Asteroid Blues

Yadu Ectogenesis Facility 100006062184AL

Shakti surrounded by Sophotects and Danavas sat at consoles and looking into data pads monitoring the progress of the latest Yadu cadets, a slight smile on her face as she read the latest the numbers “These cadets will be among some of the best, almost all are ready for Lhost training and in record time” a Danavas reported to Shakti, “Good, they should take to the new training simulations very well then, prep the new bodies we’ll start them with team tasks and problem solving tomorrow, from there we can pick which ones can go onto the NCO and leaderships simulations” Shakti ordered as she went to leave the control room “Now I have to go brief the 0-12 commissioner on our progress got to keep up the image that they are ‘in charge’” she smirked as others chuckled.

The facility suddenly went dark the glow of red warning lights started flashing and the blurring of alarms started to wail, looking around confused “Report!” Shakti barked at a Danavas “We’ve apprehended a Nomad infiltrator” she reported while typing and swiping on her console “They were caught trying to upload a virus to the new cadets”
“Did the virus get through?” questioned Shakti
“I’m running a scan now before getting power back up”
Franticly typing and reviewing data she reports back “All clear mam, bringing power back online now”
“Good now let’s pay a visit to our little friend, rescan everything make sure the cadets are ok to proceed” as Shakti walked away the loud beep of asystole started to ring out across the control room, Shakti looked at the stasis tubes as one by one they went dark the vitals on the tubes disappearing, glaring at the Danavas who told her it was clear and through gritted teeth she asked “What is happening” the Danavas, panicked while wading through code on her console screen “I…I don’t know it was clear!, but now there is a line of code spreading through all the stasis tubes triggering the terminate command on them, It’s spreading to quickly we need to cut the power now!”
“Do it!” shouted Shakti storming off to the holding cells where 2 Dakinis were guarding the door bursting in she saw a Shukra and another Yadu instructor working over a Zero “Stop!, let him speak” command Shakti. The Zero began laughing “How are your cad….” A loud shot rang out through the small room the round exploding out the back of the Zeros head. Holstering her heavy pistol she commands the Shukra to spin him back up for interrogation “Kill him again and spin him back up if he doesn’t talk, repeated death will make him talk eventually”
“Why don’t we just hack into his cube?” he questioned
“This will be more satisfying” she replied as she received news through her nero-link that the entire intake was killed.

10 years later, ALEPH backup node site, The Gallery Maze, 050022092194AB

Shakti lay prone on a roof her team in position for an ambush they had set for a contingent of Bakunin escorting a HVT, this one was of particular interest to Shakti as he was the person who ordered the strike against her cadets, her and her team had wiped out the Second Hand, the leader however got away he had been dark for years but with all the commotion around the colony and Paradiso he must of thought it would be ok to move location when Shakti learned he was on the colony she set a trap no respectable Nomad could refuse she let out into the world that the ALEPH back up node would be left guarded by mercenaries and under the supervision of a 0-12 commissioner due to ALEPH forces dealing with the increased presense of the Combined Army.
Her team, Yadu Team 6 ‘The Wolves’ where her most experienced Yadu team as well as her there was her NCO with a HMG, Versha who can take command over the team if she had to deal with over matters on the battlefield, her FO, Veer whose job it is to keep the relays targeted so they could be destroyed if needed, then there was Maha the newest member of the team it was his job to kill any stragglers and deploy drop bears, finishing off the team was a Samekh missile launcher bot designation SR8441, backing them up was a Shukra Consultant Shakti didn’t catch his name he a was only here to investigate any Shasvastii involvement, a Naga minelayer named Chand, Zarina an ex trauma doc from Acontecimento who had recently transcended into posthuman status, she brought along a DR with 2 Yudbots, a sniper and a FO to help Veer keep the relays targeted, a Guarda Tacbot designation GT5253 was also on standby and as always there was a Netrod deployed to send cube information back to the main ALEPH station.

They had been be silent for hours, laying in the darkness ‘Had they taken the bait’ thought Shakti, ‘they must of it was too good of an opportunity even they did think it was fake’ her trail of thought was broken by SR8441 firing a missile into the darkness a ball of flame illuminating the surrounding area and disintegrating a Morlock, the bot fired a second missile this one flying past a second Morlock who was throwing a smoke grenade it smashed into the wall weakening the tunnel, a prowler materialized out of thin air aiming at SR8441 letting lose a burst from his spitfire the rounds embedding themselves into the bot causing it’s missile to hit the ceiling above, debris collapsed onto the prowler knocking him out. Bran do Castro suddenly appeared in front of Zarina’s FO his boarding shotgun finding its mark her armor catching the slug; caught off guard she fired her Nanopulser wiping away the monkey man “wow that was lucky” all 3 of her bodies said still learning to control the voice of each one under pressure. Through the eyes of her sniper Zarina watched a team with Cassandra Kusanagi a reverend Healer and a reverend custodier she assumed they were moving up to revive the fallen Prowler as the last member of team moved out of line of sight she aimed and fired her sniper rifle revealing her position the round missed its target the ODD protecting the Custodier. The surviving Morlock moved up looking for the commissioner instead he found a mine laid by Chand, it exploded in his face shrapnel and fire consuming his body yet somehow the creature came out unscathed.

A brief lull in the battle was the sign Shakti was looking for them to start pushing forward “Good job team now move up and give um hell!”

“Chand there is a group of 4 grouped up behind a yellow car near your position; do you reckon you can get to them?” Shakti asked over their Nero-link, Chand trying to patch himself up after killing the Morlock; he couldn’t dodge the shrapnel from the chain rifle in time “Yea I should be able to get there”. Recamoing the Naga stalked around to the car, firing from the hip at the Reverend healer, the pellets from the shell peppering everyone behind the car causing the prowler and the custodier to go down, Cassandra seeing the Naga form out of nowhere jumps out of the way of the shots avoiding harm while the healer finishes off the Naga with a shot from his combi rifle. Shakti using Chand as a distraction started to move her team up tagging a relay next to her as she moved off the roof “Remember slow is smooth, smooth is fast, watch your corners Maha, take positions around the car keep their heads down!” The Wolves take up positions around the car Maha throws a drop bear down to keep them there and takes up position watching the rear while Veer targets some relays.

Trapped by the mine Cassandra calls for the Moderator team to come and deal with it, rounding the corner the moderator spots Veer and shoulders his spitfire splitting his aim between the mine and Veer the well trained moderator destroys the mine and lands some shots onto Veer luckily the rounds were caught by the superior armor of the Yadu, out ranged by the moderator Veer drops prone.
Cassandra now free to move tries to get an angle on Shakti but unwilling to move out knowing the sniper is still there sends the reverend healer out to engage with Versha, Versha seeing the healer casually raises her weapon and lets off a controlled burst her rounds striking the healer, her lifeless body falls back on to the ground, feeling the pressure from The Wolves Cassandra orders the moderator to do something, Confidently the moderator ‘slices the pie’ until the distorted image of Zarina came into view, aiming carefully he squeezes the trigger his shots land all around Zarina who in return lands her round in the neck of the moderator, franticly grabbing his neck and gargling as blood fills his lungs he stubbles around and collapses onto the floor. Enraged and frustrated from being pinned down Cassandra spots Maha facing the wrong way smirking she unleashes her spitfire toward him the rounds strike Maha in the back letting out a scream he drops to his knees as the final round hits him in the back of the head dropping him to the floor. Pi-well moves up to protect the HVT “she’s coming for me! Why aren’t you protecting me!” screams the Nomad at Cassandra, “I’m trying they have us pinned down! Try and get out use the proven route!” she screams back.

“Damn it we’re running out of time, he is not leaving here alive!” Shakti taps a command into wrist console calling for GT5253 to come in from the right flank where the HVT was last seen. The HVT turns around to see the remote walking toward it shotgun trained onto him, backing away but falling over he starts pleading with the remote while trying to move backwards “N..No it wasn’t me who gave the or…..” he fell silent as the remote fired its shotgun the spray hitting Pi-Well but causing no damage to him. Smiling, glad he had finally paid for what he had done to her students Shakti commands Veer to target the remaining relays and shouts across the battlefield “Cassandra! Surrender ALEPH will be lenient with you and your men!” Almost laughing at the notion Cassandra shouts back “Never puppet!” as she starts spiriting towards the back lines giving the order to retreat spraying her spitfire to help cover herself and her men as she did.

ALEPH Backup Node, The Gallery Maze, 070022092194AB

Shakti stood over the remains of the HVT while one of Zarina’s Yudbots was removing his cube, Versha walks over and looks at the remains with Shakti “Area is secure ma’am, Cassandra and the rest of the Nomads have gotten away into the tunnels we won’t be seeing them anytime soon” she reported.
“What of Maha and Chand?” Shakti questioned not taking her eyes off the lifeless body
“Their Lhosts are being shipped back for repair and we have recovered their cubes, we’ll have to send Maha for some remedial simulation training on finding better cover” She replied jokingly
“Good” the Yudbot hands Shakti the cube as she looks up at Versha’s expressionless helmet “We did it, we’ve avenged them”
“Will the team disband now?” Versha asked “No, there is still plenty for us to do we should get some good targets off his cube round the team up we’ll give this to the Danavas when we restock” She replied, Versha nodded and walked off calling the team together.
Shakti tossing the cube in the air “No, this is just the beginning”

We played the stock mission for the gallery maze, my opponents luck betrayed him today with him triggering treacherous terrain quite a lot and losing more models then he should of in his active turn he ended up calling it at the end of my turn 2 as there wasn’t much he could do without me countering it in my final turn it ended up being 6-0 to me. I hope you enjoyed the read again any C&C is much appreciated. Sorry for the unedited pictures again not had time to edit them and wanted to get this one in before 5 today 