Asteroid Blues

Jamila backed slowly in to the open door, rifle aimed in to the yawning darkness before her. Her Nasmats backed up in synchronized formation with her – she hoped they would buy her time if that hulking maniac charged her. She swept her rifle from side to side, hoping that command appreciated the toll it took to achieve success.

She heard footsteps – armoured boots on the stone floor. As if summoned by her radiating fear, Achilles came in to view, standing just within the light of a flickering bulb the maintenance crews stopped servicing about a decade ago. Her heart hammered in her chest – Achilles was beautiful and caked in gore; the beauty of a shark. But his rifle was slung, his sword was sheathed. Over his shoulders were the bodies of her squadmates he cut down.

“The Lieutenant.”

He threw her body down with a thud.

“The man with the fire.”

Another body thrown to the floor, his flamethrower ripped away and abandoned where he first fell.

“And the brave one who stood and fought.”

The body of the Khawarij who dueled Achilles for a half-second before being run through.

He gave a nod – not a polite nod, just a nod acknowledging that he knew he hadn't achieved his goal. But it was also a nod that said Jamila was leaving alive only by his grace. A lot was communicated with this nod.

- - -

For Shamash's first game we did another TACOS game (https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/alternate-play-system-tacos-mk-ii.578/ ). He hasn't tried it yet and was eager to do so, and it went very well! The shifting objectives were a lot of fun and made the game swing wildly in my direction at the very end.

Shamash's first game in the campaign was just Achilles and three Net Rods, the goal being to use Achilles like a bulldozer.

My initial plan was to have a fireteam of Ghulam and Naffatun hose Achilles down with flamethrowers and shotgun blasts, assuming that Shamash was going to have him come straight at me. Instead, he very wisely had Achilles hold back and pulverize the fireteam with Achilles' multirifle.

Fortunately, despite devastating losses, my Khawarij had scored me multiple objectives by simply hauling ass across the board and shooting Net Rods to death. Achilles had thoroughly devastated my main force, so the Khawarij attempted ot shoot him in the back out of spite. Instead, Achilles survived, turned around, and utterly obliterated the Khawarij in close combat – which honestly I expected once I didn't drop him with a volley from the MK 12.

Despite being battered by Hurricane Achilles I was able to achieve victory, but it's the kind of victory where everyone involved comes back with a haunted look in their eyes and nightmares for a few months to come.

- - -

Video: Achilles utterly murdering a man in "Troy", a movie that was very lushly produced but not a great retelling of the Iliad. Worth a watch for some amazing costumes and set design.

CAT TAX: Greg and his butt.