Asteroid Blues

~Incoming transmission~
– Commander Rasputnick?
– ~ZzzzZzzZz~
– Commander Rasputnick?!
– Yeah-yeah, I will surely attack them till the end of phase one, ~zZzz~. I’ll sure do… ~ZzzzZzzz~
– Commander Rasputnick! It’s Phase Two already!
– Yeah-yeah, I will… Wait, phase two??!
~End of transmission~

Taking advantage of inaccurate data received from the Command Station, the forces of the Steel Phalanx struck a swift and uncompromising blow to the forces of OSSSS located in the Gallery Maze. When the error became clear, Grigory Rasputnick, who was a coordination commander in the Homerid headquarters, tried to resolve the conflict but did not succeed. For some reason, the commander of Aleph’s counterintelligence group was not in touch. It was decided, that said group came under the influence of EI and therefore aspect Rasputnick ordered to eliminate the corrupted units.

Starring guests:
McDog as Ajax the Great
Order Sergeant as Myrmidon Chain Rifle
Fugazi Dronbot as Lamedh Rebot

OSSSS Turn 1.

Dakini fireteam seized the opportunity to maneuver and launched a swift attack along the right flank of the Phalanx forces, attempting to neutralize the Phoenix, who’s been covering this part of the battlefield. This attempt was successfully blocked by smoke-dodge combo, but due to the small error in the calculation, the smokescreen has completely blocked the vision of the Phoenix on panoply. This was instantaneously exploited by Shakti’s harris fireteam: for several orders (much more than was expected by the enemy commander) they managed to take so important d-charges. Providing cover for them, Dakini’s burst from HMG successfully destroyed Ajax, whose decision of a defensive position was sure maid with all the power of 12 WIP. Harris then heads to my antenna, injures Phoenix along the way but does not kill him completely. He falls into pron, not daring to expose himself to additional attacks in this turn and hoping for the help of Machaon. Dakinis tried to squeeze Phoenix and Machaon, but their attempts crashed on the resistance of Myrmidon-Spitfire. Several orders were spent on attempts to destroy him, but he successfully dodged all the bullets and soon all approaches to Machaons link were blocked by impenetrable (at least for Dakinis) wall of smoke. Tacbots then takes a position for their reactive turn, threatening all the myrmidons in their sight. Meanwhile, harris reaches his goal and damaged 2 structures of my antenna with d-chargers. Unfortunately, it cost the life of Deva-MSV 2.

Steel Phalanx Turn 1.

The turn begins with the transfer of the probot to the former Ajax group. Thorakites from the Machaons group attempted to finish off Shakti and Deva-FO with the close-range fire from an SMG but failed (3 times in a row!). Then Myrmidon-ChainRifle from the remnants of Ajax’s link enters the battle. He sacrificed himself killing Deva-FO and wounding Shakti but died from the return fire. On this former Ajax’s fireteam terminally ceases to exist, and Phalanx forces face a hard choice: surrender right now or to continue the resistance with no clear plan for a victory.

After the officer who offered to surrender was shot, Myrmidon-Spitfire decides on an unconditionally victorious offensive. In just one order he finishes off Shakti, not leaving her even a chance to destroy antennae, and then makes a short march in the direction of the main enemy forces. One by one, he methodically destroys Dakini, consistently winning sniper, HMG and combi-rifle duels. At this moment the Machaon’s link is activated: Myrmidon-Spitfire kills one of the remaining two Dakinis with a well-aimed fire and Machaon himself is using his profound knowledge in medicine to exert first aid for Phoenix. As a result, Phoenix is combat-ready again. He decides to take a position with a better view, but in doing so, Proxy 2 is activated on him. Their little crossfire ends with no avail.

OSSSS Turn 2.

Proxy 2 opens this turn by firing at the Phoenix, but he successfully dodge-smoke it all. The Proxy unit tried to use mark 5’s hidden body, but the only comfortable shooting position was also blocked by the same smokescreen, so it lay low, waiting for its reactive turn. Dakini-Combirifle, the last survivor from once-powerful fireteam, attacked Myrmidon-Spitfire from Machaon’s link and killed him. Deciding to build on the success, the robot came out on the Phoenix, but the successful shooting of a heavy pistol did not allow him to cause any damage to the veteran Phalanx officer, however, he himself was not injured.

Steel Phalanx Turn 2.

Myrmidon-Spitfire was transferred to the Machaon group. The link has been rebuilt. Myrmidon then attacked Proxy 5, but he successfully dodged and hid behind the door, being out of range of Spitfire. Retaliatory shooting at Phoenix by Proxy 2 and Dakini did not bring any results. Phoenix spent the next few orders of his group destroying the Proxy mark 2 body, contemptuously ignoring the Dakini fire. Finally, it was the robot’s turn, but then self-confidence played the cruel joke with the oldest myrmidon officer – not only did he get a non-fatal wound from the return fire of the combi-rifle, but also shots from his heavy pistol damaged one of the columns supporting the ceiling. A multi-ton stone slab became a worthy tombstone for one of the most experienced fighters in the Phalanx (we can only rejoice that in the aftermath of Machaon managed to get his CUBE from under the rubble). Machaon, seeing that the case takes a dangerous turn, reassembles the fireteam. He quickly kills Dakini, while Myrmidon-Spitfire occupies a position near antennae and enters suppress-state, waiting for the enemy to return.

Meanwhile. Myrmidon-hacker from Ajax’s group, about which everyone completely forgets at this moment, safely rushed to left panoply box with goal take d-charges and win this standoff. Unfortunately, he spent all the next five orders trying to pick up the activation code to the box with tools closed on the latch, and, to his surprise, it somehow does not work. In the end, Myrmidon decides to hide behind a box and wait for a response from the badly eroded forces of the enemy.

OSSSS Turn 3.

Proxy unit understood, that everything depends on him and activates the mark 5 body. Unfortunately, this does not lead to anything good. During 5 orders, he skirmishes with Machaon and Myrmidon-Spitfire, but does not touch them and dies from a crit with the combi-rifle of veteran myrmidon officer and normal hit from a spitfire. Hopeless, he activated spare body mark 1. It attacks the Myrmidon-hacker, but he successfully defends himself from the fire of the combi-rifle with some smokescreen.

Steel Phalanx Turn 3.

Machaon leads a charge to clear the way for Myrmidon-hacker. Several orders were spent on the killing of Proxy 1, after which Machaon tried to fulfill a classify objective on the latest order in his group (I managed to forget about lieutenant’s order T_T), but fails WIP roll. However, at the same time, he gets into the control zone of the enemy HVT and successfully secures it.

Myrmidon-hacker now understands that the outcome of the battle depends on him. He pulls himself together and finally discovers the latch on the d-chargers drawer. Further remains only march to adversary’s antennae, and then 3 melee attacks, on which Myrmidon manages to successfully damage 2 structures of it. On his last order, not being able to do something else, Myrmidon has danced a circle of honor around the antenna.

Results:

Steel Phalanx 4 (2 damaged structures, 1 saved structures, 1 classify objective) vs OSSSS 3 (2 damaged structures, 1 saved structures).
Victory for the Steel Phalanx and True Aleph!

~Incoming transmission~
– So, commander Rasputnick, correct me if I’m wrong somewhere. Are you saying that the OSSSS forces under one of the most trusted commanders on this operation were, let me see in your report, “under the influence of EI”?
– Yes, sir! They surely did, why else would they attack the Phalanx unit I was supporting?
– …
– Commander Rasputnick, you are inc…
~End of transmission~