Asteroid Blues

The sounds of explosions and gunfire brought the Yu Jing troops on recreation leave in the strip pouring out onto the streets, They were greeted however by an 0-12 peacekeeping convoy moving through the main street outside the bar. The drunk and fired up troopers waited for the authorities to pass before forming up into packs and swarming through the streets. The situation was getting out of hand, that was, until the troops were given an outlet for their aggression. A sleek, black dropship bearing Nomad markings landed on the pad on the upper part of the strip and started releasing a Tunguskan task force. The Yu Jing soldiers didn't need much excuse to hate the Nomads, many were veterans of the Wotan campaign and remember the treacherous Nomads helping to smuggle the Combine Army menace to Svarlarheima. The disorderly riot coalesced into a focused attack on the Tunguskan strike force entering the area.

The Yu Jing rabble formed up an impromptu battle line, A celestial guard took her pack of Kuang Shi and locked down the allyway containing the power generators, backed up by a Rui Shi. A local warcor decided to also join them, figuring he might get some good footage on the right flank.

Two pheasant rank agents with sniper rifles locked down the centre of the AO, whilst a celestial guard team formed up behind Harry's Bar, rounding out the troops in the centre.

The left flank of the combat area was left largely unguarded, save for a Kanren counter insurgency unit which disguised itself as a group of Panoceanian bolts. The trooper wasn't planning on pulling any punches, and if the press were watching, Yu Jing didn't need any negative media attention for what he planned to do. On the right flank, another Kanren saw what he had done and laughed, before following suit.

The nomads were greeted by a wall of Neoterran Bolts, supported by squads of Yu Jing troops.

The Tunguskan forces realising a fight was to take place and recognising that they now fought against a rowdy assortment of drunken troopers, rather than the hardened task force that had routed them only minutes before, concentrated all of their forces on their left flank. A team of 4 Hollowman, supported by a Stempler Zond took up place on one of the buildings, A heckler deployed next to the building to protect from any enemy hackers. A lone lineman hid behind the building as the task forces leader, a kriza borac, deployed as far forward as he could, at the top of the escalators. On the far right side of the board, a Reaktion Zond and a Spektr took up position on the right side of the board.

The conflict kicked off when an overzealous Pheasant agent fired a single well aimed shot at a Hollowman on top of a building in the distance, the glint of his scope alerting his target, who proceeded to score a direct hit on him with a Missile Launcher. Watching his nearby friend expire in an explosion of shrapnel and flames, the second Pheasant was more cautious when he chose to engage the enemy total reaction remote. This also ended in disaster when the Reaktion Zond tore him apart in a hail of machine gun fire.

Undisturbed by the collapse in the centre of the AO, the Celestial Guard yelled and sent her Kuang Shi towards the front as she laid down a wall of smoke. Her aim was off however and the enemy Reaktion Zond and a hollowman could see through a gap in the templates and decimated two of the Kuang Shi, the remainder got into a good position and proceeded to kill the enemy Heckler. As they pushed forward to start threatening the hollowman link, the Celestial Guard took a stray HMG round and was killed, another Kuang Shi was killed by the hollowman and the final one got into position and blasted the Missile launcher Hollowman with her chainrifle, which bounced harmlessly off of the Nomad's armour.

The battlefield devoid of overwatch, the Hollow man team lept over the street towards the centre building. The Missile Launcher Hollowman fired his missile as he lept across the road, killing the remaining Kuang Shi whilst its chain rifle hit and damaged the Nomad soldier. As he sailed through the air, one of the Kanren's mines exploded and the ensuing shrapnel ripped the Hollowman apart. The rest of his team jumped again, landing on the roof of the central building, another mine triggered but all four members found that their armour protected them from the blast. As the first hollowman landed on the roof, a barrage of multirifle shots knocked the Rui Shi out of action.

The team then leapt down onto the street, two members landing on the back of a vehicle, whilst another gunned down the journalist as he sailed over his head. The war correspondants camera filming the team landing, until the bulky form of a Stempler Zond crushed the camera and ended the feed.

On the right flank, the Kriza Borac charged forwards, Killing both Kanren before making a charge for the Celestial guards defending the rear of Harry's Bar. He didn't escape unscathed, the second Kanren managing to wound the Nomad leader before he was cut down. The unstoppable bulk of the power armour flung around the corner of the bar, but a quick thinking celestial guard humbled the Nomad Lieutenant, knocking him unconcious. Radio chatter confirmed that the Hollowman Hacker was now leading the Nomad force.

The Celestial Guard team and remaining Zhanying agent was all that remained standing between their nomads and victory, A Celestial Guard sprinted forward and slit the Kriza's throat with his knife, whilst the rest of the team took up defensive positions to attempt to brave the coming storm.

Spurred on by their devastating assault of the flank, the Hollow Man squad wasted no time in pressing the attack. The battlefield went silent, before the first construct slammed into the ground, spraying a volley of fire at the Yu Jing Lieutenant. A well placed premptive shot scattered the hollow man's aim and whilst he reeled, the rest of the imperial defenders cut him down in a hail of boarding shotgun and combi-rifle fire. Nomad command were desperate, the unlikely death of the Kriza had handed a decisive edge to the State empire troops that the Tunguskans desperately needed to claw back.

A second hollowman crashed into the pavement from the sky, this time, splitting his fire to limit the shots back to him. His greed was his undoing however and whilst he killed two celestial guard, the Lieutenant remained unscathed, the second hollow man dying to the defensive fire of the bar's defenders.

It was time for the final Hollow man to make his play, all other options exhausted, this time their leader entered the fray. In an explosion of concrete, the final construct collided with the pavement in a horrific bang, his shots were on target this time, however the Celestial Guard Lieutenant found that the unyielding strength of his armour protected him from the assault. He wasn't the only one to get lucky however, and the remaining state empire troops couldn't seem to penetrate the Nomad's defences.

The two leaders exchanged tense fire again, both missing under the pressure. With a defiant hiss, the final hollowman succumbed to the defensive fire of the remaining, battered Yu Jing troops.

Their bravery in the face of a hellish nomad assault carried the day, the three survivors of the battle, two celestial guard and a Zhanying agent breath a sigh of relief as central command informs them that the surviving nomads have retreated back into the drop ship.

As they looked around the carnage before them and reflect on the heavy losses of their friends, who they relaxed with not even an hour earlier, they took solace in the knowlege that the iron will of the state empire and their valiant defence had stopped whatever vile scheme the Nomads were working on this time.