Asteroid Blues

Infinity

This Is The Last Time

300 POINTS
O-12
Orpheus
VS Combined Army
Raptor

::XARAKS BATTERY, SEPTEMBER 26TH, 1928 HRS (NBST)/ 0328 HRS (CST)::

It was funny, Lt. Knight thought, that after all this fighting that it would come down to this. All of their efforts, all the resurrections and actual losses, and the A&S Module's fate would be determined in just a few short days. O-12's forces were spread too thin to bear up to the concentrated efforts of the rogue Tohaa, the ALEPH/Nomad dispute, and the supervision of countless other zones. Knight refused to believe that those accounts of rogues were accurate. In his mind, there was no doubt that it was Shasvaasti sleeper agents sewing all this chaos amongst the forces of the Human Sphere.

The regolith below his pneumatic shoe-pads crumbled and split with each step. They would be going outside the domes for this insertion, hiking all the way around the complex to another combination hab dome and storage facility that intel had identified as being an EI hotspot. Too many encoded transmissions and mystery sensor signatures coming from the area to be above board. Even the Ariadnan's outdated comm protocol was not as bizarre as this, they said.

The vast expanse of space stretched over the wan horizon of Novvy Bangkok, glittering with stars. The Human Edge's star blasting cold white light across its barren face cast stark shadows as Kopis passed between the buildings and craggy craters that lay on the outskirts of the batteries.

"Almost pretty, isn't it?" Hexe asked, her PanO accent clear in his helmet speakers. Knight laughed. "Almost. If it wasn't such a shithole, I could see it." He rolled his shoulders reflexively and checked that Kopis was still in good condition. It seemed like the new folks were fitting in pretty well. They had their shit together at least, and could handle themselves in a fight. The Lynx and Razor seemed like good folks, fresh from Bureau Aegis reassignment but not recruits.

The rounded, reinforced edge of the hab complex came into view as they passed through one of the canyon-wadis that traced the surface of the asteroid. The lock doors, large enough to fit exo-vehicles, were caked in dust and grime and had not seen use for some time.

This was going to be the last armory Kopis would secure before relocation. Or before the events of the next few days determine O-12's course of action. The High Commissioner had passed the memo down from on high that the manpower and resource costs of continuing to operate at the battery was becoming too high. Other tactical and strategic goals needed to be achieved.

The lock ground open as the Kappa Hacker finished her job, dust rolling in clouds off to the sides. The interior was dark, but emergency lights snapped on, broadcasting their dim light into the lock chamber. Time to make entry.

Epsilon in position, again.

The interior of the complex, once Daniel got the backups running, was a maze of small buildings, secured magazines, and shadow. Something had gotten the artificial sky projector messed up and small portions of the blue-grey expanse distorted and wobbled. The holographic clouds slid slowly across, then froze, then raced away. It was very surreal, but Knight kept his mind on the situation at hand.

He dropped a navpoint from his command interface on the coordinates of the latest cache. "This is it, boys and girls. Last one. We hold it, we can get a few hours R&R."

Korso was already scaling the nearby two-story building. The lanky Epsilon could read his mind, apparently. "Got a good angle from up here, Knight. I'll let you know if I get anything funny." Knight motioned the Lynx to go up and provide cover for the prone sniper. Sometimes even the best ones could get their focus too dialed in.

They passed through the forest of buildings, splitting their forces in the rehearsed flanking maneuvers as they did so. Gallo and her bot rolled up the right flank, moving from utility building to utility building. Having that thing's heavy riotstopper was invaluable.

The main body, spearheaded by the Gangbuster, approached the door to the cache complex when shots rang out from the left flank. "Contact! Noxes and a Cadmus, direct front!" Voss' voice barked over the net, followed immediately by a heavy burst from his rifle and the wet thunk of its underslung riotstopper.

Knight moved to the corner of the building to lay down fire and ordered Daniel to start working on the door while the Razor watched her back. The doors shot open, and Hexe and Van Dien moved in with the Gangbuster. Inside the sickly glow of panoplies caught the ripple of camouflage.

"They're in here!" Hexe screamed, opening fire.

The fight for the armory begins, yet again

Splitting its face in a horrifying rictus grin, a Speculo lunged forward with a monofilament blade, cutting through Hexe's combi. Hexe switched to her knife but it was too late, the blade pivoted and with a chillingly graceful arc, neatly bisected her. Van Dien yelled an expletive and was the next to fall to the thing's blade, combi blazing uselessly. The Gangbuster's shotgun cycled, bringing down a Caliban, but the Speculo was already on him. It was over quickly, and the Shas had taken the armory for now.

Knight saw the flatlines on his command HUD and called up some remaining unengaged troopers. This was the objective. It needed to be secured.

Gangbuster panic-fires his boarding shotgun while the Speculo overextends herself

Voss was reporting some lucky near-misses, but his units had managed to take out or glue-down most of the enemy on their side of the complex. That was good, at least. Knight rolled around the door, followed by Daniel and the Razor operative, his Feuerbach already churning rounds into the room. The Speculo, reveling in its victory, was caught off guard and shredded, as were the other Shas defenders, felled by combi fire. Knight and his comrades put a quick end to the seed forms as best they could. Disgusting things.

Knight heard Gallo call out a target and Korso's rifle spat its payload through the braincase of another glued foe. Things were looking up, despite the heavy losses in the armory initially. Knight made a note to keep Gallo and her dogbot close to the front. They were turning into a seriously successful asset.

Finally she goes down.

When the dust settled, the armory was once again in O-12's ragged, bloody hands. Knight caught his breath while a Lambda doc patched up his physical wounds again, breathing in the stale air of the hab complex. Reinforcements were en route, AEC TAK boys and girls to supplement O-12's too-few advise-and-assist teams.

Knight had worked with the TAK before. A bit wild, more than a bit drunk, but they rarely ever gave ground without a bloody fight. Hopefully, with their support, and that of whatever friendly, uncompromised Tohaa forces that were in the area, the A&S module could be held with some degree of permanence.

Until then, he was just glad that this was the last time he'd have to deploy at this battery.

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