Asteroid Blues

Intense knocking to the door snatched Umbra Legate Vir’Tak attention from the datapad he was studying. He got so immersed in the book he was reading, that he lost contact with reality. He straighten up on his chair, little annoyed. He was getting to the good part where the human male called “Romeo” was proclaiming his interest in propagating his species to the human female called “Juliet”.
– I’m not here! – He spoke loudly, hoping the person on the other side of the door will get the hint and leave him alone.
– Vir, it’s me! This is urgent!
Vir’Tak sighted. It was Za’Chara and if he said something was urgent, it was most likely not really worth Vir’Tak time. Or trouble. Or both.
– Buddy, open up. We need to talk! – Za’Chara was persistent.
– We are not sending our Nexus Agents for that Morat booze again, if thats what it is about. We still haven’t repaired all of our Unidrones from the last time and our Shasvastii contact is still asking questions about the messages you sent. “I would like to seed your embryo” is not something you should send on a secure channel. – said Vir’Tak, trying to get back to his reading.
– It’s not about any of that. This is important. – Za’Chara voice was serious.
Vir’Tak sighted again, put down his reading glasses on the table and pushed a button on console in front of him. He will regret this, but he won’t get rid of Za’Chara that easily.
– It’s open. – He exlaimed.
Familiar figure stood in the open doors to his quarters. It was Umbra Samaritan Za’Chara, his best friend from the Academy.
– Reading that human poetry again? – he asked, entering the room
– Was trying to, then you came up… So whats the deal?
– I just got some information from our Shasvastii agent. Listen to this…

Couple minutes later…

– Let me get this straight – Vir’Tak said, while tapping his fingers on his desk – You want me to order an unathorized attack on human armory depot, because one of our Shasvastii contacts said it contains a batch of new issues of “Arachnoman”?
– It’s the grand finale of this story arc! Arachnoman faces Emerald Goblin, I waited 2 months for it because we are stuck on this rock in the midlle of nowhere – Za’Chara was agitated, as always when he was talking about his favourite image book.
– Yes, I know. But we are supposed to lay low and not attract attention. And this will attract attention. We will have all humans on this rock searching for us. Not to mention the command and EI won’t be happy about that.
– No one will know, promise. – Za’Chara stopped pacing the room and turned to Vir’Tak – I have a plan. There is some kind of human festival in two days. Armory will be left mostly unguarded. And if someone starts asking questions, we can always say we needed to contact our Shasvastii agent on site.
Vir’Tak was totaly worried now. If Za’Chara had a plan, it ment he was serious. And if so, he was fully capable of going there himself just get his hands on the prize. Vir’Tak understood his fascination with human culture since he shared it, just on other fields. But this was too risky…
– Listen, I understand but our orders… – Vir’Tak begun to spoke.
– I also heard there are some copies of “De Monarchia” from that Dante guy you are interested in – Za’Chara interrupted.
Vir’Tak went silent. Well, it is true he wanted to read that treatise. The concept of secular and religious power was very alien to him as an Umbra, but it was a very interesting topic. And a great way to understood more from human culture… He gazed on his desk for a couple of seconds, then the decision was made.
– Ok, but no one can know. And no witnesses or we are, as humans say, toast.
– I knew you’ll say yes – Za’Chara smiled broadly – You are the best, buddy
– And we cannot go ourselves. We cannot be seen around or, in case of detection, linked to this “accident” – Vir’Tak was dead serious.
– No problem, I’ll sent one of our Nexus agents. And I think I have a good candidate… – Za’Chara mused, still smiling happily

In other place of the CA camp, deep in the caves called “The Chimneys” by humans, Nexus Agent Kraal suddently woke up. He didn’t know why, but he had a really bad feeling this day won’t end very good for him…

Nexus Agent Kraal observed as his force surrounded the warehouse. The intel was, for once, correct. No human sentries, the whole sector looked deserted. He still wasn’t happy he was doing errands for his commanding officers. Not for a second he believed that story about collecting intel from that Shasvastii agent. But at least it looked like it will be fast and easy.
– Just get in, find that data and get back. And lay low everyone, don’t atract attention. – He called to all his units, as he skimmed through comm channel frequency looking for any activity.
– And find me that contact. He was supposed to be here. – As always, their Shasvastii informer was being late. He really disliked that guy/gal/whatever it’s gender was. Always late, always bossy… He knew that Unidrones hated that Shasvastii with a passion, since he was treating them like garbage at best. He will need to contact him as soon as possible or his Unidrones might fire at him “by accident”. As happened to previous commander of this little strike force.
Suddently, his comm link went active.
– Life signs detected. Tohaa pattern. They know we are coming. – Reported Noctifer Shavrax
Kraal sighted. It just couldn’t be that simple. And what are those spike heads doing here? There were no reports on Tohaa activity on this piece of rock at all… He quickly readjusted the approach orders and send warning to all his units.
– Tohaa forces located ahead. Shoot to kill. And remember we are here for that damn data…

Tohaa won the WIP roll and decided to go first. Strong ARO game in form of 2 Gao-Rael snipers in Triad, plus 2 attack Triads with Makauls, Sukeul HMG and Gao-Rael Spitfire. Also, 4 Symbiomates… Onyx deployed defensively, with Unidron Plasma Sniper and Missile Launcher Guarding the left flank. Right flank guarder only by Rodok HMG, which proved to be a horrible mistake…

Tohaa Turn 1
Kerail throws smoke, covering approach of the Triad on right flank. Makaul tries to open the armory door by brute force, but fails. After some reshuffling, Gao-Rael shoots poor Rodok HMG through smoke and blows him off the table. Yeah, that was a mistake to put him there… Makaul tries to hack the door again, and again the door held. Change of plans, Sukeul Triad moves on the left side and begins to exchange fire with Unidrone ML and PSR in the link. After some orders, with both ML and PSR Unidrones firing, the Sukeul loses his symbiomate and both Unidrones are dead. Back to the Armory door, Makaul tries to force them again, and again fails. This concludes Tohaa turn.

Onyx turn 1
After loosing almost all heavy weapons in a stupid way, its time to strike back. The Noctifer hacker comes out from Hidden Deployment and moves towards Armory doors. After opening them he moves towards Panoply and rolling 2 dice on the Booty chart he gets… 2 ADHL… Well, ok. He keeps one of them, then enters Suppresive Fire. Rodok link is restored with Nexus, and one of them tries to fire 4 combi shots at the Gao-Rael with the spitfire. Gao-Rael crits and hits 2 times, Rodok fails all saves. Second Noctifer spring into action and manages to put that Gao-Rael out. After some intense firefight Gao-Rael drops unconscious. What is left of Unidrone link moves forward to guard the approach to the Armory on the left side of the table. Not much more can be done, so Onyx ends.

Tohaa turn 2
Kamael Spec-Ops, who is also a doctor heals Gao-Rael back. Sukeul Triad uses Makaul smoke to jump the gap to the Armory but, leaves a small opening. Unidrones try to shoot anything, but fail miserably and one of them falls. Makaul gives up on the door and is changed by the Sukeul who blasts the door with his D-charges. Other units advance.

Onyx turn 2
It starts to look very bad, there is no way to stop the Tohaa advance… Unidrones try to shoot Makaul in the open but fail and Makaul hides behind smoke. Nexus Spec-Ops manages to put out Sukeul and Kriigel out but thats it.

Shavrax opened the storage door quickly and rushed inside. The gun fight was getting intense, and from the look of it, they were loosing. He had to act quickly. Running towards the data console he could hear the banging on the door in front of him. Those damn Tohaa, can't they even open the door normally?
At the console, he connected his hacking device and started to look for the requested files.
- This will take some time - he though to himself - The database is huge.
Just then he heard another loud banging to the door. According to his scanner, there were couple of Tohaa trying to force the door.
- Occupied! - yelled Shavrax, but the banging just got more intense. He whipped his comm log.
- I'm inside the target area, but they are trying to break in. Can someone please just take them out?
- Sorry Sharvax, but not really - Kraal shouted back through the gun fire - Those guys are crazy, we can't bring them down. Just hurry up!
Hurry up, great. Suddently the banging stopped, followed by metalic "clang". Shavrax instinct kicked in and he dove behing some container. Huge blast tore the door room open, throwing pieces of it inside. Shavrax noticed broken gun cases and, judging that he will need more firepower, he kicked them open.
- Oh, of course. ADHL. Great - he still picked one up, just in case. He noticed the download was almost complete, so he started shoting into the open doors while desperately trying to transfer data to the main database. There was still a chance...

Tohaa turn 3
One Makaul, now impetous charges the last Unidrone left and fries it with his flamethrower, eating plasma shot in exchange. Second Makaul rushes into the Armory, tanking all the suppresive fire from Noctifer inside for 2 orders to finally fall, after burning Noctifer to death. Kamael Spec-Ops gets in, heals the Makaul back. Kerail pushes his Surda beast on the right flank. Surda shreds the Ikadron to pieces and dies from his flames in the process. Kerail makes a raid for the Nexus hacker and Rodok Paramedic, tanking ungodly amount of shots and flash pulses and kills both.

Onyx turn 3
Loss of Lieutenant and with no other options, all Command Tokens goes to flip Irregulars into Regular Orders. Nexus Spec-Ops runs to the Armory and on his last order tries to kill Makaul and Kamael Spec-Ops inside. Makaul falls, but Kamael dodges. This ends the game.

Kraal gritted his teeth. He was just receiving data from Shavrax when his communication was cut short. It seems he got only partial file. His fellow Nexus Meerkal was trying to get to the informant, but his team was in a bad shape.
- Meerkal, what is your status? - yelled Kraal
- Those bloody weeds! - Meerkal replied angrily - They took out all my Unidrones! And now they just use that crazy tactic, where they move so you can't hit them!
- I lost contact to Shavrax inside the target area, can you push to his position?
- And what else, bring him some Eliannic wine?
- Can you, or can you not?
- Will try. By the way, our informant just run away.
- Figured that he would - Kraal shrugged - Thats not important right now, try to get to Shavrax
Meerkal shouted in response something about Tohaa parents and disconnected. Kraal looked at the Rodok at his side.
- We also need to move - he said. The helmet enclosed his face, but Kraal knew the Rodok was pissed. He just lost two partners.
- Yes, lets...
His words were cut short by the stream of projectiles from close range. He managed to duck, bullets hitting the wall behind him.
- It seems we have our problems as well... - Kraal muttered seeing a Tohaa figure emerging from behind the building and aiming in their direction. And it was supposed to be easy...