Erich's voice came over the commlink to the company, his dark tone booming through the fog of confusion and mayhem that had settled over the ambush by the Atlas in the City, even as his voice became fuzzed from the electrostatic crackle of Near-misses, and solid hits from Enemy PPCs, as he continued to lay down a withering volume of fire, forcing the Capellan heavies to keep their collective heads down.<br/><br/>"Brick here; Recon, break to the east, away from the city; use that speed to get away from the Atlas, but don't run in a straight line. Snake, fire some LRMs into the transformer station at the powerplant to slow pursuit." He paused, his voice fading in a thunderous crackle of electrical surge as his massive 'mech was caught across the chest and arms by a brace of PPC fire, even as he retaliated in kind, peeling open the chest of one Cataphract, and decapitating another, his war machine sagging into the side of the warehouse he had been using for temporary cover as Erich fought the 'mech's gyroscopes, compensating for losing over two tons of armour from the Awesome's frame.<br/><br/>"Newboy, take Varyag straight east. Defiance seems to have lost comms, so take her with you; use hand signals if you need to, but don't leave her behind." In the background, keen ears could hear the dulcet tones of the Awesome's battle computer, warning that internal temperatures had exceeded safe operating parameters, and it was on its final override before shutting down. A dull roar echoed through the comms as well, the telltale of brick and Ferrocrete being crushed as the overheated Assault 'mech tore into a warehouse, using the respite from the enemy firepower to bleed some of the massive amounts of heat from the firefight. "Vice, Kismet, once Varyag is off base perimiter, fall back. I'll take rearguard. Don't forget to smash everything that looks valuable."<br/><br/>Toggling his comms back down to lance-level, Erich's steady hand on the controls found a target that made him smile. A Cataphract had gotten too close to the warehouse his 'mech sheltered in, so, throttling up to full speed, the eighty-ton 'mech slammed through a half-metre thick wall, and directly into the Cataphract's side, sandwiching the lighter capellan machine into the wall of the main research facility. The combined force of one-hundred and fifty tons of moving metal and fusion-powered weapons was too much for the research facility's hardened outer walls, which slowly crumpled around the Cataphract's impact point, leaving the 70-ton frankenmech barely upright in the debris. Erich then fired at point-blank range, the ruby glare of the head-mounted Small Laser pitting armour as the decoherent wash of hypercharged cerulean particulates scoured armour and internal structure like a scourge would flay skin and muscle from bone. The Cataphract's two medium lasers, the only weapons that could accurately hit at point-blank range fired low into the Awesome's right side, causing one of the Assault's heatsinks to rupture and explode outwards in a gush of boiling coolant, looking like greenish-grey blood from the wound in the 'mech's flank.<br/><br/>Concentrating on his target, Erich simply moved his left hand to the secondary controls, lifting his 'mech's massive pyramid-shaped left hand towards the Cataphract's cockpit, the four flanges that acted as fingers clamping over the lighter 'mech's faceplate. Erich snarled several strong curses into the comms as he began to make his 'mech Squeeze the heavy 'mech's head, crumpling armour and delicate instruments even as the Cataphract tried to fight back, both of the lighter 'mech's arms banging across the Awesome's larger, heavier limbs. It took ten long, agonizing seconds, but, the Cataphract's head, stressed beyond the forces its structure could handle, crumpled into itself, leaving a viscous red smear over the Awesome's hand. Stepping back from the smoking, joint-locked ruin of the 70-ton 'mech, Erich ignored the alarms shrieking for his attention, simply slamming his 'mech towards the destroyed Heavy, pushing it like a 70-ton battering ram into the Research Centre, then trampling over the Cataphract's remains as he took his war machine through the centre of the building, the head-mounted small laser probing forth, setting fire to anything that looked expensive as Erich began to head Eastwards, leading the Capellan defense force on a painful chase through their own research building, infantry inside the building scattering and trying to fire weapons at the 12-metre wall war machine that was smashing its way through the secret projects.