Asteroid Blues

"Threnody Zhang coming live to you from EDGE News. We have an urgent update to a story we broke earlier this week. We have video evidence transmitted DIRECTLY to our network from Nomad forces showing human collaborators working alongside Shasvastii forces within the tunnels of Novyy Bangkok.

We held this content until we could verify it was free of data artifacts or other signs of tampering. Further, local Nomad forces have confirmed this engagement occurred. EDGE News will be playing the video as received, uncut, so that our viewers may decide for themselves.

Warning, this footage includes graphic violence."

The footage begins with a Nomad patrol ambushing Shasvastii forces. They appear to be approaching an antenna array near abandoned mining facilities.

A team of Wildcats heroically defeat a heavily armored Shasvastii soldier and two of its companion drones.

The Wildcats are ambushed by a "Caliban;" with one of them falling to a cloud of nanobots. They manage to kill the creature before a tactical withdrawal.

An unknown individual (non-military, but apparently being escorted by Nomad forces) appears to be targeted by another Shasvastii with a non-lethal weapon of some kind.

This data apparently was used to track and kill the target with guided munitions.

Here's where things become deeply concerning. A human-looking figure emerges and guns down a Wildcat.

Nomad forces realize they need to transmit out using this data relay station's antennas. Our analysts speculate that the Gallery Maze was too deep for normal broadcasts, perhaps why the Shasvastii ambushed them here.

The nomad soldiers try to skirt an antipersonnel mine. Horrifically, they fail to fully clear its trigger area and an Alguacile is killed.

...and stumble into a trained Shasvastii beast, a "Taigha."

The Taigha evades an improbable number of shots, dodging and weaving towards the Mobile Brigada. An Intruder takes down the creature, but the Brigada is grievously wounded by friendly fire.

The patrol's Daktari manages to get the Mobile Brigada back on his feet, and the group is able to limp partway into cover.

Unfortunately, the aliens seem once again to paint a target. A barrage of grenades take down the Nomad fireteam.

Their command structure broken, the Nomads make a desperate effort to transmit out the records of this battle.

The human figure once again rises, *taking antennas back for the combined army* and then actively destroying them. Some loss of footage and integrity occurs as a result.

Luckily, one of the last pieces of footage to get out clearly shows an Ariadnan soldier taking and willingly following Shasvastii orders. This is the human figure that killed a Nomad soldier and worked to prevent transmission of this video.

In a further twist, an unknown individual believed to be the designated target of this Nomad patrol managed to escape. If you have any information on the identity of this individual, please contact us.

So there you have it, folks. Given the chilling implications of an Ariadnan (and therefore non-cubed) human working with Shasvastii we played the full, unmodified footage as received so that you could decide for yourselves.

We consulted numerous experts about the veracity of this footage, and found it to be highly credible. On motives, Smith Billson of the Governmental Watchdog NGO Sphere Itself suggested that weak morale following significant defeats from Haqqislam and Tohaa had led to mass Ariadnan defections. In the wake of this shocking video, he suggested caution around Ariadnans until their allegiances could be proven.

This is Threnody Zhang with EDGE News, signing out.

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Shrouded Shendii's feet ached; the surgical shortening to bring her legs close to human proportion had been wretched. But, clutching her rifle close, she reflected on a successful mission. As a reward for her outstanding service, Shasworth was moving her offspring up the priority list for embryonic selection. Like their mother-clone, these Shendii-to-be will one day make fine Shrouded.