Close Quarters (novel) wrote:
- p16: Another crack. A red flash lit the street, followed by a whoomp. The smell of ozone and then the spreading Sandusk olive tree in the Suthorn's tiny front yard crashed past the window, branches burning.
- p16: What cut off her words was a bolt of blue fire hitting the ground in front of the Aung house, the blue fire momentarily blanking Cassie's vision. Through great maroon clouds of afterimage, she saw the big front window shimmer and simple melt away, felt a rush of heat on her face like the hot breath of air when she squatted too near while her mother slid her baking in and out of the oven... In the Aung yard, men were on fire.... The burning men had fallen to the ground. The whole Aung house was ablaze with flames.
- p17: An enormous figure suddenly loomed up behind the house. With a great splintering crack, it shouldered aside the evergreen oak... it raised a giant hand, then smashed it onto her house.
- p17: ... a rocket slammed into the side of the 'Mech's head with a sound like God's own sledgehammer. The metal monster rocked, turned. The blue lightning from its left arm hit the next street over, sending a rush of debris riding skyward on an orange fireball. But the giant was not felled. The 'Mech caught its balance, lowering its right arm to send an eye-hurting column of ruby light stabbing into the rubble of Cassie's house, followed by an immediate gush of fire. By then the monster was already striding away, wading through the Wu house and buckling the pavement of Resplendent Glory Lane with its awful weight... Tears streamed from her eyes; blood streamed from the eardrums ruptured when the missile struck the BattleMech.
- p20: Cassie threw away the half-eaten fruit and clutched her rifle to her chest, knowing how futile the gesture was. Even a full-automatic rifle would have been small protection against one of those metal monsters, while all she had was one of the bolt-action rifles assigned to the Glorious Redemption Detachment.
- p26: The next instant, walls and floor began to shake violently, knocking more electronic gadgets off the shelves. A ripple of flashes lit the front of the building opposite to a roar like jackhammer thunder. ... The Force Leader waved his snubby in the dust-choked air. "What's going on?" he shouted over the whistling roar that rose around them like a typhoon wind. "SRMs!" Ba Ma yelled. "And them's jump jets. 'Mech coming!" For once he was right. A gigantic manlike figure, painted matte blue and gray, suddenly appeared in the air above the commercial buildings across the street and then landed in the avenue half a block away with a sound of shattering pavement.
- p28: "But that thing can see us," Tango hissed. "'Mechs have all kinds of sensors and crap." Cassie felt her heart skip a beat, and just at that moment the Stinger's head swiveled to look straight at them . . . Then tracked right on past.
- p29: The weird little bulb of a turret mounted right in front of what Cassie took to be the beast's head pulsed brilliant light. A crack, and power lines strung across the intersection parted company with a building and fell into the streets, drooling sparks.
- p30: As it neared the corner, Recruit Cassie Suthorn popped around and spanged a shot off the glacis of its chest armor. The bullet could no more damage the behemoth than would an equal weight of spit, much less catch the attention of the warrior piloting the machine.
- p30: The little laser-bulb tracked, fired. The beam exploded concrete where the figure had stood just a moment before, but the figure was no longer there.
- p32: Cassie bolted straight back to the rear door, reaching it at the same instant the autocannon burst hit the front door. Glass shards and flame and explosive stink and raw shattering noise pursued her.
- p33: As it descended, she screamed and hurled the mop-handle upward and past it, straight at the great round joint of its knee. With a cascade of sparks, the live power line flash-welded the metal giant's knee joint. Not much, but just enough to lock the joint... The 'Mech pilot obviously had no idea what this impertinent insect might be up to until his machine tilted forward to put its weight onto a leg that utterly refused to extend to accept it. The moment she released the mop handle, Cassie dashed away up the block, sprinting thirty yards before spinning to watch the Wolverine topple with majestic slowness into the apartment building.
- p34: On the other hand, they could totally fill the street with machine-gun bullets bouncing like the steel balls of the game that had given Pachinko his name - and no more feel them than hail.
- p47: Cassie smiles as a Locust springs forth in a shower of grimy spray... The little hopper is still a good half-klick away, clockwise around the lake to Cassie's left.
- p48: A Quickdraw rises next, muck cascading from the sagittal crest fore-and-afting its round head, arms raised to pump dazzling laser pulses at phantom foes in the woods. Tree trunks explode in steam as the 'Mech rises high on its jump jets.
- p48: Cool and confident in the cockpit of her hundred-ton 'Mech, Diana sometimes forgets to use call signs. It is appropriate that her style of warfare is to reach out and touch her foe from a distance that never lets her see him die.
- p48: An Arrow IV from Diana's first salvo lands directly on the MAD-3R's head, bursting it open like a potato in a microwave.
- p50: "Hey, over here!" She raises her rifle and fires a burst at the 'Mech's head. The general uproar covers the sound of the shots, but the rattle of bullets off of armor plate catches the pilot's attention... The laser spurts light. The flowering bush explodes in a gush of steam followed by smoke... The 'Mech jock picks up her wake, blasts for her with its arm-mounted machine guns. Hearing the whine of arm actuators, she has already gone deep. Small arms rounds lose most of their energy after two meters of water.
- p50: The laser turret can swivel, but the head/torso combination cannot. It must move its feet to change the pilot's field of vision.
- p51: Canting way forward, the 'Mech sends up a geyser of steam and hot mud from its laser for good measure.
- p52: The impact must have just about driven the MechWarrior's spine out the top of its skull, but he is firing his medium laser and machine guns into the grove even as he hits. Thick boles fly apart in clouds of splinters. Huge leaves wilt in the heat and fray of the bullet-storm. In triumphant fury the Locust lays the stand of trees to waste.
- p61: Like most highway bridges within the Draconis Combinte, those leading into Masamori are designed to permit the passage of no vehicle heavier than nineteen tons, a feature intended to prevent enemy BattleMechs from using the bridges in the event of invasion. Only a railroad bridge will support the up to one hundred-ton weght of the mercenary machines.
- p86: "An Elemental came through the wall in full battle armor right this instant, every man and woman in the room woould be crawling all over the puke." "And you?" A grim half-smile. "Looking for something that burned hot and clung. Maybe see if I could whip up a Cerilos pancake - boiling sugar and lye, kitchen napalm. You can bake a mudhead like a Sierra Foxtrot potato, if you catch him right."
- p124: There was a reason Southwestern rach kids learned to pilot AgroMechs at a very early age. Rangers did not respect anything else - and a full-grown bull could take one down hard if the driver wasn't careful.
- p166: A blue BattleMaster, Macho Alverado's Macho Man, kicked out one leg on a White Locust, which sent the 'Mech crashing down to the ground. Dark Lady charged up, waving her arms and whistling. Macho tried to crack her in the head with the Fusigon Longtooth extended-range PPC in his 'Mech's right arm. Lady K blocked, then stuck her Atlas' right leg behind Macho Man's ankle, put her right palm against his chest, and dumped the BattleMaster to the ground with a creditable leg-throw and a thump that made Uncle Chandy's teeth knock together with an audible clack.
- p168: That was Draconis Elite Strike Team drag, there. The suits were ballistic-armor cloth, sealed against chemical and biological agents. They carried a wide array of sensors, including infrared, and like BattleMechs had a view strip at the top of the inside of the faceplate, which condensed a three-sixty field of vision.
- p195: "Only thing I am sure of is that none of 'em was Elementals - no nine-foot mounds of muscle, them."
- p226: "I saw Winger's Jenner take a rocket right to the cockpit. His systems are all shut down."
- p228: The Word of Blake terrorists were as fanatical as advertised, answering the Jag's barrage with an immediate swarm of SRMs that blew big chunks out of the cement-bunkered Fab buildings of North Unit. Cassie saw a couple of rockets flash off against the 'Mech's barrel belly before it ducked back. They were burning man-portable missiles as if they were free and that was what clued her. Unarmored infantry could never hope to batter its way into a fortified compound against resistance from BattleMechs supported by ground troops, no matter how many SRMs they were willing to light off.
- p230: Don Carlos himself held the Star commander's Mad Cat by the arm while he roasted the pilot alive, pressing the muzzle of his PPC against the transpex canopy and firing until his own heat soared well past the red line and his cooling system overloaded. He had been forced to eject to avoid being cooked himself.
- p238: The PH had taken no fire in flight - not even elite DEST commandos were eager to match small arms against extended-range large lasers.
- p238: The instant the 'Mech's feet touched blacktop, though, and its knees flexed to absorb the shock of landing, so many tentacles of white smoke tipped by starbright SRM exhaust flares were streaking towards it that it looked as if a giant white-phosphorous round had gone off atop the wall. The 'Mech became a giant human torch, standing in a lake of fire. "Sierra Foxtrot," Sargeant Dix said. "Infernos." "I'm shut down," Captain O'Rourke said over the commline.
- p242: Missiles, inferno and armor-piercing, hammered into the charging BattleMechs, but their numbers prevented the intruders from concentrating their fire on any one target, the way they had on O'Rourke's Pheonix Hawk. The missile volley passed like a Cerillos gully-washer, and did about as much to the Caballero 'Mechs. The DEST body armor had enabled a few of the commandos to overmatch the gaijin scouts and the authentic HTE troops who opposed them. But against the energy weapons and huge projectile launchers of the 'Mechs, it was no more effective than a man's thin skin.
- p245: The two chief technicians had an access panel popped on the side of the head of Winger's Jenner, trying to figure out what had happened. It was not a good sign when a single SRM hit took down a medium 'Mech.
- p245: The missile that struck his 'Mech's head hadn't even penetrated armor.
- p265: In the confines of the room, the crack of ionized air fleeing a laser bolt was grotesquely loud. Everyone shut up, listening to their ears ring and staring toward the table's head. Captain Kali MacDougall holstered her laser pistol.
- p319: The Mirza's outfitters had made a wide range of equipment available to the hand-picked squad of scouts who would accompany her on the raid, including assault-armor vests combining ballistic cloth with steel-ceramic inserts that would stop almost any conventional small-arms round.
- p324: A beak-snouted Raven, looking smaller than its 35 tons, popped out of a side street to the right, 700 meters ahead of Lainie and her Revenge, and launched a pair of missiles right over the heads of the leading Ghost light 'mechs. One of them crashed through the third-story of an office building. The other hit an A Company BattleMaster on the left front glacis, right below the laser mounts high on its torso. The huge BattleMech rocked back slightly at the impact, but no explosion ensued. The whole lead company opened up on the Raven, muzzle blasts from heavy autocannon punching in windows like invisible fists. Glass and structural steel puffed away from laser and PPC caresses in vapor; brick and granite blew apart in blossoms of dust.
- p325: The other struck the BattleMaster square on the left shoulder. Head and actuator vanished in a white flash. "I want trajectory data on those missiles fed to my onboard computer now." Lainie was ordering even as the missile struck home.... "I want counterbattery fire on the way before the chishoku moves."
- p328: The Cabellera felt the heat spike upward in her heavily air-conditioned cockpit as the Locust's medium Martell sublimated armor off the rear of her machine.
- p329: Her Ceres medium lasers were more than sufficient to take out the gym's back wall and let her into the next street right now.
- p329: The 65-ton mass of Diana Vasquez's Catapult rocked slightly forward as the LRM salvo from across the Yamato slammed into the Compound. Had she been on foot, the blast waves would have torn her to pieces.
- p331: Even as she turned, the yellow hellglare of the Griff's PPC lit up the buildings to either side. The big Mauler rocked from the recoil effect of New Samarkand's finest ferro-fibrous armor jetting away from the beam in the form of plasma.
- p331: The range was too short for the Shigunga LRM racks flanking the BattleMech's head to be effective.
- p331: Moon was lighting him up there, working the body like the good boxer he was, driving the heat up in his own cockpit by blasting with his torso-mounted medium Magna lasers as well as their larger cousins in his arms. A minivan-sized splotch of the Quickdraw's inadequate front armor glowed cherry-red.
- p332: The gaijin heavy was blasting back for all it was worth with its own lasers, and the SRM pack on its chest managed to uncork its single salvo before Moon slagged it. But it was out-gunned, out-armored, and generally out of luck... It threw up its arms in grotesque mimicry of a human as filters failed and the hellglare of the twin lasers blinded the pilot an instand before they incinerated him and blew the Quickdraw's head apart in a shower of glittering transpex and metal fragments that gouged bright scars on the two Ghost 'Mechs' frontal armor.
- p333: His extended-range PPC was actually at a disadvantage close-up - it took a hundred meters or so for the beam to focus...
- p335: Within the first sixty seconds of contact, Lady K's command left five Ghost 'Mechs smoking at a cost of two of their own.
- p335: Lainie hauled Revenge around the corner, just in time to see a Hatchetman stove in the little recon Locust's head with a blow of its namesake weapon.
- p336: His audio pickups bristled with the crack of laser beams and supersonic autocannon rounds.
- p336: Projectiles knocked man-sized chunks of metal from the mercenary 'Mech's torso. Ferro-fibrous armor puffed away from energy-weapon hits in glowing vapor, ran in molten yellow streams from its wounds, like lava, like blood... Its autocannon and lasers were slagged. With almost all the armor burned from the 'Mechs's legs and left arm, the exposed myomer bundles were beginning to curl and smoke. At fifty meters the Hatchetman cocked its right arm and threw its hatchet... It was pierced and jagged from the fearful barrage - but still a lethal three-ton projectile.
- p338: Cassie could see part of the Adelante force that had taken Colonel Shimazu by surprise, slugging it out with Ghosts less than half a klick distant.
- p339: Down the street a Drac 'Mech exploded. Overhead glass shattered as a freak blast-wave reflection slammed upper-story windows.
- p339: One heavy laser missed the 'Mech and brushed the running scout like the wings of the Angel of Death. Conteras the truchaseno simply exploded like an insect that had blundered into an electronic bug zapper. Billy Huckaby, the Black hillbilly who was the baby of the platoon, fell down screaming, hair and jacket on fire, polymer armor melting to his flesh.... Overshot autocannon-fire splashed the intersection. Billy Huckaby's body was torn to pieces as though by invisible fingers.
- p345: "Negative! Company A, prepare for antimissile defense, and find me that spotter.
- p345: Shig Hofstra's Kintaro darted in front of Revenge and leapt. Lacking jump jets, the 'Mech used only the strength of the myomer pseudomuscles in its legs. That sufficed. Both big enemy missiles struck it in the chest, blew it open, and sent it smashing back into Lainie's 'Mech.
- p345: "Parking garage, third floor!" Lainie pointed her right large laser at a ten-story structure seven hundred meters northeast. By chance none of the Yamato-style skyscrapers had been built in its immediate vicinity. It commanded an excellent view both of the Compound and the streets approaching it. "Don't stand there gaping, you fools, look." They did. Just in time to see the Raven ducking back out of sight.
- p345: The Atlas' large laser penetrated the armor of Little Sure Shot's head, filling the cockpit with terrible ruby glare. Strapped into the passenger seat, Bunny Bear burst into flames. Avengin' Annie cried out, more in grief at the loss of her beloved friend than from fear for herself. The Marauder's PPC followed up the laser hit. Lieutenant SG Annie Sue Hurd vanished in a painless flash, before she could register that the smell in her nostrils was her own flesh burning.
- p346: Its own medium lasers flared back. Raven's viewscreen automaticall dimmed. When it brightened, a fresh furrow glowed white in Raver's beak.
- p349: She had just reached the striped wooden barrier when a shot from one of the Pheonix Hawk's lasers fused her right hip actuator. Inertia sent Raver hurtling forward to shatter the barrier and plow a furrow in the street outside with its beak.
- p349: With a hiss of heated air, the fallen Raven's hatch popped open. Raven O'Connor clamered out, yanking off her neurohelmet. She tossed it aside and sprinted for the shelter of a shop whose windows had been melted out by a grazing shot from a PPC.
- p355: Of course, not even an armored assault vest would withstand the impact of a Zeus sniper's round the size of Cassie's little finger traveling five times the speed of sound.
- p379: As he comforted himself with these thoughts, a black, unmarked Shologar aerospace fighter dropped from orbit. It rolled out level twenty-five kilometers behind the fleeing jet, well out of the unsuspecting pilot's visual range.
- p380: The Shologar jock painted the jet just long enough for the seeker heads of four long-range fire-and-forget missiles to see their quarry and commit their destinies to it.
Star Lord (novel) wrote:
- p17: Lieutenant Hermann Bovos checked his 'Mech's long-range sensors and saw the faint image of a DropShip nearly a dozen kilometers ahead of him.
- p19: "Ox, this is Gramps. Did you just pick up some signatures on your short-range sensors?" Bovos checked his sensors and their settings. He saw nothing, but cut his speed slightly to maneuevr through the rock outcroppings that surrounded him like an obstacle course. "Negative, Gramps, did you?" There was a pause. "I thought I saw reactor pulses - 'Mechs. Just for a minute, then they disappeared."
- p20: Bovos watched as a pair of red fusion-reactor signatures came to life on his screen right next to Dover's Wasp. His battle computer raced through the read-outs in its database and displayed the icons as BattleMechs.
- p20: Suddenly a pair of short-range missiles streaked from behind a tortured cluster of rocks nearby, slamming into the torso of the Hermes. The 'Mech staggered back under the impact event as its torso armor fragmented and rained down over the rocks. Infantry with SRM launchers! So much for a simple rescue mission. Bovos aimed his flamer at a cluster of trees, and opened up with a jet of fiery death. The dry trees and brush danced to life as the flames burned a swath through them, leaving only charred ground and smoke.
- p22: A stream of autocannon shells peppered the Centurion's right side, pitting armor and sending a spray of steel, smoke, and shrapnel out over the rocks and trees. Hoffman was still firing too, triggering a barrage of PPC fire at the Centurion. The blue lightning missed by less than a meter, striking a nearby rock with a mighty crack!
- p22: Bovos stared in horror as the Griffin's fusion reactor erupted in a ball of flame, Hoffman's screams echoing in his ears.
- p23: The stream of high-energy ion bolts hit the right leg of Striber's 'Mech, blasting away most of the armor and severing several large bundles of myomer muscle.
- p23: As the Pheonix Hawk dropped toward the ground about 200 meters from the BattleMaster, Bovos triggered another volley of autocannon rounds.
- p24: Not waiting for Bovos to get closer in range, the Whitworth opened up with a literal wall of long-range missiles. Bovos didn't try to dodge them but charged straight through, the warheads exploding across the surface of his 'Mech, rocking the Hermes II with each gigantic pop.
- p25: His pulse laser stitched away the armor plating on the enemy 'Mech's right arm while the autocannon rounds ripped the limb off at the shoulder actuator. The flamer scorched the 'Mech, burning away the shield symbol of the Knights and leaving the torso a ball of fire. Bovos was feeling the heat too. The temperature of his cockpit soared as he fought for air inside the neurohelmet. Only his cooling vest was keeping him alive, but how long could it hold out against this heat?
- p30: Whoever had hit Bravo must be running electronic countermeasures, making communications and long-range scanning nearly impossible.
- p31: The short-range sensors showed several different readings, some of the 'Mechs active and running, others hot from battle but shut down.
- p31: The Gauss rifle used a series of magnets to accelerate a nickel-ferrous slug ten centimeters in diameter. The payload burst almost silently from the barrel, but the violent kickback rocked the Caesar back slightly. Moving at incredible speed, the Gauss slug streaked like a line of silvery light at the Banshee's right leg... bits of the Banshee's shattered kneecap fell to the ground.
- p32: With the distance closed, Hawkes switched to his medium pulse lasers and again fired on the Banshee. The heat in his cockpit rose as the bursts of laser light blasted away at the red-and-silver-painted 'Mech.
- p33: Martinson's 'Mech had crashed down onto a pile of jagged rocks that had driven straight into the cockpit.
- p39: Star Captain Dawn did not really expect an answer from these Inner Sphere barbarians, but issuing a formal challenge, or batchall, was the time-honored Clan way.
- p40: When their enemy turned tail and headed into Devil's Bath, Dawn and the rest of Gamma Galaxy had gone in after them, without fear, without hesitation. They struck at sunrise, within minutes engaging in some of the bloodiest fighting in twenty-one days of battle for that planet. Most of it was at point-blank range, with whole Stars lost in erupting geyser fields or disappearing into bottomless pits of boiling mud. Firing as they sank, those warriors fought to the end. The Steel Vipers suffered losses of nearly twenty five percent on Tukayyid...
- p40: In bidding for the right to lead the raid, Dawn had neither overbid nor underbid the forces needed to win the objective.
- p42: Remembering that Charlie Star had an Ice Ferret, one of the fastest OmniMechs of its class, she considered sending it on alone to destroy the objective, but then decided against it.
- p44: One missed by nearly ten meters, but the other beam seared the Scarabus in mid-chest. The shot dug deep into the heart of the light 'Mech, rupturing its fusion reactor and gyro. As the Scarabus fell, an intense glow spread throughout its chest, then burst out like a new star. Its armor was pushed from the inside out as the 'Mech exploded.
- p44: One beam bore into its elbow joint, which exploded in a ball of sparks that left Vasha's laser assembly hanging limp and lifeless.
- p45: Dawn never saw the 'Mech fire, but the force of the impact told her the Titan's large pulse laser had found its mark in her 'Mech's protruding center torso. Damage lights bled red in the dim half-light of the cockpit, and the Crossbow teetered backward as the multiple beams gouged through her armor... The Grand Titan pilot triggered another rapid pulse of laser beams... The laser fire tore into the Crossbow's tubular arm, wrenching the 'Mech so hard that it froze, half-twisted to the right and permanently jammed.
- p46: She carefully homed in as the Grand Titan opened up with its own LRMs, pitting her 'Mech's right leg with deep holes ... Dawn triggered her missiles, aiming for the Titan's heavily protected chest, but the worst she managed to do was blacken the giant war machine's paint. Correcting her targeting, she was now sure that it was adjusted as precisely as possible. Then she slowed her pace and fired again. She had adjusted the weapons to lock onto the Titan's giant head, and most of the shots did just that. Those that missed slammed solidly into the upper chest, burning and ripping away the armor plating. A blast of smoke obscured her view of the cockpit briefly... It had been cored in several places, and a glimmer of light told her a fire raged within... The pilot ejected... It had been a lucky shot, Dawn knew.
- p47: Most of the missiles missed, but those that hit made a spectacular series of impacts, ripping armor and showering the hillside with pieces of the 'Mech.
- p48: The Crossbow's chest was more open space than protecting armor
- p55: He pulled a small laser pistol from a fold in his body armor and fired it at Hua, the laser bolt striking the mercenary squarely between the eyes. Hua's body collapsed like a bag of wet meal, people around him jumping back as it fell heavily in their midst.
- p75: Chapman was, beyond a doubt, the best Elemental warrior in the Steel Vipers, his genetic heritage and codex adorned with numerous victories. Even at Devil's Bath, he had managed to take out three ComStar BattleMechs before being knocked unconscious himself.
- p75: The Elemental warrior, a virtual mountain of muscle compared to her, wasted no time.
- p75: Though the blow would have felled any normal warrior, with Chapman there was more noise than damage. Himself a product of genetic engineering, the Elemental towered over her. And at twice her mass and pure strength, he merely took the hurt.
- p127: Though they'd been lucky to find the neurohelmet sitting in the dank cockpit, neither one of them would have a cooling vest. In a prolonged battle, he and Trane could roast if they fired everything they had.
- p127: "I have a force at about two kilometers from here on Murphy Boulevard."
- p128: Suddenly the air around the Warhammer seemed to erupt with explosions and flames as a blast of autocannon fire scored huge hits on the old Leviathan Plus armor covering the 'Mech's chest, ripping some of it away as the machine rocked ponderously at the impact. Duncan hit his head hard on the rear wall of the cockpit as the 'Mech jolted backwards. His ears rang slightly, but he managed to stay conscious.
- p129: "You've got both PPCs on line. We'll fry in this cockpit. This old Hammer can't vent heat like the ones you're used to piloting!" Trane's face went white when he realized what he'd almost done. "Damn!" he said, removing one of the PPCs from the target interlock circuit, then firing the other with a ferocious stab at the trigger button. The PPC bolt cracked like lightning from the Warhammer's left arm, the heat in the cockpit instantly rising to where Duncan's throat burned with every breath
- p129: The Rifleman kept closing the distance, firing its Imperator autocannons in a raking fire. Shells ripped across the Warhammer's upper chest, penetrating the torso and right arm. What was left of the old armor sprayed off in every direction, and once again a wave of heat poured up through his cockpit. At the maximum range of his Holly six-pack, Trane fire the SRMs.
- p130: Just then another blast of laser fire streaked out and hit the left leg of the Warhammer. There was a slight shudder as the armor plating boiled away, and the secondary monitor told them that the leg could not take another hit.
- p130: Even as the cockpit began to cool slightly, both men knew the heat would spike again as soon as they had to open fire.
- p131: The Vindicator had scored against the Warhammer's left arm with its extended range PPC, hitting it so hard the 'Mech's torso twisted under the impact. Duncan's arms ached as he gripped the back of the command couch oven while being tossed about the cockpit.
- p131: "Now!" Trane said, triggering the PPC in the Warhammer's left arm. The weapon made a snapping sound as it discharged its azure bolt at the Vindicator. The air seemed to crack ith thunder as the shot found its mark
- p132: Two of the missiles missed, hitting the ground just in front of them. The others dug into the legs of the Warhammer, the impact rattling the 'Mech and increasing the discomfort inside the cockpit.
- p133: With one press of the firing button, the Warhammer would let go with almost everything it had, short of the machine guns... Duncan and Trane were hoping that the open hatches would at least keep them from cooking alive as the temperature in the cockpit soared.
- p133: The secondary display popped, imploding as the heat in the cockpit spiked upward. Duncan strained to get near the hatch for even a breath of cooler air.
- p134: Massive plates of armor torn like paper. Internal structural supports of foam aluminum melted like wax.
- p154: It could easily have been a Circle of Equals for an honor duel between Clan warriors. The field was well over a kilometer long and half that distance wide.
- p156: She leveled the Armstrong J-11 autocannon at the Griffin and began to run, beraking slightly to the right. She needed the weapon, but not now, in a few moments. The Carmody pilot was moving at a very slow walk, hugging the back corner of the arena to keep her at a distance. Dawn understood the tactic and know that within three seconds he could lock onto her and open up with his deadly PPC.
- p156: To Dawn, as to many Clan warriors, jump jets were weapons of a coward.
- p156: Instead of moving laterally across his field of fire and taking up a firing position of her own, Dawn guided the low-flying Shadow Hawk straight at the Griffin. The heat in her cockpit began to rise, but she ignored it.
- p157: The missiles slammed into the Shadow Hawk's chest and both arms, shaking it like a doll.
- p157: The 'Mech tottered back slightly under the hit, losing some of its speed and momentum as the PPC blasted a huge hole in its chest. A wave of heat washed over her as the temperature in the cockpit suddenly spiked... When the targeting and tracking system squealed, she opened up with the autocannon and a barrage of short-range missiles. We are too close for him to use the PPC. Now it will be settled in the way of the clans, warrior to warrior.
- p158: The Hawk's arm was nearly exposed raw, stripped of its armor... The heat in the cockpit was so stifling that the air seemed to sear her lungs.
- p159: The Cavalier had cut off the field inhibitors that prevented the PPC from firing at close range. There was a good chance the weapon would be destroyed in such an attack, fused into a massive slug of ferro-titanium, but it did allow him to fire at incredibly deadly ranges.
- p160: Fortunately for Dawn, the warheads did not have time to arm. Most shot up past the Shadow Hawk, missing totally. The small number that hit did not explode, but simply nudged her as she stood.
- p165: The light on top of the old wooden pole went from yellow to red as Duncan watched the Crusader move forward. Its opponent, a bright green Thunderbolt, stood at the opposite end of the muddy embankment that marked the arena.
- p166: The Crusader closed cautiously on its opponent, while the Thunderbolt pilot wasted no time opening fire with his large laser and long range missiles. The laser sliced through the Crusader's right arm with surgical precision, burning through the armor and destroying myomer muscle and sensor equipment as it went.
- p166: the green 'Mech released a trio of medium lasers from its left shoulder and a deadly large one from its right arm. Duncan cringed. He knew the heat generated during such a salvo was tremendous... The Crusader took two of the laser hits on its lacerated right arm, the last of its armor sizzling and then falling into the mud with a giant splash.
- p181: "The Arena where we fought last time is called the Field of Combat, right?" Trane nodded. "The other is the Combat Range. A fifty-square-kilometer area complete with mock town, bridges, and different terrains."
- p200: The entire mission team, including Morneau, Hasson, Auramov, and Ben-Ari of the Recon Lance, stood looking up at the 20-meter height of the 55-ton Shadow Hawk.
- p202: "He'll try to get in close and hit you with the autocannon or large laser. You can't survive more than three hits from either one."
- p203: At 500 meters Dawn launched a spread of SRMs. A good hit at this distance would be pure luck, but the sight of eight SRMs heading one's way could give the hardiest warrior food for thought.
- p205: Again closing to 200 meters she concentrated her SRMs on it. It was still not a good range for the small missiles, but the Enforcer's pilot took them seriously, dodging his 'Mech right and left. She saw one hit on the Enforcer's upper arm
- p209: "Let's tease him into using up his LRMs."
- p209: The Stalker boasted a lot of lethal power. In the days of the Star League it used to have a versatile computer that could identify a target, determine its range, and select the optimum mix of weapons for a target. The early Succession Wars destroyed the technology for building that computer, and now Stalker pilots had to depend on their own estimates. In the fervor of battle many overused their multiple weapons systems, quickly overheating the 'Mech to the point of shutdown despite its twenty heat sinks.
- p209: Duncan was still a good 400 meters from the Stalker, but Carmody was sending another spread of LRMs his way.
- p210: At 250 meters, he stopped and squeezed off a few PPC shots to get Carmody's attention focused on him. Inside 300 meters Duncan knew he was in dangerous territory. As he expected, his PPC fire was ineffectual against the heavy armor of the Stalker at this range... At 150 meters the laser fire was murderous. Armor was exploding off his 'Mech's arms, torso, and legs in a billow of fragments and slope. At 90 meters he decided to take a risk. He brought the BattleMaster to an abrupt, sudden, stop as laser beams crossed in front of him 30 meters ahead. Carmody had been leading him as he made his run. Duncan sighted his PPC on the Stalker's left knee joint and fired the instant his targeting cross-hairs glowed with a lock-on. It was a solid hit.
- p210: Duncan heard Hawkes's gleeful shout as he crested a small rise behind the Stalker, only 100 meters aay. He targeted the Stalker's left leg with his torso-mounted medium lasers and poured laserfire into it.
- p211: He simply walked a few meters closer and began to fire one SRM salvo after another into the Stalker until it was nothing more than a steaming heap of white-hot metal.
- p228: The gyrojet rifles were more launchers for five small, highly explosive missiles than a standard rifle. In this terrain the gyrojet ammo would have fragmenting tips that would disintegrate, sending out shards in a 180 degree arc.
- p246: "While we were out there in these relics we rigged three of them to self-destruct in seconds. The combined blast will destroy you and just about everything else for a half kilometer around."
- p271: The three 'Mechs were exceeding 100 kph. "They're scouts. Light 'Mechs out looking for us."
- p282: The ground soldiers broke ranks and began running towards the Demons. The SRM squads moved slower, unable to set up to fire until they were within 300 meters.
- p285: The next two shots from the Marauder plowed into the Archer's lower torso, and Ben-Ari vaporized into history.
- p294: No blood came from the laser hole that had penetrated out from the back of his head through to the front, all the blood vessels cauterized by the intense heat.
Exodus Road (novel) wrote:
- p17: Roughly humanoid in shape and rising up to twelve meters tall, a single 'Mech carried enough firepower to level a city block. It could operate in almost any terrain, be it the vacuum of space or the depths of the sea. Even this swampy morass.
- p18: Each Clan was to conquer two cities in the fight, and the Jaguars had won the right to strike first... They had mired down the Mist Weavers with artillery barrages, turning what should have been a quick victory into a prolonged and costly fight . . . one that was not going in favor of the Smoke Jaguars.
- p20: Suddenly he was buffeted by a powerful blast that lifted his Timber Wolf off the ground. There were impacts, not from weapons, but from pieces of Schultz's OmniMech battering his own.
- p21: He locked on with his last salvo of long-range missiles and let them fly... The Com Guard 'Mech twisted at the torso under the impact of the blast, but quickly returned fire from its deadly large laser. The shot dug into the left leg of Trent's Timber Wolf[/]i, popping off the ferro-fibrous armor in a series of rattling explosions. The heat rose slightly in his cockpit
- p22: A secondary explosion from within the guts of Jez's OmniMech sent her left weapons pod flying into an infantry position while the Crab's remaining large laser boiled off what remained of her rear armor.
- p22: The bright red and green laser beams sliced into the armor deeply and brutally, and slabs of armor sprayed off into the air.
- p22: The Com Guard MechWarrior stayed with his 'Mech long enough for Jez's Warhawk to shred two tons of his armor in a wracking series of laser blasts doled out at devastating range.
- p23: There was a flash of flame as the hip actuator superheated and exploded violently, knocking the Crab down and out of the battle.
- p56: The two large lasers missed their mark, but the medium laser was dead on, striking just to the left of Trent's cockpit like a sword cut. Trent heard the sick sound of armor plating sizzling and blowing off. The slight spike in heat told him the shot was very close to the cockpit.
- p57: The Hankyu landed just seventy meters below him, its array of short-range missiles and small laser shooting up the hillside at Trent. Half the missiles dug into the rocks some ten meters in front of him, while the others plowed into his legs, going off like fireworks and shaking the Timber Wolf like a ground quake. The laser and flamer lapped up at him, hitting his left and center torsos. The cockpit temperature spiked with the hit, and Trent broke out in a beady, wet sweat.
- p58: Under normal conditions, the machine guns were virtually useless, but at this range, they were perfect for in-fighting.
- p60: Before Trent could even check his tactical display, the Timber Wolf suddenly rocked forward from an attack from behind. The entire 'Mech tipped forward, and the ground seemed all too close to Trent as he fought to maintain his balance. The damage was far from light. The armor on the rear of a 'Mech was already weak, but the impact had penetrated deeply, hitting his fusion reactor housing and shooting the temperature up in the cockpit five searing degrees.
- p65: For a moment Paul Moon said nothing. Then he stood, rising to his height of two and three-quarter meters.
- p80: The House of the Lazy Duck came apart as a second volley of PPC fire tore into it. The building exploded upward, probably from the burst of a gas main.
- p95: Without hesitation and before the stunned Kat Killer could respond, Trent opened fire with his medium and large lasers... Trent's battle computer dispalyed the precision of his shot even as a ripple of heat rose in the cockpit.
- p109: Styx and Lior were at the head, blazing away with short-range missiles. The pair of buildings they hit collapsed instantly, sending flames billowing into the air.
- p110: Lior opened up with every weapon he had. Antipersonnel cannon rounds tore up the bright green sod of the park, and missiles bore in on the family. There was a brilliant flash of light, followed by a thick stream of white smoking rising up into the stark blue sky. All that remained were a crater, smoldering soil, and the memory of five people snuffed out in an instant.
- p118: The bright beams of the enemy 'Mech's twin PPCs boiled away his torso armor in a thunder-like clap of arcing electrical energy, leaving billowing black smoke where the armor had torn away. The impact was vicious, and Trent's balance swayed slightly, throwing off his targeting sight.
- p118: He fired in two salvos. The first was his lasers... The lasers flayed off armor plating even as the Warhammer walked forward. The Kat Killer 'Mech reeled slightly under the impact just as Trent's second salvo hit, finishing the job. The second salvo was a wave of long-range missiles from the Timber Wolf's boxy missile pods... The BattleMech's internal structure, exposed by the earlier laser blasts, was left raw for several of the missile warheads.
- p120: A stream of depleted-uranium slugs and a Gauss rifle slug raced upward at the jumping Grasshopper, hitting it in the legs.
- p135: The bright lights of the ships came directly overhead, and Trent saw numerous smaller lights flicker around the edges of the ships. BattleMechs. Using jump packs, the mercenary 'Mechs were dropping from their DropShip and landing in the swamp less than a kilometer from Trent's current position.
- p137: The Orion pilot tried to move backward, hoping to evade the Timber Wolf standing on the bank near it, but the move cost it what balance it had left. It fell forward into the black waters, sending a cloud of hissing steam into the evening air.
- p138: The steady bright red beam of laser light, on the other hand, sliced into his right weapons pod like a sword. Armor sprayed off and green coolant dripped down his side, and for the first time since the start of the fight, a ripple of heat rose in his cockpit, stinging Trent's lungs as he breathed.
- p140: The sudden impact forced Jez's shots low, her PPC stabbing up into the black mire of the swamp, sending dancing arcs of blue energy over the water and billows of steam into the evening sky.
- p189: The brilliant blue bolts of man-made lightning hit a Marauder Atlas in its upper chest just below the skull-like head, sending armor plating ricocheting off in every direction as the bolts seared their way in.
- p190: Trent swallowed hard as the heat level in his cockpit spiked for a moment. This was an Inner Sphere 'Mech, not Clan equipment, and it was much more susceptible to the dangers of overheating.
- p190: The Gauss rifle slug hit his Mech's right leg with such force that it nearly knocked him off balance, but he fought the Marauder II's controls and kept it upright - just in time for the wave of missiles and lasers to hit.
- p190: A wave of missiles jarred Trent's Marauder II as he tried to locate the Atlas through the smoke and dust that now filled the air.
- p191: The Komodo wavered under a steady stream of autocannon and laser fire, its armor literally shredding and flying off backward as it seemed to evaporate into thin air.
- p191: The Atlas wavered, sending another Gauss rifle slug streaking out and into his right leg, making the Marauder II quake violently under the impact.
- p191: The DropShip Dhava, flying low and fast, swept across the HPG compounds only a dozen meters above the transmitter dish. Its turrets cut downward at the defenders from the rear. The 'Mech bays opened and Star Commander Allen's Elemental Marines leaped out, their leg jets flaming fully to slow their descent. They dropped down quickly onto the mercenary BattleMechs, firing their short-range missiles as they went, then grappling with the 'Mechs as they landed.
- p250: A brilliant burst of ruby-red light flashed and burned through Phillip's nose, skull, and brain. A wisp of smoke floated in the air as his body dropped back, motionless.
- p252: The Gauss rifle slug, propelled on a magnetic pulse, flashed at supersonic speeds into the Venom as the light 'Mech tried to drift back... The impact was furious, shattering the knee joint and bending it backward... his 'Mech rattled violenntly and fell over, its stump of a leg leaking coolant and venting a white cloud of steam.
- p257: His laser beam cut the air horizontally like a knife, striking one of the Elementals in mid-leap and severing his arm... His pair of short-range missiles streaked out and went off near the lead Elemental. One missed altogether, but the other blew half the leg off the rising powered-armored trooper.
- p260: A burst of laser fire tore at the heart of his 'Mech as the reactor went critical. There was a blast of cool Maldonado morning air. Then there was an explosion. A brilliant flash almost as bright as the sun rising in the sky.
Endgame (novel) wrote:
- p6: Both of his rotary cannon spat out several hundred rounds, the slugs tipped with depleted uranium for 'Mech-stopping power... Shards of armor rained over the streets to mix with glass splinters, stone chips, and puddles.
- p8: The other spat a long tongue of fire toward the advancing 'Mech, smashing eighty-millimeter slugs into its chest. "Banshee, 6S. On Kow-" It was all he had time for as the Banshee's heavy gauss rifle flash with coil discharge and accelerated 250 kilograms of nickel-ferrous material up toward hypersonic speeds straight into his JagerMech's right side... Plating shattered under the impact, raining down in thick shards and knife-edged splinters to the street.
- p8: Waste heat bled up through the cockpit deck plates, drawing sweat from his exposed skin.
- p9: He pulled his crosshairs back over the Banshee's silloutte, and drilled into it with several hundred rounds from his center-mounted pulse lasers. They stung out like emerald wasps, the fire from one splashing impotently off the rain-slick streets and the other doing little more than digging a small wound in the Banshee's left leg.
- p9: But then the full force of the ten-centimeter autocannon hammered in behind, starring the shield as the Banshee walked destruction across the JagerMech's head.
- p33: The one fightercraft that had already tried was now a smoking debris field scattered over several hundred meters of rocky mountainside, having encountered the withering firepower of Shakov's Partisan air-defense vehicles.
- p34: Lightning arced out from the barrels of particle projector cannon, snaking downrange to smash armor into large, molten globs.
- p37: Shakov's extended range lasers carved into the 'Mech with scarlet knives, puddling armor into the cracks and crevices of the rocky slope
- p37: Her PPC carved into the Nightsky's back, slicing through engine shielding and splashing molten titanium down into the spinning gyro.
- p70: Watching Tiaret's graceful leaps, her Elemental battlesuit covering dozens of meters with each determined bound, he wondered how other MechWarriors had ever taken to calling Clan Elementals "toads."
- p72: Two of his medium lasers stabbed into the head of a nearby Falconer, staggering the seventy-five ton machine.
- p78: Tiaret closed the doors after them, taking her place just inside the threshold, filling the frame with two hundred well-muscled kilos.
- p110: Spread out over several kilometers in a long north-south like, Victor's Revenants pushed eastward, fighting uphill toward Coland Heights' spiny ridge.
- p111: Both PPCs cut at his left arm and shoulder, turning pristine armor into blackened ruin. The five-point harness held Victor to his seat as Prometheus lurched sideways into the cliff facing, digging its right shoulder into the blue-speckled rock.
- p111: The destructive energy washed down the side of the Falconer's long torso, burning away armor and splashing it to the ground in impotent pools. Several megajoules of energy cored through to shave away physical shielding from around the Falconer's fusion reactor, forcing it to shut down or risk a catastrophic containment failure.
- p112: Following up with pulse lasers, emerald darts ate up the rest of the vehicle's protective armor.
- p112: An attack that never came as a Victor, the prince's namesake 'Mech, smashed a gauss slug through what was left of the Typhoon's right side. The hypersonic mass spent most of its kinetic energy in the crew compartment leaving the UAV a gutted shell.
- p113: Tying all five lasers and his autocannon into a single trigger left the Falconer minus both legs, an arm, and its stabilizing gyro. It also left Victor as immobile as his cousin, gasping for air as each breath pulled hot coals down his lungs. The backwash of waste heat smashed through his cockpit with almost physical force, wringing a cleansing sweat from every pore in his body.
- p114: Prometheus kicked up into a hard run, breaking over fifty kilometers per hour by the time Victor hit the far side of the quarry and bulldozed his way through the trees.
- p115: High cliff faces formed two sides of a long arena, with laserfire scorching overhead and missiles arcing across the three-kilometer divide.
- p118: Mikul hammered at the Watchman with his own rail guns, chasing it further downrange and providing some cover for the exposed Fulcrums.
- p119: One azure bolt skipped off the water, breaking into a dozen smaller arcs that danced and skipped like grease on a hot plate before grounding.
- p120: A new gauss slug loaded through the breeche, and capacitors discharged through acceleration coils, pulling the nickel-ferrous mass up to hypersonic velocity.
- p121: At least two companies, taking to the air and then dropping in freefall for nearly half a kilometer, lighting jump jets off again in time to catch themselves from the lethal drop.
- p167: Despite the freezing temperatures of Tharkad's winter, sweat rolled freely off Phelan's brow. The Timber Wolf was not a cool-running OmniMech, designed with firepower in mind and depending heavily on the life-support system.
- p171: New heat flooded his cockpit from damaged reactor shielding.
- p218: Peter braced the Fafnir forward, leaning into the heavy recoil as each of his gauss rifles spat a hypersonic mass.
- p235: One carved into his left side, burning away armor composite and splashing molten globules onto the street.
- p236: The arcs of twin PPCs scoured his legs, crisping more of his protection into impotent slag.
- p237: Peter squeezed out another gauss rifle shot, more from reflex than deliberation. The mass struck Nondi's OmniMech in the left leg this time, smashing enough armor to build a small tank.
- p238: Her twelve-centimeter autocannon blasted through the thin back armor of the Cestus, tearing at the 'Mech's internals and forcing it to shut down or risk catastrophic reactor failure.
- p238: One hypersonic slug missed wide, punching through a building behind the Hauptmann and leaving an impressive wound behind.
- p238: Her OmniMech dealt out several hundred kilograms of munitions in a storm of razored metal. Her PPCs drew azure lines between the two assault machines, arcing and splitting harsh light against the delicate snowfall. Peter shook in his command couch, wondering how long he or his 'Mech could stand up under this kind of assault.
- p242: They missed a fast lance of Scarabus designs that bolted for the backside at better than one hundred kilometers per hour. Only two survived to take a swing at Victor's Daishi. One missed. The other carved away a half ton of armor from Prometheus's arm. Victor's autocannon took the hatchet-wielding arm and one leg from the Scarabus, while his lasers worked through the light 'Mech's chest to slag the gyro in a ruined mass.
- p243: Then, at the last second, the Condor rocked sideways, lifting up on its skirting and nearly spilling over. Victor caught the silver flash that struck the vehicle in its left side, but it wasn't until the Condor had slid past him to begin a run for the far side of the valley that he thought to look for his guardian. A Centurion ran along just inside the treeline about half a kilometer downrange. An impressive shot, considering range and relative speeds.
- p244: Kai spun Yen-lo-wang and hurled an identical hypersonic mass back at the Falconer, still faster on the trigger - even in an awkward cross-body shot - than Victor would ever be. Prometheus was not to be forgotten, however. Its trio of pulse lasers chewed emerald teeth into the Falconer's side, sending armor streaming down to the ground in fiery runnels. Victor also pulled into an extra-long burst from his twelve-centimeter autocannon, digging slugs tipped with depleted uranium in behind the laserfire damage.
- p244: The reactor's power spike had dumped several degrees of waste heat into Victor's lap, and he fought for breath as he answered Kai. "That slug knocked a crack through my engine shielding, it seems. I'll be alright."
- p246: New masses, hurled at hypersonic speeds by the Nightstar's twin rail guns, hammered hard at the Templar's legs and chest... The Nightstar's PPC scarred the Templar's left side with molten cuts,
- p247: He grabbed onto the triggers, held them, listened as the autocannon roared through several hundred kilograms of munitions... Shards and dust from the pulverized composite exploded outward, laying bare the 'Mech's fusion reactor. His lasers finished the job, cutting through shielding to skewer the magnetic chamber. Golden fire belched in a furious stream from the Nightstar's ruined chest... Tancred never slowed, racing his Templar up the rise, glancing at his rear monitor as the ground-shaking explosion tore the Nightstar to pieces. After such a ferocious display, the field guns under his feet worried Tancred not at all. His medium lasers carved into the side of one, melting the barrel,