Shattergrounds

Octopi have beaks like a parrot, but most don't talk. However, the one we questioned at Montalbon sang like a canary once we promised not to let its Nomad handler's know of its clandestine operations. Seems threat of getting spaced extends even to their aquatic pilots, and oxygen is scarce in space, let alone enough hydrogen to combine it with. It seems our our eight armed friend had been sneaking out to and piloting under the table flights for various groups from Submondo affiliates to armed mercenaries. What interested me the most were some of the more recent flights, caring what sounded like O-12 agents, and even more recent flights involving elements of the Combined Army. While some of my team thought we should kill pilot for providing flights to the great enemy, I was able to convince them that it would be better to let the matter lie, after all, if I could follow this cephalopod's sloppy trail, it was only a matter of time before some nomad Interventor stumbled across it during a routine check.

We headed back to Edda, but this time we had the scent of what we were looking for. With my nose to the ground like a bloodhound I called up a team and set to work to gather more data sets from landing beacons, whose recovery had been made secondary by the sudden appearance of the QAZs, so we all knew it was going to be a risk going in. We had located two beacons in close proximity to each other, and were in the process of recovering one before moving to the next when we started to pick up signals of hostiles moving in on the other. Seemed like another group had picked up a scent, and a horde of Pupnik's rushed our position. The Bounty Hunter we had contracted took up a suppressive fire position on the right flank at the corner of a building, and the Taquel, along with the Kriigal agent, the Kealtar, and the Chaksa took cover on the building, though the Chaksa stood to prevent the free run of the Uberfall. Just a little ahead of their location, the Liberto and the Beasthunter hid in attempt to take down any reckless attempt to overrun our team. This left the Taquel Lieutenant to hold the left flank.

I saw that Denma must have had a premium cube contract and was already back in action alongside a Uberfall team. Just behind them holding a strong center was a team of moderators. We picked up movement we couldn't pin down, but that we suspected was a discreetly placed mine covering the data set we needed. A Zellenkrieger of no marked fame, (and unlikely to receive the same resurrection as Denma if he fell), raced along side another team of Uberfall, and behind them a small team of two Moderators and a Riot Grrl hid on an upper balcony. The teams Transductor took cover at a corner of this building.

The rush of the Pupniks and Zellenkrieger's was more cautious than we would have liked, the unremarkable Zellenkrieger managing to evade the Chaksa's rocket with some well placed smoke throwing of its aim, though it still managed to hit the mine and cause it to detonate harmlessly. There was little time for anyone to take stock of this as both Uberfall teams ran along each flank in a pincer maneuver. One team caught the Taquel Lieutenant, and though two of the Pupniks were felled by her pheromonic attacks, one was able to get into her within arms reach, tearing through her armor's mate, her armor, and her flesh in a matter of seconds.

The second Uberfall lost one of its Pupniks to the Bounty Hunter's HMG, but they revealed the Beast Hunter's position and pounced, killing him, but loosing the rest of the Pupniks to the return fire, and pheromonic attacks.

The Taquel Lieutenant's bioimplants kicked in and she quickly dashed away from the Pupnik that had nearly killed her. The Pupnik withstood her pheromonic assault far better than anticipated, but eventually it succumbed to her relentless barrage. The Liberto moved ahead, hoping to slipping past the Chimera, and Denma advancing on our right flank, but the pair had too many guns covering them, so any attempt to take them out at that time would have meant certain death with uncertain success. The Kriigal tried to eliminate the Zellenkrieger but the cage fighter deftly threw smoke to obscure her shots.

The Moderator armed with a Multi Sniper tried to uncover the Liberto's position, so the Ohm operative dodged quickly out of the way. Unfortunately, the leap didn't get her to out of sight of the Riot Grrl who took her out with a burst from her Spitfire. Their advance freed up, Denma and the Chimera sprinted toward the Bounty Hunter. The Chimera fell, but Denma shrugged off the heavy rounds and brought her down with a chain rifle blast. With that he moved up to dispatch the Kriigal with his heavy pistols. The Riot Grrl attempted to take down the Chaksa through a cloud of smoke, but her aim was off at that range so Chaksa was able to dodge away.

The Zellenkrieger then moved up to throw smoke near our data pack, and the remaining Chimera, through the use of some of her own smoke was able to grab the data beacon we were recovering and race back to her lines.

The Taquel Lieutenant rounded the box she was taking cover behind and took out Denma, she then called the remaining Tohaa to her, and they ran to Chimera's position. The Kealtar took point, bringing her shotgun to bare on the Chimera, blasting her to shreds, and managing to avoid any serious injury from the return nanopulser.

The Zellenkrieger moved into position to grab the beacon, but didn't get very far before being brought down by the Kealtar as well. The Riot Grrl lead team jumped from the balcony they were on to get closer to where the beacon had fallen, but the vigilant Chaksa ended the threat of the Riot Grrl in a fiery blaze. Seemingly undeterred the remaining moderators continued forward, the paramedic taking possession of the beacon, pulling it still further towards the enemy lines before succumbing to the Taquel Lieutenant's pheroware. The remaining Moderator was able to grab the beacon and fell back. The other Moderator team moved from their over watch position, and took up positions near their beacon. However, one got a little too ahead of himself, and was taken out by the Chaksa.

The situation deteriorating quickly, the Taquel Lieutenant moved her team up to fire on the Moderator holding our data beacon, taking her out of action with a well placed burst.

The team then advanced far enough for the Lieutenant to act on her own and move into position to bring down the Moderator who was securing their data beacon with a pheroware attack. In a last desperate bid, the Kealtar and unharmed Taquel, moved up. In a moment of heroic sacrifice, the Kealtar drew the first round of fire from the moderators, so the Taquel could advance further, allowing her to make one final grab at the beacon. The moderators rounds bounced from her armor, supercharged in that momentary instant by it's 'mate, to a strength more resilient than that of some battle TAGs.

We had the data and it was time to leave as quickly as possible. I quickly dropped in to recover some cubes and take stock of our best avenue out of here to avoid more potential hazards.