Asteroid Blues

"Sir, I'm afraid we lost one of the Netrods during our deployment."
Achilles gave a quiet sigh before answering to Adeel, his Shukra Consultant, and second in command.
"That's fine. I'll take the right flank. Just follow my lead."
He rolled his eyes as the Warcor behind him took another picture of him "For the Report!"

"I heard they brought in an Avatar. Good, I need to add one of those to my count." Lillith, the codename of the Proxy Mk.2, chimed in, while deploying on top of a nearby Building.
"Remember to keep an eye on our Warcor. And don't forget we also have Hyppolita with us today as our O-12 contact. Wouldn't want to bring them the bad news now!" Adeel stated while checking on the remaining members of the squadron.

"DONT YOU WORRY ABOUT ME, I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!" - Hyppolita snarled, unfortunately not adjusting the volume of her comms implant correctly and therefore almost blowing their eardrums out in the process. "Sorry, I'm not quite used to this stuff yet." She was deploying on the left flank, along with some Thorakitai and the remaining Posthuman bodies, overwatching the huge area the enemy would surely soon be storming into.

On the other side, the enemy army took their positions. A Total-Reaction-remote deployed on the central roof on the left flank, clearly intent on supressing Hyppolitas movements, with another remote equipped with a flash pulse right behind it. Next to them also deployed the Obsidon Medchanoid, carefully watching his bots for any signs of damage. Right behind them, more support drones took the field, hidden in cover of the central building. And lastly, the Avatar stepped up, a loud rumble echoing through the Maze as he took position behind his disposable minions.

"Alright, I've waited long enough. Let's get moving!"
Achilles, in his known impatience, started off moving down the right flank, leaving his Warcor behind him in a flash. Passing his remaining Netrod, he reached the corner to the open area, where he knew the enemy remote was waiting. Wanting to score his first takedown early, he peeked the corner and started firing at it. What he didn't expect however, was the enemy noctifer revealing right next to the drone with a missile launcher, only closely avoiding getting hit. "Damn this Thicket!"

"Let me try!" Lillith chimed in, taking some shots at the enemy fortification, but not finding a mark just yet.

Instead, Achilles kept the pressure up, eventually taking out the drone, and the noctifer followed after. Making sure both were fully taken out, with nothing left for the enemy to repair, Achilles retreated back into cover and took up supressive fire, awaiting the enemies answer, while the Mk. 5 started designating some Antennas for destruction.

And that answer came swiftly. Not deterred by the loss of his fortifications, the Avatar drew around the corner, making his way straight towards Hyppolita and her men. Achilles, who had taken cover, couldn't see the beast charging in, but the shots he heard, followed by the damage protocol of their own Reaction drone, didn't bode too well for them.

"Captain? What do we do? He's going to be on us any second now-"
"I got him." a quiet voice sounded over the comms, followed by a piercing screech, and the sudden silence, when the thundering footsteps of the Avatar stopped dead next to their HVT.

"Report! Did you take him down?" Adeels surprised voice came in.
"No, but I took out his targeting sensors. He's not getting in here just yet."

"Thanks kid, we probably owe you one! Now let me at the guy, I want to chop him to pieces!" Hyppolita who only caught a short glance of the enemy and still sounded somewhat shaken, was already getting back into her furious mood.
"We're not out of the woods yet, something's coming!" Zireos, the Thorakitai next to Hyppolita interrupted, pointing out infront of the, for the moment defenseless, Avatar.

The enemy Caliban, sent to designate the Antennas nearby, saw what happened and now jumped into action to protect the TAG with his life. He began charging at Hyppolita with his shotgun. Luckily, her ODD and Eclipse grenades provided her with enough cover to survive his assault. That's when he turned his gaze upon Zireos, jumping him with it's claws, while he, Hyppolita and Lillith all layed their shots into him. Although he went down, he took Zireos with him. However, with the Caliban taken out, the way to the Avatar was free. In this moment however, the Combined Army's technology prevailed, and it's weapons came back online, set straight at Hyppolitas position.
"Shit."

"Hyppolita, stay where you are! I'm on my way." Achilles' blood was boiling now, having gotten his first taste of killing once again. He jumped down the building he had cover on, taking down an enemy drone in the process.
"Fine, but you better hurry, or I'll take this guy on myself!" He could faintly hear over his comms implant.
Achilles knew that the Avatar was now fully focused on his squad before him, that meant that he could use this opportunity to get into his back unnoticed and take him down with little problem. On his way towards the Avatars back however, he got spotted by the enemy HVT and a servant drone of the Medchainoid. He quickly dispatched the Designated Target, scratching in one of the mission objectives. However, the slave drone had managed to alert the Avatar of his coming. The ground thundered once again, as the Avatar turned to face him, looming over him, as Achilles had managed to get fairly close, but not close enough to be safe of the Avatars feared Sepsitor.

However, just as the Avatar raised it's arm to take him out, he saw a shadow jump over the crate behind him and onto it's back, causing it to stumble with another loud roar.

"What are you looking at? I told you I would take him myself, slowpoke! Now do you want to help or what?"
The impatient Hyppolita had seized the very second the Avatar turned around, and had begun charging his back just like Achilles had before. She however, managed to get onto him and therefore force him into close quarters.
Achilles' could only smile to himself at her display of courage.
"A true Amazon, indeed." Before leaping into battle with her. Together, they dispatched of the feared beast with a frightening ease and precision.

*
Hyppolita managed to get one wound by herself, then Achilles joined her for the Team up-CC-bonus. Combined with martial arts 4, that concluded to a 3 burst-melee with explosive ccws on DMG 16. The best part: I crit all 3 attacks (17, 19, 20). Which meant that the Avatar was already unconscious 1 before rolling the other 6! armor rolls. NOW THATS ALOTTA DAMAGE!
*

"You're welcome, guys. Now get to cover, they are moving again. And they don't seem happy!" Lillith took the comms once again.
With the Avatar destroyed, the enemy forces were in disarray, but not out of the picture. The remotes moved out of their cover and made their way towards Achilles and Hyppolita, clearly intent on taking revenge. The Obsidon Medchanoid jumped up on his roof, trying to take a shot at Hyppolita, but got put down by Lillith before he could be any danger. Only the enemies Observer drone held back, and tried to designated some Antennas before making a retreat, but Lillith once again put her skills to the test and destroyed it with a masterful shot over the entire field.

While the battle was surely won, the mission was not yet completed. In fact, the enemy currently controlled more Antennas, and this was the last chance to turn that around. Achilles, however, was not contempt with letting the enemy run away like this, and dived at the first drone he could find, bracing through the flames it spit at him while shooting it to pieces.

After taking out the other flamethrower drone, the enemies army was no more. Now all that was left to do was for the Mk.5 to designate some of the antennas, with Achilles taking down the center one for the last action in the game, before the mission was over.

*
So that was the mission! It felt exhilarating for me, especially the part with Achilles and Hyppolita in melee together! Unfortunately, my opponent rolled terribly that day, but I'm just happy to score some points for us and keep our base safe from those nasty CAs :D
Let me know what you thought about it, don't forget to rate and the likes.
Also, what did you think of the black table? First time we got to use it, and I think it fit perfectly to the Maze's dark caverns^^
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