Asteroid Blues

Tarik Mansuri was still feeling sore from the last deployment, a debacle at the Japanese habzone, when the alert klaxons sounded at the Pakngien NBIS Traffic Control offices. The Emir counted to three, and was utterly unsurprised when his aide burst into the wardroom.

“Sir--”

“That incompetent fusilier and that damned pirate again, yes?”

“I...How did you--”

“Hamza, you should be ashamed. Those two are like clockwork.”

The Emir sighed, emptied his cup of coffee, and then radioed the rest of the Ramah Task Force's troops in the area. Tarik's comlog flashed with notifications. It seemed like the Tohaa were attempting to take advantage of the brawl for their own inscrutable ends.

“All right, Ramah Task Force, it's time to get back to work!”

OOC:
Tohaa chooses deployment zones
Haqqislam chooses to go second, deployment is a refused flank.
Angus sides with Haqq, the Fat Yuan Yuan joins the Tohaa.
Main Objectives: HVT Inoculation, Experimental Drugs, Test Run,
Haqq Side Obj: Mapping / Canceled for Secure HVT
Tohaa Side Obj: ?

The jump pack made a sound that was halfway between an animal roar and a drunkard's belch. Needed a tune up. The fat Yuan Yuan paid it little mind. He landed in a crouch behind a spaceport structure, and then rounded the corner, seizing a surprised Mukhtar trooper. He roared, punctuating each word with a meaty fist into the trooper's visor. “WHERE. IS. ANGUS!?”

Across the field, a fire support Triad armed with a missile launcher and sniper rifle tried to set up, only to encounter a withering hail of fire. In the streets below, a Kerail Preceptor and its Surda beasts also had their advance slowed. The Shihab remotes were doing their job well.

Tarik grunted. Well. This would either blow up in his face, or it would make things very interesting. Nodding to the Husam agent, Leila Sharif, the two sprang to action. The hacker cloaked herself in electronic fog, advancing forward to toss a Skullbuster at a Tohaa hacker, frying the alien's neural circuitry. Tarik himself leapt forward, dodging a Tohaa missile while his armor took the impact of the Yuan Yuan's sword.

“WHERE IS--”

* Crunch! *

The Yuan Yuan toppled to the ground, KO'd by the Emir's gauntlet.

Continued bursts of fire from the Shihab knocked out the Surda beasts, though one of the creatures managed to get close enough to damage the remote's chassis. In a surprising act of heroism, Fusilier Angus managed to take down the last Surda before it could menace the second Mukhtar trooper with its viral bite. The other Shihab was eventually brought down by the Tohaa long-range fire team, but not before it managed wound their sniper.

In the middle of the field, a Tuareg doctor was being menaced by an advancing Draal specialist. With the sniper brought down, Tarik rushed down the street, pummeling the Draal and saving the doctor's life. They'd patched him back up enough times and it was time for the emir to return the favor. The surprised Tohaa was little match for the pride of the Runihura program

As the alert continued to spread throughout the spaceport, the Tohaa knew their time was limited. Rearranging their forces, they attempted a last press against the spaceport defenders, but Tarik had managed to move into a solid shooting position, buying time for an engineer to patch up one of the Shihab remotes, and covering the advance of the camouflaged Tuareg.

The doctor eventually managed to slip past enemy defenses and found what she was looking for: the actor-journalist-reality star Candy Double, undoubtedly lead there by a lead from the Tohaa. The doc whistled.

“M'am, I'm sorry, this is a restricted area...can't let you stay, unless...hmm, maybe an autograph?”

Candy Double didn't even notice the pinprick of the doctor's medinjector as she signed a slip of paper and shook the Tuareg's hand.

With the firefight turning against them, the Tohaa decided that discretion was the better part of valor and made their way out before their presence became too obvious.

"Good job everyone!" the fireteam cheered as the sounds of gunfire died down. "And you. Fusilier!" Angus stopped in his tracks, giving the Emir a sheepish look as he was caught trying to sneak away. "Thank you for saving the life of one of my men. Whosoever saves a single life, it is as if they have saved the whole world, as they say. Now now, there's no reason for you to run off. Tonight, you are our honored guest. Somebody get the PanOceanian consulate on the line and tell them that we've got their media darling in our custody and they're going to be billed for every single speck of damage, delay, and service disruption that you've caused."

Angus felt like he wanted to throw up. Maybe he should have let the Yuan Yuan catch him instead.

HAQQ VICTORY: 9-1
-More Classified Objectives: 4 (Haqq)
-Classified Objectives Achieved: 3 (Haqq) 1 (Tohaa)
-Secret Objective Achieved: 2 (Haqq)