Asteroid Blues

Operative Sharif wandered along the gantries of LZ-12, one of the quieter cargo hubs within Haqqislamite jurisdiction on Novvy Bangkok. It had been only a few weeks since all hell had broken loose on the asteroid, and things seemed to be getting worse. Every faction within the Human Sphere had descended on Novvy Bangkok and staked their claims like so many other conflicts, but this time something felt different. The Shasvastii had O-12 and everyone else chasing ghosts and fighting each other; not that they needed much provocation. She stretched slowly and stared out over the scattered cargo containers and vacant landing pad of LZ-12. After two weeks of an exhausting investigation campaign within the Ariadna-controlled Xarraks Fields, High Command had finally wrested control of the weapon batteries and secured the space around Novvy Bangkok. The general order now was to consolidate and hold, bringing a measure of solidarity and respite to the brave soldiers of Haqqislam. Thoughts of a hot shower and dark, spiced tea we suddenly derailed by movement along the far perimeter fence. Bringing her weapon up, Leila sighted down the scope and adjusted the focus for maximum magnification while scanning for the movement once more. Within moments she caught her culprit; a lone Fusilier scrambled between cargo containers occasionally looking back over his shoulder or scanning the sky above himself.

“Sharif to Pakngein security control, we have something odd going on in LZ-12. Give me a visual sweep of the area…” There was a small utterance of acknowledgement in her earbud as Leila heard the telltale soft hum of an aerocam drone skimming above the cargo yard moments later. Patching into the feed via her hacking device, Leila caught sight of not only the scrambling Fusilier but also several other figures skulking through the cargo containers. Something dropped from the sky beside the aerocam in a gout of greasy black smoke and brilliant plumes of fire. “Get back here you coward!!” The drunken Yuan Yuan let another salvo of flames into the air with an enraged bellow; and in the light of that flame Leila could make out the shadowy figures of Shasvastii agents working their way toward the heart of Pakngein Control!

She was already in a dead sprint, activating the tracking beacon on her hacking device and tapping into the general comms link. “This is Operative Sharif: Shasvastii at LZ-12! I repeat, Shasvastii at LZ-12! All available units form up on my coordinates!” A few voices acknowledged her orders, but one in particular gave Leila a wicked chuckle. “Calm down Sharif. Runihura inbound.”

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Haqqislam fails the roll for initiative, my opponent chooses the other side and I deploy first. The four mission classifieds drawn are Test Run, Experimental Drug, Sabotage, and HVT: Designation; I draw Extreme Prejudice as my classified (my opponent drew the FO/Spotlight one). I decide to forego the Extreme Prejudice for Secure the HVT, as most of my list would outright kill targets. Deployed most of my force on my left-hand side and placed my HVT close, but ended up right in the middle of a nest of camo markers. My opponent provided me with only four actual targets, everything else in the field was in a marker state and his HVT clear on the other side of the table from me. He designates a ladder toward the center of the board as his Sabotage target, I choose a container block near my HVT. My plan from here is to swing around the left-side of the board and up along the middle, while keeping a hold on my HVT and using smoke and heavy ordinance to blast the Shasvastii to bits as I go. Experimental Drug and Sabotage are my main objectives in mind and there was a slight possibility of accomplishing Test Run, but HVT: Designation would require me rushing clear across the board.

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HAQQISLAM TURN 1
My freebie Yuan Yuan walks in on the left board edge just outside of my opponent’s DZ, ends up between two camo tokens and rolls for a light flamethrower on the Booty chart. He tries for a Discover+Shoot and succeeds, revealing a Seed Soldier in front of him. The Yuan Yuan opens up with his flame thrower and gets a chest mine in the face for his trouble, both survive. I throw a drop bear with my Monstrucker to deny more Shas slithering into the fight from the right and use a regular order to drop him into suppression on a rooftop. NCO Ghulam takes fireteam lead and drops smoke into an alley so the rest of the squad can move forward. MSV2 Khawarij then takes point and shoots through the smoke, blasting a dazer apart that had been set up to swamp troops near my HVT. Switching back to Group 2, the battle-mad Yuan Yuan tries once more to burn the Seed Soldier and takes another mine…both survive. I move with the Yuan Yuan and try to kill his newfound nemesis once more, and still nothing. Finally, I switch targets to another camo token within range and try my luck at a Discover/Shoot with the boarding shotgun, revealing a Caliban that promptly dodges the shot. From here, Group 1 takes over with the Khawarij in smoke absolutely dominating the area with his Mk12. I take the roof of a nearby building with Tarik, the Mk12, and a heavy Naffatun; but in the final order of the turn I get too cocky and take a shot over the railing at the revealed Caliban with the Mk12 out of smoke and get him knocked unconscious. Turn ends with a few dead Shas and Tarik prone on a roof with his fireteam broken.

SHASVASTII TURN 1
His Taigha comes bolting out of cover and running straight for my missile Ghulam, just narrowly out of range of my Monstrucker’s drop bear. Then my opponent walks Corax out into range and takes a shot at the suppressing Monstrucker, getting my engineer killed. Corax then blasts the Yuan Yuan apart from long range, gaining more ground and coming toward my HVT area. The Yuan Yuan’s archenemy comes around the corner and does a quick FO on my NCO Ghulam, scoring his personal classified. A camo marker slinks it way into the midfield and just past the center line, revealing a Caliban who then proceeds to detonate a charge on the ladder he chose and scores the Sabotage classified. The Caliban returns to camo and makes its way into my DZ and ambushes my Ghulam doctor, knocking her unconscious. The Taigha tears around a corner and comes straight for the Ghulam, who tries to put the thing down with a pistol but fails and miraculously survives the creature’s assault. A few feet behind, the NCO barely holds off the Seed Soldier with a pistol.

HAQQISLAM TURN 2
My Mukhtar doctor, with Leila Sharif in tow, swings around and sprints for the building with Tarik and soon has the Khawarij back on his feet. Experimental Drug scored, and so long as I could sweep the immediate area and hold it, Secure the HVT was in the bag as well. Reforming the link team, Tarik comes up and obliterates the nearby Caliban and the Seed Soldier below. Switching to the NCO, she drops smoke onto the rooftop and back into the same alleyway as before providing cover. Tarik takes lead and leaps off the building and into base contact with the Taigha, pummeling the thing to death and shrugging off its attack. With that Tarik leaps back up onto a roof, and proceeds to kill Corax and another trooper. The last few orders of my turn, the Mukhtar red fury and his FO buddy sprint toward my designated Sabotage target and detonate a charge. Finally, the red fury comes around a corner and shreds Victor Messer apart.

SHASVASTII TURN 2
My opponent is in Retreat at this point; and with all his medics and FO troops dead and no engineer in the list, there was little to do but call the game.

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Ramah Task Force (300 / 5.5 SWC)

GROUP 1 (7 Regular)
Tarik Mansuri - Lieutenant L2 - Spitfire
Khawarij - MSV2 - Mk12
Ghulam - NCO - Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher
Ghulam - Missile Launcher
Naffatun - Heavy Flamethrower
Ghulam Doctor Plus
Nasmat
Naffatun - Light Flamethrower

GROUP 2 (4 Regular / 1 Irregular)
Leila Sharif - KHD
Mukhtar Doctor Plus - Boarding Shotgun
Mukhtar - MSV2 - Red Fury
Mukhtar - FO
Monstrucker - Engineer - SMG

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Shasvastii Expeditionary Force (300 / 3.5 SWC)

GROUP 1 (7 Regular)
Mentor - Lieutenant
Tensho - Journalist L1
Corax Hasht - Spitfire
Victor Messer - HDPlus - Multi Rifle
Caliban - Chain of Command
Seed Soldier - Paramedic
Seed Soldier - FO

GROUP 2 (5 Regular / 1 Irregular / 1 Impetuous)
Caliban - MSV1 - Spitfire
Shrouded - Minelayer + Dazer
Shrouded - FO
Seed Soldier - FO
Seed Soldier - Paramedic
Taigha