Asteroid Blues

Clearly Angus could not let these words stand, and with that he called Indigo Bipandra and demanded that a Panoceanian assault force defend his mother's honor! She of course declined to order the strike, but that didn't stop a group of USAriadnans from breeching the hanger bay and assaulting the Haqqislam facility in patchwork pressure suits moments later. Clearly seeing the situation as fortuitous, Fusilier Angus quickly joined the Ariadnans in their attack!

Billy Joe realized through the haze of alcohol that he may have bitten off more than he could chew, so he reached behind the sushi stand's bar for any weapon that would serve (Monofiliment CCW for the win!) and charged into the fray.

No one likes it when the forces of Haqqislam and Ariadna get into a skirmish. The relationship between our two factions is one of trade and mutual benefit, and military action between our two powers only serves to sour that beneficial relationship. Fights with Ariadna are inordinately expensive in terms of resurrections and daylami shipping costs. The physicality of their individual soldiers is a true spectacle compared to the technologically based forces of the other factions of the sphere. Even the alien Tohaa require complex bio mechanical suits to match the average Ariadnan’s level of “swoll,” as the US Ariadnans are fond of saying.

None of this stopped the USAriadnan force from breaching the outer hall of the Pakngein N'Bis hanger bay and attempting to secure the facility. They failed, but at a not insignificant cost. With a massive hole ripped in the hanger, our forces were only just able to secure emergency respirators, and any action taken against the enemy ran the risk of serious internal damage as a respirator was dislodged and the cold of the vacuum seeped into unmodified lungs.

The Ariadnans kicked off their attack with a smokescreen in the center to allow them to maneuver, followed by a flanking attempt on our left. With our lines of fire obscured the fireteam--led by a lone minutemen wielding a massive HMG--moved under cover of smoke to attack our overwatching Muyibs. Unfortunately, the team turned out to be headed up by none other than the legendary Wild Bill himself. Despite all the assistance provided to the former aristo by the scientists of Haqqislam, he led the attack on our Muyib team! Although the Muyib team was eventually wiped out, they held the line long enough for us to nearly eradicate the upstart Ariadnans.

The true story lies in how Wild Bill's near-rampage was stopped almost before it began. The belligerent Billy Joe, so quick and eager to fight before, had quickly disappeared once the fighting began in earnest. We simply assumed he was a coward and had run for the proverbial hills; not so.

Screaming down from the rafters above the hanger came Billy Joe riding the massive jet of flame required to counteract his bulk. He landed just on the other side of a wall from Wild Bill, and yelling his disgust at everything good and holy in this world, he drew his shimmering weapon and charged around the corner screaming "You can't hit what you can't see!"

Clearly they could see him, because the massive human absorbed round after round from both Wild Bill and the minuteman gunner. He looked as though he might shrug off the massive damage he appeared to be taking, and indeed he was able--in a berserk rage--to cleave Wild Bill in two with a single stroke of the deadly weapon. But once Wild Bill's...parts collapse, Billy Joe succumbed to the volume of fire and slumped to the ground, no longer with us. A worthy fight from one so crude.

The cowardly Angus, meanwhile, hid behind the USAriadnans and never once fired his weapon. We believe he slunk out of the hanger bay when their forces eventually retreated.

Meanwhile, on our right flank a lone hardcase charged our coordinated Ghulam fireteam. Someone thinking that his single shotgun would be a match for our brave line troopers, be foolishly closed to what he believed to be his optimal range, only to fire his shot high and receive a tightly group cluster of pistols rounds to the chest for his troubles.

The Ghulam were then free to exploit their heavy weapons, but when I led the team to summit a nearby building I was clipped by a one-in-a-million shot from a lone grunt at maximum range who I should have easily been able to silence with my heavy machine gun. Bleeding out, I called for our Farzan to continue the fight, and only then called for our doctor to assist me.

With our farzan solidly controlling the battle while our doctor made her way to me (Classified: Experimental drug), our lurking fiday and an infiltrating daylami moved to silence the weapon of an USAriadna grunt on the central hover dock. With her out of the way, our fiday directed the overeager daylami to charge the foxtrot ranger on top of the tower. Expecting merely to clear the mine, I was pleasantly surprised to witness the daylami down the foxtrot with a blast from his shotgun and deflect the worst of the mine blast with his meager body armor. To teach the Ariadnan's a clear lesson on the price of violating the sanctity of Haqqislam holdings, the daylami rushed to the fallen foxtrot and but a pistol slug cleanly between her eyes (critical CC with pistol; Classified: predator).

With the close threat removed, our fiday unlimbered his rifle and began to methodically hunt the remaining Ariandans from above. Ultimately, only a few members of the attacking force lived to tell the tail of their defeat. We will soon mount a counter offensive to teach the Ariadnan's the price of obstructing the search for knowledge.

Lieutenant Farhan
Ghulam Regiment, Human Edge