Asteroid Blues

Ra’id Aafah breathed heavily as she led the unit through the streets and rooftops of the Main strip, trying to stay clear of the masses of people. The Japanese were rankled by the clear defeat of their forces in the warehouses, and now the Dahshat Company was hot on their tails. They wanted the head of the commander, and here in the Main Strip they had a lot of allies.

“Take cover!” Tifah yelled from behind, diving to cover on the rooftop they were running, shots whizzed by overhead.

WOOSH!

The nearby sound of Qadim’s rocket launcher, and the distant crunch of impact could be heard. This was quickly followed by the screams of people on the street below as they scrambled to clear the area.

“Ra’id! The target is neutralized, looked like an Al’Fasid!” he said, smoke trailing from the launcher barrel.

Looking around, and bringing up her AR, she did a quick assessment of her force and the surrounding area, her forces were in good shape and the streets were cleared of civilians quickly.

“Okay, fan out, the Dahshat will not let us leave here of our own free will, so we are crushing them here and getting out, keep clear of civilians! Go!”

Acknowledgement of her orders flooded back.

WOOSH!

The sound of the rocket launcher reported again, and another distant crunch and additional column of black, acrid smoke billowing from a remote. Shortly after that the higher building next to Aafahs fireteam exploded in flame, consuming the fanous remote there, making the rest of the team duck on reflex.

“Keep your heads low! There are a lot of them out there!” Maih yelled into the chaos.

“Ra’id! Something is coming at us from down the-Ya Kalb!” Qadim cursed suddenly, as a storm of shrapnel shot up at himself and Tifah. They both dove to the side, trying to avoid it as the libertos militia continued firing and sneaking around them, shrugging off several hits from the sentry remotes. Tifah got hit in the arm and crumpled behind the barricade, yelling for Zyah “TABIB!”.

Zyah readied her medical bag, and crawled forward as the libertos got shot in the back by Leila, sneaking around the corner of a building, “Is Tifah alright?!” she yelled.
“Yea just a grazing shot, she's fine! Move up!” Aafah yelled back, “Pixie! Are you sneaking around the comms? We could use you!”

“Oh Captain, my Captain! I thought you wouldn’t ask!” came Pixies ever cheerful voice on the comms.

Sneaking up to a building, Pixies waved her arm, bring up the sparkling, distorted mirage of arcane symbols she used for her hacking overlay, picking out the signature of the Brawler hacker inside the structure, “Oh dearie, it's time to sleep now.”

Inside the structure, the hacker suddenly went still and collapsed, as the Trinity overloaded his wetware. Giggling, the Nahab moved along the buildings wall, but had to duck back suddenly when a Ghulam doctor sprayed it with shots, “Ah! Look the other way you fool! Make this easy on you!”

“Were moving forward, and will try to clear this street.” Fahim reported in as the Khawarij squad leapt off their roof top. Moving along the side of the buildings, he engaged and destroyed a rafiq suppressing the street. Moving further along he swore. Two heavily armed Bounty hunters could be seen covering the stretch. Moving along cover he tried to engage both, but a soft round suddenly thumped into his chest. Looking at it quizzically, adhesive foam suddenly spread over his chest, down his legs and arms, gluing him to the ground. Cursing as he struggled against the adhesive, his companions leapt onto the roof next to them.

“Fahim stay still, we will get you in a moment. Khadim, let's clear this street so we can safely get him pulled back.” Mosa’id awwal Toma said.

Shots rang out around them, and the impacts of rockets on buildings further down as they maneuvers. Another Libertos materialized out of the panicked crowd in the streets, and began suppressing the rooftop they were sitting on. Taking a grenade, Toma tried to lob it out over the street only for it to fall wide. The fish man cackled at the effort.

“Khadim you ready? This may not be the wisest move, but it's all we have.”

Standing on the wall, and bringing his rifle to bare, Toma squeezed the trigger as he took sight on the authorized bounty hunter he could see down the street. The bullets hit home, downing the man. Moving further on the wall, he got the libertos insight and tried putting rounds into him, but a round hit him in the shoulder. Groaning in pain, he crouched down as Khadim hit him with pain killers, and an expanding bandage on the wound to seal it. Reloading his rifle, he reengaged and downed the fighter.

“Street is clear! Were going over this building, and linking up with you Ra’id.” Toma said over the radio. “Fahim has been hit by an adhesive round, were going to need help.”

Hearing Aafah’s acknowledgement he leapt up and over the small structure he was using as cover, only at the last second seeing the hunzakut with a massive hmg looking directly at him, “Allah!”

The brief interchange of shots rang out as Toma hit the other side, and collapsed again, a new wound in his chest. “Khadim...it is not….clear…” he gasped over the radio.

“Ein, we need to see if we cant flank them, they are getting pounded on our right.” Leila said to the rafiq, who wagged its antennas and switched its led coloring to red in agreement.

With that, the rafiq bolted down the street, its red furries report, quick and accurate as it took out a fanous guarding the lane. The pair moved up, but Ein-213 quickly out paced Leila who broke off and took cover near a panoply of weapons used by the bounty hunters in the strip.

Ein came around a corner and found a lone bounty hunter in a shipping box, reloading his equipment. Catching the man completely by surprise, the shock rounds impacted into his chest and he collapsed. Pixie trying to take the opportunity bolted around the building she was hiding behind only to face to face with a suppressing bounty hunter herself. The rounds smashed into her unarmored form and threw her to the street.

The final brawler, yelled insults as he stepped from cover and sent twin rockets into Ein, ending his brave, but short run. The Dahshat forces with their leader down, reorganized and fortified their individual positions as Khadim racked a shotgun round. Leaping up on top of the small structure on the roof he was on, his shotgun blasted out twice, knocking a hunzakut to the ground. Falling to the other side of the roof, he landed by Toma, and delivered some quick clot and additional medication to him, waking him. Shaking his head, Toma grabbed his weapon and set back against the parapet.

Khadim continued forward, leaping out into the street and catching the Hunzakut off guard, his shotgun roaring again, and sending her on her back. Running forward, he secured a panoply within the building, obviously the location the scout got such heavy weaponry, and pulled out a mimetic cloak for himself. Leila rifled through her own panoply as well, also pulling a mimetic cloak.

The streets began to grow silent as the citizens dispersed, and the Dahshat forces retreated.

“Grab the wounded, and get Fahim free, we need to clear this area now!”

Aafah yelled, as she pulled her forces back.