Asteroid Blues

A proxi-alarm jangled in the supply station’s office. The administrator spun, looking for what had tripped the invisible line and saw the shadows melt out of the corner, resolve into a dreadfully-familiar shape: Shasvaasti. He had just enough time to slam the panic button on the wall before the Shrouded tore him to pieces.

Not far off, among the jumble of supply crates, conex boxes, and ammunition shipping containers, the hair on the back of Gamma Trooper-Lieutenant Knight’s neck stood up on end. Something was up. He unlimbered his Feuerbach and motioned to his fellow TF: Kopis mates on patrol with him. They fell in behind him just as the emergency notification pinged on all their visors. Something was in the Administrator’s Office. And Lieutenant Knight knew exactly what it was.

…

NOTE: The local meta is pretty dead in my area, so I tried to get in on this campaign by playing a few low-points, friendly games with some of my friends on our game night. I figured since we’re already pretty far along in the Wildfire box intro campaign and since this allows for custom missions, I’d kill two birds with one stone. This mission is a Novyy Bangkok version of M4: Sweep the Cultural Complex. Hopefully that’s allowed. If not, I’ll make do.

All that being said, this was a bloodbath.

…

Despite Lt. Knight’s premonitions, the Shasvaasti caught them by surprise as they made their way to the central building of the Supply Module, dropping Kappa Trooper VanDien like a bag of rocks. Even though the hapless trooper attempted to dodge the enemy combi fire, he still ended up crumpled on the floor. Knight returned fire with his Feuerbach, landing several solid hits on the offending Nox trooper, who had been perched on the rooftop of the admin building.
A few more Noxes poked their unsightly heads around corners, peppering his suit armor with rounds. But it held, like it always did. Knight gritted his teeth and returned fire, the Feuerbach’s roar leaving scorch marks and small craters in the walls, but failing to find a target.

A thunderous crack split the air, and Epsilon Korso’s MULTI Sniper felled another Nox who was attempting to flank the TF. Knight and the other members of Kopis continued their push. Trooper Daniel and Trooper Hexe split right to cover the side of the complex as Delta Voss lighted on the other side, graceful as ever.

The enemy Gwailo was an ugly surprise, its weapons sending Voss flying meters backwards to slump at the base of a flickering holo-ad for cigarettes. Knight growled and opened fire again, landing hit after righteous hit on the enemy battle armor, but it was Korso who downed the beast. Daniel and Hexe cut apart another Nox, and the Shrouded and Mentor left in the complex were taken down after a tense game of cat and mouse.

As Knight called in a transport for Cube recovery and medical evaluation, he knew this would not be the last he’d seen of the Shas scum on Novyy Bangkok.

…

In all seriousness, the dice did not love my opponent, and if he’d had better luck his gambit with the Gwailo might have actually wrecked my force right then and there. Well, that and my Gamma being a Gamma. That ARM 6 is something else. He’s definitely turning into one of my favorite units.