Durgama Takeover

Intro:

Omar's Comm connection began to stutter with a static noise. He flicked away the butt of his cigar and listened in, trying to discern the words of his Commander, but the connection was only getting worse.
"Commander Antares, Aleph is attacking our micro-satellites. Connection to HQ will be lost any second now. We will try to establish a local uplink from the habitat area and transfer the data we gathered manually, insha'Allah! Omar out."
There was no answer, only static, so he cut the connection. To him it felt like closing the only door out of a dark room.
A dozen armed mercenaries had gathered in the alleyway around Omar and exchanged looks that revealed their unease as the meaning of his message slowly sank in. He tried to ignore them and opened up a tactical map on his Comlog, marking several positions in the surrounding area.
"Aight, everyone listen up. Intercepting our satellites and surveillance drones means we are on our own, and Aleph likely knows our current location. I want you to take positions at these markers and keep them the fuck away from our Dronbots until they have gotten this data out of here. No time for questions, now go!"
There was a second of silence and then a sudden sound of quick movement as everyone burst into action. The members of Division Firebird dispersed like flies towards their allocated positions until only one figure stood left with Omar in the alley. Sagara watched him with an inhuman, enigmatic gaze, her Multi Sniper Rifle shouldered on one side. Her appearance had been heavily altered as to almost appear like a real human, but the cold demeanour and blank stare of the Rogue-Aspect always gave her away for what she really was.
"Marker Delta is unfavorable. I will man the tower at 110 East-south-east to cover the remotes myself."
There was almost no movement to her lips as she spoke. She turned from Omar to leave, her appearance suddenly starting to blur as she activated the Optical-Disruption-Device built into her Lhost.
"What will they send at us?" Omar called after her. Sagara stopped for a second, but didn't turn as she spoke.
"If the data from that scientist holds true, Aleph will not settle for anything less than to eradicate us."

Druze Bayram Security (played by me) VS Steel Phalanx (played by Straeyve).
The mission was Seize The Antenna from the ITS: Season 8 Scenarios. Steel Phalanx had the Initiative, so I set a few units up for ARO duty and braced myself for the storm to come in Turn 1.

Turn 1 - Steel Phalanx
My opponent started by activating Achilles first, oh joy! Thanks to his MOV of 6-2 he was able to sneak past my long range AROs and advanced over the left flank to directly attack my Fireteam CORE. Some several Orders and lots of Spitfire bullets later my Brawler HRL and the Digger had been taken out, but in return managed to strip Achilles off of 2 wounds, leaving him in NWI state. Addditionally my Hacker hit him with a Carbonite Hacking Program, immobilizing him in the process. Next up in line was a Thorakitai carrying a deadly Feuerbach, which he used on my Sierra Dronbot to great effect, destroying it with ease. On the other side of the table a Fireteam of Myrmidons led by Eudoros and a Myrmidon Officer began their attack on my troops, easily closing the distance to my Deployment Zone and then attacking Ex-Naga Sagara, which is my proxy character for Armand Le Muet. She was wounded by a Chain Rifle, but luckily was able to dodge the second attempt at taking her life, going prone on her tower. The Turn ended with the Steel Phalanx aggressively positioning themselves in front of my Deployment Zone.

Turn 1 - Druze Bayram Security
With 2 Myrmidons out in the open, I tried to trick them with my Monstrucker, throwing a Drop Bear right to their feet without showing himself. I afterwards approached them with one of my Pathfinder Dronbots, using its Combi Rifle to pressure them into an ARO which would trigger the mine. Unfortunately, the two shiny bastards both managed to survive via successful Dodge and/or ARM rolls. I knew for sure that Achilles was my enemy's lieutenant and, still being immobilized, that he was easy prey for Chief Arslan. But first I had to cut off Aleph's Chain of Command to force a loss of lieutenant situation. Saito Togan revealed himself in the middle of the table, throwing a Smoke Grenade onto the enemy Myrmidon Officer and himself and then engaging in Close Combat. But again the dice gods betrayed me and Saito got taken out, losing both his life and his honor. Oh no! Needless to say, things were looking really bad for me, as I had just spent a great amount of Orders to no effect. At least, my Monstrucker was able to activate the first Antenna and Chief Arslan finished off the still immobilized Achilles.

Turn 2 - Steel Phalanx
The Myrmidon Fireteam was still happily strolling about and split into 2 parts, with Eudoros and the Officer approaching the Antenna that was located in the center. Killing another one of my Brawlers with his Mk12, Eudoros then used his Eclipse Grenades to cover the Antenna. He and the Officer positioned themselves around the Antenna, taking out one of my Monstruckers in the process. With his other Combat Group, my enemy activated a Dactyl that reached the Antenna closest to his Deployment Zone unhindered and successfully remembered his PIN-Code. Not too far away, Nesaie Alke climbed a small building to lend covering fire to the Myrmidons in the center.

Turn 2 - Druze Bayram Security
I gathered I was losing control of the situation, if I ever had any. With already lots of Orders gone down the drain, I had little wiggle room for experiments, so send my remaining Monstrucker on his final mission. He faced the 2 Myrmidons that earlier had so unrespectfully ignored his Drop Bear and gave them a taste of their own medicine, taking both down with his Chain Rifle but dying in the process. Worth it. Now clear of enemies, Sagara lifted herself up again and pointed her Sniper at the center of the table, aiming at Eudoros. Almost simultaneously, a Ninja working for Kunai Solutions appeared on the tower next to her and tried to take out the Myrmidon Officer that I knew now was the enemy lieutenant. She took a wound but then moved out of sight. Shortly after that Eudoros threw another Eclipse Grenade and once again covered the center in unpenetrable smoke.

Turn 3 - Steel Phalanx
The Steel Phalanx now focussed all their efforts to keep the central Antenna clear of my specialists. In an attempt at repositioning himself, Eudoros made acquaintance with a bullet from Sagars Multi Sniper Rifle and failed both his ARM Rolls. The Myrmidon Officer now took things into her own hands and finally managed to activate the Antenna for the Steel Phalanx. The remaining Orders were used to have several other units move upfield towards the center to create as much AROs as possible in my coming turn and to put the Myrmidon Officer in Suppressive Fire Mode.

Turn 3 - Druze Bayram Security
I moved 2 Orders of my almost empty Combat Group to my main group, giving me 7 Orders total to try and grab the central Antenna with one of my Pathfinder Dronbots. But first, a save path had to be found. So without further ado I activated a Pathfinder and heads on attacked a Probot, who sported a TR Combi Rifle, leaving both with equal chances of success. Luckily I rolled a critical hit, which was enough to take it out. My last Brawler, which also was my lieutenant, approached the szene from the left flank to try and kill the Myrmidon Officer, but the Officer managed to dodge all shotgun bullets and repositioned out of sight of my Brawler. Sagara used up 1 Order to take out Nesaie Alke, but the central Antenna was still covered by 1 Thorakitai and the Officer, and I only had 3 Orders left. My only chance at winning the game was to have my Pathfinder throw itself into the fray, eat all my enemy's AROs and activate the Antenna in one go. A successfull WIP roll would win me the game. The stakes were high, and so was the tension in the room. We rolled the AROs first to see if the pathfinder would live for a second attempt, but I failed a BTS roll against the Officers Nanopulser, so this one WIP Roll was my last and only chance.

I rolled a 17 (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

Match results:
Steel Phalanx: 2 Antennas, 0 Classified Objectives
6 Points

Druze Bayram Security: 1 Antenna, 0 Classified Objectives
3 Points

The Steel Phalanx wins! *sad Druze noises*

Outro:
An unrelenting staccato of gunfire echoed between the building blocks of Darpan's Habitat Zone. Sagara once again lifted herself up, hoisting her heavy Sniper Rifle onto the parapet and taking aim to cover the advance of one of their Dronbots towards the antenna, their last chance at getting the data they had acquired out into the Sphere. Green flashes flickered in her sights, the source just being out of her line of fire. The aggressive cloud of a Nanopulser showered the Remote, destroying it just as it reached the console of the antenna. It was over, Sagara thought to herself. The only viable option now was to retreat, but as she listened into her Comms for orders, it was silent. Omar was gone, either dead or taken prisoner by Aleph. She knew any prisoners would be treated well in the hands of the A.I., but not her. If Aleph got hold of her, her existence was forfeit. Such was the fate of an Aspect denying Aleph's control. She jumped to her feet and climbed down on the backside of the tower, avoiding enemy fire. Like a shadow she moved in between the buildings and then went even further, back into the outskirts that bordered the jungle that lay in a pitch black, unpenetrable darkness. She turned one last time for a short look at the colorful lights of the Darpan complex before vanishing into the night. The mission was a failure, but at least one survivor would be able to testify for what the scientist had told them, for whatever that was worth.