After several unfortunate incidents, a training exercise had been set up between Aleph and Yu Jing forces to foster better relations. The exercise was cut short however, due to a medical emergency.
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Notes: Sorry for the unpainted models. We also proxied a few models. Proxies are listed below.
We also made a mistake on the Mowangs and did not realize their actual silhouette size.
Also, we chose to do Hunting Party as our mission instead of the normal mission at Cosmika HQ.
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Lists:
Steel Phalanx
Profile – Name – Model
Hippolyta – Hippolyta – Hippolyta
Atalanta – Atalanta – Naga Sniper
Thrasymedes – Thrasymedes – Shukra
Thorkites (Forward Observer) – Penelope – Dart
Thorkites (Engineer) – Elena – Deva Spitfire
Thorkites (Engineer) – Ioanna – Yadu Multi
Machaon (Lieutenant) – Machaon – Machaon
Phoenix – Phoenix – Phoenix
Myrmidon (Spitfire) – Theseus – Myrmidon Spitfire
Myrmidon (Hacker) – Phaedra – Myrmidon Officer Shotgun
HVT – Thamyris – Thamyris
Invincible Army
Profile – Name – Model
Mowang (Red Fury, Lieutenant) – Zhulie – Hsien HMG
Mowang (Red Fury) – Chang Liu – Zuyong Multi
Mowang (Red Fury) – Sun Jíe – Sun Tze
Hǎidào (Sniper) – Guo Li – Hǎidào Sniper
Zhanshi (Paramedic) – Fu Ren – Zhanshi Yīshēng
Zhanshi (Paramedic) – Yu Li – Zhanshi
Zhanshi – Zhao Zhēn – Zhanshi
Zhanshi – Wěi Qí – Zhanshi
Hulang – Diaochan – Daoying
Mech-Engineer (Zhanshi Gōngchéng) – Yuàn Bó – Mech-Engineer (Zhanshi Gōngchéng)
HVT – Liaison Officer Xiao Lán – Free-lance Stringer
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“Greetings,” Machaon said as he presented his hand for a handshake. “It seems our practice mission today is to capture each other’s troops. Nice and simple one.”
“Yes,” Zhulie responded slightly distracted and took his hand. Zhulie’s sister Zhuli had said they were brutal and cruel, though Machaon himself seemed quite… Laissez faire? That was probably the best way to describe it. One thing her sister failed to mention was how handsome the fellow actually was, but I suppose that was an implicit bonus when being crafted by Aleph for propaganda as well as combat.
“Hey,” Thamyris cut in. “You look familiar. I think I saw you in that bar the other day. You threw a drink in my face if I recall. Too bad.”
” Yeah,” Thamyris continued, apparently disregarding the very much unfriendly looking stare Machaon gave him. “I think we killed you” he finished.
” Actually” Zhulie responded. “That was my sister” and her mood soured somewhat. “I think our planning is done.” She said quickly through her teeth and stormed out.
“Can I buy you a drink?” Thamyris called out after her. “If we win.”
” No, but your friend can since he didn’t mention my sister.” She thought to herself. Though, she doubted she would feel the need for it after the exercise.
” Why is this old timer here again?” Zhulie thought to herself. The now rather old Chang Liu had actually been retired from the armed forces, but had been “persuaded“ to participate in this training exercise to lend his wisdom to the newcomers in the form of Zhulie and the rest, as well as evaluate their performance. Really, he didn’t need persuading, he practically begged for the chance to participate. “Honestly, we can handle ourselves without needing a babysitter.”
The Aleph forces began their advance with the myrmidon team, pushing up and targeting Diaochan with their adhesive launcher. “EEEEEW, good thing I didn’t get hit by that…” Diaochan thought to herself as she dodged further into cover. It wasn’t enough though, as the myrmidon was giggling about what Diaochan could only assume was a dirty joke based on the adhesive launchers they had been issued. The second shot hit her though, and the giggling turned into a roaring laughter. “Well, at least someone is having fun. I cannot wait to get out of this!” pouting to herself over the indignant display that was her immobilized self.
“I’m covered in this glue-stuff sir” Diaochan exclaimed over the comms. “Oh, for the love of all things holy… Guo Li, can you get the guy so Yuàn Bó can get up to her and remove it?” Lieutenant Zhulie asked in an exasperated tone. “I should be able to do it, but no guarantees sir” came the reply. Guo Li aimed down his sights and fired two stun shots. One hit and the giggling myrmidon was stunned with a look of a mixture of goofiness and surprise on his face. “He is stunned, Yuàn Bó should be able to move up” came the calm announcement.
Yuàn Bó did exactly that. Move up towards the immobilized Diaochan. “Goddammit, I am always cleaning up after these people. None of them appreciates the amount of effort that I put into making sure they are capable of doing what they are supposed to and now I have to babysit the young lady?” His train of thought was interrupted by the sight of the myrmidon removing the small metal barbs of the stun-round in his chest and moving once more.
“Eeeeh, Guo Li he is moving again!” Yuàn Bó shouted over the comms and a stun-round promptly landed in the myrmidon’s chest, stopping him in his tracks.
“He is a tough bastard for sure.” Guo Li proclaimed and as Yuàn Bó advanced again, Guo Li stared in disbelief as the myrmidon removed this second round from his chest.
“Eer, sir? This myrmidon, were we supposed to immobilize him?” He asked, with the prompt reply from the lieutenant being: “Nope. Shoot his ass with those rubber bullets and knock the air out of his lungs.”
Guo Li promptly complied, leaving the myrmidon thoroughly incapacitated on the roof of the building.
“Yuàn Bó, he shouldn’t disturb you further. Go get Diaochan out her gooey mess.”
“Oh thank god” Diaochan proclaimed. “Please, get me out of this!” she pleaded.
“You know, it would be nicer if you thanked me rather than god for helping you” Yuàn Bó mumbled under his breath as he applied the solute to dissolve the adhesive.
“Oh, you know what I meant Yuàn. I will buy you a drink later, okay?” Diaochan conceded. Yuàn Bó nodded with quiet pride and continued to move to cover. Diaochan on the other hand, moved up to the antenna and successfully hacked it. “Ooh yeah boys, we are in business!” she whispered into the comms.
The enemy myrmidon team proceeded to move up and outflank Yuàn Bó and Diaochan and fired with an adhesive launcher once more “No, no, NO! Not again dammit!” Diaochan cried as though beggin, as both she and Yuàn Bó were both covered in glue from the adhesive shots. “A little help here?” Yuàn said in an exasperated monotone voice.
“Dudu dun-dun-dun, another one bites the dust, dudu dun-dun-dun, another one bites the dust” Guo Li hummed under his breath as he shifted over and shot three shots from his stun pistol at the myrmidon hacker. The all hit home, but so did the spitfire shots from the myrmidon behind the hacker. “Aaaalright that hurts. Let us move back a bit guys, that hacker is going to be a problem if we let her.” And his fireteam complied. “A shame about Diaochan and Yuàn, but hey. At least it is only a training exercise.” Though, Guo Li was certain he would hear Diaochan complaining about the adhesive ruining her hair in some way or another for weeks to come.
“So far so good” Zhulie thought to herself. But that assumption would be challenged as Hippolyta combat-jumped to the roof of the building ahead. Lieutenant Zhulie managed to dodge 3 shots from Hippolyta’s adhesive launcher before the barrage relented. “Aaalright, that is it. Chang Liu, we are moving up.”
Zhulie and Chang Liu had both nearly gotten to the building, when Hippolyta opened up again with the adhesive launcher, but once more Zhulie dodged them. “She looks frustrated, but surely she didn’t think it would be that easy, now would it?” Zhulie pondered. Hippolyta looked frustrated alright, but then again, Hippolyta had either missed or Zhulie had dodged all of the shots fired at her. Hippolyta, evidently exasperated by the attempts, moved to melee with lieutenant Zhulie, but Zhulie was faster and shot Hippolyta with her stun pistol. By this point, Chang Liu had also moved into melee with Hippolyta.
“Well, that wasn’t as fast as I used to be able to do it” Chang Liu acknowledged. “I guess I really am getting old.” Chang Liu was 67 at this time and had been retired for a not insignificant period of time when asked to watch over some rookies in a training exercise. He had jumped at the chance, as he had never really like that he had to retire when he did. “Mandatory retirement age is still stupid” He thought to himself as he tried to use the rubber knife on Hippolyta, but his arm was blocked and grabbed “Oh. Well, shit.” As Hippolyta in all her pent-up frustration hit Chang Liu. She was meant to poke him slightly with a rubber sword, but in her fury, it was more like a punch containing all of her strength. Chang Liu could feel his armour buckle and electronic components break. But that wasn’t really what had his focus.
His focus was on the sudden pain in his chest. He could hardly speak nor think and he fell to the ground clutching his chest. “Ooooh chucklefucks. If I live through this, Cao Ping will never let me live it down.”, hearing the young captains’ words once more in his mind “Mandatory retirement age exists for a reason you know. Even the most well trained non-posthuman troops age.” How often he had repeated those words in a mocking tone to his old platoon-mates and how ironic that it would end like this.
Hippolyta spun to melee Zhulie with her rubber sword as well, when Zhulie held a hand up. “Wait,” Zhulie said, holding her hand up. “His lifesigns are critical.”
“Everyone, halt the exercise! We have a medical emergency!” Zhulie roared over the comms. “Fu Ren, Yu Li! Either or both of you get your asses over here and do what you can for Chang Liu, the old man just flatlined on his life-sign monitor!”
Hippolyta drew her real sword and began removing Chang Liu’s armour. She was apparently also medically trained. “Neat.” Was all Zhulie could think of.
“We have a man down,” Zhulie called out on all comms. “This exercise is ended. Get a doctor over here.”
“None of them will ever let me live this down, will they?” Zhulie thought to herself. “Cancelled a training exercise because a member of her crew had a heart attack. Well, as things were going, we would have lost anyhow but somehow this seems worse.”
Chang Liu was immediately being put on a stretcher and Zhulie sat down. Machaon had rushed over to do… well, something. Zhulie wasn’t a doctor, so she didn’t actually know for certain. “you know, he was supposed to just evaluate us.” She sighed. “Damn old man used any excuse to come back and do just about anything with the army.”
Honestly, if Machaon offered her a drink now, she would accept. Not Thamyris though. That guy is just rude and shameless.
Officially, the reason cited for the end of the exercise was “equipment failure” as people are want to misinterpret the reason for an elderly man participating in the exercise, despite being given the full reason. Chang Liu is currently held in intensive care and is expected to recover, though this hopefully will bring home the point of why mandatory retirement ages exist for certain professions. Aleph however, was kind enough to comply with a request to edit out any footage pertaining to the medical emergency in their “Myrmidon Wars” show.
Conclusion: The Yu Jing commander, frustrated by the loss of his only Engineer and failing to realize the Mowangs were not in fact specialists, combined with the lack of MSV2 users and specialists, realized victory may be beyond his grasp. We ultimately decided to resolve it as a sudden death game, as if he had gone into retreat.
Score:
Aleph Secured an antenna for 1 point.
Aleph hunted down the most specialists for 2 points.
Neither side hunted down any lieutenants for 0 points.
Aleph secured the Yu Jing HVT for 1 point.
Total: 4-0 Aleph
Very good, as usual, commander!
hahahah, love the vid!
We may need to do a repeat of the training exercise. This time without it being called off due to old age.