Asteroid Blues

(For the requisition and the engagement that triggered everything for Dōngxī "Stuffist" Quán​, see his story there)

Upon orders of his direct superiors, Quán was just deployed on the Jiyuan quarry to protect YuJingese assets on Novyy Bangkok and help fighting the Combined Army infiltrated on this huge rock drifting in the space... The future of the whole Human Sphere was, at least partially, in his own hands. And he needed to prove he could be the leader the Yuánzhù Bùduì Assistance Force needed on the field...

As soon as Quán and his forces arrived, they could sense the tension on Novyy Bangkok. And this feeling was not wrong: it did not take an hour before the Assitance Force was assigned to their first mission. The young Lieutenant just had a call convoking him in the briefing room.

"- Welcome on the rock, Lieutenant Dōngxī Quán​. We know you just landed but we have no time to rest as the situation is already critical everywhere.
- What's happening, sir?
- It seems that diplomatic relationships are less valued than military seizure of facilities and goods around here, and as you can imagine this mining field is a key position and a great economical force around here. Some Nomads thought that they could take profit of the battle in the quarry and all the mess everywhere to raid the city where most of the civilians and non-combatants units are living.
- Shameless bandits! We might have to fight for our future as species out there and they try to back-stab us meanwhile!
- Calm down. Think that they might actually fight for their immediate life too - finding food and materials is rarely an easy task when you basically live on a space boat. Though we cannot tolerate such behaviour. We need to send a strong message to this detachment and teach them that YuJing can protect everyone that want to join or request his help - but we don't allow people to raid and loot our resources. We have almost no details on the exact situation, but we know for sure that they stopped the Heat & Protect mechanism that makes living possible in this area, hacking the command consoles. That means two things: all the civilians are locked in their buildings as the outside is getting colder each second, and you need to bring the heating units back quickly or lots of people will die soon. Now, go and make your army proud of you.
- Yes sir!

Quàn took a minute to fetch for the security drone footage of the area before deciding how to engage. Hopefully he could spot some interesting attack vectors or identify key positions and get there before the Nomads.

Quán's plan was pretty easy: he wanted to take the Corregidor force by surprise and fool them in their own game. If his men were quick enough to move in position and swiftly deploy they could jeopardize or destroy the heating units closest to the enemy and keep pressure on them so they could not advance in the city. Then, it would just be a matter of removing some key pieces on their side to win the fight and make the Nomads retreat with no benefits.

[[Here my plan is as simple as explained: I took 2 Zenchas to have decent chance to have one deployed close to the enemy heating units - if I go first, I can remove defending enemies with my Haris link and apply D-charges; if I go second I should be able to protect one or 2 consoles with my infiltrator(s)
I actually got the initiative and decided to go first as it was my plan. Only one poncho guy managed to infiltrate, but my opponent feared that I could kill his Intruder and then left an open field for him to walk around]]

[[You can see that all my forces are either hiding (like the Yisheng prone on the roof :D) or in place for quickly moving into a good position depending on the output of the first orders on the Zencha.
On his side, Bab deployed his firetrap with the palbots on my left flank, while all the other guys are hiding behind Crazy Koalas and buildings. The Intruder is prone on a balcony, ready to move all along the catwalks and rampage on my back line if not stopped.]]

The infiltrated Zencha moves first. He rapidly enters the debris zone due to the rampage heavy Nomads ships caused when destroying the survival system that needs to be repaired by his team.
On the way he enters innoinenof sight of the Mobile Brigadas team - but all camouflaged, they're not sure how to react. And as he reached a heating unit, they hold they fire waiting for him to unmask himself... He has a split-second decision to make here...

[[Well having the open field with my infiltrated BSG Zencha is cool. It is even cooler because we both clearly underestimated the power of the extra move: it basically makes you save a short order every 2 consecutive moves!
At this point, B2B with the heating unit, and my opponent deciding to delay -hoping for me to reveal myself- I actually decided to move again and find a way to approach his fireteam to distribute some mines and shotgun shells... And so did I.]]

"- Lieutenant, I have set a good mine and have the heavies in my crosshair. Starting the fire dance.
- Understood, Z2. Try to do as many damage as possible then fallback to a console or secured place."

But the Zencha had no plan to come back to his lines; out of bubblegum, he had nothing to do but kicking asses.

[[Get used to this angle. The whole game will be played on this quarter of the table!]]

"- Connection lost with Z2, Sir.
- Damn it! Mowang, Z1, Tai Sheng team, move in position right now!"

[[A coordinated order and a couple of Lt/irregular orders is enough to secure the flanks and get ready to endure the reactive turn... Damage should be limited as Bab's main threat is neutralized, and he needs to spend lots of order to get it back if he wants to push with his core team. But the Intruder is still there though, so cover is needed.]]

[[On his turn, Bab spent the whole order pool reviving his heavy infantries, and doing not much else. I have to admit that if he has been lucky enough with the Doctor rolls, first turn was a nightmare for him: he failed pretty much anything that was not a healing action...]]

[[At this point, I'm pretty confident: if most of my kills have been reverted, I lost only one Zencha to nullify a full active turn of my opponent! What a speedbump!
The idea is now to go do the same with the first Zencha, as the team is back, and that juicy Daktari Datatracker joined them in those 20cm² ';..;']]

[[So I adapted my initial plans for turn 2: the Daoying took another console to protect everyone in my army and Mowang took a defensive position mid table.
In the meantime, the Haris link moved on the left flank to stop the Nomad core advance as soon as they will turn out of the building.]]

[[On Bab's second turn, I am not so confident anymore... I lost 70+ points, 2 specialists and did not destroyed any heating units nor data tracker... But his bad luck stroke again after a successful reactive turn against my Zencha harass... And the Haidao KHD was one fire, killing 2 and a half model's before dying in a hell storm of bullets.

Bab knew the battle was not settled yet for him, but he needed a big mistake from me or another empty turn to get back on track for the victory.]]

"- Tai Sheng on the move. My companions have been downed or worse, but I can strike a fatal blow to their forces and stop them dead here with minimal risks."

[[And so did she. Looping a couple of stun grenades over the car she used as cover, she managed to peak out and kill the remaining heavy infantries. Short of orders (some of the YJ army repositionned themselves prior to this), she stayed in the street, behind the car waiting for the rest of the Nomads army to come - hoping to stop them in the rush.]]

Yuánzhù Bùduì Assistance Force:
- 7 points (2 for killing the enemy datatracker, 3 for the exclusion zone, 1 for active heating unit, 1 for classified)
- 120 pts killed

Corregidor looting force:
- 0 points (for having very bad dice almost all the game)
- 120 pts killed (well played Bab, you managed to avoid the 10-0 punishment!)