Asteroid Blues

The cave was not one of the big ones but still tall enough for a three story building to reach the ceiling. OSS had caught a small force of Spiral corps elements on dubious activities. OSS strike force was made up by a bunch of remotes, plenty of Daknis, a Samekh, a couple of Lamedh and netrods. But something was wrong, the AI army was too small and then through his camera he noticed what was giving him a bad feeling. It was faint and many could easily miss this but actually there where many distortions on diverse places, the fir4s that came to his mind was the image of the naga that had saved him just moments before. Another thing to mentions is that for the warcor seeing dakinis on action was not a surprise but he was amazed to see them so coordinated, almost like being controlled by someone.

On the other side of the cave, the Spiral Corps where made up of less bodies but the same amount of oddities. The real charmer was the group of three Neemas on the centre and each one a perfect mirror image of the one next. Also there was a mighty Kiel-Saan guarding the east side of the map and n a couple other weird looking aliens on the east side. Argus knew this will be surgical fight, the OSS doesn't like to make a mess, waste ammo or lose time, unlike the Steel Phalanx that gets joy from the bloodbath of fighting in close range.

It all started when a Naga started moving forward, setting up a couple of mines and making objectives left and right. After 5 objectives where marked the fearless, the strategy changed and eventually moved to check out the enemy markers and found itself being assaulted by an Igao that managed to make a clean cut just as he was setting up a mine. The naga knew that death was near and decided to keep the igao grappled as long as possible.

The Mk4 advanced through the friendly mined land and managed to get line of sight into the designated target and the enemy Data tracker at the same time. The Aleph Hi aimed and fired one rocket launcher to each enemy a couple of times. At the end the Designated target was completely charred and the AN2 data tracker hide behind a wall. This came at a cost as the Proxy retreated with a wound into a defensive position but with almost half the work already done.

Time was running out the Dakini fireteam decide to be conservative get down their missile launcher from a building and take some cover when an impersonator of the Spiral corps revealed itself and took a shot against the Samekh. Maybe it was the heat of the moment but the impersonator revealed itself for a failed shoot, a missed opportunity; and the Samekh managed to get down and into cover cover unharmed. The Mk2 was guarding the Missile launcher and decided to take a surprised shot against the revealed impersonator. Incredibly the impersonator fired back and got a critical hit, killing instantly the Mk2. The last movements of the OSS where to get a Daikini up in to the building and shred the alien ending its lucky run. Then Spiral corps started their offensive.

The naga holding the Igao finally died, but now it was being watched by the missile launcher and decided not to risk it because there was also a mine set and ready just a couple of meters away. Spiral had no control over the board as at least 4 mines were deployed all over the middle of the battlefield, OSS was not playing around. Eventually the three Neemas started moving, shooting down the daikini standing on a ceiling but keep their distance because if they peek too much to the right a missile would be flying to them in an instant. If they decided to peek to the left a rocket launcher would be the initial greeting among others.

The Spiral Corps Datatraker, a Draal Saboteur, moved forward and was unable to reveal a couple of camouflaged markers on the west side of the battlefield. From the lack of success a bold plan took shape and the Spiral data tracker moved forward and evade the exploding mine but not the Shotgun of the Naga hiding. After that, the Draal keep moving forward, another mine exploded and another shotgun shell fell to the ground but his time the Draal completely ignored the aggressions, he aimed and fired against his designated target. Nobody was able to evade any of the shots incoming. At the end the designated target and the Draal body fell motionless to the ground.

Spiral knew that the OSS were controlling the situation, they were just reacting to their calls and more bold plans started brewing in their lieutenant mind. Aleph knew the job was not done and so they diligently moved in the following moments. First they rearranged their fireteam with a female CSU, probably the only true human on the OSS ranks at that moment, to be at optimal conditions. The starting movement keep the Dakini fireteam to their east, granting them line of fire to a couple of the marked objectives completely on the enemy side of the field. The Samekh fired a missile to each one and in an instant they were gone.

Keeping up with the momentum the Dakini Hmg took the lead and shoot against the Igao that was forced to evade bullets and shrapnel from the mine. The Igao managed to dodge almost every attack but the last bullet hit him. There was nothing more blocking any movement for the Aleph troops, at least on their side and so they reposition themselves on a building closer to the right side objectives that were already marked by them.

At the same time a naga sneak up through the left into the enemy deployment zone looking for a good flanking position. At the start it was just a walk through the park but eventually a wrong turn was taken and bullets started filling the air around. Thye soldier managed to get into cover but not before an incoming shot managed to hit. He knew it was the end, the wound was bad and the blood started to pour out but that soldier will go out guns blazing rather than taking cover fearing for his last moments. He charged against the Tri-core of Neemas and managed to hit once before his body was turned into a pile of meat.

The Tri-core now had some breathing space to move forward and take the initiative specially after the Dakini fireteam switched positions to the east side of the map. But surprisingly for Argus the aggressions came from the east flank as the Kiel-saan tried destroy some Dakinis. The gamble was made and lucky for the AI, the Dakinis managed to hold their ground against the Massive Alien that was unable to win against the machines. The three Neemas decided to make the job by themselves and started nick picking objectives with astonishing results.

First the Mk4 fell unconscious because of accumulated wounds from a previous encounter and a new one where he lost against Neema. Firearms shoot sounds saturated the ambience as the tri-core keep firing and being fired back by the core of Aleph. Finally the silence came and the scene that was set was one where Neema had render non-operational three of the five members of the Dakini fireteam, including the HMG and the Missile Launcher.

The situation was becoming dire for the OSS but knowing they got the lead the turned into attrition tactics. First the surviving proxy, an engineer, made a long run to started repairing as many Rems she could. She managed to get the Dakini fireteam into full force again, plus a lonely remote on a ceiling. Her Yudbot was lost on the process and she got wounded quite badly bud managed to hang barely to her life.

The Fireteam that was once again working as intended, fired upon Neema to make her retreat allowing the last Naga to move forward. The Naga, in camouflage se herself in from of the Fireteam as she was discovered, but she was set to retaliate at the first movement from the tri-core. At the end the bets were set as aleph knew it could not mark or destroy other objective so they moved forward their Lamedth Remotes and reposition some of the Fireteam members.

Spiral Corps had their movements exactly divided, any mistake would mean a victory for Aleph. Neema once again fired against the Dakini Hmg, but now the remote was behind cover and managed to survive. A second attempt was made and now Neema was the one that loss the stand-off but survived the hit. Finally an alien forward observer revealed itself and managed two mark to objectives that where previously on Aleph’s aim but shortly after was blown up into piece by a missile, and many bullets, all this while a remote flashed the dying FO.

It was the end, the remaining Spiral corps units were defeated they had managed to equal the number of marked objectives but nothing more. The Mercenary company surrendered and were taken by the OSS forces for interrogation while a recovery team collect the bodies and ensure the place was "sterilized" after. Argus call back its camera, and started to move out when he noticed something was wrong. His sense of sight became dizzy, his breathing turned cold and heavy. Walking started to become difficult to a point that Argus was obliged to find somewhere to hold himself. Maybe the Junkie’s shiv had some kind of venom or maybe it was the loss of blood that was leaving a clean line where the warcor moved. Suddenly everything turned a mix of greys with undefined details until everything turned black and the sound was filtered through distant echoes. A sore and blunt sound was lost in the chimneys of the Asteroid.

This was quite a slow, tactical and hard game, any mistake was critical and the game didn't ended on a draw because of a mind slip in my opponent last orders, Granted, he could still have made the roll needed for the draw and failed but it was one of my closest games.
The victory was a great one and for that, great music is needed:

Some of Commander Abstrukel units where proxied as he usually play Nomads, but he entered into NA2 with Spiral Corps for the campaign. Also thanks to the local store,“British Club” that allow us to crash in and play the game without any notice in advance.
The game Ended (OSS)9 – 6 (Spiral Corps)
Sorry for any error on the writing, English is not my first language.