Durgama Takeover

DEPLOYMENT:
Steel won the LT roll, and chose Deployment. Shas chose to go first.

The Shasvastii HVT - a civilian scientist - deployed in the middle of the board in a narrow alleyway between some crates, so eager was it to access the research secrets of this Xeno-station.

The Shas forces deployed first in two clumps in the outer part of the loading dock. Several camo tokens guarded their left flank, while a Gwailo HMG and an HMG Q-Drone prepared to attack on their right.

The Aleph HVT - no less than Go-Go Marlene herself! - ran recklessly forward to capture all the exciting action for her Mayanet feed, and ended up sheltering just a stone's throw away from the enemy HVT.

I clumped Hector's command (Hector, Phoenix, Ajax and Machaon) on my right, with Phoenix and Atalanta up on ARO duty. Andromeda solo'd the left while the Sensor bots and Netrods hid.

A FILTHY Speculo Killer landed its PH roll to deploy right behind Phoenix's turned back, but luckily Machaon was on rearguard duties to question this mysterious and unexpected accountant.

Hector leveraged his Galaxy-brain strategic genius, and directed Atalanta to a cosy little spot from which she could fairly well keep an eye on several long avenues of approach, as well as that suspicious office worker over by Phoenix...

SHAS - TOP OF TURN 1:
Bob from Accounting made its move toward Phoenix's back, but both Atalanta's little bunny-bot and Machaon were suspicious, Discovering it down to IMP-2. It then moved into B2B with Phoenix, getting itself peppered with pistol shots on the way in, but it managed to land a monofilament blow against its target. Luckily, Phoenix's armour saved him, and as he turned around to see what it was that had just tapped him on the shoulder, all he saw was a weird alien coconut that was pulsing and gestating horribly on the ground. Odd.

The rest of the turn comprised the Gwailo, Q-Drone, Sheskiin and Taigha Creatures moving up to the midfield, the Gwailo erasing Phoenix at extreme long range after several orders and much lucky armour saving. It did however spend an Lt Order to go into Suppressive Fire at the end, sending to Hector a subtle clue as to who should be his priority target. The Embryo egg that was the Speculo failed its Regeneration roll, and spontaneously imploded in on itself, causing Machaon to remark "Hey! I don't think that was a REAL coconut!"

Score: Shas 0 - Steel 0.
KIA: Speculo, Phoenix, Taigha 1.

STEEL - BOTTOM OF TURN 1:
One fairly big Order down, Hector decided to get all Strategicky, turning 3 Lt Orders into regulars (thanks, Scenario Bonus!). First off, a Sensor bot was despatched towards the enemy HVT to Identify it, and characterise it's strategic value. That done, Andromeda moved up to "Gwailo Alley" and started sending her pet guard "Fluffy" at the heavy Shas Lt, bearing D-Charge gifts in its mouth. Winning each F2F, but seeing the Gwailo pass all three of it's armour saves each time, Andromeda ran out of cool toys and just had to use Fluffy's regular DA teeth & claws, which eventually tore a hole in the enemy Lieutenant. Andromeda followed up into B2B and Recovered In Extremis the vile behemoth's liver for extensive lab testing. This also kinda killed the subject in the process, so no medical degree for Andromeda. Well, maybe a Pan-O medical school would accept her...

The rest of the turn comprised Atalanta failing to take out the Q-Drone & Sheskiin, both Sensor bots going down to AROs as they tried to find any Hidden alien threats, and the Netrods bravely pinging away in the backfield. Troopers.

Score: Shas 0 - Steel 2
KIA: Gwailo, Daleth 1, Daleth 2.

SHAS - TOP OF TURN 2:
With their big bully of a leader torn into shreds by some kind of shiny mechanical poodle, then dissected roughly by a slightly-built girl in a hoodie, the remaining Shas lost their *shas* and went into Loss of Lieutenant. Most of their active movements were met by accurate ARO fire, downing a Nox, the Q-Drone and Sheskiin (another long-distance CC kill for Fluffy).

A couple of menacing Camo tokens advanced on Hector's base of operations, as did the remaining Taigha, and before Hector could stop him Ajax The Brave dodged his way up into B2B with the now un-Camo'd Malignos. Who had previously laid a mine right in front of Ajax. Ajax dodged the mine, thinking he'd be clever and engage the Malignos for an easy CC next Active turn - and to avoid AROs from a Caliban Engineer that had also de-cloaked - and despite Hector's repeated warnings about the second Taigha round the corner, Ajax went for it anyway. Final order of the turn, and the Taigha instantly started frothing at the mouth, swearing, grunting and gnawing on its ... leash? And Berserked right into Ajax's face, tearing off great chunks of flesh and bone (at +1 Burst thanks to Ajax also engaging the Malignos), even while the big man pancake the creature in self-defence. Hector could only look on in disbelief at the man-mountain Ajax failing to fight off what basically looked like a cute, purple pomeranian, albeit rather homicidal in nature. Sigh...

Score: Shas 0 - Steel 2
KIA: Q-Drone, Sheskiin, Nox 1, Taigha 2, Ajax.

STEEL - BOTTOM OF TURN 2:
Hector rallied Machaon and went off to clean house. He first enlit the Caliban with plasma, and the Malignos seconds later. Hector ordered Machaon to dig in and remove Ajax’s Cube, so that they could show everyone his ignominious death in the Officer’s Mess that night, then the two of them made a run for the enemy HVT across open board, thinking they could easily take care of the F-13 Automated Sentry Turret along the way. Nuh-uh. That thing just WOULD not go down.

So the pair just put their heads down and legged it, ducking and diving till they made it to Gwailo Alley and sighted the HVT. Hector fulfilled the third of his classified mission parameters, Following-Up on the data gathered earlier by the Daleth Sensor-bot. Atalanta got bored and used the two remaining Nox troopers for target practice.

Score: Shas 0 - Steel 3
KIA: Caliban, Malingos, Nox 2, Nox 3.

SHAS - TOP OF TURN 3:
With the kills made at the bottom of Turn 2, the remaining Shas (one Tensho and one Seed Soldier), were now in full Retreat. The aliens ran away to deliver to their Command some highly exaggerated stories of the size and firepower of the enemy forces at the Darpan Xeno-Station, neglecting in the process to evacuate their HVT civilian scientist, whom Machaon picked up and Secured for 2 more points. The interrogation nanites would make short work of this one…

Final Score: Shas 0 - Steel 9 (3 Primary Classifieds for 3; More Primary Classifieds for 4, 1 Secondary Classified for 2)

END! And thanks for reading!