Asteroid Blues

His first assignment on arrival to Novyy Bangkok was a “simple patrol duty”. Just a “show of presence” in a crowded and busy administrative-business sector of the spaceport. This sector was like a small city in itself: large buildings, roads filled with trucks loaded with cargoes, public terminals, crowds of people and a flashing quantronic overlay of data, news and commercials above all. Peaceful civilian life. Yet Romiras new all too well that he wouldn’t be here in case it was really that peaceful. His presence meant that High Command was expecting trouble, the one with a capital letter “T”. So he acted accordingly. For the mission he took three sekbans with their stun pistols and calming reputation, three djanbazans as a show of force, couple of fanouses with their flashlights, a kameel with EVO hacking device to keep track of quantronic side of things and a rafiq with his scanning equipment. A typical group for police and patrol mission. The fact that one of the sekbans casually carried a spitfire, one djanbazan had an HMG and couple of shihabs (TRbots) were hidden out of public view but ready — that fact was just a specops way of security insurance. Just like four Yuan Yuans on standby. Romiras really hoped he won’t need to use those pirates. But when the first explosions rocked the stones of business buildings and all went to hell (as expected) he knew he had no choice.

“Everybody this is Scimitar One. The sector is under attack. Code Infinity”.

Initiative.
I won the initiative and chose to go first. My opponent chose deployment zone and let me deploy first. He also spent a command point to cut down two orders from my second combat group (with 2 flashlight-bots and 4 yuan yans). My data-tracker was djanbazan doctor. My opponent chose Su Jian.

***

Round 1.
Qapu Khalqi.
Yuan Yuan saw a point near an enemy EVO hacking device and successfully jumped right in it. To my astonishment the bot turned out to be a lu duan with a holoprojector (which was fine) AND a heavy flamer (which was hot). In flames the bar fighter was gone. Second Yuan Yuan deviated into LoF of enemy TRbot and got bulleted down. The third Yuan Yuan was hacked in mid-flight and also deviated to TRbot and killed. But this time TRbot missed with one 20, failed his armor save and went down. The fourth and final yuan yuan managed to jump into intended destination. There he spent his own order and 3 command tokens and orders of gone collegues to try and take out a single baggage bot. He failed. Well. That sucked. But I still had a battle to win. Sekban took care of a krakot renegade. Djanbazan discovered a camo marker in enemy deployment zone to be major Lunah. After that the sekban with a spitfire put the traitorous agent down for good. One of my TRbots went forward and was AROed by a guilang (which I thought was a mine!). He survived with a good armor roll and guilang was shot down by djanbazan HMG. TRbot finally put down the enemy baggage bot (the one that burned my 3 command tokens!) I moved my guys forward and moved djanbazan away from a hiding su jian and that was my turn 1.

Yu Jing
Jager went out of the corner of the table right where I couldn’t see him. He used his SMG to shoot at my rafiq and… Failed all three shots from a good distance. My rafiq (and some djanbazans) turned a bit. But I was too eager and turned rafiqs back to Tai Sheng’s position. A bad, bad idea and my rafiq paid for it dearly. That’s how I lost my forward observer bot. Infamous lu duan (with couple of holoechoes) moved forward closer to one of my TRbots. A few taps by an enemy hacker and my terrifying total reaction weapon went to IMM-1. Ouch. Then monstrucker went on to throw a hideous drop bear near my second TRbot, but failed. Also he failed so bad that he died (the special rules of the mission backfired agains Yu Jing again). Obviously the drop bear ricocheted right into his forehead (at least that’s how I saw it in my mind). But then the Su Jian got really pissed off and got rid of my second TRbot and fanous (flashlight-bot).

Round 2.
Qapu Khalqi.
The last Yuan Yuan ran right to enemy flashlight bot and… Got himself stunned. Argh. Djanbazan HMG made a short work of Jager and moved up onto the roof. From there he finished off daoying (who was a lieutenant as I learned afterwards) and took a good position to be an ARO. Sekban with spitfire found and killed the lu duan bot (despite the three holoechoes!).

Yu Jing.
Despide terrible losses Yu Jing commander refused to give up. Su Jian killed my last flashlight bot. And my djanbazan HMG (sniff). Tai Sheng observed my HVT and completed his first classify, then made a short work of my IMM-1 TRbot. Then Su Jian, Tai Sheng and fusilier Angus (yes, yes he was there all the time, but did nothing as befits the Legend) went into Suppress Fire.

Round 3.
Qapu Khalqi.
Sekbans solve problems. That’s what I’ve learned over my years in service of Haqqislam. On paper these guys don’t look like much, but in battle they just go in, do their job and save the day. This battle was no different. Sekban with spitfire killed Tai Sheng despite supperess fire. He also almost killed Su Jian, but the cat has 9 lifes and Su Jian has NWI. Sigh.

Yu Jing.
Su Jian picked up a weapon from panoply, scanned a bot remains to get a second classify and transformed a major victory of Haqqislam into a minor one…

***

Romiras stood over the body of Jamal, who still clenched his HMG. Djanbazan doctor looked at him and shook his head. Simple patrol. Right. Romiras looked down to a street covered with ammo shells and bullet holes. Than looked up to a Haqqislam banner flying proudly (thanks to a smart placement near sector ventilation) above the tallest building of the area. Pakngein Nbis will be secured. He inhaled deeply. So, it begins. Another war.