Durgama Takeover

Desanges was wearing a hole through the deck of the CnC room of the Bakunian ship "For My Sins". Their adjutant watched warily, trying to make himself appear as small as possible while still maintaining his presence should he be required. The commander was not in a good mood.

"Can anyone explain to me again why the Bakunin contingent being rotated out have diverted their course towards the surface and why every attempt at contacting them have returned a smiley emoji and the words "Brb - making an edibles run"!?" they asked to the room. Everyone remained silent. They had no good answer.

Desanges scowled. One of the comms officers meekly piped up. "Um...Commander?"

"Yes?"

"It's the shuttle Commander...the, um, "On A Lark". They've responded. The comms officer approached the Commander and whispered. "It's a priority code. For your eyes only."

Desanges blinked and quickly schooled their face. "Alright. I'll take it in my office. Back to your stations, everyone."

Desanges walked to their office and activated the comms. "Commander," the hooded figure said.

"Reverend. Who am I addressing?"

The figure pulled back her hood revealing Cassandra Kusanagi herself. Desanges blanched. "My apologies. I am borrowing your troops for a joint clandestine mission with the Haqqislam government. This is strictly on a need to know basis. Unfortunately, you will have to take the fall for subsequent events, which means you'll be in even more hot water but if you check your slate you will find a lifetime season pass for all future Aristeia matches and..."

Desanges just nodded. What else could you do when the Black Hand came calling?

8 Working Angel Orbital Combined Rapid Response and Reconnaissance Company
"Casum Angelorum Timete"

Seconded to the Black Hand for Operation Hardcore Edibles

Group 1
Fireteam Kusanagi of the Black Hand - Cassandra Kusanagi, Reveren Healer Moss, and Reverend Custodier Nunnery
Riot Grrl Fireteam - Jonah, Hex, Waverly, Shredder, and Mace
Moderator Detachment - Rabbit and Lettuce

Fireteam 2
Die Morlock Gruppe - Snog, Friedrich, Dialectical Materialism, and That Bloody Lib.

~*~

"I'm convinced these bloody Nomads choose these silly aliases just to fuck with our reports."
-Some Hexahedron analyst, maybe.

"Biotechvore sounds like a killer edibles strain. Maybe we should cultivate some when we get back to Bakunin."
-Lettuce while en route to the DZ of Operation Hardcore Edibles

Deployment
Kampilan won the Lt. roll and chose to go second.

Kusanagi raised her hood to obscure her face. She looked at the Bakunians under her command and nodded sternly. Waverly, the leader of the 8 Working Angel CRRRC contingent and nominal second in command of this operation nodded. "Right, let's fuck shit up. Release the Morlocks," she shouted.

The four Morlocks howled as they their way towards the research center, throwing up smoke and covering the rest of the Nomads as they moved towards the vault.

Kusanagi watched the Morlocks as they gleefully wreaked havoc. She nodded and looked towards her hacker. "You're up, Nunnery," she said. The hacker nodded, as she strode through the the chaos of combat coolly, and set up the repeaters within the vault. "We have our in. Fall back to defensible positions until we've extracted the data."

On the western flank, Waverly called for her troops to move up. "Our job is to cover the intel team," Waverly said. She gave the order to break cover, and the squad moved up. "Enemy fire!" Waverly shouted as she returned fire with her Spitfire. A missile screamed through the air, catching the Riot Grrls and Morlock Snog in the explosion, leaving Hex the last Grrl standing. "It's the popo!" she shouted, painting the Haqqislam contingent through the Nomad squad's targeting and communications network.

"Good," Kusanagi said. "Make it look good just as we discussed."

End of Top of 1
-Morlocks move forward dropping smoke.
-Holy Trinity moves up to the vault, drops repeaters into the upper right corner and retreats back into safety.
-Riot Grrls engage an opposing five-man fireteam. The Govad survives one Spitfire hit and then on the next order, the Riot Grrl Spitfire flubs all her shots and eats two missile hits to the face. Four Riot Grrls and a Morlock die.

Notes and Thoughts

The loss of the Riot Grrl link was really unfortunate but with the Holy Trinity in position, trying to take out the link really was the best option. I could have attempted with Kusanagi but with sixth sense, White Noise wouldn't have done much and it was better to move up the Riot Grrls and attempt to break the enemy link while I had burst advantage. Didn't quite pan out but that's RNG for you.

Hex gritted her teeth and rushed forward. She ignored the bodies of her fallen comrades in favor the Haqqislam soldier who was trying to take her down with more missiles. Her weapon was too short-ranged to reach but she moved with laser focus, dodging every missile as if they were moving slowly through time and frustrating every attempt to take her down. She would make a difference yet if she could help it.

End of Bottom of 1
-The last remaining Riot Grrl manages to dodge through all the missile attacks, and inch forward just a little.
-Haqqislam swarms the center, taking out the Reverend Healer in the vault and killing two Morlocks. The Custodier tags a Muttawi'ah making the approach with Spotlight allowing me to get the Telemetry classified.
-Kusanagi dodges into melee, effectively stopping the advance of the fireteam as Kampilan chooses to position troops instead of risking shooting into melee.

End of Round 1
Desanges - 2 VP from Telemetry and having a character in the vault
Kampilan - 2 VP from dominating the vault and having a character in the vault

Notes and Thoughts
A lot of my rolls were really unlucky and more troops kept dying but I managed to dodge Kusanagi into melee. The interesting choices that forced effectively kept me in the running for at least one more round.

Kusanagi walked into the carnage and lowered her hood. "Oh, shit, it's Kusanagi--" the Lasiq said, somewhere between starstruck awe and horror, as she "cut" him down. They had to make it look good for the cameras after all. She kicked the body back and used the smoke and interference to lay down Spitfire bullets into the vault, wiping out the Haqqislam team that had breached it. The Custodier moved to assist, but they were wounded and diminished and they knew they were preparing for a last stand.

End of Top 2
-I sacrifice my last Morlock to lay down smoke in the vault and then use the custodier for White Noise.
-Kusanagi manages to take down the Lasiq and I use smoke and White Noise to maneuver. I keep her in White Noise and take down the non-MSV fireteam members before taking out Yara and the Govad. The Govad I take out with a coordinated action to bring the Custodier into the vault and the last Riot Grrl forward. Template fire brings her down to NWI. Using her Lt. order, I then put her into suppressive fire.

Notes and Thoughts
Remember White Noise existed meant that while I was in the back foot, I still managed to have an explosive round with Kusanagi single-handledy wiping out a whole link team. Unfortunately, even with NWI, it was not be enough to turn the match around.

Satisfied that they had put up a good show, Cassandra and the Custodier fought until it was clear that they were about to be overwhelmed. They raised their hands in surrender and the Haqqislam troops began to take them into custody. It was all part of the plan--they would stage a daring escape later. The other powers will no doubt express doubts, but what could they prove? The Haqqislam contingent had plausible deniability, after all.

Bottom of 2
-The Muttaw'iah charge in and manage to kill Kusanagi with only one of three left standing afterwards.
-The Asawira haris moves forward. The Custodier manages to dodge the template fire of the Muttawi'ah. I use the engaged mechanics to make shooting her unpalatable enough and manage to dodge her out so that she can try to attempt a hack against the Asawira as it tries to melee her. The Asawira wins face to face and the Custodier falls.
-The last Riot Grrl similarly dies which means I could no longer make a last minute boarding shotgun attempt at Top of 3. With only two Moderators left standing, we decide to call match.

End of Round 2
Kampilan - 7VP (2 from Round 1 + 1 for controlling the zone + 1 from having an essential character in the zone +3 for end of game points)
Desanges - 2VP (2 from Round 1)

Notes and Thoughts
After about a year of not really getting to play games, I've become really bad at eyeballing distances. I thought I had prevented the Riot Grrl template from being caught completely by the missile launchers buuuuuuuuut it didn't quite pan out. I definitely think it was the right tactical choice but just had some really bad RNG on my side. Remembering all the silly Infinity rules did allow me to stay in the game though and Kusanagi single-handedly taking out a Fireteam was hilarious to say the least. Overall a fun and surprising game.

Desanges stood before the press corps with as straight a face as they could manage.

"Yes, as the report clearly states, the Bakunian contingent had mistakenly identified the heat signatures being emitted by what we now know to be the Darpan Xeno-Station as an cannabis manufacturing facility. They had gone down in order to get some edibles for their R&R...and, well, we can only say that it is thanks to our Haqqislam ally's timely intervention that this did not become a serious incident or, indeed, a repeat of the Japanese Bottom Bachelor Party incident."

"What about reports of sightings of Cassandra Kusanagi?"

"BJC has confirmed that Kusanagi was present on the BJC ship "Up Yours" coordinating the BJC response the Raveneye crisis. Any reports of Kusanagi being on the surface are rumors and exaggeration and a wholly disappointing failure of Aleph's vaunted intelligence apparatus..."

Desanges sighed internally. There was going to be a fallout and they were going to be the scapegoat, but at least they were getting premium season tickets out of this--oh and a sizable payout but that was neither here nor there when you were talking about Aristeia!