Asteroid Blues

While the Nomad forces shuffled around, suddenly the comms burst to life.

"Commander! Nomad dropship inbound!"

"Hacker Intercept that aircraft before it drops its payload" Sun Tzu barked.

"Negative negative hacking attempt failed!"

A single Nomad Hellcat leaped from the dropship and landed perfectly on one of the logistics center's docking platform while another Hellcat that was waiting in the flanks revealed itself.

"Er Commander Sun Tzu, actually I have sight of the second Hellcat."

"Ah miss reporter! Keep me posted on its position."

"The Hellcat is on our right flank just behind one of the buildings, I'll ping him on the tac map."

"He's firing on my position!"

"Miss reporter get out of there now!" Sun Tzu barked over the sound of automatic combi rifle fire through the comms.

"Actually... I'm fine..." The warcor breathed out.

As it turns out in a moment of panic the warcor fired her flash pulse blinding the Hellcat and cutting his assault short.

Sun Tze sensing that the Nomads had halted their advance, launched his counter attack; first by sending out the Kuang Shi to deal with the entrenched Jaguar team. As the Kuang Shi stepped out a Mobile Brigada standing watch on a sniper's nest fired a missile at the lone Kuang Shi. As fortune favors the bold the Kuang Shi evaded the deadly projectile and sought cover.

"Mobile Brigada, missile launcher on the sniper's nest"

Sgt Zhang powered up the servos of his suit, belonging to the Yan Huo regiment usually means the final say in a head-on battle. Hugging the wall to avoid being spotted the Yan Huo tried to gain visual of his prey.

"I have visual of the target, proceeding to engage." Zhang said cooly

He spooled up his Hyper-rapid magnetic cannon(HRMC) and stepped out of cover. Suddenly a figure revealed itself from its hidden position. A Nomad Intruder dropped out of camo and provided covering fire for the Mobile Brigada.

Caught off guard the Yan Huo raked the area with high-velocity rounds while trading shots with the Intruder and Mobile Brigada.

"I'm hit! I'm pulling back into cover!"

Sgt Zhang took a hit round from the Intruder's sniper rifle, while his armor held off most of the fire directed at him the sniper's armor-piercing round managed to punch through and found its mark.

Meanwhile, Senor Massacre pushed on with his Jaguar team right now applying pressure on the Yujing forces position is key. As of now the Yujing are being spread thin and cannot hold a proper counter-attack.

Still meeting no resistance and laying down smoke to cover their advance the Jaguars pushed effortlessly.

A whirl of mechanical parts alerted the team, scanning around they could see nothing, waiting for the fearsome silhouette of a Su-jian or the dreaded Ruishi.

Instead a bot poked its little head around a blind spot.

"MADTRAPS!"

The Jaguars and Senor Massacred scrambled to get out of the way as the Madtrap boosted its way towards the fireteam. Getting caught by the madtrap woud mean being glued to the spot open to anything the enemy has for you.

Sun Tzu had already anticipated this and ordered a Kanren agent to place his madtraps on the flanks at the start of their operation and it paid off.

One of the Jaguar wasn't swift enough and the Madtrap managed to immobilize him.

Seeing their comrade held down Senor Massacre and the Jaguars took an alternative route, opting instead to climb over a habitat pod.

In doing so they encountered the Guilang that had been reporting their position the whole time.

"Commander Sun Tzu, my position is compromised, I have Nomad Jaguars all over I'll try to hold them off as much as I can." The Guilang said as she drew her knife out, besting Jaguars in close combat is a hopeless endeavor.

While she managed to land a blow on the Jaguar just as they climbed over the ledge of the habitat pod it wasn't enough to stop them. The Jaguar disengaged from the fight and brought up his chain rifle; why bother trading blows in a knife fight and possibly get stabbed when you can just blow this Guilang away with no risks.

In a final act of defiance, the Guilang armed an anti-personnel mine and dropped it on her feet as she got shredded by the super-heated chain shrapnel from the chain rifle, taking out another Jaguar as it detonated.

As the battle at Liberty Cargo Logistics Center dragged on, Sun Tzu knew this would not end in his victory. He received reports of multiple losses across several sectors of the battlefield.

[20:32] Kuang Shi No. 265, KIA, gunned down by a second Nomad Intruder

[20:34] Kanren Agent Hao Feng, KIA, caught in a crossfire while attempting to engage the remaining Jaguars.

[20:40] Yan Huo Sgt Zhang Fen, incapacitated, took out the Mobile Brigada but was in turn taken out by the Intruder sniper.

[20:43] Warcor Cai Yu, incapacitated, gunned down by a Nomad Aguacile while reporting the events

Sun Tzu cut off the feed before the report could finish, now is not the time to dwell on the losses, he needs to regain control and salvage the situation albeit it being an impossibility at this moment.

He lept from his command post and made a beeline towards the Nomad's line, at that moment the remaining Jaguars rounded the corner and blasting their chain rifles catching the covering Ruishi and Sun Tzu, weathering the hail of chain rifle rounds he pumped the lead Jaguar full of shotgun shells. He however, did not emerge unscathed the chain shrapnel managed to sneak past his armor.

Sun Tzu refused to give up and continued to push towards the Nomad lines, just as he got to the middle line his comms buzzed.

"Commander, this is orders straight from Yujing high command, abandon mission the situation is lost."

Sun Tzu knew when the fight is over, he didn't like it but he, if withdrew now at least the surviving men under him, would live to fight another day.

"This is Sun Tzu, all remaining forces pull back to the extraction zone! We are leaving!"