Asteroid Blues

The Druze had been under contract with Dark Star Freight as part of arrangements with Submondo, for the past few months they had been convoy escorts and security for a construction site on the lower levels of the Gallery maze. They hadn’t even seen the site itself they’d just been working security around what was probably the entrance area, and any attempts to uncover information about what they were actually guarding had been met with firm censure.

Now they were meeting with another potential client at one of their hideouts in the chimneys, the place was a dangerous dump used for ore shipping, now it was falling apart, literally, TAG sized boulders were coming loose due to the extensive mining and the deck the base was built on was rusting away to nothing, they didn’t even try to clear the debris anymore.

Meanwhile on the EI tac network:

The aspect reviewed the data, it was clear that the Druze were now a potential weak point in the preparations. Elimination was clearly the answer, however they may yet have some use, interrogation and replacement with speculo agents would be beneficial, the EI had tagged the druze long ago at the very start of the contract, this hideout was well known and would make an ideal tomb for these humans now they had exceeded their use.

Shrouded Xyos - “Aspect, there is another group approaching, they look like Aleph troops”

++ IT IS LIKELY THE DRUZE ARE ATTEMPTING TO SELL THEIR INFORMATION, JUDGING FROM THEIR FORCE DISPOSITION IT APPEARS ALEPH IS ATTEMPTING TO CAPTURE OUR TARGETS, ALL UNITS TAKE UP POSITIONS ++

Several pairs of eyes watched the hooded figure approach the Mercenaries.

The words were inaudible but clearly the situation had gone wrong, a mechanical beast sprang from the shadows to protect Andromeda as he fell back and attempted to fire an adhesive launcher at one of the mercenaries drawing weapons.

++NOW++

The Aspect’s Infiltration armature broke from its concealment, it had a fine view of the situation.

The Druze had started shouting but it was already too late other aleph forces were already closing the gap as andromeda’s Lhost was torn to pieces, all the more frenzied at a sudden burst of plasma fire.

Through the gloom the Aspect saw the approach of an Asura

The spitfire sprayed bullets into the darkness as the the Anathematic slank back into the darkness of the cavern.

+ RETURNING TO GROUND, DRAW THEM IN, ALLOW THEM TO COME CLOSER +

The Aleph death squad pushed further into the Druze defensive line.

Having immobilised two of the Merc the Asura's team cautiously took up a defensive position on the first floor of an abandoned storeroom, revealing the decoy position placed by the mentor costing valuable time.

The heavily armoured post human began pushing down the opposite flank.

The post human continued to push into cover taking up position behind a courier bot before successfully immobilising the Druze lookout with his adhesive launcher.

The initial ambush had been devastating but now the Aleph momentum had run out.

The Daturatzi stalked closer to the Druze, laying down a covering screen of smoke.

With a screech the Taighas were released from their restraint collars, two streaked up the right flank through the rubble. The other dashed out before the post human.

Caliban - I have eyes on enemy positions

+ FIRE AT WILL +

Caliban - "Naga Eliminated, the netrod seems to still be operational"

++ CONSERVE MUNITIONS, DON'T WASTE ROCKETS ON A NETROD, WE HAVE OTHER AVENUES OF ATTACK, DEAL WITH THE ASURA ++

Kerr Nau - "I have a plan Prime Aspect, advancing now"

The Urheit fired a pitcher into the enemy battle line, the shot was slightly too far landing in range of the enemy Deva Assault hacker. As he passed he grabbed the incapacitated Druze.

Kodali - "I'm arriving at the scene, I have the enemy's flank. Engaging now"

Kodali quickly disabled the Netrod and Probot with a rapid volley of her C6-Gauss pistols, the Deva required a greater effort stubbornly refusing to cease activation until its body was entirely destroyed by dozens of rounds.

Meanwhile Taighas continued to push forward through the alleyway, scrambling across the supply caches creeping to the bottom of the stairwell beneath the Asura in the commotion.

The Taigha was incapacitated mid lunge ending sprawled across the Asura, in the confusion the Anathematic slipped forwards from it's perch into the detritus of the inelegant human platform on the ground.

++ THE ENEMY HAS REGROUPED, PREPARE FOR COUNTERATTACK ++

A moment later -

Kodali - "I have a Bot on my 6!"

The Aleph forces regrouped with a quick concerted effort, as the sophotech ran to the downed probot the other remaining Deva destroyed the repeater with a burst of combi-rifle fire.

Free from the seeping presence of the EI quantronic network the asura smartly smashed the skull of the taigha and fell back.

Amid all the death the Anathematic armature sprinted forwards and entered suppression fire into the dispersing smoke cloud.

++ THE FINAL ALEPH PUSH IS COMING, DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO ACCESS THE MERCENARIES INTEL++

As the ruins of the MK IV Proxy tumble into the depths of the Gallery Maze the final proxy unveils from it's hiding place under the suppression of the war armature, a total stalemate.

Under the intensity of the fighting the platform itself begins to give way.

++ ALL REMAINING FORCES, CAPTURE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AND WITHDRAW ++

The Aspect dragged the captive Druze away as the platform crumbled behind, there would be no evidence of this operation as even the battlefield itself collapsed into the deeper pits of the Gallery Maze. Aleph may manage to recover a cube from the debris but it would take a massive effort, by the time that effort had borne fruit the preparations would be long over. The Anathematic let out an unrequired chitter from it's vocaliser, like the purr of some Morat hunting beast, it was entirely unsettling. The Druze muttered away, mostly prayers for salvation which would certainly not be heard, a little psychosurgery and the EI would know everything this foolish pawn knew, who it's contacts were, how much they knew of the operation.

Everything was going to plan...

So we played a custom mission in this game as we though it's be fun to have some neutral bad guys:

The basic mission is hunting party, we removed the consoles and added panoplies and changed the objective to the usual rob more stuff.

Hunt down more specialists became imm and then cas evac more druze
Hunt down more Lts remained the same but we rolled in specialists.

We took the terrain rules, thicket and danger zone rules from the actual chimneys mission, as we wanted to have a rotting dump the druze were using as a hideout.

As for the druze themselves we dispersed athem from the centre of the board rolling a second die for distance, they were all standard druze (which turned out to be horrible when they kept puling viral weapons, or x visored combis) we also gave them 360 visors, with reactions declared by the reactive player. They were alwys treated as hostile to both players. That mexican standoff at the end where we had a firefight over the last druze was particularly cinematic, would highly recommend.