Asteroid Blues

I was there when the Gates collapsed... And for this day I can't believe that it was some sort of cunning Shasvastii scheme. Only an inside job is a plausible explanation of that events. Some Sygmaa bloody damned Trihedron infiltrators or some other traitors killed our General and closed shut the Daedalus Gates. It was four long and brutal years, surviving the Paradizo Hell with Combies popping out from every damn tree. Constant ambushes, alien machines of hellish cruelty and carnage and worst of them all... stinky and noisy space monkeys! You fight, you die, you fight again. Endless circle of brutality. It feels like with every restore I'm loosing something, becoming thinner, a faint shadow of a former self. Slicing the necks of our fellow Trident soldiers become a usual thing. It's like some sort of a bounding ritual. Boosts up confidence when you know that your friend will cut you up to get the Cube from your still warm body to later restore you in a newer body all ready for fighting. But there are some things on the battlefield from which you can't return...
All for the Greater Good of our people and our human friends. And all of it was finally over, we were partying aboard the Lucky Kaauri, Tohaa's swiftdropper starhopper, ready to wave good buy to this godforsaken stars and return Home. And before we could reach the Gate it was closed shut right before our eyes! Never, I'll never forgive bastards that did it to us!
We were so close to Home..

Taqeul Officer Lion Tremere was lost in thoughts while Trident transporter slowly glided across the asteroids surface towards giant hell hole called JiYuan Open-Pit Site. But before he could reach the bottomless pit a guided missile hit the transporter, shaking it violently, barely missing the engines.
"Not even bothering with the warning shots? Damn barbarians!"
Trident soldiers braced for impact as transporter made an emergency landing. More like crashing in the ground near the Yu Jing workers barracks a few hundred meters away from the Quarry. Lion Tremere didn't bear much animosity towards humans. Poor creatures, lacking pherroglands for a proper communications, they were bound to a curse of an endless internal war, unable to believe each other in the end. All while trapped in a some shithole part of the Galaxy with Combies pouring up on them like vultures. It's only natural for Tohaa to try to save them and guide to a better future. But some humans Taqeul Officer could never forgive. Like the ones that decided to make an example in Kuraimori and flooded the streets with blood of innocent civilians to scare anyone who dares to ask for freedom. Looks like Yu Jing took a leaf from the E.I. guidebook to pacification. And their atrocities at Narooma shall never be forgiven! War criminals should be prosecuted, but politics always complicates things up. So it's nice once in a while to go in town and kick some Yu Jings and if he's lucky there might be some secret police agents lurking around for cubecrushing. But this time Taqeul Officer was unlucky. Only some japanese traitors still serving under the Yu Jing shown up to investigate the intruders. Well does it really even matter in the end who will be a meat for our symbiots? Pherrorders went swift and Trident soldiers scattered around, moving like a single living organism.

Tohaa forces:
Group one:
1. Defensive triad with Gao-Rael sniper, Kaeltar with symbiomates and Taagma posing as a Sukeul missile launcher just to mess a bit with the opponent.
2. Attacking triad with Sukeul HMG, Hatail Aelis Keesan Sensor-KHD (I have suspected that there might be a lot of camo and hidden deployment troopers in this battle) and a Makaul (DA CCW to potentially break some heaters)
3. Liberto minelayer
4. Draal SMG minelayer
5. Two Chaksa Auxiliars with heavy flamethrowers

Group two:
6. Clipsos minelayer
7. DT's retinue triad: Sakiel Leutenant with the viral combi who will be my DataTracker. Kamael paramedic to press some buttons and revive our fallen brothers and sisters. Kriigel SMG to isolate anyone who dares to come close to the DT.
8. Tohaa Diplomatic Delegate

We are playing at the JiYuan Open-Pit Site: Quarry, so mission will be a Frostbite. Three antennas in the middle to activate one of the four heaters providing some protection from the killer cold of the mines.
I won the initiative roll and went straight for the first turn, knowing too well how weak JSA is at defense. So I shall deploy first.
My classified mission is a HVT:Designation and my opponents is a Test Run.

I have deployed DT and his retinue (7) in the building in the center, Kriigel in the corner to protect heaters in case someone try to chop them. Middle zone is protected by the liberto (3) and his mine on the right flank, Draal (4) with pokemon in the middle and Clipsos minelayer in the hidden deployment (6) on the left flank. Defensive triad (1) on the right wing, Gao-Rael will be a reserve trooper. Some Chaksa (5) heating up the air with their flamethrowers at the rear. Attacking triad is on the left flank with Sukeul HMG standing on the ARO duty. And brave Diplomat (8) overlooks the battlefield with her trusty flash pulse.

My opponent deployed his five-man fireteam at the back with Domaru ready to storm in the middle. Baggage bot and a random totally not suspicious lonely keisotsu hidden on the right flank. Yojimbo is at the edge of the deployment zone, hoping that his impetuous wouldn't bring him to the attention of the Tohaa snipers. Ryuken ODD plays a mine in the middle and hides at the nearby corner. Ryuken HRL overlooks the field from the vantage point on the left. Warcor and Flashpulse bot daringly standing up in hopes of thwarting Tohaa advances. Lastly Karakuri on the left flank will perform a DataTracker duty. My opponent makes a bold move of infiltrating up the field his reserve model and luckily the infiltration roll was successful.

The main plan is to rush with Draal sowing death and mayhem with his SMG. Draal have a multiterrain so he will receive both the mission special movement bonuses and will move 8-2 inside the exclusion zone. But to free up the attacking path for the Draal some AROs need to be shot down first. Gao-Rael activates and declares idle, provoking AROs from the warcor and flashpulse bot. Warcor goes down from the two shock hits but flashpulse bot manages to win the roll. Luckily Gao-Rael passes his BTS save. Next order will be a discover to the CAMO marker, who responded with a HRL shot. Unfortunately Ryuken HRL was outside 32" optimal zone and three hits from the sniper rifle finished him off. The path is clear!

Draal is rushing up the field in his stratocloud until he reaches the corner of the building with a beautiful Ryuken operative on the other side. What a marvel to behold! Something special about her, looks like even air is dancing around, concealing her features. Unfortunately cruel submachine shots from the back ark sent Ryuken straight to the Tengoku. Next up is Karakuri datatracker, the main target, and Draal have four more regular and a single irregular order to burn. Unfortunately in the following shoot-out Karakuri tanks every smg shot thrown at her losing just a single structure in the end. Sexy cyber-geisha bot even managed to crit the Draal stripping him of his symbiont armor.
Tohaa Diplomat from the second group decides to completely ignore all the feeble flashing attempts from the flash pulse bot. She walks up to the closest antenna and activates the heater in the Tohaa deployment zone.

Yojimbo went for the Draal on his impetuous order but got shot down by the Gao-Rael sniper, protecting his buddy.

Finally it's a NINJA time!
A brave ninja in the middle of Tohaa's dead zone went for the ballest move of appearing out of nowhere in the middle of a minefield and shooting his pistol at both the Gao-Rael sniper and Sukeul HMG. Gao-Rael decided to dodge to safety and Sukeul went for the breaker pistol shots.
Well, fortune favors the bold!
Not only did the Ninja successfully crits the Gao-rael, he tackled both mines like a boss and Sukeul failed all of his shots. But in the following shoot-out our brave ninja wasn't so lucky and he ended up dead behind some crates. Encouraged by the achievements of his buddy another Ninja appeared from the shadows to... shoot the Diplomatic Delegat with his DA bow. Delegate used her usual defense mechanism and sprayed attacker with a nanopulser. At the result both ninja and delegate went for the unconscious nap.

My opponent decided that he have to do the test run on either the flash pulse bot or the Karakuri and went for the flash pulse attack. Gao-Rael easily put the bot in the uncon state. But now he have to cross the open field with his engineer Yuriko Oda to reach out to the bot. So JSA player went for another Banzai! plan and just went out from the hiding with his Core fireteam guns blazing. Unfortunately Domaru was a much better swordsman than a shooter and our heroic Gao-Rael put another star on his trusty sniper rifle. That left Yuriko Oda stranding out in the open field in the LOS of the sniper. She fired her panzerfaust projectiles, but Tohaa sniper deflected them with his superior marksmanship leaving Yuriko dead in the field. Using his remaining orders JSA player moved Karakuri to the middle and finally shot down glorious Gao-Rael.

Attacking fireteam with Sukeul HMG as a triad leader reached to the wounded Gao-Rael's position killing Kempeitai on the way. With his next order Sukeul fired on Karakuri leaving her in a dogged state.
Next turn will start with JSA in a retreat and game will be over. So Sakiel DT used all the remaining orders to move up the field until he reached the japanese HVT securing it at the end of the game. Unfortunately we have completely forgotten that Zero-G zone is a difficult terrain zone. If we would remember it the Clipsos with multiterrain would went on the secure HVT mission instead so nothing will be changed in the end.
10:0 victory for Tohaa!

Happy Tohaa player and his captured JSA adversary en road to the Harry's bar.