Asteroid Blues

Abandoned buildings dotted the landscape, some intricate and others quite cold and sterile. The tunnels under the area the humans called "The Maze" were confusing, dark, and dangerous. It seems there had been some past attempts at taming this area, but all had failed. This, of course, was to the great benefit of Falshaat, Mentor and seasoned Commander of a small group of the Shasvastii Expeditionary Force. As he neared his destination, a familiar feeling came over him, both terrifying and electrifying. Rounding a corner, a figure sat on a rock to his left. The figure stood up and drew back her hood. The regal Naish smiled and a chill went down Falshaat's spine.

"I did not expect to meet you here under these circumstances, Naish" Falshaat said, bowing his head.

Sheskiin did not say anything for what seemed like an eternity, letting the silence hang over them like the very shadows of The Maze itself. She simply stared at Falshaat cooly. Finally she motioned to the cliff above her where a Gwailo and an EI M-drone just became visible over the edge. "I will be taking over command for the time being, Mentor. Reports from this area have unfortunately been tampered with and you will find far more resistance than originally anticipated."

"As Naish commands, I will obey," said Falshaat as he bowed deeply. In a way, he was actually relieved. He didn't think he had it in him to bark orders at the most famous of the Shasvastii. If the reports he received were in error, the enemy was certainly waiting for them.

Ah, the enemy. The Mentor had dealt with the nation of Yu Jing before, but not here... not so close. The unfortunate incident at the bar shined a small light on the EI's operation on this asteroid, but luckily the human nations were too busy squabbling amongst themselves to care very much. Indeed, it seemed the biggest threat was that of the human's own AI, a system they called ALEPH. Even though only ALEPH seemed to be focused enough to disrupt the EI's plans here, for the time being they had yet to actually accomplish anything. Disinformation from several infiltrated Speculo Agents on the asteroid were keeping things at bay.

As to the mission at hand, there were three humans of great interest to the EI's plans between the Yu Jing and the Shasvastii forces. The transition to command by Sheskiin was smooth, almost as if she had been in command the entire time. Expecting either Remote Drones or heavily armored infantry, Sheskiin ordered the Shrouded equipped with an Assault Hacking Device as far up the field as he could manage to lie in wait.

Just as he was getting into position, he got on the comms, "MORATS! What are they doing here?!"

Indeed, 3 Daturazi were loitering in the area, oblivious to what was about to transpire.

Sheskiin did not hesitate and gave a quick glance to the Speculo at Falshaat's side. The Speculo needed no other signal. As she moved towards the enemy's position, her physiology visibly changed. By the time she was within visual range of the Yu Jing forces she looked just like one of the humans the Shasvastii were here to collect information from.

[Mission: Countermeasures @ 300 points vs. Vanilla Yu Jing]

The two Taighas ran up and one promptly got shot by a Rui Shi while the other got stunned by a flash pulse.
The Speculo attempted to do some work, but we botched the rules a bit. She ended up going down after taking out a Monstrucker and a Monk. Not a great trade, but at least he was down a specialist.
I then spotted some poor deployment by my opponent. His Rui Shi was in the sights of my Q-drone. One volley later and both the Rui Shi and flash pulse bot were down.
At this point, Sheskiin wasn't about to let anyone else have fun without her. She spent the rest of the turn going on a rampage (without a single crit, mind!). By the end of the turn, she had taken out a Xi Zhuang, a Krakot, a Lu Duan, and two Kuang Shi... all while completing two missions.

My opponent was in a tough spot, though he still had Tai Sheng, a doctor, and a Ninja KHD in hiding. The new missions also came up somewhat favorably for him. He spent the majority of his turn killing Sheskiin and collecting two objectives himself, taking the lead since Tai Sheng was his DT. In the end, he downed my M-drone and took a couple pot shots at Doc Worm (my DT) from afar, but failed to take him out. Round 1 ended with me only losing 2 regular orders, though I was in LoL...

LoL turned out not to be as painful as I first thought it was going to be. I converted a couple orders and brought my Taigha back up for an objective with my DT. This tied us, so I spent the rest of my turn killing what I could and holding firm.

My opponent didn't have much he could do, so he brought the Ninja out of hiding and ran her up to grab one more objective by hacking a Dat (HVT).

With my last turn, I completed a 4th objective, burninated the Ninja with an Ikadron, riddled his Lt with HMG holes, and put him into retreat.

With no way to grab an objective on his last turn, he conceded.

Falshaat walked slowly across the recent battlefield, trying to survey the bloodshed. He was distracted, though... his mind always coming back to the vision of the Naish effortlessly floating across the landscape, a trail of carnage in her wake. Her automatic weapon in one hand and her humming blade in the other, she moved from target to target like an angel of death, bodies falling to the ground seemingly at the mere sight of her. It was poetic, beautiful, and horrifying. When she finally fell, she still had that same cold, deadly smile on her face.

The Mentor found himself standing above a large pool of Shasvastii blood, all that was left of the Naish since the battle had been won and an Ikadron baggage bot carried her remains back to the staging grounds. The few remaining survivors of the Yu Jing force had fled some time ago, and Falshaat had let loose the two Taigha to hunt them down. They were now back in view, stomachs visibly larger and bright red blood all over their faces and claws.

The human targets they were seeking had been captured and the Gwailo was already taking them back, deep under The Maze for "questioning". They would prove very useful in the coming days... though not necessarily alive. There would be an interrogation, then they would be given a choice: join the EI willingly, or join the EI under "extreme coercion". Either way, there would soon be three Speculo Agents emerging from this area ready to assume the roles of those ill-fated humans. They had already infiltrated the local businesses and it was now time to make a move towards the interior of the so-called "Human Sphere".

Still staring at the drying blood at his feet, Falshaat's mind once again wandered to the Naish. This time, he had an image of a regeneration chamber with her in it. The Ikadrons couldn't possibly have made it back already, but the vision was so vivid - so present - the the Mentor found he was holding his breath. Then, Sheskiin opened her eyes and Falshaat let out an audible gasp. He knew he would be seeing her again soon. He knew he would once again witness the morbid artistry of destruction that she produced. Her Red Fury mixed with Human screams was the soundtrack while her blade was the pen with which she wrote using the blood of her enemies as the ink. Now the Mentor was focused again, and a grin spread across his face. Things were going smoothly here on this desolate hunk of rock, and the inkwells were plenty...