Asteroid Blues

"This is the last known location of that drunk Yuan Yuan the boss wants us to catch" said Valerya Gromoz over the group chat. "Team, fan out and sweep the area. McMurrough, take the Kum Rider up the left flank, Gromoz, stay put and hold the centre. My team will take the right. Move" replied Miranda Ashcroft.

The compound was located deep inside Yu Jing territory, in the Open-Pit Site. They had been tracking the target for days. Constantly avoiding Yu Jing patrols and sourcing new intelligence on the target had slowed them right down. Finally, they had him.

As the Dahshat mercenaries began to advance into the compound, targets began to pop up on their data streams. "What on earth, these are PanO callsigns!" said Gromoz. "They must be trying to extract the target, treat all PanO callsigns as hostile. I can't take anymore days out in this hole" Ashcroft said.

Just as she finished speaking, a PanO Crusader fired a lethal shot into the bounty hunter guarding the rear of her team. Responding quickly, she opened up with a volley from her boarding shotgun, taking the PanO trooper down. At the same time, an explosion happened to the left of the AO, the Kum Rider had been taken out, but not before putting down a smoke cover for the nearby Dahshat forces. "First blood to them, gloves are off!" Miranda yelled.

Joan herself walked confidently into the compound, "why were the Dahshat forces here?" she wondered, "were they after the same target?". Nearing the centre, she felt her armour began to seize and suddenly she was stopped in her stride.

The Zhencha Hacker, was new to the Dahshat Forces. Having deserted the Yu Jing forces, he was keen to make a name for himself as a gun for hire. Clocking Joan herself striding through the battlefield, he knew this was his chance as he set about immobilising her armoured suit. "Got you" he said.

Seeing an opportunity for more fame, Miranda advanced. Leading her team of Bounty Hunters, Miranda ran from cover, unloading her boarding shotgun into the helpless Joan, damaging her. Mistake, Miranda had moved to quickly. A nearby drop bear exploded in a torrent of shrapnel, felling her.

"I get him" yelled the nearby Libertos Freedom Fighter. Emerging from his position, the Libertos blasted the Black Friar responsible for the drop bear. Quickly repositioning himself, the Libertos was able to put more rounds into a sniper rifle equipped Sergeant, taking him down as well. "Nap time" said the Libertos weakly, as he slumped to the ground, riddled with bullets.

With the enemy firebase in ruins, the Zuyong 2iC in Miranda's group, stood up. Time seemed to slow as the HMG was brought to bear on the still immobilised Joan. *Thrum, Thrum, Thrum, Thrum* Joan was shredded by the high calibre rounds.

Meanwhile, on the left of the AO, McMurrough was advancing. Using his now infamous ability to use smoke grenades, he masked his advance. Taking cover behind some shipping containers, McMurrough pulled out his grenade pouch and grinned. Launching several grenades in the same number of seconds, McMurrough took out his wrath on the bulk of the PanO force, a fire team of Knight Hospitallers. His assault was short lived however. The area the two forces were clashing in was filled with dangerous environmental hazards. One such large hazard had just fallen onto the Dog Soldier, pinning him in place and knocking him out.

The Dahshat trump card was put into action. Sushi the Rui Shi remote, skittered towards the prone form of McMurrough. Using the smoke as cover, Sushi was able to take down the now broken fire team, one by one they fell to the relentless spitfire. As the last knight fell, so too did Sushi. Its eagerness to win the fight had caused a particularly large piece of debris to dislodge itself, heavily damaging the little remote. As it's orange light dulled, a small number of beeps came out in what could only be described as a victory song.