Asteroid Blues

This Spitfire doesn't have the same heft as an assault shotgun, Tarik mused, but it more than makes up for it in firepower. The Khawarij commander checked his gear one last time before opening up the tactical channel to his ad-hoc strike team.

“All right troopers, the Hassassins, as usual, have gotten themselves into far more trouble than they can handle, which means it's up to us to pull their butts out of the fire.” Muffled laughter spread through the radio. “That means we're taking a detour through the Xaraks Battery Field to secure a safe corridor for them. May as well make ourselves useful and secure the area while we clear the way for Task Force Karambit to limp their way back home. Two birds with one stone.”

His adjutant, Hamza, interrupted the emir. “Sir, we've got movement on the regolith plains...It's...not human.” All chatter died down immediately.

Tarik looked the assembled troops in the eye, nodded, and then contacted the dropship pilot. “We're going to have to take a detour.” Tarik flicked open his comlog and tagged a waypoint next to the alien sighting. “I want this gun battery secured, and all non-human personnel cleared out ASAP.”

-Initiative: Haqq decides to take second turn
-Deployment: Tohaa choice of zones and sequence.
-Hidden Objective: Follow-up

Haqqislam deployment is again, a refused flank, anchored by a rear line of a mixed Ghulam-Naffatun-Khawarij link, a Monstrucker and al-Fasid up front, Tarik in the rear-mid ready to respond to multiple areas, a Mukhtar MSV Red Fury hidden in a high roost looking for a good shot opportunity, and the refused flank anchored by a lone Namurr special operative carrying a Spitfire. The big Tohaa reactive turn threats included a Nikoul sniper dug in, and a Kiel-saan on a rooftop.

The aliens were definitely on the move, Rostam muttered. The Mukhtar operative gripped his Red Fury tight as he crawled across the rooftop, looking for a good place to take a peek. He wondered how the Combined Army got its troops up here into the gun batteries. The emergency declaration had mentioned a Shasvastii-led smuggling network. Suddenly, a smoke grenade sailed over the lip of the railing he was taking cover behind. Smoke? Not a problem, Rostam thought. He flipped on his multispectral visor, only to be met with a wall of white.

What the hell? Eclipse grenades? The Mukhtar's eyes widened as an armored shape barreled out of the mist. Igao!? Rostam barely managed to dodge the polearm blow meant to decapitate him. The Mukhtar rolled back, but not before the blade managed to bite into his side, his enhanced wetware and vac suit immediately sealing the wound and pumping him with painkillers. What the hell were the Tohaa doing here?

OOC: Tohaa troops rush forward to activate one antenna, with a team of (Makauls?) advancing forward. An Igao makes it up to my Mukhtar's roost, but a lucky roll means that the Mukhtar actually survived the first melee attack, taking a wound.

Tarik cursed as he saw the feed from Rostam's helmet cam. He had been depending on the Mukhtar to knock out the camouflaged enemy sniper roost across the battery field. Still, Tarik now had a rough estimate of where the enemy were advancing. His comlog tagged a likely avenue for the alien advance.

“Jallal, lob a few frags into that alley!”

The al-Fasid superheavy whirred to life, a withering barrage of munitions. The grenades arced to the targets...and overshot, or landed short, or wide. Not a single one landed on target.

“Idiot, adjust your launcher for micro-grav!”

Allah's grace, sometimes, you just had to deal with some problems personally. The Khawarij commander vaulted up the container he was hiding behind and quickly acquired targets. Hmm. Tohaa? He filed away the oddity. Let the politicians and spies figure out what they were doing here. For now, he had a job, and he intended to protect his men and the retreating Hassassin strike team they were sent to rescue. The Kiel-saan operative was just at the edge of his effective range, but with a little work and a drum of spitfire ammo, Tarik brought down the Tohaa commando. He continued his rampage, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, daring the enemy to shoot at him.

It was all a blur, but Tarik was sure he had managed to tag the Nikoul, bring down another Makaul, and wound another of their symbio-armored warriors. Good enough, he figured. Time to curl up and rest next behind this nice, safe ledge...

OOC:
-I burned 6 Spec Fire grenades at a clumped up Triad in optimum range. Not a single hit. The quartermaster is going to have a long talk with Jallal about wasting munitions and state property.
-Splitting shots with the Spitfire did a pretty good job. While Tarik got hit as he dived into cover, he mauled the enemy force, knocking down the Kiel-saan, wounding the Nikoul and punching holes in other triads. Good trades at the right spots, without wasting the LT2 orders.

Corporal Jallal Tabasi loaded another magazine of explosives into the grenade launchers. All right. Focus Jallal! You are not letting the Emir down again!

“Pay attention, you dolt!” The Husam agent's voice cut through his focus, and Jallal realized he'd almost missed more of the Tohaa closing on his position. The Makaul trooper blasted him with a gout of flame, but the al-Fasid's power armor shrugged off the hit, while the other Makaul fell to Leila Sharif's marksman rifle.

On the sniper roost above, the Igao moved in to finish off Rostam, only to topple over with two bullet holes in its chestplate, courtesy of Rostam's pistol.

OOC: Tohaa reorganize their triads, try to push forward with Makauls. They burn a bunch of orders layering in smoke. Too many orders, I feel. Before eventually just kamikaze-ing out. On the “empty” side of the battlefield, another Tohaa specialist activates the second antenna, and a Chaksa manages to sensor scan the HVT to trigger their Classified Objective. Tohaa lead 3 points to Ramah's 0, but Tohaa units are in much worse shape.

Rostam staggered to his feet, grinning. The Emir is depending on us. He leveled his Red Fury at the Nikoul sniper across the streets. A long burst from the Mukhtar put paid to the sniper. This cleared the way for the Namurr special operative, Sahar, the opportunity she was waiting for. Powering her wetware, Sahar slipped through through the empty flank, her Spitfire ripping through the Tohaa (engineer?) and an errant Chaksa. With threats out of the way, she claimed control of the central Tech-Coffin surrounding the battery control systems.

Lieutenant Hamza led the Ghulam team through a bold advance against enemy fire to move towards the center of the battlefield.

The one shining beacon of incompetence of course continued to be Jallal, with the al-Fasid's attempt to gun down the last Makaul ending with the Tohaa berserker charging into a pitched melee with the hapless trooper.

The battle was about to draw to a close. Tarik had a knack for these things. If he could just disentangle Jallal from that Makaul, he could sprint up close and achieve the "extra" objectives that command had slipped him secretly. The Khawarij lept out of his hiding spot, managing to dodge enemy fire, only to land next to an angry Makaul.

This may have been a mistake, Tarik thought, as the Tohaa's bladed staff cut into his side.

Score is 3-2 Haqq favor.

The Tohaa weren't going down without a fight, however. A Mirrorball bomb blinded Rostam, who got taken out by precise viral rifle fire from a Sakiel. Sporadic gunfire tried but failed to dislodge the Ghulam link advancing in the open. The Tohaa were nothing if not wily however, and managed to sneak in an (armed) diplomatic delegate to the Tech-Coffin, resulting in an uncomfortable melee standoff between the Namurr's bioengineered prowess and diplomatic immunity.

Score is 2-0 Tohaa favor.

“The Captain is down, tactical net reorganize on me. We continue the mission!” Lieutenant Hamza's voice cut through the clamor of the battle net. Where another force might have recoiled to reorganize after injury to their commander, the men and women of the Ramah Task Force simply pressed on.

Across the field the diplomatic delegate coyly slipped out of the Namurr's reach, spinning around to put two rounds into the chest of another red-turbaned warrior. Then she felt the distinctive click of a human pistol tapping the side of her cranial plating. To the side, Husam agent Sharif finished securing one of the Battery Field's comms antennae.

Curses. Foiled. Still, the delegate put on a brave face and broadcast a stand down order. "Goodness! Soldiers of Haqqislam all the way out here? I'm sure there's been a terrible misunderstanding! Now, why don't you all put down those Concilium-sanctioned weapons so that we can all come to a civilized arrangement?"

In the distance, a battered squad of Hassassins, Task Force Karambit, used the chaos caused by the battle to retreat to safety.

Score ends at 7-2 Haqq favor.

Tohaa score: 2
-secret objective 1
-Activate one antenna 1

Haqqislam score: 7
-Activate one antenna 1
-Control an antenna 1
-Control the Tech Coffin 3
-Control Tech Coffin with Liaison 1
-Liaison Officer WIP Roll 1

After action thoughts:
*Exposing Tarik was a huge gamble that sorta paid off, but could have easily blown up in my face. Fortes fortuna adiuvat. That push pretty much defined the rest of the game tempo for me. Still, a COC figure was a good call, and even if Tarik had faceplanted, there were other plans. Like optimal range band spec fire against clumped up targets...right?
*SO MANY WASTED SPEC FIRE ORDERS! I used up almost a fifth of my entire game's order budget on optimal range, clumped up spec fire targets without landing a single hit! I'd have been content to have to go up against armor saves, but NO HITS!? lol.
*I really dig the Namurr as a counter-puncher and turn 2-3 active piece.
*Forgot to use the Fasid's minelayer!
*Moving the Ghulams out through the firelane was a risk (especially with the Regolith Plains range modifier), but allowed me to claim the mid and empty side objectives cleanly, so it feels like an appropriate call.
*Ramah's fragile elites nature looks like an interesting challenge to play. Their units like the Namurr and Mukhtar were pricey, but they certainly delivered.