Asteroid Blues

>>>RECONSTRUCTED REPORT (SGT. AURORA SIMPSON), NETWORK “SPECTRAL OWL”, FILE 2
-CLASSIFIED INDIGO-BETA, COMPARTMENTALISED-
-FILE START-

Lt. Jackman was happy to be back on duty. She was happy about most things recently, despite her recent maiming at the hands of an alien who looked like Earthworm Jim. It probably had something to do with the needles the nice doctors kept poking her with while babbling in their doctor words about “hydrostatic shock” and “voodoo-tech” and “powerful hallucinogenic properties”. She was, in fact, so thoroughly content with her situation that her Geist‘s Auxbot kept having to nudge her out of the way of errant baggage handling remotes and small buildings while she ambled around Liberty Cargo’s VTOL platforms. Aurora Simpson, second in command of Indigo Task Force Striga-2, sighed as she pulled her commanding officer’s helmeted head out of the third waste receptacle that had been examined for Shasvastii infiltrators, and was promptly admonished for interfering with a Hexahedron Special Mission. Aurora winced as the team’s comlogs nearly locked up in an attempt to delete all recorded data in the vicinity and five Geists began screeching about operational security in unison, and prepared to explain the mission. Again.

“L.T., we’re not looking for Shasvastii and we are definitely not working for the Hexahedron. That was last time. We are out here because another motion sensor tripped and Security promised us a box of jam donuts if we’d save them the walk and check it out. You don’t need to examine the trash, all you’ll find is rats. Maybe a raccoon, wouldn’t be the first time one found its way onto a hab-“. Aurora stopped herself, as the officer in the intimidating military police armour collapsed onto the floor in a fit of giggles. “The raccoons aren’t in the bins, silly Sergeant!” Jackman gasped out between chuckles and raising a finger, “They’re walking through the security zone!” Aurora blinked. Even from her commander’s impaired mind that was an unusual observation. She turned around to see what exactly had so amused Jackman, and then shoved her behind a nearby office as she registered the sight of a full combat team dressed in brown, white and black with military-grade support remotes walking across the space beneath one of the Spaceport’s massive landing pads, weapons at the ready.
Lt. Jackman cried out as her second in command pushed her into cover while preparing to question the strange intruders. Unfortunately, she cried out “Contact”. Swiss Guard Warrant Officer Victoria Keusen shimmered into sight and began tearing pieces out of the old Ramhorn TAG accompanying the intruders while Striga-2’s remotes and Aspects advanced to protect and support the team. Aurora swore to herself as she climbed onto the office’s roof beside the Sierra and her Geist updated the team’s instructions from “Investigate Sensor Anomaly” to “Secure AO”. Whatever Jackman was on must not mix well with adrenaline, since she wasted half the team’s time on comms with instructions to move up a Bulleteer and hack an Armbot Peacemaker she insisted was hiding behind a nearby wall, a target that Striga-2’s Assault Hacking Device-wielding Deva smugly assured the team, “with a 75.6 recurring probability”, was not there. Fortunately Keusen didn’t seem distracted by all the chatter and the enemy TAG disappeared from the threat display, powering down with a mechanical whine as something important broke inside its armour.

Aurora had barely had time to pump her fist into the air before the Bulleteer’s camera saw an Auxbot-2 rounding the corner right in front of it, a model that always came attached to an Armbot Peacemaker. Comms were silent for a half-second, before the Deva quietly reported “Oblivion program deployed successfully” and the Bulleteer’s feed cut to static in a gout of red flame. A new node appeared on the quantronic map as a portable repeater nodes appeared near the Deva and right next to Aurora’s building. Her blood froze as a sensor anomaly rounded the corner where she had pushed her superior officer before the firefight began. Jackman shrieked and sprayed wildly with her rifle as pistol bullets cratered the wall around her. Worse yet, the slowly building roar of an old engine and an urgently flashing red halo on Aurora’s HUD indicated that the enemy had an engineer, and had gotten their TAG back online. “Striga-2, prepare to fall back on my-” KRACKKK. With a sudden and deafening noise, smoke began pouring from behind the support strut the TAG was taking cover at and the halo vanished from the HUD again. “Disregard my last order” muttered Aurora as the office’s fire suppression system activated, covering her in foam.

Suddenly, a program opened simultaneously on every team member’s comlog, claiming that orders from Command had been issued to a file on all team comlogs since the commanding officer was unable to properly execute her duties. Aurora cleared her visor, muted Jackman and opened the file.
>>>CURRENT ORDERS, NETWORK “SPECTRAL OWL”, FILE 1-
-UNCLASSIFIED-
-FILE START-
Remove hostile Druze mercenaries (RACCOON MERCENARY CONTRACTORS) from landing area before next supply shipment. Enemy engineer recorded as Datatracker and considered especially capable of interfering with operations. If possible, preserve attached quantronic assault Aspect to aid in purging any compromised systems.
-FILE END-

Well, that wasn’t helpful. At least she knew who was shooting at her and which ones Command wanted dead. Aurora was shocked out of her contemplation by a warning beep from her comlog, indicating that Lt. Jackman had lost the gunfight outside the office and she was now in command of Striga-2. While Aurora wasn’t a trained strategist, she could still keep a team alive in the middle of a fight and immediately ordered the newly-instated Datatracker to kill the Hunzakut who had placed a repeater near the Datatracker’s effective Hacking Area, and then wreak havoc among their Hackers. Two screams of agony reported the Deva’s success, and the main body of the mercenary forces lost coordination as their Fireteam leader fell to a Lightning strike. Before the bodies had settled, a Bulleteer had walked past the bleeding infiltrator and his now-useless repeater and tore apart the enemy’s Datatracker and a bounty hunter who tried to protect her with its Spitfire. The enemy were on the ropes now, and Aurora intended to crush them before they could damage her team any further. “Sierra, advance to my position and clear their overwatch. Wait- is that a missile launcher?! ABORT! ABORT! AB-” Aurora’s world turned to razors and pain as the mercenaries’ artillery robot sighted the Sierra next to her and loosed a shot, blasting the HMG off of it and hurling her off the office roof. The last thing she saw before she hit the ground and everything went black was a Palbot fixing the Sierra as if nothing was wrong.

When she came to, Aurora couldn’t move. According to Cube medical readouts, she’d shattered her spine in a fall. A flickering readout on her cracked visor reported the destruction of the remaining Bulleteer by the enemy commanding officer, and the death of the enemy overwatch units to the restored and pre-aimed Sierra. Apparently this meant Striga-2 was winning. Radio was hectic, nobody could tell who was in charge. The Datatracker confidently announced she would secure the area for the supply ship, then her voice glitched and her vitals readout started measuring heartbeat in ohm. Probably missed a hacker. Spencer stood up and shot the repeater, but the damaged Deva just got up and walked straight out into the line of fire blasting away with a shotgun. Got their baggage too, but a Druze sighted her with a rifle and blew her head off with an oversized round. Everyone went quiet. Aurora didn’t like the quiet right now, it left nothing to distract from the pain. Another set of orders from Command sounded a welcome beeping, and Vicky finally left her perch, sprinting towards the downed Deva’s corpse. The Druze with the big rifle missed his shot, and then the port rang with the beautiful brass sound of the Swiss Guard’s machine gun perforating the enemy commander, who had been left in poor cover. The enemy’s morale broke, and the remaining soldiers ran for the spaceport’s exit as a supply ship roared into the bay. Aurora giggled as Doc Elliot ran towards her. “There are no raccoons in the security area Lt. Jackman, we can get donuts now”, she whispered to the confused corpsman as sleep claimed her.

-FILE END-

>>>ANALYSIS, NETWORK “SPECTRAL OWL”, FILE 2-
-FILE START-
This unexpected encounter with an enemy inside the intensive security perimeter of the Novyy Bangkok Liberty Cargo Spaceport allowed Spectral Owl Actual to glean several insights into the operations of mercenary organisation Raccoon Mercenary Contractors (Aliases: Trash Pandas;), the condition of Striga-2 and the effects of certain medical treatments and bodily chemical processes on Combined Army weaponry. In order of importance, the following discoveries were made;
1. Chemical treatment “SupaPharmaTech MedWand Glitter-Green” reacts adversely with the Type 056 ammunition employed by the Combined Army, causing severe but treatable damage to the brain. This treatment should be reserved for civilians and soldiers leaving active duty.
2. Spectral Owl Actual’s command and support capabilities are not able to adequately compensate for an incapable onsite commander, and Striga-2’s entire chain of command is presently unable to execute its duties. Most of its attached materiel is also damaged or destroyed. As a result, Striga-2 will be stood down and Spectral Owl Actual will be placed on probation as per SO Directive 95.
3. The Raccoon Mercenary Contractors pose no significant threat to site security. However, their preference for PanOceanian remote support units should be forwarded to the appropriate marketing teams as the nation is projected to earn a substantial profit by securing a long-term replacement contract for military combat remotes used by this company.
-FILE END-
>>>
[OOC: Sorry for the length, trying something new with a first-person perspective and I haven’t written prose since middle school. Scenario was Quadrant Control, I scored points for matching opponent’s dominated quadrants twice, having a Datatracker in a dominated quadrant twice and having more quadrants than my opponents once. ashigaru scored points for matching opponent’s dominated quadrants twice and having a Datatracker in a dominated quadrant once. Active turn was hell for both of us, dice hated whoever was spending orders and every decision was the wrong one. Only exception was my Swiss Guard doing exactly what it had to for me to secure the win in turn 1 and 3. ashigaru is one of the most fun players I’ve met so far and his Trash Pandas have quite the infamous history, so be sure to watch out for his eventual contributions for the Druze! Since I ranked lower than the remarkably unsuccessful RMC in the tournament this game was played in I think my “elite” strike team is getting sacked…]