Saul had to wait a good 4 hours before Sparky turned up.  The Bear Claw looked a bit worse for wear as it settled 

slowly down in front of the hangar.  Severe scorch marks burnt down the left side, and, more disturbingly, a 

long axe gash had appeared on the left shoulder, awfully close to the cockpit.  The hatch whirred slowly 

open and Sparky climbed out, looking quite relieved to be out of the cramped space.  His blue helmet hanging 

off his left arm he glanced up at the damage from the outside.



"I hope we have enough money cover this," he commented.  "I did get one of them though, wish I coulda brought 

the titan back, we could use the parts."



Saul shrugged back at her team lead, not having much to say compared to that story.  Instead she stepped 

forward, reaching up with a hand to get a better feel for the damage.  It’s rough being the team’s mechanic, 

not that there was much of a team left.  Even as she reached for a wrench to get a better look at any internal 

problems she heard a comment from behind her.



"Any word from the other two yet?"



"Not since I got back."  She touched the portable radio strapped to her left thigh.  "They may be out of 

range, that ridgeline they were going to check out is pretty far off."



"Maybe.  Either way, I hope they haven’t run into any trouble, I think we’ve had more than our share this week."



Which was true.  They’d already lost five jocks from the original ten that were defending this section 

of the border, and backup was at least another week away.



Popping the access panel off the lower torso Saul reached in and pulled out a handful of wire.  Sorting 

through these she found the purple data-link to the damage control system and plugged it into a datapad.  

As she scrolled through the list Sparky turned a deeper shade of embarrassed red.



"I’m sorry.  I really messed her up this time."



"You sure did!  The life support alone will take an hour to fix!  You couldn’t have managed to keep 

it a bit more intact?"



Sparky tossed her a non-committal shrug and stepped back.  Saul 

was always a little too overprotective of the titans.



"Relax.  It’s still in one piece isn’t it."



Saul had her mouth open to reply when a crashing sound to the east caught both their attentions.  Then 

the distinctive sound of laser fire echoed back to them, along with the crackling retort of missiles and 

the specific whoosh of a flame-thrower.  Soon a sooty red lit the horizon.  Something was burning.



Sparky pointed at the lower torso of his titan.  "Better put her back together, we’d better be ready, 

life support or no."



Saul nodded getting the wrench to work again, stuffing wires back in and bolting the panel shut once more.



"Don’t get shot this time," she snapped at Sparky as she headed for the hangar door to get at her own titan.



The last part of her comment didn’t make it through to Sparky as he slapped his helmet firmly over his head 

and quickly made the climb back into the Bear Claw’s cockpit.



Inside the cockpit Sparky flicked switches as quickly as possible, brining the systems back online.  He frowned 

at the status read out, a lot of red on that left side, as he fired up the engines and set his titan moving, 

angling his path so that any incoming shot would have to take his good side first.



Sparky stared down in minor annoyance at the back of controls with one light blinking red.  It was the radio 

receiver indicator, but he wasn’t hearing anything.  Hoping it wasn’t battle damage he looked around for 

possible causes, and found it quickly.  He hadn’t plugged in the headphone jack to his helmet.  Doing so 

now the relative silence of the cockpit disappeared with a cacophony of voices.



"Watch out!  That duelist is coming on your left!"



"I see him.  That flamer is still on my tail though.  It’s getting pretty warm in here."



"Head east for that hill.  I’ll cover you till you’re hidden.  That ought to buy you some time at least."



"I hope so.  Temperature is at 126 and seems to be holding steady.  I can’t shoot without melting everything 

to slag though."



The whoosh of a flame-thrower could be heard again and Sparky winced, reaching out to slap the control surface, 

hoping to somehow encourage his titan, already at a run, to move faster.  Ther radio crackled again.



"It’s alright.  He missed somehow.  Thank god for these patches of open plain or we’d have a decent fire."



There.  To Sparky’s right the plume of an explosion was rising.  Moments later the sizzling retort of a 

laser weapon reached his ears.  He listened for more radio chatter but all there was to hear was the faint 

static of ionized air, a common result of the lasers.  A result that was making him all the more impatient.



"Damn these hills!"  He muttered bitterly.  And then there was only one thing to do.



Jump ports clanged open even as the whine of the jets’ activation vibrated through the chassis.  As the 

roar and vibration increased Sparky experimentally bit down on his lower lip and tried to keep focused 

on not crashing into any of the nearby trees.  As his titan’s head cleared the treetops Sparky cursed a bit.  

Trundling up the closest hill a light titan was slowly making progress, in spite of its lack of arms.  At the 

foot of the hill a heavy titan was ripping away with a laser canon at the opposition.  At the receiving end of 

the laser an assault titan seemed quite undamaged, sprouting napalm missile racks and flame-throwers.  To the 

flamer’s left a burning hulk of a duelist lay, and appearing from behind a small knoll a recon titan ran into view.



Deciding that the assault titan had to go first Sparky warmed up his guided missiles with one hand as the 

other reached to acquire a lock.  This was done quickly enough and a familiar banded box encircled the titan 

on Sparky’s display.  Soon after guided missiles were on their way, colliding with the flamer’s chassis.  

Damage numbers flashed across the display and Sparky triggered the scanner, hoping to get a return before his jump 

jets ran out of juice.



"Max on Fat Boy has acquired a lock."



Sparky shrugged, what could a little recon titan do.



"Sparky on Bear Claw: 20 damage in right torso."



"What the heck?"  The titan shook in midair as Sparky craned his neck to take a closer look at that little titan 

out there.  Yes, there it was, an AC20 bolted to an arm, a few hits with those.  He looked back at the armless 

titan in front of him.  Yes, that could be trouble.