Partisans in Peril

When he heard the news of the pending attack, Commander Nick Vigilante laughed and smiled; and he had good reason.

Years ago, he was in charge of a lance of Partisan AA Tanks. For centuries, the Jagermech and Riflemen were considered the ultimate in Anti-Aircraft machinery; however technology was on the decline, there were not enough of those battlemechs to cover despite the renaissance in technology, so the Partisan Anti-Aircraft Tank was made; many dismissed it sticking to the blinkered belief that mechs made the difference.

Nick proved them wrong by using his lance to defeat a wing of Kuritan Shilone fighters, with one loss to his unit but his defended target intact. It was down the proxy fused computer controlled shells of his machines and the well protected emplacements that blunted their laser fire as their missiles were intercepted. As a result he was swiftly promoted.

Hearing that the Kuritans were on the offensive (despite Hanse launching a new war against the Combine in 3059) Nick and his unit were confident.

Again it was against his warehouses, and again it was on Galtor.

However, the Kurtians learned from the lashing they got the last time they engaged the Partisans and their proxy fused shells. This time the Kuritans had brought something that Nick and his forces could not stop.

As the Kuritans arrived, Nick and his unit engaged. Initially they were successful – then there was a bright blue flash and one of his tanks took a massive hit and exploded. Despite their efforts, the enemy were hitting them with something he knew and something he could not stop: Gauss Cannons.

As electromagnetic shell after electromagnetic shell zeroed in on the defenders, they were being smashed and blasted; the sky was now black and red with flames and kindling from burning vehicles; worse, his unit was being destroyed; but Nick and his crews carried on fighting, hoping to delay and defeat the intruders – no matter what…

----

Wanted to do a pic of another Battletech machine I love because of the excellent backstory: The Partisan Anti-Aircraft Unit. This took ages to work out.

However, once I had figured out the background, the work snowballed; I made the Partisan look more a feasible tank than the one depicted, and am very proud how the backdrop came out – all fire, hellish, and catastrophic.

The hard part was to make it feel action packed without going overboard; I think I did it.

Love to hear your thoughts peeps; comments very welcome!

Enjoy!