***The events of this segment occur between parts 6 and 7 of the 
Battle for TRES HQ.  --Samhain

Raining Death
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

	The massive commercial airliners, painted with the blue and red 
of Fed Ex, flew into Denver airspace on autopilot.  Fortunately, 
commercial air traffic over the battle zone had not changed much, the 
United airliners helping to maintain some level or normality, and it had 
not been hassled either.  The commander knew, however, that it was certainly 
being watched carefully from below, and that all 25 of the custom-built 
planes would soon become nothing more than burning hulks of metal.  They 
would soon crash from running out of fuel after carrying nearly 140 tons 
each of cargo this far... assuming they hadn't been shot down 
first.  But it would be no more than a tactical loss, and was expected to 
happen...

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	Below, a X'hirjq warrior watched a radar and information screen 
tracking the traffic.  She noted a slight increase in traffic, and that a 
large number of them appeared to be much heavier than normal, and 
reported it to her superior.  But, they were all well within commercial 
air lanes and following a normal flight path, so were left alone for the 
time being.  She watched them very closely nonetheless...

**********************************************************

	The mission commander watched his displays carefully.  They had 
to go soon... suddenly he noticed a large number of what appeared to be 
heavy battlemechs of some kind converging on a single psi signature on 
the specially configured B'harniscope, one clearly defined as a 
Jihaddi.  It was time.  He grabbed the intercom to all the other planes, 
and shouted a single phrase...
	"DEATH FROM ABOVE!" he yelled as the cargo bay opened, then leapt 
out of the plane, the jet wash buffeting him as he went.  He heard an 
almost simultaneous roar of 49 other voices over his comlink follow 
closely after his own, "RAINING DEATH FROM THE SKIES!" and then silence, 
until they started tracking targets.  The landing would be hard on the 
massive 'mechs, but they had cushions on the ground waiting to soften the 
blow...

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	The X'hirjq air-traffic observer noted the sudden shift of the 
planes to a higher altitude, and reported it.  They were instantly 
shot down by X'hirjq fighters, but she had no idea that they had already 
played their part in the mission...

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	Each of the 50 Shadowwarriors tracked targets as they fell, and 
loosed sparing fire as appropriate, but being deep in meditation and 
worship even now, it was highly accurate fire.  Each warrior dropped 2 or 3 
of the tremendous HellWyrm Bots with head shots as they fell.  As they 
neared the ground, they slowed their fall with their jump jets only 
enough to lessen the damage to their own mechs, and then presented a 
devastating Death From Above blow to yet another bot, planting a foot 
of their nearly 70 ton 'Mechs directly on the head of the bot below, 
flattening the head and leaving a tremendous oval imprint of the WEDJEE 
logo on top of the head.  One of them timed a kick prefectly, and caught 
the toe of his foot in the joint between the body and head, sending the 
head in a long, high, arc and between two of the HQ guard towers, 
which were miraculously still intact.  "The kick is up and GOOD!" he cried 
as he planted the heel of his foot into its back, sending it careening 
into yet another of the group of bots, turning them both into a pile of 
magenta scrap metal.
	Moonlight flashed as it reflected off the facets of their Black 
and red painted battlemechs, orange blossoms of flame erupting from their 
short range missile packs and sharp barks of noise coming from their 
autocannon.
	The bots, confused by the sudden confluence of 50 hostile 
battlemechs in their midst, fell in pairs in the onslaught of incredibly 
accurate fire, unsure what do to.  Several managed to get shots off, and 
inflicted some minor damage upon a few of the invading mechs, but before long 
it was over and the group of WyrmBots that had only moments ago been the 
hunters in this game of cat and mouse had suddenly become scrap metal.  
	Next came a wave of jiggling, giggling, bouncing horde of Jello beasts. 
The shadowwarriors saw them coming, however, and several of them kicked 
in their jump jets and dealt a second devastating death from above blow 
of the night, squishing the molded jello and sending gelatinous goo 
flying in all directions.  The other Jello Beasts, seeing the fate of 
their blobby buddies, readied themselves for the next attack.
	One of the beasts flattened itself to the ground as a DFA was made 
against it, then reformed in a sudden burst of motion and shoved hard 
on the foot, sending the mech toppling sideways and backwards to the 
ground, where it hopped on top of the mech and proceded to ooze slime 
all over it.  It received a nasty surprise, however, as the mech fired 
its weapons in rapid succession at several other beasts--the rapid 
firing caused the heat sinks to suddenly get very hot, and the Jello 
acted as an additional heat sink and was roasted severely.
	Another beast generated a tremendous blast of electricity 
psionically, and directed it at a mech in up-close and personal combat 
with another beast.  Unfortunately for him, the mech turned sideways at 
just the last instant and the blast ended up hitting the jello-beast in the 
mech's hands instead of them mech.  The Beast squealed in agony, and 
exploded from overheat sending still more goo flying everywhere.
	One innovative warrior, nearly out of ammo, grabbed a jello beast 
and rolled him in the snow to form a huge snowball, and sent him 
rolling down the mountainside into the advancing enemy lines, where he 
shattered due to the sudden impact and the freezing effect of the snow 
around him.
	Other Beasts made halfhearted attempts at psionic blasts, or at 
breaking into the mechs only to find themselves either roasted by the 
heat rolling off them or splattered by the short range missiles.
	When the smoke cleared, the snow in the area was almost completely 
gone due to the heat rolling off the mechs, and there was a fine layer 
of multi-colored spooge coating the entire area of the battle.  Two of the 
shadowwarrior Battlemechs had assumed severe damage, and the pilots 
programmed in an auto-destruct and a flight path for a long leap.  They 
bailed out, taking their custom gear with them.  The mechs flew deep into 
the approaching lines, and detonated in a brilliant flash of white light, 
taking the first of the incoming waves of attacking X'hirjq with them. 
	One of the warriors from the fallen mechs approached the Jihaddi who 
had once been the target of the attacking forces, a broad grin on his face.  
He flicked out his bare fingers with a slight flourish and the sound of a 
flicking card, revealing a business card.
	Cyberpyro took the card, and flipped it around, looking at both 
sides carefully.  Both sides were black with a red border and red 
printing.  The front clearly showed a circle with the letters "SW" inside 
it in the center and italicized text emblazoned below it proclaiming 
"ShadowWarriors!" while the back had smaller circles in the lower left and 
upper right corners, then had the name W.E.D.J.E.E. printed diagonally 
along the other diagonal.  He looked up at the ShadowWarrior, a bemused 
expression on his face.
	The warrior simply conitnued grining at him, and followed up with 
a single phrase before he stalked off into the gathering snow...
	"Have a nice day!"

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To be continued...

"Raining Death"
Copyright 1996
David R. Hibbs