Asteroid Blues

Supreme Intelligence, the forces of the O-12 have again attempted to interfere with operations inside of the passageways of the Gallery Maze. They fought hard, but we were able to prevent them from gaining the foothold they desire.

The enemy Varingians were the first to act; though we were covering their advance with heavy weapons, they all survived because of smoke grenades or their leadership demanding that they hold position. A Sirius trooper and bot engaged our Feuerbach-wielding Sogarat in the center of our position. The trooper's Red Fury pinged helplessly upon his armor, while the bot's adhesive spray was not strong enough to ensnare the elite warrior, however, the other Sogarat (HMG) and the Suryat were able to destroy the bot.

A Varingian that narrowly survived a crit from the Feuerbach by critically dodging threw a smoke grenade that was able to cover an Epsilon as it fired upon a Sogarat. The Sogarat failed to dodge, then failed 2 armor checks, dropping him unconscious and prone on the rooftop. As this was happening, an Omega unloaded upon the Suryat and dropped him unconscious as well, then the Omage retreated and began covering the area with suppressing fire.

The unconscious Sogarat's AutoMedKit attempted to get him back on his feet, but killed him instead...

With this option removing itself, eliminating the Epsilon to free the Oznat and Hungries got a lot harder. In desperation, Kornak moved over and opened fire. The odds were very much in the Epsilon's favor, but some some grace of the Evolved Intelligence, Kornak succeeded in this Herculean task...

(Seriously, I didn't do the calculations before spending the order and declaring all of the actions, so I ended up needing a 1 to crit. I GOT THAT 1!)

The Oznat's core was finally free and advanced very rapidly at the enemy. The Preta dashed forward into a concentrated grouping of O-12 warriors, chain rifling as if rabid. The suppressing Omega missed all of its shots while taking 2 wounds, a Sirius missed a dodge to also go unconscious, and the Sirius bot dodged successfully, but went idle since the Sirius entered a null state. The surviving Preta continued alone, unloading upon a Varangian, while another one shot a long-range shotgun at it; the endangered Varangian dodged and the Preta went dogged. Before it's time ran out, the Preta again tried to chain rifle the Varangian and another Sirius, but they both succeeded at dodging away.

The Oznat and Gakis reformed the link and took up defensive positions.

A Varangian advanced up the left-hand side of the battlefield and attempted to dislodge the Sogarat there. By using smoke, but was able to get to close-range, but it gave up after several orders of failing to damage him. A Monstrucker dropped a couple mines, then the remaining Varangian ran up to the Oznat and a Gaki. The Varangian's shotgun overcame the Oznat's Vulkan shotgun, doing a wound to both the Oznat and the Gaki, but then the Gaki exploded, killing all 3 of the relevant units. The Sirius ran forward and reached our antenna to try to assassinate Kornak with its Red Fury. It got 3 shots with shock through, which would have instantly killed Kornak, but Kornak's armor deflected all of the lethal bullets!

The Gaki still on the building ran forward until it was killed by a mine, but this opened up the enemy's Antenna. An awaiting Rasyat dropped from the sky near the antenna, then used the rest of the Morat orders destroying it with D-charges!

The remaining O-12 units eliminated the Rasyat, but the damage had been done. A Razor unit came out of hiding near a panoply and grabbed D-charges out of it, then ran the long way around to our antenna. It entered a deadly game of "chicken" with a Gaki that had been left near the antenna for just such an occasion. The Razor shotgunned and the Gaki dodged until they both came into contact with each other and the antenna simultaneously. The Razor focused on D-charging the antenna and barely managed to destroy it as the Gaki finally tore through his armor! The nearby Sogarat could do nothing this whole time, because the last Varangian sacrificed itself to throw a smoke grenade to impede the Sogarat's vision to the antenna.

Kornak burst from his position in the Morat lines toward the enemy position. He barely made it to the enemy HVT to secure it at the end of the engagement, stopping only to slay the Monstrucker that was still guarding this approach. The final result was a tie, though I feel we got the moral victory by leaving the O-12 forces barely hanging on by a thread at the end, ready to flee.