Lieutenant Rashida Ghali stared long and hard at the young, bearded face in front of her. She did her best to ignore the disbelieving stares of Jamila and Hamdan behind the man. With a sigh she raised her goggles to her forehead.
“Let me get this straight. You're a journalist.”
The man, Munir something-or-other, nodded. “Yes ma'am!”
She let the “ma'am” wash over her.
“And you're here on this godforsaken asteroid to, what, capture footage of the fighting?”
“Yes ma'am! Viewers all over the Human Sphere want to see the brave soldiers of humanity fighting back against the alien menace!”
He was too keen, and it was driving her crazy. “OK. Well, the alien meance in this case is going to look an awful lot like Dakini Tacbots. Just stay near Zaki over there.”
Munir looked longingly over at the hulking Maghariba Guard. “I'd rather stay closer to that, ma'am.”
“Absolutely not. That thing is a bullet attractor. Stay with Zaki, stay low, and don't do anything unless we tell you to, got it?”
“Yes ma'am! I hope I get some good footag!”
- - - - -
I got this game off to a great start, moving my Khawarij up along one flank and blasting apart a Yudbot, Sophotect, and a Deva Hacker. I had Shamash locked in a classic pincer: if he moved forward, the Maghariba Guard and the Al-Fasid would deliver punishing heavy hits. If he moved towards the Khawarij, he would take a bunch of AROs directly to his face. Perfect.
Then it all went wrong.
The Marut died, which was nice. It moved up and blasted the Khawarij with a heavy flamethrower and died in the process. But the Marut had already killed the Maghariba Guard (which wouldn't hit or make an ARM roll successfully) and then the Al-Fasid fell to the Dakini fireteam. Despite knocking him in to Loss of Lieutenant I was too short on orders and achievable objective cards to take advantage of it.
Shamash put his fireteam back together and just rampaged, the Dakini doing a shocking amount of damage for such spindly little dink-a-trons. I put all his success on the fact he got the newer, beefier Dakini models, since the Dakini have never done any good prior to this.
It was only a narrow victory, though, but a firm one – 4 points to my 3.
Dakini teams are so terrifying.
Thanks for a great report as always. Sorry for the loss but I know you’ll get him back!
You have my sympathies. Always disappointing when fickle fate not only deserts you but gives you a whack on the head on the way out. Always next time, I guess.
Love Greg. Better luck next time!