Now, finally at point blank range, the battle becamse what it had promised to be. A vicious melee, where tactics gave way to individual skill and luck.
Felicity, attempting to flank, turned a sharp corner as the rounded the hill, and Blondie lost traction, sending the mech into a slide which scraped armor off the mech as it went. (Hit CTR+CT, 3+2 damage) Luckily for Felicity, she rode with the impacts, avoiding hurting herself.
The southern end of the battle was going to be very short and very bloody - the Vindicator seeing the Wyvern coming out of the trees fired everything it had, and hit with most of it too - energy beams and particle clouds rocking Wurm and sending burning fragments of armor raining down, but not breaking Maja's defenses (Hit LA+RL+LA, 3+10+5 damage). The two panthers split fire between Wyvern and sliding Valkyrie, but only a single SRM caught Wurm in the leg with a concussive pop (hit RL, 2 damage)
In return, Maja speared the second panther in the chest with her large laser, slagging away armor, and then moments later, sending massive spouts of fire erupting out of the mech as the ammo began to cook over, reducing it to a growing cloud of smoke and flame as consecutive explosions tore through it, and ammo, launched skyward, continued to detonate (Hit LT, 8 damage, SRM ammo crit, Ammo explodes, 184 damage, mech destroyed).
At almost the same moment, despite his grumbling, Snorri fired his own weapons through the trees. The twin lasers lanced out, one striking the vindicator (hit LA, 5 damage), and the 5 LRM missiles spiraled out and hit the badly damaged first panther, 4 missiles plowing into the exposed structure... and then setting off a nearly identical chain reaction (Hit LT, section destroyed, SRM ammo crit, Ammo explodes, 176 damage, mech destroyed). As the thunder faded, it was hard to even be aware of the accurate shooting of the Crab into the maelstrom - the destruction was too total.
In the north, Bruun fired his weapons at the Dragon, one laser glancing off the torso (glancing hit CT, 2 damage), while the Falcon leapt over the enemy formation, firing everything at the blackjack and scoring a glancing blow with one laser (hit LA, 5 damage). The charging Ostsol then tore into it with a blue and green beam duo (Hit RA+RT, 8+5 damage), while the Cicada landed a long range shot into the Battlemaster, the arcs of energy tearing plats of armor off the assault mech's leg (Hit RL, 10 damage). Yuri fired and missed, and the enemy fired back with everything they had. The wolverine was unable to score any blows, but the Dragon, firing it's medium laser at the Ostsol hit the arm, (hit LA, 5 damage). The Battlemaster unloaded missile sand machine guns at Yuri, but only scratched his armor with one MG (glancing hit RT, 1 damage), while the twin back lasers fired into the Ostsol as Andrea dodged past. (Hit LT+RA, 5+5 damage, crit Hand+Lower Arm)
The blackjack immediately followed it up with a volley of every gun it had, 4 lasers and 2 autocannons lighting up, and though most missed, 2 laesrs did slip past. (Hit LA+RT, 5+5 damage, crit lower+upper arm)
Now that the fight was up close and personal, the mechs began to use their own bodies as weapons. The Blackjack lashed out at Andrea, smashing armor of the Ostsol's leg, and then juking away from her own counter kick. (hit LL, 9 damage) Andrea kept her balance at least (Piloting roll passed). The Falcon behind it managed to kick it in the back from uphill, cracking off the torso armor (hit RTR, 6 damage). ahead of both, the Wolverine punched at Yuri and missed, and then found out that in front of the Grand Dragon was not a safe place to be as Yuri kicked the left leg, cracking the structure until it almost gave, and then planted his mech firmly and delivered a sharp kick into the right leg, popping it off at the hip. (Hit LL+RL, 12+12 damage, crit RL, limb removed)
The Wolverine toppled, crashing down pitifully (hit RT, 6 damage, pilot injured)
The Black Dragon mechs did not retreat - fighting with full fury, even as proximity alerts indicated an aerospace fighter was on approach from the east.
---- Situation ----
Firefly (Bruun) -- minor damage -- 2 heat
Ostsol (Andrea) -- minor damage -- 0 heat
Cicada (Gillian) -- no damage -- 0 heat
Falcon (Ryougi?) -- no damage -- 2 heat
Grand Dragon (Yuri) -- Arms Destroyed -- 0 heat
Wyvern (Maja) -- minor damage -- 4 heat
Crab (Marik) -- minor damage -- 0 heat
Thorn (Snorri) -- no damage -- 0 heat
Valkyrie (Felicity) -- minor damage -- 0 heat
---- Hostile Status ----
BattleMaster ---- +0
Wolverine ---- +0
BlackJack ---- +0
Dragon ---- +0
Vindicator ---- +0
Panther - DESTROYED
Panther #2 - DESTROYED