Asteroid Blues

Fiery ash coalesces on a single point, until the form of a Tohaa takes shape. It takes a step before a the atomic explosion scatters it asunder once more. The scene repeats itself several times before I can grab hold of consciousness and ride out the fury of the blast into wakefulness. It was a rush job, but even a rush job would not explain the harsh experience of this rehousing, or the lingering regret as it faded. I was still working feeling into my hands by the time we were deploying to follow up on the leads we had uncovered. It seems the mysterious Durian Vendor's credentials were more suspicious than they first appeared. It had only been on Novyy Bangkok for a week prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and all attempts to follow up with the previous Circular travel could only be traced back forty-two jumps before any record of the Vendor disappeared. This all seemed to indicate the credentials were well crafted, but crafted all the same.

We had traced the Vendor's location back to the Jiyuan pit, and in light of the reports of Shasvastii activity received from our Spiral Corps contacts, it seemed like further investigation was warranted. In attempt to maintain a low profile, our team was constructed to cover as much ground as possible in search of our target while limiting our chances of contact with the Yu Jing forces stationed at the pit. The recon unit zeroed in on the target, when our HUDs began to register Yu Jing forces entering our field of operations. The Draal took a position behind a small Stim Cafe, with the Igao blending into the shadows of the building. The Makaul took position behind a large wall along with one of the Chaksa. A Kealtar took a commanding view of the field from atop a large building. The Libertos set itself and its equipment to secure the Vendor, so our team could follow up and investigate. The Suekul took position inside of a temple, while the rest of her Team took positions outside. On its own, another Chaksa held the the far flank.

The bulk of the Kuang Shi took held position in a walled in area along with their controller, the Hsien who was presumably overseeing the operation, and a Yudbot which was positioned to react quickly in case of an emergency. Outside another Kuang Shi had ducked down behind a large advertisement structure. On top of a large apartment building two Su-Jian crouched low, with the Sophotect waiting nearby. A Chaiyi maintained a small field of vision to slow any attempt to advance, and a bounty hunter propped its Akrylat-kanone up on a dumpster, while the last of the Kuang Shi crouched nearby.

The Draal raced up the table, using the instability of the artificial gravity to boost her speed. She fired on the Kuang Shi several times, mortally wounding two, before falling back behind cover on the opposite side of the walled in area. The Sukeul's team moved up to take a position where she would have some view of what transpired.

The Kuang Shi behind the tri-ad billboard rushed towards the Makauls, but stopped short of facing either of them, and instead allow the Su Jian armed with a spitfire, to train its fire on one, and kill him while forcing the Sukeul to fall back further into the temple. Without any major threats visible the Su Jian reverted back to all fours, before it, and its companion lept onto the apartment building separating our two forces.

The Sukeul was able to get a few shots off at one of them as they soared through the air, but her shots missed their mark. The Bounty Hunter used its position to try to discover and shoot some of the equipment the team's Clipsos and Libertos had deployed, but was only able to ascertain what one was. The Su Jian, then moved forward in an attempt to kill the Draal, but found itself peppered with shots in return. The Kuang Shi seeing that the Su-Jian was unsuccessful rushed forwards to attempt to do as much damage with its chain rifle as possible, and managed to get a glancing blow on the Makaul, but as it tried to get another attack of it triggered a mine, which staggered him long enough for the Makaul to engage it in close combat where its chain rifle would be useless.

The Yu Jing Forces were maintaining control of a large swath of the battlefield, and our forces were going to be hard pressed to shift them from their position. The Makaul tore apart the Kuang Shi he was combating, bring it down before it had a chance to explode. With the Su Jian on another rooftop, the Clipsos which had infiltrated onto the their position saw an opportunity to ride Yu Jing of any medical or engineering aid.

After an tense exchange of gunfire, the Clipsos was able to gun bring down the construct.

The Draal took aim at the Su Jian which had been firing on her, but the robot managed a skillful shot, which killed the Draal's Symbioarmor before her 'mate had a chance to reinforce it. With the link to the symbiont severed, the 'mate and 'bomb wondered idly away. Seeing the trouble the Draal was having the Makaul jumped up on a table and, as the Su Jian shot at him, attempted to burn the robot with a gout of flame. Though the Su Jian's shot went wide, the robot seemed unfazed by the Makaul's attack.

On the other side of the battlefield, one of the Clipsos revealed itself and shot at the Kuang Shi which had moved from its hiding place near the Bounty Hunter. However, the attack only goaded the Kuang Shi to move leap forwards. Realizing his error the Clipsos backed up in an attempt to dodge away from the torrent of shrapnel the Kuan Shi directed towards him, but took the full brunt of the attack and collapsed to the ground. Seeing the situation rapidly deteriorating the Kealtar stood from his position to momentarily blind the Su Jian with his flash pulse, narrowly avoiding a panzerfaust shot from the Bounty Hunter.

Seizing on the opertunity to relocate with the Su Jian now prone, the Draal, and Makaul ran to get better cover, out of site of the Su Jain. The two Chaksa moved cautiously forwards to try to better control the battlefield.

The Su Jian stood up and tore the Kealtar who had stunned it to shreds with a burst from its Spitfire. Spotting the Su Jian from below, the Makaul obscured itself with smoke. The other Su Jian stood and fired at the Chaksa which had thought itself out of sight on the covered rooftop, and blew him apart with its panzerfaust. This Su Jian then fired its remaining explosive round into the Sukeul, killing the commando. A blur appeared on the rooftop of the restaurant the Bounty Hunter was near, and simply moved up to further control the area. Then the Celestial Guard shot a smoke grenade out into the food court in front of the Cafe. Fearing little at this point the Hsien marched into the smoke cloud and executed the Draal before casually laying down suppressing fire.

It was into this that the Makaul rushed, taking several moralt wounds in attempt to burn down the power armored combatant, but the Hsien's armor withstood the heat. The other Makaul rushed forwards in throwing smoke to cover its advance before trying to do the same to the Su Jian, but one of them ended his charge with a well placed shot. With the team's leader dead, and no one left in the chain of command the Tohaa forces were forced to withdraw. Many including myself, seeing no reason to expose our position to this foe.

It would appears Yu Jing has greatly stepped up its military forces in the past week, casting aside all previous subtlety. In order to combat this force, we would need to match it with heavy firepower of our own, rather than attempt any stealth operations at uncovering the true identity of the Mysterious Fruit Vendor they seemed to be protecting.