Asteroid Blues

Steel Phalanx chose first turn, leaving them to deploy first with no reserves. Being a fairly elite force, they deployed a myrmidon link with their Lieutenant Macheon and Datatracker Eudoros facing our left flank and thorakitai and an Agema Marksman with missile launcher guarding the right half of the table.

Suspecting AD troops, both our flanks were well guarded with five kuang shi on the right and wild bill and a seventh kuang shi on the left guarding Sun Tze and Yue Fei. Our flash pulse remote and bounty hunter watched over the midfield where a kanren and ninja staked out useful spots.

Diomedes cleverly appeared on the right flank just millimeters outside chain rifle range of the first Kuang Shi guard. Four Kuang Shi met a glorious demise preventing him from rolling down, gunned down one after another until the chain rifles found a chink in the AD troops armor.

The Agema neatly exploded the flash pulse bot in the middle of our DZ and caught another Kuang Shi in the blast. The myrmidon link moved up behind the apartment building on the left flank.

Now it was time for datatracking Hsien agent Yue Fei to demonstrate his competence.

Temporarily blinded and unable to track data at all, Yue Fei had to order the Rui Shi to clear out the Agema Marksman, Warcor and one of the Thorakites. It set up in suppressive fire in the midfield. A brave ninja set up in suppressive fire to try and slow the myrmidons on their way to Sun Tze.

The myrmidons, with Macheon and Eudoros, forged up the table. A boarding shotgun myrmidon engaged our Ninja.

After killing the designated target and by utilizing Eudoros's eclipse smoke, the myrmidons were able to bypass the Rui Shi's suppressive fire and get into combat with Wild Bill, deep into our deployment zone. Wild Bill held out long enough to stall them.

Our Rui Shi attempted to shoot Macheon, but he was able to cover himself and his linked buddies in eclipse smoke. At last, Sun Tze saw an opportunity to show off his unique willpower and intuition.

Sun Tze was able to kill Macheon (the enemy Lieutenant) and the boarding shotgun myrmidon. Wild Bill nobly sacrificed himself in close combat to let Eudoros receive a similar fate, but Eurodoros survived in NWI... and he was pretty angry about the situation.

Eudoros seized his chance to take down the enemy lieutenant, but Sun Tze's armor and flash pulses saw him take two wounds and manage to fail guts behind Hsien Yue Fei.

Eudoros followed up, throwing eclipse smoke to block the hsien's defense and running around him... where his sword clonked one last time of Sun Tze's breastplate. Which was... luckily... totally immune to it.

With Eudoros locked in combat, Hsien Agent Yue Fei advanced up the flank, heroically murdering the designated target and a Thorakite. Having killed the enemy lieutenant while keeping ours alive, the operation was deemed a success. Sun Tze excelled himself, but I suspect he requires some supervision to keep him from dangerous instrospection at critical moments. All shipping containers were thoroughly checked for contraband Durian, though some smelt pretty strongly they were all empty.

It is not clear what we did to anger the Aleph troops in this theatre. They normally act as our allies, perhaps our Sophotect will have some insights that she can share.