Asteroid Blues

The Intel division had come through with the interrogation, and discovered the identity of the man behind the whole scheme. With all propability, he was an agent of the Combined Army, sent to Novyy Bangkok to agitate the great powers against each other and to sow mistrust to weaken resistance. This had to stop, at all costs. The Task Force had been sent to locate the agent in the Main Strip, and to eliminate him at any means necessary.

"Task Force in position!" Lt. Max Delgado reported to HQ. "Proceeding in tapping the local Maya." The plan was to locate the enemy agent via his comlog, by infiltrating the local Maya network and triangulating the position. For that purpose Sergeant Mitchell had infiltrated ahead of the main force, and now revealed himself in order to crack the network open. There was no need for secrecy at this point, just speed and brute force. "Hold on, searching..." Mitchell reported as he got plugged in. "Yes, got him! He's on the side alley behind uplink 22B, on the left side of the positions!"

"Lieutenant, I'm nearest the position. Proceeding to take him out!" That was Hiram, the mercenary from Bourak that they had hired as a local guide. He knew the gutters of the Main Strip well, and was handy with guns that was useful in their current mission. The man sprinted out, and leaped atop the building with surprising agility. Max thought that he might have had a history with the famous Super-Soldier programs of the Haqqislam, which might explain the price tag on his services. But it was well worth it - a second later he reported having eye contact with the target, and then there was a series of gunfire in the area. "Hiram, report!" Max demanded. "Did we get him?" No answer, and he repeated this. "We saw it," came the voice from the Intel monitor. "Hiram got the agent, we saw him gunned down, but Hiram was caught by the man's security. Mission accomplished, get to high ground for extraction!" Max couldn't help but cheer out loud. "Task Force! We've done it!"

The last part of the plan would prove to be a bit harder than that. Max knew that this mission was likely to be one-way, as they were striking hard and fast deep into enemy-occupied territory, and didn't care about getting caught. There was a higher building in the middle of the area, and the plan was that they'd converge there after the target was done, and a lifter would pick them up before reinforcements could corner them. But already that part was going south - Mitchell had gotten nailed by a remote coming hard on the right flank, and it was mowing down his troopers one by one. The knights had managed to reach the extraction positon, and were now holding the fort. Max saw a group of enemies marching on in the wake of the remote, and realized that it was a good moment to draw some heat from the rest of the team. He sprung from behind the corner with his gun blazing, caught a hacker in the open but the squad was quick to react and the return fire forced him back. "Father, I think I can't reach your position," he called it. "Get out, while you still can. You're needed back at base, I'll figure my own way out!"

Delgado's flanking had the effect of drawing the heat off the tower where Father-Knight Mercado was holding with one of his brothers. Brother Sebastian Garibaldi had tapped the Maya uplink on the roof to call in the lifter, and they were waiting for it to arrive. The enemy was cornering them fast, but so far the two had had enough firepower to keep them from reaching their position. "Father, over there!" Garibaldi shouted suddenly, pointing his sword at someone behind Mercado. The Father-Knight turned, and his AR link immediately scanned one of the civilians in the roof with them. The overlay read her as one of the Combined Army agent's lackeys, and as a secondary target to be detained on sight. Mercado was frustrated about the mission going south, took a few brisk steps towards the woman and simply sliced her in half with his sword in one violent stroke. "A mercy, compared to what the Intel would have done..." he muttered to himself. "Lifter approaching!" Garibaldi called out, and Mercado could hear the turbines over the sporadic gunfire. Not a second too soon, he thought, as the mercenaries were finally storming the tower, and were about to swarm the knights' position. Not a clean mission, but mission accomplished nonetheless...