Asteroid Blues

Once more conducting investigations into Shasvastii infiltration of Liberty Cargo, our Force was moving through the medina when we encountered an unexpected sight: a group of operatives from Aleph’s Assault Sub-Section—the Steel Phallus—was carefully moving through the medina level from the opposite end of the level with the same apparent destination as my infiltration force: the Liberty Cargo administrative offices. Reinforcements for PanO, to be stopped at all costs!

I deployed the Ghulam team on the right flank, while my fellow Farzans and I moved to the right. Daylami and Ghazi irregulars, as well as a pair of support remotes, were sprinkled through your deployment area. As ever, I ordered Al Djabel forward first to cause as much havoc as possible. He quickly disabled a pair of remotes while ducking fire from the enemy thorakati, destroyed the one with sensor (coup de grace), and resumed his impersonation.

On the left flank, our Rafiq quickly advanced and scanned one of the local civilians for Shasvastii DNA, but the search came up negative (HVT: Identity Check). However, with minimal casualties to the ASS force, the counter attack was vicious.

OOC: this report was written on my phone while traveling for Arizona Armageddon IV. Savant and I played countermeasures to practice for the event. As a result of using my phone, several pictures are not oriented correctly. If you have a solution to fix this on a mobile device, please let me know in the comments. Otherwise, please enjoy the frequent use of ASS to refer to Aleph’s troops.

Al Djabel had re-concealed himself, but his protection didn’t last long. He fooled the two Myrmidons that passed him first, but Machaeon saw through his disguise and gunned him down without hesitation; one more slow lhost upload for me to deal with.

Our Ghulam team faired much better. The legendary Phoenix attempted to engage the team’s missile launcher, but misjudged the ranges and fired short, while one of the ghulam’s missiles found its mark and obliterated the “hero.”

Her luck continued, as a rampaging Thrasymedes gunned down a pair of our irregulars, but caught a pair of missiles and disappeared in a red mist. With the dangers of the rocket launchers removed, we once more moved into the attack.

The final moments of the fight were spent holding off the last Aleph counterattack and capturing vital intelligence. Machaeon engaged the Ghulam team shortly after it advanced and removed a pair of thorakatai and an encroaching drop troop. The Ghulam fought back valiantly, but ultimately Leila and the heavy gunner went down to the combined firepower of his three man strike team. Thankfully, our doctor was able revive Leila after some trial and error (Experimental Drug), and the remaining Myrmidons and Machaeon eventually fell to a mix of shotgun, rifle, and missile fire.

On the left flank, I ordered our Ragik to capture the downed enemy remote; I knew we could obtain vital intelligence from the defunct bot. He moved up, but was blindsided by the final thorakatai and succumbed to the shock round. Grumbling, I moved up our left flank, downed the thorakite with twin blasts from my boarding shotgun, and secured the enemy remote (Capture).

With only a single profit remaining, we consolidated our remaining forces and pushed on to complete our investigation into PanO complicity with Shasvastii infiltrators.

Farzan Rubie
Human Edge - Novvy Bangkok Detachment