Asteroid Blues

Lieutenant Rashida Ghali crouched low at the corner of the building, watching her squad fall in behind her. She spoke softly in to her mic, not wanting to risk any errant noise.

“Alright, everyone, listen up. We're not supposed to be here, so if you see any Ariadnans make sure you take them out quietly. Knives and pistols unless it's unavoidable, no explosives. Uday, that means sling that thing unless otherwise stated.”

Uday nodded his head slightly, “Yes, Rais.”

Rashida gave him a curt nod back. “OK, move out. Blackbag the VIPs and we'll be gone before those kilted maniacs know we're here.”

The squad split up, the bulk of the Khawarij forming up behind her. Zafar stopped suddenly, the squad stopping with him. He gently lowered his visor over his eyes, scanned the distance for a moment, then motioned everyone back. “Aleph operatives. At least three.” Rashida turned and nodded to Uday.

Uday took a step back. He didn't tense up or stretch, he just inhaled and hopped, the way you would leap over a small puddle. His leap, though carried him two meters directly upwards. He tucked his legs up to his chest and landed in a crouch, sheltered behind a massive crate. The moment he landed he had his rocket launcher unslung. He moved to the corner of the crate, took aim in the darkness, and fired.

The darkness of the cavern was banished by the white-gold fire as the rockets hit their mark.

- - - - -

Where our last game when hilariously against me with dice rolls, this once went perfectly for me in every possible way. Part of it was Shamash not realizing how poor his placement was. He realized the instant I started spending orders at the top of the first round that he was in no position to actually prevent me from moving freely around the board. Due to sheer dumb luck I was able to score a massive lead purely by having models standing in the right spots. I was also able to deliver a devastating salvo of heavy rockets that shattered his fireteam.

Shamash spent his turn trying to score points but there was little he could do to close the massive gap between us. He had his Dakini fireteam move up opposite the console from my lone Khawirij, but despite controlling it he was nowhere near me in points. Due to this wild imbalance we called it here, each of us satisfied with a solid victory and a crushing loss.

My Khawarij actually got some use out of super-jump. I was concerned that locking them in to a fireteam with some Naffatun would force them to lose too much mobility, but the rocket launcher Khawarij was able to get to an elevated spot by super-jumping instead of using the ladder, voiding potential AROs for his movement. Unexpected but it might be what won me the game - Shamash didn't get any free shots.

- - - - -

Video: Chuck Norris with a rocket launcher. I'm not sure why he's using it at such close range, or why he and the villain are using them in some sort of gunslinger duel, but I'm not the genius screenwriter of "Invasion U.S.A.".