Asteroid Blues

Infinity

The Pwny Express Part 2 - For Pony!

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Nomads
Desanges
VS Haqqislam
Kampilan

Prologue - Extraction Point OMGWTF-OW

8 Working Angel Orbital - Combined Rapid Response & Recon Company
"Time cum angeli cadent"

Rain sat against a balcony on one of the buildings in the Gorge, HD+ at the ready. She consulted her feed, noting the position of all the operatives under her command. "Alright everyone, Strike Team Pwny are on their way back but Haqq is hot on their tails. You know the drill, we have to make sure no one can pinpoint this raid to the Nomad Nation, so we hit hard, retrieve the task force and the ever important pony then head deeper into the Gorge to lose the Haqq patrol. Are you all clear on our orders?"

A chorus of "ayes" filled the comms channel interrupted by a rather enthusiastic "Yarr!" Rain sighed. Mary Problems had yet to get out of her pirate kick and now half of her men were sporting eyepatches in solidarity.

"I swear, after all this fuss we've kicked up, Project Pwny better turn out to be amazing," she murmured, as her HUD pinged red to notify her that Haqqislam had entered the zone of operation. "Alright boys and girls, let's get this party started."

8 Working Angels CRRRC Task Force The Times They Are a Purple

Group 1
-----
Mary Problems Pirate Cosplay Edition - Mary Problems (Gata Pirate skin as proxy)
Knock - Heckler
Malaikah - Intruder
Savannah and AT & T and Alamat with Bungie and Tourist - Morans w/ Koalas
Sinny - Sin-Eater
Bran Do Castro - Bran do Castro
Rainbow Riot - Interventor
Sweetling - Moderator
Gin & Tonic - Grenzer

Group 2
-----
The Enlightenment of Man, The Pitfalls of Hubris, The Emancipation of the Mind, and Spork - Morlocks
Calvin - Liberto

~*~

Deployment Notes
-Haqqislam won the Lt roll and chose to take initiative
-Bran Do infiltrates on the left flank of Haqqislam's side of the table near Saladin
-Fairly spread out deployment with Nomads and Haqqislam both having control of the two transmission areas on their respective sides of the table.

Haqqislam's deployment
Nomad deployment

Turn 1 - Follow your lucky star

"High value target acquired," the Mukhtar whispered, as he lined up his sights. The target's presence had not been expected at all but she had been part of a list of people Haqqislam command had wanted temporarily inconvenienced by death and the Mukhtar didn't question, only fired.

On the opposite side of the operation zone, Bran Do crept along only to notice a Hunzakut emerge from camo, an anti-personnel mine in hand. With no time to think, the Triple Zero reacted, lunging towards the surpsied Haqqislam operative as he used his staff to strike the mine from the Hunzakut's hand.

"That's odd," Rain muttered. She hadn't expected Haqqislam to attack her position quantronically, much less by Leilah Sharif who she had bested time and time again. There was something different though and soon enough Rainbow found herself fighting hard to fend off the tenacious attacks, only barely managing it with the help of Mary, who was asking for five minutes.

"Just have to..." She didn't manage to finish the sentence as the Haqqislam operative succeeded Rainbow Riot shuddered and slumped, blood seeping from her nose as the hacking program incapacitated her. A few seconds later, Mary announced that she had successfully taken out the enemy hacker. She hadn't even noticed that Rain had been downed until the fight had ended.

"Lt. down," Gin called into the line, as he immediately began the process of rallying the Nomads back into a semblance of order. Without Rain's guiding hand, the philosophical dilemmas were unleashed and the four Morlock charged forward with smoke grenades in hand.

Without orders, the Nomads reverted to their training. Malaikah scanned the area with her scope and noticed a Shihab moving into a commanding firing position. She shot twice, nodding in satisfaction as she watched the second shot connect and shut down the machine.

Meanwhile Bran Do swung his staff, connecting with the Hunzakut's head. He heard a satisfying crack and the Haqqislam soldier dropped. He then shouldered his staff, as he proceeded to sneak past the sentries near one of the transmission matrix and tapped into Haqqislam's network in an attempt to sow discord and buy the Nomads time to regroup.

Hero koala senses and engages Shasvastii!!! (holoprojector echo)
Stick beats mine!
HVT down
The war criminal responsible D:<
Perhaps a little too enthusiastic
Moran plays a shell game with the holoprojector and wins.
Interventor down
Meme bombs behind enemy lines

Top of 1
-One Muttawi'ah moves towards Bran Do, charges towards the right flank and falls foul of a koala.
-Mukhtar datatracker shoots down the Nomad HVT.
-Hunzakut attempts to intuitive fire a mine into Bran Do Castro's path. Bran Do attempts and succeeds in an engage attempt.
-Bashi Bazouk walks into the table, uses his holoprojector to safely trigger the koalas and then faceplants into the Moran and Mary Problems
-Leilah Sharif manages to take out the Interventor Lt even with Mary providing assistance

Bottom of 2
-Loss of Lieutenant
-Morlocks rush forward tossing smoke. There are two of them on each flank
-Intruder takes out the Shihab Remote
-Mary takes out Leilah Sharif
-Bran Do kills the Hunzakut in melee. I then proceed to blow my three remaining command points (having spent one to reduce Kampilan's first turn orders by two in Group 2 during the top of turn 1) in order to safely walk Bran Do into Haqqislam's deployment zone to score Net Undermine thanks to Long Service conferring the veteran troop type to characters

~*~

Points
-----
Haqqislam:
Transmission Areas Tied - 1
HVT Killed - 1
HVT killed by Datatracker - 2
Total - 4

Nomads:
Transmission Areas Tied - 1
Classified Objective (Net Undermine) - 1
Total - 2

Turn 2 - Monkey See, Monkey Do

With the Philosophical Dilemmas (Morlocks) off the leash, they proceed to rampage. The Pitfall of Hubris and The Enlightenment of Man charge the left flank. The Pitfall of Hubris manages to duck past the killzone established by a Hunzakut forward scout but The Enlightenment of Man is hit. He topples over, momentarily stunned but not out as his body begins to regenerate. Meanwhile, the Pitfall of Hubris manages to sneak into a firing position and blasts the Hunzakut with his chain rifle. She grunts as the Hunzakut manages to wound her, but she shoulders through and begins to search for her next target.

On the right flank The Emancipation of the Mind charges forth only to be hit and killed by the Mukhtar. Spork watched as her fellow Morlock fell, but she moved forward heedless of the danger and somehow survived despite (or perhaps because) of the recklessness of her charge.

Bran Do manages to gum up the Haqqislam comms for some time but it wasn't long before Haqqislam pressed their advantage. The Mukhtar moves in and catches Malaikah in the open. A burst from the Red Fury incapacitates the hapless sniper.

Meanwhile Saladin orders a Muttawi'ah forward in an attempt to flush Bran Do out. The Nomad infiltrator jumped, using his monkey-like reflexes and a nearby wall to fly clear of the chain rifle before disappearing deeper into the alley he had holed up in. His armor beeped in warning, as the Muttawi'ah then tried to bring its jammer to bear only for the attack to fall short.

Seeing an opening, Bran Do leapt into action. He dropped his staff in favor of his boarding shotgun, as he shot the Muttawi'ah and caught a Haqqislam HVT observer in the process. He then zeroed in on a nearby Naffatun. They fired at the same time, and Bran Do was forced to retreat thanks to the severity of the burns inflicted upon him, even as he succeeded in doing the same to the Haqqislam soldier.

"Do you men be seeing this?" Mary called on the comms, as she relayed the position of a Djanbazan and Liberto mercenary that had taken up position in the center transmission matrix (the pony, oh no!). "You move ahead, Calvin. I'm going to try to shake that Mukhtar loose," she said, as she clambered up the building she'd been hiding behind. She sighted her SMG but cursed as she noticed too late that the Mukhtar had seen her first. The Mukhtar fired, wounding her and forcing her to flee. "I'm hit," she called out. "Need a medic!"

Calvin cried out wordlessly. He'd been an ordinary college student who had perhaps made the unwise decision of attending Novvy Bangkok Community College. He'd read up on one too many pamphlets one day about the plight of his people on Varuna, this lead to him singing protest songs and then somehow finding himself pressganged into the Nomad war effort. He lacked training, but had the berserker ferocity of someone so afraid that the Djanbazan looked on with shock as the spunky little alien dodged the Mukhtar's covering fire while firing at him. A shotgun shell pinged the Djanbazan's armor and the professional soldier decided that it was perhaps wise to seek a saner fight elsewhere.

Through all the chaos, Sinny the Sin-Eater had been forgotten. He was annoyed, having not had the chance to fire a single shot through the whole thing, and so had taken it upon himself to sneak up on the enemy position. Only the Mukhtar noticed but by then it was already too late--he had already established himself in good cover and was ready to make his enemies' lives a living hell.

The Mukhtar and Djanbazan lock the center transmission area down
Enemy Liberto approaching the pony! D:
Mutually assured destruction
Mutually assured destruction 2
Calvin forces the Djanbazan back

Top of 2
-Mukhtar takes out the Intruder
-Muttawi'ah engages Bran Do but fails to defeat him
-Liberto and Djanbazan manage to claim the middle transmission area. Liberto drops a mine
-A Naffatun creeps up on the right flank towards the Nomad's side of the table
-Another Hunzakut on the left flank enters suppressive fire to try to dissuade the Morlocks there

Bottom of 2
-The Morlocks charge. The second Morlock on the left flank is dropped by the Hunzakut in suppressive fire. That Morlock subsequently uses his irregular to get back up (thanks to a Regeneration Metachemistry roll) On the right flank, one morlock is killed by the Mukhtar (enters dogged but is promptly ignored) but the other manages to survive.
-The first Morlock on the left flank gets into chain rifle range and manages to take out the Hunzakut in suppressive fire. The Hunzakut damages the Morlock but the Morlock stays up thanks to No Wound Incapacitation
-The Moran on the right flank kills the Naffatun but is downed by the Naffatun's flamethrower.
-Mary Problems clambers up the building near the middle transmission area, tries to dislodge the Mukhtar but loses.
-Bran Do Castro goes to town, taking out the Muttawi'ah and the HVT behind them. He also shoots and drops a Naffatun, but is downed by the Naffatun's flamethrower in the same attack. Bran Do however manages to successfully take out all units near the left flank's transmission area on Haqqislam's side
-The Liberto tries to shoot down the Djanbazan. The Djanbazan succeeds in its armor roll and ducks out of LoS. The Liberto successfully survives the Mukhtar's ARO.
-Having lost the intruder and Mary who I had been counting on as my heavy hitters, I decided my only hope was to do something daring. I spend the last of my orders to walk out my Spitfire Sin-Eater toards the middle transmission area. He manages to survive a direct hit from the Liberto's mine. A face to face roll with the Mukhtar winds up with both of them missing.

Points

Haqqislam:
Transmission Areas Tied - 2
HVT Killed - 1
HVT Killed by Datatracker - 2
Total - 5

Nomads:
Transmission Areas Tied - 2
Classified Objective (Net Undermine) - 1
HVT Killed - 1
Total - 4

Turn 3 - I come unstuck

The two Haqqislam units turned to face the sudden threat. They begin to pour fire into Sin-Eater who cackled, as he responds with his Spitfire. "I am God's judgment and wrath--you'll find none of his mercy here!" Sinny exclaimed, unnerving the Liberto who takes a wound, but somehow still keeps firing. Sinny splits his fire, keeping the Liberto and the Mukhtar at bay, as time slows and he lines the perfect shot, his Neurocinetics allowing him to see the moment three of his bullets shred into the hapless Mukhtar. The pain blossoms into his gut, as the dying Liberto catches him point blank. They both drop at the same time from their grievous wounds.

Calvin shudders, as he sees the Mukhtar shooting him turn to pink mist. He cautiously creeps forward, towards where he'd last seen the Djanbazan and slowly sets down a mine in case the enemy decided to turn around and finish him off.

Sav finally realized that Sinny had left his side and moved in to follow him. He frowned, as the frantic sounds of gunfire could be heard and then silence. Cautiously approaching the center to check it out, he turns the corner just in time to see the Djanbazan trip a mine, the explosive flechettes catching it from behind until pulping the poor soldier from the torso up. "This is Sav, the center's clear and the pony's secured," he whispered. "Sweetling I want you to gaurd the transmission area on our left flank," he said, directing the Moderator to take his place on the area he'd just vacated.

On the left flank, The Pitfalls of Hubris charges towards the Haqqislami lines. She notices Saladin and rushes him, firing her chain rifle, only to find the weapon's range falling short. The Recreation calmly lines up a shot and fires and The Pitfalls of Hubris' world goes dark.

The Enlightenment of Man on the other hand makes a different turn from his companion. He catches a blur in the corner of his eye and charges it, only to find out to his dismay that he'd just tripped a mine, and he too disappears in a split second.

Spork (the most puzzling of the philosophical dilemmas!) on the other hand sees no visible enemies. She feels her adrenaline go down and her conditioning kick in as she moves to secure the Nomad transmission area on her right flank.

The Nomads braced with Gin & Tonic listening intently. Soon the sound of gunshots began to fade and the beleaguered task force found themselves the last men and women standing in the blood-stained battlefield.

It had been a tough day but the Nomads had secured their goddamned pony.

Sin-Eater versus Liberto!
The Sin-Eater rolls three 10s, critting thrice against the Mukhtar!
The dogged Liberto crits at the very last order. :(
Morlock charges Saladin but comes just short of getting a shot in.
The Djanbazan triggers a mine while trying to face the Moran
Nomad victory. For Pony!

Top of 3
-Saladin is walked towards the transmission area Haqqislam lost last turn
-Kampilan then spends the rest of his turn trying to dislodge the Sin-Eater. A coordinated order sees the Sin-Eater fending off the Mukhtar and sending the Liberto in the dogged state. The Mukhtar and the Sin-Eater then proceed to duel with the Sin-Eater surviving thanks to armor 3 and cover until the penultimate attempt sees the Sin-Eater scoring three crits, which turns the Mukhtar into paste. The dogged Liberto then proceeds to crit on the -last- order and kills the Sin-Eater.

Bottom of 3
-Morlocks charge. The Morlock 1 on the left flank has Saladin closest. She double moves towards him. Morlock 2, who had regenerated was closest to the middle and moves towards that area. The last remaining Morlock, Morlock 4 on the right flank (who I had wisely decided not to move with their irregular order during turn 2) is forced to use their whole impetuous order to climb down. Morlock 1 then uses their irregular to try to take out Saladin, but their chain rifle falls just inches short of the target who proceeds to gun them down. Morlock 2 triggers a mine and dies. Morlock 3 uses their irregular order to move closer to the transmission area on the right flank of the Nomad's side of the table.
-Group 1 has three orders left and the middle transmission area is controlled by the Djanbazan. The Liberto walks towards the center transmission area. It can't quite reach but it can move far enough to drop a mine so that it can catch peek and catch the Djanbazan in its area of control.
-The surviving Moran on the left side begins to walk towards the center. Faced with the prospect of being shot in the back, the Djanbazan attempts to change facing and winds up eating the mine. The Moran then spends the second order of group 1 to claim the center transmission matrix while the Moderator in my deployment zone uses the very last order to walk towards the transmission area in the left flank which the Moran had erstwhile been holding, leaving the Nomads with three transmission areas to Haqqislam's two.

Haqqislam:
Transmission Areas Tied - 2
HVT Killed - 1
HVT Killed by Datatracker - 2
Total - 5

Nomads:
Transmission Area Dominated - 2
Transmission Areas Tied - 2
Classified Objective (Net Undermine) - 1
HVT Killed - 1
Total - 6

Analysis

-I was fairly satisfied with Bran Do's performance. Blowing all my command points was a calculated risk but getting Net Undermine made it worth it (of course it could also have just blown up in my face but such is the nature of Bran Do)
-I had though the second turn lost with my attack pieces gone. Moving the Sin-Eater up really depended on Kampilan trying to engage it on the last turn, which he fortunately did. Otherwise I'd have been resigned to attempting to dislodge all the defenders with active turn Neurocinetics.
-That final mine was clutch, as I only had two orders left and it'd have meant that the Moran would have had one turn to dislodge the Djanbazan otherwise I'd lose as I wouldn't have been able to move the Moderator to the transmission area I'd left behind.
-Was a great game and we got our Pony, Nomads! :D

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