Asteroid Blues

The major Qin Huang of the Daoying regiment, codename Xīng shā (ndr: Star Shark), commanding officer of the Invincible Army's 12th Heavy Division, was personally leading an Invincible task force heading towards the main strip that day to the great dismay of her subordinates who had begged her, in vain, to stick to her desk. It had been too long since she last felt the thrill of battle, and she didn't want her tactical skills to rust too much.

Her objective was to investigate a lead regardind alleged combined army presence near Harry's Bar, and if there were actual aliens on the Strip to engage them and destroy them. Simple enough, exactly what she needed as her first mission on Novyy-Bangkok to get back in fighting shape.

Her little group had moved fast and quietly, and they were almost on site when she heard the radio click in her helmet:

"Xīng shā this is Shìyàn-yú (ndr: pilot-fish). We got you a wild card for your game, he'll join you real soon. Do you copy?"

Wild card was a codename for the infamous Wild Bill's shadowshooters. 5 of them were on the loose near the Main Strip, and any competent hacker could take control of them for a little time. They were nowhere near as good as the real Wild Bill, but no one in their right mind would disregard free reinforcement of this quality.

"Copy Shìyàn-yú, can't wait to see him in action."

Which could not be truer. She had been on a few mission with Major Lunah, another aristeia superstar recently recruited by the Imperial Service, and had been thoroughly impressed by her lethality. And while she had seen Wild Bill's performance in the hexadome she was curious to see how its close-range duelist style would fare out on a real battlefield.

The bar was in sight when someone walked out from a dark alley right in front of her. The mysterious man, who was wearing a cowboy hat, called her out:

So here was the mighty Shadowshooter. The ressemblance with Wild Bill was uncanny, and yet... She didn't know if it was the fact that he was wearing a zuyong power-armor, with the helmet attached to his belt, or his thick Thaï accent, but something was off with this Shadowshooter.

But before she could say anything an explosion shook the ground, and the radio clicked once more:

"Xīng shā we have a visual. Shasvastii presence confirmed near Harry's Bar. I repeat, Shasvastii presence confirmed. Intercept them right now!"

"Copy Shìyàn-yú, we're almost there!"

Time was of the essence. She decided to put her concerns about the Shadowshooter aside and get back to it after the mission.

For now, there were alien to kill.

The shasvastii won the initiative and deployed first.

A nox fireteam (including a T-drone and the smart sniper rifle datatracker) was deployed around the building on the shasvastii's right flank (1) with an obsidion mechanoid inside it and a taigha creature on the far right (2). The aliens had also succefully hacked a shadowshooter, ready to storm the bar (3) while a gwailo and M-drone in duo fireteam were deployed agressively in the middle of the battlefield (4). The alleged leader of the shasvatiis, a mentor, was deployed in the back (5) with one of the med-tech's slave drone right by his side. A shrouded assault hacker was sitting on a crate behind Harry's Bar (6) with a clear access to the bar's roof. Finally, on the shasvastii's left flank (8) an E-drone was deployed while another taigha creature and an R-drone were protecting the Shasvastii's priority target (7).

The Major deployed its zuyong fireteam around the building in which she was hiding, on the left (1). The Shadowshooter was deployed in the middle, ready to meet his counter part in the bar's courtyard (2). An ysheng doctor was deployed behind a crate on the right (3), with here yaozao near the zuyong's position (4). The hac tao missile launcher was peaking over a barricade on the far right (5), invisible and ready to unleash hell on unsuspecting foes. The hulang (datatracker) was already inside the bar (6), ready to go after the shasvastii's priority target as soon as possible. A stranded Yanying operative was cowering in fear on the left (7), under the watchful eye of the haidao sniper.

The gwailo and his M-drone wanted to go after IA's designated target, but first the haidao had to be dealt with. The E-drone popped assisted fire on the T-drone, who then fired 2 extremely accurate missiles at the haidao sniper and properly pulverized him.

The haidao gone, the alien commander decided to use all the aces in its sleeve to deal various blows to the Invincible Army. First, the shrouded climbed on the bar's roof and tried to isolate the hulang below him with a surprise oblivion, but failed to crack the code of the power armor.

Slightly upset by this setback, the shasvastii commander moved on with his second scheme and air-dropped a cadmus and its decoy all around the lonely zhanshi ysheng. The airborne alien then easily disposed of yu-jing's medical support with his assault pistol.

It was now time for the Gwailo duo to move forward. After a failed satlock attempt against IA's designated target, the M-drone had to ressort to the goold old foward observer to target her, this time successfully. The nox smart sniper then took her down with its deadly guided shots. So far the alien strategy was flawless...

On to the next target: the major herself! The M-drone moved forward, closer and closer to IA's commander, ready to deal the finishing blow. But at the very last moment the Hac Tao, who had patiently waited for a good opportunity despite the shrouded revealing himself in plain sight and the cadmus killing the Ysheng a few meters away from her position, fired her missile from across the map and damaged the M-drone.
Completely caught off guard, the shasvastii commander sent the cadmus after the hac tao but the shifty alien only managed to wound her once before he was killed by the nanopulser.
Giving in to panic, the shrouded tried to dive in cover, but got blown-up as well.

Badly wounded but not yet defeated, the shasvastiis went back into hiding, waiting nervously for the Invincible Army assault.

The major's first priority was to take down the shasvastii's designated target, a task easily fulfilled by the hulang just by opening a window and shooting the unsuspecting alien at point blank with his combi-rifle.

Now, the T-drone on the roof was locking down most of the battlefield, but the shadowshooter could easily move across the bar's courtyard to reach a favorable position and shoot him down so the major decided to entrust him with this mission.

On its way there the Shadowshooter shot down both the R-drone and the E-drone with his rifle at long range, stripping the T-drone of his supportware before shooting him down as well.

His deed accomplished, he sat down in the courtyard, a beer in hand, waiting for any alien foolish enough to try and get him...

But It's not a shasvastii who came to challenge him in the courtyard, it's the Shadowshooter hacked by the combined army!

For an instant here, all the forces involved in the skirmish held their breath. But an instant is all it took for one of the gunslinger to emerge victorious.

While the shasvastiis had won the control of the courtyard, the hac tao was still blocking any potential agression against the major and had to be taken down. The gwailo made his move and managed to hit her, but only burnt her TO camo and forced her to duck behind her barricade.
The shasvastiis used this opportunity to repair both the T-drone and the E-drone.

The loss of the Shadowshooter and the fact that 2 of the EI drones were repaired was a major setback for yu-jing, but the invincibles were still in much better shape than the alien invaders.

The hulang kicked down the door leading to the courtyard and fired at the remaining Shadowshooter, but took a bullet in the shoulder. He decided to no try his luck further, fall back and set-up supressive fire in case the gunslinger decided to go after him.

On the other side of the battlefield it was finally time for the zuyongs to make their move. The heavy gunner stormed out of cover, killing a taigha creature and kept moving forward while firing at the gwailo. It took a few bursts but the zuyong did manage to take down the heavily armored shasvastii.

The zuyong heavy gunner then took position, ready to kill any shifty alien before it could get anywhere close to the major.

The situation was dire for the combined army, and the shasvastii commander decided to resort to desperate mesure.

The Shadowshooter rushed into the bar, guns blazing to try and take down the hulang, but the invincible had none of it and managed to wound the gunslinger.

In one last ditch attempt to kill the major, the med-tech rushed out of cover to try and repair the damaged M-drone, successfully but at the cost of its life. The M-drone, now back online, tried to satlock the major, but she managed to counter it with a gotcha that immobilized it while the zuyong gunned it down, sealing the fate of the shasvastiis.

Unfortunately, the shasvastii mentor was gone before the hulang could get to his position, and most of the shasvastii had vanished as well, leaving no trace of their presence except the bodies they couldn't retrieve.
Nonetheless It was still a victory for the Invincible Army: the shasvastii had taken tremendous casualties while the major and most of her men were still in fighting shape, but she decided to go back to the mining pit for now and gather whatever intel they could from the shasvastii bodies, like another one of their targets, or even the position of their nest.

However, she also had another matter to settle here at Harry's Bar, and ordered the Hulang to go take a look at their Shadowshooter's body before retreating. She didn't had to wait for long before her radio clicked:

"He's gone ma'am."

The major was bemused "What do you mean he is gone? he was shot dead by the other shadowshooter right here!"

"Well come and see for yourself ma'am, the body's gone. All that's left is a cowboy hat, and a fake mustache..."