5
Jova Plateau
Hoard
Clan Homeworlds
13 June 3049
Fifteen battles down. One last battle to go, and a Bloodname will be mine!
After the initial clash, Star Captain Calvin had broken away, working toward a better position, and now he moved to engage once more, taking full advantage of his fast-strike acumen.
Calvin worked his Huntsman’s foot pedals and throttle, juking through a series of natural berms that dotted the hillside his fifty-ton OmniMech sprinted down at breakneck speed. Despite him only running a handful of field tests with this brand new OmniMech, it already felt a second skin, as though on this day was he truly born as a warrior. This day, he and his "Pakhet" would merge and be born as only a Trueborn can.
The Clan Cloud Cobra technicians are worthy of their repute.
Though he honored the Clan Nova Cat Oathmaster for her visions that safeguarded the Clan, he neither imagined nor desired that he might participate in the Oathmaster Grand Melee to gain that vaunted calling. Yet, for the first time, as it seemed his legs grew into great, myomer-driven metallic legs, his arms lengthened and sprouted armaments, and his torso and head protected in crystalline armor, he glimpsed, even if just for a moment, the Oathmaster’s Ways of Seeing. Of the perfect unity brought on by the purity of ones actions in the quest to protect the Clan. And he would protect the Clan as a Bloodnamed warrior.
Missiles spiraled toward him, warnings blaring of imminent impact. Yet the cacophony of lights and sounds sloughed off the pool of serenity deep within. With an ease never before encountered in his battles, he ducked hard right, sprinting under the incoming missiles, his OmniMech responding without a hitch or tremble despite the incline and treacherous terrain.
Spotting his final opponent for this Trial of Bloodright, he pushed the throttle to maximum and sped down off the hill and onto the long flat prairie of the Jova Plateau. Another brace of long-range missiles on tongues of flame raced toward him, and he maneuvered into an oblique angle to maximize deflection… then he stomped onto his jump-jet pedals.
Deep within the Huntsman, in a magnetically shielded reaction chamber, electron beams superheated reaction mass and vented the expanded gases through vents located across the titan’s back torso and legs, launching the war machine hard into the air. Then, only a few seconds into the flight, he cut the jets, dropping the OmniMech back toward the ground. Though he had never tried the maneuver, it felt right as he sprinted and bounded in harsh arcs across the distance, making him an incredibly difficult target to track.
The enemy Mad Dog could not seem to touch him.
Closing the distance, Calvin extended the Huntsman’s right arm (his arm?), and cobalt energy slashed into the weakened, backward-canting right leg of the sixty-ton Mad Dog. His fingers flashed to load a cluster round, and Pakhet’s left arm belched out a cloud of LB-X autocannon pellets that scoured his opponent’s armor, searching for the breach created by the PPC blast. A dark flash of secondary explosions blew out a portion of the leg, and the Mad Dog stumbled backward, struggling to stay upright.
Even while trying to stay standing, the valiant warrior—for none but the best could possibly fight for the right to bear a sacred Bloodname—raised the Mad Dog’s weapon barrels and unleashed jade beams that finally found their mark on Pakhet. The lasers carved long wounds and splashed liquefied armor to the prairie floor, flashing in wisps of fire spots.
With the Mad Dog hobbled and unable to turn quickly and the Huntsman already at full speed, Calvin cut hard right again, moving into his opponent’s rear arc. This fight was already won. This day was his.
He was Calvin Deleportas.
HUNTSMAN “Pakhet”
Following the final Grand Council vote that initiated Operation REVIVAL, Clan Nova Cat Khan Severen Leroux, per ancient tradition, consulted with Oathmaster Biccon Winters for a vision to victory. However, she predicted disaster for the invading Clans, which her khans chose to ignore. In hopes of protecting her Clan, Winters managed to convince Khan Leroux to create a new, flexible OmniMech that would guard the Nova Cats against whatever trials lay in the Clan’s future. Unwilling to pour too much support into the endeavor, Khan Leroux contracted the work to Clan Cloud Cobra and their Brim Ironworks facility. Enamored with the idea of crafting a new OmniMech, the Cloud Cobras fast-tracked the Huntsman’s development and manufacture in time for the invasion. While the OmniMech traveled a circuitous route to creation, it has amply filled Oathmaster Winters’s vision. Its excellent balance of speed, armor, and firepower has made the Huntsman—known as a Nobori-nin among Inner Sphere MechWarriors—the premier medium OmniMech of Clan Nova Cat, and it is prized for its flexibility across a wide range of opponents and battlefield conditions.
Star Captain Calvin Deleportas, a ristar with the 119th Nova Cat Striker Cluster, made a fierce name for himself during the combat trials to determine which Clans would participate in the invasion of the Inner Sphere. While Clan Nova Cat would ultimately be defeated—and hence denied a formal place in the invasion—Calvin’s battlefield acumen pulled some honor from defeat. Faced with overwhelming odds, his lightning fast strike-and-fade tactics defeated three other opponents before a fourth finally took his ’Mech from under him. For such skill the Grand Council placed the Nova Cats alongside Clan Steel Viper as reserve Clans—the next in line to invade—and Calvin was awarded the opportunity to fight for the Bloodname Deleportas, which he handily accomplished.
Though quiet and spiritual in person, Calvin Deleportas and his Pakhet are fierce hunters of any Nova Cat enemies.
Written by Randall Neil Bills
