Asteroid Blues

Za’Chara was in big trouble… He rarely got nervous, but this time his heart was beating faster than normally. The stakes were high and the odds were not in his favour. But the situation required immidiate action. It was all or nothing. He drawed deep breath, snaped his knuckles and picked up his cards from the table.
– All right, ready or not here I go – he exclamed loudly to the rest of the playing group – Eat my “Dark Dweller”!
Za’Chara dropped the card on the table. Vir’Tak raised his eyebrow.
– You are baiting or what?
– Commander, are you getting desperate? – laughted Doc, holding her cards in her hands and a glass of “Shevrack” in her tail.
Kraal said nothing but shufled cards in his hand while also counting something in his head.
– Or maybe I’m just playing with you before I smash you all to pieces. Tremble before the power of my deck – Za’Chara exclamed casually, faking confidence.
– Yeeeah… Ok, lets say I’ll bite – said Vir’Tak, drawing a card from his hand – How about I’ll go with “Crimson Revenge”?
– Bold move, Commander. But I guess you leave me no choice. “Tear of Illusion” on your “Black Giant”. Take 4 damage – Doc placed her card on the table
– Go big or go home – Vir’Tak answered with a slight smile – “Mana Rebound” Doc, take 4 as well.
– Nice move Commander – Doc rose her glass – Lieutenant Kaar? Your turn.
Kaar just finished counting and rised his head from his cards.
– Ok then, here you go. Observe – he begun throwing cards on the table – “Tremors”, boosting with “Mana flow”, then again with “Time Shift”. And “Source” after all that. In total 12 damage to all of us. Which kills you all and leaves me on 1.
Vir’Tak, Za’Chara and Doc leaned silently over the table watching as he placed his cards. Then almost simultaneously they began to talk.
– Wait a second…
– You have “Time Shift” in your deck, Lieutenant?
– Oooh, boy… Nice hand…
Kraal put the rest of his hand on table and grabbed a snack from his plate.
– I have traded “Time Shift” with one of the unidrones. She needed my “Immolation” for her fire deck.
His opponents noded their heads in acknowledgement, then laughted.
– Good pick, Lieutenant Kraal – said Doc, putting her deck together from the table – Commander Za’Chara, you were baiting with that “Dark Dweller”, were you not?
– Yeah, I was desperate to be honest – Za’Chara streched on his chair – I had nothing on my hand.
– I kinda new it – laughed Vir’Tak – But it still did not matter. Good play Kraal.
– Thank you, Commander. By the way, that new expansion for this game. When it was supposed to come out?
Za’Chara looked to the ceiling, thinking.
– I think our new Shasvastii agent said something about 21-st… September, I think? I don’t quite follow how humans count their time.
– Let me check, I have it written somewhere… – Vir’Tak checked his data pad, searching for his human calendar application
– Couldn’t they count their time in a normal way? No wonder EI wants to conquer them – sighted Kraal – Commander Vir’Tak?
– Well, it seem that the date will be… Today?
All four of them froze, then they looked at each other in silence. The spark in their eyes could light up the whole mess hall.
– Well then… – Vir’Tak put his data pad down on the table slowly.
– …I think this means… – Za ‘Chara started to rise from his chair.
– …we will need to… – Doc downed the rest of her drink and put the glass on the table
– …go shopping! – Kraal stuffed his cards into the box and box into his pocket.

Kraal adjusted his hacking device. This time it will be necessary. In order to track the shippment of the new Magic: The Conference expansion they would need to access the communication center of the humans and try to hack into their storage database. Then get the cargo manifests of all the shuttles docking within last 48 hours. No small task, considering there were hundrets of them on different parts of this rock. But it was doable. Luckily, the High Command gave them orders to raid one of the many communication centers in this sector and gather some more data on Tohaa activities. Two Pretas with one stone, as they say.
So now they were approaching the mission area. Which was unnervingly quiet…
– Kerr-Nau, do you have anything? – Kraal asked while scanning transmission frequencies
– Nothing. Like, completely nothing. No humans, no data traffic. Are you sure this is it?
– The High Command was certain that there is a communication hub at these coordinates. Even our new contact will be meeting us there.
Kerr-Nau scrached his head.
– Ok, lets advance.
Kraal was looking through the unidrons status when he received an encoded information. It was their new informant. Kraal never meet him before, but he hoped he will be more… Delicate, than the previous one. Commander Vir’Tak was not amused by the fate of that agent, mostly because it was him who would have to listen to Shasvastii Intel complaints. And while technicaly it was due to enemy fire, there were some accusations of negligence on their part.
– Lieutenant Kraal, this is agent 91-V-23#58. The Tohaa forces are approaching the area of operation, you need to hurry – the message said.
– No, not again… – Kraal remembered the painfull recovery from last mission against Tohaa. This time HE will bring them the pain – All units! Tohaa forces are approaching. Secure the communication nodes and shoot to kill. Payback time everyone!

Onyx forces won the roll and choose initiative. The Q-Drone with Slave drone went on the left flank to cover the 3 antennas on the left, along with Noctifer Spitfire in Hidden Deployment. Rodok KHD and Nexus hacker went on hte middle, ready to grab middle antennas. Unidrone link went on the right.

Tohaa deployed defensively, with the approach guarded only by Sukeul HMG watching over Tohaa HVT on right side. Specialist triads went on the left, along with Draal with active Stratuscloud.

Onyx reserve was Malignos Liason Officer who deployed as close to enemy HVT as possible. Tohaa reserve was Chaksa HMG on the right tower.

Onyx turn 1
The approach to the HVT and antennas was guarded by Chaksa HMG, so Nexus hacker used his Lt order to boost Unidron PSR. Then Unidrone PSR moved a bit to catch LoS to Chaksa. And suprise, it was Taagma acting like Chaksa HMG. Bold bluff. Taagma tries to dodge, but Unidron blasts him from the roof. With the road seemingly clear, link starts to move to kill Sukeul HMG and grab some antennas on the way. They are stopped in their tracks by hidden Clipsos Sniper on the middle left tower. Unidron PSR goes down. Switching to Q-Drone and boosting him with Nexus hacker. Q-drone misses, but Clipsos also misses and goes prone. With that, Med-Tech races to repair the Unidrone and with that he completes "Test Run". Recovered Unidrone PSR kills Sukeul HMG. After some reshufling of the link, 2 of the 3 left antennas are connected by Kerr-Nau. Onyx ends, with Unidron fireteam clumped together. Big mistake because...

Tohaa turn 1
... it seems LGL on Kamael is great against clumped together remotes... Kamael LGL moves into 16 inches and starts raining grenades. After some orders, Kerr-Nau and most of the Unidrones are dead. Along with Med-Tech, who happend to be nearby. Luckily, Malignos LO survived. On the right side, Draal team moved forwards, towards Onyx HVT. Diplomatic Delegate connected one of the antennas.

Kerr-Nau just finished hacking the second communication device. He needed to have more access points to the data stream, if this mission was to be finished before humans arrive.
- Kerr-Nau, what is your situation? - Kraal voice sounded urgent.
- I have established two points of access to the data stream. We should be getting data right now. Is there a problem?
- Yes, those damn flowers are injecting their own data to the communication matrix. They are effectively jamming everything with their transmission. We need more points to filter it out.
- Ok, I'm on it. Will try to...
- Incoming fire! - Interrupted his Unidron bodyguard
Kerr-Nau only managed to spin around, when a cylindrical object landed at his feet...

Onyx turn 2
Well, I was not prepared for such loses from a single LGL... Indeed, Tohaa wrath fell from the heavens... But show must go on. Malignos springs into action and peeks from around the corner. Makaul throws smoke and Kamael LGL tries to dodge. Malignos splits his burts, two shots on Kamael and one on Makaul. Makaul throw smoke, Kamael fails his dodge but survives ARM roll. Second order, Malignos takes down both HVT and Kamael. Q-drone on the left flank exchanges fire with Draal and manages to score a crit, then moves to the centre.

Tohaa turn 2
Makaul is killed in ARO, but what is left from Onyx force on the right flank is killed by a charging Chaksa with HFT. He dies at the end, but takes with him 3 Unidrones and Malignos and manages to make In Extremis Recovery Classified. On left flank Draal Triad makes an push towards the antennas. Draal reaches the center-left antenna but Noctifer Spitfire manages to put a wound on him in ARO. Draal failes his WIP roll, so it is still 2:1 in antennas. Makaul from Draal Triad kills Noctifer, while Sukeul LO with his Triad approaches the tower that Onyx HVT is hiding behind.

Onyx turn 3
Things are getting tight. Onyx has 6 points, Tohaa 4. Whatever happens the antennas must be held. Nexus kills Makaul, shooting him in the back. Then Q-Drone moves from center to left side and kills both Diplomatic Delegate and Kamael LGL. After that, she positions herself to have LoS on all left antennas and on Sukeul on top of the left tower, if he leans out to kill HVT. Nexus runs out of cover and goes into supression, covering other antennas. Rodok, having only one order, jumps forwards closest antenna and connects it. Having done everything that can be done, Onyx ends.

Tohaa turn 3
Sukeul leans over the edge of the tower and tries to FO the HVT in order to perform HVT:Designation. In 3 orders, he finally manages to pull this off, despite being under constant fire from Q-Drone. Then on the 4-th order, he kills HVT but finally dies to the Q-Drone. Kaeltar runs under Makaul smoke towards the center antenna on the left side and connects it. At that point Tohaa has only one order left and is in no way able to connect any more antennas. With the result 6:5 for Onyx, the game ends.

Kraal lost another vitals from the Kerr-Nau team. It seems all of them were wipe out. He only managed to get partial report from Malignos about taking down a Tohaa technician.
- Not again... - He gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to loose again to Tohaa. Plus, he really needed some cards from that expansion. He peeked from his position toward the nearest aommunication device. Sure as hell, there were some Tohaa soldiers running around. He tapped some orders on his HUD and Q-Drone raced towards the target area, flanking them. He then jumped from his cover and put 3 shots into the back of the nearest Tohaa. He fall to the ground and almost instantly another one was ripped by machinegun fire from the Q-Drone.
- Got two, Kraal-senpai! - Q-Drone exclaimed happily
- Those drone speech pattern is really wierd... - Kraal though to himself - When did they learned to speak like that? And what does that "Senpai" even mean?
Never mind, there are more important things right now.
- Good job. Protect the approach and our informant - Kraal stepped into the opening, with his rifle ready - And I'll guard here.
Come on Tohaa. You shall not pass.