of warriors like him.

Kona, like all his sibkin, was a small man, his head disproportionately large for his frame. He had been bred specifically to fit in the cramped cockpit of a fighter. His form might look strange to a MechWarrior, but he had attained his own sort of perfection.

And he had been granted the chance to pilot a brand new OmniFighter, one that could be easily reconfigured to match the needs of the mission. His Sabutai—a new model, fresh from the assembly line—possessed a Gauss rifle mounted beneath the canards on either side of the nose. Each of the delta wings near the rear of the craft carried an extended-range PPC and a large pulse laser. The twin vertical stabilizers were canted to reduce the fighter’s radar cross-section. Canting the tails would only buy Kona a second or two until the enemy’s fire-control locked on.

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