The entire forest shook as an AFFS Hunchback ran full sprint at sixty-four kilometers per hour. Though slow compared to other medium 'Mechs, the Hunchback is also among the most heavily armed. The HBK-4G in particular is armed with an AC/20, supplemented by two medium lasers, one on each arm, and a small laser on the head.
However, this Hunchback was heavily damaged. Having lost its entire right arm, most of the armor on its right and center torsos, and all his rear armor. Its left torso as well as its legs were in relatively good condition, with only minor armor damage. Outside of its missing arm, the Hunchback had yet to take any critical damage. The pilot of the Hunchback had only just escaped his attacker by fleeing into the woods. "This is Private Kelly reporting." He said into the comms. His voice was hoarse and shaking. "Requesting immediate assistance."
After a seemingly eternal second, his comm cracked a response. "This is Seargent Nixon. We are preoccupied and cannot assist. Instead, regroup at the following coordinates." Kelly looked down at his display. Next to the damage display he saw his neon lit digital map. A blue diamond shape pinged at one specific spot to represent the objective location. He looked up and saw the same blue diamond on his HUD. Only then did the grim reality of Private Kelly's situation set in.
Assuming the marker showed his lance's position, he saw they were on the other side of a hill. The CCAF had dug in atop this hill after getting pushed out of the nearby city, and have since created a wall of BattleMech patrols. Somehow, Kelly had slipped through the cracks and was now in deep enemy territory. He needed to get back around the hill and to his original position.
His sprint was maintained as he adjusted course to circle around the hill and back to a friendly position. The trees became tall enough to obscure his position from atop the hill, despite his 'Mech's two-and-a-half-story standing height. However, his cockpit view was obscured by the sheer volume of branches in front of him, and he was forced to navigate through his map's data.
Not long after he adjusted course, his comm cracked again. "Private, what's your ETA?" said the Seargent. Kelly looked at his map. "Not long, sir." Not a moment later, Kelly came into a clearing, and was face to face with an enemy BattleMech. His sensors pinged the 'Mech as such through its CCAF IFF tag, and outlined the target in red, and identified it as a Kintaro. Generally, the Kintaro has much heavier armament than the Hunchback, utilizing an array of Short Rance Missiles and medium lasers. However, this specific Kintaro had been damaged worse than the Hunchback. Its left arm was gone with the internal structure on its left torso exposed. Its legs were heavily damaged, but still functional, as well as most of its weapons. If Kelly capitalized on this damage, he may just survive.
Immediately, he opened fire with his AC/20, aiming at the Kintaro's damaged left torso segment. As he pulled the trigger, the Kintaro twisted its torso, causing the shot to miss, and revealed Kelly's presence. Anticipating immediate return fire, Kelly turned his left side to the Kintaro. While this side had his AC/20 ammo stores, it also had most of its armor, making it the harder target. Kelly's anticipation was right. As soon as the Kintaro could lock onto its target, it opened fire.
The missiles peppered the Hunchback's entire left side, tearing away much of its armor, and nearly tipping the 'Mech over. Kelly compensated, putting his leg in the tipping direction, and stood backup straight. It was about this time that the AC/20 had reloaded. He turned back towards the Kintaro, and fired once more. The shell was only slightly off target, slamming into the combatant's right torso, instead of its left. This blew what was left of its armor clean off, and exposed the Kintaro's inner workings, including its ammo stores. Now Kelly had a new target. A hard shot to make, but if he can make it, it would be an instantaneous solution to his current problem.
While pondering this, as brief a moment as it was, the Kintaro fired again. The SRMs hammered the Hunchback's entire front side, tore away the last little bit of the center torso's armor, and exposed its internal structure, including its engine core and nuclear reactor. As more SRMs pounded the Hunchback, one SRM managed to weave between the structure and strike the engine core. The damage caused the engine heat to steadily rise, slowly marching towards a total reactor meltdown. Kelly, unaware of this then charged towards the Kintaro, hoping to guarantee a kill shot through striking the Kintaro's ammo store. He fired his AC/20 once more, the sway from running threw off his aim slightly, and tore off the Kintaro's right arm, greatly reducing its overall firepower.
Kelly's reckless charge left him open to a devastating counterattack. From the SRM pods in its torso, the Kintaro let out another volley. Two of these missiles struck the Hunchback's head, and damaged the cockpit. Three more struck the right torso, and damaged the Hunchback's AC/20. The sixth and final SRM fount the same spot on the engine core, and struck the engine once more, greatly accelerating the already steady climb towards total meltdown.
Kelly raised his Hunchback's right arm, and fired the medium laser at the ammo cache, and struck gold. He cooked off one of the remaining SRMs, and sent a chain reaction through the cache setting off all remaining ammo simultaneously. The blast shook the forest and left a crater ten feet deep. The Kintaro's torso and head were reduced to shrapnel, and its legs were crushed into scrap into the bottom of the crater. The force from the blast redirected Kelly's momentum, and pushed him next to the foot of the hill.
A moment of silence fell upon the entire OA. Kelly finally took a second to look at his display, and saw his engine heat was beyond critical levels, and the automatic shutoff had been damaged. Kell hastily reached for the eject lever under his seat. He jerked the lever upwards, expecting for a small explosive charge to blow the top off the Hunchback's head, and another to toss him and his seat up into the sky. However, the first explosives did not go off, and the cockpit remained closed. The explosives beneath the seat were damaged, and the force was redirected horizontally. The blast tore his legs off at the knees, and reverberated throughout the cockpit, sending him into a daze.
This daze disrupted Kelly's neural link to his BattleMech, causing it to fall against the foot of the hill. Landing on its back, the force of the fall pushed the engine's damage just to the point collapse. The Hunchback's center and right torsos erupted a towering neon blue jet of flame. The sheer heat from the flame killed Private Kelly.
That hillside would be both Kelly's and the Hunchback's resting place for a very long time.
