Asteroid Blues

The StarCo troops barely left the plant, when communaction to a small scout team was lost on the edge of the plant, quickly followed by a warscream. Yara and the Ghulam lt remembered this scream to well from the missions in the tunnels of the Battery Field: That was Kornak.
Fortunately, God was on the side of the Qapu Khalqi force this time, were enough reinforcements send together with the recovery-troop. In a rush orders were given and well known positions were taken to repell the Morat force.

Yara, first one reaching her position, could observe how a Zerath climbed onto the building on the right side. The building on the left was taken by a single Morat. The main group, a Medtech, a HMG bearing Morat, Kornak and a hacker scattered in the center. Out of Yaras view a Daturazi and a R-Drone positioned around the right building.
The Ghulam lt let her troops deploy in the same way as against the StarCo troops before, so the Ghulams and the Hawwa set up around the left building, two Druze secured the center and Yara together with the hakim and the support remote started on the right flank. With the striking shadow from the tunnels still in her dreams, the Lt decided to hold back the Djanbazan as long as possible.

She was right, when her Ghulams confirmed a flickering silhouette on the far left flank. The best vector to approach would be from the center of the own deployment, so the Djanbazan was directed to the central steamvents and designated to collect all available data. Like in the tunnels, the Morat hacker was chosen again to scan the plant.

Without hestiation, the Daturazi started the attack. Covered in smoke, he ran up the central building, knocking out the Druze on the rooftop and breaking his neck with extreme prejudice. Well coordinated the HMG began shooting at the Sniper Ghulam together with a Unidron, killing him immideatly. Meanhile the hacker advanced towards the right antenna and could log in there without getting harmed by the StarCo-malware. The next unexpected move from the Morats was an advancing Q-drone and the Morat Hacker harassing the Druze killerhacker through the repeater. Quite unsuccessful, the Druze could critically burn the neural implants of the Morat, but the Med-tech was able to fix this immideatly.
This fight should be a demonstration of experience from both sides, so a Yuan Yuan arrived on the left flank, covered by steamvents. The other one scattered back into the own deployment zone but survived the following shot of the Zerath. Smoke and a chainrilfe quickly dropped the Noctifer and a nearby Unidron unconscious. The other Yuan Yuan took his revenge on the Zerath with throwing enough smoke to have the Djanbazan solve this problem with a long shot. Satisfied, she advanced to deny a new charge of the Daturazi. Meanwhile the missile launcher could be treated and together with the grenade launcher again the defensive line was build.

With a direct path denied, the Daturazi started throwing grenades from his roof, killing the brave Yuan Yuan. The death of this combatant encouraged the Morat to rush down and attack, covered in smoke, the Druze. Perfectly trained with the viral pistol, that was no threat to the Druze. Here was nothing to do for the Medtech, so he showed all his skills by repairing the Unidron and then reviving the Noctifer. This one started his revenge directly, knocking out the missile launcher, the warcor and the Yuan Yuan.
Now it was time to lay out the plan of the Ghulam lt. The Djanbazan advanced, ripped the Noctifer in pieces with his HMG and then disabled the Q-drone with a second round. To be available to get the tech-coffin under control in the next run, he set down next to the Druze KHD and both started a suppressing fire. Yara again tried to get a path over the right flank towards the coffin, but forget about a sneaky Unidron, knocking her into the dust with heavy burned wounds.

Boosted by the EI, the Med-tech rusehd over the cover and fored the missile launcher into cover. Following the hacker, he connected the second antenna and tried to hide near to it. Most of the other Morats then scattered around the tech-coffin with the hacker ready to start preperations on it and the HMG covering the path in suppressing fire.
The young Ghulam lt lost her temper about the situation and shouted at the grenade launcher through the comlog: "Now get out of your warm home at set up smoke, you idiot!" Unfortunately, this left the Ghulam that insecure, that he needed three attempts to land the needed smoke. Every minute now was counting and several of them were already wasted by this move. The Djanbazan left his position, shooting at the Morat HMG only to be knocked down by him. With few options left, the hakim took the courage to advance towards Yara and her Nasmat recovering the Djanbazan. Grabbing his HMG again, he knocked out the HMG and started firing onto the hacker. His impressive Morat physics allowed him to avoid the first round and even a second burst could not stop him from getting his preperations done on the tech-coffin.

Now there was nothing left to do on this cursed plant, so the grenade lancher spread smoke and covered the retreat of the Qapu Khalqi force.
Later in the military hospital, among a lot of Nomad citizens, the Ghulam lt stood ad Yaras bed. Her wounds could be treated, but it would take some time. "We knew about the presence of the Combined Army on the Battery Field, but what StarCo was there searching for is hard to guess. Our HighCommand does not believe in an accident here. More likely is the theory of us disturbing a secret meeting between both forces. But the interpretation of this is up to others."