Asteroid Blues

The rehousing was not gentle. My mind slammed into my body like a freight cruiser slamming into a moon, and I exploded out of the storage chamber and fell to the ground as the frost melted from my body. As my muscles worked themselves from their lethargy under the glare of the heating lamps, my mind raced. This safe house was not the next on the list for rehousing, in fact there should have been several before this. Three things became apparent. One, more of my assets had been compromised. Two, those trying to kill me knew when my Cube was going to need to rehouse and attacked the safe houses then as to avoid triggering any alarms. Three, I was breathing, which meant they had not uncovered this safe house. Though the sour thought interred my mind: maybe they just do not want this body dead yet…
I took a few days to cover my tracks. One of my informants reported that the Hexahedron was also looking for me. It is not the first time, and as threatening as, ‘the Hexahedron wants you for questioning’, may sound they are generally satisfied with a quick face to face and a little information they did not know before. Keeping freelancers on the streets offers more of a benefit to them as information gatherers than it does to disappear them in a dark hole. Unfortunately, at the moment it felt as if I was in a dark so pitch black it could be scrapped from the air and used to waterproof a sailing vessel. Before making any plans to meet with the information agency, I knew I need to dig in to the report the recovery team logged. Several of the irregularities between it and the surveillance footage I was able to gather from outside sources was not matching up. Perhaps this would be the match that would set this pitch ablaze.
The report indicates things started smoothly enough, the team had landed with their shuttle under the cover of a smaller infiltration team and began fanning out to sweep the area when they came across an unregistered Tohaa presence. As they moved in to question some of their operators further afield, (disguised as humans?), began to report contact with a Haqqislam shipping team. The report fails to note what sparked the conflict, but suddenly Muttawi’ah were rushing up the flanks supported by Naffatun in an attempt to create a completed communications black out. A Sekban Doctor took up positon behind a wall along with a Mukhtar. 2 WarCors set up on each flank to cover the event, (I had thought only Foreign Company had that kind of media pull), as Saladin took position to direct the battle.

The Recovery Team’s Nikoul had set itself up on some cargo containers in order to take a commanding view of the area. A Komutail waited nearby directing her Chaksa to stand by. The Kerail took position building the Kamael had entered while his beast sniffed around an unoccupied shuttle, and teams Kauuri waited eagerly to scan the suspicious Tohaa which was crouched behind some half unloaded cargo. On the other flank the two Kealtar had taken up some defensive positions along with a Chaksa carrying supplies. The Draal was securing the teams transport by mining one of the doorways as the rest of her triad, a Makaul and a Kriigel took cover nearby. A Liberto mined a jeep in the midfield, and then took up position on the other end of the vehicle in order to delay any advancements from that side. 2 operatives were said to have been involved, but the report did not seem to state how they managed to penetrate so far past Haqqislam’s perimeter, and listed them simply as Hatail units, (there is no way 2 Hatail units would be authorized to operate in such a small theater).

As the Muttawi’ah rushed up the field the silence was broken by the soft crack of the Nikoul’s gun. However, it seems that the Haqqislam forces must have been field testing some enhanced form of Muttawi’ah, as one took a shot to the chest barely missed a stride as it continued running. Several other managed to obscure the Nikoul’s vision with smoke. Then a hail of Red Fury rounds ripped into the Nikoul, cutting down his ‘mate. As the Nikoul attempted to return fire another burst dropped him unconscious.

An enemy camo marker moved up from its position get a close look at one of the Hatail, and in attempt to discover its identity revealed itself to be a Liberto, and received a shot in the face for its troubles. (This only created more confusion for me as this Hatail seemed to be operating in Symbiont armor which is well past their standard gear).

One of the Muttawi’ah began running past, exchanging long range pistol shots with the strange Hatail. Neither managed to hit the other, and the Muttawi’ah continued its rush into the back of the Tohaa lines to chain rifle a Kaeltar and Chaksa. The Kaeltar took the brunt of the hit as the Chaksa retaliated, but the Muttawi’ah remained unfazed.

The Mukhtar turned its attention toward the strange Hatail the Liberto had uncovered, and after several exchanges had knocked it out. The super soldier then moved into position to take a closer look at the other Hatail masquerading as a human. Upon the unit’s failure to give the correct call and response the Mukhtar began firing on its position. Fortunetely the Recovery Team’s Liberto begain firing at the Mukhtar as well. With the Mukhtar’s fire split between units in its back and front, the Tohaa managed to score a wounding shot on the Mukhtar, (the Liberto was less lucky, and died to a Red Fury round). The Mukhtar shot at this 2nd Hatail once more, but the shots were deflected behind the cover it had taken, and it fell further behind cover, out of the Mukhtar’s sight.

The Kauuri rushed up to verify the identification of the ‘Tohaa’ only to round the corner and be blasted by a shotgun as it came into sight. The Kriigel agent stood up to see the Muttawi’ah near it, and began shooting, (as it did its image shifted, and it did not no longer appeared to be a Kriigal, and instead gave the signs of being another suspicious Hatail. If 2 was improbable, 3 was impossible). The Muttawi’ah shrugged off the first volley of shots, until this 3rd Hatail took better aim and finally brought it down. With this threat to their flank removed the Draal raced around to get eyes on the Hassassin Al-Djabel, and shot him in the back.

The Komutail moved her Chaksa to attempt recovery of the Kauuri, but the symbioconstruct was in too many pieces to be put back into a battlefield roll. On the other side of the battlefield, the 2nd Hatail had not capitalized the opportunity to try to take down the Mukhtar before a Muttawi’ah was able to obscure it once more in a thick column of smoke. With this target no longer a viable choice it looked to the WarCor which had stationed itself furthest from Saladin. The WarCor blurred as it revealed itself to be Hafza which fired a rocket at the Tohaa, but was too close to get an accurate shot off and was killed.
With one within its sights, this 2nd Hatail used its Multi Spectral Visor to verify the identity of one of Haqqislam’s not combatant assets on the ground. (The reason for this identity verification was not documented).

(The surveillance of the operation cuts out for a moment at this point. It is possible the Muttawi’ah were successful in creating a black out, but regardless the report indicates the following): The Draal took cover behind a small Quonset hut, and the 3rd Hatail took cover inside of the shuttle leaving the Makaul standing in between them behind a low wall.

The two remaining Muttawi’ah ran towards the 2nd Hatail, the first jammed the Tohaa’s signal, and the second, unable to get a good visual on it, threw smoke towards the Mukhtar’s position, which allowed him to deal with the 2nd Hatail with a quick burst from his Red Fury. The Sekban moved up to activate one of the transmission antennas at the same time moving his Nasmat to the Mukhtar. The Nasmat quickly patched up the Mukhtar’s previous wound, and and one of the Muttawi’ah blanketed the area with more smoke to provide it with cover. The Mukhtar blasted away the Makaul as it tried to dodge down to the ground. The Draal was more successful in its attempt and went prone out of the Mukhtar’s sight. With no visible target the Mukhtar ducked out of sight.

The Draal, along with the 3rd Hatail dashed across the field in attempt to take down the Sekban, but the Haqqislam soldier was able throw itself out of harm’s way and further behind cover. Not wanting to over expose herself by rushing into a less defensive position, and realizing the Komutail would have difficulty climbing to reach the Nikoul, the Draal sent her ‘bomb to stabilize the sapper. The ‘bomb was able to accomplish its task before the strain caused it to stroke out, and the Nikoul took up its position once more.

The Muttawi’ah began running towards the remaining Tohaa, and the Nikoul was unable to bring either of them down. One threw smoke to once again obscure the Mukhtar’s position, and the Mukhtar moved into place to knock out the Nikoul. The other Muttawi’ah, which had positioned itself next to the cargo container the 3rd Hatail was sheltering behind, suddenly sprinted from this safety towards the Recovery Team’s shuttle, triggering the mine the Draal had placed to protect it. From out of the smoke the Mukhtar’s Red Fury blazed, once again incapacitating the Nikoul. From behind the Tohaa a Naahab Killer Hacker attempted to infiltrate in, but the watchful eye of the remaining Kaeltar blinded him with a flash pulse.

The Mukhtar moved up in a coordinated effort with 2 camouflaged operatives, once of whom was revealed as an Al Hawwa hacker in the blast of the Liberto’s mine.

The other camouflaged unit revealed itself as a Farzan and activated the transmission antenna in the middle of the battlefield. The Mukhtar moved towards the Recovery Team’s shuttle in an apparent attempt to hold the mag-anchor’s control console in order to prevent the team’s escape. As this super soldier moved into position he gunned down the 3rd Hatail, and put a wound on the Draal despite her ‘mate’s best efforts. He then took up position behind the console and gunned down the Chaksa servant. Temporarily dazed, the Nahaab crawled forward to assist the Mukhtar, but, under fire from the Kaeltar, was unable to progress much closer.

Seeking to remove these two bio-enhanced soldiers, the Kerail rushed forward with its Surda. He took a hit from the Mukhtar, as he gunned down the Nahaab, who in turn killed the Surda with a shock round from his SMG as it attempted to dislodge the Mukhtar who remained the only one unphased by this assault. From off the hood of a the jeep, a blur shimmered towards the control antenna the Farzan had so recently activated. The Farzan attempted to ascertain the unit’s true location, but was unable to before it slipped behind the antenna. After a brief moment, to insure its position was safe, the blur revealed itself as a Clipsos as he reconfigured the antenna.

With the team’s options dwindling, and many of their operatives out of action, the Draal lead an assault along with the Komutail, Kerail, and the Kamael which had only now come out of hiding. The assault was successful at wounding the Mukhtar but was unable to take him out of the fight. Further the WarCor managed to stun the Draal as she rushed through her field of vision.

Seeing the team’s efforts were unsuccessful at dislodging the Mukhtar, the Clipsos sacrificed himself to the shotgun of the Farzan in order to finally bring down the Mukhtar with Combi burst into its back.

The Komutail pulled her medikit out and shot the Nikoul full of stimulants to get it back up so it could cover the team’s exfiltration.

Little else could be gained from the report or the surveillance. No more information on the three operatives listed as Hatail was provided, but the report’s documentation of their activities seemed off, and like a hound on the scent of a rodent, I was no longer barking up the wrong tree and knew where to dig.