Asteroid Blues

The dark tunnels rung with the sound of marching feet as spears of light from a half-dozen comlog screens danced across the dry walls, suffused by rising puffs of stone dust drifting in the asteroid’s low gravity. Nervous, white-knuckled hands gripped rifles, eyes glancing between the shadows searching for an expected enemy. Sgt. Aurora Simpson uneasily checked her shining comlog for signals from network nodes for the third time in as many minutes. Her small team had been burrowing into the Galleries to open a path of escape for the embattled field hospital at Liberty Cargo, but as they’d been evacuating the wounded on stretchers the entrances had been sealed. The team was separated and slowed by dozens of helpless PanOceanian soldiers, and Lt. Jackman suspected a trap. Her paranoia was infectious and even Aurora, a veteran soldier of the prestigious Neoterra Bolts, was unsettled. The doors of the hospital’s basement were thick and the maze-like Galleries lacked wireless infrastructure, leaving the soldiers cut off from any outside news for hours. They’d kept moving the wounded forward out of necessity as they had few supplies to treat them and only one Trauma-Doc who knew how to use those supplies, and people were jumping at shadows. It was only a matter of time before they snapped, so it was a relief when Doc Scarlett called out and broke the suffocating silence. “There’s an opening in the tunnel up ahead, L.T. Looks like it leads into a construction zone.” “Good. We’ll stop there for a rest and set up an AC2 transceiver. We need to find a signal to get out of here.” Lt. Jackman’s voice was tired and her words were terse. She’d been injured more badly than anyone else present, including those on stretchers, and it was a miracle she was conscious. Aurora spoke up in response. “Without a real Machinist or proper materials it will be difficult to build an AC2 system, but I’ve picked up enough know-how on campaign that I can manage if I scavenge the equipment in the construction site.” Lt. Jackman turned and nodded towards her second in command, then advanced into the open area and collapsed against a skeletal building, caution forgotten in her weariness. Aurora set down her gun and picked up some abandoned tools, beginning to assemble the complicated communications array out of scrap. The minutes began to fly by as the AC2 took shape. Her focus was perfect. She didn’t notice the beautiful young woman standing behind her until the strange girl spoke. “You need to leave.”

Aurora spun, raising her pistol at a woman in a golden bodysuit and colourful mantle, with a face concealed by an angular helmet. The stranger raised a delicate finger towards a large tunnel, big enough to fit a column of tanks. “If you follow that tunnel for 4.8 kilometres, you will come to the hangars of the Spaceport. You will find a hospital there, and its staff are bound to treat any who request aid. If you continue to operate in this area, your team will be killed to a man.” The mysterious girl turned and began to walk away. Aurora didn’t shoot- as odd as the encounter had been, the girl was still unarmed. Instead, she sent an automatically generated report to Lt. Jackman. Just seconds later, Aurora’s comlog beeped as Jackman opened a tactical network with everyone in the squad, and the officer’s voice rang through everyone’s ears. “Sgt. Simpson has encountered an unknown entity which demanded we evacuate the area without investigation. Computer analysis indicates that we may have encountered a Combined Army installation. Everyone who can stand, prepare for contact with the enemy. Elliot, get those casualties mobile and armed ASAP. Simpson, bring that AC2 online and get us comms. Keusen, find concealment and-” Aurora stopped paying attention. She had her mission. With a few final sparks from a rusty welder and the installation of an improvised battery made from a drill, the AC2 hummed into life and node signatures flickered into being on her comlog’s AR overlay. Seven comlogs, advancing from right behind the team. The PanOceanian forces turned as one, leapt into cover, and only avoided shredding the rest of their team thanks to their automated IFF systems, as the soldiers delayed at the field hospital finally caught up to their ad-hoc squad.
Lowering her rifle, Aurora scowled at herself. While Lt. Jackman shouted contact codes at the arriving soldiers and rearranged the tactical network, Aurora ran towards the buildings surrounding her AC2 and leapt up onto the roof, scanning the area for enemies with the AC2. The CA could have advanced almost right upon them during that distraction- and indeed, there was a disguised node just across the field. Another AC2 nexus, capable of concealing a whole company’s network presence. “Aurora here. We’ve got an unknown AC2, far side of the construction site, might be hiding an ambush.” “DAMN YOU, SIMPSON! All soldiers, get over to the marked locations and prepare to advance before our Sergeant fails to notice anything else!” Aurora winced at the rebuke as the arriving soldiers ran up to reinforce the right flank, while a soldier in woodland gear with no insignia watched the left. The Lt. wasn’t being fair blaming the disastrous mistake of a deployment on her; they’d all had access to the AC2’s output data. However, it didn’t change the fact that they had been completely outmanoeuvred, and as the small breakout team prepared to charge, the enemy made their appearance.
On the left, a squad of slender copper androids with rifles stacked up near buildings and bins. In the centre, what looked like a human operative with submachine guns and grenades hanging from its webbed armour skulked behind an immobilised APC, watched by a flitting shadow of a camouflaged creature. On the right, a technician that looked like she’d walked right out of an advertisement for cybernetic surgery monitored AR windows and a unit of heavy armour with a bald human head emerging from its top loaded a massive machine gun. And on the very edge of the construction site… a monster. A thin construct with golden skin and a warped feminine shape, it stood as tall as a house and balanced upon grotesque feet with tall, razor-edged heels. Its four arms cradled an enormous black carbine under metallic breasts. Its head was a streamlined helm, pitted with black grooves and craters resembling the eyes of some alien insect that seemed to stare at everyone before it. And when it spoke, its voice was measured, clear and booming. “You have chosen annihilation. If you flee, you may live. If you fight, your Cube will be crushed and your lives erased from history. Do not test us.” Lt. Jackman thumbed a command into her comlog, and a Swiss Guard’s machine gun sent a construct with a grenade launcher toppling to the ground. “Is that enough of a test for you?!”

Pvt. Nevin spoke up, his voice quavering. “How do we win this?! For all we know this is just the vanguard for a whole Contact Force hiding down here!” “Their force is largely mechanised. If we can damage their AC2 and preserve ours, we can override their communications and cut them off.” Lt. Jackman paused for a moment. This usually meant she was trying to think of something-she never stopped to consider more than one option. The Black Friar leading the Fireteam of Fusiliers sighed over his radio. “We possess no weapon that can defeat that leviathan easily. Someone must slow it down.” He hefted his weapon and signalled the team’s advance. “We shall march into the fire, for God and PanOceania.” Aurora watched in shock through her comlog as the Fireteam charged into the prepared enemy. The Friar activated his Albedo system and ran directly into the line of fire, marking the concealed skirmisher in the enemy centre for the squad’s gunner to target while he killed the mysterious Heavy Infantry gunman with his rifle. Finally he came to a stop before the leviathan, the Fireteam taking cover nearby, and roared a challenge. “You will not prevail this day, alien! God is on our side!”

It cocked its head, looking as though it were staring right through the warrior monk. “There is no God, fool. Only me.” The Friar apparently realised the same thing that was dawning on Aurora- the construct must be using a Multispectral Visor, and couldn’t see the soldier waving a sword in its face at all. It was trying to goad him into revealing himself. The scornful golem inclined its head slightly as the Friar stayed silent. “Cleverer than I expected. But you will still fail. You have neglected to guard your rear.” At that moment, Keusen the Swiss Guard shouted a warning through the network. “Their Remotes are moving! They’ve got an Engineer, just fixed up the one I damaged! Bringing it down again!” Another short burst echoed through the cavern, and the grenadier fell a second time, but the rest of the shining automatons had crossed behind a building and opened fire on the Fireteam. The Friar snapped off a few shots before he fell, dissolving back into the view of the monster. As he collapsed, it walked by like the knight had never stood there and cut down the soldiers who had followed him, one by one. As it advanced on the last Fusilier, a corporal with nothing greater than a rifle to defend himself, the crack of a powerful rifle shot split the air as a cloaked silhouette appeared on the roof of the building his Fireteam had held at the start of the fight. The Fusilier was saved from death by his armour as a giant fist sent him sprawling, but the construct had been wounded- a sparking crater had been carved into its obscene breast, where a human would keep their heart.

Without a word of instruction, Keusen advanced on the remotes. In a matter of seconds, they had been reduced to scattered scrap by her precise fire. Lt. Jackman put her command software into overdrive to unite her tactical network and accommodate for the dying Fireteam, and issued an order. “Anyone who has an opportunity, search for demolitions explosives in the construction site stockpiles. We need to destroy that AC2.” “I can do it. Nobody’s watching my lane.” The voice was Pvt. Nevin’s. He and his Auxbot moved forward to the stockpile, gathered some explosives, and took cover behind a vending machine, ready to run towards the communications device once the way was clear.

Just as Pvt. Nevin reached cover, the monstrous machine finished off the Fusilier it was fighting by stomping on his chest with its razor-sharp heels. Turning towards the invisible soldier that had damaged it, it unleashed a stream of white-hot metal against the rooftop. A stray round knocked the soldier to the ground, but their comlog indicated that they were still conscious. The robot then walked towards another construction stockpile and withdrew… a laser level tool. Aurora, peering through the gaps in the railing of the catwalk she was perched on, saw the monster’s many shoulders sag for a moment and heard something that sounded like “Really?” quietly broadcast through its speakers. The operative stalking behind the APC made his move as well, advancing on Nevin and bombarding his loyal Auxbot with E/M Grenades, which it fortunately survived thanks to its high-quality insulation.

Nevin, seeing his position bombarded and with the building-sized enemy nearly within line of fire, directed his Auxbot to charge the strange operative and burn it down while he snuck around the building towards safety and his objective. The comlog showed a fantastic view from the Auxbot as it was blown apart by an explosive blast fired by the golden colossus, yet still spraying down the target with hot flames until it stopped moving. Nevin himself ran towards the alien communications spire, planted his explosives, and detonated them with a thunderous blast. His voice sounded over the radio again. “Minor damage! It’s heavily armoured, but its power supply is cracked. We’ll be able to override their signals, but we need our AC2 at full power!” Lt. Jackman hissed through her teeth. “Why can’t anything ever be easy?! All troops, prepare to suppress that TAG! There’s nothing but us and our communications tower between it and our casualties!” As one, the PanOceanians rose to fire on the enemy, hoping to bury it under sheer weight of fire. The sniper fell first, a rapid response by the TAG sending a shock round through her neck. Lt. Jackman herself was blasted off her feet by an explosive round, an arm severed from her burned body. Aurora stood and charged directly towards the shining figure, emptying her combi-rifle into the threat below her and landing a lucky shot on its trigger arm, causing the limb to go limp and requiring it to change its grip. This provided an opening for Spencer the Machinist to move forward and threaten it as well.

The metal beast began to move again. It raised its head to meet Aurora’s eyes, and quickly followed with its carbine. Aurora’s hand was too slow as she slipped it towards her shotgun, but she was a PanOceanian soldier. The state-of-the-art weapon had fired before her finger even twitched, and the golden giant was staggered by a wave of flechettes that punctured its tiny eyes. Aurora flinched and awaited the deadly return fire, but none came- the giant was still. A static-filled voice issued from the frozen machine. “H-How? Y-You were-were-were…” The alien construct said no more, as Spencer shot it in the throat and a dying whine of white noise drowned out its words. While the giant was felled, the last of the enemy forces went berserk. Aurora spun and snapped off an accurate shot into a charging Engineer, who didn’t fall until Pvt. Nevin shot her again. Then, Aurora saw something- one last signature on her comlog. The woman who had approached her at the AC2 appeared over a parapet with a submachine gun, and shot the exposed Pvt. Nevin until he stopped moving. Before Aurora could even react, the stranger had turned and vanished again, and her comlog reported that the enemy AC2 had been suborned, giving her full control over the local networks. They’d won.

Aurora ordered what was left of the team to reconvene at the AC2. Of a 13-soldier force, only 5 remained- the Doc, Spencer, Keusen, the civilian with the too-wide grin who had arrived with the reinforcements, and Aurora herself. But all those losses were worth it in light of what they had achieved, and Aurora was delighted to tell her tired troops. “It turns out that AC2 was concealing and servicing a ship- a stealth corvette. It’s got medical supplies and even human LHosts on board. We’re finally getting evacuated, even though we have to do it ourselves.”

[OOC: A good game, and close almost to the end. The scenario was Looting and Sabotaging. I scored points for having 3 STR on my AC2 and damaging my opponent’s once, MatrixFactory scored for the opposite. We had both looted panoplies once. I’ve been playing against a lot of TAGs lately, and they’re a very different beast to regular armies- you need to slow them down and gut their order pool, or outflank them with enough firepower to kill them, and I had to do both against MatrixFactory’s scary 12-order Marut LT to keep it from blitzing my AC2 and winning the game. It was a fun experience writing a fight against an enemy so secret that you can’t even say what they are in-character in such an interesting location as the Galleries, and I hope to manage a few more before the end of Phase 2!]