Asteroid Blues

Achilles was pissed off. He had been taken from the tick of the fight against the EI and sent to this worthless, backwater rock to hunt down Shasvasti. This was a waste of his skills.
For three days his team had been combing through mining tunnels and the only thing he had to show for it was the tingle in his nose from the blood of those damn shapeshifters.

As he contemplated falling down a crevasse to damage this Lhost and get sent back where there was actually fighting, the sensor remote pinged up a number of contacts ahead of them right as the forward scouts noted a number of control consoles and a main control room emanating strange communication disturbances.

Achilles instructed his forces to spread out as they entered a large chamber full of pre-fab buildings. Who the hell let EI forces get this close to the public!

Grinning a bit at the thought of using forces against the EI, Achilles ordered the Krakot morat to hold back as he moved past it. Instinctively he tagged a suspicious pile of rubble, but he was out of sight before he could take a shot at it. He sent a command to the sensor bot to deal with whatever was there as he moved up close enough to hear a large group communicating.

A sharp burst was quickly followed by a kill confirmation by the Daleth remote. It continued babbling after that, but, his back secured, Achilles turned his focus to the fore as he popped out around the corner and back. He caught a glance of what looked like a Sekban holding a rocket pointed right at him. Without thought he sent a couple rounds downrange as a pair of rockets slipped harmlessly by. He was sure he had hit the disguised alien at least once and could feel the anticipation of more battle filling him.

Achilles was eager, not stupid though so instead of rushing into a group of unknown size he took some of Machaon's advice to head and started delegating. He sent his most disposable support into the middle of that communications room to figure out what was happening with it and instructed the Daleth to swing by one of the control panels on it's way to towards the large group now hiding behind more buildings.

As the monkey ran into the central room it dissapeared from his command HUD. While strange, he could still hear it rooting around, probably for food, in there so left that oddity out of his mind.

The remote moved past his right flank and there was a short exchange of fire. More importantly though his main hacking support called out that it could "see" something through the repeater. Almost immediately after that was notice that one of the central bodies had been targeted.

A single shot from the Samekh fired overhead, curving around the building the commander was standing behind and exploding a moment later. The sensor bot reported a perfect detonation with complete destruction under the blast area.

Achilles let out a laugh at the thought of those body parts flying around, but it was cut short by the sound of drills.

One of his Nagas called out a warning to the Posthuman Lhost near it on the other side of the chamber. Achilles could hear the familiar rip of a chain rifle as his units responded with varying fire. After what seemed like too long of an exchange the Post reported back that the threat had been dealt with, but the Naga was damaged and not going to survive extraction. Apparently it had been a heavily intoxicated pirate.

Achilles called out for all units to go weapons free. If those traitors were going to take Shas money they deserved what was coming to them.

A random shot pinged off his armor as another missile explosion went off behind him. Achilles didn't even need to look around as multiple units confirmed that another pirate had tried to sneak up on him. That fool must have been even more drunk than the other one.

The Samekh noted another contact as it started firing. One missile was hit out of the air, but a continued blast from an HMG worked through the artillery remote's armor, though it wasn't completely destroyed.

At the same time a handful of shots in front of him turned the senor remote's systems offline as well.

Achilles yelled at the Posthuman to swap to the support body and get them both back online ASAP.

The sounds of action from the Krakot stopped with what sounded like fire from a Shock Marksman Rifle. The Haqqislamites must have left a supply dump unguarded. It was the only explanation.

His suspicions of incompetence confirmed, Achilles instructed the Danavas to get the Dakini HMG into position and get rid of whatever had taken out the missile platform and wished, not for the first time, that he could integrate with these damnable remotes the way he did with his Myrmidons. They just didn't give him the information he needed the same way.

The path clear, his engineer body made a run towards the Samekh while it's assistant charged upfield towards the damaged sensor system. It cursed (that's a first) as the Daleth booted back up and informed him that the long range support was toast.

Leaning out around a corner he easily removed a Rafiq that must have been what had taken out the Daleth.

Moments later the remote went back offline as shotgun blasts and even a nanopulsar by the sounds of it unloaded on the other side of his building. Movement further way sounded, but neither he nor his team had eyes on whatever was happening.

"Machaon is an idiot and delegation is for cowards" Achilles mumbled to himself as he rushed around the corner surprising yet another Shasvasti, this one appearing like one of the women he had spent time with on his last leave before the Third Offensive had blown up.

Familiarity was no protection for it as he blew multiple holes through it's torso at point blank range. Continuing his rush Achilles disabled another commandeered remote and exchanged fire behind his back with another want-to-be Odalisque. He rounded a corner one and felt a pang from behind as a single round found it's way through his armor. He unloaded a spray of fire at two bodies in front of him, only recognizing Leila Sharif as she slumped to the ground.

This wasn't right. That wasn't Shasvasti blood. The red mist clearing from his vision, Achilles moved back towards the central room. He paused for a second to stomp on the throat of something mewing cries of pain as he entered the doorway.

Inside the chamber all went silent as his HUD disappeared from his vision. Oh yeah. The communication disturbance...