Asteroid Blues

Husam operative Romiras file 006:The Gorge.

After the successful defense of Xaraks Battery Romiras and his unit were given a special mission. With accordance to secret pact between Nomad nation and Haqqislam the defense of some key infrastructure points of the Gorge were to be reinforced by special forces units of Haqqislam army.

Romiras knew that the sector he was assigned to was a crucial element of Nomads technical infrastructure. So when saboteur strike team from Shock Army of Acontecimento arrived to try to destroy it, Romiras and his men were ready.

Initiative.
I won the initiative and chose to go first. My opponent chose the deployment zone and let me deploy first. He spent a command token and removed two orders out of my three from my second group. My liaison officer was al’Hawwa and my opponent chose naga as his.

Round 1.
Qapu Khalqi.
My opponent set a strong ARO chain. Bahr-Mari sniper and regular sniper both in one and the same full link. 2 fugazi (flash pulse) and a warcor. And last but not the least a peacekeeper bot with heavy flamer bot dangerously close to my position. A tough puzzle! 2 yuan yuans were not able to safely come out on my right flank where I wanted them (to provide smoke for my djanbazan HMG), so I had to deploy them to my left. Djanbazan HMG killed a bot with heavy flamer but got stunned by warcor (by her beauty no less!) I used my EVO to buff my first TRbot with marksmanship L2. He killed the peacekeeper. Then he went on to see Bahr-Mari sniper and… to become unconscious. Classic (heh-heh). Used my command token to turn warcor order into regular and buffed my second TRbot with the same. He had better luck: managed to kill both snipers (Bahr-Mari and regular). Yuan yuan ran into the building not far from table edge where she came out. There she successfully discovered a camo marker (who turned out to be naga minelayer). Used my command token to take and order from remaining yuan yuan and ordered her to shoot dodging discovered naga by a pistol. A hit! But naga managed to save that one. Argh! My haris with 2 odalisques (rifle+light shotgun) and Leila Sharif proceed to the building with naga and yuan yuan. On their way they tried to active the console. WIP 14 check, what could go wrong? 4 orders and no activated console later I figured that it all could go wrong. At least I managed to put that annoying naga down with some light shotgun shots!

Acontecimento.
PanOceania suffered some heavy losses but the group was composed of grizzled professionals who knew their duty. They started to fight back. My opponent moved Dart into the second group and reassembled a link of Bahr-Mari and regulars. Bahr-Mari HMG killed one of my fanouses and a TRbot, but got stunned (heh!) by my warcor. Scilla and her bots proceed into a building with yuan yuan, activating one of the consoles on their way. Scylla tried to kill my yuan yuan but she dodged successfully. Bots ran inside and tried to burn down my yuan yuans and both odalisques with Leila who were just outside. Leila and odalisques and one of yuan yuans successfully dodged, only one of yuan yuans got killed. But both bots went down from chain rifles of yuan yuans. Enraged Scylla entered the building and shot both my odalisques. They both went NWI, but Scylla cought 4 nanopulsers on ARO and disappeared. Dart decided to finish what Scylla had started and managed to kill both odalisques one by one (sniff).

Round 2.
Qapu Khalqi.
Yuan yuan ran towards Dart. Then she rushed out, successfully saved a mine by armor and swung her sword at huntress. She managed to hit her, but failed to wound and got stunned by bots. EVO moved to console near Leila and managed to activate it (finally!). Al Hawwa with AHD managed to activate my second console and… got stunned by warcor. Because warcor is a god of war, no less! By the way djanbazan HMG tried to kill bot and warcor but failed and got stunned (again!). Leila activated cybermask and hid behind the cover nearby. I moved my djanbazan doctor and HMG to position them for ARO and that was my turn 2.

Acontecimento.
PanOceania decided that it was time to complete their mission. Bahr-Mari HMG made short work of my last fanous, warcor and djanbazan doctor (who turned out to be my hafza forward-observer). He also managed to scarry away my djanbazan HMG. Naga forward observer activated the second console on my opponent half of the table and then moved on to retake a console near my al Hawwa! He also positioned his fighters so that most of them could see approaches toward that console clearly. Three consoles activated by PanOceania with full link AROing the only one I could realistically retake and very few fighters of Haqqislam standing. Situation became critical and dangerously close to defeat. Which is the usual and comfortable environment for Qapu Khalqi operations!

Round 3.
Qapu Khalqi.
I moved EVO to first group. yuan yuan started to swing madly at Dart. She spent her impetuous and irregular orders on that but only managed to make huntress NWI. But she also managed to stay alive which was good. Then it was time to use my remaining six orders to win the battle. Djanbazan with shock marksman rifle turned out to be my hafza lieutenant with usual rifle. He used his lieutenant order to went out from the cover and shoot the enemy regular armed with combi-rifle. Hafza did what hafzas are supposed to do when all is at stake. He scored a crit and removed a +3 from enemy AROs. Al Hawwa looked out of the corner and used his boarding shotgun to get rid of two regulars guarding the approach to console (two shots with templates on a good distance into the first one. Then he retook the console. Djanbazan HMG peered out of the corner, saw the back of naga forward observer and killed him. Leila Sharif ran into the building for 3 remaining orders and activated the third console there.

Acontecimento.
Lieutenant regular tried to mimic hafza and attacked Leila. She got herself killed. Bahr-Mari being a badass elite that he is killed Leila Sharif and accomplished a classify (net undermine). Warcor ran down and into the empty engineering room. 4-4! But my liaison officer who deployed in the corner of the table (beyond my deployment zone) and did not move an inch during a battle managed to pass his WIP to bring me one more point and with it a hard won victory for Haqqislam.

Romiras breathed heavily. He sat with his back against the wall of engineering room, his legs stretched forward. His hands cradled his rifle. All his uniform was soaked with blood and sweat. The halls all around were covered by bodies and smoking remnants of bots. Everywhere nomad soldiers could be seen. Qapu Khalqi managed to hold the sector till reinforcements arrived and remaining PanOceanians had to abort their mission. They won but that was the hardest battle of the whole campaign. Next to Romiras sat djanbazan, his mighty HMG leaning on the wall near him. He was smoking an expensive cigar from Ariadna. Some soldiers liked that stuff. Djanbazan offered a cigar to Romiras. “No, thanks” — husam operative heard his own coarse voice — “I don’t smoke. It’s bad for health. And I try to avoid things harmful to one's health in my life”. Bloodied halls echoed the almost hysterical laugh of both men.