(This will be our groups shared narrative, a report on this battle is here: https://thoughtsandswords.wordpress.com/2019/09/15/prelude-to-the-blues-battle-report/ It will serve as our narrative starting point) The damp lights of Novy Bangkonkgs main street painted everything in dirty shades. Sitting on a terrace looking down into the streets Sal could feel the agitation. Something was about to happen and it would not be pleasant. He turned around to see his old friend and comrade Saidsuni emerge from the crowd of visitors. Even here among a brimming Pub like this, she moved gracefully and mostly unnoticed between the people. Lessons of the desert stick with you. “As-salamu alaikum, my friend, what brings you here. Nothing good I guess.” “Alaikumu s-salam. As mostly you are right. I am to deliver this to you.” She gave him a data chip. “Command thought the wireless transmission.” She looked around her. “Unsafe.” “Hmm, did you read it?” She shook her head. “Well, then I´ll take a look.” He opened the file, it was an operational report one week old For Yüzbasi Sanshied al´Fesir ibn Rhayad sal Alev. This file is confidential and to be distributed in a need to know basis. Operational report on operation Dawning Dust. Nostralia, paradiso Prisoner transfer from the Qapu Khalqi internment camp Dune-3. List of Prisoners: 1: ------------- (redacted) 2: Mai Hao Xin, Yu Jing citizen, technician of Huleng Inc., known intelligence liaison to the Imperial service, incarcerated for abduction and arson, possible contact to enemy combatants on Paradiso 3: -------------- (redacted) 4: -------------- (redacted) 5: Bryian Stanek, citizen of the Nomad Nation, sales manager for Highlow buildings CO, known ties to the Midnight Sun, incarcerated for data theft, possible contact to enemy combatants on Paradiso 6: -------------- (redacted) Report from Captain Murakesh ibn Haschid. Our Escort was ready to move out, when enemy combatants appeared in the AO. First a Missile killed our ground Yuan, damaging Transport one in the process. I called in the backup Yuan and she covered our tower team in smoke. Allowing our Djanbazan to engage the enemies on our 9 to 10. He neutralized a Sniper and a Remotes, after being revived in between by our back up doctor. The Janissary heavy took out the other remote on our 10 and neutralized two Holoechos on our 4 and Hafza Alawad, hit the Missile shooter forcing her into cover. A remote on 4 was also taken out by the Djanbazan. New satellite feed showed a TAG on our 8 and I gave the order for a fast go. All transporters moved up. The Missile shooter on our 9 engaged with the Janissary heavy and put him down, but was neutralized by Hafza Alawad. The Iguana shot down Hafza Alawad, Djanbazan Mesül and Hakim Mehsut, and poured excess shots into their bodies to kill them, it also disabled truck III. In addition it traded fire with an enemy yet unidentified HI and wounded it. The TAG remained in threat on our 8. The other attacker repaired the remote and it traded fire with the Iguana, with the TAG being damaged and the remote put out of order once more. The remote also attacked our backup Yuan and she went down. By then we identified a Mowang attacking a combatant in their ranks. Which was an enemy infiltrator and putting it down. I ordered Djanbazan Ahrashur to take the Iguana on and he destroyed the TAG. The Operator landed on our exposed 7. I ordered the Kaplan to take him down and get truck III running again. While our backup doctor revived the Janissary heavy. The Kaplan took down the Pilot and I ordered her to secure the prisoner for interrogation. The trucks drove on and the first one was incapacitated by enemy fire, prisoner (redacted) was wounded by the incident. The guard attacked the bogey on his 3, yet could not remove it. Our Hacker saw an opening to take down the Nomad and took initiative, but was taken out by the neural feedback. The Nomad shot down the guard of the first truck, then they tried to block the area with smoke and White Noise. They lost a trooper to the Yu Jingese during this (Jaguar) and they shot down our last Djanbazan, who was blinded by the White Noise. The Yu Jing soldiers once more repaired their remote on the building and on our 3 a firefight between our attackers ensued, leaving two of the Nomads on the ground (Hulang guns down the Moran and the Bandit). Our heavy engaged the TR remote, twice and was shot downboth times, yet our doctor came around to bring him backup everytime. This was a stalemate, truck II was disabled by enemy fire, both crew and prisoner Mai Hao Xin were wounded. The third truck used the debris as cover to advance. The Nomads hacked into the trucks system in order to slow it down. For a moment this worked. The Nomads and Yu Jingese traded some fire on our 2. Awhile the remote on the roof shot down our Janissary heavy, this time killing him. The Kaplan advanced again and hit the encroaching Mowang with a Blitzen disabling it. While the Nomads consolidated and tried to destroy the enemy skirmisher (Hulang), the Yu Jing Engineer repaired the Mowang. He then proceeded to truck II and took the unconscious prisoner Mai Hao Xie with him, leaving the AO. Our Kaplan was shot down trying to take down the remote on the roof Before that truck III was able to purge its systems and leave the AO, bringing prisoner Bryian Stanke and (redacted) into safety. A Liu Xing landed and shot down our last Janissary. I my remaining men to stand down and let our attackers fight it out until reinforcements arrived, as we lacked any meaningful offensive capabilities. The Nomads made a desperate run for Prisoner (redacted), but were repelled by the Yu Jingese, who left the field as our reserve cam in. Overall we only lost Prisoner Mei Hao Xie, all other remain in our custody. The report ended there, but Sal saw another message for him. Yüzbasi Rhayad sal Alev, we traced Yu Jing activity relating to the freeing of Mei Hao Xie to Humans´ Edge, also Bryian Stanek was transported to our Shahb facility near Novy Bangkok. You are hereby ordered to secure the safety of if possible recapture both prisoners. Utilize all needed resources, coordinate with Intervention unit Shahb for this purpose. First priority is to thwart Nomad activity to free Bryain Stanek. The message came with all the official seals and quantronic markers to be authentic. He looked up, Saidsuni kept a her surroundings well appraised, no one paid them any notice. Her look was quizzical. “Well we should find Junis soon. It is time to become ghosts to hunt ghosts.” She just gave him a nod, she did not seem to care. After all she already was a ghost.
(So two battles have past and the next one ist ibound: The reports are here: https://asteroidblues.warconsole.com/battles/albalashun-vs-uezguersmaster-1569187227 and here: https://asteroidblues.warconsole.com/battles/uezguersmaster-vs-black-ogre-1569621178) Dark Omens Fadime Saidsuni read her newest orders as she sat next to her old friend and comrade Sal, whose new body would soon regain consciousness. There were several other wounded in here, some of them Nomads, even the one who shot down Sal. Yet he died from a poisoned medkit. Next door she could hear Hakim Zenirah testing medkits to identify more tampering, she was strange, far to happy and relaxed about everything. Except the compromised equipment that had her really worried. Here in the facilities of the Shahb, her comrades were save. Mordai and Selo had found some like minded fellows and were tearing apart the shooting range. She was here and looked at the whole. They had been ordered to prevent the Nomads from retaking their prisoner. First the quarrel with them on the Strip, with several wounded and now the incident at the barracks. Who had hacked their IFF? Why was obvious, to facilitate more hostilities. More interesting were the two men around there. Both members of the Midnight Sun and both apparently clones of Bryian Stanek. One of them died, the other one was in interrogation right now. Something was wrong here. She saw the girl entering, she had carried Sal to the doctor and saved several lives by turning on the cycler yesterday. Fadime gave her an approving look. She still was brittle, new to conflict, yet the potential was there. No time to waste the answers where not lying among these beds around her, she got up and left the base. ---------- Even with all the fighting, bombings and general finger pointing The Strip still remained a lively place, most people seemed to rather ignore the presence of alien invaders in their midst. Fadime did not blame them. The most obvious change was the Yu Jing soldiers on the one side of the street and the Ikari goons on the other one glaring at each other. There was something akin to a truce at the moment, with the Ikari having held their ground, but were barely clinging to control. She wouldn´t mind Yu Jing taking over, would make the strip much safer to be around, still she knew that on a nationwide level most people rather would see the mercenaries in charge. The mood was ripe for trouble, there would be more deaths tonight. Disappearing through the backdoor of a bar Fadime became a ghost. She knew these alleys well and being with her equipment active she was invisible on top. Silently she climbed the escape ladder of a brooding building, from behind the badly sealed windows she heard the moans and sighs of physical pleasure. If anything traffic in the brothels only had increased in the last days. On the third level she stopped and listened inside. She heard a short conversation and then the door closing. Unlocking the window she slipped in. Inside the air was surprisingly good, a good air conditioning was a selling point for an establishment on The Strip, especially with the generally bad air recycling on the asteroid. The room was small, not much more than a bed, a small table with a chair, a wardrobe and a door to the small bathroom. From where she heard the sounds of washing. Gently she walked into there and dropped her camouflage. The other woman jumped at her face appearing in the mirror. “Curses! By the Prophet Fadime stop this! I´ll have a heart attack one day.” Fadime raised an eyebrow. “Okay, probably not. To be fair I was expecting you.” She turned around with her perfect symmetrical face, tanned skin, almond eyes and dark hair, she was the perfect oriental beauty. All of it engineered of course. “The Ikari are up to something with the family and a branch of the Imperial service. Mafia goons and disguised agents have been abundant. It has to do with this Stanek guy, which they brought here and Mai Hao Xin seems to be pulling the strings.” Fadime stepped aside to let her out of the bathroom. The beauty retrieved something from the compartment beneath her bed. It was a data chip. “This is a map of the place they are meeting?” “Who?” “I don´t know, but Mr. Daoxia is interested in the outcome of this meeting so you should take a look.” “Agreed. I will scramble Sandstorm and bring Shahb as well. Good work.” She shrugged it off. “Well thanks, someone has to do it and at least some of the guys are basically decent. Try not to kill the Hayashi please, he is really nice and has no clue what is going on.” “I assume he will be at the meeting, firing at us?” Then beauty shrugged again. “Fine, I see what I can do. Take care” “You too.” With that Fadime left the way she came. Once she was back into the light of The Strip she opened a line to the base. “Is Sal already up? We need to move fast.”
(The games: https://asteroidblues.warconsole.com/battles/black-ogre-vs-uezguersmaster-1569848386 and https://asteroidblues.warconsole.com/battles/albalashun-vs-uezguersmaster-1569956540) Talking sense? The door rather sprung open than opened and a rather grim looking man entered. He sat down in front of him and put down two cups in front of him. No steam showed the coolnes of their content. “You are not Bryian Stanek.” Not-Bryian shifted a little bit to sit upright with his shackles. “Technically speaking that is a maybe, Mr.?” “You can call me Charlie.” “As you wish Mr. Charlie. I am genetically identical to him. So why are I am not Bryian Stanek?” “You are too young, you know that. We know that. What we don´t know is why you were waiting for some Ikari smugglers in the Maze. What we don´t know why there are so many of you? You are the third clone we found and we did not know about that. Why?” Not-Bryian sat back. “Well let´s say Mr. Stanek was, is, a very paranoid man and had precautions in place, should he ever be absconded. Which, as you are asking me about this, obviously has happened. May I have a drink?” The cup was slid over, Not-Bryian took a sip, it tasted sharp and dull at the same time. “Hmm, delicious.” The other man did not look happy. “Alright. Yes, I was waiting for an Ikari liaison that is correct. I was about to discuss with him terms of delivery.” “For what?” “Cubes. Unused, pristine cubes. You know there is a huge market for these don´t you? Ask your 9 percenters if you don´t believe me. Oh, way above your paygrade, sorry.” He took another sip. The insult did not work. “Tell me, any incidents with strange behaving journalists lately?” Silence emerged. “I take that as a yes.” Not-Bryian leaned back. “You know we were most likely interred for cube tampering. I assume that the good and not at all profit-oriented citizens of Bourak hold us prisoner. Is that correct Mr. Charlie?” “Yes, we failed to free Mr. Stanek, even though we had clear directive to do that.” “Thank you, that explains why Ms. Xin asked me to attend this meeting. I assume she is still afoot or do you not cooperate with the Imperial service on this one?” Charlie stood up and left without a word. “I’ll be here, when you want to cut me loose.” Not-Bryian yelled after him. Charlie entered the room next door, a figure in an imposing heavy armour was waiting there. His long braid and bearing clearly marked him as an imperial agent. “He knows disturbingly much.” The agent nodded. “Forsooth, still he is the only one who can lead us to what we need to find on this rock.” “Did your Ms. Xin tell you that?” Another nod. “Either way, whatever is going on the Qapu wants to keep it hidden and my bosses want it uncovered. So I guess that makes us partners for now.” “So it would appear. Where are the assets you prevented from falling into the hands of the Haqqislamites? The Ikari still will be very interested to acquire them and in concert they are willing to share their intel about the Qapu prisoners. And we all want to talk to the original Mr. Stanek.” “Yes, we do. I´ll make it happen to give you access to the stuff. But should not we deal with the Ikari? They just can´t stand us, but they rightout hate you?” Another side look from the agent. “Very well. Do that. I will determine the saboteur in the Ramah intervention unit, we should move fast. There still might be aliens involved in this, not only greed.” When the door shut behind the agent, Charlie gave it the finger. He hated Imperial agents and rather would have kicked him in the face instead of catering to him. He looked at the monitor where Not-Bryian directly looked into the camera. His smile said: Come on, you know I am right. Charlie could not shake the feeling that they were being played. No, he was as sure as his name was not Charlie, they were played. The only question was by whom? The Qapu, the Imperials, the aliens or and this one made his hairs stand up, his own bosses? Well, he was Corregidor, he was here to get shit done. So time to set up another meeting with the Ikari.
(After this happened: https://asteroidblues.warconsole.com/battles/nekrat-vs-uezguersmaster-1570387124) One more Rodeo Sal opened his eyes only to immediately shut them again. Another medbay ceiling, at least he knew this one. With an ache he sat himself up, a doctor with green hair, Hakim Zenirah if he recalled correctly, came over to him. “Good to see you awake. How do you feel?” “Would it be creepy, if I said normal?” She smiled “Not at all, this is not your first time waking from trauma.” He sighed deeply. “No, it isn´t. How did we do?” “Not so well. We have a lot of wounded and lost the targets. The last stragglers are on their way in now.” Sal laid back. “Damn. Can I get up doc? I need a drink.” “I don´t need to tell you that this is not a good idea, do I?” “No, you don´t. So can I?” She pulled an image from her comlog, took a look at it and pushed it back. “Keep it slow for the next few hours.” “I´ll try, but I suppose the fight is still on.” “It is.” “No promises then.” She gave him a pad on the shoulder and returned to her other patients. He rested for one more minute then wrestled himself to his feet. He was getting too old for this. The corridor was still on a crimson alarm tone and everyone afoot looked busy or fatigued. By now Sal really hated this rock, he never liked it much in the first place, still now he just wanted it to be purged from the stars, so that they could get a break. His feet took him to the cantina, it was half full with more tired looking people. Some of them he recognized, some not. When he looked at the menu, he realized that he was hungry. So he got something and a good bottle from behind the counter. It was good to know most of the cooking staff in Humans Edge by name. Sitting down with a view of the entrance he took a sip and started eating. It was invigorating, as he took the next bite he saw a small group hobble past the entrance. He saw Shila limping in her huge armour, she was supported by that little Namurr, who had pulled him back then. She was a peculiar thing, obviously being at odds with being a soldier. Still she managed fine so far. He pulled her file and read a little bit. He was not yet finished with his meal, when new orders arrived. They would move out in three hours, so finished without a hurry. On the way to the armoury he opened the orders. He read about a Nomad skirmish with the Combined Army in the Maze, the tunnels crumbled, but their intel said that the Nomads had gotten their hands on two dead clones of Briyan Stanek. Most of the Nomads were evacuating Novy Bangkog by now. The real Briyan Stanek remained in custody and had led them to a illegal Silk refinery, but command was worried for a final try to liberate him. So Sandstorm was to secure the site and make sure the power stays on. Especially as the hideout was connected to the same power grid as the Xarak Fire control. Most likely hostiles would be Ariadnans or Combined Army, Sal liked facing neither of them very much. He opened the rooster to see who was ready to fight.
