Asteroid Blues

Yanjing operatives had intercepted communications on a concealed Nomad taskforce operating in the main strip of Novyy Bangkok. Their mission was unclear but their presence was definitely unwanted in the sector the State Empire was attempting to wrest control of behind the scenes. Command had hastily convened a 2 part team for a search and destroy mission. A group of hardened CQC Shaolin and expendable Kuang Shi to flush the Nomads out, and then an array of their best specialist operatives to ambush and cut them down after.

The battle had initially gone to plan. A Daofei had decloaked and knocked out the Nomad’s Reaktion Zond without contest, but was then stunned by a WarCor’s flash pulse. Lurching back behind the cover of a bus on the main strip his initial assault had been halted. Major Lunah revealed her presence and picked off the WarCor ensuring it would report no concillium infractions to the news, and a Daoying used its sniper rifle to eliminate a Morlock. The Shaolin and Kuang Shi surged forwards on all fronts, one Shaolin managing to trigger a mine but safely avoided it, then eliminated a Transductor Zond at the top of a stair case overlooking the main strip. The Wild Bill shadow shooter took advantage of the opening to move up and eliminate the designated target. Elsewhere a Guilang planted a second mine on the main strip’s overlook to further defend the approach to the Daoying, and then in unison the Yu Jing ambushers reactived their camouflage.

The Nomads were caught on the backfoot but recovered swiftly. A Jaguar dropped smoke cover in front of a building in the centre of the main strip and then an Intruder revealed itself. Armed with a heavy machine gun it gunned down Major Lunah and a Shaolin. A Zero assault hacker revealed itself on a rooftop gunning down a Shaolin from behind and luckily surviving and unexpected counter hack from a Ninja killer hacker. The second Transductor Zond was scooted forwards to bring the Ninja into repeater range and a Heckler killer hacker revealed itself on the other side of the table and fried the Ninja without incident. The Nomads had also taken control of a Wild Bill shadow shooter and used it with brutal efficiency, gunning down the Yu Jing HVT, and Shaolin, and its Bill clone after a second Morlock moved up and provided smoke cover for it to advance. Finally a Libertos merc revealed itself on the main strip overlook moving towards the Daoying’s position. It fired off a shotgun round at a Kuang Shi, killing it and damaging the Daoying’s mine behind it. The Intruder and Zero then reactivated their camouflage.

With the Nomads maintaining a stronger midfield presence in the main strip than had been hoped for the Kuang Shi were sent into trouble shoot the problem. One managed to use a tight corridor between the main strip’s overlook and a building to round the corner and catch the Intruder, Bill, the Transductor, and a Zero forward observer in a chain rifle blast. The Intruder managed to go prone in time but the shadow shooter sustained damage and the Transductor and Zero went down. The Daofei attempted to finish Bill off but was unsuccesful, with the shadow shooter taking cover behind a very tall billboard. The Daofei abandoned its cover behind the bus and moved to a nearby building, gunning down the Morlock that had been following Bill on the way. A Shaolin closed in on Bill and attempted to finish the job but was beaten in close quarters combat and lost his life. The Zencha popped up at the top of a set of escalators and gunned down the Heckler killer hacker he caught in the open. The Daoying climbed down from the building it was surveying the field from the rear of the main strip overlook, killed the Libertos trying to close down the flank. He planted another mine and then the Yu Jing operatives reactivated the camouflage in unison again.

Starting to feel the effects of attrition the Nomad’s Interventor Lieutenant popped up and took a shot at the Kuang Shi that had caused heavy damage in the midfield, taking it out from range before it could do anymore damage. Bill killed another Kuang Shi. The Intruder peaked above the parapet on his roof and moved to discover the Zencha. Taking aim the Intruder tried to bring the Zencha down but only managed to wound it. A second Heckler pushed up the path the Kuang Shi had been taking in the main strip and launched a Fast Panda to cover the Daofei’s position. The Wild Bill shadow shooter charged up the escalators at the prone Zencha but was beaten back by SMG fire, opting to drop prone as well. The Interventor and Intruder then bunkered down prone on top of their respective rooftops.

With the Nomad’s left flank blown wide open the Zencha reactivated its camo and made a hasty advance to the Nomad’s staging area. Climbing a bus stop it managed to get high enough to draw sight to the Interventor Lieutenant. It wasn’t a great range for the Zencha’s SMG but the Interventor’s rifle was similarly impaired, and the infowar specialist was no sharpshooter to begin with. Caught in the open the Interventor died under fire. With the head of the snake decapitated the Daofei made a run to cover the stairs leading to the Daoying, gunning down the second Heckler as he moved.

With things looking grim the Nomads attempted to play their final trump card, a Hellcat dropped into the combat zone but landed off target and was hit by the Chaiyi’s flash pulse. A Jaguar vaulted onto a dumpster to get a bead on the Zencha and took him down with his chain rifle. Realising they were in a bad position with dwindling numbers and no way to press the attack any further the Nomads opted to attempt to minimise their casaulties and evacuated.

The mission concluded with victory to the State Empire, achieving their main objectives of stopping the Nomads in their tracks and disrupting them. It was a victory paid for by their assault troops, but as always a death in service to the state was always a worthy one.